Protesters gathered in front of the Federal Building at 211 E. Seventh Ave. on Monday morning to protest a decision that would eliminate restrictions on timber sales in the Pacific Northwest’s remaining old-growth forests.
The planned protest was part of a series of
rallies organized by the Cascadia Rising Eco-Defense Network and Back to the WALL activist groups. A total of nine rallies were coordinated in cities across three states — including Portland, Olympia, Wash., and Eureka, Calif. — to protest the USDA Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management’s pending joint decision.

Aftermath of the decision
On Jan. 23, the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management released a final environmental impact statement with a preferred alternative to remove Survey and Manage Mitigation Standards and Guidelines from the Northwest Forest Plan.
Oregon Natural Resources Council field representative Doug Heiken said a record of decision from the agencies is expected by the end of February. He added that he is all but certain the alternative will be finalized.
Survey and Manage was established as part the Northwest Forest Plan in 1994 to protect old-growth forests across western Washington, western Oregon and northwest California. The plan required the agencies to survey for certain species prior to logging and engaging in other
ground-disturbing activities, and to provide buffers for those species.
Western Environmental Law Center attorney Pete Frost noted that the Northwest Forest Plan divides old-growth forests into “reserve” and “matrix” areas, and Survey and Manage rules focus specifically on the survey of old-growth stands.
“That standard has been very important in stopping logging in only old-growth forests,” Frost said. “This standard has really been about preserving up to 400-year-old trees. The Bush administration is proposing to eliminate that standard so that old-growth
within the matrix can be logged.”
Last October, Frost and his firm, which was representing ONRC, won a case against the Forest Service protecting six timber sales — including Straw Devil, Clark, Solo and Borg — across 574 acres of old-growth in the Mt. Hood and Willamette National Forests. It claimed the Forest Service had failed to properly survey for species, such as the red tree vole, under the Survey and Manage standard.
However, without that standard in place, all old-growth forests within 4.5 million acres of public land are at risk for logging, Frost said. Already new environmental draft assessments — the precursor to any logging activity — have been released for the six timber sales.
Kelley Townsend, a member of the Eugene-based Oregon Forest Research and Education Group, said only 3 to 5 percent of old-growth across the United States remain, adding that any plans to cut in those area are “ridiculous.”
“The remaining old-growth in national forests are a very finite resource, much better used for public enjoyment and recreation,” he said. “Virtually any product made from old-growth lumber can be made from small pieces of second-growth timber.”
While the presence of the red tree vole, an arboreal critter that subsists on Douglas fir needle that is the primary food source for the spotted owl, played a primary role in protecting old-growth forests, Heiken said smaller species of life are just as important as the larger ones. He added that a variety of salamander, fungi, mollusks, lichen and vascular plants would all become threatened from the removal of protections.

Protesting for change
A number of protesters in the crowd, which reached a peak of about 25 people, wore costumes of the animals and species that would become threatened and held up signs that read “296 species sentenced to death,” and “Look before you log, duh.” One banner read “End commercial logging on public lands.” Other people held flowers.
Not all at the rally were in agreement with such sentiments, however.
Lane Community College student Jonney Reb said environmental protections go too far and affect the economics of workers of the timber industry far too much.
Protesters conducted a mock funeral procession around 9:15 a.m.for the affected forest species, walking around the block of West Seventh Avenue and High Street to the front of the Federal Building, where they held a eulogy in front of law enforcement officers, who guarded the door and took pictures. Protesters stood in silence as a man named Praxis read a statement he wrote.
“The loss of the web of life is profound, and no doubt the rest of the web will suffer,” he said. “The last remaining ancient forests of Oregon are set to fall before the saws of loggers, at the feet of men who have learned nothing in 5,000 years except how to kill more efficiently.
“Let us each use whatever means we have available to us to ensure that this distraction does not happen, because our liberation is tied up with theirs.”
University graduate student Thomas Nail said he considered the rally a symbolic action with two purposes: educating the general public and providing an outlet for people to express their frustrations with the decision-makers in institutions of power.
“I don’t see it particularly effecting direct change or legislation,” he said. “However, environmental law and demonstrations go hand in hand. One without the other won’t be affected.”
Frost said without civilian survey teams, he could not have won the ONRC lawsuit preventing Straw Devil and other timber sales.
“I appreciate what activists do. We couldn’t have a strong forest preservation movement without activists. I relied in the Straw Devil case on ONRC volunteers to prove logging was illegal.”