Even as local environmentalists gear up for the huge Sept. 14 Rally in Carlotta to Save Headwaters Forest, several activists are carrying on the struggle against government bureaucracy and corporate interests throughout the Pacific Northwest.
Last month, I visited the base camp of one group, the Dillon Creek Forest Defenders, as members planned a direct action, blockading the roads to one area where "salvage logging" was underway. In the event, the group was able to stop logging for two days, because the action took place on a Friday (Aug. 1) and resulted in cancellation of work planned for Saturday as well.
It was high adventure when I arrived with "Crazy Owl" (his "forest name" - all participants in this story are identified by their self-chosen forest names, at their request) and his video camera, late Thursday afternoon, July 31, and found that there was about to be - and, eventually, within an hour, there was - a nonviolence training session. We were soon sitting in the camp's open-air kitchen, sipping apple juice and eating a dinner of stir-fry veggies over rice, while chatting about definitions of violence. Those definitions included body language, tones of voice such as sarcasm, raising one's voice and defensiveness, as well as obvious violent acts such as brandishing a gun or knife - or stick - and assault.
Right after the nonviolence training ended, the entire group convened a circle, whose purpose was to plan the direct action, to begin within a few hours, at 2 a.m., Aug. 1. So, we were about to cover an action before we had a chance to catch our breath!
At first light, two men, Guacamole and Whippoorwill, locked themselves to the axle of a Volkswagen van, which was set up as a barricade, blocking access for loggers' trucks to the area being logged. The van was covered with slogans and colorful artwork. One slogan, "Guacamole saves trees," proved prophetic!
The rest of the group also set up makeshift blockades on the road. Meanwhile, another group was already on its way to the back woods, blockading roads as it went with rocks and debris. One member of the back woods group, Spring, locked herself to a loader, a huge crane-like piece of heavy equipment. A loader helps loggers move the huge logs being ripped out of the soil, which are then sent to Scott Timber Co., the southern Oregon corporation which won the Dillon timber harvesting contract from the Forest Service.
Forest Service law enforcement officers arrived on the scene at about 7 a.m. and a stand-off ensued. Owl and I introduced ourselves as the media, he as a videographer, I as a free-lance writer. Owl's camera was a powerful talisman, strengthening his performance and sweeping me up in its train. By mid-afternoon, the cops were negotiating with Guacamole and Whippoorwill, and Crazy Owl and I were able to have continued access to Guacamole and Whippoorwill after the cops had declared the area a crime scene and removed everyone else from the immediate vicinity of the barricade. Perhaps all those who plan to write about the Headwaters actions should think about applying for press credentials now!
Around 4 p.m., the pair was released with a ticket for blocking the roadway. Later that night, Spring also received a similar ticket and returned to base camp, walking seven miles through the woods.
Dillon Creek, in the Klamath National Forest, about 12 miles northwest of the town of Orleans on the California side of the Siskiyou Mountains, is sacred to the Yurok people and is one of the wildest watersheds remaining in the lower 48 states. Dillon is part of an even larger concentration of wild forest habitat called the Salmon Divide area, which extends from the Siskiyou Wilderness southeastward to the Trinity Alps Wilderness. Based on analysis of infrared Landsatellite imagery, the Salmon Divide area appears to be the largest block of relatively intact ancient forest remaining in Northern California. Even President Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan designated Dillon Creek a "key watershed."
The Klamath Forest ecosystem is a widely recognized center of plant biodiversity, with its wealth of conifer species. In the Russian Mountain Wilderness Area (located within the Klamath Forest ecosystem), 17 different conifers grow within one square mile, including Douglas fir, ponderosa pine, Pacific yew and spruce.
Dillon Creek is home to several rare and sensitive species of wildlife, providing critical habitat for the endangered marbled murrelet and Northern spotted owl. Research by biologist Reed Noss and others has indicated that the area contains some of the Pacific states' healthiest populations of fishers, martens and other predatory bird species. Wolverines have also been sighted.
Dillon Creek has seen some past logging and road-building on portions of its boundary ridges, but the heart of the watershed has remained wild. Now, however, Dillon is under attack by chainsaws.
The Dillon timber sale was promoted as an emergency measure to avert a "forest health" crisis, an alleged threat of "catastrophic fire." The claim is not supported by the US Forest Service's own data. After Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman instructed the Forest Service not to proceed with "salvage" sales in roadless areas, Dillon received a temporary reprieve. But local managers soon drew a new map, readjusting the roadless area and dubbing the reconfigured timber sale as an "outside" sale, claiming it was outside the inventoried roadless area.
On Dec. 31, 1996, just hours before the "salvage rider" expired, the outside sale was completed. When the salvage rider expired, environmental laws and citizen appeal rights were restored; but with the outside sale completed, logging in Dillon Creek began in April, in Dillon's "adjusted" roadless area.
Members of the Dillon Creek Forest Defenders plan to keep their base camp open for ongoing actions. For more information, or to get directions to the base camp, call (707) 8258911.
Logging in a precious wilderness area was stopped for two days because a few folks cared enough to do what it takes.
We can make the same kind of difference at Headwaters if we all participate. Please call the MEC at 4681660 and find out how to be a part of saving the ancient forests, and our fellow creatures, before it's too late.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited