Saturday Revisited - Save French Pete

When I was in college studying for a degree in Outdoor Education, I became involved with a group of students equally incensed about the possibility that one of only three, un-logged, 10 mile or longer, forested valleys left in Oregon was about to be clear-cut. A road was slated to be built along French Pete Creek and all the ancient trees were to be "harvested". 1968-1972 we became the student “activists” for the Save French Pete committee. The Endangered American Wilderness Act finally restored the French Pete valley and surrounding area to the Three Sisters Wilderness Area in 1978.

Last Saturday, the Sierra Club, University of Oregon School of Law and Special collections Library at the University of Oregon held a daylong meeting to record personal stories of those who actively participated in the Save French Pete campaign. Many former, close friends, I have not seen in years, were also in attendance. The Sierra Club has determined this campaign to be “the organizing event for the Sierra Club and emerging wilderness movement in Oregon and had a deeply symbolic power in mobilizing conservationists, reaching far beyond this single valley and beyond the state of Oregon. It inspired a movement whose lessons are applicable today”.
In 1969, to raise public awareness of the issue, we organized a protest rally that marched from campus to the US Forest Service Headquarters. I took this picture from on stage. One of the speakers was author Ken Kessey, who arrived in his now famous bus named “Further”, along with the Grateful Dead band. Unlike the Viet Nam protests, there was no need for police intervention. Immediately following the protest march, everyone rushed back to campus for the free Mason Williams concert we had arranged to stave off a post rally riot.

I am proud to have been called a “Tree Hugger”. In Saturday’s paper, Zonker best describes my day.