Oregon Forest Defenders Occupying Senator Wyden's Office
\r\n Wyden Sells-Out Oregon's Public Forests to Timber Industry<\/p>\r\n
Tuesday, August 17th, 10:30 am: Over 40 forest defenders from across\r\nOregon\r\n are currently occupying Senator Wyden's office at 700 NE Multnomah St. With\r\n drumming, banners, and songs, the forest defenders delivered piles of\r\nsawdust\r\n to the Senator's office demanding Wyden stop selling Oregon's public\r\nlands to\r\n the timber industry. The protestors presented a slide show of threatened\r\nareas\r\n to educate the Senator and his aides about the on-the-ground destruction\r\ncaused\r\n by their pro-logging policies.<\/p>\r\n
\"We need to shift management of Oregon's forests away from the\r\ncommercial\r\n timber sale program towards genuine non-commercial restoration. Yet,\r\nfrom the\r\n Biscuit logging project to the so-called Healthy Forest Restoration Act,\r\nSenator\r\n Wyden aggressively promotes increased commercial logging in our National\r\nForests,\"\r\n said Kristen Michelson, one of the protestors.<\/p>\r\n
According to the Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org),\r\nSenator\r\n Wyden is the fifth highest recipient of logging industry political\r\ncontributions\r\n of all members of Congress. Senator Wyden receives more timber industry\r\ncontributions\r\n than over 98% of all Republican congressional members, and all but one\r\nDemocratic\r\n congressional member. Wyden is the third highest recipient of timber\r\nindustry\r\n donations in the Senate.<\/p>\r\n
\"Wyden profits from timber industry contributions while the timber\r\nindustry\r\n profits from Wyden's attacks on Oregon's public forests,\" said\r\nMichelson.\r\n \"Even Senator Wyden's highly touted Lewis and Clark Mt. Hood\r\nWilderness\r\n Act includes provisions that increase commercial logging on Mt. Hood\r\nNational\r\n Forest.\"<\/p>\r\n
Wyden's Lewis and Clark Mt. Hood Wilderness Act mandates a quota for\r\nlogging\r\n on the westside of Mt. Hood National Forest while opening up the east\r\nside of\r\n Mt. Hood for logging in the name of forest health and fire prevention.\r\nMirroring\r\n the Bush Administration's so-called Healthy Forest Restoration Act, the\r\nbill\r\n allows logging in Mt. Hood's eastside back country, which has been\r\nproven to\r\n increase the risk of catastrophic fire.<\/p>\r\n
Senator Wyden has firmly stated his support for logging in Late\r\nSuccessional\r\n Reserves in the Biscuit Fire Area. He pushed to have the Biscuit Salvage\r\nLogging\r\n Project divided into three sections to speed up the logging of the\r\nMatrix areas.\r\n In 2003, Wyden's initial \"healthy forests\" bill, co-sponsored\r\nwith\r\n Senator Feinstein (D-CA), included a salvage logging \"pilot\r\nproject\"\r\n carved out of forests affected by the Biscuit fire. It was the only\r\n\"healthy\r\n\r\n forests\" bill bandied about that year that included anything about\r\npost-fire\r\n logging.<\/p>\r\n
Senator Wyden was the most influential senator in the passage of the\r\nBush administration's\r\n controversial Healthy Forest Restoration Act. In 2002, Senator Wyden\r\nproposed\r\n legislation that would have reduced environmental protections and increased\r\n logging across National Forests in eastern Oregon and Idaho.<\/p>\r\n
Protestors presented Senator Wyden with the following list of demands:<\/p>\r\n
1. We demand that Senator Wyden work to end the commercial timber sale\r\nprogram\r\n on all US public lands, as suggested by the National Forest Protection\r\nand Restoration\r\n Act (see www.forestadvocate.org).
\r\n 2. We demand that Senator Wyden work to stop all commercial logging in\r\nthe Biscuit\r\n Fire area, including in Matrix lands.
\r\n 3. We demand that Senator Wyden work to immediately halt all commercial\r\ntimber\r\n sales in Oregon specifically including: Solo (Mt. Hood National Forest),\r\nStraw\r\n Devil (Willamette National Forest), Kelsey Whiskey (Medford BLM), East Fork\r\n Coquille (Coos Bay BLM) and Metolius (Deschutes National Forest).
