Folks are traveling the west coast to raise awareness of the dire situation in our national forests, with a particular focus on the current Biscuit timber sale in southern Oregon.

On Friday May 20th at 7pm in the Taoist Sanctuary of San Diego, 4229 park blvd, Wild Siskiyou Action invites everyone to a video showing of “Protect the Wild Siskiyou” and “Truth and Lies of the Biscuit”. These are two short documentaries that address the issue of salvage logging and showcase the vibrant resistance to a lawless government and the greedy timber industry. Come hear updates, discussion, and info on what you can do. Bring your friends, a few pillows and blankets or a chair, and enjoy refreshments.

You can help by distributing this information, setting up a movie screening, and joining us in the forests of southern Oregon. For ride share info, or to get a copy of the documentry covering the issues and actions taken contact action@cascadiarising.org / 503.493.7495 or Wild Siskiyou Action (WSA) at Siskiyou@cascadiarising.org / (541) 659-2682



Background info:

In the summer of 2002, natural forest fires started by lightning burned in the Siskiyou National Forest in Southern Oregon. The corporate media's panicked reporting made it sound like the world was ending. The truth, however, is that fire has been a normal part of the area for thousands of years, and that the ecosystem's cycles of growth and regeneration are actually fire-dependent.

The Bush administration, however, ignoring both science and common sense, created the "Biscuit Fire Recovery Plan", which -- while disenguously utilizing the language of conservation in its presentation -- threatened to destroy thousands of acres of old growth native habitat. When, in December of 2003, 90% of the 23,000 people who commented on the plan expressed their opposition, the Bush administration declared an "emergency" and removed the ability of citizens to appeal the plan.

The Forest Service claims that half a million acres burned. In actuality, that agency set back burns in a perimeter around the natural fires, and let them join up into one big fire. That perimeter describes an area of half a million acres, but half of that did not burn at all, or burned in a light, healthy under burn, mostly clearing away underbrush and leaving much of the green canopy of live trees.

I've been to many of the designated cut units personally, and observed that 80% of the trees were burned, and 20% are still alive with a green canopy. Other activists have observed (and even the Forest Service admits) that the burned areas are recovering naturally. There is vibrant new growth everywhere, but by removing the trees their nutrients will be lost, and the serpentine soil in the region is already challenging enough for plants to grow in. Logging them would only disturb this process with long-term deleterious effects to the ecosystem.

The most hotly contested timber sales are those that are categorized as "Late Successional Reserves" (LSRs), and road less areas (wilderness), a designation from the Clinton-era "Northwest Forest Plan" meant to protect such areas from logging forever. Also in danger are "matrix" sales, which -- though set aside for timber harvest under the same plan -- are also native old growth, and can often be saved from the saw by identifying endangered species, riparian areas, etc.

But the forest products industry, in collusion with the federal government, sees post-fire salvage as yet another invaluable opportunity to rake in additional board-feet of timber in these days of relative scarcity. This is the largest timber sale in modern history proposed in the wild Siskiyou National Forest. Lacking concern for the health of the damaged bio-system, they move in with road-scrapers and bull-dozers and fell the leaf-less trees.

This logging activity will reclassify the areas forever and their protected status will be lost permanently. The forests will become tree farms and never again be a healthy eco-system. We are on the verge of loosing these protected areas forever, and if the forest service and timber companies are allowed to cut, it will set a precedent for other protected areas across the nation. Only 2% of the ancient forests remain in North America and the Siskiyou is one of the most biologically diverse old growth areas. We may lose this last bit of healthy, wild earth forever.

There has historically been a lot of opposition within Cascadia to fire salvage plans in general. The Warner Creek forest defense campaign prevented the timber industry from removing a single tree from the arson-caused fire zone and became the focus of the radical documentary video Pickaxe.

That was in the mid-nineties, just after the Salvage Rider was passed. Now, ten years later we are looking at an even bigger salvage scam, and an even more callous attitude from our federal government towards our previous and dwindling wild forests.

On May 5th the Bush administration officially scrapped the protections afforded by the Northwest Forest Plan. Their new proposal allows governors to petition the forest service and propose a protection plan, but the Forest Service has the final say on how our public lands will be handled. I find that a little unnerving considering the fact that the Forest Service is under the Department of Agriculture.

We are facing strong repression from the forest service law enforcement. There have been over 50 arrests in the past months, many large demonstrations in different locations, blockades on logging roads, our camp on public land has been evicted twice, and we've only just begun. We will not stop till the forest service quits selling our public land to greedy corporations and begins to offer reparations for the harm they've done to our earth.

We plan to show documentaries all across the country to raise awareness and support for the struggle we're engaged in. You can help by distributing this information, setting up a movie screening, and joining us in the forests of southern Oregon.

For ride share info, or to get a copy of the documentary covering the issues and actions taken contact action@cascadiarising.org / 503.493.7495 or Wild Siskiyou Action (WSA) at Siskiyou@cascadiarising.org / (541) 659-2682



a very thorough documentation of the issue:

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/action/biscuit/

here is a brief, to the point PDF pamphlet for print:

http://media.portland.indymedia.org/media/2005/04/314860.pdf



a group of dedicated locals make up the Siskiyou

project : http://www.siskiyou.org/

the oxygen collective have been very involved:

http://www.o2collective.org/



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