YellowSub1962
06-05-2001, 08:40 AM
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AP Photo
Protesters Hold Firm at Eagle Creek
June 2, 2001, 01:15 PM
By Joseph B. Frazier, AP
As rain pattered down on dense foothill forests Saturday, a handful of environmentalist protesters huddled around a fire under a blue tarp waiting for the loggers.
They are here day after day, intent on doing what they must to stop the logging of a segment of the Eagle Creek timber sale on the Mount Hood National Forest.
Most of the time, their only company is a vehicle or two of U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers parked by a barricade 100 yards or so off the road.
Their politics are plastered on the bumpers of their cars and vans pulled alongside the road: Save the Salmon. Extinction is Forever. Nader 2000.
"It's pretty calm right now, but they could come at any time," said a barefoot Tre Arrow, whose moment of fame came last summer when he scaled the wall of a downtown Portland building housing U.S. Forest Services offices and stayed perched on a ledge for 11 days to protest the planned Eagle Creek cut.
"The number of people here totally varies," he said, adding most live in tents deeper in the woods.
Most food is sent by supporters, including many natural food stores and coops, Arrow said.
The vigil in the area has been going on for just over two years.
"Now that the forest service says logging can begin, we've put out a really wide call for as many people as possible," said Felda Carr, who comes to the site occasionally. "People have been responding more since about Wednesday.
"What we want is pretty simple, we want them to cancel the sale outright. It makes no sense to allow logging while independent review is going on. We don't know if halting logging during the review will happen, but that would be great," she said.
Tim Ream said the Forest Service can ask them to move their camp every 14 days. While the encampment they have now hasn't been bothered, he said previous encampments have been asked to move.
The demonstrators took heart in letters signed by five members of Oregon's congressional delegation to the U.S. secretary of agriculture and U.S. Forest Service officials asking that the cut be suspended until the independent review is complete, Ream said.
"It seems like direct action is totally called for. We have to keep up the pressure in the woods," Ream said.
Environmentalists say logging harms the Eagle Creek watershed, which supplies drinking water to 185,000 people in Portland, West Linn, Lake Oswego and Oregon City.
They also say logging could harm rare plants and animals and will destroy centuries-old trees.
(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP Photo
Protesters Hold Firm at Eagle Creek
June 2, 2001, 01:15 PM
By Joseph B. Frazier, AP
As rain pattered down on dense foothill forests Saturday, a handful of environmentalist protesters huddled around a fire under a blue tarp waiting for the loggers.
They are here day after day, intent on doing what they must to stop the logging of a segment of the Eagle Creek timber sale on the Mount Hood National Forest.
Most of the time, their only company is a vehicle or two of U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers parked by a barricade 100 yards or so off the road.
Their politics are plastered on the bumpers of their cars and vans pulled alongside the road: Save the Salmon. Extinction is Forever. Nader 2000.
"It's pretty calm right now, but they could come at any time," said a barefoot Tre Arrow, whose moment of fame came last summer when he scaled the wall of a downtown Portland building housing U.S. Forest Services offices and stayed perched on a ledge for 11 days to protest the planned Eagle Creek cut.
"The number of people here totally varies," he said, adding most live in tents deeper in the woods.
Most food is sent by supporters, including many natural food stores and coops, Arrow said.
The vigil in the area has been going on for just over two years.
"Now that the forest service says logging can begin, we've put out a really wide call for as many people as possible," said Felda Carr, who comes to the site occasionally. "People have been responding more since about Wednesday.
"What we want is pretty simple, we want them to cancel the sale outright. It makes no sense to allow logging while independent review is going on. We don't know if halting logging during the review will happen, but that would be great," she said.
Tim Ream said the Forest Service can ask them to move their camp every 14 days. While the encampment they have now hasn't been bothered, he said previous encampments have been asked to move.
The demonstrators took heart in letters signed by five members of Oregon's congressional delegation to the U.S. secretary of agriculture and U.S. Forest Service officials asking that the cut be suspended until the independent review is complete, Ream said.
"It seems like direct action is totally called for. We have to keep up the pressure in the woods," Ream said.
Environmentalists say logging harms the Eagle Creek watershed, which supplies drinking water to 185,000 people in Portland, West Linn, Lake Oswego and Oregon City.
They also say logging could harm rare plants and animals and will destroy centuries-old trees.
(Copyright 2001 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)