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.

Old Growth Reserve Logging Begins at Biscuit

11 Arrested at Fiddler Timber Sale Blockade
John West of Silver Creek Logging Co. anticipated a fight over Fiddler Mountain. With 85 loggers ready to go, he expressed his intent to begin logging once a court mandate allowed controversial old growth reserve timber sales in the Biscuit Fire area to proceed. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued that mandate this morning, opening the fight West promised.

As dawn broke on the Green Bridge over the Illinois River near Selma this morning, 75 people gathered to block old growth reserve logging at the Fiddler Timber Sale. Forest Service law enforcement officers and Josephine County Sheriffs escorted loggers to the site at 6:30 am where they encountered a large crowd effectively blocking all access to the sale units.

After issuing an order to disperse, 72-year-old Selma resident Joan Norman sat in the middle of the bridge, refusing to move. "We have no laws in our forest so we will be the law," said Norman, before law enforcement officers carried her off to be arrested, charging her with interfering with an agricultural operation. Two other individuals were

Biscuit Fire Old Growth Reserves Face Imminent Logging

The Forest Service is rushing to log thousands of acres of old-growth reserves affected by the Biscuit fire before a court can determine if the logging is illegal. Logging may start any day in these special places! In addition, old-growth legacy trees are falling at the Briggs Cedar timber sale on Squaw Mountain in the wild Siskiyou.

A court ordered injunction that prevented logging in seven timber sales has been lifted. As a result, sensitive old-growth reserves are now imminently threatened by the Fiddler, Steed, Berry, Wafer, Hobson, Lazy, and Briggs Six logging sales. The Forest Service is trying to saw through these sales before a court case on the legality of the logging can be heard by a judge on March 22nd. If logging proceeds, it could be completed before the court decides whether the logging is legal or not.

The Forest Service is plowing the snow-covered roads to Viagra online these logging sales in their rush to log old-growth reserves.

Call the Siskiyou Project for up-to-the minute opportunities to help: (541) 592-4459 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (541) 592-4459      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or (503) 222-6101 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (503) 222-6101      end_of_the_skype_highlighting.

Flattop Logging at Biscuit Compromises North Kalmiopsis

Logging is on-going at the Flattop timber sale, partially along the infamous Bald Mountain road in the Siskiyou Wild Rivers area. Flattop is part of the extreme Biscuit fire logging project ­- the largest logging proposal anywhere on federal lands in modern history.

Logging at other Biscuit timber sales has left behind a long list of violations ­- everything from logging green trees to cutting within sensitive stream buffer zones. So-called "hazard tree" cutting near the Flattop timber sale has already resulted in logging within the protected Kalmiopsis Wilderness itself -­ a blatant violation of federal law.

In yet another violation, the Forest Service is allowing logging vehicles to travel on a normally closed road heading into the –part of the North.

Bites Taken from the Biscuit

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) took two years to decide what to do after the Biscuit Fire burned in Southwestern Oregon in 2002. As they finally released their plan this summer, they immediately declared the Horse timber sale one of a number of "emergency situations," took away rights for public review and promptly auctioned the 125 acres of ancient forest for "salvage logging."

In making their decisions, the USFS relied heavily on the advice of Dr. John Sessions, a prominent professor at the Oregon State College of Forestry. He argued that modern forestry can grow an ancient forest faster than Nature. Logging is an essential step in his process. His report was financed by the Douglas County commissioners of Roseburg OR, old-growth logging capital of the Lower 48.

Sessions' report has now translated into action on the ground at Horse, the first timber sale among 19,000 acres to be cut at Biscuit. Logging at Horse is a most up-to-date study on how our National Forests are being managed.

Biscuit Fire Logging Just Began!

The Horse timber sale is being logged and a basecamp is being set up to respond.

The first Biscuit Fire timber sale is now being logged and people are preparing to shut that logging down.

Giant trees are falling in the Game Lake area on the northwest corner of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness. The timber sale is known as Horse and the company logging it is Silver Creek Logging. This organization, headed by John West of Merlin, is a newly created front group for Roseburg Forest Products.

For background information (with slightly dated titles due to recent events), check out:
Biscuit Survives the Summer! and Indi Blockade Keeps Biscuit Shut Down

See the Orville Camp Story

Currently being aired on KOBI TV, this is a short spot featuring Orville Camp talking about his logging operation and why he thinks the biscuit should not be logged.

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