Salmon River Tree-Sits Blockaded by Federal Agents
For Immediate Release -
Contact: Mari Posa 503 957 5572
Federal agents are blockading three tree-sits in the Klamath National Forest in the Salmon River watershed. The Salmon River is the only undammed, undiverted river that feeds the Klamath and has had three tree sits blocking part of the Glassups Old Growth Timber Sale for a week and a half. The Klamath-Action Network is a group involved in the tree-sits and promises continued resistance for the Knob and Meteor Timber Sales, which are also public lands old growth sales in the Salmon River.
Columbia Helicopters, an international company that specializes in helicopter logging steep and unstable slopes, are clear-cutting and high grading native forest in the National Forest, which is why the tree-sits are there.. Old growth logging destroy water quality, endangered species, and the forests natural resistance to fire. " These sales will hurt not help forest health by taking out the fire resistant old growth, leaving brush fields behind, destroying a rural town's drinking water, and endangering Klamath Salmon" stated Mari Posa, a spokes woman for the group.
Two men attempting to visit and photograph the tree-sits were detained for forty minutes Sunday by three federal agents who ticketed them. They were unaware they weren't allowed on public lands. The two men must appear in federal court in Redding on Tuesday.
The tree-sits have been cut off from their ground support. Attempting to starve tree-sitters out of the trees is an old tactic that doesn't always work, and can result in a standoff between hunger striking tree-sitters and deforesters. It is not yet clear whether the forest service and federal agents will attempt to extract the tree-sitters.
The tree sit is part of Cascadia Summer, a campaign to save native public forest throughout Northern California, Oregon and Washington. The Klamath National Forest of concern to the campaign as it is one of the wildest and most diverse forests in the United States
