Activists Deliver Message that “Ancient Forest Protection Starts
Here”
Medford BLM, Ore. —
In a peaceful protest to challenge the assault on U.S. public lands
by the Bush administration, Greenpeace activists put their bodies
on the line today in the ancient forests of Southern Oregon. A
three-ton cargo container with two people locked to the inside and
one attached to the outside, was placed between chainsaws and some
236 acres of old-growth forest designated for a timber sale.
Jennifer Kirby, 26,
of Washington, D.C., Kingman Lim, 23, of Berkeley, CA and Anthony
Villagomez, 22, of Northern Oregon locked themselves to the giant
container at dawn.
The forest in Oregon
represents ancient forests on public lands throughout the United
States that the Bush administration is fast tracking onto the
chopping block. To date, 85 percent of all old growth forest has
already been logged. Greenpeace is calling for a moratorium on
commercial logging on public lands, and for increased protection
and restoration efforts. Earlier this month, Greenpeace opened its
first U.S. Forest
Rescue Station in Oregon. The station, which is open to the
public, is just one that Greenpeace plans to open in endangered
forests across the country.
“These beautiful, old
trees are our national treasures and the lungs of the planet. But
instead of protecting the last remaining forests, the Bush
administration is attempting to destroy them,” said Bill
Richardson, Greenpeace Campaigns Director. “If Bush continues to
ignore the public’s wishes to keep their forests healthy, it will
be up to the American people to rescue our public forests from this
imminent danger.”
The U.S. Bureau of
Land Management (BLM) and other federal agencies have allowed
extensive logging and road building in ancient forests across the
nation destroying forests and key fish habitats and costing
taxpayers billions of dollars in net losses and direct subsidies to
logging corporations. Despite U.S. Forest Service findings that
recreation on public lands generates more revenue and creates
millions of jobs, timber sales like the one in Oregon threaten
forests on public lands across the Pacific Northwest and around the
country.
“The BLM has been mismanaging our public lands, ripping off
taxpayers and stealing away our heritage, our forests and our
future,’ continued Richardson. “Keeping forests intact and creating
more protected areas creates jobs and profits. It is time to put an
end to the boom-and-bust economy of commercial logging, and create
family wage jobs through restoration.”
