Tree sits and politics

Guest Shot op/ed by Sydney Haskell, President of the Carmanah Forestry Society

Cathedral Grove's recent "tree-sit" at the site of the proposed parking lot entrance, is a poorly understood form of forest activism, designed to stop logging cold in its tracks. Risk wise, tree sits are extremely dangerous, and sitters have been seriously injured, occasionally resulting in death. One common thread in these protests is the level of determination and conviction present when citizens voluntarily risk their lives as an expression of their conviction to protect nature.

There is an inexcusable flaw in governance when protests of this severity occur. It is vital for the public and our politicians to understand the danger and consequences inherent in this form of protest. If they are serious about pre-empting human tragedy and timber markets backlash, government needs to change directions, provide meaningful species protection and a fair and open democratic process to resolve this and related conservation issues.

Climbers construct tree-sits by using ropes to suspend wooden platforms high in the forest canopy. Their intention is to occupy that space indefinitely, discouraging the cutting of the trees supporting their platform, and those in the proximity. They will always be mounted on, or suspended by a tree or series of trees at a life threatening height should they fall.

Unlike the 1993 Clayoquot Sound "Peace Camp," where massive arrests and media attention are the objective, a "tree sit" gains its power and effectiveness by the degree of risk to the occupant, safety and social approval is critical to a "mass arrest" campaign and campaigns need to be designed so that conscientious individuals will feel safe and want to join in, as it is all about numbers.

Design-wise, the Clayoquot protest could be described as a well maintained conveyor belt, with protesters choosing to jump on when the time was right and use their punishment by the court system as their contribution towards issue development.

Over a thousand people were arrested and the confrontation between the NDP government and the people of the province crystallized. While social discomfort and financial hardship were real, it was infinitely safer when compared to sitting on a platform, usually the size of a door and being tossed about in the wind, soaked when it rained and generally uncomfortable year round.

Thirteen years ago, I was visiting the Walbran Valley protest site, observing the shift change of tree sitters. Few will ever experience the precarious intensity of life and death that I witnessed that day. "C" had spent four days and nights in her tree platform was exhausted and coming down. After lowering her packsack and sleeping bag, she connected her ropes, but had failed to hook her safety harness to her climbing rope properly. From a height of approximately 20 metres she warned us of her fate. I scrambled with others, stretching her sleeping bag across her trajectory, as firemen do to break a fall. Seconds later, she shot past like a rocket, ripping the sleeping bag from our hands and collapsed.

She couldn't breathe. Would she live or die? We comforted her the best we could.

Skin was ripped from the fingers and palms of her hands, bleeding and damaged by the rope. She had broken her lower back and thigh. The rest of the story is about fear, comfort, uncooperative company officials, helicopter and a young girl’s recovery that a nurse described as a walking time bomb.

If this story disturbs you, realize that C’s fate or worse could happen to a tree-sitter today, it’s part of the territory.

By risking the supreme sacrifice, the sitter stops trees from being cut, whereas at Clayoquot, once the blockade was broken, smug loggers had their chainsaws singing within minutes with the sound of trees crashing throughout the day. Rarely is there the financial wealth to provide ideal equipment or training.
The likelihood of an injury or death to a “sitter” is no exaggeration. Regardless of whether the “sitter” was injured through their own inexperience — or even more damaging if police were nearby — attempting to remove them would not only put the spotlight on the tragedy, but on the message of the victim. Tree-sits are a “last stand” approach and government needs to question the political liability of the message, “people dying to protect Cathedral Grove.”

In 1991, I was involved with similar protests in the Upper West Walbran Valley. This area is now part of the Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park. When logging executives and police arrived, a routine protest and confrontation ensued. When the forest wars took place in 1991, the province was inflamed at the arrogant Socreds, their damage to the environment and their downsizing of social programs. This was reflected in outrage at the polls. Pollsters suggest that a similar mood has returned to haunt the present government, and just as the Socreds of the past were unwilling to respect fair public process and meaningful consultation, Water, Air and Land Protection Minister Bill Barisoff and Premier Gordon Campbell have followed suit.

Just as our parents fought an evil empire supposedly for democracy, protesters and others willing to sacrifice their personal comfort and freedom in an effort to express their commitment to democratic process must be seen as heroes.

In March of 2004, Minister sought an injunction, but this time the stakes had increased from fines in 1991 to jail time in 2004, and CFS had provided the perfect lawyer to meet the legal challenge and we won. Unlike the summer of 1991, the Supreme Court clearly stated that legal enforcement and punishment would need to go through existing laws and those laws would need to fail before the supreme court would be involved.

After five and a half months of protest, we believe that Minister Barisoff needs to call a “time-out” for Cathedral Grove and develop a proper process.

Ultimately all conservation problems are political problems, whether they be endangered species habitat or tree sitters in the Grove.