A protester set up camp in a cedar November 10 in an attempt to save approximately 20 trees from being cut down as part of a voter-approved expansion of the Ashland (Oreg.) Public Library.
Though the tree Rick Harris is sitting in is not among those threatened to come down, the platform holding him up is suspended by a cable attached to a nearby gingko that is; if the gingko falls, so does he. Harris told the November 15 Ashland Daily Tidings he didn’t know how long he’d be there but is prepared to stay for weeks or even months.
The project’s start date is in question until the city settles on a construction bid. All three bids that came in were between $600,000–$700,000 over the $4.1-million bond approved by voters last spring. City Administrative Services Director Dick Wandersheid said, “Until we get this thing resolved we’re not even looking at the tree issue.” Harris’s tree-sitting “is going to complicate things,” he said, “but right now we have bigger fish to fry.”
Posted November 20, 2000.