Owls, Wolves & Wildfire Action Alert. Winter 2020.
Hi All. Happy Solstice, Winter, & New Year.
Actions on Protecting Spotted Owls, Local Wolves, Lane County’s Drinking Water, Communities from Wildfire, and Clean Air Included in this Alert.
I-5 Billboard & Firewise Advocacy Successfully Pressures Senator Wyden & Merkley To Change Course.
Recently Senator Wyden made a major policy shift when he signed on as a cosponsor of Senator Harris’s Wildfire Defense Act (S.2882). Surely the catastrophic Oregon wildfires, media coverage of Firewise mitigation, as well as nationwide grassroots organizing also had a major influence over Senator Wyden’s recent decision. However, we are still very concerned about Senator Wyden’s 21st Century Conservation Act (S.3684) provisions that seeks to grant nearly $6 billion to federal and state agencies to increase logging as a cure to wildfires. We hope Senator Wyden’s cosponsorship of the Wildfire Defense Act signifies a real change in his policies and he incorporates the Harris's bill in his future Conservation Act to address wildfire. However, it could be just a smokescreen to his bills logging provisions aimed to benefit agencies and big timber. In that light, we must keep up the pressure on Senator Wyden and Senator Merkley until they withdraw the $6 billion for more logging as a cure to wildfire and directs those funds to the Wildfire Defense Act.
I-5 Billboard Successful Pressures Oregon’s Forest Protections Groups to Seek Endangered Listing for Northern Spotted Owl.
Our billboard beginning in November 2019 along with the devastation from Oregon’s wildfires in September has successfully convinced most of Oregon’s most recognized forest protection groups to file suit against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife (US F&W) to determine whether the Northern Spotted Owl should be reclassified as “Endangered” instead of just “Threatened".
https://missoulacurrent.com/outdoors/2020/12/northern-spotted-owl/
However, we are very wary of a “deal” that may be agreed to by these same groups to justify claiming “victory” by all sides. We suspect based on 30 years of history these groups will seek to accept the status quo and claim it as a victory. We also suspect the “deal” will be accepting the continuation of the 1994 Northwest Forest Plan with no additional protections for thousands of species endemic to ancient forests as well as for the Northern spotted owl, coho salmon, and marbled murrelet. We urge folks to keep an eye out for such a “deal” and publicly advocate the only realistic plan to save the coho salmon, spotted owl and marbled murrelet which is ending commercial logging on public lands with some exemptions for local community needs. I would equate this to "Option 1" with major improvements as opposed to Option 9 - the current NW Forest Plan - which some claimed at the time of its implementation “split the ancient forest baby in half”.
Today Dec. 16, 2020 the US F&W declined to list the owl “Endangered” even though they stated it warranted being reclassified. https://www.nwpb.org/2020/12/16/endangered-species-status-of-northern-spotted-owl-will-remain-unchanged/
NW Forest Plan Background (short version).
In 1993 Federal, state, and university scientists put together a series of plans to address the declining populations of not only the Northern Spotted Owl but also the marbeled murrelet, several salmon species as well as other rare and uncommon species only found in old growth forest mostly west of the Cascade Mountain's crest. They came up with 9 Options or alternatives. President Clinton and some NW environmental groups agreed on the compromise of Option 9. Option 9 allowed for nearly half of the remaining old growth or ancient forest to be logged to meet a yearly cut quota of 1 billion board feet of timber fiber off federal public lands. However, they were never able to attain that cut level because "Survey and Manage" species especially the red tree vole (and mostly volunteer climbers who located them) protected most of the old growth forest more than the Northern spotted owl did. As a result of the effectiveness of citizen's ability to protect old growth forests with the "Survey and Mange" requirements the agencies and every administration has attempted to do away with those requirements since 2000.
Option 1 would have allowed commercial logging of already managed or tree plantation on federal public lands. However, since they would not be allowed to log native forest or old growth forests there would be little need for most of the Survey and Manage requirements since most the species on these lists would not be present in tree plantations.
Wolves Threatened by Proposed Mt Bike Trail To Wild Windy Lakes
The Middle Fork Ranger District still continues with plans to build a new 2.5 mile expedited trail to some of the most pristine and wild lakes in the Oregon Cascades Primitive Recreation. This area is exceptional habitat for a new family of wolves recently discovered within a few miles of the Windy Lakes. The district ranger acknowledged this and stated they are consulting with U.S. Fish and Wildlife. However, Trump’s U.S. F & W is not considered an ally of any endangered species.
