The Wild Rockies Summer Tour danced into the City of Trees on the one-year anniversary of the salvage rider, and received a big greeting from the Salmon River Coalition (SRC). Downtown Boise, Idaho, comes "Alive After Five" every Wednesday evening, and on July 24, thousands of unsuspecting (and a few suspecting) partiers were treated to more than just a live band. They also witnessed the live broadcast of a hanging. No, Fate did not finally catch up with Larry Craig. Instead they saw activists from Missoula, Montana, and Boise and Moscow, Idaho, team up to hang a four-story banner off the opaque, glassy face of the First Interstate tower. The 30 by 40 foot protest sign was the product of hundreds of hours of toil and revelry by volunteers with the SRC, a group formed over the winter as part of the Boycott Boise Cascade (BC) campaign. Its message got on the evening news live and was then the top story on all the late news shows. By sheer coincidence, the Idaho Sporting Congress (ISC) held a protest and news conference at Boise (Cascade!) National Forest (BNF) headquarters the next morning. It was a vidiotic zoo: Cameras and reporters were everywhere as the ISC showed pictures of healthy old-growth being cut as salvage, and presented proof from Dr. Arthur Partridge (University of Idaho renowned forest pathologist and infamous name caller) that the salvage program hatched by the Boise NF was, in the good doctor's own carefully chosen words, a "fraud."
Dr. Partridge, who has been studying Idaho's forests for 36 years, had just visited the Deadwood sale area in the Boise NF with biologist Steve Davis. Deadwood is actually one of the healthiest roadless areas left in the Boise, with plenty of old-growth Ponderosas already marked to be cut. Originally a green sale, the Forest Service had repackaged it as salvage, claiming that it had been suddenly attacked by pine beetles. Pictures of marked trees from Deadwood had circulated on the House floor when Elizabeth Furse's salvage repeal bill was being voted on, and it was subsequently withdrawn as a consequence of Secretary Glickman's directives. Dr. Partridge could find no evidence of a pine beetle infestation. The BNF was caught in a lie.
The Idaho Sporting Congress filed suit on September 4 to stop the Deadwood sale.
The news conference was on every regional newscast that day, with two in-depth stories on one station, and each time the banner video was repeated. After enduring an all-night celebration of the banner-hanging, one of the climbers and a Salmon River Coalition spokesperson appeared on the Sunday morning show "Newsmakers," discussing civil disobedience at Cove/Mallard, Warner Creek, Headwaters, and yes, even in Boise. The climbers' press statement noted that the banner was a response to "industry's hostile takeover of our public lands," and dedicated the hanging to "free Americans everywhere who have begun to take back our most threatened forests." Video of the Jack Squat blockade at Cove/Mallard was interspliced with the banner and news conference/protest footage, clearly connecting the fraud with peaceful civil disobedience in the public's consciousness. As Davis said on camera, pointing to a photographic display of trees marked for cut under the pretense of salvage, "These are the money trees."
During the media frenzy, the Idaho Sporting Congress also presented evidence that 90 percent of the trees currently being "salvaged" in roadless areas of French Creek in the Payette National Forest are healthy and green. Two of ISC's attorneys had been arrested in the Payette a week earlier while documenting the salvage fraud with video (thanks Patagonia!) and photos. All their film was confiscated, but the Cove/Mallard folks got even better pictures in time for the shark feed. This prompted the Forest Service to issue a hurried press release that the trees being cut in French Creek were actually "DEAD GREEN TREES!" (They've already been killed by bugs, see, but the chlorophyll hasn't drained out yet!) Incredulous, Dr. Partridge paid a visit to French Creek, and this time went on camera himself to expose the latest fictions being perpetrated by the FS. Once again, the story was carried by all the news stations. After years of attempting to expose the fraudulent underpinnings of the salvage program, the media is finally getting the message. Nobody is interested in burned trees. At least, not in Idaho, home of the salvage model.
Finally, Boise Cascade went on TV to explain that those green trees they're cutting need to be removed to prevent another catastrophic fire. When the SRC first protested the Salmon River sales on BC's doorstep last Earth Day, Boise Cascade dismissed them as "extremists who are opposed to the cutting of burned, dead trees." Then when it was shown that mostly green trees were being cut, Forest Service spokesliars said they were actually "dead green trees." After Dr. Partridge exposed this lie, BC claimed they're just trying to prevent another big fire. Of course, what he failed to note is that none of these sales would have gone forward as green sales, since they violate the forest plans, and according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, are "likely to jeopardize the continued existence of" salmon in the Salmon River. It was for this reason that the FS had promised only to cut "dead and imminently dead" trees. Of course, to the Forest Service and Boise Cascade, an "imminently dead" tree is one that has been marked for cut.
While the fraud has finally been exposed, it should be noted that the banner almost never got off the tower. Due to razor sharp cornices on the building, the chord by which the banner was to be hung was severed twice. After these aborted attempts, an hour into the event, the activists decided to tie the ropes to the bottom of the banner and throw it off the twelve-story roof. Fortunately, Boise's men in blue had a difficult time cutting through the "Diamond" pad lock that had somehow gotten locked onto the roof door, and the banner hung for over an hour before the climbers were finally escorted off the building. A legal defense fund has been established for their benefit, as they face up to a year in jail and $1,800 in fines for their disobedience. Please send a check payable to "CLIMBER'S LEGAL DEFENSE FUND," PO Box 4262, Boise, ID 83711-4264. Hang in there!
The Wood Man is an activist/writer living in le Bois.