PORTLAND- Greenpeace activists wearing ìForest Crimes Unit” shirts, cordoned off the U.S. Forest Service Headquarters in downtown Portland with crime scene tape today while handing out posters reading, ìPresident Bush, Most Wanted for Forest Crimes.” Employees coming in and out of the U.S. Forest Service office were given a whistle blower number (1-800-722-6995) in order to report forest crimes while a program exposing Bush’s environmental policies and his attempts to cut the public out of public lands broadcast from the radio. The protest comes just one day before President Bush is due to visit Portland.
“The U.S. Forest Service needs to place President Bush under arrest as soon as he steps foot in Portland for the vicious assault he has launched on our national forest system and on our freedoms to oversee its protection,” said Mike Roselle, of Greenpeace. “The American people need to realize that all of our national forests are under attack and our President is wielding the axe.”
President Bush announced his plans to visit Portland, Oregon and use this state as a platform to promote his environmental protection policy. In fact, Bush’s environmental record has come under heavy attack from various sectors. In just two years, the Bush administration has overseen the unraveling of decades of environmental laws like the Roadless Area Conservation Rule that protects the last remaining roadless areas from logging. In addition the current administration has begun to attack certain civil liberties, from limiting citizen oversight of public lands to possibly labeling peaceful protestors as terrorists.
In its escalating campaign to investigate, expose and stop forest destruction in the U.S., Greenpeace’s ship the MV Esperanza is currently on an expedition of one of the most endangered forests, the Tongass. The Tongass is the largest coastal temperate rainforest in North American. Entitled “Endangered Forests, Endangered Freedoms,” the tour has already met with resistance from local authorities who have thrown many obstacles including denying dock space for the ship to make the visit as difficult as possible. However, many community members have thwarted those efforts going so far as to offer personal berth space to Greenpeace.
“Much of the community welcomes us and wants Greenpeace to stop the destruction of this unique and beautiful forest,” said Mel Duchin, Greenpeace Campaigner onboard the MV Esperanza. “The U.S. may try to silence the message but the American public will hear the truth about its government’s role in forest destruction loud and clear.”
CONTACTS:
Carol Gregory 202-319-2472 (in Washington, D.C)
Kristen Casper 415-297-5621 (in Portland, cell phone)
Photos available upon request: 415-407-9293
