If anything that’s time wasted having to check every tree. Makes their big tree harvesters slow way down

That's actually addressed in the book as well, you can get hardened ceramic rods that work even better, they're just a bit more expensive

Iron bars are the old fashioned way, the modern method is a granite or concrete rod, not quite as good as iron but it'll still fuck up a saw good

Sure, lab safety goggles will protect you from pepper spray in most instances. But what eye protection you're wearing won't matter. You're chained to a tree. The cops can do literally anything they want to you, including ripping your safety glasses off and emptying a can of pepper spray directly in your eyes. See: the infamous case of the Pepper Spray 8

Deputies pepper sprayed Mike McCurdy (above) and Noel Tendick directly in the eyes at close range while they were locked together through the tracks of a Pacific Lumber bulldozer on an old-growth redwood logging site. The activists endured the torture and did not unlock. Deputies then safely cut them loose with a portable grinder, as they could have done without using pepper spray, and as they had done hundreds of times in previous years.

Treesitters have been killed by loggers before and didn't face murder charges iirc. They are probably more worried about wrongful death suits.

Sure would be a shame if the equipment kept experiencing catastrophic failure.

They were defending themselves against domestic terrorists /s (but actually just cynicism)