BAD BAGS BAN
The problems with cheap plastic bags don’t end with
environmental ramifications, according to Environment
Oregon’s Sarah Higginbotham, and that’s why businesses
and members of the recycling industry are joining
environmentalists to support a Eugene ban on plastic
grocery bags. The City Council voted unanimously (with
Councilor Mike Clark absent) on Feb. 27 to draft a plastic
bag ban ordinance.
The EPA reported that less than 5 percent of plastic
grocery bags were recycled in 2010. Most of those that
were recycled were shipped to China, where Higginbotham
says they’re processed in a way that is toxic to workers and
the environment. Those that aren’t recycled often find their
way to the ocean, where they are particularly dangerous to
marine wildlife.
When people put plastic bags into recycling, the bags
often gum up the combing machines and cause the system
to shut down so they can be cut out. The Association of
Oregon Recyclers found that plastic bags — 0.1 percent of
their recycling volume — caused up to 30 percent of their
labor costs.
The price of plastic bags is currently built into the cost
of groceries, so Higginbotham says that it’s fair to say that
even people who already use reusable bags are paying for
the widespread use of plastic — to the tune of 444 plastic
bags per person per year in Oregon.
When people look at the list of ways plastic bags cause
problems, Higginbotham says, they begin to see the topic
as a common-sense lifestyle issue. “We don’t need them,”
she says. “They’ve only been around for about 30 years
and it’s unnecessary.”
— Shannon Finnell
COUNTY WILL
PURSUE PARVIN
The top of Parvin Butte, which sits in the middle of the
rural community of Dexter, is now almost completely
leveled, according to neighbor Arlen Markus.
But the Dexter/Lost Valley community 20 miles outside
Eugene has hope that residents won’t be woken up at 8 am in
the morning by the sounds of their scenic butte being ripped
and torn into gravel by Lost Creek Rock Products: Lane
County has asked Hearings Official Gary Darnielle to
reconsider his Feb. 14 ruling that gravel mining could
continue at the butte. The hearings official is a neutral party.
According to information from the county, “Lane
County maintains that a site review for mining operations
at Parvin Butte is necessary given the impact to neighboring
residents, including increased traffic, noise and proximity
to area homes.” A site review allows neighbors affected by
the mining to have input on these issues.
OSU SETS TRAPS
OSU has “deactivated” the snares it put around its sheep farm after Eugene-based Predator Defense and OSU neighbors
protested the lethal traps that they say have caught and killed everything from raccoons to coyotes to a baby fawn.
Neighbors say traps have been within 200 feet of at least one home, and well within the range of children, dogs and cats.
The snares, which were set by the USDA’s Wildlife Services, “wantonly destroy predators and target anything coming
through that fence,” according to Brooks Fahy of Predator Defense.
Neighbor Pamela Darcy has lived near the OSU sheep farm since 1982. She says her dog has been caught in the traps
and alleges that in the past an OSU shepherd killed a puppy for wandering under the fence and also killed another
neighbor’s dachshund, “all in the name of protecting the sheep.” She wonders why the school has not made more use of
the llamas that once effectively and nonlethally patrolled the fence.
OSU says that last year at least 12 lambs and ewes were killed in a single night in a suspected coyote attack.
But Fahy argues that the school should explore nonlethal methods, such as trained guard dogs and guard llamas, and
better fencing before turning to what he calls the “cruel” method of snaring and trapping.
“These animals suffer,” he says. “I don’t think we can overstate that. They linger and die over a period of days or chew
their feet off.”
Also, he says if a coyote can kill 12 sheep while snares are set, the method isn’t working.
Fahy says ironically, while one department uses Wildlife Services, which he calls a “rogue agency,” to trap and kill
predators, OSU scientists in another department publish studies on how predators are a necessary part of a healthy
ecosystem.
While OSU has removed the traps, Fahy says he has not been assured that the lethal methods won’t be brought back.
Fahy questions what having a government agency set traps teaches students. “It’s beyond belief they are having
Wildlife Services doing the work for them,” he says, adding, “It indoctrinates the students: ‘If you have a problem, call
the government.’”
Fahy has worked with Congressman Peter DeFazio to end federal funding for Wildlife Services, which kills predators
through means such as trapping, aerial gunning and poisons.
