Forest Service Logs, Then Burns Ancient Forest

by via Portland Indymedia

Sun, Jul 22, 2007 10:42PM

In 2005 protestors at the Sten timber sale near Eugene had both live ammunition and hunting arrows shot at them. This year the Forest Service set a "prescribed burn" at the site of the protest and killed most of the remaining trees.

One activist lived on a small platform in the upper canopy for over two months, while loggers endangered his life by falling trees around him. Hired climbers and Forest Service personnel threatened to physically remove him. During his extended stay in an old growth tree, "Katrina", the Forest Service stole his bicycle, trailer, identity papers, and all his possessions.

"Katrina" is now dead. Eighty-five percent of the trees in the project are either standing dead or blackened stumps. According to a Forest Service spokesperson, a "prescribed burn", started with drip torches by Forest Service personnel, got out of hand "when the wind shifted". The Forest Service inadvertently "missed its target" of 10 to 20 percent mortality. Seventy percent of the trees that remained after logging were killed by the fire. The destruction of a once healthy forest ecosystem is now complete.

What is next for unit 43 of the Sten timber sale? Salvage logging?

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For more information: http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2007/07/3...

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