Action on the Elliott

Other journalists embed with the military. Me, I embed with Earth First! and other activists.

Just two week’s after the Earth First! Round River Rendezvous the Cascadia Forest Defenders held their action camp in the Elliott State Forest. I headed down there to check out the camp (and the subsequent action.) We had tight space in the paper this week, so while I got a story in I really didn’t get the whole story in.

The Elliott State Forest is both sad and beautiful — acres of clearcuts and acres of native never-logged forest.

We camped along the Millicoma River in the Elkhorn Ranch ORV (off road vehicle) park, and conveniently not far from the Elkhorn Ranch timber sale, which wound up being the focus of the CFD action. I’ve been blogging the action as it happens on the Eugene Weekly’s blog.

Thanks to CFD and their efforts, not only do I know there is such thing as a mountain beaver, I know it’s not actually a beaver but a “primitive rodent.”

I recognized a lot of people from the Rondy at the CFD action camp. There are activists who travel around the country for these trainings, and some of them were heading next to the Transgender and Womyn’s Action Camp this weekend.

This time I went to trainings for strategic campaigning and for renegade blockades. There’s a lot of planning that goes into these actions in the forest, and urban as well. I learned that it’s better to wear a fanny pack in the forest than a backpack, as a fanny pack is less prone to get caught on branches.

I learned how to play “Bombs and Shields”, as well as “LEOs vs. Elves (Earth Liberation Front vs. law enforcement officers)” also known as “Freddies vs. Earth First!.” (Couldn’t find a link for the latter game, but it helps activists learn to move with stealth and speed on steep slopes. Not my forte).

I didn’t learn how to climb a tree, but others did and it is very much on my list.

The tree sitters say that one of their platforms was knocked down when an unidentified man with a bulldozer plowed through one of the blockages the tree sit was anchored to. They had erected blockades and tree sits on either end of a logging road that led to several timber sales.

One tree sit still remains.

Last I heard, law enforcement was heading in to take down the CFD tree sit.

Photo courtesy Cascadia Forest Defenders