Wed 8 Jul 2009
Cascadia Free State
Posted by Magpie under Photo Essay
I’ll have more of an update about this tonight or tomorrow, I’m currently on the road. But there’s a free state in Cascadia, which is one of the coolest forms of forest defense around. Here are some photos. They are of the tipped-over van (with someone locked down inside), and other structures such as a bipod and a pod, all staffed by awesome forest defenders who don’t want to see native forests logged and logged and clearcut. Other photos are of the unit they are defending, including stumps of old-ass trees, and swaths of clearcut hillside. (The first one is of nearby hillsides, not the specific place that they are currently defending, but showing you what is happening to the area)
July 9th, 2009 at 9:13 am
If you truly care about our earth, you would do things like plant trees or fight forest fires instead of sitting in trees prohibiting people from working and earning a living. This is a renewable resource. We live in Oregon. Our economy depends on harvesting and replanting this renewable resource. If we lived in Iowa, we would be planting and harvesting corn. The Southern Oregon communities are starving for jobs. I love living in this area. It is beautiful. I raft the rivers, I hike the mountains, I listen to the birds, I still get excited when I see wildlife. I love the forest and every tree, but I also know my family, friends and community need to work and feed their families. Timber companies do not want to cut every tree in Oregon. If you talk to those who work in the forest, you might be surprised at how much they love the outdoors. This is there way of life. They do not want to cut down every tree. You are misguided in your belief of the people who live and work here. Let us live and work doing what we love in an area we love. Let us provide for our families. Let us have money for our schools so that we can make a better world and life for our children.
July 9th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Look at the steepness of the hill they logged. That is going to cause a land slide. It takes about 1,500 years to regrow and old growth forest. Cutting the trees every 40 years is in no way sustainable. Soil fertility is lost and old growth conditions are never allowed to return. Any animal that destroys its own oxygen source for $$$ is insane. You can’t breath money.
July 9th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Unfortunately, Andi, you have been wildly misled about what is and isn’t useful, whether economically or ecologically, in Cascadia. Old growth forests are not a renewable resource. And actually, no forest, clearcut, is renewable. By pulling biomass out of the area, you prevent more than a few generations of harvesting the trees. Also, steep hillsides erode and don’t hold new soil well.
I can’t speak as clearly about the economic arguments on state forest land as I can on national forest land, but this is generally a losing proposition financially as well. The national forest timber sale program is heavily tax-payer subsidized with money that, yes, could be going to schools. Also, pretty much any arguments about local wealth are disingenuous (or misguided) when we live in a country that spends such an unprecedented amount on the military.
But to be honest, I’m not that concerned with the economic arguments. One of the core principles of Earth First! is that of biocentrism. When it comes down to it, these forests are not ours to manage, they are not ours to clearcut, they are not ours at all. Certainly, life feeds on life and trees will be cut, animals will be killed. But the sheer arrogance of this assumption of stewardship? Can we really claim, as a species, to be very good at dictating what nature ought to do? Look at the habitat destruction, the species death, the climate change.
Maybe you’ve been listening to too much Crass. No one owes you a living. No one owes you a job. You owe it to the world to not fucking clearcut it and blow up mountains. If that means you don’t get a job, then so be it.