MICK GARVIN (CENTER)
AND MANY MORE
FOUGHT TO SAVE THE
TREES AT WARNER
CREEK
• Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemoration events
continue this week. An annual gathering calling for
action “to help ensure that nuclear weapons are never
used again” will be from 6:30 pm until dusk Thursday,
Aug. 6, near the Alton Baker duck pond. The free event
begins with a pot luck and will include speakers,
drumming by Eugene Taiko, traditional Japanese
Obon dancing and music by the Yujin Gakuen
Children’s Peace Choir. Call CALC at 485-1755. A related
event will be “Bike Around the Bomb” with Global Zero
and the UO Bike Program at 10:30 am Sunday, Aug. 9,
beginning at 8th and Oak in Eugene. Participants will
bike around a 12-mile route representing the blast
area of a “small” nuclear weapon.
• “The Really Big One,” a free public forum on
earthquake hazards and preparedness in the
Northwest will be from 7 to 9 pm Thursday, Aug. 6, in
Straub Hall, 1451 Onyx Street on the UO campus.
Panelists will include UO geologists Rebecca Dorsey
and Douglas Toomey, along with other academics
Amanda Thomas, Ray Weldon and Chris Goldfinger,
and Josh Bruce of the Oregon Partnership for Disaster
Resilience. See earthquake.uoregon.edu or the EW
blog this week for more information.
• A back-to-school “Swap Don’t Shop” event will be
from 2 to 4 pm Saturday, Aug. 8, at Thurston Park,
6329 F Street in Springfield. “It’s like a yard sale, but no
money,” organizers say.
• 15 Now, the group working to raise the minimum
wage to $15, meets at 3 pm Sunday, Aug. 9, at the
AFSCME Hall, 7th and Charnelton. Email contact is
eugene@15noworegon.org.
POLLUTION UPDATE
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
(DEQ) is accepting comments through 5 pm on Friday,
Aug. 7 on an application from Cory Hatfield for Clean
Water Act permitting of discharges of construction-
related stormwater pollution from Hatfield Estates,
located at Van Duyn and Coburg Bottom Loop in
Coburg. Visit goo.gl/Yp4iAK for info on commenting.
Doug Quirke/Oregon Clean Water Action Project
LANE COUNTY AREA
SPRAY SCHEDULE
• ODOT is currently spraying roadsides. Call Tony
Kilmer at ODOT District 5 at 744-8080 or call (888)
996-8080 for often inaccurate herbicide application
information. I-5 was recently sprayed.
Compiled by Jan Wroncy and Gary Hale, ForestlandDwellers.org,
342-8332.
Need a job? New Register-Guard Editor and Publisher N.
Christian Anderson appears to be taking his time hiring a new
administrative team. The R-G is still running ads for a chief
financial officer and an executive assistant. Competitive
compensation is promised but if you accept a job offer you will
need to whiz in a cup. We assume Anderson had to do the same
when he was hired. Let’s not think about that too much.
Coffee Plant Roaster is celebrating its third anniversary
from 11 am to 4 pm Saturday Aug. 8, at 2836 W. 11th Avenue.
Live music by Banda Super Mercado and B.C. and The Blues
Dwellers will begin the party. The business offers coffee roasted
daily in small batches, fresh brewed teas, raw juices,
kombucha, food and more.
8
A ugust 6, 2015 • eugeneweekly.com
PHOTO CREDIT: KURT JENSEN
20-YEAR ANNIVERSARY
OF CASCADIA FOREST
DEFENDERS, BATTLE TO
SAVE WARNER CREEK
This summer marks the 20th anniversary of the fight to
protect Warner Creek from a salvage-logging project that
the Forest Service sought to institute after an arsonist lit
up 9,000 acres in the Willamette National Forest. The for-
est was torched in 1991, and the arson was followed by
several years of activism to keep the spotted owl habitat
from being logged.
In 1995 after Congress passed the salvage rider, which
exempted salvage operations from environmental laws,
activists blockaded the road to Warner for 11 months. In
the end, the area was saved from logging. A celebration of
Warner Creek’s 20th anniversary and the founding of the
Cascadia Forest Defenders (CFD) kicks off Aug. 14 at The
Boreal and Old Nick’s Pub and then moves out into the
forest over the weekend.
