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Tree Sitter Dies in Platform Fall

Josey1Josey1 Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
edited April 2002 in General Discussion
Tree Sitter Dies in Platform Fall
Sat Apr 13, 4:28 PM ET
By ANDREW KRAMER, Associated Press Writer

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A tree sitter in the Mount Hood National Forest fell 150 feet to the ground, was badly injured and died before rescue crews could reach the remote site.


The timber sale she apparently was protesting had been canceled three days before her death, and the protesters expected to leave the area within a week.

It took rescue crews over two hours struggling up snow-clogged dirt roads to reach the tree-sitters' camp after fellow activists called 9-1-1 on a cell phone at about 7 p.m., Clackamas County Sheriff's spokeswoman Angela Blanchard said.

The caller said the woman, identified as Beth O'Brien, 22, of Portland, was unconscious but still breathing, Blanchard said. But by the time rescue crews arrived at about 9:30 p.m., O'Brien was dead.

She had unhooked herself from one platform and was trying to reach another by a rope ladder when she fell, Blanchard said.

Ivan Maluski, a longtime Eagle Creek protester, said tree sitters were days away from leaving the site after a three-year vigil.

About four people take turns living year-round in tree platforms in the area, Maluski said. After the cancelation was announced Tuesday, protesters said they wanted to see a final signed contract before they pulled out.

Another protester, who declined to give her name, said protesters were still up in the trees Saturday at Eagle Creek.

Sen. Ron Wyden (news, bio, voting record), D-Ore., an opponent of the timber sale, announced Tuesday that the U.S. Forest Service had reached an agreement to cancel the logging contract after an independent review determined the deal required significant modifications to prevent environmental harm.

At issue was the problem of blowdown, or trees not intended for logging being felled by winds on the edge of areas where cutting was planned. The Forest Service said tree sitters didn't influence the decision.

The Forest Service and the timber company, Vanport Manufacturing, agreed to cancel the deal, but tree sitters said they would remain until the final paperwork was signed.

Tree sitters live in plywood platforms attached to the upper limbs of trees slated for logging.

At least two others have fallen in the past year. In June, one man fell in the Eagle Creek area but refused treatment. In October, another fell in the Tillamook State Forest and suffered multiple broken bones http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020413/ap_on_re_us/tree_sitter_death_3&printer=1


"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

Comments

  • RembrandtRembrandt Member Posts: 4,486 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    ...tree sitting should be left to the "professionals"....like hunters..
  • steve45steve45 Member Posts: 2,940 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Natural selection at work. Survival of the fittest.
  • instrumentofwarinstrumentofwar Member Posts: 1,545 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Shucks that's too bad, and here I was, planning to go out and cut down that damned tree myself. Oh well, stupid is as stupid does

    Some people just shouldn't be allowed to breed
  • William81William81 Member Posts: 25,350 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    It is a sad thing that this occured. However, when one puts oneself
    into a dangerous situation, one must live with the consequences. The only people I truly feel sorry for is the deceased's parents. They get to live the rest of their life thinking about how they raised a real dipstick....
  • muleymuley Member Posts: 1,583 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    So, if things fall in place like it would in Kalifornia, the tree huggers will sue the Forest Service and timber company and win, because they didn't supply safety nets, etc. I think the tree is quilty of growing too tall. It's the same as blaming a gun for someone getting shot. Oh well, one down(so to speak)and many more to go. It's not that I'm particularly calloused or insensitive, but this tree hugger knew the risks and accepted them.
  • dheffleydheffley Member Posts: 25,000
    edited November -1
    A tree hugger who kissed the ground. Sounds like infedility to me!

    Save, research, then buy the best.Join the NRA, NOW!Teach them young, teach them safe, teach them forever, but most of all, teach them to VOTE!
  • budmottbudmott Member Posts: 155 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Gee, giving your life, for something you believe in, how noble.
    later,
    bud
  • groundhog devastationgroundhog devastation Member Posts: 4,495
    edited November -1
    Now I hope the final accords aren't signed and the tree meets destiny in the near future!! They'll plant the forest back and that woman's great, great grand nephews and neices can view the forest once again in all it's spendor!!!! GHD
  • woodsrunnerwoodsrunner Member Posts: 5,378 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    GHD, Then maybe they will turn it into plywood, so some fool can make a platform out of it. Kinda like the car in the story Christine. LOL

    Woods

    How big a boy are ya?
  • sealyonsealyon Member Posts: 313 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Wonder if we can get all the PETA morons up there too. Wouldn't be able to tell them apart...
  • idsman75idsman75 Member Posts: 13,398 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Woods--I was wondering what those platforms were made from. Wouldn't it be a riot if they were wooden platforms? I wonder what their homes were made of before they chose to become homeless and live in the trees. And to think that there are more trees in America than there were 100 years ago.

    SSG idsman75, U.S. ARMY
  • FitzFitz Member Posts: 258 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Yeah, she was an idiot, but I still feel badly for her. I'm not saying she was a victim for her stupid beliefs, or any of that other politically-correct crap, but she didn't deserve to die. It's a good post...something the liberal media would never report. I just think about the fact that any number of circumstances in the real world might have brought her next to one of us on the range in the future.

    Fitz
  • MercuryMercury Member Posts: 7,830 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Sigh......so much misinformation, so little time.

    Idsman: Yes, there are "more trees" now, but they are WRONG TYPES OF TREES! They don't usually replant what they cut...... :(

    Merc (who is too tired to even think about this subject)

    NO! You may not have my guns! Now go crawl back into your hole!
  • Shootist3006Shootist3006 Member Posts: 4,171
    edited November -1
    the WRONG kind of tree????

    Must be the upass trees I hear about.

    What are they doing, planting palm trees???

    Quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem.Semper Fidelis
  • MercuryMercury Member Posts: 7,830 ✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    Quickly: They cut down pine, etc, and replant something crappy like poplar, or another non-native species. There goes any sort of decent hunting, habitat, anything......and the majority of the trees they DO replant end up dying anyway. Thats why we are getting most of our trees from Canada now...there is very little timber left that is worth cutting in the US.

    Guys that are hunters SHOULD be concerned, but usually aren't.......

    Merc

    NO! You may not have my guns! Now go crawl back into your hole!
  • gunpaqgunpaq Member Posts: 4,607 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    If a tree sitter falls out of a tree and no one is in the forest does he or she make a noise when hitting the ground? Did she "buy the farm" or "buy the forest"? Did she "go in" or "auger in"? Sounds like the result of a line-over malfunction as someone did not get a line over to her in time. Maybe the tree just shook her off like a dog shaking off ticks and fleas. Sorry guys for my dark slanted humor on this subject and I am truly sorry a person was killed needlessly, but these zealot misguided "life is a fairy tale" tree huggers have caused a lot of decent hardworking people a lot of misery.

    Pack slow, fall stable, pull high, hit dead center.
  • Matt45Matt45 Member Posts: 3,185
    edited November -1
    Obviously she was not a very good tree hugger!



    I like the bumper stickers we have in abundance up here in WA-

    "Hug a logger.....you'll never go back to trees!"

    Reserving my Right to Arm Bears!!!!
  • bartobarto Member Posts: 4,734 ✭✭
    edited November -1
    EARTH FIRST!
    we'll log the other planets later.
    barto

    the hard stuff we do right away - the impossible takes a little longer
  • smokinggunsmokinggun Member Posts: 590 ✭✭✭✭
    edited November -1
    I prefer to use a Tree Lounge, that way if I fall asleep or pass out I stay right up there in the tree where I'm supposed to be.
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