Herb Curl:
>Tom, This is *exactly* what we want to hear from a "not very skilled
>birder" from the Palouse.

An enthusiastic "yes!" from me, too.

OK, off on another off-topic thread...well, spotted owl and marbled
murrelet isues aren't off topic in my mind, but what the hell.

Yesterday a non-violent recurrance of civil disobedience occured
down at the Sugarloaf sale in SW Oregon. This is one of the
green-tree old-growth sales freed up by the "salvage" rider, despite
having been shitcanned earlier due to use by the above mentioned
birds. You may have heard (or I may have mentioned) that the
administration tried to block the sales, saying that the compromise
reached between Clinton and your very own Sen. Slade which led to
Clinton withdrawing his veto left the Clinton Forest Plan in control
of these sales. Sen. Slade had gloated that Clinton was wrong,
conservationists wrung their hands and told Clinton "we SAID you
were being snookered", and Clinton confidently predicted success
in subordinating the Salvage Rider to his Option 9. Well, industry
sued and won quickly, including on appeal to the 9th Circuit.
The administration didn't bother with the Supreme Court as the
9th Circuit has a far better track record on "our side" and they
didn't want the lose at the top and set a Supreme Court precedent
(i.e. circuit court judgements only bind the circuit - let's just
call it "damage control" for short).

OK, enough background. The interesting thing about yesterday's
protest involves two folks who were arrested as part of it:

Brock Adams - western region Big Dude for National Audubon (a
good guy) who flew up from the Bay area "seeking jail time" (as
the Oregonian put it).

ex-Congressman Jonz from Indiana (I believe), a big-time supporter
of old-growth protections for years and years before being dumped
last November as part of the far-right sweep. He also flew in
specifically to get arrested.

There were other high-profile members of other national conservation
groups arrested, I didn't note all their names and organizations
but thought all ya bird nerds would enjoy hearing that the
Brock was one of those arrested.

- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>