Eco-Terrorists Arrested
by Jim Geisinger
Timber Harvesting-October 2002
A four-count indictment against four alleged eco-terrorists was filed on August 13, for the firebombing of log trucks belonging to Ray Schoppert Logging of Estacada, Oregon. Three of the four have been apprehended while one is still on the run as this article is being written. The three that have been apprehended are all students at Portland State University. They are Jeremy Rosenbloom, Jacob Sherman, and Angela Cesario. The fourth is Michael Scarpitti, better known as Tree Arrow.
All four were active participants in protests at the Eagle Creek Timber Sale sponsored by the Cascadia Forest Alliance and the Oregon Natural Resources Council.
Schoppert Logging was scheduled to begin hauling logs off the sale area on June 1, 2001. Early that morning, firebombs were ignited under one of the company's log trucks, destroying it and damaging two others. While the trucks were immersed in flames, dozens of forest activists were perched in treetops in the Eagle Timber Sale area.
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force has been investigating this incident for over a year. The indictments and subsequent arrests are the first for the task force involving eco-terrorism in the forests.
The remaining fugitive, Tree Arrow, has a long history of civil disobedience and activism on forestry issues. He perched himself above the entrance to the Forest Service's Regional Office for 11 days in July 2000 in protest of the Eagle Timber Sale. Last fall he climbed a tree in protest of a timber sale on the Tillamook State Forest near Nehalem. He fell from that tree, sustaining multiple fractures. He also ran for Congress against Representative Earl Blumenauer and was arrested for shoplifting at a Nature's health food store.
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