We had a nice conversation and they were very well behaved. Donald Fontenot of the Cascadia Forest Alliance said later Wednesday that Smith agreed to a conference call with them on Thursday. Earlier the protesters had gathered outside a building housing U.S. Forest Service offices. Opponents of the sale have been protesting in the woods, suspending themselves between old-growth trees and blocking roadways, for years. Jeremy Hall of the Oregon Natural Resources Council demanded to know why the Forest Service was allowing a timber sale in an area that has a history of serious blow-down losses of trees from previous sales.
Trees can be more susceptible to being blown down by winds in a logged area.
We believe the forest is healthy. There is no call for chain saws to come into it. The Forest Service said the area could be logged beginning last Friday, but protesters camped alongside the access road leading to the area say they will stay there and block access until the sale is canceled. Fontenot said there were no blowdown problems in the drainage area until the first timber sale there in 1982. Activists perched in trees and blocking roads have managed to stall any major work in the sale so far.