ELLIOTT STATE FOREST — Police have taken control of a logging site in the Elliott State Forest near Reedsport, arresting at least 15 protesters.

Oregon State Police and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office sent a team to the 79-acre timber sale at mid-morning to break up the protest that began Monday. As police brought an arrested activist out in a van this afternoon, Earth First! lawyers and activists pumped their fists in the air and cheered.

“We are not negotiating with people who are committing an illegal act,” said Rod Nichols, public information officer for the Oregon Department of Forestry, which manages the forest.

Police served papers on protesters Tuesday night and told them they had until this morning to clear out or face arrest. In all, 50 officers had assembled by noon, including an OSP team of troopers from around the state trained for handling crowd control and protests.

By early afternoon, there were occasional shouts coming from the woods and one person was singing the Beatles' “Yellow Submarine" — all apparently protesters.

Nichols said at least five protesters remained at the site, including one chained to a barrel. Police were working to remove two people on platforms in the air, said OSP Lt. Darin Lux.

“They’re going to clean it up today, but it’s going to go late. Ideally, logging operations will resume tomorrow morning,” said Lt. Doug Ladd today.

The Earth First! and Cascadia Rising Tide protesters were decrying the harvest of the timber, saying the forest helps absorb carbon and combat global warming.

Umpqua Watersheds Conservation Coordinator Francis Eatherington said coastal forests are important in that effort, since in this temperate climate they grow yearround.  She called on the state today to buy the remaining trees in the timber sale from Roseburg Forest Products.

“The economy being what it is right now,” she said, “we don’t really need to cut this timber.”