The Willamette National Forest is using a Categorical Exclusion (CE) to expedite the process with no environmental analysis and formal public process. CE’s should only be used to install bathrooms, replace trail bridges or culverts, not to build miles of new trail into wild areas. This new “trail” will allow a hundred fold increase in use and resource damage to a half dozen of some of wildest lakes in the Willamette Valley. One can already access the lakes by hiking or Mt biking about 6 miles but apparently that’s not convenient enough.
Protecting Eugene and Springfield Drinking Water
In two letters to the editor (see below) I submitted in September 30 and November 30, to the Register Guard and Eugene Weekly, respectively (to which both publications refused to publish), I urged federal and state Democratic party policy makers to quickly attempt to clean up toxic ash from homes and businesses burned near the McKenzie, North Santiam, Clackamas, and Rogue Rivers. Since then I have been unable to attain any assurances the work that Congressman DeFazio stated on September 18 was urgently needed actually occurred but maybe one of you can attain the answers more effectively than I?
Here is the quote from Congressman DeFazio on Sept 18, 2020 while he was on one of the first tours of the Mckenzie Holiday Farm Fire.
"We've got to get a lot of that stuff out of there before the winter rains, otherwise it's going to go into the McKenzie River," DeFazio said. "The McKenzie River is a source of drinking water for the people of Eugene. We can't have toxic materials falling into, leeching into the river. So, there's going to be an awful lot of stuff that has to get done in the next few weeks.”
From link.
We/I continue to strive to create positive outcomes for our drinking water from the Willamette and the McKenzie rivers as well as the tributaries like Fall Creek. In fact, in my recent visits to Fall Creek in mid October and November there seemed to be a 90% decrease in illegal winter camps at dispersed sites compared to the last 2 years. It appears the Willamette National Forest is enforcing the 14 day camping regulations which is a result of folks like you and I urging regulation enforcement. I am still advocating all dispersed campsites along such high use streams like Fall Creek, North Fork Willamette, Blue River and South Fork of the Mckenzie be turned into "day use" only sites without the allowance of toxic campfires.
Lobbying For Cleaner Air in the Lower Willamette Air Shed
I/we are also lobbying the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency (LRAPA) to increase its enforcement of illegal slash/yard debris and garbage burning. I have observed much worse air quality south of Springfield and Eugene city limits over the last several years especially in the Cottage Grove, Pleasant Hill, and Dexter air sheds. We believe that yard debris burning anywhere inside the Willamette Valley should be eventually banned. In the interim we have suggested to LRAPA that a non agricultural “burn permit” system be implemented to limit the amount of burns per day for sub air sheds with clear and strong warnings against burning garbage, treated lumber, roofing, furniture, mattresses and other toxics producing materials. In the bigger picture Oregon’s most vulnerable air sheds must ban all non agriculture debris burning especially burn barrels (Lane County has recently banned burn barrels) and restrict all debris and slash burning by the timber and agriculture industries.
Will 2021 Be A New Dawn for the Biosphere?
As terrible as 2020 has been, the recent successes and challenges I highlight above has stirred and granted me a new positive perspective on how to proceed into the future. I created this alert in hopes it can do likewise for those who read it. All of us biocentric beings must nurture cooperation and sometimes enact tough love onto NGOs and policy makers to secure a livable biosphere for not only human life but for all of the wild things on this finite planet.
I hope we can empower each other to be more effective than ever.
Shannon Wilson
Twitter and Facebook: Eco Advocates NW
Letter to the Editor Submitted to the Eugene Register Guard on Sept 30, 2020. (Unpublished)
The wildfires in the North Santiam, McKenzie, and Clackamas river watersheds not only caused incalculable loss and suffering for those who lost homes and livelihoods but now threatens the drinking water supplies of hundreds of thousands of Oregonians. A result of the wildfires burning thousands of houses, automobiles, RVs, and businesses has created a hazardous waste ash cocktail that now threatens the drinking water for hundreds of thousands of Oregonians. Congressman DeFazio in local TV news stated we have mere weeks to prevent this toxic ash laden with heavy metals and other hazardous substances from washing into Eugene’s only drinking water supply this winter. The same applies to Salem, Estacada, and Grants Pass.
The town of Paradise - where 85 people lost their lives and thousands of homes were incinerated - drinking water supplies were tainted with unacceptable levels of benzene. Some sections of Santa Rosa which burned in 2017 also experienced water contamination. To prevent this toxic waste cocktail from contaminating our water and rivers requires Oregon’s elected leaders especially Governor Brown, U.S. Senators and all Congressmen to step up to this unprecedented challenge to prevent another human disaster for hundreds of thousands of Oregonians.