The Portland area’s guide to green living YOUR ONLINE LOCAL THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2013 WWW.PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM CoyotesC ramble GoodGood-bye, Mr. Chip Bob Sallinger, conservation director of the Portland Audubon Society, tracked this coyote around Oregon’s winning coachc takes Portland’s DAILY NEWS Alameda neighborhood one Sunday morning. tthroughh city COURTESY OF BOB SALLINGER his fast show to the NFL Ex-smoker recycling www.portlandtribune.comrtlandtribune.com cigarette Q They’re here. They’re not that queer. Get used to them. — see SUSTAINABLE LIFE section — See SPORTS, B6 butts TerraCycle fi nds new ways to reuse COYOTES in the city tobacco, packaging ike hawks, coyotes are near-mythical “Coyotes are literally impossible By RAYMOND RENDLEMAN creatures for city dwellers because they Pamplin Media Group represent a chance meeting with raw na- to get rid of.” ture. This is real wildlife, loping down — Bob Sallinger, Jasmine Stoner, a server at L the road in broad daylight. The coyote brings up conservation director, Portland Audubon Society The Hutch tavern on Glisan associations with wolves, jackals and hyenas. A Street in Northeast Portland, fox-like creature with a bouncing gait, the coyote sees fi rsthand how many cig- has proved far more cunning and resilient than arette butts get tossed in the other urban mammals. te: Coyotes have a compensatory breeding ra streets. Whatever your friends only the alpha male and female of the pack breed. Stoner quit smoking in De- STORY BY might tell you, they’re not cember of on the increase in Portland But if you kill them, all the other pairs start breed- 2011, and all JOSEPH — the city is pretty much ing and the population explodes. ated to the trash real- Sallinger heard that coyotes were habitu GALLIVAN saturated. COURTESY OF BOB SALLINGER ly gets to her. “Coyotes are literally being fed by humans in Portland’s Alameda Toxic stuff impossible to get rid of,” Most people went about their normal routines as this neighborhood, so he spent an hour following a ending up in coyote strolled through the Alameda neighborhood. coyote one Sunday morning. “The coyote walked landfi lls — or says Bob Sallinger, conservation director at the right past people out strolling, people gardening, down the gul- Portland Audubon Society, who fell into the role of and the vast majority didn’t notice him. A few ts iPortland International Airport, lets of unsus- coyote expert in 1992. “People have been asking Case in poin would do a double-take and go back to talking on me since the early 1990s, ‘How do I get rid of where staff tried in vain to clear coyotes from the pecting birds See COYOTES / Page 2 — includes them?’ ” Sallinger says. “But even ll backif you in manage almost runways. Sallinger’s consistent advice was that “It’s spit-soaked to kill the entire pack, they will fi improved fencing works better than traps. cigarette fi l- immediately.” disgusting ters, partially and smoked ciga- Portlandfi d Tribune THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2013 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPER • WWW.PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED THURSDAYTHURS Pregnant ■ Drug therapy injects change into wary recovery community addicts face new choices Methadone quiets ‘monster of cravings’ as birth looms By PETER KORN The Tribune What Mary Hansen calls Oxford House her million-dollar question is resident just fi ve months away. A longtime heroin addict, the Elizabeth 37-year-old Hansen began Smith says if taking methadone when she her house is discovered she was pregnant forced to in early November. Her high- accept an stakes question concerns addict taking what happens after she deliv- methadone her ers the baby. own recovery When the recovery commu- would be nity talks threatened. “Sometimes about Government long-term offi cials say they cannot metha- done treat- she may not cope with life ment re- have a choice. without a sulting in harm re- certain duction, dosage of they are opiates to just referring to a model lizabeth Smith is two years into recov- der pressure from the federal government, are feel normal.” which ma- ery from a 15-year heroin addiction. telling Oxford Houses throughout the country — Chris Farentinos, ny addicts There are many things in her future that people taking methadone are protected un- DePaul Treatment say could Methadone Eabout which she is uncertain. One thing der the Americans With Disabilities Act and can- Centers just as she knows for sure, however, is that her Oxford not be discriminated against when they apply for easily be House, where she lives with four other women