CC Minutes - 02/11/08 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

acknowledged that timber-dependent counties such as Lane County were struggling to provide services due to lagging budgets. She averred that logging old growth was not a long-term solution and would only “put [area residents] in the same place a few years from now.” She said there were better ways, such as thinning areas that had already been cut. She declared that a solution could be found without “cutting down trees that were giants when Lewis and Clark first came to Oregon.” Ron Davis , 30519 Overholser Road, Cottage Grove, submitted a picture of the earth, “our home.” He suggested that they should “ask not what your planet can do for you, ask what you can do for your planet.” He felt that endorsing the WOPR would send a message that it was okay to be out of balance with nature. He pointed out that the federal land was owned collectively by all of the citizens of this country and should be managed wisely. He related that he had heard an interview with author Gary Zukav in which Mr. Zukav likened living in the United States to having already won the lottery. He said if people did not take care of land and forests, they would create poverty and deserts. He understood that nearly 30,000 comments had come in, mostly in opposition to the WOPR. He said concerns had also been raised by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Marine Fishery Service (NMFS), and a coalition of eight hunting and fishing groups. He noted that the EPA had specifically expressed concern about the effects of alternative 2 and 3 on drinking water and aquatic species. He averred that they should demand that federal agencies present a more balanced alternative as people could not afford to throw the planet away. th Samantha Chirillo , 157 East 27 Avenue, Apt. 3, co-director of Cascadia’s Ecosystem Advocates and organizer of the WOPR and Beyond Coalition, which represented more than 15 different forest conservation, climate change, and community groups, expressed hope that the council would pass a resolution opposing the WOPR in solidarity with those groups. She asserted that carbon storage capacity of western Oregon forests was the greatest per acre of any forest in the world. She also said water and soil conservation the forests provided was irreplaceable. She opined that Eugene would be a less attractive place to live if the WOPR was approved. She related that the WOPR would increase logging jobs slightly, because so much of the work was now mechanized, but a greater number of jobs would be lost in recreation and eco-tourism. She noted that she had recently participated in a conference for youth and asked the council to please support the youth in their endeavor to create a livable future. Josh Laughlin , 2905 Ferry Street, said he was conservation director of the Eugene-based Cascadia Project, representing approximately 700 members across the country. He stated that old growth forests had drawn him to the area from the east coast, where old growth forests were now gone. He reiterated the value of old trees in relation to carbon storage and drinking water. He related that for the past five to seven years the Eugene BLM had been focusing on restoration, forestry, thinning and managing plantations, and decommis- sioning harmful roads that were “bleeding sediment” into waterways. He said this would change with the WOPR, a “back room settlement/negotiation that proposed to ramp up old growth logging” on federal public lands in western Oregon. He felt they had the opportunity to redirect the BLM’s energy. He related that all of the BLM land up the McKenzie River would become a timber management area and the Coburg Hills area would “go away.” Glen Love , 393 Ful Vue Drive, noted that he had written a letter in opposition to the WOPR to the council a couple of months earlier on behalf of the McKenzie Flyfishers, a group of 120 members in the Eugene/Springfield area. He conveyed the group’s concern regarding the threats to water and fish resources posed by the plan. He said this had been brought to light by EPA opposition to the plan. He stated that the McKenzie Flyfishers joined the EPA in opposing the WOPR. He noted there was no recognition of global warming in the WOPR plan. He averred that 90 percent of the old growth forest in Oregon was gone and MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 11, 2008 Page 2 Regular Meeting