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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 2, 2016)
NEWS • Established power and corporate Oregon are mobilizing strategically to defeat IP 28, the value- added tax almost sure to be on the ballot in November. The Oregonian in Portland has been editorializing and writing against it for months. The strategy is to convince voters that this is really only a sales tax, not exactly a favorite in this state. But the basic question is, “What do you propose to bring Oregon public education up to where it should be?” To date, no proposal has come from corporate Oregon, while education leaders we trust call this ballot measure a game-changer for Oregon kids. We believe that students need more teacher time and that will cost the money that IP 28 proposes. This will be an extremely important test of political persuasion in the next five months. • If you need two hours of laughter in this sorry political season, one suggestion is Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, the wild and crazy play by Christopher Durang running until June 11 at our Oregon Contemporary Theatre on west Broadway. Starring Storm Kennedy and directed by Tara Wilbrew, the comedy is well played by the entire cast. While watching, we totally forgot the miserable clown running for president in November. • Harambe, an endangered lowland gorilla was shot at the Cincinnati Zoo over the weekend after a 4-year-old boy fell into the gorilla exhibit. The shooting leaves animal lovers shocked and in tears, and a popular meme shows an image of Harambe, asking, “Not sure why they killed me, I was doing a better job of watching that lady’s kid than she was.” The incident leaves more questions than answers. Why not use a tranquilizer (they don’t stop the animal in its tracks), was the mom watching her kid? Should we even have zoos and if not, how do we preserve species like gorillas and teach the public to love and protect them? RANCHMAN’S TIGER MOTH, IT’S ABOUT TIME PLATYPRETIA VIRGINALIS BY D AV I D WA G N E R 14 Junr 2, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN PROPOSED GRAVEL MINE IN OAKRIDGE UNDER FIRE A s summer nears, people start heading for win- eries like King Estate to sit on the patio, drink wine and admire the view of the hills out Lorane Highway. However, out in Oakridge, some residents worry their views and summer days will be spoiled if a gravel mine, an investment of Ed King’s Crown Proper- ties LLC, begins to bite into 46 acres of a hillside known locally as TV Butte on the edge of town. The quarry, Old Hazeldell, promises “strong over- sight” on its website and that “as we finish a section of the quarry, we will restore it so it blends into the natural hill- side environment.” It also states that it has hired a noise consultant to avoid disturbing the neighbors and, when breaking big rocks, it says it will use “modern techniques that drill small diameter holes filled with ammonium ni- trate fuel oil (ANFO).” ANFO is a popular blasting agent. Ammonium nitrate was implicated in the massive West Fertilizer Company explosion in Texas that killed 15 people, including 12 firefighters and injuring scores of others in 2013. A recent report says the fire was intentionally set. But it is the possible annihilation of history and the links she sees to controversial local land developers that has Kayla Godowa-Tufti, a Warm Springs Tribe member, troubled. She writes in an editorial published on the web- site Last Real Indians that there are “Aboriginal Molalla burial sites near the project area, and possibly on the sub- ject property and contiguous ownership.” She also says that in her archival research at the Lane County Historical Museum, she found that a “significant and irreplaceable section of the ‘Old Indian Trail’” is lo- cated in the boundaries of the area. “This trail is at least 500 years old and was used frequently by several tribes in the area.” Bob Emmons of LandWatch Lane County also notes the links to the site’s Native American past, pointing out that in 1884, two Molalla natives, Charlie Tufti and Jim Chuck Chuck, owned land claims near TV Butte. Charlie Tufti is Kayla Godowa-Tufti’s great, great grandfather. Old Hazeldell spokesman Phil Donovan says that local research group “Heritage Resources conducted a ‘Cultur- al Resources Records Review’ and an on-site review of the property.” He adds, “We are aware of Kayla’s con- cerns.” Heritage Resources’ report, which refers to the quarry by its previous name, Stonebroke, says, “Results of the records review indicate that no cultural resource sites have been recorded within the project area; however, two sites and several isolated artifacts, features and complex- S ummer solstice is arguably the most significant of all solar events. That the sun shone straight down a well in Syrene, Egypt, every summer solstice day gave Eratosthenes the insight for determining the Earth’s circumference 2,200 years ago. Stone monuments worldwide are aligned to commemorate this longest day of the year. The bronze sighting monument on the summit of Mount Pisgah has slots that line up with sunrise and sunset on the solstice. (Winter solstice uses the same sighting slots as summer, but reversed.) Our solstice this year, June 20, is special: There’s a full moon early solstice morning. Gardens need to be taken seriously now, as the main growing season is ahead of us. All the big, productive plants should be in the ground well before solstice: tomatoes, zucchini, peppers, pole beans and the like. Get good starts es have been documented within the 1,500-foot buffer surrounding it.” Godowa-Tufti calls the fact no artifacts were found in- side the direct quarry site “convenient.” Some 25 miles west of Oakridge sits the remains of Parvin Butte, a local landmark that has also become a gravel mine. That controversial project is associated with local land developers McDougal Bros. and Greg Demers, who have done business in the past with King. Emmons says King’s hard rock mining proposal at TV Butte embodies the conflict between statewide planning goals that call for protecting natural resources such as ag- gregate, but also protecting scenic and historic areas and open space and conserving forestland. The gravel mine has asked Lane County to change the land’s zoning from F1 and F2 forestland to Q, quarry min- ing. Emmons alleges that King disguises “his copious de- velopment enterprises” with a variety of business names — the quarry itself was first a project of Crown Prop- erties, then Stonebroke, now Old Hazeldell (the former name of the city of Oakridge). But, Emmons says, it will be harder to hide the mountaintop removal of TV Butte from the thousands of mountain bikers who come to the area, and, he says, it will be “harder to mask the sounds and dust of hillside blasting, of rock crushing and process- ing on a dump site said to contain barrels of pentachloro- phenal and other toxic waste from the long defunct Pope and Talbot mill nearby and of 86 diesel trucks a day going and coming along Dunning and Fish Hatchery Road and along Hwy. 58 through the heart of town.” Donovan has repeatedly stressed, “Greg Demers has no ownership or management interest in Old Hazeldell Quarry.” Emmons says that “in 2006 King’s company, Crown Properties, had its agent, Greg Demers, apply for a legal lot verification for two tax lots in Oakridge, one of which includes a landform locally known as TV Butte. Before King bought the land from Murphy [timber] Company for close to $4 million it belonged to the Forest Service, and before that it was used by native peoples, including Mo- lalla, Kalapuya, Klamath and Warm Springs.” Donovan tells EW that “Demers worked with the Mur- phy Company in the transaction of this property and some of the paperwork was inadvertently mailed to him. I un- derstand that, years ago, this had to be straightened out because tax statements were being mailed to the wrong address.” Godowa-Tufi’s editorial can be found at the Last Real Indians website at goo. gl/kqB65r. from the organic gardeners at the Farmers Market. It is a good and healthy way to support our local farmers. With proper attention to watering, weeding and feeding, a good crop is assured. Unlike garden plants, tree crops are not always so reliable. The olive trees in Greece have a good output of olives only every other year. Olive oil must be prepared and stored in the good years to cover a two-year period. Our fruit trees seem a bit more erratic, with climate vagaries as influential as genetic timing. The apple trees seem to be having a down year while the pear trees have an abundance of baby pears. David Wagner is a botanist who works in Eugene. He teaches moss classes, leads nature walks and makes nature calendars. Contact him directly at fern- zenmosses@me.com.
