Rising Tide: TREE SIT DEPLOYED IN DOWNTOWN EUGENE

Activist occupies tree on the corner of Oak St and Park St within the
Eugene Saturday Market

Eugene, OR-  Early this morning activists with Cascadia Rising Tide
deployed a tree sit within the Saturday Market in downtown Eugene.  A
platform was rigged around a tree approximately 40 feet from the ground,
and a banner was hung reading “Forest Service: Give Back Trapper. Protect
Our Water.”

The platform is occupied by Grace Warner, who plans to remain through
Saturday to inform Eugene of the horrendous logging practices advocated by
the Forest Service, as well as threats to the drinking water supply that
the Trapper timber sale poses.

According to Vivian Rivers of Cascadia Rising Tide, “It appalls me that the
Forest Service is still logging old growth and native forests.    This
should have been stopped years ago.  The time is now for the community to
rise up and put an end to this atrocity once and for all.”  Trapper is a
controversial timber sale that has been in the works for over a decade.
This 149 acre patch of

native forest (eg. never been cut) is an increasingly rare and threatened
ecosystem.  It has recently gained additional attention because of a
nesting pair of spotted owls found just outside the area designated for
logging.  Seneca Jones Timber Company, the purchaser of the sale, is
awaiting a decision regarding these owls by the Department of Fish and
Wildlife which will most likely allow logging to continue as planned.  The
sale is close to home in more ways then one: not only is the area
surrounding Trapper close to Eugene and close to popular recreation sites,
but the streams and creeks within Trapper drain directly into the McKenzie
River watershed and ultimately our faucets.

The timing of this action is advantageous; nearly 15 years ago to the day
activists established a blockade at Warner Creek, also in the Willamette
National Forest.  The blockade evolved into the Cascadia Free State
lasting over a year, and the site was eventually saved.  As one Rising
Tider put it, “Our message is clear: drop Trapper, stop all logging on
native forest, leave our watershed alone.  Otherwise, expect resistance.”