Unraveling of the Wild
by Natalie Shapiro
Welcome to Cove/Mallard, the heart of the largest undeveloped
and unroaded forested land in the lower forty-eight. Listen: a chainsaw
bites through tree rings, the subsequent crashing death of a giant fir older
than any human. Piece by piece, the wildness, the freedom of this land is
unraveling.
Cove/Mallard, in Central Idaho, is still mostly wild, but its death is beginning.
The area is in the Nez Perce National Forest, ostensibly "owned"
by all U.S. citizens. However, it is being given away to large timber corporations
by the U.S. Forest Service.
Cove/Mallard is, perhaps, just the most egregious example of agency malfeasance.
Because the land is less steep than the nearby canyon walls that tumble
into the Salmon River and has relatively pristine watersheds, it is particularly
important to endangered and threatened species of wildlife-lynx, wolverine,
grey wolf, pileated woodpecker, and salmon, to name a few. The land and
its wild inhabitants are the very essence of wilderness.
Cove/Mallard is part of the Greater Salmon-Selway ecosystem, which covers
a swath across central Idaho and touches the western fringes of Montana.
This is the wild heart of America. This is where salmon used to spawn in
great numbers; this is where the Nez Perce, or Nee Me Poo as they call themselves,
also ran wild and free.
Two hundred cutting units and 145 miles of road are prescribed for Cove/Mallard,
the largest undertaking of industrial logging in the region ever. This,
in spite of study after study that conclude roads spell the death sentence
for critters who need wild places. Roads fragment ecosystems, destroy streams,
and bring in people, often with guns and RVs. We are already seeing the
effects of roads built last summer: silt and muck cover once-pristine stream
beds. Forest Service decision-makers ignore the evidence from their own
biologists.
Cove/Mallard is where activists have decided to put their bodies on the
line in a campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience. We need your support
in these efforts, your body, for that is all we have.
We are using our bodies because all other efforts have failed; appeals to
all levels of the U.S. Forest Service and President Clinton failed. The
timber sales at Cove/Mallard are rife with illegalities; numerous environmental
laws, the Nez Perce Forest Plan, and the timber sale contracts are being
blatantly violated.
A lawsuit based on these illegalities in the U.S. District Court was denied,
and now is waiting to be heard at the next level in the hierarchy of the
courts. While waiting, the trees fall.
Justice has also been denied us in the woods. In response to protesters
burying themselves in the middle of a logging road, the Forest Service closed
that part of the forest to the public. Activists requested a permit to enter
the closed area with Forest Service escorts, in order to monitor logging
activities. The response: "No permits will be issued to self-styled
environmentalists." To protest and monitor logging activities, we had
to trespass onto public land. Those caught doing so received jail time and
hefty fines.
That didn't stop us. We sat in trees, in tripods and in the road. Besides
dealing with hypothermia and angry loggers, we had the pleasure of the company
of irresponsible "keepers of the peace." When a security guard
shot at activists, Forest Service law enforcement officers (LEOs) laughed
it off. A sheriff kicked the 30-foot tall tripod an activist sat in "to
see how stable it was." A logger felled a tree which hit a 300-year-old
spruce that an activist was in, almost knocking her 100 feet to the ground.
LEOs stood by watching.
Things aren't much better in court. Activists were arrested and found guilty
of blocking logging operations. Ironically, the judge found no evidence
of outrageous conduct by law enforcement officials, and refused to let defendants
use the necessity defense because "you could still write letters to
officials." Apparently we are doing the right thing because the feds
find us very threatening. So threatening that the Idaho legislature passed
a law in 1994 that made it a felony to solicit or conspire with anyone to
commit any crime with the intent to halt or impede lawful logging.
On an early morning in the summer of 1993, Federal agents raided the base
camp, a privately owned inholding in the national forest. Pointing guns
at sleeping activists, the Feds ordered them up and searched the entire
camp, including peoples' personal belongings. They were investigating an
alleged tree-spiking incident and were looking for evidence. They took things
like shovels, saws, nails, axes, personal diaries, and crucial documents.
In 1993, the road building company SLAPPed activists over alleged vandalism
to a bulldozer. A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation is just
that-a strategy to impede activists from fighting for justice. SLAPPs have
been used against a variety of environmental activists, with the goal to
drain them economically. Our SLAPP is far from over, but it hasn't stopped
us.
This year, we have a new atrocity to tackle: the salvage rider. With the
passage of the rider last summer, the death sentence strikes at the last
remaining old growth and roadless areas in the West. Healthy forests are
being decimated because, says the Forest Service, they might get diseased.
And our best tool to fight it legally was stolen with the salvage rider;
we can't appeal these biologically destructive timber sales.
The irony is that we-the American public-are subsidizing this. Our taxes
are subsidizing the six million dollars that the roads in Cove/Mallard will
cost.
Another irony is that timber workers are exploited by an industry which
doesn't care about them. Over 40,000 jobs have been lost in the Pacific
Northwest in the past decade, half to automation. Yet it is the environmental
concerns and the endangered species who receive the blame.
Back at Cove/Mallard, coyotes yip-yip on a moonless night, an owl swoops
down for a kill. Shadowy figures sneak through the woods. It is no wonder
the Zapatistas find refuge in wild lands. It has always been that way .
. . for freedom is wildness.
Cove/Mallard Coalition Activities
The Cove/Mallard Coalition is gearing up for its fifth year of resistance
against the destruction of the wild. The Coalition includes, among others,
Earth First!ers, Seeds of Peace (they feed and give non-violence training
to activists), and the Ancient Forest Bus Brigade (the base camp owners).
A base camp on private property, adjacent to the Cove/Mallard area, is maintained
during the summer.
Because of the area's importance, the 1996 Earth First! Round River Rendezvous
will be held here from June 30 to July 7. This annual event is the gathering
for Earth First! activists from across the continent. The week is filled
with workshops, skills training, non-violence training, and a big rally.
It's a week for seeing old friends and making new ones, for networking,
and lots of partying and music. See the Beltane issue of the Earth First!
Journal for details.
Besides the Rendezvous, we are organizing a l00-mile walk to raise awareness
about Cove/Mallard. Our route takes us through timber-dependent communities.
The purpose of the walk is to interact with people in these communities,
to build coalitions, and to create a peaceful forum to discuss various environmental
issues, concerns, and conflicts.
To get involved or to donate food, equipment, or money, contact: Cove/Mallard
Coalition, P. O. Box 8968, Moscow, ID 83843 · (208) 882-9755 ·
(208) 883-0727(fax) · cove@moscow.com
