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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Feb. 16, 2001)
Environmental groups fight new forest regulations WASHINGTON — New regula tions give the U.S. Forest Service too much freedom to decide how to manage the nation’s forests, en vironmental groups argue in a suit to be filed Friday. The regulations, released by the Clinton administration in Novem ber, made forest health the top pri ority for governing more than 190 million acres of federal lands. It gave Forest Service officials the ability to limit logging, skiing, hik ing and other activities if they de termined the activities could per manently harm the ecosystem. The Western Environmental Law Center, which filed the law suit on behalf of a dozen conserva tion groups, says the regulations are ambiguous, and it worries the Forest Service will misuse them. “Our basic problem is that they give way too much discretion to the Forest Service, and we do not feel the Forest Service has earned any trust over the last 20 years,” said Marc Fink, an attorney with the law center. “More discretion to us means more logging.” A Forest Service official de clined to comment. When the regulations were an nounced, the Forest Service cheered them as a needed commitment to forest health, as well as other uses for the forest, including logging. “We cannot do things that could put resources at risk,” said Agricul ture Department Undersecretary }im Lyons, who oversees the Forest Ser vice. “Ecological sustainability is the foundation upon which future management decisions will be made.” Earlier this month, the Society of American Foresters Executive Vice President William Banzhaf wrote Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman, who has oversight of the Forest Service, recommending the department re-examine the new regulations. The Associated Press Bailey/Oliver continued from page 1 people who live near Autzen Stadi um. It’s pitch black walking there. There’s lights there. They don’t work. They need to work. And it’s the same for everybody who lives around campus. Campus relations — this is huge. This is the backbone for everything we want to do. The relations right now between the administration, the city of Eugene, the police depart ment, University Housing, Greek Life. First of all, the people don’t talk, and if they do talk, it’s bitter. Student athletic tickets: Currently the Athletic Department’s basically .saying if we can’t pay, we’re going to take tickets away. A lot of people care about going to those games. Student voice: This is basically the same thing as campus democra cy, but we feel the term “campus democracy” has a bad ring to it now. So, when decisions are made, like [the Department of Public Safety] commissioning officers, students need to be involved. In addition to that, we feel that it’s not only our job to promote that student voice but also to educate the people so they can use their voice. Education access — tuition’s probably going to go up. The biggest barrier to education is money. Go ing along with that is the incidental fee. It’s an oxymoron that they keep raising the incidental fee, yet the same people that raise incidental fees say the tuition needs to go down. If you have one going down and one going up, it’s still not good. We need to watch the incidental fee more closely, and we need to make students more aware of it because a lot of students don’t even know they’re paying it. It’s like paying your taxes. You should know where your taxes go. It’s pretty simple. Q: How does your decision to run fit into your ultimate career goals? A: [Eric] My dream is to be a Unit ed States ambassador to a Latin American country. So I think that would fit pretty well. [Jeff] I feel bad saying this, but I don’t really know what I want to do yet. It’s just something I care about. I’m one of those students who cares where my money goes. I think the experience I’ve already had with the ASUO is going to help me down the road. Q: What specific campus-orient ed initiatives will you champion? A: Specifically, the renters’ rights issue is pretty is a specific, laid-out thing that’s most likely going to hap pen in the Eugene City Council next year. But like I said, if we become elected, we’re two students out of 17,000 here, and I don’t think it’s fair for us to go making a decision for everybody. Along with that, we’re planning on having town hall meetings, either bi-weekly or monthly, to hear people’s questions and concerns. Q: What will you advocate for on the state level for students, and how will you carry out your plans? A. That’s a little tricky. We’re working to keep tuition down and lobbying with the state Legislature. The tricky thing on this, though, is they do the budget every other year. And this being the budget year, [it means that] while we’re in office if we do get elected, it will not be budget year. So it will be hard and trickier to keep that tuition down. But we can lay the groundwork for the people that come after us. Q: What is your definition of stu dent activism? A: Jumping right in and getting involved. Some people think ac tivist always means protests, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be that. We consider ourselves activists just being involved in student govern ment. Whether you’re camping out side Johnson Hall or you’re down in the office writing a letter to your congressman, you’re active and try ing to make a change. Q: How do you define diversity? And how do you plan on bringing to gether the diverse voices on campus? A: We touched on that before. All areas need to be touched, and none ignored, and they need to be fos tered so we understand all the other views. Like we said earlier, that isn’t enough to say, “Hey, we have this many people enrolled here now.” So what? Are they doing anything? Are they here speaking on behalf of their backgrounds? Are they mak ing a change? That’s what solving the problem is about. Q: If two student groups were at odds with each other, how would you resolve the conflict? A: If one student group doesn’t like another student group, maybe they just don’t understand the position of each. The first thing we’d do is sit them both down in a room. We’d be there and be the mediator. People don’t ask why. If people asked that question a lot more, things would be a lot more productive. Q: If there was one thing you could change about the University instantly, what would it be? A: If we could fix relations like that, that would be number one, be tween everyone. And we’re both willing to put in the time and effort. Q: Recent history shows a tense re lationship between the ASUO Execu tive and University President Dave Frohnmayer. Do you plan on improv ing that relationship and, if so, how? A: One example just last week is that Eric went and sat down with Dave just to talk about stuff. We’d be willing to work with him on any is sue that comes up and not fight with him. Even if there is an issue where we’re at odds with him, just being able to open that door of communi cation with him — that’s important. The guy is the president of the Uni versity. You have to respect him for where he’s at. Q: How will you carry out things differently than current President Jay Breslow and Vice President Hol ly Magner? A: Jay and Holly are good people, they’ve done some good stuff, but they had a disadvantage when they went in. They liked to label them selves the ‘new kids’ in student gov ernment, and that was the biggest disadvantage to them. There are things that need to get done that are traditionally done on time, like the elections thing. We’re all playing catch-up right now. We’d try to be more on top of those things and get them done when they need to be done. Student government this year has turned into the government by the few. There’s a few opinionated people that do stuff — if you want to label it the people who care—but there are a lot of other people who care that just maybe don’t feel com fortable coming in. This is your stu dent government. You should al ways be able to come in. And that hasn’t been done this year. They’re almost too aggressive at times, and they scare people. It turns people off. It turns students off too. ad]® Sale SALE SALE Sate SaCe ULLR SPORT SHOP sale SALE sale SALE One sale 2 locations At Willamette Pass.. .Sidewalk Sale & At the Store.. .207 Coburg Road Sat February 17 - Mon, February 19 687-UIIR • ••Voice Your Opinion! online reader polls Log on to www.dailyemerald.com • • • SCAN DALS DANCE CLUB endless possibilities Money Grab @ 11:00 pm • $2 Chinese Food Special
