Oregon, USA Eco-Warriors Pursue Non-Violent Resistance to Save Forests
7/24/96
OVERVIEW & SOURCE by EE
Activists with the Siskiyou Forest Defenders in Oregon, USA are protesting
increased logging on federal forests under the infamous "salvage logging"
wavers. These protests "are being repeated around the West and the rest of
the country as opposition to increased logging on federal forests spreads."
Indeed, approximately 600 people have been arrested in Oregon and
Washington in one year, in peaceful protests on behalf of forests on public
lands. Methods of protest, mainly aimed at preventing logging road and
tree harvest accessibility; include sit-down strikes, perching in trees or
tall tripods and using "bicycle locks to shackle themselves by the neck to
log trucks." People everywhere are taking local responsiblity for the
forest crisis; which includes changing consumption patterns, advocating for
conservation, restoration and management of forests; as well as protesting
the most obvious examples of forest over-exploitation. A movement needs
all its wings to stay aloft.
g.b.
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Oregon's Eco-Warriors Confront Chain Saws with a Rusted Pontiac
7/22/96
Copyright 1996 by Christian Science Monitor
LOGGING DISPUTE
CAVE JUNCTION, ORE. -- A half-mile up logging road 080 in the Siskiyou
National Forest, an encampment of eco-warriors prepares to face bulldozers
and chain saws. They've dug a ditch across the road, built a rock and log
barricade, and dragged out an old Pontiac - all more symbolic than actual
impediments to tree cutters.
About a dozen activists with the Siskiyou Forest Defenders have been
arrested so far, protesting "salvage logging" in the national forests.
These protests, played out amid the conifers are being repeated around the
West and the rest of the country as opposition to increased logging on
federal forests spreads.
This week, lawmakers in Washington, D.C., turn their attention to the
issue, deciding whether to extend a salvage logging law, designed to remove
damaged timber. It's a controversial subject that has roused debate among
economists, natural scientists, religious leaders - and politicians trying
to balance jobs and the environment.
Proponents say salvage logging is a way to support resource-dependent
communities while restoring forest health. Salvage logging has a role to
play, they say, particularly since the practice of suppressing wild fires
has become popular in recent decades, which has removed one natural tool to
rid the forest of aging and weak trees.
Critics say the rush to log does more harm than good to the environment,
that many healthy, green trees are being cut in addition to weak ones, and
that salvage logging is just an excuse to continue subsidizing the timber
industry.
At least 600 people have been arrested in Oregon and Washington alone since
the first of the year. They have violated official bans on entering certain
parts of national forests. They have conducted sit-down strikes and perched
in trees or tall tripods. Some have used bicycle locks to shackle
themselves by the neck to log trucks.
And although some groups of forest activists look like camp followers from
a Grateful Dead tour, many of those arrested fit society's definition of
"respectable."
Dressed in suits and ties, former congressman Jim Jontz and Audubon Society
vice president Brock Evans were hauled before a magistrate (along with 200
others) for refusing to disperse at the Sugarloaf timber sale in Oregon.
Businessman Gary Schrodt, who owns a small woods-products factory and mail-
order business in Ashland, Ore., joined protesters. So did Dot Fisher-
Smith, an elderly woman who locked herself to a log truck at the Croman
Corporation headquarters in Ashland.
"I was moved by a desire to dispel the growing myth that only young, wild
'hippie' types do radical actions for what they believe," Mrs. Fisher-Smith
wrote in a local environmental journal. "I wanted to demonstrate that old
people can put themselves at risk in the same way and can be equally
passionate and concerned." In considering the misdemeanor charge against
her, municipal Judge Alan Drescher sentenced Fisher-Smith to create a
dialogue between environmentalists and timber-company officials.
Logging law politics
Last year, President Clinton signed a law allowing salvage logging in
federal forests for one year. The law was attached without congressional
debate to a 1995 spending bill providing relief for Bosnian refugees and
victims of the Oklahoma City bombing. Clinton later said signing the bill
was a mistake.
A new bill, sponsored by Sen. Larry Craig (R) of Idaho, would continue the
salvage logging on federal lands and expedite the process. The measure is
needed, Senator Craig says, because of "the serious deterioration of the
forest lands from a variety of ills including, drought, insect and disease
attacks, and unnatural wildfire.
"To simply put our heads in the sand and claim there isn't a forest health
problem would be to deny good stewardship," he says. "What I am offering is
a tool for professionals ... to use to help manage forests better."
The timber industry (which has been a big campaign contributor to Craig),
is eager to see the bill passed. "Senator Craig's legislation provides a
careful and pragmatic solution that will meet the needs of Western forests
and rural economies," says Intermountain Forest Industry Association
executive vice president Jim Riley.
How to keep a forest healthy
But some experts argue that Craig's bill could harm forest health. In a
letter to Clinton urging that he veto the bill, a group of 111 natural
scientists last month warned that "the environmental costs of salvage
logging and associated road building often outweigh the benefits.
"Because salvage logging removes natural fire breaks, it homogenizes the
landscapes and increases susceptibility to catastrophic fires and insect
outbreaks," the scientists wrote.
As the controversy continues, the attitude by some on both sides appears to
be hardening. Workers at a mill near Salem, Ore., last month discovered
steel-and-ceramic spikes in logs. Some equipment was damaged, but no one
was hurt. (No one claimed responsibility, but activists have spiked trees
in the past.)
More recently, a federal grand jury in Eugene, Ore., charged three men with
illegally logging some 6,000 acres in northern California. The men are
alleged to have offered to remove diseased trees, but then cut down healthy
timber.
Meanwhile, at the China Left timber site here, protesters continue to wait
until the rains, and therefore the logging, resume.
Recently, the protesters, camped out and relying on others to bring in
supplies, were visited by "Baywatch" actress Alexandra Paul. The TV star is
not new to protests; she has been arrested at nuclear sites before. "It's
an abomination that this land should be logged," she said after flying over
in a light plane.
Among those who came to lend moral support was Mike Rummel, a grandfather
and wallpaper hanger. "Ten or 15 years from now I can at least say I did my
part," he says.
Others emphasize national forests are the property of all Americans. "They
belong to children in Philadelphia, to retired people in New York, to
farmers in the Midwest," says Jean Crawford, director of the Siskiyou
Regional Education Project, an environmental group. "The public lands are
all the land that some of us will ever own."