Logging protester dies from falling

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A woman who climbed 150 feet up a tree to protest a timber sale fell and died from her injures before rescuers could reach the remote site in the Mount Hood National Forest.

The timber sale she apparently was protesting had been canceled three days before her death Friday, and the protesters expected to leave the area within a week.

It took rescue crews over two hours struggling up snow-clogged dirt roads to reach the tree-sitters' camp after fellow activists called rescuers, a Clackamas County Sheriff's spokeswoman said.

The caller said the woman, identified as Beth O'Brien, 22, of Portland, was unconscious but still breathing, Blanchard said. But by the time rescue crews arrived at about 9:30 p.m., O'Brien was dead.

She had unhooked herself from one platform and was trying to reach another by a rope ladder when she fell, Blanchard said.

Ivan Maluski, a longtime Eagle Creek protester, said tree sitters were days away from leaving the site after a three-year vigil.