The forest movement is not monolithic. There are large corporate national groups, nimbler regional organizations, and local groups often no larger than two people with a telephone. Some focus on education, others on lobbying, still others on grassroots organizing. Some groups excel at litigation, others at media, some challenge timber sales.
The work of these diverse groups progresses slowly, while timber is felled with industrial efficiency. Thus, as demonstrated in many social movements, working solely within the system is inadequate to secure timely or meaningful change. Civil disobedience becomes necessary when injustices have hardened into institutionalized practices.
The forest movement has its own shock troops: foot soldiers who
oppose the cutting of forests at the source. Their methods often gain
them notoriety if not credit.
They are untidy, confrontational, quick to evoke anger and accusation from the
opposition, and denial and embarrassed unease among those in the movement who
fight their battles primarily with computer keyboards and cellular telephones.
They are commonly, though not always accurately, referred to as Earth First!ers
and their niche in the forest movement is direct action.
Direct action is often devalued and disparaged because it plays by no known rules. People involved in it refuse to roll over. They have been known to ignore court orders, Forest Service directives, timber industry threats, and the enmity of local communities. The fact that they often appear ill-mannered and unkept, does little to enhance their public image. But it is not status they seek. They seek to stop the cutting of forests, usually under one or more of the following circumstances: When all other legal methods have been exhausted; when remote areas are under attack and no one either cares enough or is organized enough to mount successful opposition; or when government agencies like the Forest Service break the law believing themselves safe from public scrutiny and concern.
They do it by blockading roads, taking up temporary residence in trees, chaining themselves to bulldozers, and standing toe-to-toe with angry loggers. They have been accused of spiking trees. Some have suffered beatings, had their homes set ablaze, their children harassed, and endured lawsuits and imprisonment. They are a serious bunch, and though their tactics may provoke backlash and debate, they routinely put their safety and their freedom on the line in defense of their values. It is a tradition deeply rooted in our nations past, and few of us today can honestly claim it.
I was more than a little discouraged, as many of us were, after witnessing the squabbling at the recent Forest Reform Campaign meeting in La Grande, Oregon.
It's nothing new to me. I remember a very similar meeting almost ten years ago in Portland. Only then it was the Spotted Owl, whether to list or not to list.
As ridiculous as it may sound today, many of the same folks that argue now against zero cut argued then against listing the Northern Spotted Owl as endangered, even though the most conservative biological surveys confirmed that it was. At that meeting someone representing a national group in Washington stated flat-out that we could never get the owl on the front page of the newspapers. Its a snail darter, and it will backfire.
We dont have adequate grassroots support for the campaign, she said.
That was on a Sunday. On Monday morning I drove to a place that would later be known as Millennia Grove.
I reported on the Portland meeting to some of my colleagues, most of whom had been suspended over a hundred feet off the ground since Saturday, on platforms in the oldest known Douglas Firs in the state. Logging there was effectively shut down for the time being.
On Tuesday, prominent photos of the action, and a banner that read "Give a hoot! Save the Spotted Owl!" appeared on the front pages of several Oregon dailies.
The ensuing struggle lasted a year and before it was over everyone in the Northwest knew about Millennia Grove. Even though these ancient trees were eventually felled, Millennia Grove was a turning point in the war to save the Ancient Forests. And the spotted owl has since appeared on more front pages than the Pope.
I thought about this as I drove back to Moscow, Idaho to report on our latest meeting in La Grande to my colleagues at the Cove/Mallard Coalition. At one thirty on the following day, we went to a hearing where Megan McNally, an activist who was arrested at a protest on the Noble Road last year, was scheduled to appear for violating the terms of her probation. The Nobel Road is within the Cove/Mallard timber sale area, which was closed to the public by the US Forest Service at the time. McNally had already served 10 days in the Latah County jail for violating a previous judges order to stay out of the closed area. She had been arrested while monitoring the impacts of road construction.
This time, she was before US District Judge Edward J. Lodge in Federal Court on a complaint filed by her probation officer after she had quit her job at a local motel in order to work full time on the Cove/Mallard campaign.
