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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (July 21, 2011)
NEWS BRIEFS Since its inception 10 years ago, NEST has found hundreds of red tree voles in areas slated for logging and has saved thousands of acres of forest across Oregon. To maintain the future of its program, NEST is holding a fundraiser to support the costs of a summer of surveys and for volunteers’ gear. NEST has currently raised $640; the group hopes to raise $2,000 by the end of summer. To find out more about NEST or to donate, go to www.nestcascadia.wordpress. com and use the Paypal account or contribute through Indiegogo and receive gifts ranging from forest-themed hoodies to patches. NEST also appreciates donations of camping and climbing gear and welcomes volunteers. A wish list can be found on the organization’s website. — Kendall Fields WILL GOV OK WILDLIFE KILL FUNDS? A so-called Wildlife Conservation Fund is actually a wildlife-killing fund, according to Eugene-based Predator Defense and conservation group Oregon Wild. HB 3636 was passed unanimously by the Oregon House and by the Senate, and it awaits Gov. John Kitzhaber’s signature. The bill would create a voluntary fund for killing predators, including wolves and “fur-bearing mammals.” Oregon’s population of less than 20 gray wolves is state endangered species listed. Wolves in the western two- thirds of Oregon are also federally protected. If Kitzhaber signs the bill into law, the fund would allow people applying for a license, tag or permit from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to make a voluntary contribution for predatory animal control within the counties that the license allows for the person to hunt. This means the money will go to killing endangered gray wolves, as well as to lethally controlling bear, beaver, raccoons and foxes, among others. Sally Mackler of Predator Defense calls the bill “reckless” and says, “The state is spending a tremendous amount of money on killing wildlife.” Mackler says the amount of money the state spends on killing predators has doubled in the last biennium to about $840,000, but predators are responsible for very few livestock deaths. Rob Klavins of Oregon Wild says that rather than kill endangered wolves, “the state is required to conserve the species.” He says HB 3636 was “designed to fly under the radar” and slipped through unnoticed in the last days of the legislative session. Klavins says that it “hijacks the hunting license system.” He points out that Oregon’s 17 or so wolves already face 28 active landowner kill permits. A recent study in the journal Science says that humans’ destruction of top or apex predators like wolves causes previously unknown reverberations including changes in the landscape, increases in wildfires, pandemics and ecosystem shifts. The study called killing predators “humankind’s most pervasive influence on the natural world.” The study gives as an example that when wolves returned to Yellowstone National Park it benefited creekside trees, and that without predators to kill deer, the populations explode with consequences such as more deer ticks to spread Lyme disease to humans. Oregon Wild and Predator Defense are calling on Kitzhaber to veto the bill. Kitzhaber’s press secretary Christine Miles says, “The governor will review HB 3636 before making any decision on the bill.” — Camilla Mortensen INTERFAITH PEACE WALK IN EUGENE Monks from the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist Temple on Bainbridge Island will be leading a Interfaith Peace Walk beginning in Eugene Thursday, July 21, and ending Aug. 9 at the Trident Nuclear submarine base at Bangor, Wash. With the theme “For a Nuclear Free Future in Respect for Mother Earth,” the walk serves as a reminder of the critical dangers presented by nuclear weapons and Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and other nuclear installations. The Eugene events will begin with an 8:30 am welcome and opening ceremony at the Japanese American Memorial Garden, Willamette and 6th, followed by a daylong walk through Eugene. The day will end with a 5:30 pm community potluck and program at First United Methodist Church, 1376 Olive. The monks invite all who believe in nonviolence to join all or part of the walk as they drum, chant and offer prayers. Each step the walkers take will be a prayer towards world peace and a nuclear free future. The local hosts are WAND, CALC, Japanese American Association and Eugene Friends Meeting. For more information contact Susan Cundiff of WAND at 683-1350 or scundiff@riousa. com Looking ahead, a Hiroshima- Nagasaki-Fukashima Commemoration will be from 7 to 9:30 pm Saturday, Aug. 6, at Alton Baker Park’s small shelter, located near the duck pond. A community potluck begins at 7 pm followed by an 8 pm program featuring Japanese Koto music, Taiko drumming, Obon dancing, origami making and a call to action by Mayor Kitty Piercy. The event will close at dusk with the floating of candle lanterns on the duck pond while Koto master Mitsuki Dazai plays traditional Japanese music. The ceremony honors those who died when the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The event is free but donations can be made to benefit Japanese tsunami survivors. Contact Michael Carrigan of CALC at 485-1755 or calcpeace@efn.org for more information. WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM slant • Conservatives lambasted moderate county commissioners when they were forced to cut jail beds and sheriff patrols last year due to budget realities. But this year, now that conservatives are in control of the County Commission during nearly identical cuts due to the same realities, the silence is deafening. Where are all the outraged R-G editorials? Where are the angry outbursts from the district attorney, sheriff’s deputies, Tea Partiers and judges? Where’s the retaliatory lawsuit funded by a timber baron? • The Register-Guard used the new 4J superintendent’s higher salary to make the school district look wasteful and irresponsible during the May election for school funding. But after the income tax for schools that the R-G opposed was defeated, well, never mind. The paper reports now that the new super’s total salary package is about the same as the old superintendent. • File under “I told you so” the recent revelation that backers of the proposed Jordan Cove LNG import terminal in Coos Bay are considering converting the project into an export terminal. When the enviros at Western Environmental Law Center and other conservation groups first predicted that Oregon’s proposed LNG import terminals would be flipped for export, they were called conspiracy theorists. Turns out their conspiracy theories were right and Jordan Cove is angling to export. The Coos Bay terminal has already received conditional approval from federal energy regulators. The project is much more than a terminal, it’s also gas pipelines across public and private lands and under pristine rivers. Thanks to nasty new technology like hydraulic fracking, the U.S. is producing more and more natural gas. Does Oregon want to be the hub that ships dangerous liquid gas around the world? Check out EW’s story on LNG in our archives from May 27, 2010, as well as a recent piece on the export issue in The Oregonian http://wkly.ws/12z • The Lane County Historical Museum could use a little help with an upcoming exhibit, “Weird & Wonderful: Lane County Highlights and Footnotes.” Mary Dole from the museum says she needs three or four movie theater seats and an older tea cart. The museum is hoping to borrow the items for a year, or buy them on a limited budget. Give her a call at 682-4242 or go to www. lanecountyhistoricalsociety.org • Sleazy journalists? Publisher gets a pie in the face? What’s the world coming to? Well, corrupt journalists have been plying their trade for as long as newspapers have been in circulation, just as there have always been sleazy bankers, priests, doctors, lawyers and maybe even bakers and candlestick makers. For better or worse, every organization over time becomes a reflection of the people at the very top. Rupert Murdoch ruthlessly built his media empire not with the intent of informing the public and making the world a better place, but rather to feed his greed for money and power. Some satisfaction can be found in watching him squirm, along with all the people in high places who went along with his corrupt tactics. Of course he feigns surprise that people on his payroll have done anything unethical. As above, so below. • One of our favorite home-grown environmental organizations is BRING Recycling, and the nonprofit’s 40th anniversary party is Sunday in Glenwood. See you there? More info in Activist Alert this week and mark your calendars for the third Annual Home & Garden Tour Sunday, Sept. 18. • Some great new local music can be found on our Next Big Thing website (www.nextbigthingeugene.com). Last time we checked there were 53 original songs. Think you can do better or just want to get your music out there? Deadline to submit songs is July 25. The top 16 artists or bands will be invited to play in the semi-finals at the Lane County Fair Aug. 18-20, and the top two will play at the Eugene Celebration. Winning band gets $500, free recording sessions, paid gigs and a lot of love. EUGENE WEEKLY JULY 21, 2011 9
