Posted on 04/13/2002 5:45:56 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Tree Sitter Dies in Platform Fall
By Andrew Kramer Associated Press Writer Saturday, April 13, 2002; 5:37 AM
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.
The caller said the woman, who authorities did not immediately identify, was badly hurt and unconscious but still breathing, Blanchard said.
By the time rescue crews arrived at about 9:30 p.m., the woman was dead, she said.
Ivan Maluski, a spokesman for the American Lands Alliance, a group involved in protesting the now-canceled Eagle Creek sale, said tree sitters were days away from leaving the site after a three-year vigil.
"People literally are waiting for the ink to dry (on the cancellation deal). Probably we're going to be packing up and leaving this week, assuming it is signed," Maluski said.
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 in the woods until the final paperwork was signed.
Tree sitters live in plywood platforms attached to the upper limbs of trees slated for logging.
© 2002 The Associated Press
Maybe smart, but no common sense.
What do you make of this, Bob?
The chief danger today is that, once an aim of government is accepted as legitimate, it is then assumed that even means contrary to the principles of freedom may be legitimately employed. (Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty</>, p260)
It is possible that a fanatical religious group will impose upon the rest restrictions which its members will be pleased to observe but which will be obstacles for others in the pursuit of important aims. (Hayek, The Constitution of Liberty, p155)
Let us count the environmental crimes here. The cell phone is made of metal (torn from the helpless virgin earth by evil, loud machines burning hydrocarbons and emitting CO2 and other pollutants), plastics (made by evil chemical companies like DuPont), and semiconductors [made with Silane (SiH) and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), which are highly toxic and unnatural]. The batteries in the cell phones are made with other metals, such as nickel and cadmium, and cause problems if cast away into evil land-fills at the end of their useful life.
The emergency team arrived, no doubt, in a vehicle powered by an internal-combustion engine, belching greenhouse gases and smoke. It rode on synthetic rubber tires, another product of the evil chemical industry, and themselves composed of hydrocarbons obtained by pumping oil from the domain of the caribou. The medical instruments, drugs, and other equipment are--to say the least--not earth-friendly.
And so on. This fellow--the one who is guilty of wanton cell-phone use--should be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors in the first Ecological Court that can be convened...
--Boris
They should log the place in celebration of the end of the green thought rule, and put Oregon's people to work.Currently Oregon has the highest unemployment in the nation because of the green machine, because of these kind of idiots.
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