Earth First! Protest Leads To Arrests Forest Service Officers Move In As Bad Weather, Cutting Near
U.S. Forest Service officers arrested Earth First! environmental activists and began dismantling a complex network of barricades in the Nez Perce National Forest.
The long-awaited confrontation Wednesday capped the sixth season the activists have been protesting road building and logging in the Cove-Mallard.
Three men, calling themselves Crusty, Smooch and Chipmunk, were taken into custody on the Jack timber sale road in the Cove-Mallard area. They face federal misdemeanor charges of being in a closed area, being an impediment on the road and maintaining a structure on federal land, forest spokeswoman Elayne Murphy said.
The three were taken to the Idaho County Jail and were expected to be transported to federal court in Boise. Members of the Cove-Mallard Coalition said two more were taken into custody later.
Twenty other activists moved away from the site when officers told them the road was closed.
Murphy said the Shearer Lumber Co., which purchased the first three of nine sales in the Cove-Mallard, has almost completed harvesting timber in the Noble Creek sale area and plans to move into the Jack sale soon.
However, that was not the only reason for forest officials to bring the issue to a head.
“They’ve taken all these culverts out and the weather is starting to get bad,” Murphy said. “We need to get in there to repair the road before winter.”
She estimated the cost of repairing the damage at about $10,000, not including the law enforcement involved.
The activists apparently had been working at the barricades for some time. Several culverts had been dug out of the road; some were punctured and some were placed on their ends in the road.
One of the men arrested was removed from a log-pile burrow with his arm in a pipe and the pipe embedded in a concrete block. Officers used a chain saw to cut away the logs and then a rock drill to remove the pipe.
Chipmunk had a bicycle lock around his neck, securing him to a cable attached to a “bipod” - two upright logs dug into the road and with a sitting platform at the top.
A sign identifying the activists as Earth First! members was the first official connection in about three years to the renegade group. Recently leaders have been identifying themselves as the “Cove Mallard Coalition.”
xxxx DAMAGE Nez Perce National Forest spokeswoman Elayne Murphy estimated the cost of repairing the damage to culverts and roads at about $10,000, not including the law enforcement involved. Several culverts had been dug out of the road; some were punctured and some were placed on their ends in the road.