Siskiyou Free State Declared in the Biscuit!

Laurel, 17.07.2005 12:38

In an exciting new chapter of the campaign to save the Wild Siskiyou, forest activists announced today the construction of a bold and elaborate infrastructure of resistance at the Hobson old growth reserve timber sale in the Biscuit Fire area. Southern Oregon forest defenders are calling on all allies to support these actions in whatever ways they can.

An impressive log cabin fortress now stands on the single road leading to this remote North Kalmiopsis timber sale, sealing off vehicle access to an area now referred to by many as the "Siskiyou Free State." In addition, an unusual new form of tree sit has been established in one of the units of the sale that connects many trees together across multiple acres in a rope-work network that suspends an activist in midair while preventing any trees from being felled in the area.

See  http://www.o2collective.org for photos.

Dozens of people worked through the night with chainsaws and other tools to transform an abandoned log deck and boulder pile into a Lincoln Log-style cabin that completely blocks the road from human passage, other than foot traffic. Beneath the fortress is a boulder-fortified basement chamber that contains two activists secured to lockdown devices that prevent their removal.

Law enforcement has now made contact with the blockade. Spirits are high and activists are confident the fortress will remain in place for a good while. The forest canopy network is sure to last even longer. Now is the time to take action in defense of this magnificent landscape. We cannot sit idly by while the last of the pristine backcountry on our public lands are sold away for corporate profit! Activists are on their way to the Free State now! Join us! Spread this message! Donate to local groups! Write letters to the editor and to the Forest Service! Have your voice heard in defense of the Wild!

To The Tree Sit!

*From I-5 take the Merlin exit just North of Grants Pass
*Head West on the Galice Rd and pass Indian Mary campground
*Left on Forest Service 25 Rd (also known as Taylor Creek Rd)
*Go 10.5 miles, take a right onto the gravel FS 2510 rd
*Follow detour signs about 4 m then right onto the FS 2402 rd
*Left at the junction and again follow the detour signs
*After about 3 miles left onto paved FS 23 rd (on some maps it is labeled 34-8-36)
*After about 2 miles take a left on FS 2411 rd
*You are at Hobson and will soon be greeted.

