COUNTY VOTES
ON LOGGING
ASSOCIATION
Logging on Oregon’s O&C lands has been a source
of controversy for years, with some arguing that the
trees should be cut to generate funding for Lane and
other historically timber-based counties, and others
saying the days of chopping down the ecosystem to pay
for county services need to end. This week, the Lane
County Board of Commissioners will discuss, and
possibly vote on, whether it should give the pro-
logging Association of O&C Counties the authority to
represent Lane if a Lane County representative isn’t
available as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
begins a new planning effort for managing the O&C
lands.
According to Commissioner Faye Stewart, a board
conservative from a longtime timber family, the MOU
(memorandum of understanding) gives “Lane County
cooperator status in the planning process.” He says the
same MOU was used in the Western Oregon Plan
Revision (WOPR) planning process. Stewart is Lane
County’s representative to the AOCC.
In its 2007 WOPR comments, the AOCC argued that
the public’s O&C lands should be used for generating
timber, not preserving wildlife, such as endangered
species, or old-growth trees.
Lane County pays $37,000 a year in dues to the
AOCC, according to Commissioner Rob Handy.
Oregon Wild argued successfully to the board in 2009
that it should stop paying those dues, but the decision
was later overturned.
Doug Heiken of Oregon Wild says, “It’s a shame
that Lane County will align itself with the radical pro-
logging agenda of the Association of O&C Counties
— even worse that the board will continue to send
scarce public money to this group that does nothing but
try to log our forests, pollute our water and ruin our
quality of life.”
He adds, “Citizens will have to work overtime to
make sure the public voice is heard clearly. We want
our forests and watersheds protected so they can
recover from decades of abusive clearcutting.”
Commissioner Handy says materials related to the
possible Wednesday, Aug. 1, vote on giving the AOCC
representation for Lane County were not posted with
the online agenda until July 31, a day before the
meeting. He says this is a result of a two-tiered
communication system at the county that deliberately
includes the conservative board majority and the county
administrator and excludes the other two commissioners.
Handy says, “We need a collaborative and grassroots
efforts alternative developed for the BLM’s O&C
lands, something that I am confident can come out of
the scoping process that the BLM is currently embarking
on.” He says to do this “we must soundly reject the ill-
conceived idea to privatize public lands for further
pirating of our natural resources and a sustainable
economy, jobs for locals and revenue streams for
public services.” — Camilla Mortensen
PHOTO COURTESY NOAH WEMPLE
Sustainable farming on Cougar Mountain
JAMMING FOR
SUSTAINABILITY
Cougar Mountain Farm is holding its seventh annual
farm benefit, the Tayberry Jam, Aug. 3-5, to help fund
advancements toward the farm’s development of a
sustainable living center to further empower what has
become its very own sustainable living movement.
“After 30 years of homesteading here,” farm-owner
Noah Wemple says, “we came to the realization through a lot
of different ways that a permaculture sustainable living
center that would teach about homesteading and off-the-grid
living is a calling that is needed in the world today.” The
Tayberry Jam with its speakers and musical acts is a means
to fundraise to build upon this proposed learning center.
The Jam is designed to get people thinking about living
closer to the earth, Wemple says. “We see that there is a
need in the world today for more educational models that
serve as knowledge and inspiration for sustainable living,”
he says.
Models abound at Cougar Mountain: For the Jam itself,
compost produced by the festival is recycled and the kitchen
and showers run on solar power. And that’s just the icing;
the farm itself is a running example of sustenance farming,
2 miles off the grid. There are two solar powered wells, five
solar installations for power and a microhydro, which
happening people
derives power from water. The Wemples implemented four
“meaningful ponds,” meaning there’s always plenty of
water around for fire suppression, erosion control, wildlife
and irrigation. Jam-goers can also take in the 1,000-tree
apple orchard, watched over by a red-tailed hawk at his
treetop post. With the apples they’re growing, along with
funds raised by the festival, Wemple hopes to implement a
farm winery-cidery to further help support the farm’s
growing ambition to develop the learning center.
In addition to the music lineup, the Jam also features
several speakers. There’s Marisha Auerbach, who will talk
about permaculture design, Newt Locum will cover solar
hot water and Solarize Eugene, and Gary Higbe will speak
on renewable energy and the Energy Trust of Oregon.
Wemple will speak about Noah’s Ark Sustainable Living
Center, he says, “and how we hope to impact the greater
community with knowledge and inspiration about
homesteading off the grid with renewable energy and
organic farming strategies for soil fertility.”
“We are in the mecca of sustainable living knowledge,”
Wemple says. And the Tayberry is one of the ways he and
his family propagate that knowledge. This weekend’s
musical acts include Sol Seed, Sleep Rehearsal and Abstract
Rude.
For more information, visit http://cougarmountainfarm.
com — Stacey M. Hollis
BY PAUL NEEVEL
JODIE ST. CLAIR & TIFFANY KETTEL
Albuquerque native Jodie St. Clair began violin lessons at age 9. “I got serious when I was 14,” she says. “I played
in the Albuquerque Youth Symphony. I started teaching at 16.” A violin performance major at Northern Arizona
University, she trained in the Suzuki teaching method, modeled on language learning. “Young children listen to music,
then learn to ‘speak’ on the instrument,” she explains. “They learn to read later on.” After graduation in 2005, St.
Clair moved to Eugene to continue her Suzuki training. She also continued to teach, and early in 2009 she opened the
Eugene Suzuki Music Academy at 170 W. 12th Ave. “I love being downtown, close to the library,” she says. “My goal is
to create community through music.” Later in 2009, she married writer Anthony St. Clair, a Virginia transplant. Last
fall, with ESMA prospering and her son Conner to be born in January, it was time to find a second teacher. “I took
over the entire studio for winter term,” says Tiffany Kettel, who was also a full-time grad student. “It was crazy.”
Home-schooled through high school in Gadston, Ala., Kettel started teaching violin at 15. She majored in music at
University of Alabama, moved to Portland on a whim, discovered Suzuki and came to Eugene to study. “I love to be as
busy as possible,” says Kettel, an active musician who plays in both a medieval music ensemble and a punk rock band.
LIGHTEN UP
After watching Romney stumble from one gaffe to
another on two continents, don’t you get the feeling
that here’s a guy who could screw up an all-day picnic?
BY R A FA E L A L DAV E
6 AUGUST 2, 2012
EUGENE WEEKLY
WWW.EUGENEWEEKLY.COM