Resistance to Biscuit Salvage Continues

The energized campaign opposing the extreme logging plans of the Bush Administration in Southern Oregon's Siskiyou Mountains continues to gain momentum as it grows in size and scope. A dramatic month of direct actions, heated court battles and community organizing is producing an outpouring of local and national support. Forest defenders are successfully bringing national media attention to the taxpayer-subsidized destruction of old growth reserves in the biologically rich Siskiyou National Forest. A sustained people?s movement of civil disobedience has resulted in over sixty arrests to date, and people continue to arrive from near and far to participate in creative demonstrations of resistance to the outrageous Biscuit Fire 'Recovery' Project.

We are opening a community organizing center/office in downtown Cave Junction to serve as an information center and meeting space. The space is above the Blue Moon Caf? on Highway 199 across from the Shop Smart in CJ, and is a joint project of the Oxygen Collective, Wild Siskiyou Action, the Biscuit Alliance and Friends of the Rogue Kalmiopsis. The office will be staffed by folks who can orient visitors with maps and educational materials as well as brief people on the state of the campaign and the key issues involved. We do not have a public camp at this time- but we maintain a few contact numbers for updates and communicating with the campaign: Wild Siskiyou Action: 541-659-2682, Oxygen Collective: 541-660-3664.

There are many upcoming events and important dates:

May 7th- Walk for the Wild Siskiyou!
This family friendly event will begin with a rally at boundary of the Forest Service closure on Eight Dollar Road and will progress as a colorful procession on the side of Highway 199 through Cave Junction to Forest Park where the day will culminate with food, music and speakers.

May 16th-Womens Action Two!
A large and diverse group of women of all ages will gather in solidarity to take a stand against the ongoing assault of our natural world and quality of life taking place behind closed gates, away from the public eye. This is the second all-women action in defense of the Biscuit- and is sure to be a powerful statement following last months compelling act of civil disobedience that involved the arrests of numerous elderly women and a local mother who was nine months pregnant.

May 21st- Back to the WALL (Witness Against Lawless Logging)
Tour busses full of forest advocates will caravan from Portland, Eugene and the Rogue Valley, stopping at Forest Service offices along the way for brief demonstrations, to the closure boundary on the road to the Fiddler old growth reserve timber sale and the proposed Mike's Gulch Roadless Area sale.

Two cases are still pending in federal courts, both with strong merits and each with the potential to shut down all current logging. We are also challenging the constitutionality of the Forest Service closure order in court, as well as continuing with nearly 50 criminal cases resulting from this past month of civil disobedience. Governor Kulongoski recently wrote a letter to the Forest Service supporting the stance we have held from the beginning- that it is a "violation of the public trust" to continue forward with these old growth reserve and roadless timber sales before their legality can even be determined by the federal courts.

There are now two freshly released feature length documentaries on the campaign to save the Biscuit. One is called Truth and Lies of the Biscuit Fire, and is a tightly produced exploration of the issue put together by Portland Independent Media Center. The other is a compilation of recent action footage and interviews. Both films are inspiring and stirring- we are calling on allies to help us distribute them and arrange showings. Contact us if you are interested in receiving a copy of the films for a screening in your area.

Stay tuned for further updates here and on rogueimc.org
and portland.indymedia.org.

Bold New Acts of Civil Disobedience Confront Biscuit Logging

SELMA, OR - Forest defenders halted business as usual for Silver Creek Timber Company and Portland based Columbia helicopters this Monday morning as they attempted to haul old growth logs from the backcountry of the Siskiyou Mountains to the Roseburg Forest Products mill outside Roseburg, OR. Citizens continue acts of nonviolent civil disobedience to shut down logging operations within the Fiddler old growth reserve timber sale, part of the massive Biscuit Fire Recovery Project. These actions follow more than a year of campaigning that produced tens of thousands of public comments and a series of major lawsuits that are still pending against this extreme logging plan, the largest in US Forest Service history. When old growth reserve logging began for the first time on March 7, the people's movement to save the Siskiyou Wild Rivers Area turned to direct action to demand democracy and accountability from their public agencies.

For breaking news from this morning see Biscuit Defenders Blockade Fiddler Again!

Citizens nationwide are coming to recognize that the Biscuit Fire Recovery Project is an historic confrontation of ideological agendas that will set precedent for decades of future public policy and land management. On the one side is the Bush Administration and regional politicians beholden to the timber industry for campaign contributions. Their policy is one of using taxpayer money to subsidize private resource extraction off of public lands. Theirs is a purely economic strategy benefiting the few at the expense of the many.

On the other side are the vast majority of Americans; recent polls show over 70 percent of whom are opposed to the practice of logging within old growth forests on public lands. Locally, regionally and countrywide, the majority of people prioritize clean water, endangered species, recreation and long term sustainability for local economies. These values are all associated with healthy native forest ecosystems and not with projects that give a short-term economic boost to a few big timber companies and leave behind ugly stumpfields, muddy rivers and government managed tree plantations.

The emotional controversy boiling over from the back woods of Southern Oregon is the visible frontline in a much larger struggle that strikes at the heart of our nations character. The people have spoken, and they are being ignored. Now, in a struggle born in the spirit of the movements for woman's suffrage and civil rights, people are using the tools left to them to leverage human dignity against the injustice and oppression of an unresponsive government.

The campaign opposing the extreme Biscuit logging scheme is settling in for the long haul As long as the USFS and the timber companies continue to commit crimes against the public trust by destroying what is left of America's natural heritage, people will continue to organize in innovative ways, using nonviolent means to oppose them.