roses, roses
Friday, July 24, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
we did it!!
The WOPR (Western Oregon Plan Revisions ie: supersize the cut) is DEAD!
long live the trees!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 15, 2009
Bush-Era Old-Growth Logging Plan Nixed by Obama Administration.
Conservationists see opportunity for more permanent protections.
Portland, Ore-Dealing a final blow to a Bush administration initiative to increase old-growth logging and gut the Northwest Forest Plan, the Obama administration announced today the withdrawal of the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR). This Bureau of Land Management initiative sought to drastically increase in clear-cut logging of mature and old-growth forests throughout 2.6 million acres of public forest land."President Obama has pulled the plug on the most cynical attack on Oregon's old-growth forests in decades," said Doug Heiken with the conservation group Oregon Wild, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the WOPR. "This is a victory for salmon, clean water and future Oregonians, and one that we now need to make permanent."Bush's WOPR logging plan would have cut 580 million board feet of timber from western Oregon forests each year, quadrupling the current cut level. Much of the logging would have occurred in forests older than 80 years old-forests that scientists have long stated are critical for providing clean water, wildlife habitat, and capturing the pollution that causes global warming.
http://www.oregonwild.org/
http://www.oregonwild.org/
And this just in:
Interior Withdraws Legally Flawed Plan for Oregon Forests, Presses For Sustainable Timber Harvests
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Because the previous Administration failed to follow established administrative procedure before leaving office, its plan to intensify logging in western Oregon – known as the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) – is legally indefensible and must be withdrawn, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said today.
Moreover, Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Thomas Strickland said that the federal government will ask the District Court to vacate the Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2008 revision of the critical habitat for the spotted owl, on which the WOPR was in part based, because Interior’s Inspector General determined that the decisionmaking process for the owl’s recovery plan was potentially jeopardized by improper political influence.
“We have carefully reviewed the lawsuits filed against the WOPR and it is clear that as a result of the previous Administration’s late actions, the plan cannot stand up in court and, if defended, could lead to years of fruitless litigation and inaction,” said Secretary Salazar. “Now, at a time when western Oregon communities are already struggling, we face the fallout of the previous Administration’s skirting of the law and efforts to taint scientific outcomes. It is important that we act swiftly to restore certainty to timber harvests on BLM lands and to protect vital timber infrastructure in these tough economic times.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Because the previous Administration failed to follow established administrative procedure before leaving office, its plan to intensify logging in western Oregon – known as the Western Oregon Plan Revisions (WOPR) – is legally indefensible and must be withdrawn, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said today.
Moreover, Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Thomas Strickland said that the federal government will ask the District Court to vacate the Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2008 revision of the critical habitat for the spotted owl, on which the WOPR was in part based, because Interior’s Inspector General determined that the decisionmaking process for the owl’s recovery plan was potentially jeopardized by improper political influence.
“We have carefully reviewed the lawsuits filed against the WOPR and it is clear that as a result of the previous Administration’s late actions, the plan cannot stand up in court and, if defended, could lead to years of fruitless litigation and inaction,” said Secretary Salazar. “Now, at a time when western Oregon communities are already struggling, we face the fallout of the previous Administration’s skirting of the law and efforts to taint scientific outcomes. It is important that we act swiftly to restore certainty to timber harvests on BLM lands and to protect vital timber infrastructure in these tough economic times.”
Additional information on the Department’s decision and the Northwest Forest Plan are online at http://www.doi.gov/ and http://www.blm.gov/.
NEXT is protection for the Elliott State Forest and Wilderness Areas!! Yea, way to go!
Monday, July 13, 2009
Editorial - Protesting from the Heart
The protest in the Elliott State Forest last week was for the trees. Some call them timber. Timber, trees, big difference. Have you ever been in an old growth forest? One that has a huge canopy of shade, lots of different kinds of trees and a diverse understory? And have you ever been in a managed timber plantation? Rows of trees all the same kind and age? See and feel the difference?
