Today's guest is Sam Crop, Coalitions director for the Pacific Northwest Forest Climate Alliance.
On Tuesday, November 15, ommunity organizers defied a closure order and are occupying a road leading to public forest slated for clearcutting in the Willamette National Forest. The organizers are holding a concert and teach-in, discussing the ecology and rich history of the area, and preparing for further actions if logging continues to move forward.
The protest comes as hundreds of acres of lightly burned mature and old growth forest are under imminent threat for clearcut logging in the even while a federal judge has yet to rule on a strong legal challenge filed by environmental organizations. The logging is planned on public forestland impacted by the 2020 wildfires directly across Highway 46 from the Breitenbush Hot Springs Retreat Center and along the salmon-bearing Breitenbush river, proposed as a Wild & Scenic River. Since the 2020 fires, the watershed has already been significantly impacted by unprecedented public and private lands logging.
https://forestdefensenow.wordpress.com/2021/11/16/breitenbush-watershed-protest/
https://www.opb.org/article/2021/03/12/oregon-wildfires-2020-logging-rules-environmental-problems/