\r\n 4. We demand that Senator Wyden stop using wilderness proposals as a\r\ncover to\r\n increase commercial logging on our public lands. Specifically, we demand\r\nthat\r\n Senator Wyden work against any legislation or rider that allows\r\ncommercial logging\r\n in the Biscuit Fire Area in return for increased wilderness areas. We\r\ndemand\r\n that Senator Wyden remove Section 8, which promotes commercial logging,\r\nfrom\r\n the Lewis and Clark Mt. Hood Wilderness Act of 2004.<\/p>\r\n
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Protestor Locked to 250 pound Stump outside Umpqua Bank's Flagship\r\nStore:
\r\n Forest Defenders Continue to Expose Oregon's Forest Destroyers<\/p>\r\n
Following yesterday's surprise occupation of Senator Wyden's office by\r\nover\r\n 40 Oregon forest defenders, protestors turned their sights on Umpqua\r\nBank. One\r\n protestor is currently locked to a 250 pound stump outside of Umpqua Bank's\r\n flagship store in Portland's Pearl District (1139 NW Lovejoy Street), while\r\n 20 Oregonians use banners, songs, and flyers to protest the bank's ties\r\nto the\r\n destruction of Oregon's public lands.<\/p>\r\n
\"Both Umpqua Bank and Senator Wyden greenwash their images while\r\nsupporting\r\n commercial logging in Oregon's National Forests,\" said protestor\r\nKristen\r\n Michelson. \"We're exposing Senator Wyden and Umpqua Bank as two of the\r\n biggest threats to Oregon's public lands.\"<\/p>\r\n
Umpqua Bank is tightly connected to the destruction of Oregon's ancient\r\nforests.\r\n Over the last four years activists have increasingly targeted Umpqua\r\nBank for\r\n protests as a means to force Oregon old growth logging companies\r\nRoseburg Forest\r\n Products and Herbert Lumber to respect the public's desires to protect\r\nancient\r\n forests.<\/p>\r\n
\"Umpqua Bank markets itself as the hip new alternative bank, while in\r\n reality Umpqua is closely linked to the dinosaurs of Oregon's old growth\r\nlogging\r\n industry,\" said Michelson. \"Oregon's forest destroyers profit\r\nfrom\r\n our business at Umpqua Bank, while our drinking water, forests, and\r\nwildlife\r\n pay the price.\"<\/p>\r\n
The president of Umpqua Bank's board of directors is Allyn Ford, sole\r\nowner\r\n of Roseburg Forest Products. Roseburg Forest Products owns the contracts to\r\n some of the most controversial mature and old growth timber sales on public\r\n lands in Oregon, such as East Devil and Pryor in the Willamette National\r\nForest.<\/p>\r\n
The Herbert family was among the founders of Umpqua Bank in 1953. Lynn\r\nHerbert,\r\n the general manager\/owner of Herbert Lumber is currently on the Board of\r\nDirectors\r\n of Umpqua Bank. Lynn and Milton Herbert (owners of Herbert Lumber) are\r\nUmpqua\r\n Holding Co.'s largest shareholders, owning 1.5 million shares or 20% of the\r\n company's stock.<\/p>\r\n
A local example of Herbert Lumber's destructive logging practices is\r\nthe soon-to-be-cut\r\n Bear II Timber Sale, an old growth stand of prime spotted owl habitat,\r\nlocated\r\n in the Mt. Hood National Forest near Breitenbush Hotsprings. The Mt.\r\nHood National\r\n Forest provides drinking water to over 40% of all Oregonians.<\/p>\r\n
Protestors demand that either Herbert Lumber and Roseburg Forest\r\nProducts immediately\r\n stop commercially logging on Oregon's public lands, or that Umpqua Bank\r\nremove\r\n both Allyn Ford and Lynn Herbert from its board of directors. Protestors\r\nencouraged\r\n consumers to boycott Umpqua Bank until those demands are met.<\/p>\r\n
In July 2002, over 100 Earth First!ers took over Umpqua Holding Co. in\r\ndowntown\r\n Portland for over two hours demanding cancellation of controversial\r\ntimber sales\r\n held by Umpqua President of the Board Allyn Ford's Roseburg Forest\r\nProducts.\r\n This action followed the 2002 National Earth First! gathering held in\r\nthe Gifford\r\n Pinchot National Forest. With the past two days of forest actions, local\r\nactivists\r\n are gearing up for the 2005 National Earth First! Gathering to be held\r\nin Mt.\r\n Hood National Forest.\r\n\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"action__at__cascadiarising.org","link":"www.cascadiarising.org","address":"","phone":"503-493-7495","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","summary":"This week forest defenders across Both Umpqua Bank and Senator Wyden greenwash their images, depicting\r\nthemselves\r\n as environmentally friendly while supporting and profiting from the\r\ndestruction\r\n of Oregon's native forests. Senator Wyden presents himself as a green\r\npolitican,\r\n and yet of all US politicans he is the fifth highest recipient of Similarly, Umpqua Bank VIDEO: <\/strong> BACKGROUND AND NEWS<\/strong><\/b>: <\/p>","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2004\/08\/295140.jpg","filesize":"289.7 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2004\/08\/115988.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2004\/08\/295140.jpg","small":"\/uploads\/2004\/08\/295140.jpgthumb.jpg","medium":"\/uploads\/2004\/08\/295140.jpgmid.jpg"}},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}
\r\n PHOTOS: <\/strong>