by Cascadia Forest Defenders
Comrades, Allies, Friends!
For almost three months, Cascadia Forest Defenders have been tree sitting and blockading the White Castle Timber sale – against the destruction of the remaining old forests and for the right of all living things to exist. We intend to stay until is White Castle is once more a forest and no longer a timber sale and will continue to maintain our blockades while pressuring the powers that be to back off.
We are calling out for more blockaders, tree sitters, dreamers, the malcontent, all folks of a diversity of skill sets and abilities to come join us.
Fall is approaching, the season of the rains, the chanterelles, the time when the forest grows in every direction. This campaign is supported by its local community, an awesome in town crew and the public at large. We will keep you feed, clothed and busy for sure.
The White Castle timber sale is the first of a new type of clearcut – a Variable Retention Harvest. Variable Retention Harvests cut 70% of a forest leaving the remaining 30% in little scattered patches. The science, developed by Drs. Norm Johnson and Jerry Franklin, is that there is not enough young forest around for species that need more meadow-like habitat, like butterflies and moths. We refute this by encouraging people to go take a look outside anywhere in Oregon. Less than 5% of Oregon’s forests remain while the Bureau of Land Management harvests of millions of board feet annually.
The timber sale is a microcosm for the new round of timber battles facing the northwest. Our senators are proposing bills that turn millions of acres of forest into private tree farms of the multinational timber companies. If these bills were to pass, White Castle would be one such forest, stolen from the all that lives and depends upon it to be cut down and ground up into pulp. As large timber increasingly grows more scarce, industry will go to increasingly absurd measures to keep its mills open. These forests need defenders now more than ever.
We are approaching the date of a closure around the timber sale – beginning September 1st the Bureau of Land Management will have the ability to shut down the surrounding 15 miles of road in attempt to prevent our access to the sit. The closure is to protect loggers and equipment from our blockades. Sounds like somebody is getting worried….
As the rain begins to fall to quench the fires, we are asking you to help us do the opposite. Come out and join us. New to this whole thing? We will train you up. An old hand? Love to get your input and benefit from your experience. Whether you can only stay for a week or until the last mill is shut down, all are welcome.
This is a front in the battle for of all living things.
Come to Cascadia.
See you in the woods,
CFD
cascadiaforestdefenders@riseup.net
43.020117 -123.293120