Oregon daily
emerald
Tuesday, May 21, 1985
Eugene, Oregon
Volume 86, Number 158
Protests begin anew
in Cathedral Forest
SWEET HOME (AP) — Protests
against logging old-growth timber in
the Willamette National Forest resum
ed Monday, with eight people cited
for trespassing and one camping out
high in a Douglas fir tree.
Doug Norlen, director of the
University’s Survival Center, said the
protest was part of a continuing effort
by the Cathedral Forest Action Group
and Earth First! to stop logging in the
Cathedral Forest 40 miles east of
Sweet Home.
“These are citizens who have been
actively trying to protect their na
tional forest for over 15 years and all
traditional methods of negotiations
have failed," said Norlen, who spoke
for the protesters in a telephone inter
view from Eugene. “They are trying
to convince the Forest Service to use
their discretion to protect the last re
maining vestiges of wild forest that
we have."
Norlen said the forest is the biggest
remaining low-elevation stand of old
growth Douglas fir in Oregon and was
the site of 35 arrests in protests last
year. The forest covers about 80,000
acres along the Middle Santiam River.
Congress did not include it in
forests designated as wilderness areas
last year but did declare a nearby area
as wilderness, said Jim Christensen,
head of law enforcement for the
Willamette National Forest.
Authorities expected the protest
after the Cathedral Forest Action
Group promised “direct action”
following a weekend camp out to
celebrate its first birthday.
Christensen said.
Early in the morning, the protesters
went to the Pyramid Creek timber
sale, which is being logged by
Willamette Industries, and occupied
the logging site, Norlen said.
“This morning when a timber
falling crew from the outfit logging
that area went up there, there was a
group of people camped around a tree
and one person was up in the tree,”
Christensen said.
The person, calling himself Doug
Fir. had climbed 60 feet into the tree
with food, water and a hammock,
prepared to stay for five days, Norlen
said.
The area had been closed to the
public due to ongoing logging opera
tions so the eight protesters on the
ground were cited on a federal
trespassing charge and told to leave,
Christensen said.
Six of them refused to leave and
were arrested with the help of Linn
County sheriff’s deputies and charged
with criminal trespass, he said, add
ing that they were later released at
Sweet Home.
Names of the protesters were not
immediately available, deputies said.
There are no plans to try to remove
the protester in the tree, who hung
out a large white banner with the
words Earth First! on it, Christensen
said.
Negotiations continue
over athletic budget
By Mary Lichtenwalner
Of the Emerald
After failing to override the ASUO’s
veto of the athletic department budget
Monday night, the Incidental Fee Com
mittee asked Assistant Athletic Director
Chris Voelz to do more “homework” on
the budget.
The committee held a motion from last
week to override the veto of the 1985-86
allocated budget of $773,009, giving the
ASUO Executive time to negotiate fur
ther. IFC Chair Bob Mead said the com
mittee may take action on the veto today.
If the IFC does not override the veto
this week, the budget will probably end
up on University President Paul Olum’s
desk.
Voelz and ASUO President Julie Davis
met last week and negotiated several
budget options. They presented the op
tions to the IFC on Monday, and the
committee informally accepted an alter
native — a combination of the options.
Voelz will submit detailed figures of the
alternative option at today’s IFC
meeting.
Mead proposed the alternative option
of about $640,000 in direct subsidy. Op
tion 1, the budget level allocated by the
IFC, constitutes $653,009 in direct sub
sidy. At that level, “We’re not getting
what we wanted, we’re getting what we
need,” Voelz said. “We’d like to go with
that.”
The alternative, however, “would not
increase the incidental fee students
pay,” Mead said. The IFC was attracted
to the alternative because it does not in
dude a rise in student ticket prices,
although it does mean students would
give up the “OO” seating section in
McArthur Court, Mead said.
Davis said that although raising ticket
prices and giving up student seating
were two of the difficulties she had with
the athletic department budget contract,
“the lesser of the two evils was to give
up the ‘OO’ seating.”
The committee rejected an option con
sisting of $623,225 in direct subsidies,
primarily because it would raise student
ticket prices $1 for football and men’s
basketball and would raise the all-sport
season pass from $54 to $74.
Voelz told the committee that she and
the athletic department are “not thrill
ed” with that option, but that it gave the
department a chance to “recoup some
money.”
“We’d rather have students at the
games. In an average year or a poor year,
(with that option) we’d be in bad
shape,” she said.
Davis said that she felt other Pacific 10
Conference schools run on bigger
budgets than they need. “It comes down
to, what can students afford?” she said.
Davis agreed with the committee that
further negotiation is necessary. “It’s
clear to me that what the Executive
wants is not going to fly,” she said.
But IFC member Lloyd Atheam said
that negotiations should be completed
by now. “We’ve spent a month arriving
at this plan, and I’m not going to spend
another week going over this,” he said.
“I’m going to feel comfortable that we
found a viable alternative.”
Riverfront plan questioned in public hearing
By Cynthia Whitfield
Of the Kmeraid
Eugene residents packed City
Mall on Monday night to attend
a Planning Commission public
hearing on the recently released
Riverfront Research Park draft
plan. Most of the speakers said
they thought “more questions
should be answered" before the
city adopts the plan.
The area studied in the draft
plan is University-owned land
located along the Willamette
River, north of campus. The
park is expected to house new
research and industrial
development.
Although the possibility of
classified defense research be
ing conducted in the park has
sparked some controversy,
University administrators say
they do not intend to extend the
University’s ban on classified
research to the park.
Such a ban would have to be
included in ground lease rules
developed by the University.
Campus Planning Committee
member Charles Wright told the
hearing that people have to
make sure they get what they
want. “The ground rules have
to be tight,” he said.
He said the committee is still
unsure about the size of the
riverfront “setback” (the
distance between the river and
development), about open
space ratios, what to count as
open space, and noxious and
toxic waste.
“We’re also concerned about
the issue of classified research.
But a fair number of people are
not aware we've been working
on these things,” Wright said.
Diane Bishop of the bicycle
committee spoke in support of
the Riverfront Park draft plan.
“We appreciate the work the
study put into it and that it took
our concerns into considera
tion, and would like to endorse
that part of the study draft," she
said.
But real estate agent Don Nor
ris said the plan was too
“grand” for Eugene. “I’m in
favor of economic development
— it’s my bread and butter. But
if it takes taxpayer’s money —
and it will — we’d better find
out if it’s feasible,” he said.
John Moseley, who will
replace Dick Hersh as Universi
ty vice president for research,
was appointed to the seven
member Riverfront Park board
of directors, a non-profit cor
poration. The board will hire a
master developer for the
research park and enforce
University ground lease policy.
Unless “all the substantive
Photo by Brian Erb
The fragile ecology of the riverfront and the heavy recreational use of the area have been cited in
criticism of the proposed location for the Riverfront Research Park, just north of campus.
questions are answered and the
project wins community sup
port, the park would not be
built,” said Moseley.
‘‘Because of the radical
changes needed (to develop at
the proposed site) there should
be a minimal searching for alter
native sites. The Riverfront is a
special, fragile area. Develop
ment there flies in the face of
the North Campus Plan which
calls for playing fields,” said A1
Urquhart, University geography
professor.
Urquhart suggested that the
east campus area be explored as
an alternative site. “There is
fire and police protection there
already; you can walk to it from
campus; there are sewers and
electricity there and supportive
housing already. In most
respects, the east campus area is
more compatible with the stated
objectives of the project,” Ur
quhart said.