The City of Seattle took ownership of much of the Cedar River Watershed in 1899 to use to supply drinking water to the greater Seattle area. Over the years, haphazard logging continued on both private and city lands in the watershed. In 1990, with the growth of the environmental movement, the city’s proposed sale of the 73-acre Sugar Bear tract for logging became very controversial.

The Cedar River Action Group formed in May 1990 to protest the logging of the Sugar Bear tract and other old-growth areas in the watershed. Their poster, shown here, advertises a May 30 meeting to plan the group’s next actions.

Caption information source: “Anti-logging protestors chain up at Forest Office," by Scott Maier, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 31, 1990.
Caption information source: “Cedar River Watershed (King County) – Environmental Overview,” by Alan J. Stein, HistoryLink.org Essay 2486.