The Oxygen Collective practices creative resistance through projects that address injustice in our communities and destruction in the natural world. We use a 40' biodiesel tour bus to create and enhance events, and then add live music, independent media, organic food, and large-scale, participative art projects.
Priscilla the Biofuel Bus Will Ride Again- With Your Help!
Help Priscilla Ride Again! 
Greetings most revered kin and supporters. You are likely familiar with the work of the Oxygen Collective over the years and we are looking to you now to do something we have never done before- ask for your help in a very specific way.
After years of mobilizing masses to defend the old growth forests of the northwest, bring aid workers to the people of New Orleans and ignite action across the country for social justice, independent media, anti war efforts, corporate responsibility campaigns and alternative energy usage, our flagship vessel and Mobile Action Center- Priscilla the biofuel bus- blew her transmission transporting a CIIS permaculture class from Boone's Farm to the Bay.
She has been sitting idle for over a year now- and it is time for her to ride again. She has a strong engine with hundreds of thousands of miles of life left, a new $3000 electrical system, and all the bells and whistles our years of love and investment have built to make her an efficient and effective agent of change. More than that, she has the momentum of hundreds of peoples blood, sweat, tears and intention behind her, and she is ready to do the good work again.
Realistically, it will cost $10K to get her fixed and on her feet again, and we can't do it ourselves. So we are reaching out to our community to show your support in a tangible way and usher in the next era of o2 insurrectionary undertakings.
We were recently contacted by our close allies at the Sustainable Living Roadshow and asked if they could use Priscilla for their upcoming and Bad Ass national barnstorming tour. (Check it out at www.sustainablelivingroadshow.org-they have put together a totally cutting edge tour with a crucial message and impressive alliance of members) This is an amazing opportunity for them and for us to achieve national, mainstream exposure to a myriad of issues relating to sustainability and energy usage in an election year. But we need to raise these funds fast to make it happen- faster than any foundation or traditional source of grants can really respond.
The SLR folks have said they will match us dollar for dollar, making it just $5 grand we need to raise. I just received a commitment from a good friend of ours for $500 and she suggested I contact our greater circle of like-minded kin to see if others will match her. I will be the first to do so- meaning we need just $4000 more to get make this go! If each of you who supports our mission and the kind of actions we do were to make a donation appropriate to your budget, we will be back in action by summer's end.
If you have seen the bus on the road, you know she is a unique asset to the movement and a powerful force for inspiring audiences and galvanizing energy to important issues. A contribution to this mechanical repair is an investment in the future work of all those who will utilize this bus as a tool for social change- and especially in the vision of the Oxygen Collective and the Sustainable Living Roadshow.
If you can match Ginger and I at $500, please do- but if $100 or $20 is what's possible for you, that is still extremely helpful and greatly appreciated-with broad enough support, and so much already committed, even small donations may make the difference.
We can accept checks made out either to me (Mac Sutherlin)- with Oxygen Collective written in the memo- or if you want your donation to be tax deductible you can make it out to the Sustainable Living Roadshow-also write O2 in the memo. My address is 430 Ashland St. Ashland, OR 97520.
Huge gratitude to all of you- this is grassroots community support at its finest- may all of our work support one another's into a tightly woven network that grows stronger as we go and lifts us each up to our most capable selves!
In solidarity,
Laurel and the O2 crew.
O2 Supports Permaculture Courses
The Oxygen Collective is excited to provide teaching assistance, transportation and logistical support for a series of ground breaking permaculture design courses this Spring. The first course took place this February with Priscilla the biofuel bus carrying a full crew of students from the SF Bay Area down to the South Coast of Big Sur. Hosted by the Urban Permaculture Guild, this class is called the Permaculture First Responder. After the final ten day intensive at the epic Esalen Institute, graduating students received their permaculture design certificates.
The second course runs the second half of March and takes place on our home turf at Boone's Farm in Southwest Oregon. It is a ten day graduate level course accredited through the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) called the Alchemy of Permaculture. This is our second course working with CIIS and we are collectively taking it to the next level with an inspired team of competent instructors.
