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About Illinois Valley news. (Cave City, Oregon) 1937-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 2003)
Following heart hits top chord for Lund Honored with top SOU alumnus award FEELS LIKE SPRING - It felt more like spring than fall at the Illinois River on Sunday, Oct. 26. Warm, sunny weather made for stunning scenes of the Siskiyou National Forest, including this one of the bridge over the river on Eight Dollar Mountain Road. (Photo by Britt Fairchild) Biscuit salvage proposal now five times larger By BRITT FAIRCHILD Staff Writer The U.S. Forest Ser- vice is proposing to log 518 million board feet of timber killed by the Biscuit Fire in 2002, approxi- mately five times the amount previously dis- cussed. The proposal is the preferred alternative in a draft environmental impact statement regarding the 500,000 acres of forest in Siskiyou National Forest killed or damaged by the fire. The proposal is sched- uled for release on Nov. 21, according to Tom Link, Biscuit Fire Recov- ery Team leader. The proposal is not a final decision, but a way “to identify which way Forest Supervisor Scott Conroy is leaning,” ac- cording to Link. The proposed salvage increase follows a July federal court ruling in Wyoming that did away with the roadless rule the Clinton Administration established in 2001 to stop logging in large, undevel- oped sections of national forest. Contradictory to other court rulings, the July deci- sion is being appealed. The proposal is one of seven alternatives included in the draft, ranging from no salvage to salvaging approximately 1 billion board feet. The plan also includes reforestation, fire preven- tion and establishing habi- tat efforts. “Those issues are also important,” Link said. Previously, the Siski- you National Forest was operating under the roadless plan. More than half the salvage proposed in the draft would be in areas classified as roadless, according to Link. “There’s always some concerns in a sensitive area,” he said. Once the draft is re- leased, a 45-day public comment period will fol- low. A final decision won’t be made until next year. “We will definitely comment on the draft when it comes out,” said Romain Cooper, conserva- tion director of Cave Junc- tion-based Siskiyou Pro- ject. He is concerned, he said, because he believes the proposal would create the largest forest service timber sale in modern times. Not to mention, he said, the effect it would have on fish habitat, the biodiversity of the land, and the amount of traffic and noise the logging trucks would bring to the area. “We’re not against all logging,” he said. “The real work needs to be done not in the back country but in areas already managed. We don’t want a stump field.” It’s also possible that logging could cost taxpay- ers more than what reve- nue would be generated, according to a recent re- port by ECONorthwest in Eugene. A recent report by Oregon State University at Corvallis recommends sal- vage logging the Biscuit Fire area. Cultural project teaches students respect for the dead By BRITT FAIRCHILD Staff Writer Until several weeks ago, most of the seventh- graders at Lorna Byrne Middle School knew little -- if anything -- about the Mexican holiday The Day of the Dead. A unique collaboration with the Illinois River Val- ley Arts Council changed that. Since September, stu- dents in Cate Bendock, Lacey Fox, Julie Gulden and Mary Trammell’s classes have worked with a handful of volunteers in a “Learning Through Art” project sponsored by the council focusing on the culturally diverse festival. “We wanted a celebra- tion other than Halloween that occurred near the same time of the year. Day of the Dead just fell in there,” said “Learning Through Art” committee member Penny Niemi, who facilitated the project with fellow members Joyce Abrams and Kathy Kelley. This is the third “Learning Through Art” project to be conducted in area schools. In June, a LBMS student Julie Ballard makes tissue paper flow- ers for The Day of the Dead project. (Photo by Britt Fairchild) number of young students participated in a Young Artist’s Exhibit. In July, 10 valley students were part of a project to photograph the Biscuit burn area one year after the fire. Day of the Dead, or “Dia de los Muertos,” is a significant festival held in Mexico on Nov. 1-2 to honor and remember those who have died. Some Mexican Americans out- side Mexico also celebrate the holiday. Although associated with death, the festival is not seen as morbid or sor- rowful. Rather, it is an im- portant tradition of