10 activists arrested in Oregon logging protest

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Forest activists have been baracading a logging road in the Siskiyou National Forest for the past week. Yesterday 10 arrests were made by the Forest Service as an injunction was lifted and clear cutting of burned timber in an Old Growth area began. The big trees are now falling. The Bush administration has deemed this type of 'salvage' logging necessary for forest health, completely ignoring all known biological science and any basis in rational thought. Big trees have to rot and return to the soil and provide nutrients for the next generation in order for the forest to be healthy. Removing them by clear cutting leads to erosion and the choking of salmon streams. The salmon, remember, are on the threatened species list. It is also obvious to all forestry experts and Forest Service lackeys that these big 1000-year-old trees are able to survive major fires, usually only losing their outer layers of bark while the interior of the tree remains strong. So called "salvage logging" is a major lie by timber industry public relations execs to boost their own profits, it has nothing to do with science. Kudos to Earth First! activists in West Central Oregon for standing up for the forest. Earth Firsters have been putting their bodies on the line to save the trees for decades now, and they deserve our thanks. Shame on the Forest Service for supporting false and misleading scientific proganda. Shame on the Bush administration for knowingly perpetuating the salvage logging lie.

This logging protest happened not far from where I used to live in Oregon. I have hiked and climbed in the Siskiyou National Forest countless times near where this took place, it is one of my favorite places in Oregon. This is just the latest round in a series of grassroots protests that have been going on for decades, but no one has been paying attention. Remember the "Cascadia Free State" where protestors built a village in the forest and held the Forest Service at bay for over a 14 months before the USFS and the FBI came in with bulldozers. This latest arrest is not the last, more folks will certainly head up to the big trees now that this new story has broken nationwide.