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Tree sitter unperched photo by Jim Craven Ashland Police wonder if Harris was deliberately cut down By Sara Murphy ASHLAND � Rick Harris had a few things to be thankful for Thursday: a hot shower, a turkey dinner � and the firefighter who may have saved his life. The tree-sitting protester�s stubborn campout in a library cedar ended Wednesday night after 13 days when his platform partially collapsed and rescue crews were called in to help him back to solid ground. Harris, who celebrated his 45th birthday earlier Wednesday, was not injured in the accident. He planned to spend Thanksgiving with friends before climbing back into the tree Thursday night. But was it an accident? Harris doesn�t think so, and Ashland police aren�t too sure, either. Harris believes someone cut the rope that suspended his platform and was tied off to a nearby ginkgo. The ginkgo is slated for removal to accommodate the planned library expansion that Harris is protesting. The Ashland Police Department is investigating to determine whether a crime occurred, according to a press release. Police are looking for a late 1980s or early 1990s full-size pickup truck that may be connected to the incident. The red pickup was seen speeding away from the area at the time of Harris� fall, police said. It was equipped with a metal lumber rack, and an aluminum ladder was attached to the rack. A police sergeant declined to discuss the case, referring questions to a spokesman, who could not be reached for comment. Harris said he didn�t hear a thing before he felt his platform shift. About to go to sleep in his one-man tent, Harris said he was listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd on his Walkman "as loud as it would go." First he felt the platform jump a bit, Harris recalled, then vibrations that felt like someone was sawing on the rope that secured his platform. "Then it all gave way and I got caught in the branches in my tent," Harris said. "It was all twisted up. I was hanging upside down. "I couldn�t do anything to save myself," he continued, carefully rolling a cigarette outside Evo�s Java House, his voice raspy from singing in the tree. "I thought, �Sweet Jesus!� " Ashland police and fire crews responded to the scene at about 11 p.m. after someone reported hearing Harris yell for help. Harris said rescue crews responded in "22 seconds" and had him safely on the ground in less than an hour � though it seemed longer, he added. "They impressed me," he said. Harris was most impressed by Adam Cosner, a firefighter and paramedic with a knack for rock climbing who scrambled up a ladder and branches to help him out of the wreckage. Neither man expected that Cosner would pull Harris from the tent wearing nothing but his birthday suit, an outfit appropriate for the day but not the occasion. Apparently, his thermal underwear slipped off when Cosner pulled him from the tangled tent. "He was buck-naked, standing on a branch," the firefighter said. "It was kind of funny." Harris said he tried to ignore the crowd and spotlights down below. "I put my pants back on," he said. Harris, who is afraid of heights, commended Cosner for keeping him calm and safe as they climbed down from the tree. "Most people with that skill are out there showing off on the face of El Capitan, they�re not out there saving lives," Harris said. After the rescue, Harris said friends gave him a hot shower and a warm welcome � and loaned him a jacket and shoes. Thanksgiving morning, he phoned his mother in New Hampshire. "She made me promise not to go back up," he said. But it�s a promise Harris decided he couldn�t keep. "We need a tree-sitter and it seems we can�t find anybody else but me, so I�m going back up," he said. "They could try to kill me 100 times and I�d still go back up. "This is important to me." While friends climbed the cedar and ginkgo to re-secure his platform, Harris said he planned to take in some turkey and two more hot showers before heading back up. Harris had been sticking to a healthy vegan diet during his tree-sitting stint, but decided Thanksgiving was worth a splurge. "I�ve been eating vegan," he said. "But not today." People with information on the incident are asked to call the Ashland Police Department at 482-5211 or the tips hotline at 552-2125. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.