Biscuit Update- Written from the Josephine County Jail
The people's movement to halt the largest logging project in modern history continues to build momentum after a dramatic week of actions and arrests. The Green Bridge over the Wild and Scenic Illinois River is the site of a growing campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience opposing Bush Administration attempts to roll back decades of hard fought environmental protections. The story is receiving major national and even international press- with ongoing coverage in print, television and radio networks.
This Monday's compelling all-women's action was the fourth major demonstration against the Biscuit Fire Recovery Project since logging began within the Fiddler old growth reserve timber sale last week. Twenty-two women were arrested, including Stacy Williams, an expectant mother in her ninth month of pregnancy, supported by her midwife and birthing team. Surrounding her on the Green Bridge over the Illinois River were Harriet Smith, 85, Dot Fisher Smith, 76 and Joan Norman, 72, who went to jail for the forests for the second time this week.
Hanging off the bridge beneath them was Becky White, suspended on a small platform by a rope that crossed the bridge and blocked the convoy of Silver Creek Timber logging trucks from passing for more than seven hours. In addition to the eighteen women on the bridge, another three were arrested in a separate blockade a few miles up the road. A tree-sit occupation remains suspended seventy feet in the canopy of a burned, but living Douglas Fir in logging unit 5 on the border of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness.
The Forest Service issued a full closure on the access road to the Fiddler Timber Sale Monday afternoon. The encampment at the Green Bridge is no more. Long live the Green Bridge! A new base camp is being set up a couple miles upstream from the bridge, just below the closure line, on BLM land off Eight Dollar Road. Our morale is high and the momentum of this campaign is strong. We continue to need fresh minds and bodies to infuse this campaign with new ideas and energy. Join us in the beautiful Siskiyou Mountains!
Federal Judge Michael Hogan finally ruled against the Temporary Restraining Order attorney Lauren Regan filed in his court- and an emergency appeal is immediately being submitted to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The merits of the case are very strong and it challenges the very purpose of need of post fire logging. It has the potential to shut down logging not just in the old growth reserves but in the unprotected sales as well. Go Lauren go!
http://oregon.tribe.net/listing/021059c7-47f2-4b38-b1a2-70ec4de7a821
http://www.o2collective.org
http://www.kswild.org
http://www.Siskiyou.org
http://www.rogueimc.org
Informant: Scott Munson
--------
#121 WILD NORTHWEST, March 18, 2005
A Message from Northwest Ecosystem Alliance
=====Keeping the Northwest Wild=====
Protect Siskiyou Ancient Forests in the Biscuit Fire Area
Forest Service begins first-time logging of old-growth reserves
On Monday, March 7, industrial logging began in old-growth forest reserves around Babyfoot Lake and Fiddler Mountain in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area in southwestern Oregon. This is the first time that logging of this magnitude has occurred in federal old-growth forest reserves that were established over ten years ago to protect and restore old forest habitat. This type of logging in the Biscuit Fire area destroys old-growth characteristics and inhibits natural forest recovery. Old-growth reserve logging establishes a remarkable and dangerous precedent for logging in protected areas across the Pacific Northwest, and sets the stage for logging of Washington's protected old forests.
The Biscuit Logging Project also allows large-scale salvage logging in roadless areas. According to the Forest Service's own information, salvage logging will degrade the wilderness character of tens of thousands of acres of roadless areas through logging, artificial planting, and other deleterious activities.
What you can do: Ask Oregon's Senator Wyden to intervene and stop the cut until all information is aired about the legality of logging in old-growth reserves. Older forests in the Siskiyou National Forest rightfully belong to all Americans as part of our national forest heritage; we have a say in their future. Urge the Senator to:
* Conserve an Oregon and American treasure by publicly urging the Forest Service to halt logging in old-growth reserves in the Biscuit Fire area.
* Protect fish, clean water, and wildlife, and promote recreation economies.
* Support the permanent protection of the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area in southern Oregon.
Contact: Senator Ron Wyden
700 NE Multnomah St. Suite 450
Portland, OR 97232;
http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/
Washington residents please copy your letter to Sen. Patty Murray, who is supportive of old-growth protection.
Send to: Senator Patty Murray
2988 Jackson Federal Building, 915 2nd Avenue
Seattle, WA 98174;
http://murray.senate.gov/email/index.cfm
Other resources:
Scroll down here
http://www.siskiyou.org/swrc/timbersales/Fiddler_Mountain_Area.cfm, for photos of recent logging.
To see how citizens are speaking out, go to
http://www.kswild.org/KSNews/logginglsrs
Please let us know that you took action, and thank you for helping to keep the Pacific Northwest wild!
Erin Moore
Communications Coordinator
Northwest Ecosystem Alliance
1208 Bay St., Ste. 201
Bellingham, WA 98225
360.671.9950 ext. 24
