Timber Industry Insiders Visit Southern Oregon

In an amazing stroke of irony and serendipity, the annual meeting of the Society of American Foresters took place at Southern Oregon University last week- in the same space where the Oxygen Collective presented our last presentation of the Fire and Forests Roadshow! Speakers and presenters included Mark Rey, the longtime timber-industry lobbyist Bush put in charge of the US Forest Service, as well as John Sessions, intellectual architect of the largest timber sale is Forest Service history, and Hal Salwasser, Dean of the forestry department of Oregon State University.

The o2 crew seized this opportunity and engaged Mr. Rey and the gathered foresters on many fronts. We parked our bus on the center of campus in such a way that everyone present was sure to pass by the large banners reading ?Forests Need Fire- Salvage Logging is a Hoax?, and set up our new 12 foot by 6 foot speech bubble display board covered with hundreds of pictures of people proclaiming ?Save the Wild Siskiyou!? and ?No Salvage Logging!?

Perhaps the biggest coup was arranging a debate between John Sessions, a PhD in Forest Economics, and Dominick Dellasalla from World Wildlife Fund, a PhD in Forest Ecology. The well-attended debate included a tame but substantive argument on the controversial details of the Biscuit Fire Recovery Project. We feel it safe to say Dominick trounced John squarely on the issues and had the clear support of the audience. There was also thorough media coverage of the debate that substantially expanded local discourse on this timber sale.

The keynote event of the gathering was a private speech to forestry conference attendees by Mark Rey. Frustrated by being systematically shut out of the decision making process on this destructive project, a rally of concerned members of the public gathered to call out the fact that Mr. Rey is a public official, speaking at a public university, about public lands, while the public was shut out from even hearing what he had to say. The message of the crowd was ?Mark Rey- Stay Away!? Away from Southern Oregon and away from the last of the old growth forests left on public lands.

Members of the public interrupted Mr. Rey on more than one occasion during his talk, with one local man arrested for refusing to leave the room. Meanwhile, just outside the door, a respectful but vocal crowd chanted messages that could surely be heard through the closed doors. The event ended with Mark Rey literally fleeing the spirited crowd while his undercover security detail indiscriminately beat people with batons.

Complementing our organizing were many actions by other autonomous activists, some of whom established a tree sit on campus to greet the foresters when they arrived! Besides the platform, the installation included a traverse line to another tree holding a large banner that read ?Save the Wild Siskiyou!?

Our message saturated the media for many days- including front-page stories in both local papers for days, to live local television on multiple stations to fantastic coverage on our regional station of National Public Radio! There can be no question that we swamped the public with detailed information contradicting the lies and rhetoric being used to push through projects the public is overwhelmingly opposed to. Some of the coverage sensationalized the differences in tactics used by different activists, but overall we sent a clear and powerful message of resistance and strength.

Posted by Forrest at May 17, 2004 09:18 AM | Category(s): Forest Defense/Environmental Activism