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June 28, 2004 - Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels May 6, 2004 Tree sitters greet opening of foresters' conference By Myles Murphy Ashland Daily Tidings Two unidentified tree-sitters were perched high in an evergreen on the Southern Oregon University campus this morning in response to the Society of American Foresters Annual meeting taking place there. "We want to send out a message to save our forest," said one of the protesters, a young woman who claimed to be a former SOU student but declined to give her name. She was joined by a young man who said he was a present student and also declined to identify himself. "We want to bring more awareness to the community," the man yelled down from the tree, his voice barely rising above the din of the adjacent Siskiyou Boulevard. A statement from Ashland activist Stuart O'Neill explained that students and members of the community set up two platforms in the tree early this morning to serve "as a symbol of opposition to the rhetoric of old-growth logging," at the forest meeting. "In particular the tree-sitters oppose the presence of the Bush administration's chief of deforestation, Mark Rey, Oregon State University professor John Sessions, author of a study advocating extreme salvage logging of the Biscuit fire, and Hal Salwasser, dean of the OSU School of Forestry," O'Neill's statement continued. The three-day conference began Wednesday, including about 135 foresters expected to attend. SOU officials intend to let the tree-sit continue, at least as long as the situation remains reasonable. "We don't plan to do anything," SOU spokesperson Christina Dunlap said this morning. "Students have the right to protest, they just have to do it peacefully." Just a few people were on the scene this morning, but one man with dreadlocks and bare feet sat under the tree with a guitar. Simon Schmidt conceded his guitar playing was not working out so well with the loud nearby traffic, but continued to stay around to help the sitters. "I just wanted to support these brave tree sitters," Schmidt said. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams