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There Comes a Time to Stand in the Way
Resistance to Roadless Logging
There Comes a Time to Stand in the Way
Tue, August 15, 2006 - 6:05 PM
Resistance to Roadless Logging Escalates as Protesters Blockade Bridge Leading to the Nation's First Roadless Area Timber Sale
A daring predawn road blockade in the Siskiyou National Forest this August halted logging at the site of the first ever incursion into protected Roadless forest. Mike’s Gulch in the Biscuit Burn is the first victim of Bush’s long-sought elimination of the 2001 Roadless Conservation Rule.
A lashed log maneuvered into a cantilever position across the road stopped vehicle traffic from crossing the Green Bridge over the Illinois River, preventing access to the controversial timber sale. Laurel Sutherlin of the Oxygen Collective hung from the end of the log in a pod suspended over the river below. A small army of county, state and federal law enforcement issued an ‘emergency closure’ for ‘public safety’ then contracted a climber who nervously proceeded with a sketchy extraction plan that involved connecting the dangling pod to a pulley and lowering Laurel and the pod into the river.
"This assault on our public lands is a disaster for the forest, a taxpayer rip off and it's against the will of the vast majority of the American people. It is the result of a broken democracy and I am taking this action today to jumpstart the system of checks and balances that is supposed to protect us from the tyranny of an authoritarian government so this doesn't happen again." Said Laurel hanging from the bridge.
This dramatic action follows years of lawsuits, rallies, public comment periods and national media attention involving tens of thousands of people speaking out against the logging of the Biscuit fire area. Nearly 2 million people submitted comments to protect our nation's roadless areas before the Biscuit fire and over 20,000 citizens submitted public comments opposing the Biscuit logging when it was proposed. Since then, almost 100 arrests have resulted from a community-supported civil disobedience campaign protesting the massive logging project.
The day before this latest road blockade was erected, over 100 people rallied at the Forest Service headquarters in Medford, OR, with the message “Roadless is Priceless!” The event culminated with a dozen activists from across Oregon sitting down in the road in front of the federal building. Thirteen people were arrested and eleven spent the night in jail on charges of disorderly conduct.
World-class salmon habitat was logged in the Biscuit the same week the Feds declared the salmon fisheries in Oregon and California a national disaster and pledged millions in aid to now out of work fishermen. This despite recent studies showing that Mike’s Gulch, now four years after the fire, is naturally regenerating seedlings to the degree that it meets federal guidelines for restocking of conifers. This public lands timber sale is a quarter of a million dollar subsidy to the timber industry, paid for by the American taxpayer, with a fully loaded log truck going cheaper than a cord of firewood sells locally.
A lawsuit against the Bush Administration by the governors of Oregon, California, Washington and New Mexico is one of four unsettled cases seeking to retain roadless area protections while logging moves forward.
The public process that lead to the creation of the original Roadless Rule, which protects 58.5 million acres of the most wild and pristine public lands remaining in the United States from destructive practices like logging and mining, involved more citizen input than any other federal regulation on any issue in the history of this country. Despite this overwhelming public support for protection of roadless areas, the Bush Administration has aggressively pursued stripping the protections it provides by opening these areas up to massive commercial timber harvest and hundreds of thousands of acres of oil and mineral exploration.
Mike’s Gulch, in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area was an obvious candidate for Wilderness protection. Next up for destruction is the equally incredible Blackberry area in North Kalmiopsis Roadless Area.
Local media surrounding this latest series of actions ran headlines focusing on the activist’s use of a freshly cut small diameter tree for use in the action, while editorials in regional papers questioned the ethics and effectiveness of using arrests in a calculated effort to bring attention to the issue. Continuing conversations in public and private are further stimulating a nuanced dialog taking place in the local activist community.
