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
If a tree-hugger falls in the forest...
s = 1/2 a t2 and v = at
Yes, I can. It's Pagan-Heathen Evil.
And these little wikka witches are literally enthralled by it.
And the Love-Your-Mother, Earth-worshipping, pagan-heathen religion of these Evil bastards [Many of whom staff and control huge parts of the feral bureacracy] has become America's first official feral-gummint promulgated, promoted, pushed, advanced and shoved-down-our throats [And, not to mention, un-Constitutional, illegal and unlawful!] -- State Religion!
This woman is clearly and out-of-her-tree joke. But that of which she is but a symptom, is far far far removed FRom funny!
FReegards
Brian
Another of the Hell-bent on Civilization's destruction -- envy-motivated and hatred-and-rage-engined, Hesporophobic Pagan-Heathens' homicide ["Suicide"] bombers bites the dust, [Pine needles?] eh?
90% of the time I agree with the stuff you bring to FR. This woman was an enemy of America as much as Al-Quaida is. I don't see her as an aid to my country - she is helping the U.N. as a useful idiot among other dangerous thoughts(most likely). Granted, she may have had convictions, but as a warrior for the other side, I have a hard time imagining any sympathy for her. Means as much to me as any other dead green, they started the war - we'll end it sometime in the future.
These tree-hugging greenies are obviously not the brightest bulbs in the lamp when they don't see the irony of this.
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