----- forwarded message -----
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 12:02:31 +0200
From: secr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Fearing sabotage, lumber companies shun timber sales
----- forwarded message -----
Subject: [Am-Adv] Fw: {{AwarComp}} Fearing sabotage, lumber companies shun
timber sales
Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 06:17:13 +0200
From: "Ameri-Adv" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Susan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, July 13, 2001 7:14 AM
Subject: {{AwarComp}} Fearing sabotage, lumber companies shun timber sales
Fearing sabotage, lumber companies shun timber sales
Thursday, July 12, 2001
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PORTLAND -- Oregon sawmills are turning down much-needed wood from the Eagle
timber sales, fearing they will be targeted by environmental saboteurs.
About 40 percent of the 28 million board feet included in the 1996 sale in
the Mount Hood National Forest has been sold, but the lack of buyers for most
of the remaining timber indicates that acts of vandalism by those who oppose
logging may have been effective.
The FBI is investigating last month's firebombing of three logging trucks
working the sales. And anti-logging activists have been blocking access roads
and occupying tree platforms in the logging site.
"It's sad. They're winning the battle, and I don't like that," said Jeff Lampa,
a log buyer at RSG Forest Products of Molalla, a company that on June 21
canceled two purchase orders for wood from the Eagle sales.
The June arson exposed RSG's mills in Estacada and Molalla to risks "that we
are not willing to take," the company said in a letter to Vanport
Manufacturing Inc. of Boring, which bought the federal timber in 1996.
Freres Lumber Co. of Lyons and Alder Creek Lumber of Portland also turned down
wood from the sales because of the risk of violence.
"We just thought, after they burned those trucks, our name is on the side of
our trucks, too, and they could follow us and go after us," Freres Lumber Vice
President Robert Freres Jr. told The Oregonian on Tuesday. "This is the first
time we've decided not to buy logs because of something like that."
The Eagle sale has been the site of controversy for some time. Federal
foresters say the logging helps forests and wildlife by thinning crowded
trees. Foes say it would cause irreparable damage to the water supply of more
than 200,000 people and weaken remaining stands.
Vanport said Tuesday it has delayed cutting in part because some sawmills that
were expected to buy timber pulled out of the deal following the June 1
firebombing.
U.S. Forest Service Chief Dale Bosworth and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., have said
that Vanport would not begin cutting trees this year until after a scientific
review due out this week.
Vanport and the Forest Service did not disclose the withdrawal of buyers so as
not to embolden whoever is responsible for the arson, which caused $50,000 in
damage to the logging trucks.
"People are determined to stop this, and if they see what effect they had,
they'll do it again," said Vanport President Adolf Hertrich.
The activists who have been blocking roads and occupying tree platforms have
denounced the firebombing. Vanport has since found a backup buyer for wood
from a 25-acre section of the timber sale but cannot log because activists in
"pods" are hanging from trees, Hertrich said.
The company has asked the Forest Service to clear the activists so its crews
can remove trees safely. But Glen Sachet, a Forest Service spokesman, said
forest managers are waiting for a required 48-hour notice from Vanport that
it is ready to work in the area.
Vanport is obligated by its 1996 purchase contract to log the Eagle sales
regardless of whether it can sell the wood, he said.
Industry groups say Vanport bid so much for the timber that the company cannot
now sell it at a lower price that allows buyers to pay for extra security for
their equipment and sawmills.
http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/30992_eagle12.shtml
=====
Best to you, Susan
....
http://www.stopwhalekill.org
Whales are indigenous to the oceans. We have choices for our homes, our
adventures, our vocations, and our sustenance. The whales do not. Leave them
be.
