A Protester Dies After 150-Foot Fall From Tree

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 Mount Hood National Forest.

The timber sale she 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, Clackamas County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Angela Blanchard 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, O’Brien was dead.