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Near McKenzie Bridge, Eco-Activists Stand Their (Very High) Ground

Cascadia Forest Defenders.

A sit-in protest is being staged in the Goose Timber sale area around McKenzie Bridge, east of Eugene. As KLCC’s Brian Bull reports, environmentalists want to keep the timber from being harvested. 

It’s easy to overlook the sit-in, unless you know to look up.  Way up.

“I’m 110 feet up, in a Douglas Fir tree," says  Sunshine Forest, a member of Cascadia Forest Defenders.  She uses that alias because using her real name could lead to her arrest. 

She’s been sitting, sleeping, and eating on a platform for a week now.  

Credit Cascadia Forest Defenders.
Looking up towards the platform from the ground.

“Ooh, it’s beautiful," Forest tells KLCC via cell phone.

"I’m surrounded by new growth on a lot of the branches, and lots of birds and butterflies, and bees and spiders.” 

The Cascadia Forest Defenders launched the tree sit late last month, to protest planned logging of 1,000 acres in the goose timber sale area. 

Forest says her group’s concerned over what could follow.

“Habitat loss, soil erosion, and the soil going into the creeks and killing off the fish.  We need these trees to breathe and to keep our forests healthy.” 

The group plans to stage the tree sit as long as it takes to stop further logging and sales in the area.

Meanwhile, a Forest Service official says they always support the right of people to peacefully and safely demonstrate. 

Copyright 2017, KLCC.

Brian Bull is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, and remains a contributor to the KLCC news department. He began working with KLCC in June 2016.   In his 27+ years as a public media journalist, he's worked at NPR, Twin Cities Public Television, South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Wisconsin Public Radio, and ideastream in Cleveland. His reporting has netted dozens of accolades, including four national Edward R. Murrow Awards (22 regional),  the Ohio Associated Press' Best Reporter Award, Best Radio Reporter from  the Native American Journalists Association, and the PRNDI/NEFE Award for Excellence in Consumer Finance Reporting.
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