State police arrested 27 Eugene-based protestors, including five University students, on Thursday for setting up a barricade that kept loggers out of the Elliott State Forest in Douglas County for four days.
The demonstrators were protesting not only the logging itself but a state tax on logging that funds public schools. Environmental groups Cascadia Rising Tide and Earth First organized the action, in which protestors laid tripwires across the road that would injure them if triggered and chained themselves to barrels cemented across the logging road.
“Our goal is to not liquidate public forest lands for public schools, thus increasing carbon outputs,” Cascadia member Trip Jennings said. “We believe that the state needs to reinstate this timber tax to find incentive for the major timber owners not to cut their land.”
The timber company Roseburg Forest Products logs in the forest through a practice called a timber sale, in which the state Department of Forestry auctions temporary rights to cut trees on state land. Roseburg’s three-year term will expire in 2010. The company has cut down 80 acres of the forest so far, about 10 percent of the land.
A great majority of the money generated from the harvest tax on forest products goes toward public school funding, along with the money gained from timber sales by the forestry department. Oregon Department of State Land spokesperson Julie Curtis wrote in an e-mail, “When we let a contract go to a timber company to harvest timber from our forestlands, the money generated from the sale goes into the Common School Fund, which is a ‘trust fund’ set up at statehood for schools.”
The protestors chose Elliott State Forest because its trees grew naturally after a fire in 1868, rather than being planted after an area is logged. Cascadia spokesperson Jasmine Zimmer-Stucky said the forest also offers a good habitat for threatened species such as the northern spotted owl and coho salmon, and the trees store carbon that would otherwise exacerbate global warming.
Scott Folk, vice president for resources at Roseburg subsidiary Scott Timber, told the Associated Press that the company would consider any request the state might make, but “we are not advocating a sale back to the state, period.” While his hint toward cooperation with the protesters lightened spirits, by the end of the week Roseburg did not cave to the protesters.
Nonetheless, the protesters kept positive throughout their stay. “Everyone is incredibly empowered and filled with solidarity, strength and passion,” Jennings said Wednesday. Zimmer-Stucky also sees the outcome opening up a whole new realm of possibility to cease Oregon logging. “This event inspired so many people, both the participants and followers,” Zimmer-Stucky said. “It was important to bring forest defense to state headlines.”
Curtis wrote that little change is likely in the future of Elliott State Forest. “Timber operations will continue as planned once the site is determined to be cleaned up and safe for entry,” she wrote. “We will continue to work on a new Habitat Conservation Plan that will continue to have areas set aside for the protection of spotted owls and marbled murrelets, as well as other listed or threatened species.”
Government officials and timber workers alike were concerned about the impact this four-day protest could have on the area. “Operators are still waiting to see what potential damage the protestors did to the logging equipment and road,” forestry department spokesperson Brian Ballou said Thursday. “The cement left in the road could lead to an uneven ground for the logging trucks to pass.” A press release from Roseburg said the forest’s loggers are also concerned about the possibility of delayed work due to site damage, added on to the days they already were unable to work.
Zimmer-Stucky believes the occupation of the land was a benefit to all parties. “The time that we spent in the forest last week provided clean air and clean water to the surrounding area that they wouldn’t have with the forest logged,” Zimmer-Stucky said. “A little time taken out of a logger’s work week is much less harm than the impact the logging is having on the local environment.”
All but one 27 arrested protestors were released from Douglas County Jail by Friday. The arrested face an arraignment process next week for charges such as criminal mischief and interference with agricultural operations, which will lead to subsequent trials.