• The Oregon Country Fair is
kicking off, and we treasure this
quirky annual celebration and
all it does to revel in the hippie
culture that makes Eugene Eu-
gene. And as with anything we
treasure, we have to love it in all
its flaws, whether those might be
complaints about the dust or the
music acts or something more
painful such as the Ritz Sauna
story pole debacle that hurt and
offended native peoples. As the
dust settles, we hope we will hear
about efforts OCF makes to work
with the native community to re-
store trust and build new bridges.
• KLCC public radio is seeing major chang-
es this summer. A celebration of life was held
July 1 for longtime Music Director Michael Can-
ning who died May 14, a year after he retired.
Program Director Don Hein retired June 30
after 40 years. News Director Tripp Sommer
retired at the same time after 36 years, along
with Development Director Cheryl Crumbley,
who was with the station for six years. KLCC is
celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
• Bike Friday, the company in west Eugene
that specializes in building high-end folding bi-
cycles that are sold worldwide, is celebrating
its 25th anniversary this summer. A celebra-
tion open to the public is planned for 11 am to
4 pm Monday, July 10, at the factory, 3364 W.
11th Avenue.
• The nonprofit McKenzie River Trust has
assisted the Confederated Tribes of Siletz
Indians in purchasing 125 acres of “ecologi-
cally and culturally significant wetlands” on
the central Oregon Coast south of Florence, ac-
cording to MRT Executive Director Joe Moll. The
Fivemile Creek land is upstream of Tahkenitch
Lake, and is habitat for spawning Coho salmon.
Last year, MRT was able to preserve two miles
of riverfront on the McKenzie known as the
Finn Rock Reach. This spring the organization
launched the McKenzie Homewaters capital
campaign with a $6 million goal.
• Corvallis environmental groups have
been collaborating on increasing the amount of
solar installations in the city since late 2015
and hope to more than double the amount of
renewable energy generated by 2020. Data
so far indicate the Harvest Sunshine team has
boosted solar generation by 13 percent in the
first year. Involved in the team are the Corvallis
Sustainability Coalition, the Corvallis Environ-
mental Center and Environment Oregon. See
sustainablecorvallis.org.
• In pet business news, Kibble on Wheels
is coming to Eugene. Meals on Wheels America
has given a $1,500 grant to FOOD for Lane
County to launch a pet support program for
low-income elderly who struggle to pay for pet
food. The program begins in August. In feline-
specfic news, Springfield resident Kerry Bar-
bero has been honored in the “Best Cat Blog”
category competition at the national BlogPaws
convention in South Carolina for her Noir Kitty
Mews blog. Barbero writes from the perspec-
tive of Valentine, her black Persian cat.
• The Nation magazine is the lat-
est to have a big piece on our
Jeff Merkley, the only senator
to endorse Bernie Sanders in the
Democratic primary. Sen. Merk-
ley is mentioned more and more
on national media as a possible
candidate for president. Why
not? Oregon may not be the best
base nationally, but our senator
does inspire confidence. What a
change that would be!
• This is hardly a peppercorn in
the pantheon of cruelties the
Trump administration is laying on
most of the American people, but
it does show the “trickle down”
effect of the Donald’s proposed
budget: Merlyn Hough, direc-
tor of LRAPA, the Lane Regional
Air Protection Agency, told us
recently that this federal budget
would reduce little LRAPA’s bud-
get by about 30 percent. Add
that to all the other environmen-
tal erasures this administration
is doing and it makes us wonder
if they don’t care a whit about the
air they breathe, the water they
drink, the species they destroy,
on and on. They should at least
care about the generations that
follow us.
• What we’re reading: Double
Bind:Women on Ambition is a
collection of essays edited by
Robin Romm, who grew up in
Eugene, the daughter of a law-
yer mother and doctor father.
The jacket calls it a “neces-
sary collection … examining
the concept of female ambition
from every angle in essays full
of insight, wisdom, humor and
rage.” Published in 2017, the
essays writers range from Pam
Houston and Sarah Ruhl to Molly
Ringwald. Now living in Portland,
Romm has written two earlier
books and many articles. She
says this book is “an entry point.
The rest is up to you.”
8
July 6, 2017 • eugeneweekly.com
SUSTAINABILITY.
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TIMBER MANAGEMENT WITH A
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We manage our timberlands with the
future in mind: generations of trees
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DID YOU KNOW?
• Our tree farms clean the air of CO 2
from the equivalent of 86,169 vehicles
each year
• We have 91% more timber on our lands
than we did 20 years ago
• We plant more than 1.5 million
seedlings each year
• Sustainability is key: trees planted today
won’t be ready for harvest until 2067
Visit SenecaSawmill.com to learn more!