The protesters were not “having fun in the woods” as a recent editorial in the Roseburg News Review ignorantly suggested, they were risking their lives, and many are still in jail. Does that sound like fun? Picture this instead – they care. They care enough about these natural forests to risk their lives. I admire them in some ways, I am not so brave.
I have fought for the trees in all the legal ways, written professional comments to the agencies including the managers of the Elliott State Forest. I support a local non-profit organization that is currently in a law suit over the mis-management of the Elliott. Meanwhile these trees once cut can not be put back.
The argument that 15 people were “idle for the week” as the editorial goes on to say is so short sighted, cutting off your nose to spite your face kind of thing. A mere 6% of old growth forests remain in the northwest, not Oregon, the whole northwest. You can not rely on that for jobs. What will you do when it is all gone? We can not finance the schools of the 21st century with the resources left over from the 19th.
These trees truly are from the 19th century, they are a public treasure. Over half of the Elliott is never-before-logged mature forests that grew back from a settler’s fire in 1868. This forest will never be allowed to grow back to anything more than a timber plantation. For what, one million for the schools for one year! A literal drop in the bucket compared to what we are losing with the destruction of these last remnant old growth forests. There are 1.8 million acres of commercial forest land in Douglas County. They pay so little a year compared to the rest of us land owners in Douglas County. One dollar an acre increase in land taxes for commercial forest land raises $1.8 million every year for the schools.
The Elliott State Forest has the oldest trees and best endangered species habitat on the pacific west coast. This has been proven by science. In addition, the agency’s new revised Habitat Conservation Plan will allowed them to increase logging significantly, by more than 40%, including 11,000 thousand acres of old trees! This area is important native forest land. We should set it aside as a biodiversity and carbon reserve for endangered species and climate change mitigation. Let’s plan for the 22nd century.
I don’t think, as the other editorial said, that the Earth Firsters just happened to have an annual meeting in Tiller, they know that here is some of the last old growth forests in America, they know that the public managers are trying to change and bend the law to take more trees, with the Western Oregon Plan Revisions on BLM, and the new Habitat Management plan in the Elliott. You say “we tout the beauty of our local forests and encourage people to visit”.
The protest in the Elliott State Forest last week was for the trees. Some call them timber. Timber, trees, big difference. Have you ever been in an old growth forest? One that has a huge canopy of shade, lots of different kinds of trees and a diverse understory? And have you ever been in a managed timber plantation? Rows of trees all the same kind and age? See and feel the difference?
The protesters were not “having fun in the woods” as a recent editorial in the Roseburg News Review ignorantly suggested, they were risking their lives, and many are still in jail. Does that sound like fun? Picture this instead – they care. They care enough about these natural forests to risk their lives. I admire them in some ways, I am not so brave.
I have fought for the trees in all the legal ways, written professional comments to the agencies including the managers of the Elliott State Forest. I support a local non-profit organization that is currently in a law suit over the mis-management of the Elliott. Meanwhile these trees once cut can not be put back.
The argument that 15 people were “idle for the week” as the editorial goes on to say is so short sighted, cutting off your nose to spite your face kind of thing. A mere 6% of old growth forests remain in the northwest, not Oregon, the whole northwest. You can not rely on that for jobs. What will you do when it is all gone? We can not finance the schools of the 21st century with the resources left over from the 19th.
These trees truly are from the 19th century, they are a public treasure. Over half of the Elliott is never-before-logged mature forests that grew back from a settler’s fire in 1868. This forest will never be allowed to grow back to anything more than a timber plantation. For what, one million for the schools for one year! A literal drop in the bucket compared to what we are losing with the destruction of these last remnant old growth forests. There are 1.8 million acres of commercial forest land in Douglas County. They pay so little a year compared to the rest of us land owners in Douglas County. One dollar an acre increase in land taxes for commercial forest land raises $1.8 million every year for the schools.
