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SATURDAY
APRIL
18
•
2015
Oregon Youth Authority goes ‘green’
Conservation
programs help youth
connect with their
communities
ardens overflowing with
3,000 pounds of produce
annually. Fishermen put-
ting salmon and halibut bycatch
to good use by donating it to pro-
vide youth with fresh, healthful
dinners. Solar-powered green-
houses growing seedlings and
saplings to beautify Oregon’s
highway medians. Silverspot but-
terflies coming back to Oregon to
roost on newly-planted native vio-
lets in hopes of removing them
from the threatened species list.
If these sound like typical con-
servation activities in Oregon,
they are.
But what makes these activities
atypical, especially when com-
pared to other states, is that they
are taking place in Oregon’s 10
close-custody juvenile facilities
every day.
Youth are learning not only
what it means to be green, they’re
also learning from the ground up
how to care for their communi-
G
GUEST VIEWPOINT
B Y F ARIBORZ P AKSERESHT
D IRECTOR , O REGON Y OUTH A UTHORITY
& R ICHARD R OSS
D IRECTOR , C AMP F LORENCE
ties, and in some cases how to
make sustainability a vocation
after they leave the Oregon Youth
Authority (OYA).
Oregon leads the nation in the
number of vocational educational
programs it offers to at-risk youth,
and as part of that educational
approach, we’re also leading the
way in introducing them to sus-
tainability in action.
In fact, OYA’s sustainability
aims align well with an ambitious
new culture the agency is creating
called Positive Human
Development (PHD).
PHD is an agency-wide culture
that strives to provide low stress
environments for both staff and
youth with freedom to make rea-
sonable choices, and opportunities
for engagement and caring and
supportive relationships.
The culture of PHD is rooted in
a five-level pyramid that shows a
progression beginning with a
foundation of safety and security,
working up to community con-
nection at the top of the pyramid.
Sustainability, and the sense of
belonging to a culturally responsi-
ble community, fits within the
community connection level of
the pyramid.
Creating a community connec-
tion can benefit both youth and
the community. For example, the
Institute for Applied Ecology in
Corvallis has helped introduce
nature into the lives of at-risk
girls at Oak Creek Youth
Correctional Facility in Albany.
Girls planted and nurtured
native seeds, such as Riverbank
lupine and Nelson’s checkermal-
low, in the facility’s greenhouse.
The plants then were used by
middle school students at restora-
tion sites at Jackson-Frazier
Wetland and Evergreen Creek
area.
While each of OYA’s 10 close-
custody facilities teaches sustain-
ability practices, from bicycle
repair to wind turbines to refur-
bishing computers, Camp
Florence has its own way of sus-
tainably supporting the communi-
ty.
In 2014, the camp youth raised
more than $1,700 in recycled cans
and glass containers and donated
all the proceeds to the Boys and
Girls Club of Western Lane
County, Friends of Florence and
Siuslaw Outreach Services.
A focus on sustainability
extends throughout all agency
operations. For example, our
agency reduced its energy con-
sumption by 30 percent between
2008 and 2014. The government
mandate was 20 percent, but we
set the bar even higher.
As we celebrate Earth Day on
April 22, OYA is proud to
embrace green practices for the
benefit of at-risk youth.
Sustainability means thinking
five, 10 and even 100 years
ahead, and many of our youth
haven’t had the luxury to consider
their futures in those terms.
Helping them care for the earth
reframes how they think of suc-
cess. As a result, our communities
will be safer and Oregon will be
greener.
LETTERS
telling us not to worry? The
principle here is one of preven-
tion rather than waiting for the
possible consequences of these
multiple sprayings each year
for several years.
Spraying poisons is not the
only method to accomplish the
landowners’ goal. This is an
avoidable risk.
These speculators knew that
their property was situated in a
sensitive area close to the
source of Florence’s water
when they purchased it. But
they don’t live here, share our
fate or drink our water.
Pip Cole
Florence
Maple Street
‘gateway’
In the past, Maple Street has
been closed to accommodate
the Rhododendron Festival
Vendor Fair. As a member of
the Old Town business commu-
nity, I heard only positive com-
ments about the substantial
increase in pedestrian traffic
and business this event generat-
ed.
Much of that business came
from people who had visited
Old Town on many occasions,
but never thought of walking
off of Bay Street. It was inter-
esting to hear their comments,
such as “We never realized Florence had such
a wonderful museum, so many shops and his-
toric buildings right off of Bay Street.”
Looking at a copy of the Historic Walking
Tour Guide of Florence, it became apparent
Maple Street is the “gateway” to Old Town,
offering many sights of interest along the way.
In addition to permitting the two-day event
along Maple Street, the city would be well
served by providing an illustrative sign at the
corner of Bay and Maple streets. This would
encourage visitors to see additional sites of
interest in Old Town, not only for the two-day
event, but all year long.
Howard Goldstein
Florence
Stolen future
I am concerned about the likelihood of peo-
ple spraying the poisons triclopyr and/or
glyphosate near the source of Florence’s
drinking water to manage their timber land.
The problems here are more than the Florence
City Council’s luke-warm “interest” warrants.
Suppose people end up getting sick as a
result of using water contaminated by the pro-
scribed use of these poisons? How will we
know? Who will be responsible?
