Oregon, USA Eco-Warriors Pursue Non-Violent Resistance to Save Forests

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WORLDWIDE FOREST/BIODIVERSITY CAMPAIGN NEWS

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Forest Networking a Project of Ecological Enterprises

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

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."

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