NEWS BRIEFS
BARE-ASS
BIKE RIDE
You may find yourself riding down the streets of
Eugene for a cause this weekend. And you may be
completely in the nude. Eugene’s annual World Naked
Bike Ride (WNBR), a mass protest of cyclists against
oil dependency, initiated in 2006, is upon us again.
While it is a naked bike ride, you aren’t necessarily
expected to be naked. In fact, clothing is absolutely
optional, says Eugene’s current WNBR coordinator
Ralph Forrest-Ball. Colorful costumes are encouraged,
he says, allowing for better visibility by motorists. “A
good superhero costume would be great,” he says. And
wearing your helmet when riding a bike is always
encouraged.
About half the riders (between 60 and 80 riders
total in past years) go completely naked, says Forrest-
Ball. “Or they wear nothing but body paint.” They’ll
be riding naked to emphasize their “indecent exposure”
to automobiles, he says. “We ride our bikes naked, or
nearly so, to remind fellow travelers that cyclists are
vulnerable when sharing the road.”
And people of all ages are welcome. Forrest-Ball
says, “Anybody can spontaneously join, if they want
to,” he says, adding that he can only assume that
anybody under 18 would be joining with parental
permission.
Police spokeswoman Jenna McCulley says Eugene
police aren’t particularly concerned about this year’s
WNBR. “This isn’t the first time they’ve hosted it,”
she says, “and past rides were peaceful and law-
abiding.”
While the route changes across years, all potential
riders should expect to meet at the corner of Lawrence
and Cheshire, one block west of Skinner Butte at 4 pm
Saturday, June 9. The event is slated to start at 4:30
pm. It will probably be over around 6 pm, Forrest-Ball
says, but that depends on what the riders decide.
“Last year the ride was about 7 miles; this year I
think we’re going to go a little bit longer,” he says,
somewhere between 8 to 8.5 miles. “We’re operating
by consensus,” Forrest-Ball says, “if everybody wants
to quit, OK, let’s just quit.”
— Stacey M. Hollis
ODFW TRAP
DECISION
Last August a Gresham family’s border collie named
Maggie was caught and killed in a lethal trap set 45 feet
from her backyard. A husky named Bella chewed off her
own foot after being caught in an unmarked trap in the
Boise National Forest.
These incidents and others like them spurred Predator
Defense, Cascadia Wildlands, the Humane Society of the
United States and other groups to petition the Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife to strengthen its
trapping regulations. The ODFW Commission will listen
to public comment on June 7 and make a decision, but
most of the staff recommendations are not to change the
regulations.
Scott Beckstead of the Humane Society, who will be
testifying at the meeting, says, “I can’t even say they are
throwing us a bone; they are not even throwing us a
scrap.”
If an animal is caught in a trap, the trapper can wait
48 hours to seven days before going and checking, Sally
Mackler of Predator Defense says. This means, if it isn’t
killed outright, an animal, whether it’s a coyote or a pet
dog, can suffer for two days to a week before someone
comes along to find it.
The groups asked that the time between trap checks
be reduced to 24 hours. In its June 7 “Oregon Furbearer
Regulation Proposals” ODFW responded that staff
proposed the time between checks not be reduced, citing
issues such as travel costs for the trapper.
“The majority of states have 24-hour trap check time,
and there’s no reason we can’t as well,” says Mackler.
Beckstead says at least seven dogs and one cat have
been caught in traps this year, but the number is probably
higher because “let’s face it, when trappers catch pets in
their traps the incentive is not to report that at all.”
The groups also proposed that traps be set back 100
feet from public trails. ODFW proposes to make the
setback 50 feet from trails, 300 feet from public
trailheads, and public campgrounds and picnic areas.
ODFW says in its document that roads and waterways
would not require the setback and adds an exemption
conservations say renders the setback useless.
The trap that killed Maggie was set to kill nutria and
was 45 feet from her back gate, along a waterway. “It’s
like landmines out there,” Mackler says of the trapping
on public lands.
Tagging the trap with the trapper’s name and phone
number was another of the suggestions the conservation
and animal groups put forth. Currently traps are marked
with the owner’s license number. ODFW sees “no law
enforcement advantage” for this change and the
document says trappers fear people would Google their
phone numbers and harass them.
