Recent protests at Cripps Bend, a piece of the Shawnee Forest slated by the U.S. Forest Service for selective cutting, have brought back mixed memories for me.

I first visited a Shawnee Forest protest in the fall of 1991. There I saw a side of the environmental movement that shocked me out of a lot of the stereotypes I had previously held toward both sides of the logging controversy. Seeing the soldiers on the battlefield puts war stories into perspective, I guess there are usually all types of people on both sides..

The details of the protest I attended were unclear to me then as a freshman from Canada I didn’t know much about the give and take that goes on between the Forest service and environmentalists in this area. This was described to me as a last stand, a desperate situation with a few determined heroes fighting hordes of money-hungry nature haters.

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Several protesters familiar with the situation recruited me at the Student Center and gave me a ride to the protest site. I grabbed one end of a huge sign imploring the public to stop the cutting, and stood before the ten or so forestry officers guarding a gate to the logging area.

The stand-off got a little ugly right away. Several masked protesters began insulting the forestry workers. One began copying down names from the officer’s ID tags, and saying cryptic things like we can find out where you live, and watch your back.

At about noon it started to get hot. Standing with a sign in the blazing sun isn’t the most entertaining way to spend a weekend, but I felt I had a cause, and the media had shown up with TV cameras, so I stood with the guy holding the other end of our sign and protested.

Half an hour later, he and I were the only ones left. The thirty or so hard-core protesters, including the ones with masks, had headed down the road to go skinny-dipping, leaving us standing alone in the sun with our sign. None of them had given up, but nobody wanted to be left behind to continue the vigil, and there were no leaders to decide who would go and who would stay.

The media packed up and left soon afterward. My fellow sign-bearer and I eventually gave up, and wandered off in search of water, leaving our sign lying on the dusty road in front of the forestry officials.

I left the next morning, disgusted and convinced the motley band of protesters, most of whom were skipping classes for a week or more at a time to be there, was doomed to failure. The worst of it was they seemed to be defeating themselves, through disorganization, immaturity and lack of knowledge.

I still believe in conserving the Shawnee Forest. But anyone considering joining the protesters a Cripps Bend, please be careful. It can be a frustrating experience to see a small number of obnoxious radicals with no sense of diplomacy destroy your credibility by pretending they represent the interests of everyone at the demonstration.

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To those angry at what may be poor management by the Forest Service, please remember threats and insults toward individual employees will probably only deepen the divisions and lack of communication between sides in this situation. Others who experience what I did will probably be discouraged from sticking with the environmental movement.

I know it sounds a little corny, but peace and understanding have got to be a priority in situations like this, if environmentalists are to shake stereotypes like tree-hugger and hippie.

Aaron Butler is a senior in political science.