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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (March 31, 2016)
BY C A M I L L A M O R T E N S E N • Saturday Market and Farmers Market will open their seasons Saturday, April 2, at the Park Blocks downtown. This hub of community activity will feature artisans, chefs, musicians and community members gathering to celebrate art, life and veggies in the southern Willamette Valley. Saturday Market will be open 33 Saturdays, more than 400 artisans will sell more than $1.5 million worth of handcrafted wares, nearly 500 local musicians will play on the stage and around the market, and 15 food booths will draw hungry crowds. The Lane County Farmers Market will feature some 50 farmers and food artisans selling a range of local food products, from seafood and meats to vegetables, fruits and flowers. Farmers Market is open from 9 am to 3 pm every Saturday through Nov. 12 while Saturday Market is open from 10 am to 5 pm. • Perk Coffee Shop & Espresso at 1351 Willamette Street appears to be closing following a lease dispute, according to social media. Owner Logan Fisher, who bought the business two years ago, wrote a long explanation that was published on Reddit. Fisher says he was preparing to sell the business and transfer the lease, but his landlord found another tenant, so he has no business to sell — at least not at that location. Fisher can be contacted through Facebook. • Mount Pisgah Arboretum is launching its first permanent nature exhibit at 11 am Thursday, March 31. Eight innovative exhibits will be created over the next three years, “designed to inspire a greater understanding and appreciation of our regional natural environment,” says Peg Douthit-Jackson, event manager for Pisgah. “Our first exhibit, a unique woven wildlife viewing blind set in a traditional Pacific Northwest wetland ecosystem has recently been completed,” she says. “In addition to touring the new exhibit, we will also be announcing the projects’ overall goals, timeline and expected impact this will have on our community.” • We hear Gray’s Garden Center donated 140 new rose bushes to the city’s famous Owen Rose Garden at 300 Jefferson Street. Volunteers showed up March 24 to do the planting. • Local attorney Janie Morgensen is offering a free legal clinic for anyone in Lane County with a criminal history and legal questions from 2 to 4 pm Friday, April 1, at Sponsors RRC, 338 Hwy. 99. Organized by Sponsors and the UO Law School. Call 505-5682. • Hoodoo Ski Area near Sisters is offering free lift tickets from 9 am to 4 pm Friday, April 1, and “this is not a joke,” says Leif Williams of Hoodoo. It’s a “thank you to local skiers and riders for their continued support of Central Oregon’s oldest ski resort,” he says. No coupons or reservations are needed, and the tubing park is also free that day. Lift tickets will need to be acquired at the ticket office. See skihoodoo.com or call 822-3337 for snow and travel conditions. • Direction Service is celebrating 40 years in Lane County and this week announced that Aimee Walsh has been named chief executive officer. Walsh has been on the administration staff for 16 years. She replaces Marshall Peter, who helped launch Direction Service and served as executive director for 32 years. The nonprofit provides support for children with special needs and their families. See directionservice.org. • A Foster Care Forum for Lane County is planned for 4 to 6 pm Wednesday, April 6, at the Eugene Public Library downtown. Hosted by the Lane County Citizen Review Board, which includes judges, DHS staff, attorneys, CASA members, foster parents and other community members. 8 March 31, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com ‘The Oregon Board of Forestry remains under the thumb of the timber industry. ’ ‘ — DOUG HEIKEN, OREGON WILD OREGON’S MILLION-DOLLAR CUT THANKS TO FORESTRY POLLUTION $ 1.2 million. That’s how much money Oregon won’t receive this year from two federal agencies due to its failure to protect water quality from logging in coastal watersheds. According to Nina Bell of Northwest Environmental Ad- vocates, “the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have said for 18 years that Oregon’s logging practices create dangerous lev- els of water pollution and harm fish.” Bell sent out a press release March 11 calling attention to the fund- ing cut out of a $4 million pot of money that is a result of Oregon’s lack of progress in controlling runoff polluting coastal waterways. Oregon is the first state to lose the money, and the $1.2 million will go to other states. Doug Heiken, conservation and restoration coordinator with Or- egon Wild, says, “Oregon’s forest practices are so outdated that the federal government can’t hold its nose any longer and finally took con- crete steps to penalize the state by taking away some money.” Oregon Wild and Eugene-based Beyond Toxics are working on statewide ballot measures to stop aerial herbicides sprays and address the problem of clearcut logging on steep slopes above drinking water streams. If passed, the measures would have a “huge effect” on the temperature, turbidity and pollution that Lisa Arkin of Beyond Toxics says are the result of logging too close to streams and aerial sprays of pesticides. Under the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program, all U.S. coastal states are required to control water pollution from sources not covered under the Clean Water Act. According to NOAA, “the program estab- lishes a set of management measures for states to use in controlling runoff from six main sources: agriculture, forestry, urban areas, mari- nas, hydromodification (shoreline and stream channel modification), wetlands, and riparian and vegetated treatment systems.” A March 9 letter from the EPA and NOAA to Richard Whitman, Or- egon’s natural resources policy director, says the agencies appreciate Oregon’s “expressed commitment to address the gaps” in its Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Program, but the progress “is not sufficiently defi- nite or advanced.” Heiken says, “We would like to think this will spur state action to improve logging practices but we’re not holding our breath. The Oregon Board of Forestry (BoF) remains under the thumb of the tim- ber industry. Change will require citizens to take action and hold state leaders accountable.” Arkin adds that the BoF is going to have to change the culture that has been created by forestry interests. NOAA and the EPA write in the letter that they will be able to renew full funding after the Coastal Nonpoint Pollution program is “approved without conditions.” Josh Laughlin, executive director of Cascadia Wildlands, which advocates for protecting Oregon’s Elliott State Forest from logging, says, “The feds yanking their grant money should be a wakeup call for Governor Brown’s environmental team and policy makers in Salem.” He continues, “Oregon needs to live up to its green image by in- stituting streamside buffers that meaningfully protect clean water and wild salmon and setting up an ‘Herbicides Anonymous’ program to ween Big Timber off the poisons it douses on forestlands across west- ern Oregon.” ■
