I
I
Help Wanted: Tree Sitters!
No experience necessary! Start immediately! Free room and board! The first time
this position has been available on Oregon State Forest land!
A once in a life time opportunity to make new contacts in the environmental, media
and law enforcement communities!
Get a M arbled M u rre le t’s eye view of what’s really happening in Oregon’s State
Forests!
W e offer excitement, adventure, and a chance to make history, plus breathtaking
views and great benefits, which include fresh air, clean water, and a future for our
children!
A ll are welcome to apply! Join us in saving the last stands of old trees in the
Oregon State Forests.
Contact; Cascadia Forest Alliance at 503-241-4879. Em ail cfa@spiritone.com.
Cascadia Forest Alliance PO Box 4946 Portland, O R 97208 or Upper Left Edge at
503-436-2915 e-mail at bhultsf^.pacifier.com or box 1222, Cannon Beach, O R 97110
(Continued from Page 1)
“Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.
Thomas Henry Huxley
Eventually our caravan started up the logging road only to
come to a sudden halt when we found a young woman had
chained herself in the middle of the road. Marci Dennison
held a sign saying "God is Dead" and as the TV boys gathered
around asking why she was doing this, the sheriffs appeared.
The TV boys asked the sheriff if Marci was breaking the law
and subject to arrest? They were told no; "we don't want any
trouble". We asked one sheriff how many officers were
involved in guarding the site. He said four. When we asked
the other sheriff he said five or six. A local had told us there
had been a small army up there. We asked if they had seen
anyone in the area? Not a soul they said. We smiled. We
turned the rigs around and headed up 53 to milepost 11 and
the newly built road into the site without further incidents.
Once there ODF started the same dog and pony show we had
seen on the first 'public' tour. One ODF expert explained that
trees need sunlight to grow just like a garden. Gee, Mr.
Wizard, really? "You can't grow plants in a closet,” he said.
This started some giggling from the TV boys and one even
inquired if ODF might be considering using Gro-lights in the
future, and it went down hill from there.- Basically every
serious question was answered with "I'll have to check on
that." or "We will take appropriate measures."
When we
asked how much the new road to the site cost, the answer was
a long drawn out story about how this was a state of the art
logging road that could be used in the future for recreational
purposes and there were new culverts build to prevent erosion
and on and on until we finally asked for a number. Yep, they
spent $200,000 to provide access to a $400,000 sale. Your tax
dollars at work. At one point we heard people yelling and saw
a huge banner hanging in the trees that said "Save God's
Valley". So much for security on the site. The only people
the sheriffs stopped were people in cars. Finally the TV boys
had to get back to the city to meet their deadlines and we were
all pretty tired of hearing these guys "stay on message". Oh,
and yes, it should be noted that they were all guys, Cheryl was
the only woman on the tour.
So, where do we stand now? The trees are down, and by the
time you read this they will be at the mill. The ground has
been tom up by the machinery and the water in people’s
faucets down stream is probably running brown. The ODF
has put their spin on it and that’s that? Well, no. Like we said
before there are some mighty cranky folks in this
neighborhood who will never sit down at the table with ODF
again. They will be in the woods doing whatever they can to
stop this arrogance.
There will be folks calling their
representatives and their Governor demanding that some heads
roll at ODF. How do you create an Eco-tenorist? You lie to
honest concerned people. You treat good hard working people
with disrespect. You treat the people who pay the bills with
contempt. You surround their land with armed guards.
W hy O D F should leave Acey Creek area alone
We abhor violence of any kind, be it physical, economic or
environmental. Thus, non-violent civil disobedience is the
only option left to people who have been treated the way these
people have been treated. Funny words "civ|l disobedience"
they seem to mean, "disobeying" in a "civil" manner. These
people sat down in good faith and awoke one morning to find
armed men surrounding their forest. We are told this is
because ODF is afraid of what some people might do. We are
told ODF is afraid of young Cheryl, a schoolteacher. We are
told they arc afraid of the young men who sit in the trees,
these men who can’t abide violence toward a plant, let alone a
human being. We are told that the ODF is afraid of what your
beloved editor might say or do. We chuckle. We don’t believe
that the ODF is afraid, we believe ODF wants us to be afraid
of them, and that is why they called in the men with guns.
They think that is the way best to stop the talking, they are
tired of pretending to listen.
This country is supposed to be self-governing. But as we
know over the years laws have been made by a small minority
and often need to be changed for the good of all. The right
way to change a law is challenge it and to vote against it. But
sometimes that can’t be done in time, and the law must
disobeyed. It was by disobeying the Jim Crow laws in the
south that we finally passed the Civil Rights laws. And by
disobeying the no trespassing laws we will get a new law that
protects the last old trees in Oregon.
Later this month and for as long as it takes there will be
workshops, benefits, direct actions and civil disobedience in
these parts. Saturday, September 22 from 4PM until 9PM
there will be a benefit concert at the Nehalem Bay Winery.
