From the Mail Tribune, by Jim Craven and Paul Fattig
Loggers revved up their chainsaws Monday afternoon to begin felling trees charred by the 2002 Biscuit fire on Fiddler Mountain after 11 protesters were arrested trying to block access to the U.S. Forest Service timber salvage sale.
The protesters, estimated at more than 100 by Josephine County Sheriff Dave Daniel, had demanded that logging be delayed in the old-growth reserve until two court challenges were resolved, including a restraining order request and a court hearing on March 22.
In an attempt to stop the logging, protesters temporarily blocked the green bridge spanning the Illinois River on Eight Dollar Road about five miles northwest of Kerby. A sign hanging from the bridge read, "Logging Is Not Restoration."
They also piled rocks and burned logs on the bridge beyond the road.
A disabled red Ford pickup truck, sporting a banner declaring "Earth First!" also was parked across the road. Three people, including a woman sitting in the truck with a bicycle lock around her neck and the steering wheel, were among those arrested.
"Direct action is our last resort," said protester Kayla Starr of Cave Junction. "We've written thousands of letters to the Forest Service and Congress. We've held rallies. We've hired attorneys to halt illegal logging. ... Now it's time to draw the line."
But by late morning the road was cleared. Seven timber fallers carrying chainsaws hiked up the road toward the sale.
Tom Lavagnino, forest spokesman for the Biscuit salvage project in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, said a 9th U.S. Court of Appeals injunction blocking the sale was lifted Monday following a 45-day waiting period.
"They have determined there are no significant merits right now to continue the injunction," Lavagnino said. "We signed the papers this morning.
"We're implementing the logging contract today," he added. "It's unfortunate but they are blocking legal activity on public land."
Basically, the order lifted the injunction halting two old-growth logging sales, including Fiddler, until a lawsuit brought by environmentalists was resolved. The court of appeals will hear that lawsuit on March 22.
Those supporting the sales have argued that cutting the fire-killed timber will help pay for forest restoration while providing jobs. The agency plans to salvage 372 million board feet of timber on some 19,000 acres from the burned area, which covered nearly a half million acres.
Environmentalists and others have countered the old-growth trees, burned or not, should be left standing to provide shade and nutrients to the next-generation forest. Logging will destroy the local watershed, they argued.
The Fiddler sale, the first of several old-growth salvage timber sales scheduled in the burned area, includes some 14.5 million board feet on 697 acres in the Illinois Valley Ranger District. It was purchased last summer for its advertised price of $1,060,790 by Silver Creek Timber Co.
Company president John West, who spoke with several protesters Monday, said he didn't have an ax to grind with those opposed to the sale.
"I'm a firm believer that everyone has a right to their own opinion, to their own beliefs," he said during an interview with the Mail Tribune. "It doesn't matter if it's environmental, religion or politics. That's what makes the country we are today.
"These people have a right to voice an opinion," he added. "Somehow we've got to get through it together."
West stressed that the debate was over forestland owned by the public, not the loggers or the protesters.
"The Forest Service has been entrusted with taking care of it and managing it," he said. "They're trying to do what they've been entrusted to do. Part of it is salvage. Part of it is reforestation to protect the watershed. We need to give them that opportunity."
But protesters on the mountainside above the road obviously disagreed.
"Arrest John West! Arrest John West!" they began chanting.
One demonstrator beat bongo drums to the accompaniment of a fellow with a harmonica playing "This Land is Your Land."
But the protesters were serious about stopping the sale.
"This is one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world," said Ginger Cassady, a forest campaign spokeswoman for Greenpeace. "It has great global significance.
"John West is the only one going forward with logging before it's heard in court," she added. "We think that kind of lawlessness is unacceptable, especially when it's taxpayer dollars that subsidize these sales and it's our public land they are destroying."
Salvage logging will not boost the local economy, said protester Annette Rasch, a member of a group called Illinois Valley Enthusiasts, a local citizen group concerned about the region's economic future.
"Ninety percent of the visitors passing through this valley are on their way to either Crater Lake or the redwoods," she said. "Some stop at the Oregon Caves. But the bottom line is that they are interested in nature-based tourism.
"We need to keep visitors here," she added. "They are not going to be sticking around to see stump fields."
Rogue River resident Don Velasquez, a retired tree surgeon, agreed.
"Logging created this problem and I don't think logging is going to end it," he said. "Sure, we need some wood, but do we really need it all?"
Those arrested were taken to the Josephine County Jail where they faced misdemeanor charges of obstruction of government administration and interfering with an agricultural operation, Daniel said. All arrested were jailed, he said.
"But it was peaceful," he said of the protest. "We were prepared for it."
However, the demonstration taxed his department, he said.
"We have a small department - we're only able to put three or four officers out on the road at any one time," he said. "When something like this happens, it leaves the rest of the county unprotected."
