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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 29, 2015)
Local and regional solar companies will like this. The nonprofit Environment Oregon (EO) is pushing Eugene and other cities to “prioritize solar energy” through a petition that can be found at environmentoregon.org (click on “Go solar, Oregon”). The group says Oregon gets less than 1 percent of its energy from solar, “but local governments can play a big roll in repowering our state with clean, renewable solar energy.” How? By adopting proactive solar policies, including installation targets and streamlined permitting, and working with local solar companies to provide discounts though bulk buying campaigns. EO is working with the Oregon Energy Industries Association and recently held a lobby day in Salem to push for pro-solar legislation in the next Legislature. Many cities have adopted solar access codes to prevent new development from casting shadows on neighbors’ existing or potential solar amenities, but Eugene’s building codes are very weak regarding solar access. Job opportunities for registered nurses are getting a boost in the area with the completion of the psychiatric hospital in Junction City and the anticipated $80 million expansion of McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield, due to be completed in 2018. With these developments in mind, along with our aging population, the financial technology company SmartAsset has ranked the Eugene-Springfield metro area as fifth in the nation for nursing careers. “The Eugene area already added almost 300 nursing jobs in 2014 alone,” says the company. On a local note, however, not every aspiring nurse can get the required education. Nursing programs at Oregon colleges have a very limited number of openings and they are expensive to staff and operate. Oregon colleges turn away about 50 percent of qualified nursing school applicants, according to a story in the Portland Business Journal in 2012. Compounding the problem are the lack of instructors, classrooms and labs and the age of RNs currently on the job. About “25 percent of the 36,000 nurses licensed and practicing in Oregon expect to retire within 10 years,” according to the story. ART for ALL (Animal Rescue Teaching for Any Level of Learner) will host a Halloween field day open house in celebration of its newly acquired 501(c)(3) nonprofit status from noon to 4 pm Saturday, Oct. 31, at 85671 Chezem Road outside Eugene. This is a free family event open to the community and will include costume dress-up rides with ponies, arts and crafts and treats. Owners are Tammy and Dan McNally. The nonprofit’s mission is to “rescue and rehabilitate animals using them for education of people young and old.” Call 556-2353 for more information. Cynthia Hylton, senior health insurance benefits officer for Lane County, will speak at the meeting of Health Care for All Oregon Eugene Chapter from 7 to 9 pm Tuesday, Nov. 3, at First United Methodist Church, 13th and Olive in Eugene. Hylton will speak on current Medicare enrollment program options. Email siniger@efn.org for more information or visit hcao.org. BRING Recycling is doing something different for Halloween. BRING’s Planet Improvement Center at 4446 Franklin Blvd. in Glenwood is inviting people to bring in leftover fruit from backyards and urban orchards from 11 am to 3 pm Saturday for a “scary fun community cider pressing.” WildCraft Cider Works will process the juice to create an artisanal cider that will be sold starting New Year’s Eve to benefit the Long Tom Watershed Council. Wear a costume to the event and get a 25 percent discount on most used merchandise at BRING. BrightStar Care in-home care agency is a new business with offices at 935 Oak Street, Suite B, downtown. Owners of the franchise are local entrepreneurs Jennifer and Mark Ensminger. The business will “provide a range of compassionate, person- centered medical and non-medical care to people of all ages, from infants to seniors,” say the owners. Rachel Shipsey has been hired as director of nursing. The business is actively hiring and is expected to have 40-plus part-time and full-time certified nursing assistants and caregivers by year’s end. A grand opening celebration is scheduled for 1 to 4 pm Tuesday, Nov. 10. Call 632- 7800 for more information. “Finding a Job After 50” is the topic at a free workshop at 5:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 5, at the Eugene Public Library downtown. Representatives from WorkSource Lane, Goodwill Industries, Experience Works and Lane Community College will share information and advice. Sponsored by Eugene Public Library and LCC Successful Aging Institute. Call 682-5450 or eugene-or.gov/ library. 8 October 29, 2015 • eugeneweekly.com THIS BOBCAT CAUGHT IN A SNARE IS FEATURED IN A DOCUMENTARY BY PREDATOR DEFENSE PHOTO CREDIT: PREDATOR DEFENSE FILM SHOWING CELEBRATES 25 YEARS OF PREDATOR DEFENSE Fahy says over the years one of the things he is most “Right now at this moment a coyote is strangling in proud of is the relationships the group has formed with a neck snare or a wolf is struggling in a leghold trap,” individuals from all walks of life. Former government says Brooks Fahy, executive director of Predator De- agents have aided in exposing the bad science behind the fense and one of the nonprofit’s founders. The preda- trapping and the group has brought everyday people be- tor advocacy group is celebrating 25 years of work to fore Congress to testify about their dogs that have been protect coyotes, wolves, cougars and other predators on poisoned or trapped. Nov. 5 with movies and a Q&A at the Bijou Art Cin- Fahy says that stopping Wildlife Services from aeri- emas on 13th Avenue. ally gunning coyotes on Oregon’s Hart Mountain Na- Predator Defense started off in 1990 as Cascade tional Antelope Refuge is a prime example of Predator Wildlife Rescue, a hospital and rehab for predators. Defense’s work. It has “stood the test of time,” Fahy says. Fahy says the journey started with three coyote pups In 1995, the refuge called to have the coyotes killed in whose parents had been killed by a government agent. response to a year in which almost no pronghorn fawns Fahy raised and released them and that, combined with had survived, and Predator Defense, with the help of for- his involvement in political activism such as trying to mer refuge biologist Jim Yoakum, fought back, pointing ban trapping in Oregon, led him to get a license in Or- to bad weather and habitat as egon rehab wildlife and then the culprit for the low fawn found the rescue. survival. The gunning was After five years, Fahy and stopped each time the refuge Cheri Briggs, who had joined called for it. Pronghorn fawns him in 1992, ran into another rebounded without the gun- dilemma. The group was res- ning of predators and Fahy cuing and rehabbing preda- says that over the next 20 years tors only to release them into this allowed the group to prove a shrinking habitat with “no that nature, as opposed to pred- safe place for them. There ator control, works. are traps everywhere, poison It has not been an easy everywhere,” Fahy says. He journey, Fahy says, but work- points to Wildlife Services, ing with Predator Defense has a government agency that is been “extraordinary.” charged with resolving “wild- — B R O O K S FA H Y, P R E D AT O R D E F E N S E There will be three films life conflicts to allow people shown at the Bijou to celebrate and wildlife to coexist” as a Predator Defense’s 25 years, top killer of predators. The and staff — including Fahy, carnivore advocate Sally agency killed 2.7 million animals in 2014, down from Mackler and filmmaker Paul Garrett — will be at the the- 4 million in 2013. Animals killed range from birds to ater to answer questions. The films include a 10-minute bears and include feral dogs and cats as well as several documentary about a rescued and released bobcat, The pet dogs. Imperiled American Wolf and Predator Defense’s latest Fahy and Briggs had been working on a campaign film, Exposed: USDA’s Secret War on Wildlife. to stop the aerial gunning of wolves in Alaska, and they The event, presented by Encircle Films, starts at 6 pm made the decision to address Wildlife Services, then at Bijou Art Cinemas, 492 East 13th Avenue. Ticket pric- known as Animal Damage Control, on a national level. es are $8.50 in advance, with senior, student and member “There is no other organization in the country that’s discounts available. Tickets can be purchased at bijou- dedicated more time and resources to these issues,” cinemas.com or at the door. — Camilla Mortensen Fahy says. ‘There is no other organization in the country that’s dedicated more time and resources to these issues.’
