Communities: Forest Service moves to starve out tree-sitter

the Register Guard ^ | 16 July 02 | By SCOTT MABEN

[Glutton]

U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officers have blocked resupplies of food and water to a woman who climbed a tree in the Willamette National Forest to protest old growth logging.

Officers intend to arrest the woman when she comes down and charge her with interfering with an agricultural operation, a Class A misdemeanor under state law, District Ranger Rick Scott said Monday.

"It's up to her to decide when she wants to come down," Scott said.

The woman, who goes by "Basil," has spent the past two weeks on a platform suspended about 70 feet up a large Douglas fir. It is one of the last few trees marked to be cut at the Berry Patch timber sale in the Middle Fork Ranger District east of Lowell.

The rest of the sale area, which included trees several hundred years old, has been logged by D.R. Johnson Lumber Co. of Riddle. The company's contract for the timber dates to 1996, and about three-quarters of the site was logged in 1997 and 1998. The rest was cut in recent weeks.

Supporters tried to bring the woman supplies Sunday but were blocked by Forest Service officers.

"Their strategy is to starve this woman out of the tree," said Josh Laughlin with Cascadia Wildlands Project, a Eugene-based group that opposes logging of ancient forests.

Laughlin, who spoke with the woman Sunday, said she is willing to come down if she isn't arrested and charged.

"She wants to save what's left up there, including the tree she's sitting in," he said. "And she doesn't want to be a criminal for saving the last of the old growth forests."

Laughlin added that it's dangerous to deny food and water to someone that far up a tree. But Scott said safety "is of paramount importance."

"We certainly don't want to contribute to any accident," he said.

On July 8, Lane County sheriff's deputies arrested a 20-year-old man at the logging site and charged him with interfering with an agricultural operation and third-degree escape. The district attorney's office decided the case lacked enough evidence to prosecute, Chief Deputy District Attorney Kent Mortimore said.

[Glutton]

ping

[Free the USA]

Index Bump

[billbears]

Laughlin added that it's dangerous to deny food and water to someone that far up a tree

I imagine it's generally dangerous to get that high up in a tree in the first place!! Didn't one of these fruits fall out of the tree in the past few months? If 'Basil' gets hungry or thirsty, well then 'Basil' knows where the food is

[palmer]

I wonder if she's related to Basil Faulty.

[Tourist Guy]

Observation: True tree-huggers should be able to survive in the 'natural world' without burgers shipped in from MacYuckolds.

If memory serves, didn't someone recently die from tree-sitting?

[TADSLOS]

Isn't there some controlled burning they could do under her feet?

[backhoe]

Do you suppose this silly woman has any concept of the idea that all living things die? The tree, if not harvested, will one day fall down and rot, rather than being used for lumber and replaced by a new tree.

[Black Agnes]

You speak sacriledge! Off to the re-education camps for you!

[Tijeras_Slim]

District Ranger Rick Scott said "We tried cutting off her supply of soap, but that seemed to have noe effect."

[Glutton]

Tre Arrow fell from a tree in the 'Valley of the Gods' action on BLM land on the Oregon coast. He was working with Cascadia Forest Allience out of Portland. He had been noted for a long sit on a Forest Service office building ledge action he had done, he also ran for city councilor in Portland recently.

The sitter in this article is with Cascadia Forest Defenders in Eugene, Oregon. An alternate name for the group is 'Southern Willamette Earth First!".

[Chad Fairbanks]

This is nothing a little tranquilizer gun can't fix... :0)

[SGCOS]

Chalk up another one for the enviro f'in wackos.

[basil]

Please take my word for it----this AIN"T me!

[YourAdHere]

Last time we Freeped ANSWER's march on DC, my sign said "this sign killed a tree."

[farmfriend]

It's about time they started charging these people.

[Glutton]

Most of the trees around her have been cut. Any fire in that unit would be very nasty, and cost the tax payers many tens of thousands of dollars.

No, my guess is as per usual, she will be resupplied. Security at night doesn't do too good a job watching tree sits, and CFD is skilled at getting past closure orders to get sitters resuppied. Security usually gets bores and goes to their trucks to sit and listen to the radio, or doze.

[DETAILER]

District Ranger Rick Scott said "We tried cutting off her supply of soap, but that seemed to have no effect."

I only pray she's not supporting the logging industry by using toilet paper made from trees. She should only use PC cut up Wally world bags, or possibly corn cobs.

[Prodigal Son]

Better yet and perhaps a form of poetic justice- get one of those Amazon forest natives that the greenies love so much to shoot the treesitter with one of those poison darts they use on monkeys then use the meat to feed indigenous cannibals somewhere.

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

A few local Freepers could join her in the tree for a little afternoon tea and reality. She'd be down in no time. (^: