FAIR MOURNS
FOUR LOST IN
PLANE CRASH
The June 23 plane crash that killed four “family
members” of the Oregon Country Fair has left the
organization “broken-hearted” and “profoundly
affected,” General Manager Charlie Ruff said at a June
25 press conference held at OFC headquarters.
“We’re going to have an amazing celebration of life
and remembrance,” Ruff said, noting that grief
counselors from Eugene’s White Bird Clinic were
already circulating among members and volunteers in
the Country Fair community.
Shortly after take-off, around 3:10 pm that Saturday,
a privately rented Cessna 172 carrying the four
passengers — pilot Jerome “Roch” Delbosc D’Auzon,
41; Robyn “Bluesky” Leigh Weir, 40; Christopher
Robin Kent, 37; and Erin Thomas Frank Noble, 27 —
lost altitude and crashed into a wooded area near Suttle
and Ridiculous roads in Veneta, a report from Lane
County Sheriff’s Office said.
“They were sightseeing” and not on Fair business,
Ruff said, noting that NTSB officials informed him
D’Auzon had “the most amazing credentials” for a
pilot.
At the press conference, Ruff said his staff was
reaching out to the Red Cross in order to set up “a clear,
consistent mechanism” for family and friends of the
victims to contact grief counselors. “Everybody knows
everybody out there,” he explained of the close-knit
community of OCF staff and volunteers.
Erin Noble is the son of Deborah and Peter Noble of
Eugene. A memorial for Noble is set for 4 pm Sunday,
July 1, at Mount Pisgah’s White Oak Pavilion. Check
the EW blog for updates on memorials.
— Rick Levin
information and cost. They have requested an oversight
committee for the shelter, as Lane County Animal
Services (LCAS) has had in the past, but have been told
that on Eugene’s part the Police Commission will serve
as oversight.
Handy says there is little or no interest from
Commissioners Jay Bozievich, Sid Leiken or Faye
Stewart in having oversight or involvement. Bozievich
has told EW he will only comment to the paper on
county issues if a public records request is made. The
county charges for public records requests.
One concern that has been raised about Greenhill is
the euthanasia policy. LCAS had largely gone “no kill,”
only euthanizing pets if there is no other option due to
illness or severe behavioral issues. Tamara Barnes of
the Cat’s Pajamas Rescue cited a Facebook post by a
Greenhill volunteer that says kittens with ringworm are
killed due to lack of foster homes. “The animal has to
not only be treatable, but the treatment possible,” the
post says.
Barnes wrote in an email to the commissioners and
the Eugene mayor and City Council that this is a
“typical kill shelter excuse. So if other animals need a
foster home and they don’t have it, are they killed
too? This is not only morally reprehensible, but not
Save Adoptable and Treatable Animals and certainly
not No Kill.”
Lieberman says Greenhill has successfully treated
many ringworm cases, but “unfortunately there were
some that we were not able to treat.” He says ringworm
is a challenging disease and that in a “shelter
environment, which is often more stressful and may be
populated with a number of animals with compromised
health, it spreads easily and is often considered
untreatable in that environment.” Lieberman’s full
comments on the issue are at eugeneweekly.com/blogs
The city of Eugene is working on a FAQ (frequently
asked questions) document regarding the transition and
Greenhill is working on that with them, Lieberman
says. “I do not know if Lane County is working on
something similar at this time,” he says.
Handy says that after a decade of progress with
saving adoptable and treatable animals and community
involvement and standards around how animal care is
practiced the county has given no assurances as to how
things will move forward in this new model being
proposed.
— Camilla Mortensen
Marbled Murrelet
ANIMAL ISSUES
GO UNANSWERED
Despite vocal worries from animal advocates, Lane
County commissioners voted 3-2 to award a contract to
run the animal services shelter to Greenhill Humane
Society. However, there is no actual contract yet,
something that concerned Commissioners Pete Sorenson
and Rob Handy, who dissented on the vote.
“This fits the pattern of what seems to be happening
with decision-making,” Handy says of the vote. He says
earlier in the process when the county sent out its
request for proposals (RFP) animal welfare advocates,
including some who serve on the county’s animal
services advisory committee, wanted a hand in writing
the proposal. Handy made a motion for the board to
have input or review the RFP, he says, but it also failed
3-2.
“The board majority was basically comfortable with
bureaucrats and Administrator [Liane] Richardson
writing it,” he says, adding that the June 25 vote on the
authorizing Richardson to deal with the Greenhill
contract was a similar dynamic.
Greenhill Executive Director Cary Lieberman says,
“Everyone is still hopeful for a smooth transition on
July 1, but we still don’t have a contract drafted with
Lane County.”
The animal advisory committee and animal welfare
advocates have brought up questions about the transition
that remain unanswered about transparency, access to
6 JUNE 28, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
PHOTO CREDIT USFWS
STATE FORESTS
UNDER FIRE
Oregon’s state forests are the focal points of protests
and lawsuits this summer. The culminating action of the
Earth First! Cascadia Bioregional Rendezvous on June
25 was a lockdown at the state Capitol protesting the
increased logging and clearcuts on Oregon’s state lands.
Activists from Cascadia Earth First! and Cascadia
Forest Defenders (CFD) chained themselves together
and staged a “die-in” in the offices of Treasurer Ted
Wheeler and Secretary of State Kate Brown while others
climbed the building’s flagpoles, hanging banners
reading, “Oregon: For Sale by Kate Brown and Ted
Wheeler” and “Defend Oregon, No Compromise, Earth
First!”
Brown and Wheeler are members, along with Gov.
John Kitzhaber, of the State Land Board, which voted to
nearly double the clearcuts on the Elliott State Forest,
the protesters say. The groups are also calling to separate
public school funding from state forest management.
In the end, according to Oregon State Police reports,
six protesters were arrested, including two from Eugene,
Cameron Michael Kennedy and Nicole Dentremont.
CFD says at one point the support crew for the protesters
locked down in Brown’s office was asked to leave and
the door was covered over blocking the view of
concerned fellow protesters.
Conservation group Cascadia Wildlands has been
working on the state forest issue from another angle. At
the end of May, together with the Center for Biological
Diversity and the Audubon Society of Portland, the
group filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that
“Oregon’s clearcutting practices illegally harm
threatened marbled murrelets within the Tillamook,
Clatsop and Elliott state forests in violation of the
Endangered Species Act.”
Cascadia Wildlands says the most recent status
review of marbled murrelets by the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service found that the swift, potato-shaped
birds have been declining at a rate of approximately 4
percent per year and that the decline is probably related
to the continued loss of habitat, primarily on state and
private lands.
In response to the suit, Oregon halted eight of the 10
timber sales the groups objected to. The other two
timber sales had already been cut, Josh Laughlin of
Cascadia Wildlands says. He says Cascadia Wildlands
is pleased the state of Oregon has suspended operations
on these clearcutting projects that are harming the
murrelets through the injunction relief phase of the
case. “Now we call on Gov. Kitzhaber to initiate
balanced conservation plans on our coastal state forests
instead of continuing to make Swiss cheese out of
them.”
— Camilla Mortensen
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM