The Cove-Mallard logging area in central Idaho, scene
of protests and arrests, may attract 500 people for this year’s
Earth First! Rendezvous, June 30 through July 7. The event marks
the group’s fifth year of campaigning to save trees in the largest
roadless area in the lower 48 states. Mike Roselle, one of Earth
First!’s founders, expects visitors from all over the country,
including a group from the Shoshone Nation, which uses the forests
to gather medicinal herbs. The gathering will include a “friendship
feast,” softball game, workshops focusing on non-violent opposition
to salvage logging, and some traditional civil disobedience for
those willing to risk arrest and jail. But Earth First!ers hope to
avoid confrontations with locals that have occurred in the past. In
1994 a logger severely beat up one protester and a man on horseback
threatened to string up another with a lasso. According to Roselle,
“We are going to go out of our way to be respectful.” For more
information, contact the Cove-Mallard Coalition,
208/882-9755.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Rendezvous at Cove-Mallard.
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