‘Timber Wars’ Podcast

Oregon Public Broadcasting will begin a 7-part ‘Timber Wars’ podcast later this month.

“OPB’s seven-episode podcast “Timber Wars” (launches Sept. 22) tells the behind-the-scenes story of how a small group of activists and scientists turned the fight over ancient trees and a bird no one had heard about into one of the biggest environmental conflicts of the 20th century.”

12 thoughts on “‘Timber Wars’ Podcast”

  1. Thanks for highlighting this podcast series, Steve. It’s cool that the 7 part series starts out with the infamous “Easter Sunday Massacre” on the Willamette National Forest from 1989. I heard so many first-hand accounts of the massacre from my time spent in the Breitenbush Cascades with dear friends that were there.

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  2. Yes, should be interesting. Those of us who worked in Timber in the FS on the Willamette NF at the time were caught in the middle. Wonder if they will show or talk about the enviros in 1988 who dumped urine-soaked sawdust on Forest Supervisors’ Mike Kerrick’s desk on the second floor of the Federal Building in Eugene (Willamette SO at the time), I was there, it wasn’t pretty. Maybe it will show folks from the Breitenbush Community laying down on a Forest road being hauled away to jail by the Marion County Sheriff trying to stop my crew from going to work in 1986, wasn’t pretty either. Tough Timber times for all.

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    • Thanks for your first-hand accounts, Tom.

      For whatever it’s worth, you or anyone, can come dump urine-soaked sawdust on my desk anytime if it prevents tens of thousands of acres of ancient, old-growth forest from being chopped down. Enjoy your well-earned retirement.

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          • Actually, all the the trees that were cut in the Breitenbush watershed had no problem either meeting a chainsaw or sawmill blade.

            So thank you for telling lies. Perhaps you are the one that sent an anonymous letter to the Forest Service claiming the trees were spiked. All sorts of tax payer money was wasted upon FS employees to use metal detectors on standing trees. Not ONE spike was found ceramic or metal in the mills.

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            • I remember milling wood for from the Biscuit fire that did have large nails driven into them. We got most of them out with a metal detector and luckily no one was hurt.

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            • Woody, if Bob noticed trees were spiked, how can you claim that not one was found? Are we missing something, are you talking about a different sale?

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              • None in the Breitenbush watershed, which is episode one. I resent that someone implies that I and others tree spiked the area. More useless FUD. You would not know the non-volient code of Cathedral Forest Action Group that held no support for harming another.

                I do not believe the Biscuit Fire is included in the OPB podcasts. Salvage was controversial for the Biscuit Fire. Search for, “Salvage Logging, Replanting Increased Biscuit Fire Severity”

                Do a search for tree spikes + Biscuit fire. What do you come up with?

                BTW it is not unheard of for trees to have random nails and such, not every instance is a matter of environmental action.

                In fact it is likely that neither you nor Bob know the origin of tree spiking.

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              • Sharon,

                The allegation that Bob is making is separated by about 20 YEARS and 275 miles from what Woody is talking about.

                Also, I’d love to see Bob share some actual evidence. Was the alleged incident reported to law enforcement? If not, why? If yes, what was determined? Also, as Woody correctly pointed out, it is not unheard of for trees to have random nails and such embedded in them. This is especially true of large, old trees that are near roads and trails.

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  3. I will be very interested to see how much the history of the time track with which memories of which people. I’m hoping that all of you who remember will participate in the discussion because I’ve been surprised how much historians/writers get things differently than the way I remember the past.

    “For most of America’s history, trees were seen as crops, and the plan was to log the country’s last available virgin forests and replant them with tree farms”
    I’d say “for most of America’s history, trees were seen as something to be removed to grow crops.”
    I don’t remember that being the Forest Service’s plan, either, granted I was on the East Side at the time. And my memory is that it was scientists at OSU that urged clearcutting for East Side forests. So I think there are many stories that could be told about that time, and it will be interesting to see which ones they choose to highlight.

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  4. I was Siuslaw Forest Supervisor from 1992-1999 and I’d say “For most of America’s history, trees were seen as crops, and the plan was to log the country’s last available virgin forests and replant them with tree farms”, and “for most of America’s history, trees were seen as something to be removed to grow crops” pretty accurately described the modus operandi when I arrived (including other Cascadian NFs). This changed abruptly following judicial moratorium. I recall having an explicit discussion about these very issues re 1991 Siuslaw Forest Plan with the forest planner and he stated the choice was made to favor timber economy over environmental values (like salmon and owls) because of the overwhelming benefits to society.
    What grieved me then, and still does, is this EITHER/OR paradigm. I believe, as described in my memoir “Toward A Natural Forest” (Or St Univ Press, 2015), that intelligent forest management can and should deliver both. But the “timber economy” I saw practiced was unsustainable – economically, ecologically, and politically.

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