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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 23, 2014)
• We the People-Eugene is planning a free panel discussion on “Earned Sick Leave, Preemption and the Powers of Local Government” at 7 pm Thursday, Oct. 23 , at the UO law school, room 110. Speakers include Paul Diller, Jim Edmundson, Pete Sorenson and Ken Tollenaar. Moderated by Eugene attorney Melissa Wischerath and hosted by the Wayne Morse Center on campus. See wethepeopleeugene.org for more information. • The documentary GMO OMG examines the risks of consuming genetically modified foods and will be shown at 7 pm Friday, Oct. 24, at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 13th and Chambers. Sponsored by the Earth Action Committee. Call (503) 490-9491 or email phil@ philbertrand.com. • A benefit for Womenspace in memory of Casey Wright will be from 4:30 to 8:30 pm Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Oregon Horse Center, 90751 Prairie Rd. in Eugene. The event is called “Hunting for Hope, Fishing for Families” and will include a buffet dinner, silent auction and entertainment. Tickets for $20 available at Cabela’s or call 349-5773. • Community Alliance of Lane County (CALC) will be hosting its 29th annual Cornucopia Multicultural Celebration from 5 to 8 pm Saturday, Oct. 25, at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 13th and Chambers. Live entertainment and silent auction. Admission by donation. Call 485-1755 or email calcoffice@gmail.com. • The State of the Coast Conference will be held in Florence on Saturday, Oct. 25, a program designed to bring coastal citizens, business leaders and local government representatives together with scientists and students to explore the current and future state of Oregon’s marine environment. The day-long event will be at the Florence Events Center, 715 Quince St. Open to the public, $35 general registration, $25 for students. See stateofthecoast.com. • A community forum on Corvallis Climate Action planning will be held from 7 to 8:30 pm Wednesday, Oct. 29, at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. The Climate Action Plan Task Force is a group of civic volunteers interested in developing a climate action plan for the Corvallis community. For more information, visit CorvallisCAP.org. LOCAL AUTHOR TALKS BIRDS, ROMANCE AND ADOPTION IN NEW MEMOIR As a journalism instructor at the UO, Eugene author Melissa Hart tells her students to write engaging begin- nings to their stories. She followed her own recipe with her latest memoir, Wild Within: How Rescuing Owls In- spired a Family, which opens with her husband’s vasec- tomy. Such begins a story about a quirky romance, rescued birds of prey and the process of adopting a child. Hart will read from her book at the UO’s Museum of Natural and Cultural History Oct. 28, along with local author Tom Titus. “I’ve said on Facebook, it takes balls to be married to a memoirist,” Hart says. After the vasectomy, the narra- tive pushes back a few years to when Hart first met her husband at a dog park in Eugene. Spirits dulled by a failed marriage and a gloomy Or- egon winter, Hart finds renewal in the ponytailed, uni- browed Jonathan Smith, a photographer with a love for the Cascades Raptor Center. Together, their romance blossoms, along with their passion for raptors, and de- spite the vasectomy, they eventually realize that they want a child, launching the complex and often convo- luted process of adoption. Wild Within is Hart’s second memoir; the first was Gringa: A Contradictory Girlhood. “Gringa was published in 2009, and although I start- ed working on this book soon after, it took almost five years to write,” Hart says. “My writing has gotten a lot more sophisticated and a lot less slapstick. With Gringa I was trying for a David Sedaris-type humor, but with a more sophisticated story, I learned how to weave twin narratives in.” To write a book about raptors and adoptions, Hart says she studied writing that featured braided narratives and intersections of themes. On her book tour this year, Hart has shared her memoir expertise at bookshops along the West Coast, sometimes inviting raptor centers to bring birds to the reading. Hart says she’s done with memoirs for a time, and she’s now working on — MELISSA HART a historical fiction novel about her great-grandpar- ents who ran away to join the circus. “They married out of convenience so they could travel together,” she says, “and they went on the vaudeville circuit for years.” En- tertaining, through prose or performance, must run in the family. “Exploring Nature Writing with Melissa Hart and Tom Titus” is at 5 pm Tuesday, Oct. 28, at the UO Mu- seum of Natural and Cultural History. In other book news, check out Gregg Kleiner’s new children’s book, Please Don’t Paint Our Planet Pink!, exploring climate change and how different the world might be if people saw CO2 emissions as pink puffs. The book launch is at 3 pm Saturday, Oct. 25, at Grass Roots Books & Music in Corvallis. — Amy Schneider ‘ I’ve said on Facebook, it takes balls to be married to a memoirist.’ MELISSA HART WITH BODHI THE BARRED OWL POLLUTION UPDATE The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) recently sent the following businesses $1,600 “expedited enforcement offers” for violating the Clean Water Act by failing to monitor industrial stormwater discharges from their facilities: Eagle Plywood Specialties (Harrisburg), Georgia-Pacific Wood Products NW (Philomath), Gheen Irrigation Works (Harrisburg), Natron Wood Products (Jasper) and Sundance Lumber Company (Springfield). Acceptance of these offers by the companies settles these violations with DEQ, while rejection would likely result in additional enforcement and higher fines. DEQ also sent warning letters to Giustina Resources Limited Partnership (Dexter), Goshen, Inc. (Junction City) and Rick Franklin Corporation (Lebanon) for failure to submit monitoring results. Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project LANE COUNTY AREA SPRAY SCHEDULE • Weyerhaeuser Company, 744-4600, plans to aerially spray 57 acres near Jones Creek in the Coast Range with Accord XRT II, Polaris SP, Rotary 2 SL, Sulfomet Extra, Metcel VMF, Foam Buster, Induce, Insist and/or MSO. See ODF notification 2014-781-00827 or call Robin L. Biesecker at 935-2283 with questions. • ODOT recently sprayed Highway 99 and Interstate 5. For daily information call ODOT Herbicide Application Information Line (888) 996-8080. You may also call Tony Kilmer at the Springfield office at 744-8080 for herbicide and additives information and to ask what time a highway was sprayed. Compiled by Jan Wroncy and Gary Hale, Forestland Dwellers: 342- 8332, forestlanddwellers.org. PHOTO: JONATHAN B. SMITH 8 October 23, 2014 • eugeneweekly.com