Finally, the groups petitioned to have signs posted
within a 5-foot radius of the traps, warning of the
dangers. ODFW writes that 33 other states do not require
signs to be posted and the other states had questions
about increased trap theft and the difficulties of
enforcement, as well as whether the signs were
“littering.” ODFW staff recommends not making the
change to post signs.
“They can put these deadly devices out there that
constitute a known risk and a known safety hazard, and
they call signs littering,” Beckstead says.
He says, “Hopefully the commission will heed their
statutory mandate and make a decision that is balanced,”
adding that the staff recommendations are “completely
in favor of the trappers, letting a small minority put all
of Oregon at risk.”
— Camilla Mortensen
slant
• Tough economic times fuel anti-government
sentiment. Under stress, we tend to look for
simple solutions to complex problems. Vote “no”
on any new taxes for public safety and start
packing a handgun; that appears to be the
dominant attitude in Josephine and some other
counties that have grown dependent on O&C
timber revenues for decades. Seven of those
counties, including Lane, are in crisis, cutting
even essential county services. Our property taxes
are among the lowest in the state due to our
historic reliance on O&C payments, but many
county voters are loathe to raise property taxes,
even to the minimal limits imposed by Measures 5,
47 and 50.
We might fare better than Josephine County in
a tax levy to support county public safety,
depending on how much of the money would be
dedicated to crime prevention vs. punishment.
But in the long term, the best strategy to raise our
county tax base is to play to our strengths.
Supporting education at all levels is vital to our
economic future. Buying, banking and investing
locally will keep money circulating in Lane County.
Growing and consuming our own food is huge.
And perhaps our greatest treasure is our county’s
livability. Let’s protect our farmlands, water, air
quality, our educational and cultural assets and
support our small, independent businesses. They
are all we have to carry us into the future.
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM
• You gotta love Lane
Community
College President Mary Spilde and her elected
board. They’ve taken a big leap to put up six stories
of student housing across from the library in the
middle of downtown Eugene. They hope 250 students
will be living in Titan Court in the fall of 2012. Not
dormitories, these are furnished apartments intended
for students from LCC, the UO and even NCU. With no
dining hall and no designated parking, these are truly
urban apartments next to the bus lines and bike path.
Rents will run from $650 to $850 per month, and a
few will be as large as four bedrooms. They can be a
big boost for our recovering downtown and,
ultimately, a profit center for LCC. Both the
apartments and the classroom/administrative
building they adjoin are designed to be green learning
environments for students and the community. Next
question: What happens to the old LCC center in
downtown Eugene?
• The huge turnout for the first home game of the
Eugene Metro Azul Women’s Fútbol Club last
Friday indicates high-level soccer has a big future in
Lane County. More than 600 people showed up to
enthusiastically cheer the team to victory, despite
the rain and on the same night as the world-class
Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field, First Friday
ArtWalk downtown and a dozen other events. The
next game, against Portland’s club, will be at 7 pm
Friday, June 15, at South Eugene High School.
• Not surprising that our own Gov. John Kitzhaber
leads the nation in honesty with 100 percent of his
statements being ranked true or mostly true,
according to a recent ranking of governors as
reported by the Uppity Wisconsin blog (see http://
wkly.ws/1an). Kitzhaber’s stellar ranking by Politifact
got little media attention due to embattled Wisconsin
Gov. Scott Walker being named “the #1 most dishonest
governor in America” with only 22 percent of his
statements getting a thumbs-up. Walker was followed
in the bottom rankings by other “Pants on Fire”
governors: Rick Perry, Lincoln Chafee and Chris
Christie. Looks like Walker’s lies, obfuscations and
massive out-of-state funding prevailed as he survived
a recall election this week. Another reason to cherish
Oregon’s relatively uncorrupt politics.
• Quaker scholar Peg Morton is one of our
favorite local peace activists. She’s a longtime
community leader who has been involved in Taxes for
Peace Not War, Community Alliance of Lane County
(CALC), the Latin American Solidarity Committee, the
decades-long campaign to close the notorious School
of the Americas, and much more. Now she’s writing a
book about her lifetime of nonviolent peace activism
and her numerous arrests and jail times. She’s
financing the printing of her book by selling copies in
advance. Send a check for $10 to her at 510 Van
Buren St., Eugene 97402.
SLANT includes short opinion pieces, observations and rumor-chasing
notes compiled by the EW staff. Heard any good rumors lately? Contact
EUGENE WEEKLY JUNE 7, 2012 11