On controversial ground -- one year later

A large sign welcomes visitors and residents to the new Canterbury House Apartments just off State Road 37. But underneath the words "Construction By:" no company is listed. Jad Livingstone, a resident in the complex who also works in construction, explains why. \n"My boss said he would have been worried about working back here, worried about leaving his machines back here."\nOnly a year ago this was an undeveloped area called Brown's Woods. It was the subject of a protest by local environmental activists determined to keep the apartments from being built by living in the trees there, so that no clearing would take place. On July 6, 2001, local law enforcement officials began a raid on the area to remove the "tree-sitters," accused of trespassing.\n"We came in at dawn," said Detective Brad Swain of the Monroe County Sheriff's Department. "Our initial response was to keep others off property. We established a line where the public could not come further. An hour later we began plowing a roadway to bring in lift systems, to get to the trespassers."\nMonroe County Sheriff Steve Sharp said the operation took several weeks of planning, working with the developer to get people out of the trees safely.\n"They were trespassing and we did everything we could to do it safely," he said. "Everything worked out well. Anything could have happened but fortunately nothing did."\nAs the officers moved from site to site removing the protesters, Sharp said they cut down each platform or pushed the tree over to keep the environmentalists from returning to them. One protester, Michael Englert, climbed out of reach of the police and did not come down until the following day. Swain said that he had confiscated a walkie-talkie from another protester and used it to talk to Englert throughout the night. \n"(Englert and the other protesters) were of above average intelligence," Swain said. "They weren't just emotionally driven but had made conscious decisions. Instead of any kind of shouting matches, we had an agreement to disagree. You could talk to them, no problem, they just weren't going to comply with instructions."\nLast week, Englert filed a lawsuit against some officials in the Monroe County Sheriff Department to replace belongings that were confiscated when he was arrested.\n"I just wanted to see if it was legal for the sheriffs to destroy my property," Englert said.\nDespite the continuing riff, Swain said he felt like he understood the protesters. \n"I come from a family of foresters and have a farm," he said. "There are environmental issues I have a concern about but my issues are a little more grounded in management problems. Trees are a perpetual renewable crop if handled professionally."\nHe added that he felt like there were lessons to be learned from the operation. \n"Right when we thought the situation was resolved they came back in and secured themselves to another tree," he said.\nOne protester who returned to the tree was senior Megan Hise. She explained why she decided to prolong the protest. \n"I came and saw my friend Liam (Mulholland) being harassed while he was risking his life up in the tree. I tried to protect the tree but unfortunately police knew what they were doing and cut through the lock boxes pretty quickly."\n"It's obvious they were just doing what they felt was their job," Hise said of the officers. "It's difficult because you don't want to place your anger with them, but what are they serving and protecting?"\nThe impact of the protests are still unclear. Swain said the activists had very little effect other than within their own subculture. \n"More people are concerned with property owner's rights and worry about the impact (of such protests) on attracting industry to Bloomington," he said.\nHise disagreed. She said she would never perform civil disobedience just for publicity.\n"All the publicity that surrounded it made people a lot more aware of the issues," Hise said.\nMonroe County Commissioner Brian O'Neill agreed with Hise. \n"It heightens people's awareness of issues. I think the Monroe County Green Party got active as a result," O'Neill said. "One of the great things about our community is there are always people who are actively engaged"