• Electing judges is the topic at City Club of Eugene at noon Friday, June 19, at the Downtown Athletic Club, 999 Willamette Street. Speakers are W. Michael Gillette, retired justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, and James Huffman, dean emeritus of the Lewis and Clark Law School. $5 for non-members. See cityclubofeuegene.org. The following week, June 26, the topic will be “The Future of Collegiate Athletics at the UO” with professor Bill Harbaugh and professor emeritus Dennis Howard.
• Cascadia Forest Defenders will launch a floating protest of the Pacific Connector LNG pipeline at 10 am Friday, June 19. The “Float the Pipe” event will begin where the pipe would cross under the South Umpqua just south of the Rivers West South Umpqua campground, 1-5 Exit 112, on the east side of I-5. Participants will float downriver for 12 miles over two days and document the watershed they see along the way. A community picnic and press conference will be held from 4 to 6 pm Saturday, June 20, at 630 Douglas Blvd. in Winston. Contact Erin Grady at (303) 905-8601.
• Author Guy McPherson, professor emeritus of natural resources at the University of Arizona, is on tour and will speak on “Responding to Abrupt Climate Change” at 7 pm Wednesday, June 24, at the Unitarian Universalist Church at 13th and Chambers. Food and water shortages are accelerating around the globe, he says, and we’ve only recently entered the domain of abrupt climate change. Suggested donation of $10 to $20. See guymcpherson.com. Hosted in part by Eugene Interfaith Earthkeepers. McPherson will also be at Tsunami Books at 3 pm that day for book signing and open discussion.
• The BLM is looking at revisions to the Northwest Forest Plan and according to Oregon Wild, all of the options that are being proposed will reduce logging setbacks on streams and rivers. The next riparian workshop will be from 4 to 8 pm Thursday, June 25, at the BLM Interagency Office Assembly Hall at 3106 Pierce Parkway in Springfield. Another public meeting is planned June 30 in Salem. Find the BLM’s meeting schedule at wkly.ws/216.
• OReGO starts July 1 and the program is looking for volunteers. OReGo is Oregon’s Road Usage Charge program and it assesses a 1.5-cent per-mile charge for volunteer drivers, who will pay a road usage charge for the amount of miles they drive, instead of the state fuel tax. Volunteers will get a credit for fuel tax they pay at the pump. OReGo is an Oregon Department of Transportation “program that creates a new way to fund road maintenance, preservation and improvements for all Oregonians.” For more info or to sign up, go to myorego.org.