paying tribute to death as part of the cycle of life. To that end, families visit the gravesites of their loved ones and decorate the sites or special altars with candles, flowers, skeleton masks, crosses, sugary treats in the shape of coffins, food offerings and other adornments. On Friday, Oct. 24 the seventh-graders experi- enced their own prepara- tion ritual. Separated into several small groups, each responsible for a different part of the project, they worked diligently painting, sculpting, making tissue paper flowers and more. “I’ve been doing a lot (Continued on page 8) Teaching music and experiencing the joy it brings to him and his stu- dents strikes the right note for Cave Junction resident Terry “T.” Lund. In fact, it’s music to his ears. The much-respected “T,” as he prefers to be called, has been honored in many ways -- and on Sat- urday, Oct. 25 was given what he believes is “the greatest award” he could receive for outstanding contributions in the field of music education: The Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2003 from Southern Oregon University (SOU) in Ash- land. There in Stevenson Union, surrounded by col- leagues, friends and fam- ily, Lund was presented the top alumnus plaque by SOU President Elisabeth Zinzer and Robert G. De- veny, president of the SOU Alumni Association. Ap- proximately 75 invited guests attended the 19th annual award luncheon. For Lund and his wife, Sandi, as well as their chil- dren, it was an emotional experience. But not par- ticularly unique. After all, they and the others there to honor Lund were seeing and hearing an extremely successful mu- sic instructor, one who has overcome numerous obsta- cles and been recognized in many quarters for his accomplishments. They were seeing an articulate and confident man, one who told the au- dience, somewhat tongue in cheek, that when he de- cided to earn his college credentials at age 41 he “could not speak or write in complete sentences.” The audience, which gave him a standing ova- tion at the presentation of the SOU award, saw a for- mer motorcycle mechanic for 30 years, albeit one who played trombone. They saw a man, with T. Lund his trademark, shoulder- length white hair, who was less than a top student in high school. He noted that he and his mother were quite familiar with the principal’s office. How- ever, he earned his GED while still living in Long Beach, Calif. If they didn’t already know, they learned that last year he was one of only five music teachers honored nationally by the prestigious Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation. The award recognizes teachers who instill the love of music in their stu- dents and keep music alive in their schools and com- munities. And they were told by Lund, who continually strives “to inspire stu- dents,” that he recently underwent surgery and treatment for cancer in the left side of his neck. That has not slowed him. He missed only five days of work during that ordeal by using his day off for chemotherapy, and un- dergoing radiation after his working hours. Lund noted that his mother, who turned 97 on Saturday, could not be pre- sent for the SOU award presentation. But he re- called her comments at his senior recital prior to graduation in 1992. “I told her,” said Lund, “that for the 12 semesters at SOU I had earned a grade-point average (GPA) (Continued on page 5) City plows up agenda In a sometimes som- nambulistic two-hour ses- sion on Monday night, Oct. 27, Cave Junction city councilmen plodded through a fairly extensive agenda. One of the seemingly more controversial issues centered around a pro- posed new ordinance deal- ing with public nuisances and the procedures for dealing with them. As they did during the council meeting on Oct. 13, property owners Ann Centonze and Salwa “Sally” Palmer criticized the proposal. Centonze again called it “poorly written” and “impossible to enforce.” She and Palmer also expressed strong reserva- tions about the city gaining what they claimed is more ability to foreclose or con- demn property and take it over, particularly under the chronic nuisance area. Palmer again asked if the city was seeking to gain too much power. After considerable dis- cussion, as during the pre- ceding meeting, Mayor Ed Faircloth proposed sticking with the current ordinance and dumping the proposal. The vote for approval was 3-2 with the mayor and council members Dan Fiske and Rita Dyer in fa- vor; councilors Sandi Lund and Tony Paulson against. Near the end of the meeting however, Fiske said he would like to see (Continued on page 2)