Reflections about where to go from here and how to maintain the strength of our opposition to the Bush Administration’s all out assault on our public lands without alienating the broad base of public support we have carefully built on this issue are among the many layers of discussion taking place. There is a growing sentiment that we need a wholesale reevaluation in the forest defense movement of how to best direct our efforts on behalf of the earth to the achieve the protections of wildlands we seek.
Meanwhile, national media have almost completely failed to cover these first roadless incursions. Word needs to get out now. Roadless forest shouldn’t fall without continuing resistance.
Tue, August 15, 2006 - 6:05 PM
Resistance to Roadless Logging Escalates as Protesters Blockade Bridge Leading to the Nation's First Roadless Area Timber Sale
A daring predawn road blockade in the Siskiyou National Forest this August halted logging at the site of the first ever incursion into protected Roadless forest. Mike’s Gulch in the Biscuit Burn is the first victim of Bush’s long-sought elimination of the 2001 Roadless Conservation Rule.
A lashed log maneuvered into a cantilever position across the road stopped vehicle traffic from crossing the Green Bridge over the Illinois River, preventing access to the controversial timber sale. Laurel Sutherlin of the Oxygen Collective hung from the end of the log in a pod suspended over the river below. A small army of county, state and federal law enforcement issued an ‘emergency closure’ for ‘public safety’ then contracted a climber who nervously proceeded with a sketchy extraction plan that involved connecting the dangling pod to a pulley and lowering Laurel and the pod into the river.
"This assault on our public lands is a disaster for the forest, a taxpayer rip off and it's against the will of the vast majority of the American people. It is the result of a broken democracy and I am taking this action today to jumpstart the system of checks and balances that is supposed to protect us from the tyranny of an authoritarian government so this doesn't happen again." Said Laurel hanging from the bridge.
This dramatic action follows years of lawsuits, rallies, public comment periods and national media attention involving tens of thousands of people speaking out against the logging of the Biscuit fire area. Nearly 2 million people submitted comments to protect our nation's roadless areas before the Biscuit fire and over 20,000 citizens submitted public comments opposing the Biscuit logging when it was proposed. Since then, almost 100 arrests have resulted from a community-supported civil disobedience campaign protesting the massive logging project.
The day before this latest road blockade was erected, over 100 people rallied at the Forest Service headquarters in Medford, OR, with the message “Roadless is Priceless!” The event culminated with a dozen activists from across Oregon sitting down in the road in front of the federal building. Thirteen people were arrested and eleven spent the night in jail on charges of disorderly conduct.
World-class salmon habitat was logged in the Biscuit the same week the Feds declared the salmon fisheries in Oregon and California a national disaster and pledged millions in aid to now out of work fishermen. This despite recent studies showing that Mike’s Gulch, now four years after the fire, is naturally regenerating seedlings to the degree that it meets federal guidelines for restocking of conifers. This public lands timber sale is a quarter of a million dollar subsidy to the timber industry, paid for by the American taxpayer, with a fully loaded log truck going cheaper than a cord of firewood sells locally.
A lawsuit against the Bush Administration by the governors of Oregon, California, Washington and New Mexico is one of four unsettled cases seeking to retain roadless area protections while logging moves forward.
The public process that lead to the creation of the original Roadless Rule, which protects 58.5 million acres of the most wild and pristine public lands remaining in the United States from destructive practices like logging and mining, involved more citizen input than any other federal regulation on any issue in the history of this country. Despite this overwhelming public support for protection of roadless areas, the Bush Administration has aggressively pursued stripping the protections it provides by opening these areas up to massive commercial timber harvest and hundreds of thousands of acres of oil and mineral exploration.
Mike’s Gulch, in the South Kalmiopsis Roadless Area was an obvious candidate for Wilderness protection. Next up for destruction is the equally incredible Blackberry area in North Kalmiopsis Roadless Area.
Local media surrounding this latest series of actions ran headlines focusing on the activist’s use of a freshly cut small diameter tree for use in the action, while editorials in regional papers questioned the ethics and effectiveness of using arrests in a calculated effort to bring attention to the issue. Continuing conversations in public and private are further stimulating a nuanced dialog taking place in the local activist community.