— Camilla Mortensen
A raccoon killed in
one of OSU’s snares
PHOTO COURTESY: PREDATOR DEFENSE
ACTIVIST ALERT
• A public meeting on the Lane County Natural Hazards
Mitigation Plan will be at 10 am Thursday, March 1, at Lane
County Public Works, Training Room 3. The plan is also at
www.lanecounty.org/prepare and comments can be
submitted online or by email to prepare@co.lane.or.us To
receive emergency text alerts directly to a cell phone, visit
http://www.lcog.org/alertme
• Lane County Commissioner Jay Bozievich will be
available to meet with members of the public at 10 am
Thursday, March 1, at the Eugene Eagles Aerie #275, 1375
Irving Road in Santa Clara, and at noon the same day at the
Junction City Moose Lodge, 427 Front St. in Junction City.
• Paul Pierson and Jacob Hacker will be speaking on
“The Politics of Inequality” at 4 pm Thursday, March 1, at
the Knight Law Center on the UO campus. Pierson and
Hacker, both former Eugene residents, recently published
Winner Take All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich
Richer — and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class.
• Almudena Bernabeu, an international lawyer who
works with the Center for Justice and Accountability in San
Francisco, will present the 2012 Bartolomé de las Casas
Lecture in Latin American Studies, “Fighting Impunity in
National Courts: Human Rights and Transitional Justice in
Latin America,” at 7 pm Thursday, March 1, in the Knight
Library Browsing Room at UO. Bernabeu’s lecture addresses
6 MARCH 1, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
critical issues in the efforts to prosecute human rights
violators in Latin America.
• Mayor Kitty Piercy’s new campaign office is at 443 W.
11th Ave. and an office party is being planned for Saturday
afternoon, March 3, according to Jake Foster, Piercy’s
campaign manager. Office equipment and supplies are
needed, along with volunteers. Call 632-4442 or email
casey@kittypiercy.com
• Oregon Common Cause will hold a public meeting and
discussion about Citizens United at 2 pm Sunday, March 4,
at the EWEB meeting room. Speaker will be former Common
Cause executive director Janice Thompson.
• Conversations On the Forest, the second in a monthly
series on the lumber industry and regional economics, will
be from 6 to 7:30 pm Monday, March 5, at Cozmic Pizza,
199 W. 8th Ave. in Eugene. This session’s topic will be
“Trees, Trucks and Taxes — Where does the Money in Timber
Come From, and Where Does It Go?” Panelists include Kevin
Matthews, Commissioner Rob Handy and forestry
consultant Roy Keene. See conversationsontheforest.org
• Sen. Lee Beyer and Rep. Phil Barnhart will be
available to members of the public at 7:30 am Tuesday,
March 6, at Creswell Coffee, 116 Melton Road in Creswell; at
6:30 pm Monday, March 12, at Aunt Dings Restaurant in
Walterville; at 7:30 am Tuesday, March 13, at Randy’s Main
Street Coffee in Brownsville; and at 7:30 am Wednesday,
March 14 at Jake’s Café in Harrisburg.
• Eight state lawmakers from Lane County will be
holding a town hall on foreclosures from 6:30 to 8 pm
Wednesday, March 7, at Harris Hall, 125 E. 8th Ave. in
Eugene.
• Matt McRae, climate and energy analyst for the city of
Eugene, will discuss what can homeowners, builders, and
designers can do to help reduce the negative effects of
climate change and increase resiliency locally, at 7 pm
Wednesday, March 7, at BRING’s Planet Improvement Center
4446 Franklin Blvd. Glenwood.
• Public comments on Waldo Lake power boats and float
planes can be submitted from March 1 to April 10, when a
public meeting of the Oregon Marine Board will be held in
Eugene. Written comments can be submitted to osmb.
rulemaking@state.or.us or to June LeTarte, Rules
Coordinator, OMB, P.O. Box 14145, Salem 97309-5056.
• A UO symposium on “Gender Equity and Capitalism”
will include author and economist Nancy Folbre of the
University of Massachusetts Amherst as keynote speaker
for International Women’s Day. Her talk will be on “Women’s
Gains, Mothers’ Losses: Capitalism and the Care Penalty” at
7 pm Thursday, March 8, at 110 Knight Law Center.
• Charles Eisenstein, author of Sacred Economics, will
be on a speaking tour in Oregon: March 8 in Corvallis and
March 10 in Eugene, followed by an all-day workshop March
11 in Eugene. More details next week or at www.
unifyingcascadia.info
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