Tree Sitter Dies In Platform Fall

AP via Newsday ^ | April 13,2002 | Andrew Kramer

[John W]

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A tree sitter in the Mount Hood National Forest died after falling 150 feet from a tree she was trying to protect from logging.

In a sad twist, the sale of timber the woman was protesting had been canceled three days before her death on Friday.

Local rescue crews struggled up snow-clogged dirt roads to reach the tree sitters' camp in the Eagle Creek wilderness area, east of Portland, after a fellow activist called 9-1-1 on a cell phone at about 7 p.m., Clackamas County Sheriff's spokeswoman Angela Blanchard said.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Hmmmm...aren't silver and blue tarps a big enviromental no-no in the forest? Let alone that they are plastic from the evil oil industry.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

OK, I see the gang unit made it...where is the anti-terrorism unit?

[RightWhale]

I noticed the dog also. Assuming it is one of their dogs, it is likely to be the only rational creature in the group.

[gabby hayes]

"The Illuminatus! Trilogy" explains it all very clearly.

[Tuba-Dude]

Definitely.

Man, I love the Pacific Northwest...

[GatorGirl]

Me too! I have a stitch in my side from laughing so much. Kidd really takes the cake! Thanks, guys, I needed that!

[pepsionice]

Just some comments from an old country boy...these fellows in them trees...they don't have jobs do they? They aren't working now and probably won't be working in 20 years. So when they suddenly turn 65, they won't be getting social security. They will have to live out in the woods and live off berries. It says a lot for your mental state. They have no future.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Have you ever watched the monkeys at the zoo? This is fall practice, check out the highlighted part of this article, they fall all the time. Every once in a while one doesn't survive and it makes the news. These "people" even have nicknames like "monkey", "treerat", "squirrel", etc. that fit their arrogance. In the past these folks populated mental institutions where they couldn't disrupt society and couldn't harm themselves or others, I think it's high time that we returned to that policy.

Woman protesting timber sale in national forest in Oregon dies in 150-foot fall from tree.

By ANDREW KRAMER
The Associated Press
4/13/02 10:43 PM

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A woman who climbed 150 feet up a tree to protest a timber sale fell and died from her injures before rescuers could reach the remote site in the Mount Hood National Forest.

The timber sale she was protesting had been canceled three days before her death Friday, and the protesters expected to leave the area within a week.

It took rescue crews over two hours struggling up snow-clogged dirt roads to reach the tree-sitters' camp after fellow activists called rescuers, Clackamas County Sheriff's spokeswoman Angela Blanchard said.

The caller said the woman, identified as Beth O'Brien, 22, of Portland, was unconscious but still breathing, Blanchard said. But by the time rescue crews arrived at about 9:30 p.m., O'Brien was dead.

She had unhooked herself from one platform and was trying to reach another by a rope ladder when she fell, Blanchard said.

Sarah Wald of Cascadia Forest Alliance, which organized the demonstration, said protesters remained in the trees Saturday evening.

Ivan Maluski, a longtime Eagle Creek protester, said tree sitters were days away from leaving the site after a three-year vigil.

About four people take turns living year-round in tree platforms in the area, Maluski said. After the cancelation was announced Tuesday, protesters said they wanted to see a final signed contract before they pulled out.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., an opponent of the timber sale, announced Tuesday that the U.S. Forest Service had reached an agreement to cancel the logging contract after an independent review determined the deal required significant modifications to prevent environmental harm.

At issue was the problem of blowdown, or trees not intended for logging being felled by winds on the edge of areas where cutting was planned. The Forest Service said tree sitters didn't influence the decision.

The Forest Service and the timber company, Vanport Manufacturing, agreed to cancel the deal, but tree sitters said they would remain until the final paperwork was signed.

Tree sitters live in plywood platforms attached to the upper limbs of trees slated for logging.

At least two others have fallen in the past year. In June, one man fell in the Eagle Creek area but refused treatment. In October, another fell in the Tillamook State Forest and suffered multiple broken bones.

