This Friday, May 18th, some friends of ours are throwing us a house party! Come on down to "the Gnarly Barn," on 8th and Van Buren, for a wild dance party to benefit Cascadia Forest Defenders. We've been busy throwing up banners in front of the state capitol and camping in the trees, and we could certainly use some more funds for gear, food, and legal defense. Come with a friend, some dancin' shoes, and three dollars donation for the door. Admission free if you bring a non-perishable food item for our pantry.
House party!
This Friday, May 18th, some friends of ours are throwing us a house party! Come on down to "the Gnarly Barn," on 8th and Van Buren, for a wild dance party to benefit Cascadia Forest Defenders. We've been busy throwing up banners in front of the state capitol and camping in the trees, and we could certainly use some more funds for gear, food, and legal defense. Come with a friend, some dancin' shoes, and three dollars donation for the door. Admission free if you bring a non-perishable food item for our pantry.
Salem,
Oregon: At
7:45 AM on
Thursday, May 10th
a member of the Cascadia Forest Defenders climbed the flagpole in
front of the State Capitol, demanding that Governor Kitzhaber and the
State Land Board decouple public school funding from state forest
management. The activist hung a large banner reading “Schools vs.
Trees? We want both!”
While
Governor Kitzhaber claims that increased clear cutting in the Elliott
State Forest is necessary to maintain funding for public schools,
less than one percent of Oregon public school funding comes from
logging on state lands. In April, Governor Kitzhaber admitted that
revenue collected from certain state lands—called the Common School
Fund-- was a “drop in the bucket” for our starving public school
system. Cascadia Forest Defenders say: Stop clear-cutting ancient
forests for “a drop in the bucket”!
“The
two things I care about most in my state are schools and forests, and
now I know that Kitzhaber has compromised both.” says Eugene
teaching assistant Erin Grady. “We're here because we think that
Kitzhaber is pitting our schools against our forests, and we don't
think that's fair to either.”
In
2011 Kitzhaber and the State Land Board approved a plan that nearly
doubles the annual clearcut in the Elliott State Forest. The Land
Board claims that logging on state lands must increase to maintain
the Common School Fund, which distributes profits from some state
logging and mining operations to public schools.
Yet,
Oregon's timber elite have dodged millions of dollars in taxes since
Kitzhaber got rid of the timber harvest privilege tax in 1999. The
Oregon Department of Revenue estimates that Oregon loses $70 million
in tax revenues per year since Kitzhaber passed Oregon House Bill
3575. That's nearly ten times what the state gets annually from clear
cutting the Elliott State Forest.
In
2011, 48.8
million dollars were distributed to schools from the Common School
Fund, a negligible contribution to Oregon's 2011 school budget of
nearly 6 billion.
Cascadia
Forest Defenders want good schools for Oregon's children and vibrant,
intact ecosystems. We believe that education should not be funded by
clear-cuts. There are no schools on a dead planet!
Earth First! Cascadia Bioregional Rendezvous
Invite your friends, get ready to be in the woods, and save the date for June 20 – 25th in the woods of Cascadia.
For more information about the event, contact info and rideshare checkout: http://cascadia2012.com/
or check it out on Fakebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/287371561352395/
Stay tuned for the Earth First! Roadshow coming to a town near you.
GOOSE OCCUPIED!
We are occupying the Golden Goose in advance of the scheduled auction on Tuesday April 24th to draw attention to the Forest Service's lack of transparency and reckless commitment to timber quotas. In response to a large community outcry, we are calling for the immediate withdrawal of the proposed sale and a moratorium on all logging operations on public forest in the McKenzie Bridge.
"We cannot continue letting the Forest Service exploit our watershed for the profit of the timber barons," says Daniel Bowman of Cascadia Forest Defenders.
The Goose Project is a management area that would subject the forest to commercial logging on over 2,000 acres of public land, generating 38 million board feet for the timber barons. While the forest service claims that this project is for restoration, the intrusion of industrial logging practices on mature forest would suggest that Goose is more about making timber quotas than creating habitat.
For the week of Occupy the Trees, April 22nd-28th, Echo Glynn of Elmira, Oregon is committed to occupying a 150 year old (approx.) Douglas-Fir tree in the "Golden" Goose unit 320.
Glynn recalls visiting Mckenzie Bridge as a little girl. "Everything's been cut around Elmira-those were some of the biggest trees I'd ever seen," she says. "Our forests are priceless, and I want them to still be here for future generations."
Cascadia Forest Defenders invite everyone concerned for the true health of their public forests to come out to protest the "Golden" timber auction on Tuesday. We invite the public to join us on Saturday, April 28th for a picnic with the tree sitter and a hike of the "Golden" timber sale. Event details listed below.
Timber Auction Protest:
Meet at the Grower's Market at 9:30am on Tuesday April 24th for carpool or head directly to the US Forest Service Supervisor's Office (3106 Pierce Parkway Suite D, Springfield, OR) by 10am Saturday
Picnic in the Forest:
To attend the picnic, meet at Harbicks (on Hwy 126, 6 miles past Blue River) at noon, or Growers Market in Eugene (4th and Willamette) by 11.
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