TRAPPER
TIMBER
SAGA
CONTINUES
Seneca-Jones Timber Company, the
same company that owns the controversial
biomass cogeneration plant in west Eugene,
is fi ghting to log a tract of old-growth forest
in the McKenzie River watershed. Local
conservation groups Cascadia Wildlands
and Oregon Wild, as well as other local
activist groups, have long opposed the sale
of the trees fi rst proposed in 1998, which
provide habitat for red tree voles, the food
of choice for northern spotted owls listed as
endangered species.
Dan Kruse, attorney for Cascadia
Wildlands, and Susan Jane Brown and Pete
Frost of the Western Environmental Law
Center, fi led a memo in support of a motion
for summary judgment on Feb. 18. Kruse
says the groups are asking the courts to halt
Trapper because “the impacts of the sale
are signifi cantly different than previously
considered, including to spotted owls and
red tree voles.”
The court document cites a May 2010
letter from Pacifi c Northwest scientists
involved with the Andrews Experimental
Forest, which is located close to the sale and
is part of the Blue River Landscape Study,
as is the Trapper timber sale.
happening people
Trapper is in an “adaptive management
area” — federal land that is managed to
“encourage the development and testing of
technical and social approaches to achieving
desired ecological, economic and other
social objectives” and is part of a study on
the way logging can make forest structures
similar to those created by fi re.
According to the scientists’ letter, logging
Trapper “will not yield stand-level lessons
of high value for contemporary logging
practices.” The scientists, Fred Swanson,
Tom Spies and Sherri Johnson, go on to say,
“An important social consideration is that
pushing forward with the Trapper Timber
Sale may undercut efforts to undertake
new discussions with the community about
their future engagement with Willamette
National Forest lands. We feel that a
positive atmosphere for those discussions
has greater value than moving forward with
a highly contentious timber sale.”
“When your own scientists question
the relevance of the project, it’s time to
pull the plug,” says Josh Laughlin of
Cascadia Wildlands. He says that when the
Forest Service agreed to reduce the cost of
Trapper’s timber in 2009 to $0.44 per cubic
foot, it was agreeing to sell the valuable
old-growth wood to Seneca for less than the
typical price of fi rewood on Craigslist.
The Register-Guard weighed in on the
sale in an October 2010 editorial “Not a
typical timber sale,” arguing the sale should
go through despite the presence of a spotted
owl nesting area, and that “loggers, forests
and owls alike” would benefi t from the
science. The editorial makes no mention of
Seneca’s involvement in the sale.
The Trapper timber sale is being
opposed by activists as well as through the
courts. “Cascadia Forest Defenders, Rising
Tide and Earth First! are all still prepared
to defend this native forest,” says a CFD
representative.
Oregon Wild and Cascadia Wildlands
have expressed interest in swapping the
same volume of plantation forest timber for
the old growth in Trapper, but Seneca has
not agreed to such a deal. The Willamette
National Forest is preparing a response to
the memo to be fi led on March 11.
— Camilla Mortensen
BREAKING UP
BIG LOADS
Imperial Oil has claimed that the
only way it could get its massive Statue
of Liberty-sized loads of oil extraction
equipment from South Korea to their fi nal
destination in the Canadian tar sands was up
the Columbia River and through wild and
scenic corridors. But that has turned out to
be false.
The oil company has begun to break up
some of the controversial loads and ship
them on the very interstate highways that
Imperial, an Exxon Mobil Corp. subsidiary,
said it could not use.
Imperial Oil spokesman Pius Rolheiser
told EW in August 2010, “The modules are
too large to be transported on an interstate
highway.”
But now the company admits it is
reconfi guring 33 of the 207 loads and
sending them up I-90 and other interstates
from Washington’s Port of Vancouver
across the river from Portland.
Critics have attacked Imperial’s shipping
plans, not only because of the greenhouse
gas issues and toxic pollutants that are
the result of oil sands extraction, but also
because of fears the company’s plans will
turn the wild and scenic river corridor along
Highway 12 in Idaho and Montana into a
industrial hauling corridor, harming tourism
and native salmon. Oregon-based groups
have also criticized using the Columbia
River, a historic fi shing ground for
Northwest native tribes, to facilitate dirty oil
extraction that they say has poisoned First
Nations peoples in Canada.