[fire_eye]

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., an opponent of the timber sale...

Why does a state whose main export is timber elect a demonRAT who sides with the enviro-whackos? Don't you all believe in jobs?

Because, sir, your first premise is incorrect.

Our main export is idiots. To Washington.

[fire_eye]

I think that the tree was tired of having her in it's limbs. The tree pushed her off.

I call for capital pumishment for the tree!!! Death to the tree!!!

Well, it's funny you should mention that...

Someone at a local meeting of us right-wing wackos characterized the fallen fruitcake as a "Tree-hugger", and I objected, pointing out that if it had in fact been hugging the tree, it would not have fallen out.

I got a retort similar to yours - "Damn straight she was hugging the tree - the tree just threw her off"...

[phalynx]

"And I'm Tree, Tree Falling!"

I love that Tom Petty song.......

[PayrollOffice]

Who owns the tree? Noone has mentioned ownership, thus far.

[cajun-jack]

it is the only place they can get some "wood" ROFLMAO

[krb]

How about:

"The Tree of Liberty is a Tree worth Hugging"

[Carry_Okie]

From the little that I can see of that forest, it's a goner unless somebody thins it. A fire at this level of fuel loading would incinerate everything. Who is going to thin it and how would that be paid for? Who makes the decisions as to what stays or what goes so that we can reverse some of the damage we have done with fire-suppression? How do they get the excess fuel out of there to keep the beetles down to rational levels? Who selects the young trees as keepers so that the forest can acquire uneven-aged characteristics? How come I don't see Earth First out there with chainsaws and brush hogs thinning the undergrowth so that the forest can withstand a fire after so many years of stopping them?

If they love that forest so much, why are they so stupidly destroying it?

[Carry_Okie]

The Forest Service should sell that forest to someone who will give their life savings and go into debt for years for the great privilege of caring for it. From Natural Process: That Environmental Laws May Serve the Laws of Nature:

Photo 1 - Looking Over a Cliff at the Stump Cluster Before Logging (It’s a LOT steeper than it looks, the base is about 75 feet down.) The photo was shot at dawn using a 28mm f1.4 Nikkor shift lens, digitally corrected for remaining keyhole distortion and adding contrast to the stump region to expose internal structure of the cluster.	Photo 2 - Same Spot, 18 Months Later. Look at the ground covers: ferns, maples, blackberries, poison oak, irises... one year. Digital photo.
Photo 5 - The "Wall of Wood.	Photo 7 - Yep, it's the same spot. That fern in the center of the "before" picture is the same as on the right in the "after" picture.
Photo 6 - Looking Up from the Center of the Cluster After Logging. Note the distribution of foliage due to phototropism and collisions. They are now sprouting new branches. The tree we bent out of the way is at the top	Photo 5 - Hillside Profile After Logging. The tree that started my cluster below likely sat in the pocket below the top stump. The lower stump is over 50" across. Removing it created our "corridor." There is a scarp above. The stump cluster in the back­ground has large trees on the outside overhanging a cliff. Same story, unless somebody does something.

And you should see it this year. New ferns and trilliums everywhere. Twice the orchids I had last year. The Class 3 is silting up and I am readying to create a new meander pattern. Maybe you guys should drop it and get to work?

[kcvl]

Amazing what taking care of the forest really looks like isn't it? It's beautiful.

[Carry_Okie]

My biggest problem is weeds. I have two major infestations this year that just blew in over a fence: Russian thistle and catsear. The latter is a monster. If you let it go it becomes an impenetrable mat. Oh yeah, and PG&E brought us some quackgrass too. Man is that stuff bad!

How would you feel having to blow 30 gallons of mixed RoundUp on your recovering meadows just to save them? The worst of it is, I don't know if I can. Fun, fun, fun.

[WhiteyAppleseed]

"The Tree of Liberty is a Tree worth Hugging"

That works, too. I was trying to come up with a variation on the hug-theme and your version does what I couldn't.