Download this article in pdf format >>

Add this article to your pdf newsletter selection >>

Checkout and Download your PDF-newsletter selection >>

Email this article to someone >>

Make a quick comment on this article >>

Free State 17.07.2005 - 14:43 from "Critique of the Gotha Program" Free state — what is this? It is by no means the aim of the workers, who have got rid of the narrow mentality of humble subjects, to set the state free. In the German Empire, the "state" is almost as "free" as in Russia. Freedom consists in converting the state from an organ superimposed upon society into one completely subordinate to it; and today, too, the forms of state are more free or less free to the extent that they restrict the "freedom of the state". The German Workers' party — at least if it adopts the program — shows that its socialist ideas are not even skin-deep; in that, instead of treating existing society (and this holds good for any future one) as the basis of the existing state (or of the future state in the case of future society), it treats the state rather as an independent entity that possesses its own intellectual, ethical, and libertarian bases. Karl Marx> Wow, 17.07.2005 - 15:11 Remember, kids: Crack is Wack! Moon Muffin> Free State Origin 17.07.2005 - 15:48 Dear Mooney and Marx: Since you were sleeping during history class, check out the link and educate yourself regarding the historical origins of citizens (say 23,000 of them who've been disenfranchised by the Biscuit Planning Process) rising up again the rich and powerful (that would be you) via the FREE STATE!  http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/I/Ir/Irish_Free_State.htm Fuck state power- Fuck exploiting key watersheds and LSRs- Fuck empire- and Fuck you- Much love to the burned snag forests and the 42/49 Spotted Owl activity centers in Biscuit that are doing just dandy post-fire (but not post-logging). (See Zabel et al. 2003) Peace out- Freedom> OK, Great 17.07.2005 - 22:43 Roid Rage? Moon Muffin> Zabel et al., 2003 17.07.2005 - 23:40 Freedom, I don't know to which piece of literature you refer. A quick journal and web search didn't reveal any work by Zabel relating to owls withing the Biscuit. Perhaps you could take a couple of deep breaths, repeat your mantra a couple times, and then try to be a little more specific. Interestingly, most of the work that Zabel has done on N. Spotted Owls in the past has dealt with their reproduction rates in the managed private forests of the southern Klamath Mountains. It just so happens that those cute fuzzy little NSO's are doing quite well in areas that have previously been "devastated" by industrial logging. And, gee I dunno ... if spotted owls are doing so well as you claim (I'll reserve judgement untill you can produce a better citation), then wouldn't that suggest that the ongoing salvage activity in the Biscuit isn't harming them? Amateur Hooter> Extinction is Not Temporary 18.07.2005 - 21:42 So what is your cite that owls like tree farms? Come on. You can't whine about not being able to find one on the web and then don't give us the one you purport to know so much about. The spotted owl review, a comprehensive plan that the timber industry demanded, says that all remaining suitable habitat (mature and old-growth forests) are likely crucial to owl surival. Read it. Owls do hunt in snag forets. There is prey there. The tree farms are so dense owls cannot navigate through them. I have studied the owl for years. There are forests that could use thinning in southern Oregon - but the continued old-growth logging that the BLM is doing is driving the owl and the over 2,000 species that need older forest closer and closer to the brink of.... human caused extinction. Do you really want us to turn the rest of the national forests into tree farms? For real? Do you really think that all these species will be okay, and that extinction is acceptable? Strix Forever> Not quite 18.07.2005 - 22:13 Try Barred owls, catastrophic fire burned habitat, in growth (lack of harvest), West Nile virus but not logging. The very area that had the most harvest of all the study areas had owls that seem to be doing the best. Thats what the very report you refer to and the science says. Only to a politician does 2 plus 2 equal 5. Bad form to pick and choose facts. I'm pretty sure we've had this converesation already. Curious> Calm Down Curious 18.07.2005 - 23:20 Now, take a deep breath. A heavy wieght of scientific consensus is clearly established - not to mention the scientific agreement of the current U.S. government - the spotted owl is in decline due to its late-successional habitat being removed through logging. Tree farms are not forests. The old-growth ecosystem will be lost if we continue to log it. We should be thinning tree farms, not logging old growth like the BLM is doing right now on our public lands. People want national forests, not national tree farms. It is real simple. Strix Forever> Total, Complete BS 19.07.2005 - 00:28 Your statement that there is "scientific consensus [that] the spotted owl is in decline due to its late-successional habitat being removed through logging" is total BS. From the NSO Status Review: "Only one respondent [out of the 7 scientists who participated in the status review of the NSO] considered timber harvest to be a significant contributor to habitat loss on federal lands, as opposed to five who saw fire as important." Why should Curious calm down? You're telling flat-out lies to promote your cause, and you're telling people to calm down? I too, like Curious, tend to get worked up when I see people distort the science beyond recognition to promote their ideology. Amateur Hooter> Owls Thriving on "Devastated" (Logged) Land 19.07.2005 - 00:40 Yes, spotted owls are thriving on logged over private forest lands. Zabel on Spotted Owl reproduction success on the intensively managed private forest lands of Simpson Timber Company (STC): "We tested for differences in proportions of five stand age classes and reproductive success between Spotted Owl pair sites with (≥1 turnover) and without turnovers. Owl pairs at sites without turnovers fledged more young, showed more consistent reproductive success, and were surrounded by a greater percentage of 21-40-yr-old stands than were owl pairs at sites with turnovers." "Because of clearcutting, STC's forests consist mainly of young (second and third growth) trees. Less than 1 % of the area is classified as old growth (>200 yr old), and the oldest forest stands in