McNally's probation officer argued in court that by not having a paying job, she had violated the terms of her probation. Her attorney, Michael Henegen, argued that she was employed since she was working full time reviewing timber sales and environmental impact statements, doing public education, and leading hikes in the proposed sale area. And, although she received no monetary compensation, Henegen argued that since she received room and board for her work at the Cove/Mallard base camp, she was gainfully employed, was not a burden on society, was serving the community by keeping an eye on the illegal actions of a government agency, and hence was not in violation of her probation. The court, he continued, was trying to impose a life-style on her.
All this fell on deaf ears as Judge Lodge ordered her not to live at the base camp, or with any of her co-defendants, and to get a full-time paying job or go to jail for six months.
Megan McNally did not flinch. She looked straight at the Judge. She refused to comply with the Judges order.
At this point the courtroom fell silent. And the Judge blinked. He did not send her to jail at that time, but gave her ten days to comply, or else. This means her next hearing will likely be held as much as a month later. I know Megan enough to know she will not budge from her position. She knows, as we all do, that wilderness needs more defenders. She does not mind scrubbing toilets or working in restaurants, but she will not leave the largest unprotected roadless area in the 48 states defenseless. She will not allow 200 clearcuts to proceed without resistance. She will not ignore the 145 miles of new logging roads slated to shred the wilderness. It is here where she is needed, and she will do the six months in jail rather than abandon her post.
This is by no means an isolated incident. Dozens of young activists just like her have stood up to Judges, the police, the US Forest Service law enforcement officers, and the wrath and sometimes brutal reprisals of the timber industry and its supporters. It is my belief that these courageous young people give our movement some much needed backbone. It is not an ideology or a political posture, it is a spirit. And we need more of it.
Here in Idaho, we have been waging a hard-fought campaign for
the last two and a half years to keep the Salmon-Selway ecosystem intact.
There have been dozens
of arrests, and many of the activists involved have served time in jail for
their actions. Many more are on probation. We are now fighting a
SLAPP suit (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation; typically industry-originated
suits designed to intimidate and suppress citizen activism) that has been
filed against us by the company contracted by the US Forest Service to build
the Grouse and Nobel roads, which dissect an important wildlife corridor in
the wilderness we are trying to protect. The pressure is immense, the
community here is very polarized, and hardly a day goes by when something about
Cove/Mallard does not appear in the newspapers. Last year we were judged
the number one news story in the state by the local paper.
So what does this all mean? Polarization and repression are not in themselves a good thing. But sometimes you must approach the edge of the precipice and gaze into the chasm before you can bridge it. Here in Idaho the lines are drawn. Now is the time for constructive dialogue and old-fashioned grassroots organizing. This year we have formed the Cove/Mallard Coalition and are making a serious attempt to dig in for the long term. We are filing timber sale appeals, commenting on Environmental Impact Statements and meeting with representatives of the timber industry to find some common ground.
This aspect of the Cove/Mallard campaign is a very important long-term educational process, just as direct action and civil disobedience have been important in dealing with the immediate crisis that comes when a sanctuary is violated. We are not afraid of their jails and high-paid lawyers. We are not afraid of the hostility that some members of our community have expressed toward us. We are not afraid to confront them and to talk to them. We are afraid of losing an irreplaceable part of our natural heritage. We are afraid of complacency and ignorance. We will not sit by passively as the laws of our land are blatantly disregarded by those charged with the responsibility to uphold them.
The timber industry strategy has been to isolate us and brand us as terrorists and tree worshipping pagans.
And many of the mainstream conservationists around here have ducked for cover behind their desks like frightened postal workers, which plays right into the industrys hands. But meanwhile we are finding new allies in the most remarkable places. Retired people, Native Americans, Forest Service employees, small business owners and many others who have in the past watched this tragedy unfold from the sidelines are now standing up and being heard. That is what this campaign is really all about.
The Cove/Mallard Coalition (CMC) is dedicated to the preservation of the Cove Creek and Mallard Creek roadless areas in the Nez Perce National Forest and is currently involved in the third year of a last-ditch campaign to stop timber sales scheduled there. After hundreds of activists had been arrested blocking road building and logging, a federal judge has temporarily halted further work on the sales. CMC publishes a newsletter and action alerts. To become part of the coalition or to receive more information, please contact CMC at:
Cove/Mallard Coalition
P.O. Box 1742
Missoula, MT 59806
Email: wref@wildrockies.org
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