What do you get when you mix bongos, bike locks and politics? Well, in Colorado, you get a raucous party at the Republican Headquarters in Denver. Colorado's own Ancient Forest Rescue (AFR) threw just such a gala event for the Grand Old Party on October 26. Nearly 200 people from all walks of life gathered at the GOP barracks to demand that Colorado's Republican delegation introduce legislation to repeal the salvage logging/grazing laws.
Call us idealists, but this was the shot across the bow to inform Congress and the Freddies that Colorado's forests are not going to be sacrificed on the altar of the salvage program without a fight--and a brawl at that. It was the least we could do considering that our own Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell was the deciding vote on the salvage rider.
Citizens young and old from throughout Colorado participated in the event, some in elephant masks, dressed to the nines and brandishing chainsaws in mockery of the Republican timber puppets. Passersby were politely educated about the reason for the rally, many standing awestruck at the sight of the sixty-foot chainsaw (on loan to AFR from the Rainforest Action Network) that had been inflated outside the Republican offices. Others joined us, and soon we all were dancing in the streets of Denver to the welcome beat of AFR bongos. The GOP toadies inside the building will not soon forget the little bash we held in honor of their dream team's PAC-driven giveaway of old growth.
Five people, including your humble author, were arrested at the rally after discovering that a tree behind the building provided easy access to the roof. We scrambled to the top, touched our Captain Crunch Super Hero rings together, and after a blinding flash of light found ourselves bound together by Kryptonite bike locks! Being large shareholders in billboard futures, we of course displayed a couple of banners indicating that lawless grazing and logging are not in the best interest of the republic.
Many regular readers of the Journal are painfully aware of the details of the salvage program under the new law, and many are already seeing the implications firsthand, as the last vestiges of our ancient forest heritage are devoured under armed guard. Many of us in Colorado were shocked nonetheless as the list of salvage sales on Colorado's forests grew ever longer. Presently, nearly seven million board feet of timber is slated for destruction in the name of salvage in Colorado. Several of these sales had previously been stopped by AFR activists, some as recently as the spring of '95. It seems that the Forest dis-Service was none too pleased that a bunch of riffraff citizens could write airtight appeals and organize civil disobedience campaigns at the same time!
Perhaps the Freddies' sleaze-ball antics shouldn't have surprised us, but the vigor with which the districts are embracing the salvage program is truly disheartening. Hence, Ancient Forest Rescue has vowed to organize a massive campaign to shut down the salvage program in Colorado. Through a full-scale public education program, we have committed to building public support for direct action beginning in the spring of '96. Since all avenues for legal recourse have been closed by the Gingrich Gestapo, the most biologically significant salvage sales will be protected, on- site, by the citizens of Colorado. So, clear your calendar for 1996, cause we're gonna be campin' out!
For more information, please call Ancient Forest Rescue at (303) 543- 1470.