Willits Bypass “Crane-Sitter” Resupplied in Stealth Climb

A mys­te­ri­ous climber ascend­ed Cal­trans equip­ment on the Willits Bypass Project Wednes­day evening in order to resup­ply a pro­test­er who has been perched 50 feet up in the air on a con­struc­tion tow­er for a week.

Last week, 31-year-old Uki­ah res­i­dent Will Par­rish climbed one of the two pieces of Cal­trans equip­ment used to install wick drains at the site in order to stall work in the Men­do­ci­no Coun­ty high­way con­struc­tion zone.

Fel­low activists argue that Par­rish has been denied food and water, while author­i­ties state that Par­rish is free to leave the tow­er for food and water and that pro­test­ers attempt­ing to bring him sup­plies are tres­pass­ing on Cal­trans prop­er­ty.

On Sat­ur­day evening, 45 pro­test­ers attempt­ed to send sup­plies up to Par­rish in a buck­et. Accord­ing to Earth First!, CHP offi­cers cut the rope and arrest­ed six indi­vid­u­als. Accord­ing to CHP, four indi­vid­u­als were arrest­ed.

On Wednes­day, a sec­ond per­son climbed the sec­ond wick drain tow­er. Jamie Cheva­lier, a spokes­woman with Red­wood Nation Earth First!, said the mys­tery climber was “like a nin­ja.”

”He climbed the tow­er in full day­light with CHP every­where,” she said. “Then after around six hours he man­aged to tra­verse a line over to the oth­er tow­er 60 feet away for sup­plies and van­ished into the night.”

Cheve­li­er esti­mat­ed that the entire event took place between 5 p.m. and mid­night. She said the sup­ply line is still in place and has a 5,000 pound break­ing

strength.

Dis­trict 1 Cal­trans Pub­lic Infor­ma­tion Offi­cer Phil Fris­bie Jr. con­firmed that Par­rish had been resup­plied and said Cal­trans per­son­nel are not at the site that late at night.

”He was gone by the morn­ing,” Fris­bie said of the resup­pli­er.

Fris­bie said the machin­ery can­not oper­ate with the pro­test­ers on it and that protests over four months have direct­ly cost tax­pay­ers $1.2 mil­lion by caus­ing delays.