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
Not this one.
But I wouldn't be surprised if behind closed doors they say,"I knew something like this would happen."
Why do you have to be at the top of the tree to tree sit?? Did she think we would cut her down if she were only 40' up??
Pray for GW
Chances are very high that her parents are much like her. As is said, "the seed doesn't fall far from the tree", no punn intended.
And the question is ....
What happens when a tree hugger looses their grip?
Ummm....du-UH. After three days, I imagine the ink was already pretty dry. On the one hand, I mourn the loss of life.
On the other hand, I think "Darwin Award nominee."
ROFLMAO, RBA!
I WAS going to write something to the effect that perhaps she tried to fly off commune with the spotted owls, but chickened out and wrote something else instead. You have more courage than I do.
I've heard there used to be a bunch of tree sitters in the forest near eugene. They called themselves ewoks. The forest service drove them out by blaring old country & western music at them 24 hours a day.
I've got no sympathy for the tree sitters, when so many loggers are out of work. Loggers are honest, hard-working people with families who actually CONTRIBUTE something to society. Tree sitters are just another class of parasites. Mainly part time lib-arts majors who bash the government, yet collect food-stamps and sponge off the rest of us to the max.
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