FOL LOW T HE FOUR
slant
• The prevailing of democracy, the
shattering of a glass ceiling, the calls for
unity from the same stage where the last
president called for, and later incited,
carnage — in so many ways the inauguration of President Joe Biden
and Vice President Kamala Harris was a balm to the wounds of the
nation. Biden is a leader who is remarkable in his capacity for emotion,
and his tone and speech reflected that, as well as his focus on uniting
a divided people during racial unrest and a global pandemic. The words
of Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old national youth poet laureate, who
recited her poem “The Hill We Climb” — updated after the Jan. 6 attack
on the Capitol — reminded us: “But while democracy can be periodically
delayed / It can never be permanently defeated.”
DON’T
INVITE
COVID.
• From shutting down the Legislature for security reasons to hastening
the distribution of the COVID vaccine for life and death reasons, Gov.
Kate Brown is doing a fine job. The angrier the right-wing anti-maskers
and extremists get about her, the more it’s clear she’s trying to make
good choices for the well-being of all, not just a few. We applaud her
and continue to wonder where she will go in 2022 when her term ends.
Hopefully, to the Biden administration, if that is what she wants to do.
• What we're eating: country loaf from the Camas Mill Bakery north
of Eugene off Highway 99. This is so good that a friend ate nearly a whole
loaf for his dinner. Is it better than Hideaway Bakery's or Metropol's best
dark loaf? Those are fighting words! You decide and let us know.
• He was, of course, the worst of us, and we may never outlive
the cruelty and angst that former President Donald Trump spread
throughout this country these past four years. The ooze has seeped
down to ordinary citizens and forced neighbors and friends to turn their
backs on each other. Now he’s gone, and we can take a breath. The coming
years will not be easy, but the competence and empathy that President
Joe Biden demonstrates by the day at least offers hope.
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
It’s
About
Time
dontinvitecovid.org/gameday
Protect yourself,
your family and
your community.
SETOPHAGA TOWNSENDI -
TOWNSEND'S WARBLER
by David Wagner
Along the trail to Trestle Creek Falls, above Brice Creek in southern Lane
County, I found a solitary, ancient rock sword fern (Polystichum imbricans).
It is a relictual plant, one that has survived from the time when this site was
an open, rocky ridge. That's the sunny habitat this species prefers. Over the
last centuries a towering forest has closed in and this species is no longer
reproducing here. These relictual oldsters are not hard to find because
our regional forests have an average 500-year cycle of fire replacement.
Western sword fern (Polystichum munitum) is one of only two or three
forest understory species that survive total stand replacing fires in the
forests on the west side of the Cascade Range. It means sword ferns are
often older than old growth trees above them. Some of the monster ferns
are certainly hundreds of years old.
Appreciating the time scale of old sword ferns can be contrasted with
current bird populations in urban areas. In north Eugene our feeders have
been swarmed by about five times the normal visits. Great variation from
year to year is not unusual, but this rush began early, right after the Labor
Day fires started. We see crowds of a dozen or more different birds every
day. The Holiday Farm Fire has devastated one of our most treasured
environments up river. It is not unreasonable to propose that the birds
we have been enjoying for three months are a consequence of their fleeing
the burning forests.
David Wagner is a botanist who has worked in Eugene for more than 40 years. He
teaches moss classes, leads nature walks and publishes the Oregon Nature Calendar.
For information about getting the 2021 Oregon Nature Calendar, contact him directly at
fernzenmosses@me.com.
E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M
Get your
flu shot.
Visit vaccinefinder.org or call 211 to find the best place to get
your flu shot. Or, call your doctor to make an appointment.
J A N U A R Y
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