Reflections about where to go from here and how to maintain the strength of our opposition to the Bush Administration’s all out assault on our public lands without alienating the broad base of public support we have carefully built on this issue are among the many layers of discussion taking place. There is a growing sentiment that we need a wholesale reevaluation in the forest defense movement of how to best direct our efforts on behalf of the earth to the achieve the protections of wildlands we seek.
Meanwhile, national media have almost completely failed to cover these first roadless incursions. Word needs to get out now. Roadless forest shouldn’t fall without continuing resistance.
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Laurel - did you write and post your own self-promotion article?
Oh- I notice that you forgot to mention that the log used to block the bridge was formerly a live tree in a nearby protected botanical area and was illegally cut down just for your protest. So you cut down a tree to protest other people cutting down trees. F-ing brilliant, dude!
I'm an ardent supporter of roadless area protection, and old growth protection. I think "salvage" logging is largely a crock of sh*t. And I even support non-violent civil disobedience such as blocking a road with a log. But I don't support cutting down a tree, illegally or legally, just to block a road for 3 hours.
These stupid antics were not only foolishly, they diverted the attention from our message and further reinforced the stereotype of environmentalists as irrational zealots.
Next time tell the whole story
Oh- I notice that you forgot to mention that the log used to block the bridge was formerly a live tree in a nearby protected botanical area and was illegally cut down just for your protest. So you cut down a tree to protest other people cutting down trees. F-ing brilliant, dude!
I'm an ardent supporter of roadless area protection, and old growth protection. I think "salvage" logging is largely a crock of sh*t. And I even support non-violent civil disobedience such as blocking a road with a log. But I don't support cutting down a tree, illegally or legally, just to block a road for 3 hours.
These stupid antics were not only foolishly, they diverted the attention from our message and further reinforced the stereotype of environmentalists as irrational zealots.
Next time tell the whole story
I hope all of these folks can hear the applause of one individual because taking stands such as these individuals to protect the forest is without a doubt the REAL America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
thank you, Laurel!
"Laurel" thank you for taking a stand for a roadless wilderness area and putting your life on the line to express your beliefs FOR the life of the forest and against greed, goons, and destruction. Don't let the goons raz you about cutting one pecker pole, we all know that you were trying to save FAR more life by blocking the road than that one tiny tree.
Never give up hope people, more and more people are reading alternative sources of information like indybay and figuring out what time it is. Today it may just be incremental reform within the corrupt "system" sparked by blogs like Lieberman going down for being a war monger, tomorrow it will be the revolution. You can only keep millions of pissed off people down for so long goons.
Never give up hope people, more and more people are reading alternative sources of information like indybay and figuring out what time it is. Today it may just be incremental reform within the corrupt "system" sparked by blogs like Lieberman going down for being a war monger, tomorrow it will be the revolution. You can only keep millions of pissed off people down for so long goons.
For more information:
http://treefunk.net/forum/
Yippee!!!! It's long over due time that people started putting their collective feet down and saying "Enough!"
Georgie boy has been behaving like and out of control child with no one to reign him in and make him behave. And as far as I'm concerned, it has been allowed to go on for far too long. Let's see more of this. And let's start with these ridiculus new "rules" being enfored at the airports. Liquid bombs indeed!! Making people throw away their bottled water, soft drinks, baby formula, wine, shampoo, hair gel, lipstick, conditioners, etc.
Enough already!!!!!!!
Let's take his so called New Freedom Initative for example. New Freedom my hind foot!!! The only freedom I see with this monstrosity is that it gives carte blanche to the big pharma companies and medical as well as the school staff to "misdiagnose", label, and drug children for life.
I had a good long talk today with the high school principal about a number of topics, and I have no doubts in my mind that she would be a staunch opponent of any kind of forced mental health screenings or forced druggings. She is a very well educated and intelligent person, and while she can see that sometimes drugs are needed, she very specifically stated that she feels that "Drugs should be used only as a last resort."
