ACTIVIST
LERT
• A benefit concert for David Oaks will be from 6 to 8
pm Thursday, June 26, at Cozmic, 199 W. 8th Ave.,
featuring music by Steel Wool. Oaks is a longtime
advocate for people with mental challenges. He was
paralyzed in an accident last year. Contact Tim Mueller at
gwproj@pacinfo.com for more information.
• Nancy Golden, chief education officer for the state
and former Springfield schools superintendent, will
speak at City Club of Eugene at noon Friday, June 27, at
the Downtown Athletic Club, 999 Willamette St. Her topic
is “What the Oregon Education Investment Board is Up
To.” $5 for non-members. No program is planned for July
4, but the July 11 program will be on “Oso Mudslides:
Lessons for Oregon” with Josh Roering and Megan O’Hara.
See cityclubofeugene.org.
PESTICIDES
RESPONSIBLE
FOR THOUSANDS
OF DEAD BEES
Eugene company Glass Tree Care and Spray Service
has had its license suspended and will face a fine follow-
ing an investigation into the death of 5,000 bees after the
company sprayed 17 blossoming linden trees at Jacobs
Lane Apartments with pesticides, says Bruce Pokarney of
the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
The company used imidacloprid, a neonicotonid pesti-
cide linked to bee deaths. The city of Eugene banned the
use of neonicotonids on all city property earlier this year,
echoing a move made by the European Union last year
after the correlation between pesticide use and colony
collapse disorder became clear.
The ban on neonics in Eugene applies only to city-
owned property, not to private or commercial property.
In 2014 however ODA began requiring a label statement
on pesticide products containing imidacloprid and dinon-
tefuran, which the agency says the applicator should have
been aware of, prohibiting the application of these prod-
ucts on linden trees and other Tilia species. Lisa Arkin of
Beyond Toxics says some of the trees were city-owned
The original ODA estimate was about 1,000 dead
bees, though by now the number has been upped to at
least 5,000, Pokarney says.
Arkin disputes the necessity of the pesticide in the first
place, since the linden trees were sprayed to kill aphids,
which drop sticky sugar water onto cars parked below the
trees. “There’s kind of an ethical question here: Should
we be spraying a highly toxic insecticide to kill aphids
that are not harming the tree and that turns out to be lethal
to pollinators?” She adds, “I think another solution could
be to not park your car under a linden tree, or put a cover
on a car, or don’t plant linden trees in parking lots.”
Marguerite P. Sugg, a resident of Jacobs Lane Apart-
ments, says she swept up about half of a freezer bag full
of dead bees, and saw moths, butterflies, ladybugs and
yellow jackets intermixed. “I know they had to spray to
keep the sidewalk clean because [otherwise] its nasty and
sticky, but I never realized that spraying that would kill
the bees,” Sugg says. “I would rather rinse my sidewalk
off than put poison in the trees. Now I don’t have any
honeybees to come to my flowers.”
Jacobs Lane Apartments is run by Housing and Com-
munity Services of Lane County.
Although mass bee die-offs such as this one and the
50,000 die-off in Wilsonville last year sound the pesticide
alarm, Arkin says that it’s important to realize how sub-
lethal doses of pesticides also negatively affect pollinator
survival. A recent study by Friends of the Earth found
that 51 percent of plants bought at large garden retailers
in 18 cities in the U.S. and Canada contained neonics,
which could directly contribute to bee deaths and colony
collapse.
The trees have been covered in shade cloth to prevent
the bees from harvesting more pollen until the linden
blossoms dry up. The company has apologized to the city
of Eugene and Lane County. — Anna V. Smith
• A Eugene chapter of Sea Shepherd is forming with
its first public meeting at 7 pm Friday, June 27, at Pure
Life Chiropractic, 315 W. Broadway, according to Robbin
Freedman. Her husband, Matt Freedman, D.C., just
returned from a Sea Shepherd summit in Vermont.
Representatives of Sea Shepherd in Washington state
will be at the free meeting. Call 844-6924 for more
information.
• LULAC of Lane County will hold an all-ages
fundraising salsa event from 8 pm to 1:30 am Saturday,
June 28, at Cozmic, 199 W. 8th. Salsa dance lessons
begin at 8pm and music will be provided by local and San
Francisco Bay Area DJs. $10 cover.
• Cycling for Veterans is planning the Willamette
Valley Scenic Bikeway Veterans Ride Saturday, June 28,
and is looking for volunteers and other support. The ride
this year is from Champoeg State Heritage Area south of
Newberg to Willamette Mission State Park north of Kaiser.
More food, more volunteers and some shuttle pickups
and drivers are needed. Email cyclingforveterans@gmail.
com or call 337-3710 to help.
• Health Care for All Eugene will meet at 7 pm
Tuesday, July 1, at First United Methodist Church, 13th
and Olive. Slides will be shown about recent polls that
support universal single-payer health care. Summer
events will also be planned. Call Ruth Duemler at 484-
6145.
CORRECTIONS/CLARIFICATIONS
An item in Biz Beat last week regarding Right at Home
Eugene had a misspelling of the owner’s name due to
erroneous information provided to EW. The owner of the
new in-home care service is Carol Mosman, 833-5050.
PHOTO: ANNA V. SMITH ILLUSTRATION TRASK BEDORTHA
POLLUTION UPDATE
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is
accepting comments through 4:30 pm Monday, June 30,
on a proposed $410,000 settlement concerning
groundwater contamination caused by McAyeals
Cleaners (located immediately south of the Eugene
Public Library in downtown Eugene). Visit goo.gl/miiyvW
for info on commenting, and goo.gl/7kOLXt to view the
proposed settlement. If more than 10 people (or a group
with more than 10 members) request it, DEQ will hold a
public meeting on the proposed settlement.
The city of Eugene sent notice of violation letters to
Kendall Ford and Kendall Auto Group late last week for
failing to monitor and unpermitted discharges at its 344
& 345 Goodpasture Island Road facilities in Eugene.
Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project
RESIDENT MARGUERITE SUGG STANDS
OUTSIDE HER APARTMENT WHERE
IMIDACLOPRID WAS SPRAYED LAST
TUESDAY. ALTHOUGH IT CAUSED THE
DEATH OF AT LEAST 5,000 BEES, SUGG
SAYS SHE WAS TOLD IT WAS SAFE.
lighten
up
BY RAFAEL ALDAVE
Those blacked-out pages that the Lane County
commissioners and the UO folks have been providing in
response to public record requests may appear to be
worthless, but they are great for covering ass.
eugeneweekly.com • June 26, 2014
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