These courses bring students from mostly urban areas out to small farms and homesteads for hands-on instruction in the practices and philosophy of permaculture. They both incorporate a combination of academic readings and classroom lectures with full days of digging hands in the dirt and doing the real work of designing and building projects that work with natural systems to achieve human goals of food production and ecological restoration. This includes tending to compost piles, building structures with natural materials, planting orchards, building soil and much, much more. 
"Permaculture (permanant agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order." - Bill Mollison's Permaculture Design Manual.
Besides offering primary support roles setting up farm infrastructure and operating the bus, O2 members are giving presentations on grassroots activism, community organizing/sense of place and will guide natural history and fire ecology tours of the surrounding wild areas of the Big Sur Coast and Siskiyou Mountains.
O2 Members Network with Indonesian Allies
Oxygen Collective members Nathan Pundt and Becky White recently
traveled to Indonesia where they met members of Taring Padi, an
“independent non-profit cultural community” that uses art to build
the ecology and democracy movements in their home in Central Java and
throughout Indonesia. [http://www.anakseribupulau.info/] 
In Bali, they were supporting the work of community leader Pak Tjok Agung
who is developing programs in his village of Pejeng to build the local
economy and community in ways that are sustainable and not dependent on
tourism. After the terrorist bombings in 2002 and 2005, the Balinese
economy has struggled, especially in areas outside of the main tourist
centers. Pejeng is one of the oldest inhabited parts of the island and
tourists do come to visit the old temples and archaeological sites, but it
doesn’t receive the overwhelming visitation and tourist money like nearby
Ubud.
National Media Reflects on the Lessons of the Biscuit
With the last logging of the Bush Administration's Biscuit Fire Recovery Project underway, and major legislation moving through Congress that would strip the rights of citizens and conservation groups to challenge massive logging plans like it in the future, national media attention has finally begun to focus on the systemic lessons this contentious four-year fight has to teach us. 
Important articles have recently been published nationally by the Associated Press and the LA Times among others.
The Oct 17 LA Times story is printed below:
The Post-Burning Question: Log It or Leave It?
Some say timber on charred Oregon land is essential to rebirth, but U.S. is allowing salvage.
By Bettina Boxall Times Staff Writer
October 17, 2006
SELMA, Ore. — Three government SUVs guarded a road to nowhere.
Nearby, a middle-age couple camping out in a trailer manned a round-the-clock checkpoint next to a locked gate, on the watch for environmental protesters.
A few miles beyond, the drone of chain saws rose from a deep ravine while a hovering helicopter plucked blackened logs from the floor of the burned forest and carried them to the nearest road.
Begun in August, the logging is the first in the country on nearly 60 million acres of remote national forest protected by a Clinton administration decree that was set aside last year by the Bush administration. The operation was too far along to be stopped by a Sept. 19 federal court order reinstating the Clinton edict.
Ever since a huge 2002 fire called Biscuit swept across the outback of southwest Oregon, burning a swath of forest the size of Orange County, this prized landscape has been at the forefront of conflict over Bush administration forest policies dealing with roadless backcountry and wildfire.
One of the most contentious issues is whether government should leave a forest alone after it has burned, letting the trees decay to nurture a gradual rebirth, as conservationists advocate; or log the commercially valuable dead timber and replant, as the Bush administration desires.
Continue reading "National Media Reflects on the Lessons of the Biscuit"O2 Actions Featured in Time Magazine
Time Magazine recently posted a photo essay called Forest Defenders that includes images of O2 members and multiple actions organized by the Oxygen Collective in defense of Oregon's native forests.
The print editon features a small picture of forest defenders protesting the logging of old growth reserves in the Biscuit fire area and includes a link to a more extensive feature on their online magazine at time.com.
These images and others taken of forest defenders by photojournalist Christopher La Marcaare also currently being featured at the International Center for Photography's exhibit titled 'Ecotopia' in New York City.
O2 on NPR and New York Times Speaking Out For the Forests
The Oxygen Collective appears today in a story about Roadless Area logging at the Mike's Gulch timber sale on NPR's nationally syndicated program All Things Considered.
To Listen online:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5691875
We also added our name to a half page ad in the New York Times by Greenpeace calling out the shameful logging practices promoted by the corporation Kimberly Clark.
