This week I spent two days in the Elliot State Forest with writer Jessie Higgins reporting a story about Cascadia Forest Defenders, a group of young environmental activists who give public comment via direct action. Our adventure included navigating narrow logging roads, convincing skeptical youth that we were in fact journalists, not cops, forest service deputies or anyone else who might be contrary to their cause. We climbed 100 feet up into a Douglas Fir, interviewed protestors who insisted that they cover their faces with bandanas and give us fake names, and finally, convince Oregon State Police troopers that we were, once again, journalists, and not part of the clan of tree sitters committed to sacrificing their bodies in the name of nature.
benjamin brayfield 