BY PAUL NEEVEL
MARIA PALADINO
“I’ve always been involved in activism,” says Maria Paladino, a
labor activist from age 16 who has also volunteered in support
of immigration reform, economic justice, women’s issues,
queer issues, and pit bull rescue. “Somebody needs to speak
for the underdog,” she says. A native of Brooklyn, she moved
to Salem in time for middle school, went back East after high
school, got married and had two kids. She returned to Oregon
after a divorce. “It took me eight years to go to school,” says
Paladino, who completed a sociology degree at LCC and the
UO between jobs and mom duties. Two years later, in 2000, she
began full-time work as a legal advocate at Sexual Assault
Support Services, a nonprofit that offers education, support,
and advocacy to survivors of sexual violence. “I still do front-
line work. It’s been a calling,” says Paladino, who was executive
director of SASS from 2007 until last month, when she
resigned to become development director for the Oregon
Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence. “The coalition
provides training and tech support to member groups across
the state.” Learn about SASS programs and volunteer
opportunities at http://sass-lane.org The SASS 24-hour crisis
line is 343-SASS.
8
MARCH 3, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
Trish Weber of All Against the Haul,
one of the groups fi ghting Imperial’s plan,
says the reconfi guring of the modules
“directly challenges the validity” of
the Environmental Assessment and FONSI
(fi nding of no signifi cant impact) that were
put out by the Montana Department of
Transportation, “as the EA was predicated
on the assertion that there is no viable
alternate route in existence.” She adds that
Idaho’s decision to issue permits for the
ExxonMobil loads was based on the same
assertion.
The fi rst of a related cluster of megaloads
belonging to ConocoPhillips made their
way out of the Port of Lewiston in February
but have not made it to their destination.
The loads have been blocked by weather,
and the fi rst load created a number of delays
longer than the 15 minutes Idaho permits
loads to hold up traffi c. Imperial Oil’s fi rst
load is due to hit the road March 7. The
Columbia River has been closed to barge
traffi c due to dam repairs, but is slated to
reopen March 3. Megaloads can then begin
once again to make their way up the river.
Weber says Imperial Oil’s fl ip-fl opping
on its ability to break up the loads, “severely
damages the credibility of both state
agencies in addition to the applicants — not
that ExxonMobil had much credibility to
begin with.”
An Oregon protest against the heavy haul
is planned for Portland’s Kelly Point Park,
9 am, March 20. Contact godowatufti27@
gmail.com for more information. —
Camilla Mortensen
WHAT WILL
PUBLIC HEAR?
Has a “green” university ever been so
determined to develop riverfront land?
The UO is trying to move forward with
the fi rst substantial Willamette riverfront
construction project in 20 years just east of
EWEB’s property on the south side of the
river.
Continuing a lengthy appeals process,
the citizen group Connecting Eugene
fi led a notice of intent to appeal the city’s
decision allowing excavation to go forward
for a new parking lot that is part of planned
development for the Oregon Research
Institute at the UO’s Riverfront Research
LANE AREA SPRAY SCHEDULE
• Massive aerial spray of western
Lane County: Weyerhaeuser (744-
4600, 912-0203) will aerial spray
1,237 acres using 15 different
herbicides including Garlon 4 in Low
Pass, Horton, Triangle Lake, Greenleaf
and Lorane next to Fish, Swamp, Kelly
(Coho salmon streams) and Martin
creeks; Long Tom River, Crow, Hayes
and Poodle Creek starting March 14
(ODF Notice No. 2011-781-00151).
• Green River area: Roseburg
Resource Company (935-2507) will
aerial spray 209 acres with 11
herbicides including Garlon 4 near
Green River (Coho salmon; Township
15 South, Range 10 West, Section 25
&26) starting March 15 (No. 2011-781-
00141).
Compiled by Jan Wroncy, Forestland Dwell-
ers: 342-8332, www.forestlanddwellers.org
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