Shots add tension to timber sale protest
Susan Palmer - The Register Guard, 18.09.2005 13:20
STEN TIMBER SALE - It was a surreal day in the woods, what with the harpist tree sitter playing gentle music from 140 feet up in the canopy, and the grumpy tree sitter over the next ridge yelling curses down on chain saw-wielding loggers, and police officers detaining a videographer who got too close to the action.
You had to strain to hear harp music, but it was lovely, the faint sounds of "Greensleeves" wafting from the high canopy of a tree more than 5 feet in diameter. Mostly the chain saws drowned it out.
A protester who would only give her name as Healing Tree said she was there despite reports that people are taking potshots at activists trying to stop logging in old growth stands in the Willamette National Forest east of McKenzie Bridge.
Camped near the crown of a Douglas fir, a woman plays her harp while protesting
"I'm good around people that are violent, at de-escalating conflicts and bringing some healing energy to the forest," she said over a walkie-talkie, during a break in strumming her small harp. A 38-year-old Eugene resident who owns her own online business, she also sang a few verses of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence."
Closer to the loggers, the other tree sitter, who declined to give any name, cursed especially loud when a tree fell close to him. He beat regularly on a plastic bucket.
"You want some sound bites?" he yelled before letting loose with an expletive directed at the Forest Service.
For the past five weeks, a small group of activists who call themselves the Guardians of the McKenzie Watershed have been supporting two or three tree sitters in a grove about 15 miles east of McKenzie Bridge. The grove includes trees of various ages - towering firs hundreds of years old and younger trees less than a foot in diameter. In places where the sun peeks through the canopy, ferns and rhododendrons hug the forest floor.
Trees marked with orange spray paint will be preserved. Everything else will be cut.
Activists say that on Aug. 28, someone with a .45 pistol fired into the trees near them, and that on Saturday, someone with a hunting bow shot two arrows, one that pierced a water jug and knocked it down, and one that grazed a tree sitter's hand.
The Lane County Sheriff's Office is investigating the latter incident, but deputies say their inquiry is hampered because no one making the complaints has been willing to give their name.
On Wednesday, activists who said they were anxious over their safety left the trees, and law enforcement officers from the Willamette National Forest took down two of their tree-sitting platforms, which are considered illegal structures.
Thursday, county and forest service officers were on hand once again over concerns that more activists on the ground might hamper the logging.
They detained one man, Josh Schlossberg, citing him for interfering with agricultural operations.
Schlossberg, who said he is a videographer for the Cascadia Forest Defenders, said he was filming activities around the activists because he was worried about their safety.
"I just want to document that everybody's playing fair," he said.
Schlossberg was handcuffed briefly, then released after giving his name. Willamette National Forest officer Don Galbraith confiscated Schlossberg's videotape as evidence, but told him he would be able to get it back eventually.
Galbraith said that, while the Sten timber sale area was not closed to the public, the immediate area around the loggers was closed as a matter of safety.
advertisement
Officers had no intention of trying to remove the tree sitters, he said.
They may not have to. The shooting incidents may have scared off activists. The tree sitter whose hand was grazed by the arrow came down from his perch and others are worried about their safety, said Shane Feinstein, who is coordinating the protest.
"As long as people are willing to be out there, we will definitely continue to support them," she said.
The logging is taking place in an area that succumbed to a forest fire about 150 years ago. The older trees survived and younger trees have sprung up among them, said Josh Laughlin, executive director of Cascadia Wildlands Project, an environmental group that encourages logging in younger stands of replanted forests that have become like tree farms.
Laughlin's group is not an active part of the protest, but it does oppose logging on what he calls Oregon's legacy forests - complex stands of varying ages like the trees in the Sten sale. Those forests provide habitat to a variety of species and recreational opportunities for thousands of people.
"They should be set aside for generations to come," he said.
Willamette National Forest Service officials say they are logging the site selectively to mimic the effects of forest fire in an effort to reduce the risk of a larger catastrophic fire.
e-mail:: action(at)cascadiarising.org
Homepage:: http://www.registerguard.com/news/2005/09/16/d1.cr.treesitters.0916.p1.php?section=cityregion
| 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 >> |