housing. called a in recovery, has become the But for heroin addicts such lesser of two evils choice. foundation stone of her so- as Smith, methadone patients Nowhere is this more obvi- fi nds its briety. Story by Peter Korn have simply traded one high ous than at local nonprofi t De- Any of the women in Photos by Christopher Onstott for another, and being around Paul Treatment Centers, where Smith’s house can, without them is like being around an innovative program has a explanation, insist that one other users — the last thing handful of pregnant heroin ad- of the others immediately take a drug test. One someone in recovery should do. dicts, including Hansen, using way into failed test means the housemate must leave. “If we voted someone in here who was on methadone through the course That’s how committed the women in Smith’s methadone I would not be safe,” says Smith, who of their pregnancies. house — all previous hard-core addicts — are to years ago tried methadone treatment herself. These women are living in a sobriety. “Just seeing the person under the infl uence of it, DePaul residential facility with Smith is also certain that she doesn’t like the not necessarily even nodding out, just the fl ush, as many as 30 other women clean, sober idea that her Oxford House, and the 45 other Ox- the sweats, seeing those things would make me who are practicing sobriety. ford Houses in the Portland area, will now no think about it and how much I like that feeling. Chris Farentinos, chief operat- longer be able to insist on a completely clean and Knowing it is in the house, whether it’s in a $5 ing officer for DePaul, says sober environment. At least not according to her lock box or not, I wouldn’t be safe.” some of the other residents defi nition. Oxford Houses are the most popular recovery have voiced concerns about housing Whether Smith likes it or not, addicts who housing in the Portland area. They are univer- having to live with the women have opted for methadone treatment, and who sally hailed by addiction counselors, who often wish to live at an Oxford House, can no longer be See BIRTHS / Page 3 kept out. State health and housing offi cials, un- See DRUGS / Page 2 Smith takes a ‘purposeful pause’ TriMet’s union ■ After By STEVE LAW The Tribune defeat, plans a PR blitz mayoral Charismatic. Whip smart. Jefferson Smith candidate Visionary. is doing a lot of seeks new Flaky. Prone to putting foot in self-refl ection mouth. before he in contract fi ght challenges, Portland voters gleaned those con- decides what to opportunities fl icting images of Jefferson Smith in do next in his the 2012 mayor’s race, when he rock- career, after a ATU 757 strategy Neil McFarlane has repeated- eted from underdog to solid contend- painful loss in ly argued that benefi ts re- er before fl aming out in the closing the mayor’s includes a pile of ceived by the members of weeks of the campaign. race. Amalgamated Transit Union Smith, once a rising star in Oregon 757 are too generous. TRIBUNE PHOTO: proposed budget cuts politics, is now trying to pick up the CHRISTOPHER TriMet is pushing hard for its pieces of his personal life and career ONSTOTT By JIM REDDEN employees to pay more for the and re-evaluate his future. The Tribune benefits they receive to help “Losing the race, and losing the and doing extensive soul-searching want to do now is not rush.” balance the regional transit way I lost, something you spent 14 and fence-mending before jumping Smith, 39, made his name a decade It’s contract negotiation agency’s budget. months at, anybody who doesn’t ac- into something new. ago as cofounder of The Bus Project, time for TriMet, and manage- Where does the union stand knowledge that it’s painful is not be- “What I’m trying to do is take a which made it cool for young adults ment has been clear about on the budget? Does it believe ing candid,” Smith says, in his fi rst purposeful pause,” he says. “I’ve to get active in politics. Then he the health benefi ts that most cuts are needed and, if so, from extensive media interview since los- been doing (50- to 60-hour weeks) for moved to East Portland, where he of its employees receive. In a where? ing to Charlie Hales two months ago. 11 years with very little taking stock, series of speeches and media Smith is undergoing counseling very little looking around. What I See SMITH / Page 9 releases, General Manager See TRIMET / Page 8 “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune Special tools help ■ More than 20 Portland Fire & Rescue fi refi ghters freed a woman who was stuck between two deliver balanced news that refl ects the free woman stuck buildings after reportedly falling about 15 to 20 feet early Wednesday.