There will be many great musicians, pot luck dinner, adult
beverages and information on how to get involved in saving
our trees. Families arc welcome but people under 21 must be
accompanied by a parent. The proceeds will go to the Hard
Rain Alliance the local organization that was formed to stop
the cutting of old trees in this area. There will be posters and
announcements in the media, so stay tuned. And don’t forget
that each person can help in their own way. David Horowitz
at a recent party put out a jar to collect money for Friends of
Trees in the memory of Tercance O ’Donnell and collected
$330.
So, yes, by the time you read this there will be people in the
trees in God’s Valley, and this community will be supporting
them because after all, who's valley is it?
By Gary Braasch
Co-author of “Secrets of the Old Growth Forest”
Tillamook District Forester Mark Labhart characterized the Acey Creek area
after logging as “...beautiful now. It looks like a park,” as quoted in your article.
I have been to Acey Creek Area 3 before the cutting took place, and I wonder
what to Mr. Labhart was ugly, unproductive, and lacking in habitat in that area
before? My photos confirm my impression of an actively growing, mixed stand
with many older and larger trees but also a healthy growth of seedlings and
youthful hemlock coming up. There were already a lot of openings and many
trees with developing old growth characteristics that are so lacking in the
Tillamook Forest. In other words, this stand appeared to be moving toward the
habitat of the future that Labhart wants the public to think was not present, and
that he apparently believes he alone has the power to create.
I know a little about old growth, having co-written and photographed a book
on the subject, and I also have learned from many forest ecologists over the past
20 years. One thing that most Coast Range old growth was not, is open and
park-like. Old growth is messy, precisely because as the trees age to 200 years
and beyond they die and remain as snags and down logs. These tangled and not-
always-so-attractive parts of a real forest become the habitat, filter the water,
create the deep soils that gave us the salmon and allowed owls and murrclets to
thrive here. Human intervention that continually clears roads, drags the logs
away, and tries to play God by choosing which trees should survive, can only
delay this process which we need to allow back on much more of the Tillamook.
The Acey sales are among the first that follow the unproven idea of structure-
based management. This plan is a sort of wishful thinking on the part of clear-
cut engineers that they can log a few less trees in some areas and get by with
old-growth features they select in a few areas until they get to clear-cut them
again in about 100 years. On every acre of the forest, they think they know more
than nature. No real old-growth will be allowed to develop; no permanent
habitat reserves will be protected (other than narrow buffer zones). Federal
endangered species managers have not approved this plan. Structure based
management has been criticized by many scientists, including Dr. Jerry
Franklin, the dean of NW forest ecologists. He and other scientists, in a recent
review of forest research, wrote that the assumptions underpinning this
simplified structure-based management “are not supported by the published
scientific literature on structural development of natural forests, disturbance
ecology, landscape ecology and conservation biology, or by the relationships
between ecosystem structures and processes.” In other words, the basic idea
behind Acey Line Thin and other coming Tillamook Forest cuts is not scientific
and doesn’t create natural forest eco-systems. Labhart and ODF leaders admit
more old forest habitat is needed. They boasted exclusively of habitat creation in
selling the idea of the Acey Line thin. But since their whole plan does not follow
from forest habitat science, and they just cut down half of the older trees in a
recovering forest (destroying the forest to “save” it), what’s the idea? I suggest
you follow the money.
The studies that Dr. Franklin and his peers cite show that the best way to gain
natural habitat is, first, do not harm to the best and oldest forest types you have
left. Second, close the roads, because roads do huge harm through erosion,
human intrusion, and as corridors for drying winds, storms, and disease. Third,
if you must clear some trees or thin younger stands, leave the down trees where
they fall to naturally decompose. Fourth, increase diversity if you must by
planting cedars and other missing species within the forest. Fifth, stay away for
a long, long time. Closing the entire Gods Valley complex of older forests to any
entry (or severely limiting access on the mainline road only) is the best way to
gain the habitat that Mark Labhart says he wants. But that would not make any
money from logging. Timber sale money at any cost is still the bottom line for
ODF and our county leaders. On the other hand, when you compare the measly
$400,000 that the entire Acey thin is supposed to net, to the huge cost of forest
police, extra sale planning, public relations, and time in meeungs over just the
first part of the sale, perhaps leaving the rest alone could end up being a
financial gain for Tillamook County. The rest of Acey Line sale includes 60- to
80-year-old trees, but logging contracts can be changed due to wildlife concerns
or in trades to other areas. To cut so many old trees in one of the oldest remnants
of the forest, amid recognized murrelct and owl habitat, in a plan of questionable
science value, with much citizen opposition and questioning, with so much work
to be done on roads and young plantations, is an unconscionable loss to us all.
Gary Braash is a Nehalem resident This article first appeared in the Tillamook
Headlight Herald. Used by permission of the author.
PlftKlE (ÎÔKSHÔLL Hous
A d ult F am ily H ome .
S. H emlock , POB ox £7J~ C annon B lach ORlOy
P home .
P kgck
iEMMirex S ticks ,
L
icensed
uppc « left eo&e serreoeeR 20(M