To view the ad and learn about this important campaign, visit:
www.kleercut.net
Continue reading "O2 on NPR and New York Times Speaking Out For the Forests"Resistance to Roadless Logging Escalates as Protesters Blockade Bridge Leading to the Nation's First Roadless Area Timber Sale
A daring predawn road blockade in the Siskiyou National Forest this August halted logging at the site of the first ever incursion into protected Roadless forest. Mike’s Gulch in the Biscuit Burn is the first victim of Bush’s long-sought elimination of the 2001 Roadless Conservation Rule.
A lashed log maneuvered into a cantilever position across the road stopped vehicle traffic from crossing the Green Bridge over the Illinois River, preventing access to the controversial timber sale. Laurel Sutherlin of the Oxygen Collective hung from the end of the log in a pod suspended over the river below. A small army of county, state and federal law enforcement issued an ‘emergency closure’ for ‘public safety’ then contracted a climber who nervously proceeded with a sketchy extraction plan that involved connecting the dangling pod to a pulley and lowering Laurel and the pod into the river.
This dramatic action follows years of lawsuits, rallies, public comment periods and national media attention involving tens of thousands of people speaking out against the logging of the Biscuit fire area. Nearly 2 million people submitted comments to protect our nation's roadless areas before the Biscuit fire and over 20,000 citizens submitted public comments opposing the Biscuit logging when it was proposed. Since then, almost 100 arrests have resulted from a community-supported civil disobedience campaign protesting the massive logging project.
Continue reading "Resistance to Roadless Logging Escalates as Protesters Blockade Bridge Leading to the Nation's First Roadless Area Timber Sale"Nation's First Roadless Logging Began Today; Unprecedented Action Ignites Protest
The Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest began logging today in a roadless forest that was protected by the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule which protected 58 million acres of public forest from industrial logging, and road-building. The Bush administration is now logging roadless forests, despite massive public opposition and a pending court cases challenging the logging.
More than 100 citizens from across the country attended a rally in front of the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest office in Medford today to protest the first logging of Roadless Areas. A dozen people with shirts reading "Roadless is Priceless" sat down in a road in front of the Forest Service office with potted trees. This resulted in twelve arrests, with charges still pending.
Kate Ritley a concerned citizen stated while being arrested that "There is nothing more precious than the wild and scenic forest of the Pacific Northwest. And today by the Bush administration cutting into Roadless Area's they are setting a national precedent that defies the will of the public and puts millions of acres across America at risk. I'm putting myself on the front line to take a stand against the Bush Administrations assault on America's forests."
Continue reading "Nation's First Roadless Logging Began Today; Unprecedented Action Ignites Protest"Undam the Klamath! A Reportback from Portland
In solidarity with the Yurok, Karuk, and Klamath tribes, o2 collective members traveled with a dozen supporters to Portland on August 2 to participate in a large march and demonstration at a hydropower convention. The tribes have long sought the removal of four dams on the Klamath river that block passage for salmon and threaten their cultural survival. The event brought national attention to an issue that has been simmering in the Klamath basin for many years. o2 is proud to continue supporting the efforts of the tribes to "bring the salmon home" and "undam the Klamath!"
Roadless is Priceless T-shirts
Roadless is Priceless T-shirts are available at http://www.cafepress.com/roadless and are the perfect attire for the national day of action on August 8th! We're selling them at no mark-up. Wear them often and speak up for our Roadless Areas!
Keep Towing That Line
New Indy Film Release: Keep Towing That Line- an inspirational 8-minute film filled with action footage from the 2005 Biscuit forest defense campaign. This tightly edited piece features the voice of legendary activist Joan Norman in an impassioned call to action accompanied by a moving soundtrack by The Devil Makes Three. This is a brief and open ended short film that covers the amazing civil disobedience campaign that took place in the spring of 2005 in opposition to the Bush Administration?s attempts to push through the largest logging project in US Forest Service history in the wildest landscape left on the US West Coast.
Download MPEG4 Movie 39.8 Megabyte file (high quality)
Download MPEG4 Movie 10 Megabyte file (low quality)
For more information, or to get copies of the DVD release, contact laurel@o2collective.org.