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Bicycle packs, racks, baskets, bells, lights, fenders, rain gear, saddles, helmets,
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One stop urban cycling ease!
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NEWS BRIEFS
Drs. Mike Huntington and Paul
Hochfield and others will be there to
answer questions about federal legislation
and how it affects Oregon efforts to create
a statewide public option to private health
insurance. See cover story in EW archives
Sept. 23, 2010.
EWEB ENERGY
OPINIONS?
In Eugene everyone has an opinion on
alternative energy. One timber company’s
renewable resource is another conservation
group’s looming environmental disaster. If
hydropower intrigues you or biomass is
burning you up, Eugene Water and Electric
Board wants your input.
EWEB is looking for aspiring advisors
from diverse perspectives for a community
panel that will guide the utility as it “plans
how to meet the area’s future energy needs.”
The utility says it’s facing potential
climate change legislation, instability in the
prices of fuel, the economic recession and
limits on the ability to finance new generation
projects, and the puzzle of how to integrate
the increasing and variable amount of wind
energy into our regional electric grid.
EWEB wants to “take into account the
environmental, social and economic impacts
of the different resource choices,” while at
the same time minimizing risks as it acquires
new energy and delivers power.
To be considered for the panel, submit a
brief letter by Feb. 18 that describes why
you’d want to participate and any relevant
experience or perspectives. Mail to 500 E.
4th Ave., Eugene 97401, or email to ierp@
eweb.org. For more information, go to www.
eweb.org/2011ierp — Camilla Mortensen
lighten up
We know that House Speaker John Boehner cries in public and that he smokes. What
we don’t know is where he goes to get his face bronzed.
— Rafael Aldave, Eugene
IT’S ABOUT TIME
BY DAVID WAGNER
BUDS OF OREGON ASH ,
F
BIGLEAF MAPLE AND
ebruary marks the quickening
SCOULER ' S WILLOW
of spring in the Willamette
Valley. Although Equinox
doesn’t occur until next month,
buds are bursting and flowers appear
on the osoberry and willows. Snow
drops, violets and crocuses become
plentiful in town gardens while grouse
flower, goldthread, and spring beauty
decorate the woodlands. The
woodland floor in the valley gallery
forests is erumpent with bright green
leaves of snake root, meadow rue,
nettle and larkspur. The most common wind-pollinated trees — hazelnut, alder and
cottonwood — distribute their genes in yellow dust invisible to the eye, if not to the
sinus membranes of the allergy prone.
Feb. 3 was Chinese New Year, the beginning of the Year of the Rabbit. There is
only one native rabbit in the Willamette Valley, the brush rabbit. It is secretive and
seldom seen except by those who walk quietly in recent clearcuts or brushy areas at
the edge of forests. Its breeding season begins in mid-February, the young born
naked and blind in nests four weeks after mating. The snowshoe hare (not a rabbit)
tends to live in deeper, conifer forests. It also feeds mainly at night. Young hares are
born with hair and with eyes open.
Walking down urban streets, the developing spears of moss capsules glisten
orange on a sunny day. The young capsules of the largest mosses have more
nutrients than any other part of the plants and are most digestible when spores are
still immature. Mice will graze on them, leaving behind a miniature thicket of
beheaded stalks.
David Wagner is a botanist and writer who lives in Eugene. The Canada geese drawing is from his 2011 Willamette
Valley Nature Calendar, available at Down to Earth Home and Garden Store and the UO Museum of Natural and
Cultural History.
LANE COUNTY SPRAY SCHEDULE
Near Lorane: Terry Goracke (998-2748) will roadside spray with
Roundup herbicide near Bear and Farman Creeks near Lorane in
Sections 23 and 26 of Township 19 South, Range 5 West starting
immediately (Notice No. 2010-781-00167 C).
Near Indian Creek: Roseburg Resources (935-2307) will ground
spray with 2,4-D, Triclopyr Ester and Amine, Imazapyr, Glyphosate,
Sulfometuron Methyl and Metsulfuron Methyl plus oil on 3 miles of
roadside starting immediately (No. 2010-781-00572 C). Call Delos
Devine at ODF in Florence at 997-8713.
Compiled by Jan Wroncy, Forestland Dwellers: 342-8332, www.forestlanddwellers.org
8 FEBRUARY 10, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
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