Update 01/00: The Tree Sitters are STILL THERE and still stopping the logging.
Update 05/00: A new proposed deal was signed last week, and the tree sitters
have left.
Right View Timber Sale
Protectors Move In
On July 12, workers from Herbert Logging Company arrived in unit 5 of Right View in preparation for logging. Much to their surprise, they found two women living in the canopy of the forest. They couldn't start logging with people living up in the trees!
Our local newspaper said on 7/13/99:
The two 19-year-old protesters, referring to themselves as only "Madrone" and "River," said they planned to stay in their box-like plywood structure about 150 feet off the ground until the forest grove was safe from harvest....
"We speak for the trees," the young women said, explaining they wanted to take a stand against old-growth logging on public lands....
The tree sitters were discovered Monday morning when loggers working for Riddle-based Herbert Lumber Co., which is under contract for the Bureau of Land Management timber sale, arrived to begin harvesting the 32 acre unit, nearly 30 miles east of Roseburg....
The two protesters indicated they had support from people on the ground who were bringing them food and water. But that ground support is now cut off, after the BLM issued a closure order on the land. Roseburg BLM spokeswoman E. Lynn Burkett said the unit was closed to public access Monday afternoon after the protesters were discovered.
"It was closed for public safety," she said. "We want to make sure there aren't any people in danger who might still be in the area."....
BLM officials said they won't forcibly remove the tree sitters, but they may allow timber harvesting to go ahead with the tree sitters in place.
Any logging that occurs would leave a protective buffer around the tree that the two women occupy and the area would be checked to make sure no other protesters are present, Burkett said.In light of the landslide on units 1 and 2 of the same sale, and in light of the illegal logging in stream side buffers, BLM should stop logging Right View. Instead, BLM put the tree-sitters' lives in danger and logged around them.
Also see Pictures of:
