A surprising but not unwelcome prewinter snow
fall coated Eugene Wednesday evening as an appar
ent blast of frigid air from ihe Canadian north swept
southward.
Weather Service officials received no snow at
Mahlon Sweet Airport, but in Eugene there were
reports of up to an inch of the white carpet by 8:30
pm. Wednesday before Eugene's persistent drizzle
began turning the pleasant surprise to muddy slush.
Eugene was the first area in the Willamette Valley
to receive the inaugural batch of winter welcome
Wednesday, although snow was expected elsewhere
in the valley, as well as around the state. The Weather
Service issued a travelers' advisory Wednesday night
warning drivers “to exercise caution. "
“It’ll be a little slick," said one forecaster.
“There's lots of water, some snow, and there'll
probably even be a bit of ice. It just makes for bad
driving conditions."
Forecasts today call for temperatures in the 40s.
Temperatures were expected to plunge into the low
30s early this morning, increasing the possiblity of ice.
Photo by Erich Boekelheide
The Weather Service last night was predicting
continued scattered snow showers through today,
with decreasing showers Friday.
Around the county, water and snow closed or
limited traffic on several roads. Water as deep as four
feet closed roads in College View highway near Lane
Community College.
City crews sanded several streets, and high water
in Santa Clara, West 11th Avenue and Belt Line, the
west end of Fox Hollow Road and Lorane Highway
limited or halted traffic.
Eugene Greenpeace office survives cuts
I ir r a nmn
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Of the Emerald
Greenpeace U.S.A.’s Eugene chapter
escaped the budgetary ax when the na
tional organization abolished five of its
nine regional offices, including Green
peace Oregon.
Greenpeace members decided on the
reorganization at a national board meet
ing in October.
Lack of money, not a lack of interest,
prompted the shake-up, says former
Eugene member Phil Radcliffe.
“The Eugene office is unique in that
it’s financially independent, has low
overhead and is staffed by all volun
teers," Radcliffe says. “Other offices are
funded through Greenpeace U S A.,
based in San Francisco.”
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regional office in Portland, the Eugene
chapter is reincorporating under the
regional office in Seattle.
Other regional offices abolished in
clude the Alaska office in Anchorage, the
Great Lakes office in Ann Arbor, the
Rocky Mountains office in Denver and
the Southern California office in Hermo
sa Beach.
In addition to the Seattle office, those
remaining open are the Hawaii office in
Honolulu, the New England office in
Boston and the Northern California of
fice in San Francisco.
Subsidiary Greenpeace groups
throughout the country are shutting
down as well, including chapters in
Salem and Corvallis.
“This makes Greenpeace in Eugene
me uniy one ueiween oeame ana csar
Francisco,’’ Radcliffe says. "There’s i
lot of the Greenpeace elan or spirit here
And the grass roots thing is what Green
peace is all about.”
Greenpeace was founded in Van
couver, B.C., in 1970 to protest under
ground nuclear bomb tests in the
Amchitka Islands off Alaska. Since then
the group has gained fame for its darinc
save-the-whales and save-the-seals tac
tics.
Greenpeace motorboats callec
"zodiacs” have prevented the killing o
whales by situating themselves betweer
the whalers and their targets. Anc
Greenpeace members have confrontec
seal hunters on ice floes to reduce the
slaughter of baby seals.
"Although Greenpeace deals mostly
wun ine wnanng issue, we ve peen in
volved in many issues involving the en
vironment,” says Eugene member
Jackie Bryson "We’ve tried to educate
the public on herbicides, nukes, the
transportation of radioactive wastes and
wildlife issues
Bryson says Greenpeace is continuing
work on legislation to ban leg-hold traps
in Oregon, despite the recent defeat of
Ballot Measure 5. Members also will be
working to preserve the Marine Mammal
Protection Act, which Bryson says is in
danger of being amended.
The act was passed in 1972 to reduce
the killing of harbor seals and sea lions
along the coast. It allows fishermen to
shoot marine mammals only if the an
imals are interfering directly with fishing
nets or gear
IFC warily approves 81 OSPIRG goals
By PAUL TELLES
Of the Emerald
After asking for a definition of "public
interest," the Incidental Fee Committee
approved all but one of the the Oregon
Student Public Interest Research
Group’s goals Tuesday night.
OSPIRG’s goal to "advocate public
policy based on OSPIRG research to
appropriate public or private bodies"
was rejected by a 4-2 margin.
Before the vote, committee chairer Jon
Neiderbach asked the group s represen
tatives how they decide what position to
advocate on an issue if their research
doesn't give a clear indication.
"If the research didn't show public
interest to be weighed on one side rather
than the other, we wouldn't touch it,”
responded OSPIRG state chairer Bob
Jenks.
Asked how the group defines "public
interest,” Jenks said the decision in
volves "looking at basic assumptions like
equity and discrimination.” These con
siderations are inevitably subjective, he
admitted.
IFC member Jim Edmunson said he
questioned spending mandatory student
fees for lobbying efforts.
Jenks responded that lobbying is
necessary to give students a voice in
public decision making
"Pure academic research isn’t giving
students a voice in public policy,’1 he
said.
Edmunson said later he understood
the group was founded to provide
students with information that could be
used in public forums, not to take the
action itself. Edmunson was an OSPIRG
member during the late 1960s.
Neiderbach said Wednesday he wasn't
sure what effect the goal rejection will
have on OSPIRG’s 1981-82 budget.
Ordinarily, a group doesn’t receive
funds for a goal the IFC rejects. However,
OSPIRG’s state office usually receives a
lump sum, making it impossible not to
fund a specific OSPIRG goal.
Doubts about OSPIRG’s lobbying ef
forts almost led the committee to disap
prove the group’s goal to “present infor
mation obtained from OSPIRG research
to the Legislature."
The vote on the goal was 3-1, with two
abstaining. During discussion, commit
tee member Julie Bell asked Jenks if the
group purports to represent the majority
of students.
“I couldn’t envision OSPIRG taking
stands on issues that our local directors
don’t feel is the view most students
hold,” Jenks said
For instance, the group concentrates
more on consumer issues than environ
mental issues because consumer affairs
are of more interest to contemporary
students, he said