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News: Straw
Devil Showdown SPRAWL HITS WALLETS AND ENVIRONMENT Just as Congress is debating renewal of a massive federal transportation bill and beginning deliberations over the budget for the Transportation Department, a new report documents the negative impact of sprawl on American families' budgets. A July 23 report from the nonprofit Surface Transportation Policy Project (STPP) shows that America's families spend more than 19 cents out of every dollar earned on transportation — an expense second only to housing and greater than food and health care combined. The report says that the nation's poorest families are particularly hard hit, spending more than 40 percent of their take-home pay just to get around, an expenditure that has risen 33 percent since 1992 and is making it all the more difficult for lower income families to afford housing, health care, and other critical services. Transportation costs are highest in sprawling areas such as Tampa, Phoenix and Dallas, due to spread-out development patterns, the lack of transportation choices and the absence of convenient neighborhoods within walking distance of shops and schools. These development patterns force people into vehicles, the report says, with negative impacts on air and water quality, as well as wildlife and habitat. "It makes no sense to build transportation systems that exacerbate income and wealth inequalities," says Rich Stolz, senior policy analyst at the Center for Community Change. "It is time for Congress and state and local planners to make policies that place the needs of people ahead of automobiles." See the complete report at www.transact.org
FASTING CONTINUES ON THE CAPITOL STEPS Inspired by Peg Morton, another Eugene woman is fasting on the steps of the state Capitol building in Salem this week. Kathleen Piper started a four or five day water fast Monday afternoon after Morton finished her week of juice fasting to draw attention to Oregon's shrinking funds for human services. Piper is the widow of a man who died from multiple sclerosis after suffering through cuts in assistance during the Reagan presidency. A member of the Eugene Peace Choir, she has worked with Progressive Responses, Justice not War, and has volunteered at White Bird Clinic. She has lived in Eugene for four years.
The average airline flight pumps one pound of harmful greenhouse gas into the air for every mile flown per person. That's about 1,700 pounds of carbon dioxide pollution per person for the average flight distance of 1,660 miles. If that makes you feel guilty for a recent (or planned) summer flight, the Better World Travel Foundation is offering an easy out. Donate $11 for a domestic flight or $22 for an international flight and they say they'll offset your pollution. The foundation funds projects that reduce global warming emissions, such as replacing oil burning heaters in Portland public schools. For more information, surf to www.betterworldclub.comor call (866) 304-7540. — Alan Pittman
The city of Eugene is now accepting applications for two vacancies on the Budget Committee, one seat on the Planning Commission, five vacancies on the Police Commission, five seats on the Human Rights Commission, two vacancies on the Toxics Board and one opening on the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission. Deadline to apply is 5 pm Sept. 26. Application and supplemental questionnaires are available at the City Manager's Office, Room 105, City Hall and at www.ci.eugene.or.usFinalists may be interviewed by the City Council in early October.
CITY COUNCIL SLASHES RESOURCES INVENTORY The Eugene City Council turned its back July 28 on a 5-1 recommendation of the Planning Commission by adopting a dramatically reduced natural resources inventory. The inventory, required by state law (and delayed since 1992 by a series of political maneuvers), was adopted to include only 1,100 acres. The planning commission recommendation covered about 3,500 acres. The agreed-upon acreage includes about 440 acres of the Willamette River. The adoption of the inventory does actually protect the areas. City staff will now begin an economic and environmental analysis of each listed location, and return to council with an analysis and recommendations for what protection or regulation, if any, should be applied. "Eugene should be developing using a model of growing up, not out, while protecting our valuable natural areas," says Councilor David Kelly. "This decision was a sad day for Eugene that will lessen our quality of life and our distinctiveness as a community." The vote was 5-3, with Councilors Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman and Kelly opposed. — Ted Taylor
Eugene Weekly took six out of 24 journalism excellence awards given to associate members at the annual Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association banquet in Agate Beach July 18. A first place in graphics went to James Bateman and an honorable mention in graphics went to Kevin Dougherty. In the writing category, Alan Pittman took a third place and Bobbie Willis an honorable mention. In two general awards, EW took second in the target audience category and third in overall design. EW's main competitor in the awards was the Portland Tribune, which also garnered six awards, including three first places. In the large dailies competition, The Register-Guard earned 21 awards but lost out to the larger Oregonian in nearly every category, including graphics, design, headlines, business, education, sports, features, enterprise reporting, editorials and lifestyle. The exceptions included a top writing award by R-G reporter Jeff Wright, and a sports photo first place by Chris Pietsch. The R-G took third place in general excellence, behind The Oregonian and Salem's Statesman Journal. Former R-G Publisher Ted Baker (1982-1987) was inducted into the ONPA Hall of Fame for his "sustained and profound contributions to the newspaper industry through management skills." — TJT
Straw
Devil Showdown Sparks flew in more ways than one when felling began at the Straw Devil timber sale just off Highway 58 southeast of McCredie Hot Springs the morning of July 23. Contention over the old-growth sale, brewing since 1999, came to a head when loggers, tree-sitters, activists and Forest Service staff convened upon Unit 1 of the sale.