Georgie boy has been behaving like and out of control child with no one to reign him in and make him behave. And as far as I'm concerned, it has been allowed to go on for far too long. Let's see more of this. And let's start with these ridiculus new "rules" being enfored at the airports. Liquid bombs indeed!! Making people throw away their bottled water, soft drinks, baby formula, wine, shampoo, hair gel, lipstick, conditioners, etc.
Enough already!!!!!!!
Let's take his so called New Freedom Initative for example. New Freedom my hind foot!!! The only freedom I see with this monstrosity is that it gives carte blanche to the big pharma companies and medical as well as the school staff to "misdiagnose", label, and drug children for life.
I had a good long talk today with the high school principal about a number of topics, and I have no doubts in my mind that she would be a staunch opponent of any kind of forced mental health screenings or forced druggings. She is a very well educated and intelligent person, and while she can see that sometimes drugs are needed, she very specifically stated that she feels that "Drugs should be used only as a last resort."
Laurel calls a salvage logging operation in a burned area a failure of democracy. Then he cites 2 million nationwide comments "to protect our nation's roadless areas." I call those 2 million warm, fuzzy opinions in favor of a vague and undefined protection of wilderness a failure of democracy - or perhaps a triumph of democracy over real facts and local management. I'm one of the locals who lives in Southern Oregon and has to live with the greater risk of catastrophic fires because of religious environmentalists who won't let a forest be thinned even when that would be best for the forest.
Fires are natural to forests, and forests can recover from them, but in a state of nature small fires were more common and burned off dry material more often. The more dry fuel in a forest, the hotter the eventual fire. A fire with a lot of dry fuel can actually sterilize the soil, greatly setting back recovery. Leaving large numbers of dead, burned trees in situ is not doing the forest any favors.
If there is any blame to be placed for ripping off taxpayers it should be placed at the feet of people like Laurel, who held up the initial decision to salvage for years with frivolous delaying lawsuits. They knew they never had to win a court case on the merits, they just had to get enough delays from enough hearings to let the timber rot in place and reduce its value. If taxpayers are getting less for this sale, its because the value of the usable timber is a fraction of what it was soon after the fire.
I will grant that environmentalists care about the environment, but they're making an unwarranted assumption if they assume nobody else does. The environment is a complex system, and dogmatic management strategies aren't always right or best. Educate yourself. Talk to firefighters, forest managers, ranchers and see if they know anything you can learn from.
Fires are natural to forests, and forests can recover from them, but in a state of nature small fires were more common and burned off dry material more often. The more dry fuel in a forest, the hotter the eventual fire. A fire with a lot of dry fuel can actually sterilize the soil, greatly setting back recovery. Leaving large numbers of dead, burned trees in situ is not doing the forest any favors.
If there is any blame to be placed for ripping off taxpayers it should be placed at the feet of people like Laurel, who held up the initial decision to salvage for years with frivolous delaying lawsuits. They knew they never had to win a court case on the merits, they just had to get enough delays from enough hearings to let the timber rot in place and reduce its value. If taxpayers are getting less for this sale, its because the value of the usable timber is a fraction of what it was soon after the fire.
I will grant that environmentalists care about the environment, but they're making an unwarranted assumption if they assume nobody else does. The environment is a complex system, and dogmatic management strategies aren't always right or best. Educate yourself. Talk to firefighters, forest managers, ranchers and see if they know anything you can learn from.
A note from The Environmental Rangers up here in Montana. GIVE'EM HELL! We support you 100 percent! And so do the American people! Send a message to the Presidunce that he can kiss the American people's ASS on this one! Nazi tactics don't work in Oregon or Montana! Hold the line, and do whatever you have to to protect that area! You will win! And give those loggers a message from me. Tell'em, don't MAKE me come down there!
