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
It was a tree she wanted to hug
now she's food for the bugs
perched 15 stories high
do you think she waved good-bye?
Oh well, not to worry
her friends will show that they are sorry
they will make a day in her honor
now that she is a goner
I can't stop, help meeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Hillary might have used a broomstick.
Tree sitters live in plywood platforms attached to the upper limbs of trees slated for logging.
I think we need an investigation to determine whether the plywood was made from a tree related to the tree that she fell from. If so, then it's possible that she didn't just fall from the tree - but was dumped from the platform, made of wood that came from the brother or sister of that tree...
I'm for bulldozing the area and erecting a HUGE memorial for the fallen treehugger. Say, 50K boardfeet of wood would do. ;)
Have sympathy for all well-meaning people, no matter how misguided they may be.
Keep ahold of your humanity at all costs.
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