Amidst the sounds of saws and falling trees at the site were shouts from above of "Fire the Forest Service, the perpetrators of destruction in the National Forest," "This forest works as one big ecosystem — people should come out here and help try and stop them [(loggers)]" and "The Forest Service decided that this old-growth needed to be cut down for a few bucks. It's the last remaining habitat of the red tree voles." Straw Devil's trees were sold to Engel Investments in 1999; however, the USFS did no extensive survey of wildlife habitat at the 129-acre sale. Public pressure, a court case and a judge's ruling forced the agency to refine their Survey and Manage strategy, which, under Clinton's Northwest Forest Plan, requires the USFS to ensure that certain species' habitats will not be destroyed. The red tree vole, a 5-inch long rodent that is a primary food for the northern spotted owl, nests high in old-growth Douglas firs. Post-ruling USFS surveys yielded no sightings of vole nests at Straw Devil. Subsequent citizens' surveys, organized by the Cascadia Wildlands Project (CWP), found many which were confirmed by the USFS, and 72 of the 129 acres were buffered from logging. But advocates at the CWP and Cascadia Forest Defenders (CFD), several of whose members are currently tree-sitting at Straw Devil, say this is not enough. Reed Wilson, a tree-sitter supporter from Corvallis, says that the USFS "waited so long to come verify them (the nests) that the voles moved their habitat," and that "Unit 1 is a very reliable habitat for voles," thus making its sanctioned and subsequent cutting illegal. "They're blatantly violating the law right now … so this timber sale is currently being litigated against in the courtroom," says Josh Laughlin of the CWP. "It's disappointing and puzzling when someone accuses us of illegally logging this timber sale," says Patti Rodgers, public affairs specialist for the Willamette National Forest. "We're not protecting every red tree vole nest … we're not required to." According to Rodgers, the USFS must "protect habitat sufficient to maintain the persistence of the species," and believes that is just what they are doing. Tree-sitting is what Laughlin describes as a "last ditch effort to hold off the logging" in what many consider to be a sacred stand of old-growth trees, some of which are upwards of 400 years old. A young woman protesting on the ground was arrested July 23 for "interfering with an agricultural operation." According to Laughlin, some of the sitters have been at the Straw Devil sale for as long as six months, while others have been there only a few weeks or days. Most would not say who they are, or even reveal how many took posts in the trees. "That's just the kind of information that would be useful to the enemy, isn't it?" After loggers quit working in Unit 2 for the day at around 12:30, they silently walked by demonstrators on the ground, reporters, and jeers from the sitters. Some expressed that protesting is "no way to make a living." Forest Service staff were critical of the tree-sitters. "Write your congressmen and senators. This is America. Challenge the system, but this isn't the way to do it. They get dangerous … they wait until you leave to start dumping buckets of shit and piss on us," one unidentified official said. A voice from Forest Road #5875 — from either a logger or an agency staffer — could be heard, saying "It always manages to get twisted around some way, so it's better to say nothin'." Rodgers says dialogue has been difficult. "It's been my experience that [there's] no interest on the part of these folks to do that. They're in it to win." Victory for enviros would be an end to old-growth and clearcut logging. "If you were to cross the landscape on the west side of the Cascade mountain range, we've got millions of acres that have been clearcut and converted into even-aged stands. And there is significant opportunity there to get the volume out and get out of the ongoing controversy that surrounds the continued process of old-growth logging," says Laughlin. Rodgers admitted that the Forest Service has dramatically changed its logging practices throughout the past decade to move towards selective thinning, and says there are no new old-growth timber sites slated. As of July 28, Unit 2 had been completely logged (with felling going on among the tree-sitters' platforms) and a road has been punched through the woods in preparation for logging Unit 8. Kelly O'Brien contributed to this report.
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