[Seattle-editorial] FEATURE PROPOSAL: CACADIA FOREST ACTIVISM

[jonathan lawson]

Approve.

It's kinda on the long side... I started to edit it down some but what the 
heck. Thumbs up to the below slightly changed version (jettisoned the glib 
"temporarily known as Washington State" phrase)


Image source:
http://madison.indymedia.org/local/webcast/uploads/metafiles/berrypatch071202vucuns.jpg

Subtitle: CASCADIA FOREST ACTIVISM
Title: Activists Block Pipeline Drilling, Defend Forests

During the first week of July, hundreds of forest activists from around 
North America attended the annual <a
href="http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/efj/rendezvous2002_1.html">Earth 
First! rendezvous</a>.
This year's rendezvous was held in the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in 
southwest Washington.  Immediately after the event's end, early on Monday, 
July 8, direct actions rippled across the Northwest of the United States.

<p>Just south of Olympia, Washington, 60 activists staged a protest and 
lockdown over the drilling of a controversial pipeline. A natural gas 
pipeline is being built across Thurston County leading to the Satsop 
Nuclear Plant, which is being redesigned for an electrical power plant. The 
proposed pipeline will drill the entire east/west length of Thurston County 
going under the Black, Nisqually Rivers, numerous fragile wetlands and the 
Black Hills Wildlife Refuge as well as other public lands. The pipeline 
project has been approved over the objections of local government
and local residents. Several activists locked themselves down to the 
pipeline drilling equipment,
stopping all work on the project for most of the day. Three IMC reporters 
were arrested while covering the event, as were several protesters. <a
href="http://www.seattle.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=15998">Full 
story</a> | <a 
href="http://www.seattle.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=16026">Video</a>


<p>In Portland, <a
href="http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=14106">activists 
descended</a> on the headquarters of the Umpqua Holding Company on the 19th 
floor of a downtown skyscraper and shut it down. Eugene activists gathered 
outside <a
href="http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=14127">"stUmpqua" 
Bank</a> to educate customers about the tree-slaying ways of Umpqua's 
president, Allyn Ford. Mysteriously, a load of wood chips was dropped 
inside the door of the bank and a big stump blocked the driveway 
entrance.  In the Bitterroot National Forest in Montana, two Wild Rockies 
Earth First! activists <a 
href="http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=14110">occupied 
trees</a> in a proposed helicopter landing site.<br>

<p>On Wednesday, July 10, the <a 
href="http://www.cascadiaforestalliance.org/>Cascadia Forest Alliance</a> 
announced that <a 
href="http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=14258">a tree-sit 
had gone up</a> in
the Solo timber sale in Mt. Hood National Forest, bringing up to five the 
number of <a
href="http://www.tree-sit.org">active tree-sit locations</a> in Oregon. 
That afternoon,
people protested outside the Federal Courthouse in Portland, where a Grand 
Jury has <a
href="http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=14259">subpoenaed 
local forest
activists</a>. Due to the secretive nature of grand juries, the <a
href="http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=14277">subject 
of
investigation</a> [ <a
href="http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=14293">1</a> 
] is not known. Activists in Medford, Oregon, <a 
href="http://portland.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=14366">protested</a> 
at Senator Ron
Wyden's office and Umpqua Bank against replacement volume timber sales and 
old growth logging.<br>

<p>Meanwhile, at a <a href="http://www.efn.org/~cforestd/">Cascadia Forest 
Defenders</a> tree-sit at the Berrypatch timber sale in the Willamette 
National Forest near Eugene, <a
href="http://portland.indymedia.org:8081/front.php3?article_id=14329">one 
activist was
arrested</a> and logging continues within 20 feet of the tree-sit despite 
confirmed sightings of the endangered spotted owl in the area.<br>

<p><a href="http://portland.indymedia.org/forestactivism">Portland IMC 
Forest Activism Coverage</a> | <a 
href="http://sf.indymedia.org/features/forest/">San Francisco Bay IMC 
Forest Coverage</a> | <a href="http://www.earthfirstjournal.org/efj/">Earth 
First! Journal</a>