EARTH FIRST! OCCUPIES STATE CAPITOL SAYING ‘PROTECT OUR STATE LANDS’

Salem, OR: Near 10:00 AM, Cascadia Earth First! and Cascadia Forest Defenders converged at the Oregon State Capitol. Activists chained themselves together and staged a “die-in” in the offices of Ted Wheeler and Kate Brown while others climbed the building’s flagpoles, hanging banners reading, “Oregon: For Sale by Kate Brown and Ted Wheeler” and “Defend Oregon, No Compromise, Earth First!”

Protesters are targeting Secretary of State Kate Brown and Treasurer Ted Wheeler – both members of the State Land Board – after passing a plan in October of last year that will nearly double the annual clearcut in the Elliott State Forest. Today’s protest is an escalation in a series of protests calling on the Land Board to stop the clear cutting of ancient forests and to separate public school funding from state forest management.

The State Land Board is responsible for the management of the Common School Fund, a fund that is  generated from taxes on certain lands operated by the board. According to the Oregon Department of Forestry, which is overseen by the State Land Board, forestlands are to be ‘managed for timber production’. Some revenue from these lands goes to funding public education in Oregon, but less than one percent of Oregon school funding comes from logging the Elliott State Forest. Governor Kitzhaber himself referred to the Common School Fund as a “drop in the bucket’ when compared to total state spending on education.

“The elected officials of the State Land Board are allowing large extraction-based industries to make a quick profit at the expense of Oregon’s healthy future,” says Emmalyn Garrett of Bandon, OR. “We won’t let narrow industry interests dirty the air and water, destroy biodiversity, and decrease Oregon’s quality of life.” According to Garrett, today’s protest calls on the State Land Board to take responsibility for their  failure to protect Oregon’s public lands ahead of private industry profit. 

Cascadia Earth First! and Cascadia Forest Defenders demand:
No more clear cutting ancient forests. 
Drop the 2011 implementation plan for the Elliott State Forest. 
Separate our school funding from public land management.
No more privatization of public lands.

Earth First!