According to the Christiansen study done in
the 1980s, it takes approximately 30 years for
USPS# 497-660
anything introduced into the north Florence
single source dunal aquifer to reach the city.
Imagine this scenario: your (grand) daughter
who is right now 1 to 4 years old, in three
decades entertains signals from her body to the
extent that, if she has not already, it is time to
reproduce.
Based on the research of Dr. Theo Coburn,
we know that, “Sexual differentiation begins
in humans at day 56 of gestation. Not many
women know they are pregnant at day 56.
Exposure to a wide range of environmental
chemicals (pesticides, herbicides, human
chemicals in foods, etc.) on this day or after
can cause irreversible damage to that fetus’
ability to reproduce. This disruption to the
chemical messengers of the body is not an
obvious birth defect.”
In fact, it may not be apparent until that
fetus becomes an adult and wants to repro-
duce. This spells the end of your family’s his-
tory.
There is so much we don’t know about
these chemical compounds. I cite Dr. Coburn’s
work (“Stolen Future”) because I am familiar
with it. If this scenario played out, who would
be accountable? What cause and effect rela-
tionship could be proved in a court of law?
Don’t we have enough poisons in our
atmosphere, our food, soil and now our water?
Don’t we have enough government agencies
We had it all — Easter eggs, volunteers,
miles of smiles and sunshine.
The annual Florence Community Easter
Egg Hunt, hosted by the Siuslaw High School
Interact Club and sponsored by the Rotary
Club of Florence, was bursting with energetic
youngsters filling their baskets, bags and
boxes with nearly 4,000 colorful plastic eggs
containing treats and prizes as depicted in the
April 8 edition of the Siuslaw News (“Mad
Dash,” page A1).
Both clubs want to thank the following
businesses for their contributions of goods,
discounts and publicity in helping this year’s
Easter Egg Hunt be so successful: Abby’s
Pizza, Grocery Outlet, Wind Drift Gallery,
City Lights Cinemas, Dairy Queen,
McDonalds, Bi-Mart, Siuslaw News, KCST
Radio and Pacific Publishing.
Our area youth continually benefits from
these and other generous businesses in
Florence. In addition, thank you to the com-
munity for supporting our efforts by attending
this event. See you next Easter.
Ryan Denning
Interact VP & Easter Egg Hunt Chair
Lis Farm & Jenna Bartlett
Florence Rotary Advisers
MOMENTS IN TIME
The History Channel
• On April 25, 1719, Daniel Defoe’s fic-
tional work “The Life and Strange
Adventures of Robinson Crusoe” is pub-
lished. The book, about a shipwrecked sailor
who spends 28 years on a deserted island, is
based on the experiences of Alexander
Selkirk, a Scottish sailor who spent four years
on a small island off the coast of South
America in the early 1700s.
• On April 21, 1816, Charlotte Bronte, the
only one of three novelist Bronte sisters to
live past age 31, is born. Charlotte’s two older
sisters died of illness while at Clergy
Daughter’s School. The grim institution
found its way into her masterpiece “Jane
Eyre” (1847).
• On April 26, 1913, 13-year-old Mary
Phagan is found molested and murdered in
the Atlanta pencil factory where she worked.
Her murder led to one of the most disgraceful
episodes of bigotry, injustice and mob vio-
lence in American history — the lynching of
her innocent Jewish boss, Leo Frank.
• On April 22, 1934, George “Baby Face”
Nelson kills Special Agent W. Carter Baum
during an FBI raid in northern Wisconsin. The
famed gangster was born Lester Gillis but
wanted to be known as Big George Nelson.
Unfortunately for him, his youthful looks led
everyone to call him “Baby Face.”
• On April 24, 1940, bestselling mystery
novelist Sue Grafton, creator of private eye
Kinsey Millhone, is born. Starting with “A Is
for Alibi” in 1982 and titling each of her
books with letters of the alphabet in order,
Grafton is currently up to W, for “Wasted.”
• On April 23, 1967, Soviet cosmonaut
Vladimir Komarov is killed when his para-
chute lines tangle during his spacecraft’s
landing. Komarov plunged to the ground from
23,000 feet.
• On April 20, 1980, the Castro regime
announces that all Cubans wishing to emi-
grate to the U.S. are free to board boats at the
port of Mariel west of Havana, launching the
Mariel Boatlift. The first of 125,000 Cuban
refugees from Mariel reached Florida the next
day.
(c) 2015 King Features Synd., Inc.
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Published every Wednesday and Saturday at 148 Maple St. in Florence, Lane County, Oregon. A member of the National
Newspaper Association and Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. Periodicals postage paid at Florence, Ore.
Postmaster, send address changes to: Siuslaw News, P.O. Box 10, Florence, OR 97439. Phone (541) 997-3441 (See
extension numbers below). FAX (541) 997-7979.
John Bartlett
Jenna Bartlett
Ryan Cronk
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Jeremy Gentry
Egg-citing Easter
YESTERDAY’S NEWS
Pres. Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments: 202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line 503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email:
Sen.ArnieRoblan@state.or.us
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-228-3997
541-465-6750
State Rep. Caddy McKeown
(Dist. 9)
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email:
rep.caddymckeown@state.or.us
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio (4th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416/ 800-944-9603
541-269-2609/ 541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan (Dist. 5)
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
West Lane County Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@co.lane.or.us