Loggers begin cutting 19,500 acres of old growth, 42 arrests

Oregon - 42 forest defenders have been arrested trying to prevent loggers from razing 19,500 acres of old growth forest in the past week. The area slatted to be cut down includes 8,173 acres (12.77 sq. miles) of the Pacific Northwest's largest untouched, road-less area and 6,303 acres (9.85 miles) of "protected" old-growth reserves. Some of the area was damaged by a fire in 2002, which has provided lumber interests with an excuse to clear the forest in order to help it recover.

Many of the trees, slated to be cut, are dead, but continue to play a vital role in the health of the forest. Dead standing trees provide ground cover for younger plants and, when they rot, nutrients for other trees. The Forest Service is attempting to begin this cut long before the logging season starts despite the dangers of logging during the winter rainy season. Tree felling this time of year increases the threat of erosion and heightens the destructive impact on the ecosystem. Hillsides are washed into streams suffocating fish and plant life, and the wheels of logging trucks spread root rot disease wherever they go in the winter months. Salmon is expected to fair especially poorly after this cut.

Silver Creek Timber Company, though stymied by persistent protests, have been cutting about ¼ of a unit per day since for the past week. Forest Service officers arrested 11 demonstrators who blocked a bridge on Tuesday. Another 11 arrests were made the following day including one of a demonstrator who attached himself to the axle on the underside of a police vehicle, with a large metal pipe.

Yesterday 20 women were arrested, most of whom blocked a bridge, as another suspended herself below the bridge, which spanned the Illinois River. Police were unable to clear the roadway, which was blocked by support lines that held the platform and its occupant from falling into the icy waters below. Search and Rescue teams were able to remove the protester hours later. In the meantime three women temporarily halted loggers on another road where they had locked down. There have been allegations of abuse by corrections officers at Josephine County Jail. At least one of the women who were arrested last Wednesday has been singled out and placed in "lockdown," segregated from the rest of the jail population, since her arrest. A tree-sit was raised in unit 7 and has not yet been removed.

 

How does this:


...help a forest recover from a fire? I mean...WHAT FOREST?

Disgusting. You want to be depressed, check out Derrick Jensen's "Strangely Like War". Pretty sad, I just read it and damn...there's just no stopping these maniacs.

 

Forest have been recovering from fires long before human intervention. What makes us think we should take it upon ourselves to do it?

 

QUOTE---
Over 100 people gathered to witness the Women's Blockade Monday morning. Twenty women were arrested in a diverse array of tactics that halted logging operations in the Fiddler timber sale for nearly seven hours. The on-the-ground campaign to save Fiddler Mountain is one week old; 42 people have been arrested. Resistance continues and a tree-sit is in place in unit seven.

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"The broad-based coalition of activists from local woodsmen, local business owners, teachers, retirees, to Earth First! vow to continue protesting and blocking logging roads. We are united in a historic confrontation. The outcome of this struggle will have implications for national forest policy for decades to come," said Laurel Sutherlin of the Oxygen Collective.

Treatment of jailed forest defenders in Josephine County Jail "cruel and unusual punishment and unconstitutional"
While serious and violent offenders are released on a daily basis from the new Josephine County Jail, non-violent protestors are held, and even put into "lockdown" or segregation based upon their First Amendment-protected beliefs. This form of lockdown or solitary confinement is an extreme form of punishment, particularly for non-violent protestors who were engaging in civil disobedience. "It is unconstitutional to punish a citizen prior to a Court hearing and jury determination of guilt. This gulag-style treatment is a travesty to a fair and just society," said Attorney Lauren Regan of the Civil Liberties Defense Center.

The deputies at the jail have been intimidating and attempting to coerce people by placing them into solitary confinement because of their opinions or beliefs.
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thats just fucked up ​

people trying to save ​

beautiful mother earth​

and getting punished worse​

than real criminals​

its all fucking bullshit​