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--> --> Logging sale protesters rally in Portland By Joseph B. Frazier Associated Press Writer PORTLAND - About 200 protesters opposed to the Eagle Creek logging sale marched through downtown Portland on Wednesday to the offices of Sen. Gordon Smith to demand that the logging be canceled. Smith is one of two members of Oregon's seven-member congressional delegation who has not come out in opposition to logging the area about 50 miles southeast of Portland in the Mount Hood National Forest. Security guards in the World Trade Center closed off the elevators to Smith's 12th floor offices. Smith was in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. But a handful of protesters were allowed up to talk to Smith aides to protest the sale. "A delegation of Cascadia Forest Alliance people, about 30 to 35, came up to express their opposition to the Eagle Creek timber sale," said Kerry Tymchuk, Smith's state director. "We had a nice conversation and they were very well behaved. We talked about natural resource issues and are hoping to arrange a time when they can meet with or talk with the senator and express their concerns directly." Donald Fontenot of the Cascadia Forest Alliance said later Wednesday that Smith agreed to a conference call with them on Thursday. Earlier the protesters had gathered outside a building housing U.S. Forest Service offices. Opponents of the sale have been protesting in the woods, suspending themselves between old-growth trees and blocking roadways, for years. Jeremy Hall of the Oregon Natural Resources Council demanded to know why the Forest Service was allowing a timber sale in an area that has a history of serious blow-down losses of trees from previous sales. Trees can be more susceptible to being blown down by winds in a logged area. "They say logging is important to maintain the health of the stand," he said. "We believe the forest is healthy. There is no call for chain saws to come into it." The Forest Service said the area could be logged beginning last Friday, but protesters camped alongside the access road leading to the area say they will stay there and block access until the sale is canceled. "There is catastrophic blowdown all over the place," said Fontenot. "We will be on the road, in the forest, in the trees, we will be there until that timber sale is canceled," he said to cheers of onlookers. Fontenot said there were no blowdown problems in the drainage area until the first timber sale there in 1982. Tre Arrow, who climbed to a ledge outside the Portland Forest Service building last summer and stayed there for 11 days to protest the sale, urged sympathizers to demand the Forest Service "be responsible for its actions. "Many people don't know what an old-growth tree looks like because so many of them are gone," he said. "If the Forest Service doesn't start listening they're going to have a bunch of people hanging out on these buildings." Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing