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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 2011)
suspended the mega-shipments from the Port of Lewiston after the collision. “This is another situation where we would much rather be wrong than right,” says Corvallis resident Patricia Weber of the coalition All Against the Haul. “But we’ve said all along that narrow two-lane highways are not the place for these megaloads.” Weber, who works with Idaho and Montana residents on the megaloads issue, adds, “This latest accident proves that to be the case. The question is not whether or not these megaloads are safe, but when Idaho is going to pull the plug on the permits for them once and for all.” This isn’t the only incident involving megaloads. The Missoula Independent reports that an oversize shipment from the Washington-based company Nickel Bros., following the same route taken by the Imperial Oil loads, delayed Lorna and Pete Scott of Augusta, Mont., an hour while they were trying to take Lorna’s mother to the hospital — she was suffering an apparent heart attack. The woman made it to the emergency room and recovered and the Montana Department of Transportation later contacted the family to apologize, the paper reports. In November, the Obama administration decided to delay the construction of the $7 billion TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline pending further review. The pipeline would carry tar sands oil from Canada through the U.S. to the Gulf Coast for processing. Tar sands crude is said to be dirtier than other forms of crude oil and that may have led to this summer’s Exxon Silvertip Pipeline leak that spilled 40,000 gallons of oil into the Yellowstone River. About 10 percent of Oregon’s fuel comes from tar sands production. The Keystone issue came back this month when House Majority leader John Boehner attached a “rider” for the pipeline project to the payroll tax bill. The payroll tax break for 160 million U.S. workers is set to expire Dec. 31. Tar sands oil production is becoming Canada’s largest single emitter of greenhouse gases, according to the Sierra Club. On Dec. 12 Canada announced that it was withdraw- ing from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, though the country said it would honor a separate, carbon-reducing agreement reached at the climate change summit in Durban, South Africa, over the weekend. — Camilla Mortensen CITY VIOLATES CITY LAW, AGAIN The city of Eugene has violated its own code again in using bike parking as barricades to keep homeless people from sitting down. The Eugene police locked trashed bicycles to city landscaping downtown this fall to keep homeless people from sitting on low walls at Olive and Broadway streets. City Code 5.420 prohibits “a bicycle left on public property for a period in excess of 24 hours.” At least six other code provisions prohibit locking trash on sidewalks and blocking pedestrians. After complaints, the city removed the trashed bikes. But now the city has replaced the bikes with bike racks bolted into the sidewalk six inches away from the low landscaping walls like fences. But that also violates city code that requires bicycle racks be placed so that bicyclists can actually use them. Eugene Code 9.6105(2) requires that racks be placed a minimum of two feet from walls. The city routinely enforces bike parking codes against retailers and other businesses, but the downtown racks serve as a public reminder that the city itself does not comply with the laws it requires others to respect. The legal violation of the city’s own laws by the police themselves also comes as the city has come under criticism for prosecuting the homeless and young people downtown for alleged minor code violations such as sitting on a low wall or standing on a sidewalk grate around a tree. Last time the city violated its own laws with the junked bikes, the city didn’t prosecute itself. The police auditor dismissed a complaint of misconduct without investigating. — Alan Pittman WOLF LOOKS FOR LOVE? WOLVES FROM OREGON’S IMNAHA PACK Perhaps on an important quest to find love, OR-7, a young gray wolf, once part of the Imnaha pack, set out on Sept. 10 from northeast Oregon’s Wallowa County and ended up in Klamath County, where he’s been roaming the same 100 square miles since Nov. 8. While media outlets around the world have focused on OR-7’s incredible 700-plus mile journey, wolf advocates are equally amazed and excited about what this might mean for wolf conservation in Oregon. “We hope he’s found what he’s looking for,” said Robert Klavins, wildlands and wildlife advocate with Oregon Wild, adding that the group assumes the wolf is looking for or has found a mate. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) officials aren’t entirely sure why he has stayed in the area and can’t confirm whether he’s found a mate. “We haven’t observed him and haven’t observed (whether) he has another wolf with him,” said Michelle Dennehy, ODFW wildlife communications director. But it wouldn’t be a surprise to find him with a partner. According to Dennehy there were some reports of wolves in the southwest Cascades a couple years ago, and it’s possible he paired up with one of them. Under Oregon’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, the state must have four breeding pairs for three consecutive years to take wolves off the state endangered species list and seven breeding pairs on both sides of the Cascades is the overall objective. To become a breeding pair, OR-7 and his potential mate would have to give birth to two pups that would need to survive for at least a full year. The possibility of a breeding pair in western Oregon is a welcome relief for Klavins, who says that wolf recovery has stalled in Oregon over the last couple years. Oregon Wild is attempting to get all Oregonians excited about OR-7 through its Connect with the Wild Campaign, which is taking name submissions for the wolf and artistic depictions until Dec. 16. To enter go to http://wkly.ws/155 — Ted Shorack PHOTO COURTESY ODFW WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM • BLOGS.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM EUGENE WEEKLY DECEMBER 15, 2011 9