Protection.... whether its old growth forest, borders, freedom or your family and friends, is protection out of love of and common sense for everything we value as humans.
Cutting down one tree to save thousands is like real life, where one man dies to save the lives of thousands. Be it from corporations, rogue nations or large governments running amok with little or no concerns for the consequence of their actions upon those less powerful.
Actions... never reported by the MSM (main stay media) is because people would begin to realize that others they themselves have never met care and feel the same deep down way the rest of us feel.
So what do actions really stand for? They stand for each and everyone of us who has a vested interest in leaving a better world for our children and grand children then the world we where born into and left just as quick!
Cutting down one tree to save thousands is like real life, where one man dies to save the lives of thousands. Be it from corporations, rogue nations or large governments running amok with little or no concerns for the consequence of their actions upon those less powerful.
Actions... never reported by the MSM (main stay media) is because people would begin to realize that others they themselves have never met care and feel the same deep down way the rest of us feel.
So what do actions really stand for? They stand for each and everyone of us who has a vested interest in leaving a better world for our children and grand children then the world we where born into and left just as quick!
What is there to say? The Amazon Forest will begin its great die off next year if the drought there continues into 2007. The climate is heating up more and faster than we ever predicted in the 90s. The ice is melting from Greenland at three times the rate we previously thought a mere few years ago. The Artic ice is vanishing out from under polar bears and they are being forced to cannibalize one another. We have changed the chemistry of much of the world’s oceans to the point that we have returned it to a condition not seen since hundreds of millions of years ago, creating an explosion of jellyfish, bacteria, and slime algae which are growing unchecked. 90% of the ocean’s great fish population is missing, the seas are essentially going into a death spiral. Carbon and nitrogen are spiking in our atmosphere leading to the death of much of the tundra in the Rockies. Many great animals have reduced populations not seen since the last asteroid impact and in many cases they are below the population required for healthy viable genetic diversity. Most of the grasslands have lost 90% of their original cover to be replaced with non-native species. Few intact and viable habitats are left on earth that aren’t sliced and diced with roads and human settlements. And the last 24 years has marked a period where other than crossing ‘t’s and dotting ‘i’s, precious little was done in America by any party to protect the biosphere, while at the same time laws that were hard won have been rolled back or IGNORED. All this while big industry merely shifted all its operations overseas where it was allowed, in Asia, to pollute to it heart’s content. Our scientists are moving to subvert much of the earth’s genetic code – as even half wit nations like China get in on the act – such as China releasing without testing one million GM trees, while US scientists play with strangelets and as Japanese scientists brag that they will ‘safely’ create a tiny expanding universe in their labs. Essentially we are in a Great Die Off whose name is spelled CIVILIZATION, and most people of the earth are still dancing or asleep aboard the Titanic.
Why stop the logging ?
WHy are we importing logs from New Zeland ?
Why do you stand in the way of using such a renewable resource ?
WHY are you alive ? YOU are impacting the enviroment right now.
Why are you so blinded by this phony brand environmentalism ?
WHY do you feed the coffers of the behemoth known as phony environmentalism ?
WHY are you so easily bought ?
WHY can't you see the need for timber products is real ?
WHY can't you examine the truth about the logging/reforestaion cycle ?
WHY can't you admit YOU are contributing to the poverty of communities ?
WHY won't you recognize you are contributing to the high cost of housing for middle and low income people ?
Why can't you understand that a nation that is an independent producer is a healthy nation ?
WHY have you assigned yourself to be the gatekeeper ?
WHY are you so closed minded ?
WHy are we importing logs from New Zeland ?
Why do you stand in the way of using such a renewable resource ?
WHY are you alive ? YOU are impacting the enviroment right now.
Why are you so blinded by this phony brand environmentalism ?
WHY do you feed the coffers of the behemoth known as phony environmentalism ?
WHY are you so easily bought ?
WHY can't you see the need for timber products is real ?
