Three hours after midnight, on April 15, a van of special operatives descended on the University of Oregon campus to carry out a secret mission. The team of veterans and volunteers were trained at an off-site location to carry out this mission. Shrouded by darkness, the mission is declared a success, around 4:30 a.m.
The newly formed Eugene chapter of Extinction Rebellion left its mark on Oregon’s campus. What was their mission? Espionage? Assassination? Hostage rescue? The target was, in fact, a large tree chosen for high visibility on the busiest part of Oregon’s campus.
Students walking to class were greeted by a large banner hanging high up in the tree that read “FOREST DEFENSE IS CLIMATE DEFENSE” and the Extinction Rebellion worldwide logo. Next to the banner was something likely more eye-catching. A woman perched on the edge of a platform smiling and waving to the hundreds of students that would slowly walk past with their eyes fixated on the newly installed perch.
In a collaboration between University of Oregon students, Extinction Rebellion Eugene, and Cascadia Wildlands Defenders, a three-day tree-sit between April 15 and April 18 alerted residents to a planned clear-cutting of the Thurston Hills. The timber sale is authorized by the Oregon Bureau of Land Management. The Oregon BLM wants Oregon’s present and future generations to enjoy their public lands, yet the protesters assert that the BLM has overstepped and is doing the opposite.
Jennifer Velez works for the Public Affairs Office of the Bureau of Land Management’s Northwest Oregon District. Her job is to educate people about what the BLM is doing with the forests and other ecosystems designated as public lands.
Velez points to the BLM’s mission statement when she says “Our particular mission as a bureau, is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity, of the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.” So while XR Eugene crusades to save the trees, Velez says that the BLM is guided by a mission to protect the trees as well.
One of the BLM’s objectives is to support Oregon’s logging industry through timber sales. They claim that timber harvesting in the 2017 fiscal year contributed to $145 million in employment income and $560 million of greater economic output.
The Oregon BLM says they practice “Ecological Forestry” through Variable-Retention Regeneration Harvesting. The Oregon BLM is careful to explain how VRH is different from a traditional clear-cut.
“VRH is easily distinguished from clearcutting commonly practiced on some private industrial forestlands by the abundance and distribution of retained trees after harvest. VRH practices are creating diverse young forests that provide habitat for game species -- like deer, elk, grouse, and turkeys -- and a variety of other non-game species -- including bears, cougars, songbirds, lizards, snakes, and small mammals,” is what Oregon BLM claims.
In Aug. of 2018, the BLM finalized plans for a project titled “Thurston Hills Non-Motorized Trails and Forest Management.” In an area of 111 acres, the BLM plans on leaving 11 acres alone and performing the aforementioned regenerative harvest on 100 acres of land.
Numerous environmental groups took issue with the project happening so close to a metropolitan area of approximately 375 thousand people. The three-day tree-sit was targeted to raise awareness for a critical mass bike ride to protest the project at a town hall session.
UO student Courtney Kaltenbach played a large role in organizing the tree-sit. When the UO and UOPD gave their blessing to the protest without a confrontation it shocked her and the others who spent over a month planning.
“We were expecting the police to not be cool with it and there would be some confrontation and then they were so polite and so supportive and everyone’s response was ‘AHH typical Eugene! There are people in the tree!’,” Kaltenbach said.
They claim that the United States Bureau of Land Management’s decision to permit logging is ruining land enjoyed by many residents while increasing wildfire risk.
Dr. Timothy Ingalsbee is just one scientist that echoes this when he explained “Studies show that forests that have been degraded by past commercial logging, livestock grazing, or fire suppression typically burn more severely than native forests that have not been subjected to these past land abuses and are more resilient to fire,” to Jason Gonzalez of Oregon Wild.
Often up in the tree alone was UO student Mia “Robi” Robichaud. As flocks of students learned that Robichaud planned to stay in the tree for three days, they asked a handful of repetitive questions.
Some students passing by hollered “What are those two buckets for?” Robi replied that one is for food and they should be able to guess what happens in the other bucket. The unsatisfied student followed up with a clarification that she plans to defecate in one of the buckets, to which Robi gracefully satisfied their curiosity. She gives them confirmation that there is a “poop bucket” and the smiling group of students chuckled and continued their walk.
Another student, Simon Rosenthal, who was vital to the installation of a tree live stream and official website, laments the lack of urgency by other UO students.
“People don’t really give a shit. There were definitely people that saw, and like we tried explaining it to them but nobody was really interested,” Rosenthal says.
“It really needs a fresh breath of life, since the conversation has changed a little bit to being very climate centered, the movement also needs to change. A lot of us are trying to figure out what is going to be the most impactful moving forward,” is how Kaltenbach reflects on the experience.
While tree sitting is rooted in Oregon’s history, a wave of younger climate activists are pressed into more rebellious behavior to get their message out. The Thurston Hills clear-cut is still proceeding as planned, but young UO student Robi Robichaud is happy to fight the latest battle from her tree high above the Oregon campus.