The tripod erected outside the Forest Service Headquarters in Missoula stayed up for nine days, maintained as a continuous vigil. Although the local community was generally supportive, one young man, reported to be a Forest Service intern [he was a forestry student & intern; yours truly was in the tripod that night and was, needless to say, a bit nervous about this drunk guy body-checking the legs of the tripod - Ed.], came by after a night of drinking and shook the tripod, and another passing driver threw a bottle that broke on the street next to the tripod.
On October 3, ex-Vice Presidential Candidate Winona LaDuke and the Indigo Girls, who were in town as part of their 18 city Honor the Earth Tour, held a brief press conference at the site in support of the protest. Their thumbs-up brought applause and cheers and they were each given T-shirts with the slogan, "Two Timber Sales Too Terrible To Ignore".
Finally, on October 9, the student protest ended with a demonstration and second action that drew over 150 people and tallied six cited or arrested. This time, just before noon, two student protesters locked themselves onto a 1,200-pound cement-filled barrel that they placed in front of the doors. Others moved the 28' tripod, previously standing on the city sidewalk, onto federal property, and I sat on a platform up in the tripod.
One of the two locked down to the barrel was filmed being stepped on and kicked by Joe Oberg, the leader of the General Service Administration security force hired to patrol the protest at the federal building. This evoked extended yelling and jeering from the crowd, and a confrontation with the young man's father, who shouted, "You're a piece of shit" to Oberg, after he attempted to deny his wrongdoings.
Unwilling or unable to remove them from the barrel in public, Oberg again incited to crowd to jeers and shouts. He ordered his men to drag the cement barrel, with the two other EAC members still attached, into the Forest Service Region 1 Headquarters. Until intervention by the federal attorney's office, security refused to let the press go into the building, and covered the glass doors so that the crowd couldn't see the events inside.
Meanwhile, back outside, a cherry picker arrived to remove the student in the tripod, but he then locked himself to the tripod with a U-lock. Apparently, this set up was enough to discourage authorities, for they left him there until the students, after seeing the barrel lockdowns emerge from the building, decided to take the tripod down and end the protest.
Billy Stern, based in Missoula, Montana, is the Pulp and Paper Strategist for the Native Forest Network. He is also working on a Masters in Environmental Studies at the University of Montana. He can be reached at billysun@wildrockies.org.