Conservation Today

Barbara Davis, Lincoln County Community Rights, continues her discussion about the Lincoln County ban on aerial herbicide spraying. Just a few days after we talked last week, a court ruled and overturned the measure voted into law by the residents of Lincoln County. Barbara talks about the court ruling, and how to move on from here. We also talked more about the problems with the Oregon Forest Practices Act governing private land logging, including lack of regulations on aerial herbicide spraying. It is unfortunate that the wishes of the Lincoln County Citizens was challenged by the timber industry and overturned.

For more information:

Lincoln County Community Rights:

http://www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/

http://www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/donatesupport/

Oregonian story on efforts to strengthen Oregon forestry laws.

https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2019/10/ballot-initiative-to-tighten-oregon-forestry-laws-gets-rejected-advocates-blame-timber-money.html

Oregonian story about timber cash influences politics in Oregon

https://projects.oregonlive.com/polluted-by-money/

How to sign up for spray notifications in your area:

https://ferns.odf.oregon.gov/e-notification

For help in signing up for notifications, email francis at mydfn dot net

Rights of Nature:

Klamath River now has the legal rights of a person:

https://www.hcn.org/articles/tribal-affairs-the-klamath-river-now-has-the-legal-rights-of-a-person

Music at end of discussion is by David Rovics, "Here At The End Of The World", free download here: https://archive.org/details/dr2004-02-01.flac16/dr2004-02-01d1t06.flac

Michelle Holman (Lane County) and Barbara Davis (Lincoln County) talk about the efforts to pass Community Rights in their counties, and how Douglas County citizens could benefit from this. For instance, Lincoln County citizens passed a ban on aerial herbicide spraying (spraying pesticides from helicopters over industrial lands, over streams or near to rural residents). Barbara and Michelle talk about what is community rights, the national and international movement, and how the Rights of Nature is part of the movement. For more information see:

•Oregon Community Rights Network: https://orcrn.org/

•Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund: https://celdf.org/

•Community Rights Lane County: https://communityrightslanecounty.org/

•Lincoln County Community Rights: http://www.lincolncountycommunityrights.org/

This is a conversation with Stuart Liebowitz from the Douglas County Global Warming Coalition. Stuart talks about climate change, the failed Cap and Invest bill in the Oregon Legislature, and other current events. Stuart also talks about 4 upcoming events in Douglas County:

1. Friday September 20, 12 to 1 pm. Join the national Climate March to demand climate action now! Garden Valley Blvd in front of Fred Meyer

https://allevents.in/roseburg/roseburg-climate-strike/200017949390109

2. Friday September 27, 6-9 pm at the Library: Roseburg Water Symposium called "Protecting the Headwaters in an Extreme Climate."

https://umpquawatersheds.org/event/protecting-the-headwaters/

3. October 5 is the Smart Energy Tour, beginning at 9:00 a.m. at the Fish Food Pantry. RSVP by calling 541-672-9819 or emailing [email protected]

4. October 30, 6:30 at the Library: "Moving toward a fossil fuel free future", with professor Randall Bluffstone and Dylan Kruse from Sustainable Northwest. (We talked with Dylan Kruse on this program last year. https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=329967

To support the Douglas County Global Warming Coalition, send donations to: 143 SE Lane, Roseburg 97470. https://www.facebook.com/DouglasCountyGlobalWarmingCoalition/

Janice Reid is one of the top spotted owl researchers in the country. She gave a presentation about her research, and the results, to Umpqua Valley Audubon in late march. This is a recording of that presentation. It is fascinating, including the ecology of the spotted owl, their prey, threats to the owls, and their current status state-wide and specific to Douglas County. For more information about the sponsor of this presentation, see:

http://umpquaaudubon.org/

Dr. Dominick DellaSala talks about fire, including how wildfire is beneficial to our ecosystems. Does thinning help reduce fire? Does it help the forest? It depends. In any case, Dr. DellaSala explains why salvage logging a burned forests is so destructive. Dr. DellaSala also explains the relationship between climate change and forests, and the carbon capture and release of a forest. Finally, Dominick summarizes the green-new-deal from congress.

In the last part of this podcast I talk more about the Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline, the BLM's 2018 no-mitigation policy, and the new 885-acre reserve the BLM plans to give to Jordan Cove.

For more information:

Geos Institute: https://www.geosinstitute.org/

Timothy Egan, the Big Burn: https://www.timothyeganbooks.com/the-big-burn

Green New Deal: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_New_Deal

BLM no-mitigation policy: https://www.blm.gov/policy/im-2019-018

New 885-acre BLM reserve given to a foreign corporation: page 2 of the DEIS.

Writing FERC comments: https://www.nolngexports.org/write-comments

We speak with two people about the Jordan Cove Energy Project, Stacey McLaughlin and Allie Rosenbluth. Stacey talks about the marine mammal harassment authorization request that Pembina has made, about the pipeline proposed through her property, and the Coastal Zone pipeline permit reauthorizations that the judge found Douglas County did illegally. We also discuss impacts to whales as well as the new 880-acre reserve the BLM plans to give to the foreign corporation in place of BLM's wildlife reserves.

