July 17, 2000
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It is important that these events in the forest don't go unnoticed.
Numerous plans are pending in this impaired watershed, all clearcuts. As we know, that means more cumulative impacts and flooding for the residents of Freshwater. When are we going to face the truth? Logging has an impact that increases in an exponential fashion with the size of the area harvested. This is the obvious truth that timber "science" refuses to admit. When this moratorium is lifted, the logging will explode.
I have been here 21 months now. As I continue to watch the ongoing devastation from this incredible tree, I think of what is to come and how my view-scape is to change. Devastation to the north, south, east, and west, and here I sit, one man held up by a beautiful group of caring people, holding up a beautiful tree, a tree holding up a hillside and county road. I look down at a coho salmon tributary (once spawning grounds, now filled by the silt of human arrogance), thinking of the fish who depend on us to learn a better way to relate to our planet. I wonder when will real progress begin?progress toward loving more, caring more, living to give... when? It is the people?s choice.
As of July 1, I began the process of weaning myself off food and will begin a liquid diet hunger strike on July 22 in an effort to raise awareness of the suffering of the forest.
The signs are obvious. The forest is wounded and the streams bleed the mud of its pain. This pain is somewhat intangible to the outside observer, but the pain of hunger should strike a chord and raise awareness for the pain the forest endures at the hand of industrial liquidation logging.
This is one element of a much larger campaign to develop a sustainable forestry program that relinquishes dependency on old-growth trees, reduces the size and frequency of clearcutting, eliminates the common practice of herbicide toxification of watersheds, and slows the cut rate to a reasonable level that can continue for generations to come.
We all need the forest for clean air, clean water, and lumber products. We need to recognize the intrinsic value of the forest and offer it the moral standing it deserves. We need the spiritual sanctuary the forest can provide, and the many forest-dependent species need us to recognize and serve their needs as well as our own. This can only happen with all our awareness and participation.
Please join in and share the word! Generations to come will thank us!
For more information and to check on the progress
of the fast, contact Nate by pager: (707)-476-9580.
Or email him at natemadsen@pocketmail.com. Also watch
for frequent progress updates on his website:
www.upatree.net.
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TOC for Forest & River News, Summer 2000