Word: northwester
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...year 2000, the campaign to clear the Pacific Northwest of its majestic, virgin forest could be history. And in their race against restrictions and regulations, the timber companies wreak havoc on the countryside...
...true in much of the Pacific Northwest, almost every storefront in Forks displays a sign that reads "We Support the Timber Industry." But another sign tells a bit more about the tie that binds together this community of 3000. "Tie a Yellow Ribbon for the Working Man," the placard reads. And sure enough, the small spruce trees that line the road into town are laced with hundreds of yellow ribbons...
...this is not a display of solidarity with U.S. soldiers who served in the Gulf War, but a show of support for heroes of a different sort--the loggers, troops of the Pacific Northwest--without whom towns like Forks wouldn't exist and wives and children wouldn't be fed. And these days, it's the loggers who are threatening to wipe out a lot more than trees and forest...
...Forks is not the only logging town where yellow ribbons and timber go hand in hand. All over the Northwest there have been Yellow Ribbon rallies, where, Tisdale reports, "300, 600, sometimes 1200 log trucks in a line rumble through small towns and along the main thoroughfares of cities for an afternoon...
...with nature's foes isn't that easy. Timber industry executives are no dummies. They try to outsmart their opponents by claiming they're better for the environment than the environmentalists. Tisdale quotes a pamphlet issued by the Caterpillar company--manufacturer of bulldozers and cranes needed to remove the Northwest's oldest trees--as an example of this absurd attempt to fool those opposed to the clearcutting: "The Facts Say: Forests do not necessarily improve with age. Decaying stands lack the food resources animals require. Density of old stands blocks sunlight, discouraging new growth...