Allie Rosenbluth talks about the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) and the comments our government is asking from us before July. Allie, from Rogue Climate is holding comment-writing workshops around Oregon, including one in Myrtle Creek on May 29, and Eugene on June 6, 2019.

For more information see:

Rogue Climate: https://www.rogueclimate.org/

Pipeline Awareness Southern Oregon: https://www.facebook.com/pipelineoregon/

Firefighters United for Ethics and Ecology fire report on Jordan Cove: https://www.fusee.org/

You can download the DEIS from here: https://elibrary.ferc.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20190329-3050

Or view it at the Myrtle Creek Library or your local BLM or Forest Service office. For help on writing comments, see: https://www.nolngexports.org/write-comments, or come to the comment-writing workshop in Myrtle Creek on May 29.

You can postal mail your DEIS comments to:

Kimberly D. Bose, Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street NE, Room 1A, Washington, DC 20426

Regarding: "CP17-494-000 and CP17-495-000" (you have to include those CP numbers).

Glide Wildflower Show organizers, Becky McRae, Debbie Barbrae, and Dianne Mascarello describe the inner workings of the world-renouned Glide Wildflower Show. The show this year is April 27 and 28 in Glide Oregon, east of Roseburg. The history of the show is described, starting in 1965 to the present day. Hundreds (600 to 700) of plant species are collected, in bloom when possible, identified by botanists, and beautifully displayed at the Glide Community Center, along with great home-made pies for sale. It is one of my favorite events of the year, with information on native plants, noxious weeds, rare plants, tree species, etc. DON'T MISS IT. More information at:

http://www.glidewildflowershow.org/

Watch the Oregon Public Broadcasting show about the Glide Wildflower Show:

https://www.opb.org/television/programs/ofg/segment/glide-wildflower-show/

Elana Porter and Helen Laurence talk to us about feminism and women's studies. Elana, a PhD Student in women's studies, talks about the "Intersectionality Feminism", considering race, sex, class, ability, and how those experiences overlap. Elana also talks about the relationship between environmental issues and women's issues.

Starting at 40:13, Helen Laurence, one of the founders of the Women and Gender studies at Umpqua Community Collage, talks about how equal rights for women helps all genders. Helen's specialty is eco-feminism: how the environment is treated reflects how women are treated. At 7 minutes into our conversation with Helen, a storm starts and we can hear the rain pounding on the roof of the yurt we are in, in case you wonder what that strange noise is.

For more information, Elana suggests:

Web sites: feministing.com; everydayfeminism.com.

Books: Intersectionality by Kimberle Crenshaw; Masters Tools by Audre Lorde.

Helen suggests these books:

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; Refuge. An Unspoken Hunger by Terry Tempest Williams; Men Explain things to Me by Rebecca Solnit; Nature and Other Mothers by Brenda Peterson.

Neal Hadley, president of the Native Plant Society of the Umpqua Valley, talks about the mission and work of the Native Plant Society (NSO). Neal talks about some of the Umpqua's endemic plants and encourages us to see some of the native plant gardens in Roseburg, including the front yard of 548 Hickory street and next to the Arts Center on Harvard. Neal talks about the work to protect native species, such as oak trees, the Rough Popcorn Flower and Cox Maripossa Lilly, as well as our best public lands to see native flowers in the County. Neal describes the valuable herbarium collection at the Douglas County museum, going back decades. The NSO is involved in writing comments to address the impacts of the proposed Pacific Connector Pipeline on rare plants, and the proposal for Boardman Coal Plant. Next year Boardman will change from burning coal to burning biomass. But the biomass plant they want to introduce is potentially very invasive to the area, the Giant Cain, a prolific grass. While it could be a good biomass producer, it is also a potential new noxious invasive species for the Columbia River area.

Contact and more information:

www.npsoregon.org

facebook: umpquavalleynpso

email: uv_president at npsoregon.org

Monthly meetings are every second Thursday, 2741 W. Harvard blvd

Upcoming field trips include:

Ollalla Ck. field trip Sat. March 23rd, 9am,

Beatty Ck. field trip Sun. April 7th, 9am

Rogue River Scenic Trail Mon. April 1st (no foolin') 8:30am

Car pool leaves from the county parking lot at Fowler @ Deer Ck.

PIELC Live: On March 2, Eugene community radio, KEPW, 97.3, hosted Conservation Today live at the annual Public Interest Environmental Law Conference in Eugene. We interviewed the following people (and the time they speak in the podcast):

Joseph Vaile, Klamath Wildlands Center, Kebrhea Cuellar, Oregon Wild (12:11), John Abbe, assistant station manager of KEPW (23:00), Dan Pennnington, Coast Range Forest Watch (24:00), Jimmy Betts, Beyond Extreme Energy (34:35), Dave Stone, Douglas Fir National Monument. (41:29), John Jordan-Cascade, Beyond Toxics, (51:00).