the remaining area are 80-90 yr old. Scattered residual trees (trees left uncut during past logging operations) occur in some stands. These residual trees are remnant from stands of both young seral stage and old-growth forests, and are older and larger than the dominant element of the stand." You can read Zabel's work for yourself at:  http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/rsl/projects/wild/thome1.pdf There, I provided you with a citation that should be very easy for you to follow up on. Now how about providing me with a real citation for Zabel's work on N. Spotted Owls in the biscuit? Amateur Hooter> Did I miss something 19.07.2005 - 09:07 Did we have a change of government? Don't we still have the same government that we have had for the last 200 plus years? "Current government" ? Your still speaking in absolutes. When you talk about cutting "all" old growth, it doesn't describe anything that anyone is proprosing. Try to at least paint an accurate picture of what the options are. Curious> B.S. 19.07.2005 - 10:35 Am. Hooter, Don't quit your day job. The timber industry research you point to has already been determined by the sceientists as unapplicable. That is why the owl review said the owl is still threatened, by logging. They looked at REDWOODS, for the sake of God. Don't tell me those forests are emblematic of all the forests in the Pacific Northwest. From the owl review: "..reasons for decline include displacement of Spotted Owls by barred owls, loss of habitat to wildfire, loss of habitat to logging on state, private and tribal lands, forest defoliation due to insects, and advancing forest succession toward climax fir communities in the absence of fire (Anthony et al. 2004, L. Irwin, pers. comm).” (SEI 2004, pg. 8-13). "The Northwest Forest Plan represented a substantial change in management direction …. The Northwest Forest Plan was designed to provide for late-successional and old-growth species, including the northern spotted owl, by providing large blocks of habitat over time that would support clusters of northern spotted owls that have a high probability of long-term persistence and conditions to allow for dispersal between these blocks. The Northwest Forest Plan is a long term conservation strategy, and the 10 years of implementation is too short to determine ultimate effectiveness of elements of the 38 strategy. However, many of the scientific principles of the Northwest Forest Plan have been confirmed or validated in the decade since adoption (SEI 2004. Chapter 9). As far as your last crackpot statement that owls like tree farms: “In the Klamath Province, California, there appeared to be a trade-off between the benefits to northern spotted owl survival conferred by interior older forest and benefits to reproduction conferred by less interior older forest and more convoluted edge between the two habitat categories (Franklin et al. 2000). Franklin points to the fact that in the drier part of the owls range fire is an important natural distrubance agent that creates the variety of habitat the owl requires. When you timber industry apologists, Karl Rove defenders, right wing fundamentalists or whoever you are lie, distort, and manipulate to make a point, it is going to come back to bite you in the ass. Strix Forever> Sticks and Stones ... 19.07.2005 - 12:29 "They looked at REDWOODS, for the sake of God. Don't tell me those forests are emblematic of all the forests in the Pacific Northwest." For one, they didn't just look at redwood forests. Redwood forests make up a small percentage of STC lands. There are lots of owls in mixed conifer forests (many without redwoods) on STC lands. Check it out for yourself. Two, what I'm saying that each area is different. Each sitiation is different. Curious was right on in his comments about speaking in absolutes. You can't say that owls ONLY live in old-growth forests, nor can you say that owls NEVER use "plantations" or young forests. In fact, owls in Klamath region depend on early successional forests for their primary food source (wood rats). As such, we should manage our forests to provide for a healthy mix of early, mid, and late-successional forests with various structures and tree species to provide for a variety of forest critters. And yes, owls use areas that have been logged over a replanted (tree farms, you call them). You call me a timber industry apologists, Karl Rove defender (Karl Rove can go blow a goat), right wing fundamentalists (I believe that our federal gov't should limit its power to those afforded to it by our constitution, if that's what you mean), and a crackpot. The fact that you again have to resort to name calling only makes me suspicious of your motivation and the merit of your argument. Amateur Hooter> Cookie cutter comments 19.07.2005 - 15:58 1)Start with a partial truth yes Simpson/Green Diamond owns some Redwood, certainly not all RW, and the study wasn't focused soley on that. Picking and choosing is bad in science. 2)Expand partial truth so as to totally block out rest of facts 3)Always try to quote Jerry Franklin 4) Always try to end with an "are you nuts?" and 5)be sure to include some good old fashioned name calling Remember that its ok to be racist and use bigoted remarks if you are attacking a Born again Christian. For the record I am sorry for nothing, Rove is no better or worse than Dean and MacCaulif, and my religion is none of yours or anyone elses Fucking business. I guess that rules out Christian Fundamentalist. Curious> Chocolate Chip Cookies 19.07.2005 - 18:46 For the non-fundamentalist, not a "fucking" Christian, everybody hating Curious, From the study, page two: "The study area is located in the North Coast, North Coast Range, and Klamath Range subregions of California (Hickman 1993) in Humboldt and Del Norte counties. These lands are primarily within 32 km from the coast.." Quote by Simpson Timber. This is getting fun, Strix Forever> Ignorance 4 Life 19.07.2005 - 19:43 Having fun? Ignorance is bliss, I guess. If you think that STC lands are all coastal redwoods, you obviously haven't ever done much exploring in N. California. Most of that area is mixed conifer forest (NOT redwood groves) having a small redwood component, and much of STC land has NO redwood component whatsoever. You're still making absolute statements. Remember what we said about that? Remember what the point of this conversation was? Forget to take your Adderol? Yes, I'm allowed a dis every once in a while. You just can't say that Northern Spotted