The Elliott State Forest has the oldest trees and best endangered species habitat on the pacific west coast. This has been proven by science. In addition, the agency’s new revised Habitat Conservation Plan will allowed them to increase logging significantly, by more than 40%, including 11,000 thousand acres of old trees! This area is important native forest land. We should set it aside as a biodiversity and carbon reserve for endangered species and climate change mitigation. Let’s plan for the 22nd century.
I don’t think, as the other editorial said, that the Earth Firsters just happened to have an annual meeting in Tiller, they know that here is some of the last old growth forests in America, they know that the public managers are trying to change and bend the law to take more trees, with the Western Oregon Plan Revisions on BLM, and the new Habitat Management plan in the Elliott. You say “we tout the beauty of our local forests and encourage people to visit”.
It’s not a coincidence that the fish are almost gone and really, there is not much to see in a clear cut……
Management techiques in Oregon's Elliott State Forest
Photo: Francis Eatherington
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
when will we learn that we can not fund the world of the 21st century
with the resources left over from the 19th?
"Today, a group of Cascadia Earth First!ers and Rising Tide members took action against the continued liquidation and destruction of Oregon's Elliott State Forest. 
Using sky pods, bipods, road blockades, overturned cargo vans, lock downs and many other beautiful installations, the road to Umpcoos Ridge timber sale has been occupied, held and reclaimed for the forest, the people and future generations.For decades this forest near Coos Bay has been hammered, managed as if it was a piggy bank, smashed in an unsuccessful attempt to fund public schools. Some of Oregon's (and the world's) last native forests, old growth, and future old growth forests are on the chopping block in the Elliott. A lawsuit has been filed against the current management plan for sanctioning the killing of endangered spotted owls. That lawsuit has been ignored. Community groups have resisted the extraction for years and have been ignored. But the blockade stands, and WE CAN HOLD THE ROAD, but NOT WITHOUT YOUR HELP! Please take some time to protect your public land!
How to help:
Call These Folks!!!! Please! Public Support for the Blockade is Absolutely Necessary for its continuation! We need hundreds of calls ASAP to stop the sale and maintain the blockade Secretary of State and Oregon Land Board member Kate Brown: (503) 986-1523 Coos District Forester Jim Young (541) 267-1741 Ask them to cancel the current timber sales (Umpcoos and Fishing Cougar) in the Elliottt State Forest! This area is important native forest land; it should be set aside as a biodiversity and carbon reserve for endangered species and climate change mitigation. Tell them you support the continuation of the blockade!
Second, JOIN US! Bring all you need to be self sufficient in the woods for as long as you plan to stay and come to the Elliott! Directions: Go West towards Reedsport on Highway 38 Turn Left on Loon Lake Road Pass Camp Creek Road, take first right (unmarked) After 100 feet on unmarked road you will see Cougar Pass Road sign This road becomes 7000. Follow to site. Careful of multiple forks, stay on road more traveled. The Free State is at mile marker 3 ½ on the 7000 road.
Third, if you can't come, please donate to the cause on our web site: www.ForestDefenseNow.org (but make sure you call the land board first, the success of this action depends on everyone showing support) Check out our web site for full information http://www.forestdefensenow.org/
Love and Rage, Cascadia Summer"
I honor the amazing strength and sense of purpose that these dedicated young people have. These trees are a public treasure. These trees truely are from the 19th century. "Over half of the Elliott is never-before-logged mature forests that grew back from a settlers fire in 1868. " http://www.umpqua-watersheds.org/ This forest will never be allowed to grow back to anything more than a timber plantation. For what, one million for the schools for one year! A literal drop in the bucket compared to what we are losing with the destruction of these last remnant old growth forests.
help
Thanks Francis for the great photos and for all your hard work protecting this forest!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
"Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.
What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown , Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
Some of us take these liberties so much for granted, but we shouldn't.
So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid. Remember: freedom is never free! It's time we get the word out that patriotism and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and baseball games."
- Unknown author
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)