To find out more about the fascinating age of dam removal contact American Rivers. If you would like more information about ongoing efforts to protect the Willamette National Forest contact: Oregon Natural Resources Council.

Contact Secrets to learn more about their "SECRETS of Our Forest Home Education" program--a science and wonder-based environmental education model that can be applied to all ecosystems.

Ghost Dance Circle. On the log deck of a ten-year-old clearcut, Prescott University Dancer Professor, Liz Fallor dances around a fire ring, pausing at each of the four directions to welcome the slowly recovering forest. With the old forest missing, Mt. Hood looms in the background, a beautiful view yes....but not the one nature intended here.

MOUNT HOOD PROPOSAL:  The Forest Service released a proposal to protect areas of the Mount Hood National Forest by limiting hiking  and camping access, according to the Oregon Wildlife Federation (OWF).  However, the environmental community recommends that the best way to reduce pressure on the forests is to designate more wilderness areas and OWF is calling for the entire Mount Hood National Forest to be one of those areas.  The Forest Service is refusing to participate in a public forum that might expose their proposal to criticism by the public.  "The Forest Service is currently destroying wilderness areas faster than you imagine," said Joe Keating of OWF.  "The recreational needs of our community are not served by destroying our watersheds and ancient forests."

For information on ongoing efforts to protect the remaining unprotected old-growth in Mt. Hood National Forest contact: Oregon Natural Resources Council.

For more information on the Rogue River National Forest, contact Headwaters.

Salmon Ring. To celebrate the return of the Coho to a creek recieving ongoing restoration work, local activists young and old formed a ring across this bend in the river.The Siuslaw NF encompasses approximately 630,000 acres in Oregonís Coast Range Bioregion. It was once one of the major timber producers in the Northwest but as a result of the Northwest Forest Plan and the need to protect Theatened and Endangered Species like the Coastal Coho Salmon and Steelhead, timber production has dropped to approximately 8 Million Bd Feet which comes from commercial thinning of existing plantations.
 

The Siuslaw NF may be one of the more progressive National Forests in that it  appears to moving in the direction of a 'Protection and Restoration Strategy by watershed' which many of the local activists have been advocating and which has been mandated for the Coast Range by the NW Forest Plan. Local activists must hold the federal and state agencies accountable to their responsibility to protect and restore T & E species and salmon populations.  Participation at the local and bioregional level is crucial if we are going to be successful!!

Siskiyou National Forest

Lou Gold's Bald Mt.Wheel.The contemporary on-the-ground forest activist movement  began in 1983 when Earth First! and local activists from southern Oregon planted themselves in front of the bulldozers on the Bald Mountain road in the Siskiyou National Forest. Following that seminal controversy, Lou Gold hiked back into the North Kalmiopsis wilderness to begin twelve consecutive seasons of summer-long vigils where he becameme the caretaker of the the prayer circle on Bald Montain. At the end of his second season on the mountain, he wrote:

   "By Solstice, the Medicine Wheel had been fully restored.  Brightly  colored flags waved in the strong breeze and fresh strings of tobacco ties decorated the flagpoles.  On Solstice we spent twenty-four hours within the prayer circle, fasting and remaining in silence.  The night before, we had gone to sleep blanketed by wet clouds that hovered about the mountaintop. At dawn a patch of blue sky opened directly above us.  All day we watched as the sun burned off the moisture, and mountain ridges rose out of the low-lying fog and the clear sky spread toward the coast.  It felt as if a light or energy was radiating outward from Bald Mountain."

 "Everything had a quality of sacredness on that longest day.  We walked the circle casting tobacco to the winds.  We burned cedar and sage in the fire pit near the centerpole.  We prayed for the trees, gave thanks for the many wonders of this existence, and thought of loved ones near and far. The circle was complete: we stood humbly in the midst of a great natural harmony and the world, for the moment, seemed in order. Then I had a vision of many prayer circles, forest and mountain shrines throughout our region - places of power and renewal, of peace and pilgrimage. They would be, like Bald Mountain, safe spotsin confusing times, rallying points and sanctuaries for those wholove this earth and her peoples."

The Zero Circles campaign now pursues a similar vision in National Forests across the nation.

 For over a decade Lou has traveled the country with his very popular Ancient Forest Slideshow and earned the title of Hermit-With-the-Most-Frequent-Flyer-Miles. The Siskiyou Project of which he is a founding member has become one of the most effective grassroots forest activist networks in the U.S. Please visit their webpage at www.siskiyou.org  For a full story of Lou Gold's Bald Mt., www.siskiyou.org/lou/journals/vigil.html

Rogue River Ring. This posterized version of a photo sent in by an activist  shows the rock circle he built in a quiet pool near his camp on the Rogue River. The Rogue National Wild and Scenic River is the most popular whitewater rafting trip in Oregon. While much of this river flows through wilderness, most trips conclude in a region marred with clearcut mountain sides spoiling the wildness of the experience for many. Recreation in our National Forests contributes 30 times more jobs and income to the economy than does logging these lands--one of many reasons to end the federal timber sales program, i.e. "Zero Cut."

Since BLM manages considerable lower elevation forests (lower than the forest service) they own some of the biggest and best public ancient forests. They've been aggressively clearcutting them for years, and now they are looking at less than 30 years before they have all the available old-growth clearcut (according to the USFWS). It's hard to imagine, just 30 years left of these forests that have taken thousands of years to evolve and contain centuries old trees. The Class of 98 sale is 204 acres, most of it old growth. 7million board feet are planned to be cut. . . 1,400 log trucks. Ending commerical logging on public lands would stop this and similar sales.

For information on forests in the Umpqua Watershed, contact the Umpqua Watershed, Inc.
 

Medford District--BLM

Applegate Zero, 2003. This large circle was built by community members in the Little Applegate Watershed, at the edge of the proposed Dakubetede Wilderness. It was constructed in response to the BLM's plans to log over 30,000 acres in the watershed and surrounding area in the next few years. The Little Applegate Watershed is a diverse and beautiful place, unique in its aridity due to the rain shadow cast by the snowy Siskiyou crest in the background. Here, on a high, south-facing slope, junipers, sagebrush, and mountain mahogany live in steep, open grasslands. In the drainage below live the rare and endemic siskiyou birch, giant ponderosa pines and Douglas fir, ancient pacific yews, and even an odd redwood! This inspiring place is considered sacred by many present-day residents and visitors, and was surely sacred to the humans who lived here before European colonization.
    Constructed in a gravel pit guarded for logging road material, this community mandala represents our intention to heal the existing wounds before we further pillage our magnificent public lands.

    If you would like to help save this area, please write to Rich Drehobl, Ashland Field Manager, Medford District BLM, 3040 Biddle Rd., Medford, OR 97504. Tell him to cancel the Bobar, Bald Lick, and Prince Castor timber sales. You may also contact TELAV (Threatened and Endangered Little Applegate Valley) at www.deepwild.org, (541-899-1712), telav@deepwild.org, POB 1330, Jacksonville, OR 97530.