Summer walk provides unique experience
■ Student activists will be
walking up the Oregon Coast
and holding forums
By Simone Ripke
Oregon Daily Emerald
Students who are looking for a
different summer experience, who
don’t just want another job and
who can’t afford spending their
time off at the beach have the op
portunity to participate in the
March for Mother Earth, a 363
mile and 23-day walk from south
ern to northern Oregon.
Steve Stephens, a senior double
majoring in philosophy and
speech and communication at
Oregon State University plans to
embark on the march in Brookings
on June 12 with 250 participants
and walk up along Highway 101
to Astoria. Along the walk the
group will hold five forums to ad
dress environmental concerns.
“This isn’t an OSU thing or a U
of O thing. This concerns all of
us,” Stephens said.
Politicians such as Gov. John
Kitzhaber and Sen. Gordon Smith
as well as the mayors of Portland,
Salem and Eugene have been invit
ed to attend the forumS which will
take place in Coos Bay, Florence,
Newport, Tillamook and Astoria.
Kevin Bowles, an OSU gradu
ate student majoring in speech
and communications has worked
with Stephens on making the
march a reality. He said the issues
addressed at the forums will be
hydroelectric cars, air pollution
and the ozone layer, adding hemp
to wood products to aide in Ore
gon forestry and job develop
ment, encouraging Generation X
voting and living in harmony.
“We just want to raise con
sciousness that there are alterna
tives and we’ve never even tried
them,” he said. “What we are sug
gesting are other methods.”
Bowles said students who at
tend OSU are able to receive aca
demic credit for participating in
the walk. The credit available is
in physical education, but those
students who can help with ac
counting and legal issues might
receive credit in those fields.
Bowles said he doesn’t know if
students will receive the same
amount, or any, credit from UO.
Jessica Standage, a senior
health promotion and education
major at OSU has worked with
Stephens and Bowles from the
beginning. She has helped organ
ize and coordinate the march as
well as finding places for the
walkers to stay the night and eat.
Participants will be divided into
25 groups of 10 walkers during the
march, which will advance by
about 20 miles every day. Two
vans will transport the walkers’
backpacks and food supplies so
that participants can walk freely
without the weight of luggage.
Standage said she will participate
in the march for the experience. She
said she has worked at random jobs
during past summers and said she
looks forward to the walk as an ac
tivity she will never forget.
Stephens said providing him
self and fellow walkers with an
unforgettable experience was part
of his motivation to organize the
walk.
“It’s just as much personal as it
is environmental,” he said. Walk
ers “are going to look back and
see they changed their life forev
er.”
Stephens said he started think
ing about the walk after completing
a 10-mile swim to raise money for
Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.
“It came from me wanting to
share an experience that has a
voice with other people,” he said.
Stephens said the forums will
give students and other partici
pants the opportunity to express
concerns. The forums will be
filmed, edited and sent to politi
cians in the state.
Students interested in partici
pating may contact Standage at
754-7542. Students should sign up
by March 15. All walkers will be
provided a guide on preparing for
the physical challenge. There will
also be a 20-mile practice walk.
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Rising gasoline prices
affecting state tourism
By Jennifer Kimura
The Associated Press
PORTLAND (AP) — Oregon’s
gas prices over the past two
weeks have jumped 10 cents a
gallon to rank among the high
est in the nation, the AAA says,
and there’s worry the state’s
tourist industry will suffer this
summer if prices keep climb
ing.
“What happens over the next
few weeks will be critical in set
ting the stage for spring and sum
mer prices,” said Anne O’Ryan,
AAA Oregon/Idaho spokes
woman.
The Energy Department pre
dicted Monday that gasoline
prices will continue to increase
and could easily reach the $1.75
to $1.80 a gallon range during the
peak driving summer months —
and spike even higher in some
areas.
That’s creating worry in Ore
gon, whose mountains and coast
line attract streams of visitors
each summer.
“If we see any sustained high
prices, what we’ll see is an im
pact in everything,” O’Ryan
said.
The AAA on Monday said the
state’s average price at the pump
has reached $1.57 per gallon, with
the highest average of $1.59 along
the coast and the lowest average in
the Portland area at $1.50.
As of mid-February, an AAA
report said Oregon ranked fourth
in the nation with an average of
$1.47 per gallon.
Such numbers worry people in
far-flung parts of the state who
depend on tourism as an eco
nomic mainstay.
“When gas prices go up, peo
ple do tend to cut down on their
extraneous travel,” said Yasha
Sturgill, deputy manager of the
Wallowa County Chamber of
Commerce. “Wallowa County
will certainly suffer the backlash
of that.”
The economy of the remote ru
ral area in Eastern Oregon —
which includes the Eagle Cap
Wilderness Area, John Day Fossil
Loop and Hell’s Canyon Recre
ation Area — is heavily reliant
on visitors who camp, hike, hunt
and fish.
But recently, not as many
tourists seem to be coming.
“Visitation has been down
since the end of last summer and
in the fall and winter,” Sturgill
said. “We have no other way into
our county — no railroad, no air
port. I would expect that we
would see some impact.”
Sturgill said she’s already
heard “quite a few people com
plain about the price of gas here.
Any added expense is going to
impact them.”
O’Ryan, AAA spokesperson,
said if prices keep going up — as
the Energy Department says they
will — “we might see a ‘deja vu’
of the ’70s, when gas stations
may only sell a certain amount of
fuel to each motorist.”
Nonetheless, some say they
won’t let high gas prices get in
their way of having fun.
“I noticed the change at the
pumps, but I just think it’s the
cost of driving a vehicle,” said
Dan Hansen, an avid fly fisher
man who drives from Portland
to the Deschutes River, to the
coast or to other favorite fishing
spots every week. “It’s not go
ing to prevent me from fish
ing.”
Hansen, 39, said his 4x4
truck, which he uses only for
fishing trips, gets about 24 miles
to the gallon. For everyday com
muting, Hansen said he uses
public transportation and his bi
cycle.
If gas prices “get in the $2.50
range,” Hansen said he’ll “look
at getting a car that gets good gas
mileage.”
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