CFD founder Mick Garvin says that the Warner Creek
campaign raised awareness and educated people about the
logging, and as a result, “all kinds of people came out,
not just Earth First!” He says when the campaign moved
into direct action mode, creating CFD encompassed all of
those who didn’t see themselves as EF! but embraced Cas-
cadia and Warner Creek.
Tim Ingalsbee, who was from the beginning a leading
voice in calling for the preservation of Warner, says the
Forest Service “never understood the depth of the com-
munity’s moral objection” to the logging. Warner Creek is
now a testament to the forest’s ability to regenerate. “In the
24 years since the fire, the area has thrived in benign ne-
glect,” Ingalsbee says, and it stands in stark contrast to the
invasive weeds that have moved into nearby clearcuts. “It
belies the continuing lie that nature cannot recover from
fire on its own,” Ingalsbee says of the burn. He says he
would still like to see the area preserved as wilderness.
Twenty years after the Warner Creek Blockade kicked
off and the Cascadia Forest Defenders were founded, en-
vironmental activism is still going strong in the Pacific
Northwest, with CFD members participating in the Shell
No protests against Arctic drilling in Portland last week as
well as in successful tree sits in recent years.
Erin Grady of CFD says 20 years after Warner, the
group is still working on the long-term preservation of
areas such as the Elliott State Forest, stopping clearcut-
ting and forest ecosystem destruction, as well as tackling
a planned liquefied natural gas pipeline, which would also
involve forest clearcuts.
Grady says of the CFD founders, “They were really
brave and willing to give their entire lives to campaign,
and I think we have a lot to live up to.”
Events kick off with a movie night at the Boreal (450
W. 3rd Ave.) 6 pm Friday, Aug. 14, featuring Born in Fire
and Pickaxe: Director’s Cut, two documentaries related
to Warner. At 9 pm, the action moves to Old Nick’s (211
Washington Street) for musical performances by Peter
Wilde and CFD’s Dirty Dandelions.
Saturday and Sunday Aug. 15 and 16, activities move
to Warner Creek itself with hikes, a potluck, a retirement
ceremony for longtime forest activist Francis Eathering-
ton, discussions on the legacy of CFD and more. For direc-
tions and more information, go to the Facebook event page
at wkly.ws/21w.
For more on CFD go to forestdefensenow.com.
— Camilla Mortensen
Want to get your antique business or your funky old crap on
TV? The History Channel’s American Pickers will be coming to
Oregon in September, according to the Fern Ridge Chamber of
Commerce. The crew including Mike Wolfe and Frank Fritz will be
filming their adventures in search of antiques, vintage items of
all sorts and memorabilia. Email suggestion pitches to
americanpickers@cineflix.com. We’re not sure why the Fern
Ridge Chamber is involved, but then again, we’ve been to a few
yard and barn sales in the Veneta and Elmira area. Good pickin’s
out there. One old barn we peered into some years ago had a
fully operational wooden tugboat only 10 feet long, built for one
person.
District. Donations, mostly in-kind, came from Cabelas,
McKenzie Disposal, Ninkaski, REI, McKenzie River Guides,
McKenzie Masters and Lane County. Tons of trash, tires, metal,
household goods and old boat parts were pulled from the river
and its banks.
The annual McKenzie River Clean Up July 11 drew about
200 volunteers in boats and on foot and about a dozen
businesses, nonprofits and agencies. Participants included the
McKenzie Watershed Council, EWEB (with Commissioners John
Brown and John Simpson), McKenzie River Guides, McKenzie
Flyfishers, McKenzie Masters Foundation, Woodstone
Structures, McKenzie River Trust, Cascade Flyfishers, Lane
County staff and the Forest Service McKenzie River Ranger
Looking ahead, job hunters can get free expert advice and
assistance to address specific questions and concerns from 4
to 6 pm Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Eugene Public Library
downtown. Employment counselors will be available but pre-
registration is required for the 30-minute one-on-one sessions.
Call 682-5450. Another session at 6 pm that day is “Create a
One-Page Marketing Plan” with LCC instructor Gary Smith.
A Lane County Supply Chain Opportunities Conference will
be from 9 am to 1 pm Tuesday, Aug. 11, at the Hilton Garden Inn,
3528 Gateway Street in Springfield, sponsored by the Pacific
Northwest Defense Coalition. The event offers networking
regarding manufacturing opportunities and sourcing
partnerships in the Northwest. Email kate@pndc.us for more
information or visit wkly.ws/21y for registration.