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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Ohio Woman Risks Life to Save Trees |
Current rating: 0 |
by Molly Maguire, Chicago IMC
(No verified email address) |
02 Sep 2001
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Activists Say Logging on Public Land Is Ecologically Unsound |
ATHENS, OHIO, 31 August—In the early morning hours of the last day of August, the fog hangs low over the trees in the Ohio’s Zaleski State Park. At a curve where a gravel road turns into mud, a yellow sign proclaims “This Area of the State Forest Is Being Harvested by Master Logger Mason Bray.” Farther up the trail, another sign—this one rigged to hang between two trees and hand painted in red and green—says, “Stop Logging State Forests!”
Just below the banner, small signs inform everyone who comes this way to not touch the log that is jerry-rigged with ropes to hang half a meter above the ground. Why? Four tightly-strung thin ropes tied around the log extended upwards at an angle for a thirty meters, where they’re rigged through a pulley on a horizontally-strung line to hold a small dangling platform in place. On that platform is a young woman nicknamed Azurite, and removing or breaking any one of the ropes that hold her temporary home will send her crashing fifty feet to her death on the muddy trail.
Azurite, who began occupying the platform this morning at about nine a.m. Friday, is one of three tree-sitters and several forest defenders who are now living in Zaleski State Park in southeastern Ohio, where 292 acres of land have recently been auctioned for logging. The forest defense campaign is the first of its kind in the area, say local activists.
Joining those who are in residence in the park were an estimated twenty other environmental activists who rallied on Friday on the closed logging road that leads to the tree-sit site.
The rally, which began shortly after 7 a.m. while parts of the tree-sit were still being erected, is the beginning of an ongoing action to stop logging from happening in the forest. In a move intended to buy time for the activists still setting up the tree-sit, members of the rally designated as “peacekeepers” or “logger liaisons” offered doughnuts to the loggers and engaged them in conversation while other activists linked arms to block the road.
Dept. of Forestry official Don Brooks approached the twelve blockaders to ask that they remove themselves from the truck’s path. The group remained silent, while one member of sponsoring group the Buckeye Forest Council (BFC) asked Brooks whether or not the sale land had been officially surveyed for endangered species the group believes live in the forest, such as the Indiana Bat. Brooks admitted that no surveying for specific species of wildlife had occurred.
Activists next spoke to logger Ronnie Cohn. He stated that the logging crew could only cut and haul one load of logs that day, both because it was Friday and their sawmill would thus close at 11 a.m., and because “the whole market is flooded with logs” and excess logging will not be profitable. He seemed frustrated, stating that the loggers were “trying to make a living” and emphasizing that the right to harvest the timber was legally theirs.
BFC member Sabrina Gorbett told Cohn, “Our issue is not with you, it’s with the people who sold that contract… We have to stop the state of Ohio from doing what they’re doing. That puts us in the middle of the forest in a road talking to you…. It’s about the state and how badly they’re doing their job [of maintaining state forests].”
Ohio’s Department of Forestry, in what is now being referred to as the King Hollow Timber Sale, recently auctioned the logging contract to Bray Brothers, a local logging company. The sale area is reportedly three times the size of a typical state forest timber sale, and includes one fifty-acre section authorized for clear-cutting (removal of every tree). State forests make up less than 2% of Ohio's forested areas, and activists say that logging in public lands is unreasonable given their small size and fragile ecosystem.
The logger felt that the activists should attempting to lobby politicians to preserve forests, and how the actions of the King Hollow tree-sit will have long-terms affects on forest preservation is one of the campaign’s more unclear points. Activist Christopher Throbbin, asked why blocking logging companies would affect state decision-making, stated, “Private logging companies won’t buy any land from the state if they know they won’t be able to log it.”
Officers from the Forest Service, the Sheriff’s Department, and the State Police Department were on site during the tree-sit's first day, although no one was detained or arrested. The cops were “just doing some intelligence gathering,” according to Officer David Hickey of the Sheriff’s Department.
BFC and Hock-Hocking Earth First!, who have co-sponsored the forest defense actions, say that the yield of the cut will include both hardwood and pulp wood. It is believed that Bray Brothers will likely sell the harvest to Mead Corp., which will produce paper and wooden pallets.
Tree-sitters and other activists intend to remain in their positions in the park until the company withdraws or is forced to stop logging due to winter weather. |
