Eugene Weekly

The Trapper Timber Sale in the Willamette National Forest just won’t go away, Josh Laughlin of Cascadia Wildlands says. “This is a like a low-grade horror movie where the zombie keeps coming back from the grave.”  The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) is taking comments on the old-growth logging proposal’s latest iteration, which reduces the cutting from 149 acres to 44 acres and the proposed acres to be burned from 92 to 36, according to a press release from McKenzie River Ranger District.  Continue reading →

The McKenzie River, the source of Eugene’s drinking water, would be protected from destructive suction-dredge mining and other threats if a bill introduced to the Oregon Legislature this week is passed. The bill, which adds rivers and tributaries to Oregon’s Scenic Waterways System, would also protect rivers such as the Chetco, Rogue and Illinois, among others. Continue reading →

A panel made up of cash-strapped county leaders, timber executives and environmentalists couldn’t reach consensus on dealing with logging on 2.6 million acres of western Oregon’s federal forestland, but it drew up some options to send to Congress anyway. “The governor tried to spin the report that he sent to Congress as the findings of the panel,” says Steve Pedery of Oregon Wild, calling the proposal “a summary of the bad ideas that have been put out over the last several years.”  Continue reading →

The Lane County Board of Commissioners voted on Feb. 12 to send a proposed jail tax to the voters in May. The vote was 4-1, with progressive Commissioner Pete Sorenson as the lone “no” vote and conservative Commissioners Sid Leiken, Jay Bozievich, Pat Farr and Faye Stewart voting in favor. Continue reading →

The roster of speakers for the UO’s Social Justice Real Justice (SJRJ) conference reads like an all-star cast of activists, journalists and thinkers. From national luminaries, including Cornell West and Winona LaDuke, to activists fomenting change on a local level such as Eugene’s Michael Carrigan and Jason “Pleado” Wellman, the Feb. 14-17 conference is loaded with issues, causes and ideas.  Continue reading →

Buy a CD and save some salmon. Artist4Action’s latest effort to solve environmental problems through creative collaboration is Songs for the River, and the CD features an array of songs from local favorite David Jacobs-Strain’s “Ocean or a Teardrop” to songs by national stars Jackson Browne, Ani Di Franco, Don Henley and more.  Continue reading →