Anti-logging protester recovering in hospital

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published October 9, 2001

TILLAMOOK, Ore. -- An anti-logging demonstrator who fell 60 feet from a hemlock in the Tillamook State Forest was in fair condition Monday with multiple broken bones, the most severe injury after a logging protest in Oregon.

Michael Scarpitti, also known as Tre Arrow, suffered a head injury in Saturday's fall and was taken to a hospital in Portland.

He gained national attention last fall when he pleaded guilty to contempt for sitting on a ledge outside the U.S. Forest Service's downtown Portland headquarters. He spent 11 days on the ledge in protest of a timber sale in the Mount Hood National Forest.

Arrow had been clinging to the tops of trees in the Tillamook State Forest since Wednesday to protest a thinning operation. At one point, authorities had isolated him to one 100-foot hemlock by cutting down nearby trees and most of the limbs from his tree where he was sitting were cut. He apparently fell asleep Saturday and plummeted to the forest floor.

Protesters and area residents criticized law enforcement officials for the way they handled the standoff, which began Thursday when rescue climbers tried to bring Arrow down.

Don Fontenot, spokesman for the Cascadia Forest Alliance, said the activist was "bombarded with noise and lights until, fatigued to the point of exhaustion, (he) supposedly 'fell' out of the tree he was stationed at.

"I really resent the way the Department of Forestry has polarized the community by pushing this," said Judson Moore, a store owner in Manzanita. "We're shocked and embarrassed that our local authorities caused all this to happen. We're shocked they worked this guy into a position where he was going to fall out of a tree."

The Olympian Copyright 2001

back to main Outdoors index