Owl are dependant on undisturbed old-growth forests. It doesn't matter where in the NW you are, it simply isn't true. The fact that they prefer younger forests to older forests in N. California simply highlights that point. Anecdotally speaking, you'll often (not always) find NSO's foraging at the edge of clearcuts in the wee hours of the night/morning. They live in the mature stands, because that's where the structure is; however, they hunt in early successional areas because that's where their food source is most abundant. And yes, Del Norte forests are different than Josephine forests. Western coastal forests are different than eastern cascade forests. Stands on north facing slopes are different than stands on south facing slopes. And being able to selectively quote the literature in order to promote a no-cut agenda is different from being an environmentalist. Hooter> Northbound on the 101 19.07.2005 - 20:01 For those of you who (apparently) haven't been ... These lands lie mainly within 32 km of the coast but extend up to 85 km inland. The area is dominated by 3 forest types: (1) coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), (2) mixed redwood and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), and (3) mixed Douglas-fir and oak woodlands (Zinke 1988). (from Thome et al., 1999) Hootie Hoo> Changing the Subject 19.07.2005 - 20:23 "Much love to the burned snag forests and the 42/49 Spotted Owl activity centers in Biscuit that are doing just dandy post-fire (but not post-logging). (See Zabel et al. 2003)" Hooter asked for you to provide an actual citation to this research. Could someone please provide it? I'm curious to see if these owls are having any reproductive success on not. Thinktivist> 42/49 20.07.2005 - 00:18 Hoot, Check page 6 of the Ashland Resiliency (sic) DEIS BE. 42/49 NSO activity centers in Biscuit (pre-logging) anticipated to be occupied based on (funky) USFS modeling. The T-Rock telemetry studies are more reliable. 11/15 NSO centers active. Fire doesn't fuck owls, the agencies do. love, light, literature, NEPA Slave> NEPA 20.07.2005 - 00:43 I don't know what NEPA is, but I sure think that the spotted does not do as well in tree plantations as it does in older forest habitat. Rove Ranger> Taking the Data for What it Is 20.07.2005 - 00:47 Thanks, Slave ... From the Ashland Resiliency Project DEIS:  http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/rogue-siskiyou/projects/planning/ashland-forest-resiliency-deis.shtml "There have been recent large fires in SW Oregon, in particular the Biscuit and the Timbered Rock fires, which have significantly reduced NRF within the province. However, analysis conducted on the effects of the Biscuit Fire using recent work by Zabel et al. (2003) showed that of the 49 owl pairs affected by the fire, it was likely that only seven were no longer extant. In addition, of the 15 spotted owl pairs affected by the Timbered Rock Fire, 11 of those pairs continue to occupy their historic activity centers even thought they were subject to varying degrees of fire severity. There is uncertainty as to how spotted owls respond to fire in SW Oregon and research is currently being conducted in an attempt to answer that question." So ... Freedom's comments that owls in the Biscuit are doing "just dandy" post-fire is based on research that is ongoing. I don't think that at this point in time we can equate an owls continued existence within a burned are to its doing "just dandy". It will be interesting to see what further (and hopefully more meaningfull) results this research provides, and how it can be applied to the principle of adaptive management. A couple questions that come to my mind: 1) Are the owls reproducing? Successfully? 2) Will there be owls there in 10 years? 20 years? 40? 80? Hoot Diddly Hoo> Owls are not Pidgeons 20.07.2005 - 01:07 "I don't know what NEPA is, but I sure think that the spotted does not do as well in tree plantations as it does in older forest habitat." Actually, they much prefer younger habitat to older habitat in N. California. And no, we're not just talking about redwood forests. Spotted Owls defy pidgeonholing. Hoo Dizzle> But... 20.07.2005 - 14:09 You're still missing the point: Fire is a natural event. It happens. Its a neutral occurence, just like the leaves falling in autumn. You don't hear people trying to 'salvage' the naked trees in November, do you? Similarly, the forest as a whole is still alive and kicking. The snags are playing their part in the cycle by providing habitat, shade, and biomass. There's nothing that we humyns need to correct. But here come the FS and timber companies claiming that its all just waste, which is a load of bullshit (the FS has even said that the Biscuit sales are not ecologically beneficial). And they use that as an excuse to log old growth, LSR and roadless areas, turning them into synthetic tree farms instead of letting it regenerate naturally. Gnomish Key> But What? 20.07.2005 - 15:23 Yes, fire is "natural". And so are humans. Is it not "natural" for a species to interact with his environment? We humans have supressed fire in the Kalmiopsis for 100 years, which contributed to the explosiveness and high intensity/severity of the Biscuit fire. Is this "natural"? We could have a lengthy discussion about what is "natural" or "not natural" ... however, that's besides the point as far I'm concerned. The question that we need to ask our selves is: "What are our goals, and how are we going to interact with our environment to achieve those goals?" Do we want to be able to pay for restoration to roads, culverts, stream channels, etc. that were damaged by the Biscuit? Do we want the land within the Biscuit perimeter to provide habitat for late successional species such as spotted owls in the future? Do we want to spend a couple hundred million dollars fighting the next Biscuit fire? Evacuate entire communities? Spew billions of tons of carbon into the air? Just a few thoughts ... Thinktivist> How About ... 20.07.2005 - 15:27 How about if I eat a whole box of bran flakes, and a bunch of douglas fir pine cones. Then I could hike around within the fire perimeter and "seed" the burn area. Would that be "natural" enough for you? Moon Muffin> My Calculations 20.07.2005 - 17:27 Super-Scientific Graph Based on the currently available data set, I have been able to predict with some certainty that the Northern Spotted Owl will be completely extinct from within the Biscuit Fire perimeter by the year 2010. Arrrrrrg, matey! The Pirate>