Activists Cleared Of Charges In Logging Protest “Our Feeling Is This Law Has Proven To Be A Paper Tiger … We Feel It’s Null And Void”

Two environmental activists on Monday were cleared of felony charges for blocking a forest road in northcentral Idaho to protest resumed logging.

Mike Roselle of the Cove Mallard Coalition and Tom Fullum of the Native Forest Network were cleared of the first use of the so-called “Earth First!” law, making it a felony to interfere with an approved timber sale.

The Idaho Legislature last year passed the law after several years of demonstrations by the Earth First! and other groups in the Nez Perce National Forest. They contend the Forest Service is allowing harvest in the largest roadless area in the lower 48 states.

“Our feeling is this law has proven to be a paper tiger, and we don’t feel it would stand in higher court,” Roselle said Monday. “We feel it’s null and void and will continue our campaign.”

Magistrate Michael Griffin ruled there was insufficient evidence the two had conspired to block the Noble Creek road during their non-violent protest on Feb. 8.

Roselle and Fullum stepped in front of a lowboy semi hauling a track hoe, sheriff’s Lieutenant Skott Mealer said. He told the two they would be arrested, and they agreed to be taken into custody.

The Cove Mallard Coalition contends the Forest Service knowingly violated a National Marine Fisheries Service biological opinion for the Salmon River by allowing logging there.

It charged in January the Nez Perce National Forest did not develop a sediment monitoring plan for the Big Mallard and Crooked Creek drainages.

“We don’t think they can prove logging is legal, and we don’t think they can prove our non-violent protest was a felony,” Roselle said. “The state of Idaho is weak in both instances.”

Roselle said he and Fullum posted bond and were released on Feb. 9.

Idaho County Prosecutor Jeff Payne said the duo had hoped to litigate the constitutionality of the new law, but that didn’t happen since the cases did not make it to the district court level.

Protests over the years have generated more than 200 arrests. Roselle said the forest roads are currently impassable for logging trucks, so cutting is off for now.

He said the activists are prepared to resume their protests for a fourth year, and hope to persuade a judge to reinstate an earlier injunction against logging.