Killer Mudslide in Oregon: Clearcut Disaster
12/12/96
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Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 14:46:40 -0800 (PST)
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To: rags-rap@igc.org
From: ranmedia@ran.org (Mark Westlund)
Subject: Killer Mudslide: Clearcut Disaster.
Sender: rainforest@igc.org
Sender: rainforest@igc.org
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
Opinion/Editorial
Killer Mudslide: Clearcut Disaster.
Last month, a huge mud slide in Umpqua, Oregon, killed four people. Three
of the victims, Rick and Susan Moon and their visiting neighbor Sharon
Marvin, were crushed in the Moon's house when it was buried in tons of
liquid earth and trees that came cascading down the steep hillside above
their house. The forth victim was a friend of the Moon's named Ann
Maxwell, who was walking up the hill to their house when the earth gave
way. 16 year old daughter Rachel Moon narrowly escaped the mud slide when
her father yelled at everyone to "run." The local newspaper delivery man,
"Ryder," told horror stories from his hospital bed at the intensive care
unit of Columbia Douglas Medical Center in Roseburg of how the slide caught
him by surprise as he was trying to get his car out of a rut, overran him
and buried him to the waist in mud, filling his mouth with dirt and gravel.
Ryder had to wait one and a half hours for the paramedics to find him and
remove him from the molten earth. The mud slide turned what was a small
creek bed into a giant chasm of raw and torn earth and trees mixed with the
rubble of destroyed homes, cars, and asphalt.
Every year the press covers hundreds of natural disasters, many of them
fatal, so what makes this incident any different than the others?
Apparently, there is growing concern over whether the mud slide had to be
fatal, or even had to be at all. The Moon's house was downhill from an
area owned and logged by several lumber companies, including Champion
International, who clear-cut the land 10 years ago. Environmentalists and
locals familiar with the shadow of an ever-present logging industry think
that the degradation and abuse of the land by logging companies over the
years destabilized the terrain and caused the tons of mud to let loose and
cascade down the steep hill, passing through a heavily wooded area before
crushing the Moon house and killing the people inside. At least one friend
of the Moon family was quoted as saying: "logging killed my friends."
Douglas District forester for the Oregon District of Forestry, Steve
Truesdell, said that the slide was caused by the more than seven inches of
rain that fell, and not the 10 year old clear-cut. Environmentalists
pointed out, however, that extensive research shows that mud slides are
more prevalent and of greater magnitude in areas that have been logged in
the last 20 years. "At this time I'm not thinking anything happened due to
logging or road building," Truesdell said.
Francis Etherton of the group Umpqua watersheds and Andy Stahl, director of
the Association of Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics feel
differently. "The US Forest service has long mapped areas likely to slide
above people's homes and doesn't allow logging there, but the state
Department of Forestry hasn't followed suit," said Stahl.
"The state Forest Practices Act allows harvest to occur on steep, unstable
soils," said Etherton. "We're going to have to change this and start
taking into account people's watersheds, clean drinking water and
fisheries, but we also have to take into account people's lives."
Champion International apparently complied with all recommendations from
the Department of Forestry and passed all inspections in their harvesting
practice. The Stamford, Conn. based company was not immediately available
for comment. The land was bought in 1992 and is currently owned by the
Seneca company, who said that as soon as the risk was minimized they would
go out and "assess the damages." A week after the slide, no one from
Seneca, Champion, or the Department of Forestry has visited the sight.
Meanwhile, the environmental group Earth First! has taken video footage of
an apparently horrendous scene of destruction.
The Clayoquot Sound region of British Columbia, one of the world's largest
remaining temperate rainforests is the center of an international
controversy that, among other things, led to the arrest of more than 800
peaceful protesters in 1993. Last year's rainy season witnessed 260
landslides in the Clayoquot Sound region, and only 13 percent of them were
in unlogged, old growth areas. Some slides took place in areas clear-cut
more than 10 years ago, and which had subsequently supported second growth.
In the wake of a storm, newspapers throughout the northwest consistently
publish horror story after horror story detailing devastated land, lost
property, homes, and unbearably, human lives; but how much of this misery
is caused in part by our own carelessness? And where is the public outcry
over the carelessness of those who would ravage a land and not expect any
consequences? Rainy seasons of the past were supposed to produce studies
to help us avoid tragedies like the death of the Moons and their friends.
Where are they? If they were not done, then why? If they were done, then
why aren't they being used? Is it not clear that too much is at stake when
a ten year old clearcut lets loose to take human lives? How many more
clearcuts will let loose and take property homes and lives? How much
longer can we ravage the habitat that has supported life for so many
thousands of years and is now often spoken of in desperation? How long
before the truth will be unraveled from the constricting knot of
bureaucracy and be put to use to save our habitat, our homes and our lives?
We must stop clearcutting now!
Gabriel Harris
Rainforest Action Network