WHY can't you examine the truth about the logging/reforestaion cycle ?
WHY can't you admit YOU are contributing to the poverty of communities ?
WHY won't you recognize you are contributing to the high cost of housing for middle and low income people ?
Why can't you understand that a nation that is an independent producer is a healthy nation ?
WHY have you assigned yourself to be the gatekeeper ?
WHY are you so closed minded ?
Thanks for contributing truth and reality David. These phony environuts are all about narcissism and power- to an extreme degree. THEY claim to be THE only folks that DEEply CAre (sniff) about the forest. I used to be on their side. Slowly I began to see the true nature of these folks and it made me sick. They are phony , power hungry dictators. They ignore all of the problems they create with their emotion-driven , me-first forest "policy".
They look waaay down their nose at rural families that have cared for the land for many generations rather than giving them deserved respect.
Truth is they hate rural working families and want to run them out - just like they did in Hayfork with the phony owl deal.
Seems to be okay to ignore our need for timber products - made from renewable trees.
Seems to be okay to cut logs in other countries to fill that need .
Seems they forgot to look behind the curtain of their favorite environut organi$ation$.
They look waaay down their nose at rural families that have cared for the land for many generations rather than giving them deserved respect.
Truth is they hate rural working families and want to run them out - just like they did in Hayfork with the phony owl deal.
Seems to be okay to ignore our need for timber products - made from renewable trees.
Seems to be okay to cut logs in other countries to fill that need .
Seems they forgot to look behind the curtain of their favorite environut organi$ation$.
READ PHONY drivel :
LAUREL CLAIMS:
"This assault on our public lands is a disaster for the forest, a taxpayer rip off and it's against the will of the vast majority of the American people. It is the result of a broken democracy and I am taking this action today to jumpstart the system of checks and balances that is supposed to protect us from the tyranny of an authoritarian government so this doesn't happen again."
Modern day TIMBER harvests are not a disaster for the forest. Forests are renewable.
EMotional enviromentalists are a disaster for the forest and for working people (labor).
[ SIDE NOTE -HAve you eveer bee a working person ? Ever labored ? Built anything ? Farmed? Dug ditches ? Cut 'cots ? Drove truck? Run a dozer ?]
We have vast amounts of information, technology and regulation to make mitigation happen.
PRODUCING timber products/harvesting trees is not a taxpayer ripoff. Timber products are
needed. Roadless wilderness is a luxury item, which by the way my friends, we have plenty of. Look at a map of California.
What do you know about what the vast majority of Americans think regarding anything ?
They Know they need timber products and that you are driving up the cost while damaging the forest with these un-balanced management policies.
They know they want real facts and information about the whole picture- not just the bigoted view of the enviroCEO and his unwitting goons.
LAUREL CLAIMS:
"This assault on our public lands is a disaster for the forest, a taxpayer rip off and it's against the will of the vast majority of the American people. It is the result of a broken democracy and I am taking this action today to jumpstart the system of checks and balances that is supposed to protect us from the tyranny of an authoritarian government so this doesn't happen again."
Modern day TIMBER harvests are not a disaster for the forest. Forests are renewable.
EMotional enviromentalists are a disaster for the forest and for working people (labor).
[ SIDE NOTE -HAve you eveer bee a working person ? Ever labored ? Built anything ? Farmed? Dug ditches ? Cut 'cots ? Drove truck? Run a dozer ?]
We have vast amounts of information, technology and regulation to make mitigation happen.
PRODUCING timber products/harvesting trees is not a taxpayer ripoff. Timber products are
needed. Roadless wilderness is a luxury item, which by the way my friends, we have plenty of. Look at a map of California.
What do you know about what the vast majority of Americans think regarding anything ?
They Know they need timber products and that you are driving up the cost while damaging the forest with these un-balanced management policies.
They know they want real facts and information about the whole picture- not just the bigoted view of the enviroCEO and his unwitting goons.
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