NEWS
BY CAMILLA MORTENSEN
ENVIRONMENTAL SHINDIG
AT THE UO
The annual PIELC conference addresses green topics
E
very year, as spring returns to Oregon, so do hordes of environmentalists and law-
yers. This is the 36th year of the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference
(PIELC), and as always the community is invited to come hear the plethora of
green talks at the University of Oregon March 1-4.
According to Thomas Boone, one of this year’s PIELC organizers, the confer-
ence features 120 panels and five keynote speakers. Boone says PIELC’s variety of panels
on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) is particularly pertinent in an era in
which the Trump administration is attempting to dismantle environmental reforms.
Also up against the Trump administration is Juliana v. U.S., the much-publicized law-
suit by 21 youth plaintiffs against the U.S. government on the issue of climate change. The
Juliana in question is South Eugene High grad Kelsey Juliana.
Julia Olson, executive director of Our Children’s Trust, the nonprofit behind the lawsuit,
gives a keynote speech 5:30 pm Friday, March 2.
Local attendees will be reminded of the fires that blanketed Lane County this past sum-
mer at panels such as Saturday’s “Using Fires as an Excuse to Clearcut: Fire Ecology
and Federal Forest Policy” and “Wildland Fire in Oregon: Which Way Forward?” also on
Saturday.
Parker Brigance, a fellow member of the PIELC organizing team, points to the 6 pm
Thursday, March 1, keynote speech by Richard W. Spinrad as relevant in light of Trump’s
moves to open U.S. waters up for offshore drilling. Spinrad is a professor of oceanography
at Oregon State University and retired chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Administration (NOAA).
Other panel topics include films such as WALL-E and The Hunger Games in an envi-
ronmental context, beavers, fracking, coal, dams, wolves and more. PIELC also plays host
to an extensive array of groups and causes who will be tabling at the UO School of Law
over the course of the weekend. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement is a perennial
favorite.
Boone says the conference made an effort to elevate the voices of those who ordinarily
go unheard, acknowledging that the environmental movement is “really white and male.”
And, he says, the keynote speakers are those who serve the public, “not the big elites, but
people who see what the grassroots are putting out there.” ■
PIELC is Thursday afternoon, March 1, through Sunday, March 4, at the University of Oregon School of Law. For
more information and a panel brochure go to pielc.org. FREE.
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Virginia Grise Speaks and Performs
Truths We Should Know
IT’S ABOUT TIME
BY D AV I D WA G N E R
MONDAY, MARCH 5, 2018 – 3-5PM | 242 GERLINGER
Almost thirty years ago a
new, annual species of geranium
showed up at the Mount Pisgah
Arboretum wildflower show. It
is known as shining geranium
or Geranium lucidum. It spread
rapidly through the woodlands
of Mount Pisgah. Within 10 years
SOFT GERANIUM,
it became the dominant under-
GERANIUM MOLLE
story herb. It is now almost ev-
erywhere in western Oregon.
Considerable effort is devot-
ed to combatting species that disrupt native ecosystems. English
ivy was originally widely planted, but now it is illegal to plant because
it has proven to be fiercely invasive. With the shining geranium, how-
ever, there was never a chance to keep it at bay. It spread so rapidly
that we now have to accept it as being here to stay.
Many weedy species came with the arrival of Europeans in North
America. To the original natives of the continent, Europeans brought
with them an invasive culture and invasive plant species. We prefer
to call the human invaders settlers, pioneers or migrants, so why not
the plants? Their arrival was not by choice but they migrated thanks
to opportunities given by some agent like wind or animals. Successful
spread is what makes them “invasive.”
We cannot always determine if a new arrival is a natural, opportu-
nistic migrant or a human-mediated invasive. But when something
like shining geranium arrives, it doesn’t matter whether you call it a
recent migrant or an invasive. Its presence must be simply accept-
ed. It seems to me that those who are now called “illegal immigrants”
deserve similar acceptance.
David Wagner is a botanist who works in Eugene. He teaches moss classes, leads
nature walks and makes nature calendars. He can be contacted through his web-
site, fernzenmosses.com.
Your Healing is Killing Me is a performance
manifesto written by Virginia Grise based on lessons
learned in San Antonio free health clinics and New
York acupuncture schools; from the treatments and
consejos of curanderas, abortion doctors, Marxist
artists, community health workers, and bourgie
dermatologists. One artist’s refl ections on living with
post-traumatic stress disorder, ansia, and eczema in
the new age of trigger warnings, the master cleanse,
and Kickstarter-funded self-care. Capitalism is toxic
but The Revolution is not in your body butter. Part
lecture, part performance, part writing workshop.
A Special Stage Reading of the sold out, popular local play
featuring members of our local refugee and immigrant neighbors!
TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 2018 – 6PM
UO EMU Redwood Room 214
(down 18th to University -- between 13th and 15th ave.)
FREE ADMISSION
Sponsored by: UO Multicultural Center, Community Alliance of Lane County, Eugene Peaceworks,
Muslim Student Assoc., No Lost Generation, MEChA, ROAR/Radical Organizing, Activist Resource
Center, Arab Student Union, KEPW 97.3 radio, Division of Equity and Inclusion
Minority Voices Theatre. Woven together by playwright Nancy Hopps
and original director Carol Dennis and Therese Picado
eugeneweekly.com • March 1, 2018
7