Eugene weekly., May 19, 2011, Image 10

NEWS BRIEFS
geranium lucidum, or shiny geranium, the
site’s newest unwelcome guest, according
to Heidt.
These little green, almost clover shaped,
leaves create a lush-looking carpet on the
ground of many of the denser forested
areas in the arboretum.
“It’s awful and spreading everywhere,”
said Heidt.
It’s not certain how these two invasive
species got to the Willamette Valley, but it
could have happened one of three ways.
According to Tom LoCascio, Mount
Pisgah site manager, people could have
brought blackberries over long ago
because they saw economic value in
having these fruit-bearing plants available
to them and their community.
A second way is the same way
earthworms got here — ships from other
continents used soil and sand as ballast to
balance out the load. When the ships got
into port, the unloaded soil could have
spread seeds from other countries on to our
shores.
The third way, and how most invasives
are being spread now, is by hitchhiking.
Seneca Jones Timber and Seneca Sawmill are fighting to log
an old-growth forest in the McKenzie watershed — the source
of Eugene’s drinking water. The timber sale has spurred protests
as has Seneca’s new biomass burning cogeneration plant.
Trapper was first proposed as a timber sale in 1998, and
according to Josh Laughlin of Cascadia Wildlands, which has
been battling the sale in the courts. “Trapper doesn’t reflect the
direction the Forest Service has been headed the last five to 10
years,” Laughlin says. Seneca has refused an alternative
volume of timber offered by the Forest Service, he adds.
EWEB Commissioner Joann Ernst, who held a sign
protesting old-growth logging at Trapper during a protest of
the May 5 Seneca grand opening, says that in 2005 the Eugene
City Council passed a resolution asking the Forest Service not
to log old-growth forests in the McKenzie River watershed,
and she has asked the council to send a letter to Seneca asking
it not to log Trapper and other old growth. Ernst was speaking
as a citizen and not in her role as EWEB commissioner.
EWEB Commissioner Rich Cunningham recently got a
motion passed to write a draft resolution at the June 7 EWEB
board meeting that would censor Ernst for her comments on
Seneca's old-growth logging.
The 149-acre Trapper area has been under contract to be logged
Joann Ernst at Seneca
by Seneca since 2003. Laughlin says that the Forest Service recently
pulled six prime acres of threatened spotted owl habitat out of the sale after a consultation with the Fish and Wildlife service. Trapper is
habitat for red tree voles, the food of choice for northern spotted owls, and owls have been seen there as well.
The Trapper timber sale has been held up in the past by biological opinions that were found to be illegal, Laughlin says. A
recent site-specific biological opinion under the new spotted owl recovery plan is no better, he says, calling the effects analysis
to endangered species “bungled.”
Laughlin says there has been a “voluntary stay from all the parties until the case is briefed” on logging Trapper, but that stay
will be lifted at the end of July, when the spotted owl-nesting season ends.
Activists from Cascadia Forest Defenders and Ecosystem Advocates Northwest, who held signs and banners at the Seneca
protest, have expressed concern that logging slash from Trapper and older ancient forests could be burned in the plant. The state
of Oregon gives companies “biomass producer or collector tax credits,” which Seneca could be earning in addition to millions
in federal and state credits for its biomass burning facility. For more on biomass see EW cover 5/12. — Camilla Mortensen
DO YOU HAVE ASTHMA?
If you have asthma and are currently using
asthma relief medication such as albuterol,
you may be eligible to participate in a clini-
cal research study with an investigational
medication/placebo.
To be considered for participation
in this study, you must:
· Be 12 to 75 years of age
· Be a non or ex-smoker
Participants will be seen by a medical doc-
tor and receive study related testing and
asthma medication at no cost.
Compensation up to $800.00 for time and
travel may also be provided.
We are recruiting patients now!!
PHOTO BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
SENECA SEEKS TO LOG OLD GROWTH
Seeds can be caught on people’s cars,
clothes, dogs, hiking gear and especially
boots. Both Heidt and LoCascio strongly
urge hikers to be aware of where they go
and to always take the time to clean their
gear before and after hiking (this includes
your dogs if you bring them) to insure that
no invasive seeds are being spread into our
park areas as well as other areas around the
country.
Not all nonnatives are invasive.
Agricultural plants, fruit trees and flowers
such as the tulips and daffodils blooming
all around us now are a few of the positive
visitors you can plant in your backyard
garden. Heidt recommends anything that
doesn’t spread.
“They’re nonnative but they don’t take
over an area; you don’t walk into a forest
and see it completely covered in daffodils,”
said Heidt.
If you’re looking for fruit bearers to
replace those dreaded blackberries, Diane
Wennstrom, the bedding plant buyer from
Gray’s Garden Center in Eugene,
recommends noninvasive, nonnative
berries such as raspberries, blueberries and
strawberries. And if you’re looking for
something a little more robust, like fruit
trees, she says to go for apple, pear, peach
and cherry trees.
For more information and to get
involved with the volunteer work parties at
Mount Pisgah visit mountpisgaharboretum.
org. –– Chelsea Fryhoff
EARLY
DEADLINES
EW offices will be closed Memorial
Day Monday, May 30. The early deadline
for reserving display ad space in our June
2 Summer Guide issue is 5 pm Thursday,
May 26. For more information, call 484-
0519.
THIS WEDNESDAY AT Sam
Bond’s
DEADRINGERS
BARRY FLAST
featuring
FORMER KINGFISH AND
STARSHIP KEYBOARDIST
5/25/11
Deadheads converge!
8:30 PM $5
" A ftermath "
Friday Evening,
May 20th, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
At the Hilton of Eugene, in the Share Bistro and Wine Tasting Bar
Eugene Symphony bassist Greg Nathan, and jazz guitarist Mike Denny
A post-concert celebration with ESO players invited to sit in.
Open to the public. Food and drink specials. No Cover. Hope to see you there!
For more information, please contact:
Allergy and Asthma Research Group
Dr. Kraig Jacobson
(541) 868-2137
10 MAY 19, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
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