Eugene weekly., February 21, 2013, Page 7, Image 7

NEWS
FIGHTING FOR
ISLAND ACCESS
Glassbar Island, situated along the Willamette River
and known best for its reputation as a nudist beach, might
undergo some major changes, much to the chagrin of a
group of community members who treasure it.
To Alice Stroud, Glassbar Island represents a peaceful
retreat, and in the summer, she visits the area every day.
She loves the sense of community she’s built with other
visitors over the years.
So when Stroud heard that land access to her beloved
park was being closed for up to 10 years to restore the
property, she had objections.
“If this place stopped being
accessible, I don’t know if I
would still live in Eugene,”
Stroud says. “It’s such a pre-
cious, special and incredible
place.”
The island and its surround-
ing areas are known formally
as the Willamette Confl uence Area, which consists of
land owned by entities like Lane County Waste Manage-
ment, State Parks and Recreation and The Nature Con-
servancy, among others. The park consists of Glassbar
Island and the adjacent riverbank, and it’s designated as
river-access-only property, meaning that visitors to the
park can legally get there by boat, but not by foot. How-
ever, there is a long history of people accessing the area
by crossing through about 100 yards of land currently
owned by Lane County Waste Management. From its ac-
cess point off Franklin Boulevard, the trail winds through
a forested area and is maintained by members of the com-
munity who visit the park.
Brian Perry, who visits the area daily during the sum-
mer, says he can’t imagine his life without access to the
park. “All of my friends are there,” he says. “It’s a place
where I belong.”
But the entities that control the area see things a little
differently. Patti Hansen, manager of Lane County Waste
Management, says that the Bonneville Power Administra-
tion offered Lane County and other landowners a funding
opportunity that would allow them to restore natural habi-
tat and eventually turn the area into an accessible park
like Delta Ponds. In order to do that, Hansen says they
need to close the site to the public. “The more people re-
spect what we’re trying to do out there, the faster it will
go and the faster it can open up
again for passive recreation,”
she says.
In a Jan. 15 County Com-
mission meeting, the landown-
ers proposed closing public
AL IC E S T RO UD
access not only to restore the
land but also to improve pub-
lic safety. Commissioner Jay
Bozievich spoke of a dead body, prostitution and drug
use in the park, and he called Lane County a “hot spot for
human traffi cking.”
Hansen says that illegal activity has been a big issue
on the property. “The Lane County Sheriff’s Offi ce is
dispatched for burglary, theft of vehicles and intoxicated
subjects,” Hansen says. “So there’s a lot of criminal mis-
chief, and I’ve got sheriff logs which show the very long
list of issues that are out there. There’s a lot of liability.”
Dan Bell of The Nature Conservancy says their prop-
erty has experienced “extraordinary trespassing prob-
‘It’s such a precious, special
and incredible place.’
lems,” which interfere with TNC’s ability to safely re-
store the land.
Stroud says she’s never seen any prostitution or human
traffi cking in the 16 years she’s gone to the park. She says
the area has its problems, but nothing that makes her feel
unsafe.
This viewpoint is also supported by Perry, who at-
tended the Feb. 12 commissioner’s meeting along with
Stroud and fi ve others from the “core group of users” who
wished to make their voices heard.
“From my observation, I’ve never seen prostitution,
human traffi cking or drug traffi cking,” Perry says. “We
are not auctioning off minorities out there; that’s just
silly.”
Perry has started an online petition to protest the clo-
sure, and the petition had 106 signatures at time of print.
He has organized weekly meetings of about 25 people to
discuss the issue and decide how to stop the closure.
The debate isn’t over. At the Feb. 12 commission
meeting, Commissioner Sid Leiken said he had received
emails and comments from others regarding the same is-
sue. “We’ll try to move this issue forward as quick as pos-
sible,” he said. “You are being heard.” — Amy Schneider
BENEFIT BUSTED,
ACTIVISTS ARRESTED
More than a month before Eugene’s stiffer penalties
for rowdy parties begins, the Eugene Police Department
has an itchy party-busting fi nger.
EPD busted a benefi t for gays and lesbians at the
Campbell Club and arrested 14 people when they re-
sponded to a noise complaint the night of Feb. 15. Resi-
CONTINUED P. 8 >>>
SOCIAL JUSTICE
VS.
FOSSIL FUELS
The Social Justice Real Justice conference at the UO Feb. 14-17 and the culminating
rally against fossil fuels on the last day of the gathering opened the doors to people who
may not have thought in the past that they had a seat at the table, says Caleen Sisk, chief
of the Winnemum Wintu and a speaker at the SJRJ conference.
The conference brought local activists and those new to activism together with inter-
nationally recognized thinkers and activists such as Cornell West and Winona LaDuke as
well as well known voices of the alternative media.
Rowena Jackson, an enrolled member of Klamath Tribes, part Modoc Navajo and Pai-
ute, says she is new to activism and was excited to march next to Sisk on Feb. 17 as part
of the national Forward on Climate rally and in solidarity with Idle No More, Tar Sands
Blockade and No Coal Exportation. Jackson, a screen-printer, has begun making T-shirts
to call attention to the First Nations’ Idle No More movement that started in Canada.
Sisk, whose tribe is federally unrecognized and has been fi ghting to protect the salmon
of the McCloud River of California, says Idle No More has been largely ignored by the
mainstream media — Native Americans blocked a bridge between the U.S. and Canada
for four hours and it was barely noted, she says — but the word has gotten out via social
media about the pro-environment and indigenous rights movement.
Attention to Native American issues and to the climate-change inducing tar sands and
Keystone XL pipeline has grown, says Kayla Godowa-Tufti, and the SJRJ conference
“stoked our fi res again.” She says when she organized her fi rst small protest against the tar
sands with Native American drummers by the Columbia River she didn’t know that in two
years there would over be 200 people marching and a Native American round dance at the
UO. “Little by little you can be effective,” she says.
A recent decision by the Sierra Club to resort to civil disobedience to protest the Key-
stone XL has increased mainstream media attention to the issue, and the Feb. 17 Forward
on Climate rally in Washington, D.C., with Bill McKibben of 350.org drew more than
35,000 people.
Jackson’s T-shirts, featuring the grassroots movement in support of indigenous rights,
include a “woman warriors” shirt that replaces the faces of the Founding Fathers on Mt.
Rushmore with the female founders of the Idle No More movement and features Sisk and
LaDuke. They can be found at www.turtleislandtshirts.com — Camilla Mortensen
CHIEF CALEEN SISK
PHOTO BY TRASK BEDORTHA
eugeneweekly.com • February 21, 2013
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