BY CARL SEGERSTROM
• Velvet Edge Boutique, an upscale women’s
clothing store at 187 Broadway, is planning to
move to Fifth Street Public Market in August,
according to owners Marjorie Taylor and her
daughter Amber Taylor. Marjorie Taylor has a three-
decade academic career in the field of psychology
and Amber Taylor has a background in drama. “We
will really miss our downtown neighbors,” Marjorie
Taylor says, “and it will be sad to leave, but we
could not pass up the opportunity.” Owners of the
Due Donne Boutique at Market are moving to
Washington, which opened shop space near
Pendleton Woolen Mills and Freudian Slip and just
off the lobby of Inn at the 5th. Taylor says the
Broadway location has been fine for the past three
years, but she anticipates more foot traffic and
better parking at 5th Street. No word on what
business might take over the soon-to-be-vacant
Broadway location between Footwise and Out on a
Limb Gallery. The property manager is Scott Gibbs
of the G Group, with offices at 388 Pearl.
• Back in April we wrote that the Ocean Sky
restaurant property at 1601 Chambers appeared
to be on the market for $1.1 million. The family-
style Chinese eatery has been in business for 25
years, and former employees tell us the building is
about to be completely remodeled and turned into
a very different kind of restaurant and bar, possibly
retaining some Chinese menu items. The reported
new owner has not returned a phone call, but we
hear he also owns Trackstirs Sports Bar & Grill and
Gateway Tap House, both in Springfield.
• Meili Construction will begin renovations in
July to convert the old Cascade Presbyterian
Church at Willamette and 33rd Avenue into
housing for homeless teenage girls. The architect
is Bergsund Delaney. St. Vincent de Paul is
overseeing the Youth House Project that got off
the ground with a $625,000 federal grant.
Additional fundraising is going toward the project’s
total budget of $1.85 million. The home for
unemancipated girls age 16-17 is scheduled to
open in December, says Paul Neville of St. Vinnies.
The need is great, he says, for girls who have not
been in foster care or in the state system, but find
themselves homeless and vulnerable on the
streets. The girls will need to stay in school to get
the free rent, meals, counseling and other services
that will be provided by multiple agencies and
community groups. Housing for teen boys will be
next. Find out more at svdp.us/homeless-youth
or call Neville at 541-743-7121.
• A new laundry detergent called Active
Wash has been developed by University of
Oregon scientists and will be marketed by
Defunkify, a small and relatively new Eugene
company. The “super detergent” will be on the
shelves of Market of Choice in July, says Trevor
Steele of Defunkify’s communications team. The
detergent is enviro-friendly and “has been
thoroughly tested by the big guys. It performs
better on stains than anything else we’ve tried.”
Steele says the product uses enzymes, minerals
and sustainable, plant-based materials. “We
simply use better science, from better scientists,”
he says.
LANE COUNTY AREA
SPRAY INFORMATION
Seneca Jones Timber Company, 541-689-
1011, plans to spray 93.4 acres about 1 mile
south of Hamm Road and 2 miles west of Territorial
Highway with glyphosate, imazapyr & metsulfuron
methyl, sulfometuron methyl, triclopyr with acid,
triclopyr with amine, triclopyr with choline,
triclopyr with ester, Conquer, Crosshair, MSO
Concentrate and/or Crop Oil Concentrate. See ODF
notification 2017-781-07685, call Brian Peterson
at 541-935-2283 with questions.
Compiled by Gary Hale, Forestland Dwellers: 541-342-8332,
forestlanddwellers.org
8
June 22, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
THE FOREST FOR
THE TREES
Timber sale near McKenzie Bridge
shows the many faces of forest man-
agement debate
A
cross a lush brook with tumbling miniature wa-
terfalls and past about a quarter mile of trail-less
forest there’s a hand painted canvas sign in a large
Douglas fir tree that reads: “Logging cancelled due
to climate emergency!”
In this section of 100-plus foot trees, within earshot of the
trucks rumbling through McKenzie Bridge on Highway 126,
the Cascadia Forest Defenders are tree sitting to protest the
Goose timber sale.
Since the Goose Project was proposed in 2009 there has
been a contentious debate over how to manage the section of
public timberlands. After years of back and forth, logging and
road building is underway and the Forest Defenders are up in
the canopy, placing themselves as the last line of defense in the
stand they now occupy.
Viewpoints on how to manage the Goose sale are indicative
of the ongoing struggle among timber companies, public lands
managers like the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), environmental
advocacy groups that focus their efforts in the courtroom and
direct action protesters like the Forest Defenders.
Goose is in the Willamette National Forest and encom-
passes nearly 2,500 acres of planned timber harvest. In 2012,
nonprofit environmental advocacy groups Cascadia Wildlands
and Oregon Wild, represented by the Western Environmental
Law Center, filed a lawsuit against the Forest Service for not
adequately considering the environmental impacts of the tim-
ber sale.
