ESTACADA, Ore. - The U.S. Forest Service drove anti-logging protesters from trees and roadblocks on the Mount Hood National Forest on Friday, breaking up a four-year effort to block the harvest of a timber sale.
''We have opened the roads for the timber sale,'' said Gary Larsen, forest supervisor.
No injuries were reported but activists complained authorities were heavy handed. Four protesters - three women and a 17-year-old girl - were cited for failing to obey a Forest Service closure order, a federal misdemeanor.
Environmentalists since last May had built platforms on trees and strung aerial ''pods'' on cargo nets above the gates to two Forest Service roads leading to the timber sale.
Forest Service law enforcement agents and police positioned a mechanical cherry picker next to the trees before the four protesters decided to come down voluntarily.
The last to come down, the teen-ager who identified herself as ''Pitch,'' had fashioned a noose around her neck and threatened to hang herself if authorities advanced.
The activists argued that logging in the Eagle Creek watershed threatens a drainage that provides water to almost 200,000 people in the Portland area, could harm rare plants and animals, and will destroy centuries-old trees.
The Forest Service counters that the harvest meets all requirements of the Northwest Forest Plan and will not affect water quality. The agency says the stand is made up mostly of Douglas firs that grew after a fire about 130 years ago and would benefit from thinning.
Larsen said Forest Service law enforcement agents, police and other federal officials arrived about 4:30 a.m. to order protesters out of the area.
About a dozen on the ground left voluntarily, but the four in the trees remained and did not come until after 2 p.m.
Environmentalists said the surprise raid was conducted with weapons drawn by federal agents and police wearing camouflage gear, including some on horseback.
''They came rushing at 4:30 in full military gear,'' said one protester who identified herself only as ''Leaf.''
''They came in out of the woods,'' she said. ''There were folks on horseback. We were pinned to the ground. They followed us around all through the woods like we were criminals.''
Larsen denied that police drew weapons or wore special equipment or clothing.
''I'm confident every last one of our law enforcement officials performed in a highly respectable manner,'' Larsen said.
But another protester, Brian Schulz, said authorities were careless about the way they freed ropes tied from the pods to the gates to the Forest Service roads.
Schulz said police and federal agents ''completely and blatantly disregarded the life of the girl up there'' in one of the pods suspended over the access road.
Leaf said remaining protesters had fashioned nooses attached to supporting ropes on the pods suspended over the roads, so that if the supporting ropes are cut, the protesters would be hanged.
''We're really hoping they're not going to hurt anyone. The way the structures are built, if they try to take them down, they will collapse and definitely hurt the person in it,'' said Donald Fontenot of the Cascadia Forest Alliance.
Forest Service spokeswoman Jeree Mills said the activists were removed under a federal closure order issued by Larsen, the Mount Hood National Forest supervisor.
She said the closure order only affected the area near the two forest service gates. She said it does not affect activists living in trees farther back in the forest.
Mills said the order was issued because authorities were worried about sanitation issues created by the activists camping in the area, along with the hazards created if the pods or tree platforms should fall.
She said the Forest Service is also contractually obligated to allow the timber contract buyer - Vanport Manufacturing of Boring - access to the site.
The activists started their protest last summer, blocking roads, living in trees and camping in the area.
