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About Eugene weekly. (Eugene, Oregon) 1993-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2019)
news Enviros Bare Their Teeth at Wolf Plan THEY SAY THE NEW ODFW PLAN OPENS THE DOOR TO HUNTING WOLVES By Camilla Mortensen C ommissioners for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife voted June 7 on an updated wolf plan that allows members of the public to be granted permits to kill wolves. The wolf plan was controversial long before the vote. Back in January, four environmental groups notified Gov. Kate Brown and the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission that they were withdrawing from stakeholder meetings on the management of Oregon’s wolf population. Oregon Wild, Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife said in a Jan. 4 letter that “it is clear the agency’s intention is to find ways to kill wolves faster, not prioritize conflict prevention through non-lethal measures.” Arran Robertson, communications manager for Oregon Wild, says of the new plan, “We are OK being slant tax in a work session June 10. Councilor Mike Clark proposed the idea of putting the tax to a council vote in November, saying if elected officials control the narratives, the public would support it. If the tax gets challenged through a citizens’ referendum, voters could shoot it down. Clark added that the council could find the money to extend the bridge funding that public services currently receives to increase its services. Councilor Emily Semple disagreed with Clark, saying it means cutting other city services. She added that councilors were elected to make tough decisions like imposing the tax (a common phrase from councilors during the time they’ve been considering the tax). Putting the tax on the ballot was rejected 3-5 with Councilors Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor and Clark voting yes. The tax was approved by the City Council, 6-2 with Taylor and Clark dissenting. • We are proud to announce that former Eugene Weekly intern (now Wall Street Journal intern) Michael Tobin won Best Article of the Year in the national Hearst Journalism Awards — that’s like the Pulitzer Prize of college news writing. Tobin won for his story “Big Corporate Handouts with Little Oversight,” on local enterprise zones, published in EW Sept. 20, 2018. EW published the story through a partnership with the University of Oregon’s Catalyst Journalism Project. • Looks like Rep. Peter DeFazio could have a challenger in the primary election. FEC candidate filings show that Doyle Canning sent in a statement of candidacy May 22. The application shows she has a campaign committee working out of Sacramento, California. Canning is attending law school at the UO and is the co- founder of the Center for Story-based Strategy, an organization that trains social justice alliances to use stories for social change. A Eugene Weekly article covering the 37th annual Public Annual Interest Environmental Law Conference quoted her saying the U.S. needs the Green New Deal because climate change “is a death sentence for future generations.” • Keep an eye on your paycheck and reconsider that Netflix subscription: The Eugene City Council approved the payroll • Here’s a chance to get you voice heard on local issues. The Lane County Board of Commissioners will now hold public comment periods in the evening, making the board more accessible for working community members. The summer schedule is: June 18, Willamalane’s Ken Long Room, 250 S. 32nd Street, Springfield; July 23, Harris Hall 25 E. 8th Avenue, Eugene; and August 20, in Harris Hall. All sessions are 5:30 pm on Tuesdays. • Eugene’s 4J School Board will be choosing a replacement for Evangelina Sundgrenz, who resigned. May we humbly recommend that the board pick an applicant who is trusted by the conservative folks in our community? The quoted as calling it a pile of shit.” Robertson and Danielle Moser, the group’s wildlife coordinator, say that in addition to the concern that conflict prevention was not given a priority, two other big issues they say were “for the most part discarded” in the plan are how low the threshold is for killing wolves and the opening of the door for hunting wolves. Congressman Peter DeFazio shares the latter concern. He tweeted out on June 8: “Yesterday, ODFW approved a plan to allow untrained hunters to assist in predator control measures, giving Wildlife Services even more unchecked authority than they already have. This plan puts both animals and humans at risk, and I stand firmly in opposition to it.” Under the new plan, the state can kill wolves in Oregon after two confirmed attacks during a nine- month period. Previously, lethal measures could only be taken on Oregon’s eastside and there was not a set time period for the attacks. Oregon’s first wolf plan was written in 2005, before wolves had returned to the state, and updated in 2010. There are now about 137 wolves in Oregon, most of them in the eastern portion of the state. Wolves are native to Oregon. In a news release the Fish and Wildlife Commission, referring to hunting as “controlled take,” says, “Use of controlled take as a management tool requires commission approval through a separate public rulemaking process” and “the definition of controlled take was modified.” ODFW also says “non-lethal measures to prevent wolf-livestock conflict continue to be emphasized” and are “required before any lethal control is considered.” A spokeserson for Brown tells Eugene Weekly “As she communicated to the director of ODFW last month, the plan should give no member of the public the opportunity to hunt wolves. But as approved, the wolf plan opens the door to that possibility.” Robertson says in response to the governor’s misgivings, “If you don’t like it, what are you going to do about it?” He adds, “If she doesn’t do anything about it, then it shows that she can just be rolled by her own agency.” ■ ODFW says the full plan will be posted at dfw.state.or.us/wolves. quality of public education in Eugene has been strong because all political persuasions have supported it and we don’t want to lose that. • All Republican state senators and four Democrats recently voted down Senate Bill 2014 in Salem. Lee Beyers, labor Democrat from Springfield, was one of the “no” votes. Shemia Fagan, a gutsy new Dem senator from Portland, co-carried the bill and closed with a passionate appeal for the Senate to restore the constitutional right to a jury trial rather than a government- imposed restriction on what juries can award to victims of sexual abuse and catastrophic injury. Big pharma, big health care and big insurance won this round, but the fight is not over. • A preview and celebration of the Oregon Country Fair brought a happy crowd to the courtyard of the Lane County History Museum on Saturday afternoon, June 8. The museum is showing an exhibit about the fair for its 50th birthday this year, July 12, 13 and 14. Tall puppets, familiar fair music, wonderful costumes were all there with Cynthia Wooten, one of the fair founders, presiding over an opening ceremony. It was announced that OCF has been designated an Oregon Heritage Tradition, which “recognizes events more than 50 years old that represent what it means to be an Oregonian.” Quite a cultural mix, these events include the Portland Rose Festival, Pendleton Round-Up, Oregon State Fair, Bohemia Mining Days in Cottage Grove and the Scandinavian Festival in Junction City — about 20 events total. SLANT INCLUDES SHORT OPINION PIECES, OBSERVATIONS AND RUMOR-CHASING NOTES COMPILED BY THE EW EDITORIAL BOARD. HEARD ANY GOOD RUMORS LATELY? CONTACT EDITOR@EUGENEWEEKLY.COM 8 J U N E 1 3 , 2 0 1 9 E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M
