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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (July 19, 2012)
biz beat We hear Lorraine Kerwood, founder of NextStep Recycling and involved in computer refurbishing and recycling since 1999, is retiring as executive director of NextStep and passing the torch to John Barnum. Kerwood has a long history in Lane County working on environmental and social justice issues, and is the recipient of many community awards. Four local entrepreneurs will compete for an instant cash grant of several hundred dollars at the next FEAST dinner at 6 pm Thursday, July 19, at the First United Methodist Church, 1375 Olive St. in Eugene. FEAST is an acronym for Financing Eugene Area Sustainable Talent and the event is a form of “crowd- source founding.” Food chef will be Patty Harrison and music will be by Buck Mueller. Tickets are $15 to $25 at emeraldfeast.weebly.com or at the eDev offices, 1445 Willamette St. Sarah Matsumoto has joined the law offices of Charles M. Tebbutt in June as a project manager. She earned her JD from Seattle University School of Law in 2010. Attorney Daniel Galpern joined the growing firm in May. Investor presentations at the SmartUps July Pub Talk will include representatives from regional companies CellFyre, Magneto Organics, Pathfinder Learning System, GladSpace and Coyle. The event will be from 5 to 8 pm Thursday, July 26, at the Oregon Electric Station. Grains & Chains Bakery opened recently in the incubator kitchen located in the Stellaria Building, home to Hummingbird Wholesale. The business specializes in traditional Bavarian pretzels and other organic bread products and delivers by bicycle to businesses in the area. Founders are McKenzie Davie, Matt Brown and Nicolai Otte. Call 221-8401 or email thebikeryeugene@gmail.com Space for more small food businesses is now available at Stellaria, and the building is also recruiting chefs, food artisans and other local food-related experts for teaching and sharing skills. A workshop series on fermentation started this week, presented by Activation Foods. See www.stellariabuilding.com Lane Arts Council has awarded nearly $50,000 in program and project grants to area arts organizations in partnership with the city of Eugene’s Cultural Services Division. The largest grants went to the WOW Hall ($6,000) and Maude Kerns Art Center ($5,000). Other grantees were Arts Umbrella, Lord Leebrick, Actors Cabaret, PICCFEST, Very Little Theatre, Ballet Fantastique, Eugene Storefront Art Project, DIVA, DanceAbility, MECCA, West African Dance Educational Resources, Rainy Day Blues Society, Oregon Children’s Choral Festival, New Zone, Eugene Peace Choir and others. More information at lanearts.org Heavy metal fans take note: A shortage of fabricated metal workers was reported by the Oregon Employment Department this month. Jobs are going unfilled for skilled welders, structural metal fabricators and fitters. Demand is expected to increase. DEEP GREEN PIPELINE RESISTANCE PESTICIDE-FREE SCHOOLS When it comes to cockroaches in the cafeteria and mice in the classroom, Aimee Code says, “There is risky pesticide use occurring in our schools.” Code is an environmental health associate of the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides. “The fact that we want to institutionalize caution makes perfect sense to me,” she says. Under legislation, enacted as of July 1, all Oregon schools are now required to implement an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) plan that would remove harmful pesticides from the classroom, thus reducing exposure of Oregon’s school children to potentially dangerous and harmful toxins. “This law will ensure that previous pest-preventative action is employed before resorting to pesticides,” Code says, prompting schools “to think through how to be smart and manage the problem without using chemicals.” “There’s a need to just raise awareness where there wasn’t enough before,” she says. So a group of organizations and interested parties, including NCAP and Eugene-based Beyond Toxics (formerly Oregon Toxics Alliance), formed a working group on the issue. “We invited members of communities that had rural schools where parents felt that their children had been sickened by pesticide exposure,” says Lisa Arkin, executive director of Beyond Toxics. What they were working on finding, Code says, were “smarter alternatives that are going to be more protective and healthy for children.” “In 2009 we got legislation passed,” she says. “Implementation was to begin in 2012.” To prepare for implementation, Tim Stock of OSU’s Integrated Plant Protection Center’s School IPM Program created a template for pest management in schools as part of a pilot project conducted in a partnership with NCAP. “Our program has trained most of the school districts in Lane County,” he says, “and is providing more intensive assistance through the pilot project.” This will, Stock says, “build up their expertise so they can eventually serve as a model for their peers.” For more information, visit OSU’s page on IPM in schools, wkly.ws/1bd and for a longer version of this story, go to eugeneweekly.com — Stacey Hollis Oregon isn’t the only place on the West Coast fighting polluting energy pipelines. The Unis’tot’en and Wetsu’wet’in First Nations have blockaded the pathway of five proposed pipelines collectively called The Northern Gateway leading from the tar sands out through ancient forests and native lands to the coast of British Columbia. Max Wilbert of Deep Green Resistance is part of a speaking tour to promote the upcoming Unis’tot’en Action Camp in early August that will caravan up to Canada and support the blockade. The Unis’tot’en Action Camp speaking tour comes to Eugene 6 pm July 25, at the Maitreya (Strawbale House), 882 Almaden Street. “That land belongs to the Wetsu’wet’in people,” who never signed a treaty and ceded their land, Wilbert says. He says the first pipeline planned is a natural gas pipeline called Pacific Trails that will carry gas produced by hydraulic fracking, and it will be followed by tar sands pipeline along almost the same course. The pipelines will pass through the small amounts of remaining ancient forests, he says, as well as salmon habitat. The oil would then be loaded onto tankers 10 times the size of the Exxon Valdez, making tight turns and navigating through reefs and rocky islands on their way out to open water, where they will carry the fossil fuels west to China and south to U.S. refineries in Washington and California. According to Wilbert, a wreck — ships have sunk in the area before — and spill could lead to an oil slick extending to the Puget Sound, through hundreds of miles of salmon, bear and wolf habitat along the shores. Wetsu’wet’in organizers have invited indigenous and nonindigenous allies to come up and attend a gathering August 4 through 10 on their lands, Wilbert says, where there will be trainings and skills sharing, and volunteers will assist the camp with cabins and structures along the right of way of the pipeline. At the July 25 presentation Deep Green Resistance welcomes supplies and donations, including nonperishable food, money, camping supplies, blankets, buckets, tarp, rope, white gas, climbing gear and anything useful in a remote location, as well as ceremonial gifts and statements of solidarity. To find out more about how to support the effort, or to participate, go to wkly.ws/1bq or attend the July 25 presentation. — Camilla Mortensen Fame o f local fashion disco veries Office visits starting at $99 Same Day Appointments Justin Montoya, MD 1410 Oak St, Ste 102 in the Keiper Spine building kjg7hhn7ihmf5R51118*,)"&." '#&3'##(8)' Wellness Centered Dentistry Safe Removal of Mercury Fillings 3PC8IJDLFS%%4tXXXXDEFOUJTUSZDPN 131 E. 5th Av. 687-2805 WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM BUFFALOEXCHANGE.COM 7JMMBHF1MB[B-PPQ 4UFt EUGENE WEEKLY JULY 19, 2012 7
