Eugene weekly., November 29, 2018, Page 9, Image 9

NEWS
BY C A M I L L A M O R T E N S E N
20 YEARS OF
TREEHUGGING
Cascadia Wildlands celebrates its
conservation history and keeps fighting
C
ascadia Wildlands was born in 1998 out of the
Pacific Northwest’s “Forest Wars.” And as it cele-
brates its 20th anniversary, the longtime nonprofit
continues to fight to save the flora and fauna of
the Northwest’s Cascadia bioregion. In December
Cascadia Wildlands will also celebrate its successes with
its annual Winter Wonderland fundraising
auction.
The Warner Creek Blockade was semi-
nal for many of Oregon’s forest activists.
For 343 days, activists blocked a forest road
about 40 minutes southeast of Eugene to
prevent logging on a patch of old-growth
forest that had been burned in an act of ar-
son. The blockade was dismantled in 1996,
but the forest defenders had succeeded, and
the burned forest has been regenerating
since then.
Josh Laughlin, executive director of
Cascadia Wildlands, says after that, “The
quasi-organization assumed the moniker of
Cascadia Timber Monitoring Group when
it was based out of the Survival Center
in the Erb Memorial Union at the UO. It
was there that we commandeered comput-
ers, fax machines, phone lines, photocopi-
ers, rabble-rousers and other necessities to
stop old-growth timber sales on nearby pub-
lic forests.”
Laughlin, who had been the editor of
Earth First! Journal, officially started as
staff in 2001. “I was offered a corner in a
shoebox of an office at the Growers Market,”
he says, “and was told I could have a job if I
raised some money because we didn’t have
any. I quickly learned how to write grants
and throw successful beer parties.”
Laughlin says the first Wonderland auc-
tion in 2003 raised $7,000. “I remember an
attorney/board member auctioning off her
services to help expunge criminal records.”
The event, which is already sold out for
Dec. 1, has come a long way. “Last year
the Wonderland Auction raised $90,000,”
Laughlin says. “This year, we hope to reach $100,000,
nearly a quarter of our annual operating budget.”
Cascadia Wildlands was the brainchild of Mick Garvin,
now the proprietor of Deep Woods Distillery in Oakridge,
not far from Warner Creek. He jokes, “I buttonholed James
[Johnston] in our Glenwood front yard around a fire, sug-
gesting we do something that would keep the riffraff con-
structively occupied.” Garvin and Johnston, like many of
Cascadia Wildlands original board members and support-
ers, participated in the blockade. Johnston was the group’s
first executive director.
Garvin explains the original official name was Cascadia
Wildlands Project to “encompass the larger bioregion and
expand beyond forest defense.” The word project was later
dropped.
Sarah Peters is a current board member. She first vol-
unteered with the group in 2003 as a law student and be-
came a board member in 2010. She explains her long-term
commitment, saying Cascadia Wildlands “drew a hard line
when necessary in order to defend and protect this amaz-
ing bioregion, but still maintained good relationships with
many of the government employees whose agency’s ac-
tions they were challenging.”
And, Peters adds, “I was also impressed with their abil-
ity to accomplish so much, with so little — they’ve always
been scrappy, and that hasn’t changed.”
As for what Cascadia Wildlands has accomplished —
and what it is still fighting for — Peters says, “We don’t
hesitate to fight what is wrong for the ecological health of
our bioregion — timber sales in old-growth forests or in
habitat for sensitive species, ill-conceived
natural gas pipelines, poorly sited off-road
vehicle routes and roads, suction dredge
mining in fish-bearing streams, and the lists
go on.”
She says the group uses “all of the tools
available to do it” including grassroots or-
ganizing and ground-truthing, submitting
formal comments on agency projects and
getting the public engaged as well as legal
appeals. Litigation comes “when all else
fails and our laws still need to be enforced
by citizen action.”
Laughlin points to Cascadia Wildlands’
ongoing work on gray wolf recovery, whose
numbers are climbing in Oregon, Wash-
ington and California, as well as efforts
to preserve forests in the face of climate
change. Former clearcuts “replanted with
dense homogenous tree farms create more
fire-prone landscape” he says, and create a
“smokescreen” for logging for politicians
like President Trump.
Staving off timber companies and the
privatization of Oregon’s Elliott State For-
est, Laughlin says, is one of the biggest con-
servation feats in decades. And, he warns,
“It’s not a done deal.” The Elliott, a coastal
rainforest, is home to threatened marbled
murrelets, coho salmon, mountain beaver
and spotted owls, among other species.
Although the Cascadia Wildlands Win-
ter Wonderland Auction at 6 pm, Saturday,
Dec. 1, is sold out at Venue 252, Laughlin
says supporters are welcome to attend an af-
ter party with DjGroovemaker from 10 pm
to 2 pm at Thinking Tree Spirits, 88 Jackson
Street. ■
‘We don’t hesitate to fight what is wrong
for the ecological health of our bioregion —
timber sales in old-growth forests or
in habitat for sensitive species,
ill-conceived natural gas pipelines,
poorly sited off-road vehicle routes and roads,
suction dredge mining in fish-bearing streams,
and the lists go on.’
CONTINUED FROM PG. 8
“There is a public health need that supports the emer-
gency clause,” Board Chair Jay Bozievich said.
Due to the emergency status of the ordinance, Sorenson
said that there is “no reviewability of this by the public.”
Ordinances that pass without an emergency declaration
take 30 days to go into effect.
Bozievich said citizens could go through the initiative
petition process, gathering signatures around Lane County,
to get the ordinance overturned in an election.
To the commissioners’ surprise, there was no one at
Tuesday’s meeting for public comment on the ordinance.
This was a contrast to the Eugene City Council’s meet-
ing Monday night, Nov. 26, in which multiple community
members spoke on homelessness in the area.
One very pointed statement to the council came from
Sue Sierralupe, clinic manager of Occupy Medical, on the
city’s decision to partner with the county on its campsite
PHOTO COURTESY ODFW
— SARAH PETERS, CASCADIA WILDLANDS BOARD MEMBER
off of Highway 99, instead of pursuing a shelter site in the
downtown core.
Sierralupe, an herbalist, said that she was speaking not
with affiliation with Occupy Medical, but as a resident and
business owner in downtown Eugene.
“I am joining voices with my neighbors who are also
home and business owners and ask that there be a realisti-
cally placed center for those who are unhoused in Ward 1.
Downtown is the most logical place,” she said.
She also discussed a recent letter from a group of down-
town business owners and stakeholders thanking the city
for not placing a shelter in the downtown core.
“The self-described downtown business stakehold-
ers” Sierralupe said of the letter’s signatories, “represent a
small section of those of us who live here, work here and
own businesses here.”
She added: “Simply stating that those struggling with
poverty should be shipped away to Highway 99 is dis-com-
passionate, impractical and illogical.”
There have been no tangible updates on any plans for a
future shelter site downtown.
At their Nov. 27 meeting, Lane County commission-
ers said that in light of the butterfly lot curfew ordinance,
the county is still working to find shelter for the unhoused
community.
“The county is looking for safe and sanctioned places
for people to camp. Our main goal is safe and permanent
housing. Everybody needs a safe place to sleep at night,”
Commissioner Pat Farr said. “That has nothing to do with
the curfew we’re talking about today.”
County Administrator Steve Mokrohisky echoed the
sentiment, talking specifically about the camp the county
designated on Highway 99. “This [99 camp] was never in-
tended to be a permanent solution. This was intended to be
a transition. There is a further transition needed to occur,”
Mokrohisky said. “That is the process we are now in.” ■
eugeneweekly.com • November 29, 2018
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