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News
Briefs: Fuel for the Fire | Corvallis
Calling | Puzzle Break
Happening
People: Craig Steinberg
Fuel
for the Fire
This summer's particularly hazardous wildfires have revived
the long-running debate over the federal government's role in protecting our national
forests.
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Slant
-- Everybody who works at Sacred Heart, from wealthy docs to bed
pan scrubbers, has an opinion about the hospital's building plans. But much of what
we hear walking the halls is the party line: We need a new hospital, we're a regional
hospital and need to meet the region's needs, it's too expensive to build downtown,
we don't want to condemn any property, etc. But nobody's talking about the potential
costs to taxpayers (yeah, that's you and me) of moving the hospital four miles north.
Our cover story this week should add some fresh spice to the debate. City staff is
not providing citizens or city councilors with even ballpark numbers, so try ours
on for size.
-- If you're playing the who-will-run-against-Gordon Smith game,
check out a couple of clues we picked up this week. Kitzhaber, usually ducking the
political limelight, showed up all over the national media advocating for the Western
governors' fire suppression policies. He even dropped into a firefighters' tent city,
sitting down to chat with the young men and women of fire while a photographer clicked
the scene. Standard stuff for most governors, but unusual for Kitz.
Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury co-authored with the Washington
secretary of state an op-ed about vote-by-mail in the Tuesday New York Times
. Gotta have national exposure to raise support and money for a U.S. Senate race
in 2002, especially against a clever guy like Gordon.
-- Just because he tells his employees that business is bad doesn't
mean R-G Publisher Tony Baker's standard of living is going down any time
soon. After announcing a hiring freeze that leaves at least six jobs open (including
four in the R-G newsroom), cutting circulation district manager positions
by nearly 25 percent over the past few years, talking about further layoffs and missing
budget targets by millions, Baker apparently spent part of his vacation in late July
at the tony British Open. His salary is clearly his to spend as he sees fit, but
to employees worried about their long-standing labor dispute and now even their jobs,
the trip seems ill timed at best.
SLANT includes short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes
compiled by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact Ted Taylor at 484-0519,
editor@eugeneweekly.com
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As wildfires rage through woodland in the West, President Bush is
proposing a $175 million increase in commercial timber sales on public lands, and
pushing for repeal of the "roadless rule" established by former President
Clinton.
"Many forest advocates believe that wildfires are a naturally
occurring, healthy phenomenon and should, to some extent, be allowed to burn within
certain limits," says Evan Woodward of IPA Media, a project of the Institute
for Public Accuracy (www.accuracy.org).
In recent years, the Forest Service, guided by Congress, has partly
relied on commercial logging to address the problem of wildfires. Woodward says this
policy has critics like University of Montana economics chair Thomas Power up in
arms.
"The argument is that significant expansion of Western logging
will reduce fires," he quotes Power saying. "But from an economic point
of view, to reduce the threat of fire, you have to remove the most flammable material,
but that has no commercial value." When an area is logged, he adds, it is the
least flammable material that is removed, in the form of "commercial logs."
What is left behind is the most flammable: small trees and brush. Often times, sections
of forest canopy are removed, leading to drier, more burn-prone undergrowth.
Tim Hermach of Eugene, founder of the Native Forest Council (www.forestcouncil.org), insists that the current administration be held accountable for the sustenance
of the forests. "More than 100 years ago, the great Republican conservationist
President Teddy Roosevelt protected what came to be known as the national forests
from all further logging," Hermach says. "Since then, however, big timber
has bought its way into Congress and has clearcut and logged over 40 million acres
of these pristine national forests."
Recently, says Woodward, the Forest Service's reaction to larger
wildfires has been to invest massive amounts of money and resources into battling
the blazes, with Congress picking up the tab.
To make serious headway against the forest fire problem, many critics
believe the logging industry should be held more accountable. "The timber industry
is pretending to be concerned about forest fires," Hermach says. "They
believe the fire issue can still be used to justify even more logging, and to cover
up the fact that their logging usually makes fires worse, not better."
Corvallis
Calling
Eugene labor and human rights activists are invited to
join community organizations in two counties north of Eugene for a town hall meeting
on fair trade issues.
Linn and Benton County members of the Alliance for Sustainable
Jobs and the Environment (ASJE), together with the Corvallis Action on Globalization
(CAG), labor organizations, social services organizations and environmental groups
are hosting the meeting at 6:30 pm Thursday, Aug. 23 at the Corvallis-Benton County
Library, 645 NW Monroe, Corvallis.
The event is being held to discuss the issue of Fast Track authority
for President Bush and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) treaty. Local,
state and federal elected officials have been invited to participate.The event will
be moderated by Bill Lunch, professor of political science at OSU and political analyst
for Oregon Public Broadcasting. The meeting will begin with a brief presentation
of the issues by four or five citizen representatives. The meeting will then be opened
up for questions and discussion from the participants.
The Corvallis City Council this month is reportedly debating a
resolution that opposes the FTAA and Fast Track legislation.
"These trade agreements give corporations the right to sue
governments for compensation over public interest legislation, such as public health
standards, that cut into their profits," says Robert Gourley, a local labor
activist. "The effective result is that local, state and national governments
either overturn such legislation or don't enact them in the first place for fear
of having to pay large compensation claims that come out of the taxpayers pockets.
I think that should be of great concern to our City Council."
Relevant web sits include www.asje.org and www.cag.peak.org -- TJT
Puzzle Break
The New York Times Crossword Puzzle in EW
will be discontinued for the next few weeks as we attempt to sort out a dispute between
the California agent who supplies the puzzles to EW and the NYT syndication
service in New York City. Look for the solution to last week's puzzle in our Classifieds
section this week.
Meanwhile, EW will be trying out a hip and fresh alternative
to the NYT puzzle this week. Jonesin' Crosswords by Matt Jones of Portland
have appeared in numerous alternative weeklies around the country and have been published
in NYT, Washington Post and GAMES Magazine. In 1998, GAMES
named him one of the top 10 puzzlemakers in the U.S. under the age of 30. Comments?
Contact the editor at 484-0519 or e-mail editor@eugeneweekly.com -- TJT
Back to Top
Craig Steinberg
During August's First Friday Art Walk, the Robert Canaga
Gallery showcased a selection of photographs made by 10- to 13-year-old residents
of the Jasper Mountain Center (JMC), a treatment facility for emotionally disturbed
children with significant trauma in their backgrounds. "I've been an amateur
photographer for a long time," says JMC child and family therapist Craig Steinberg,
who originated the project. "I asked the kids to take pictures that tell about
themselves." Also an avid backpacker, Steinberg discovered Oregon as a UO grad
student in the late '80s. He returned to Eugene after earning a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt,
and started work at Jasper Mountain in 1997. "My own photography is like a Zen
experience -- I tune everything else out," he says. "I started thinking,
'What a great thing to teach kids.'" Steinberg raised funds to install a basic
darkroom at the center last year and taught two 12-week classes of four students
each. "It's a real confidence boost -- the kids are in control of the entire
process," he notes. "Every one of these kids came up with something that
framed their future in hopeful terms."
-- Paul Neevel
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