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.
“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.
