Cove-Mallard Coalition Plans To Resume Battle Against Logging
Members of the Cove-Mallard Coalition say they have encountered many obstacles in their four-year battle to halt logging in a roadless portion of the Nez Perce National Forest.
But members say they will continue to demonstrate next year if logging does not stop.
Activist Sarah (Seeds) Willner said authorities have been slow to intercede when demonstrators are confronted by loggers, contributing to an increasingly hostile atmosphere.
U.S. Forest Service and the Idaho County Sheriffs Office officials deny that law enforcement officers have intentionally been slow in responding to demonstrations by the Cove-Mallard Coalition.
“We’re not in a position to provide bodyguards for these people,” said Elayne Murphy of the Nezperce National Forest supervisors office at Grangeville.
But she said logistics make in impossible to respond immediately, especially when there is no advance warning of a pending demonstration.
Murphy and Undersheriff John Stroop said authorities were slow in responding to a recent demonstration because it was staged when both agencies were short of law enforcement officers.
An estimated 30 to 40 activists were trying to stop road construction. When authorities were alerted, only one officer was available, Stroop said.
“I didn’t want to send one person into that,” said Stroop.
Stroop said his office is investigating a report that a logger fired a shotgun over the heads of activists during an August 17 demonstration.
Cove-Mallard is a roadless area located south of Grangeville and between the Selway Bitterroot and Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Areas.
The activists say the corridor is ecologically critical to maintaining one of America’s last vast tracks of pristine roadless country.
The Cove-Mallard area used to be the Jersey Jack area. Decades ago, it became the trade-off area when creation of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area was being proposed. In exchange for the wilderness, Jersey Jack was opened to roads and logging.
Such political bartering may have made sense then, but in light of new understanding about fragmentation of ecosystems, the deal was bad for the environment and the logging economy, Willner said.
Forest Service officials say there is no intention to log the entire area. Plans call for a series of timber sales that would eventually remove some 80 million board feet of timber.
The Cove-Mallard Coalition has about 100 active members. Upward of 1,000 people have actively supported the cause over the past four years. The group maintains offices both in Moscow and at Missoula, Mont.
While most notorious for their actions, like sitting atop tripods and trees or blocking roads to impede loggers, the coalition wants mostly to fight the battle in the courts, Willner said. xxxx WHERE IT’S AT Cove-Mallard is a roadless area located south of Grangeville and between the Selway Bitterroot and Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Areas. The activists say the corridor is ecologically critical to maintaining one of America’s last vast tracks of pristine roadless country.