Primary objections to the sale were the effect of logging
near streams on water quality and fish habitat; the impact on
northern spotted owl habitat; and the effects of logging and
road building on the nearby Lookout Mountain Potential Wil-
derness Area.
In a 2013 judgment celebrated by the environmental
groups, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken ordered the
USFS to produce an Environmental Impact Statement before
the Goose Project could be logged.
Following the 2013 decision, the USFS went through with
the mandated Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), a pro-
cess that began in April of 2014 and lasted more than a year.
As part of the process, the USFS hosted a half-dozen public
meetings in the McKenzie Bridge area, gave a tour of some
of the proposed logging sites and received about 700 letters of
public comments.
USFS forester Shadie Nimer and planner Dean Schlichting
both say they were satisfied with the process and surprised that
there was a tree sit happening. “A lot went into the planning,”
Nimer says. “We collaborated to get the concerns people had
with the sale.”
“People feel like more a part of it and are appreciative of
being in the loop,” Nimer says. “A lot of people were okay
once they got the details.”
One of the qualities that the Forest Service emphasizes as
a benefit is that logging will open up the forest canopy and
provide more forage for grazers like elk. Schlichting notes that
there are a lot of open spaces from clearcuts on private timber
lands, but says the habitat created by the Goose Project will
be higher quality because the land will be able to regenerate
naturally — unlike private timberlands which are practically
mandated by the Oregon Forest Practices Act to use herbicides
to promote faster growing plantations.
According to Nimer and Schlichting, there is already some
helicopter-based logging underway and road clearing and
building by the timber companies will be the majority of the
activity on the Goose sale this summer.
Regarding the protesters, Schlichting says, “They have the
right to protest and it’s our job that they keep that right and
stay safe.”
Nick Cady, the legal director for Cascadia Wildlands, says
that while the group isn’t pleased with all of the details of the
Goose sale, the organization has gone “as far as you can push
this issue” in terms of legal remedies.
In the revised EIS, some of the concerns raised by Cascadia
Wildlands and Oregon Wild, especially with regard to logging
near waterways, were at least partially addressed. Cady says
that they would have liked to see more protections for spotted
owls and salmon habitat, but wouldn’t it be wise to challenge
the EIS.
“That’s one of the balances of doing timber sale law, you
have to wait for ideal facts to bring cases,” Cady says, adding
that losing a case could set a bad precedent that could hamper
future legal challenges to similar timber sales.
For activists protesting Goose, the arguments made by the
Forest Service and timber companies don’t add up. Shannon
Wilson, who says he has been participating in direct action
protests against logging for more than 20 years, says, “There’s
no ecological or economic reason.”
“It’s my home and I’m not going to let someone destroy it
before my eyes if I can help it,” Wilson says. He also points
out that creeks and springs throughout the timber sale flow into
the McKenzie River, the source of Eugene’s drinking water.
According to DB, a native Eugenean using his “forest
name” during the protest, “there shouldn’t be any logging on
public lands, but the sad thing is they’re mandated to do it.”
EW spoke with DB atop the tree sit where he is protesting
Goose.
Andy Geissler, the field forester for the American Forest
Resource Council, says that even though public lands produce
less timber than private lands in Oregon, they are still critically
important for the industry. “These public lands are multi-use,”
Geissler says, “the land we all own should be providing for
all of us.”
The American Forest Resource Council is an industry
group that represents timber purchasers on federal lands.
Geissler points to a growing demand for wood products
and innovations including cross-laminated timber as important
reasons for public lands to continue producing timber for log-
ging companies. “We believe wood is the most sustainable and
environmentally friendly product out there,” Geissler says.
Activists argue that because these lands are public they
should not be sold and are often sold below market value. “It’s
corporate welfare.” DB says, “They’re losing public money
on these sales.”
But, according to Geissler, the true cost of logging public
lands is far more than the final price tag paid to the Forest Ser-
vice. He cites the danger of facing lawsuits on public lands and
cutting restrictions the USFS puts in place to protect wildlife
as additional burdens placed on buyers of public timber sales.
“There’s a lot of unknowns and an increased level of risk be-
tween buying public versus private lands,” Geissler says.
Geissler adds that the question he would like to ask the
tree sitters is what alternatives they have to meet the needs for
timber and construction materials demand. “It’s easy to say no,
but what’s the solution then,” Geissler says.
For activists like DB, the solution is simple: look elsewhere
for timber and stop logging public lands. DB says he would
like to see public forests preserved them for their ecological
value and carbon sequestration potential.
“With the threats of climate change we can’t leave it to
politicians and corporations,” DB says. “There clearly has to
be people showing initiative, and close to home is a good place
to start.”