TO THE EDITOR
BY MARY O’BRIEN
Draining Frogs
Choice looms for a beloved Eugene park.
I
remember the day I learned to distrust the word “development.” I was in high school,
walking near downtown Whittier, my town in Southern California. I paused at a fenced lot
of bare dirt — and about 75 improbable rose bushes blooming in a
dozen colors. Some neighbor had anonymously planted and tended
the bushes for years.
A construction company’s sign on the fence said, “This site
soon to be developed.” I realized that meant, “This place of roses
soon to disappear.”
Recently, I was crouched in an October Oregon wetland, which
means it wasn’t wet. The dark clay soil had contracted during sum-
mer into blocks of pea-gravel clay separated by deep cracks. A frog
called from inside one of the cracks, hidden.
A friend was showing me native plants that have been restored to this wetland, after lawn
and fill had been removed. Spike primrose, coyote thistle, Oregon sunshine, blue-eyed grass,
tufted hairgrass. They had all regained a once-lost neighborhood. I particularly wanted to see a
panic grass that grows there. I love the wildness of its name, and how its small seeds park far
out from the main stem on gravity-defying, horizontal threads. We couldn’t find the panic grass,
but I learned of another one there: American slough grass, with thick, flat seeds ducks admire.
A dragonfly cruised past. A scrub jay flew. Another hidden frog called from inside its clay-
crack sound chamber, inches from my foot.
My friend walks here often. Last year, he says, a marsh wren stayed through the winter,
though they usually migrate far south. Tree frogs will begin calling in January. Crows mass in
the nearby ash grove, migratory birds nest (and are sometimes eaten by crows) in the restored
willows, butterflies locate host and nectar plants — all this and more in one small patch of na-
ture.
But it’s surrounded by developments. To the north of the patch lies a bus transfer station. To
its west, a swimming pool. To its south, a maze of ball fields. To its east, a jogging/walking trail.
Because this is Amazon Park.
R
ight now, there’s a choice looming for the park: more open space of restored nature
for children, old people, walking, and jogging; or the development of two more ball
fields requiring extensive drainage at the edge of the wetland? The latter is being
pushed by the Parks Department and ball players who run into an after-work baseball “traffic
jam” three months a year. The former is being favored by a growing number of neighbors and
other Eugeneans who use Amazon Park around the clock and year round, and have watched
the park become stuffed with more and more developments, lights and parking lots, while open
space has shrunk and shrunk and shrunk.
Currently, Amazon Park has five baseball fields (two of them guarded by offensive chain link
fences); four soccer fields; four tennis courts; two in-line hockey courts; and two volleyball
courts. And lights. Seventy-two bright, unshielded stadium lights above these 17 fields and
courts. The park also contains a swimming pool (25 more lights) fenced dog park, wading pool,
skateboard facility, two community centers, a bus transfer station and five parking lots.
However, if the chemically maintained lawns of two more fields are not built here, the creek
could be allowed to meander, freeing it from its disheartening strait-jacket of concrete. The ash
grove could be reconnected to the creek, expanding habitat for the bird and tree frog choruses,
by simply moving the much-used jogging and walking path to the west side of the wetland (i.e.,
same length, more nature). A boardwalk could be built in the ash grove, elevated above winter
ponds and spring camas, and under autumn colors and summer shade. Another boardwalk could
snake through the wetland, giving a close-up view of the wetlands’ remarkable seasonal changes.
And all the lights could be shielded, so sunset and evening could come home to the park.
With this park, our community has a chance to do what communities too rarely do: consider
the implications of alternative futures. We’re much better at building one development after
another, and then waking up one day to find we have drained frogs, wild grasses, and the rest of
nature from our lives.
NOTE: One way to help insure that options are considered for Amazon Park is to contact
Citizens for a Natural Amazon at 513-8151; and wander through www.cyber-
dyne.com/~tom/03/natural_amazon.html. A public meeting is scheduled for 7 pm Nov. 20, at
the Hilyard Center, call 682-4914 to confirm time.
Mary O’Brien of Eugene has worked as a public interest scientist for the past 22 years. She can be reached at
mob@efn.org
lem; this affects me in southeast Eugene and
will affect you wherever you live. Our town’s
athletes will find a place to play and that
might mean putting more pressure on your
neighborhood’s park and might mean more
evening traffic in your neighborhood. Call
the city (682-4800). Call 4J (687-3309).
Oppose any loss of green space in our com-
munity.
C. Michael Arnold
Eugene
ANTI-WAR DEMOCRAT
Ellen Hyman’s letter (10/23) questioning
my letter about Dean’s support for many of
Bush’s military policies missed the core is-
sues.
An article published by Common Dreams
April 14 goes into Dean’s doctrine in more
detail:
“In effect this supposedly ‘anti-war’
Democrat has announced his support for a
policy in which Washington will decide
which countries are allowed to have nuclear
weapons and will reserve for itself the right to
forcefully disarm those who do not voluntar-
ily disarm by U.S. dictate. In this crucial re-
gard Dean’s position is in close accordance
with the Bush doctrine of coercive disarma-
ment and preventive war.”
(From “As Baghdad Falls Howard Dean
Folds Back into the National Security
Establishment” by Charles Knight
www.commondreams.org/views03/0414-
09.htm)
It is easy for Dean to market himself as a
“peace” candidate. However, Dean supports
Bush’s military spending levels, an increase
in what is euphemistically called “Special
Forces,” praises “Homeland Security” and
agrees with Bush on the death penalty.
See www.kucinichdeancompare.com for
more on the differences between Dennis
Kucinich and the “Doctor for the death
penalty.” Kucinich is the only candidate who
supports the Kyoto treaty, cutting the military
budget, investigating where the Pentagon’s
missing trillion dollars went, campaign fi-
nance reform, gay marriage, medical mari-
juana, fair treatment for Palestinians and
Israelis, withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq
and opposes genetic frankenfood. On elec-
tion day, the humanitarian, progressive
choice will be clear: Kucinich for President!
Mark Robinowitz
Eugene
RIGHTEOUS MODE
It is obvious to me by now that some read-
ers of EW do not like the “pornographic” ads
being run. So for the rest of us out here who
don’t care, will the offended readers shut up
please!?
It’s been said before and I’ll say it again:
You are reading a free publication that is pro-
vided to you through the money generated by
ads. If you do not like these ads, do not look at
them. If you do not approve of an ad being
run in a free paper, be prepared to pay a fee
for the paper. If you cannot dig yourself out of
“righteous mode,” then do not read the publi-
cation.
If you are worried about your children
seeing such ads, I would suggest taking care
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