VIEWPOINT
semi-annual clearance
BY ROBER T EMMONS
Muting Goal
One Goal
CITIZENS FIGHT AERIAL SPRAYS
O
ne goal of Oregon’s statewide land use program is “citizen
involvement,” providing opportunities for public participa-
tion in all phases of the regulatory system. Public awareness
and engagement are essential to a functional democracy.
When statewide goals and the regulations meant to sup-
port them have been corrupted, and when, as a consequence, the health,
safety and welfare of the public and the environment are endangered, it
is incumbent upon injured parties to seek redress through formal judicial
procedures and/or by initiative petition.
Aerial spraying of herbicides on federal forests ceased decades ago. But
so tight is the timber industry’s grip on state and county legislators that for
more than 40 years poisons have continued to rain from the skies over Ore-
gon’s private timber lands despite incontrovertible evidence of their deadly
impacts from trespassing drift and runoff.
In a letter published in the Sept. 26, 2016 The New Yorker, Carol Van
Strum of Tidewater, Oregon, observed that the federal government has
responded rapidly “to spread of the Zika virus and the microcephaly as-
sociated with it,” but studies 36 years ago showing “a strong correlation”
between aerial spraying of herbicides used by the logging industry and “a
substantial increase” of birth defects “in which a baby is born with little or
no brain” have been discounted or ignored by state and federal authorities.
Regardless of efforts by individuals and communities to end the collat-
eral damage — sick neighbors with aerial poisons in their urine, dead pets,
fish passing atrazine and 2,4-D through their gills with the water they take
in — state legislatures, Democratic governors and environmental regula-
tors have refused to change the pro-spray “Right to Farm and Forest Act.”
With no other choice, a coalition of organizations and individuals has
come together to ban aerial spraying in Lane County through the local ini-
tiative process. Freedom from Aerial Herbicides Alliance volunteers are
gathering signatures for a charter amendment to be placed on the ballot in
May 2017.
Facing seemingly insurmountable political and legislative roadblocks
against their efforts to ban GMOs and to oppose other state, county and
federal laws deleterious to their well-being, several years ago a number of
people organized as Community Rights Lane County and have been gath-
ering signatures for a charter amendment that would establish the right to
local self-government. They’re gathering signatures for the initiative to ban
aerial spraying, as well.
Though both initiatives have been approved by Lane County for sig-
nature gathering, last year four of the five Lane County commissioners
proposed an ordinance allowing them to veto any measure they deemed
too costly and “not of county concern.” Instigated by two representatives
of the timber industry, the proposal is a shameless attempt to preempt the
initiative process.
Community Rights attorney Ann Kneeland has countered, and the coun-
ty’s own attorney concurs, that procedurally “matters of county concern
can only be addressed after an initiative has been voted in by the people.”
Moreover, as a home rule state, Oregon allows counties to adopt charter
amendments.
At stake here, Kneeland has said, are “our rights to direct democracy
and free speech, including our right to circulate petitions, engage in politi-
cal discourse and vote on proposed law.” Facing a firestorm of opposition,
the commissioners agreed to a cease-fire for six months.
Waving the Constitution in one hand and the Bible in the other, elected
officials who profess global warming a liberal hoax and the earth’s natural
resources there for the taking are gnawing at the roots of our democracy.
Registered county voters can provide an antidote by signing the petition
to ban aerial spraying of herbicides in Lane County and the petition that
would allow local self-governance.
Go to freedomfromaerialherbicides.org for the petition and more infor-
mation.
Robert Emmons of Fall Creek is president of LandWatch Lane County, a group that has worked for
20 years to help neighbors protect Lane County’s farmland, forestland, natural areas and open space.
See landwatch.net.
shoe sale
up
to
60
%
off
select boots, shoes & slippers
LIMITED TO STOCK ON HAND
sale starts
Fr iday, Ja n ua ry 13
Downtown Eugene • 181 E Broadway • 541.342.6107
Facebook/footwiseeugene • Mon-Sat 10-6 & Sun 11-5
My #GoodLifeGoal:
a financial home I can trust
In today’s world of banking, where
everyone seems to be looking out for
themselves, it’s empowering to know that
SELCO is looking out for me. Their services
are all designed with my best interests in
mind. I love it when my fi nancial universe
actually revolves around me.
selco.org • 800-445-4483 • Branches throughout Eugene and Springfield
Banking | Mortgages | Insurance | Investments | Business Lending
Membership requirements apply. See SELCO for details. NMLS#402847
eugeneweekly.com • January 12, 2017
7