Darryl Cherney was born in New York City where he was a child actor. For 20 years he has been an activist, topical singer-songwriter and organizer in Humboldt County California. He helped spearhead the successful campaign to protect the redwoods, including Headwaters Forests, now a national preserve. As creator and president of Environmentally Sound Promotions, the non-profit organization, he has produced five albums of his original songs dedicated to environmental protection. He also produced Judi Bari?s spoken word CD, Who Bombed Judi Bari?, and the benefit compilation, If a Tree Falls.
He has organized hundreds of rallies and events, attracting national press coverage on behalf of forest protection and civil rights. He was co-founder of Redwood Summer 1990 with Judi Bari and was car-bombed alongside her that year and falsely arrested by the FBI and Oakland Police. He and Bari (who passed in 1997) sued the authorities and won a $4.4 million jury award in federal court in 2002 for First and Fourth Amendment violations of the Constitution. He broke the story on Julia Butterfly's tree-sit, and has appeared in media outlets such as Donahue, Prime Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN. Darryl has worked on environmental litigation and lobbied in Washington, D.C. and Sacramento. He joined with Judi Bari to create the Redwood Summer 1990 campaign as well as an alliance between timber workers and environmentalists. He is a founding member of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment. Darryl is the inaugural winner of the Edward Abbey Deep Ecologist of the Year Award given by the Fund for Wild Nature in 1989; and the Sempervirens Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Environmental Protection Information Center (EPIC) of Garberville, California in 2012.
Cherney has been a member of the Green Party since 1991. He held public office between 2006 and 2010 on the Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District. He ran for U.S. House of Representatives in the Democratic primary in 1991. He is the father of a 4 year old daughter and considers it his greatest accomplishment.
