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SEPTEMBER 1995 VOL. 1 No. 6 Dear Reader his just in. The Luddites at Cascadia Times are about to open a T new home on the Net. You'll notice that our e-mail address has changed to [email protected]. This address is provided by WestNet, an up-and• coming regional information service operat• ed by Desktop Assistance, a non-profit orga• nization in Helena, Montana. Marshall Mayer of WestNet is helping us think through all the issues involved in using the Internet as another way of bringing you information about our region and its issues. As Mayer says, there are lots of differ• HERLIKG R ent ways we could go: Web pages, infobots, conferences, listservs, online indexes. We don't pretend to know all the answers and no, we have no idea what an infobot is. That's why we want you to help us. We think that quite a few of you are already wired, and that you'll help us chart our w · n senator. course by participating in a brief survey. ndy Kerr If you're online, send an e-mail mes• sage to [email protected] and a survey will automatically be returned to you by e-mail. Or contact our office and we'll mail one to you. And look.for announce• ments in future issues about where you can find Cascadia Times in cyberspace. Cascadia Times also has a new fax num• ber: (503) 223-4755. Please send us your news releases, news letters and tips! Publication of Cascadia Times would never be possible without the support of subscribers, and we thank all of you. Cascadia Times is read broadly, with nearly 1,200 subscribers in 39 states, British Columbia and Washington, DC. We also thank the generous support provided by Jim Compton and the Compton Foundation, in Saratoga, Calif.; Martha Kongsgaard and the Kongsgaard-Goldman Foundation, in Seattle; Jan Konigsberg and the Alaska Conservation Foundation in Anchorage; Robert Stoll of Portland and John Marks of Lake Oswego.

To reach Cascadia Times and Paul Koberstein '<·',. ,·#~· gut it. by Robin Klein ~"- 'telephone - (503) 223-9036 t FAX - (503) 223-4755. CASCADIA CALENDAR: 14 E-mail - [email protected] To reach Kathie Durbin GREEN TECH: Ozone's revenge. by G.8. Cover photo /Jy KathieDurbin Fax - (503) 238-1127 Veerman 14 E-mail - AK [email protected]

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By Terry Glavin Fisheries Commission and the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission) and MAYNE ISLAND, British Columbia temporarily suspended the Alaskan troll - The story that has dominated the 1995 fishery. And several BC fishing groups trav• fishing season in British Columbia began, eled to Alaska on a "goodwill mission" to for Canadian politicians, with great public con vi nee the Alaskans to permanently relations prospects: a beleaguered reduce their cake of BC chinook salmon. Canadian government teaming up with While Alaska remained isolated in its American Indians, States and conservation• position throughout the season (the US. ists to restrain reckless overfishing by National Marine Fisheries Service and Alaskan trollers. both Oregon and Washington sided with After successfully. casting Spanish the Canadian view), it didn't take long for trawlers in the bad guy role in a similar Tobin co lo e the support of most of his public relations effort on Canada's east Canadian constituents. coast a few months earlier, federal fisheries Most BC conservationists now appear minister Brian Tobin staged a series of convinced that Canada has behaved as irre• media events over the summer in an all-out sponsibly as Alaska and has lost whatever campaign to blame Alaska for threats to moral high ground it held when the season BC's endangered chinook stocks. began, because whatever chinook were For a while, it worked. "saved" by interventions against Alaska in The dispute centered on Alaska's 1995 ended up getting caught in Canadian insistence on a chinook allocation to its troll waters. "It been absolutely gross," says fleet of 230,000 fish, most of which spawn Dan Edwards, the 45 year old skipper of in BC, Washington and Oregon rivers. In the commercial troller Tidewindcr and res• the absence of an agreement under the ident of the fishing village of Ucluelet on commercial chinook trolling had shut are from the fleets of catcher boats dis• Pacific Salmon Treaty, Canadian scientists Vancouver Island's west coast. "The peo• down, an armada of sporrsfishing boats off patched from transient charter operations. with the supportofBC's commercial, recre• ple around here are just sick about it. Most Vancouver Island's west coast were allowed Despite Canadian protests against Alaska, ational and aboriginal fishing communities, people don't even know about this, but the to continue catching the same chinook the Canadian government has authorized called for a scaled back Alaskan fishery to chinook on the west coast of Vancouver salmon that Canada was vowing to defend continued catches of chinook salmon from keep the chinook catch below 138,000 fish. Island are a biological disaster story." · against the Alaskans. endangered runs from around Esparanza In August, U.S. District Judge Barbara What has angered Edwards, A handful of the sportsfishing boats Inlet, Barkley Sound, Kyuquot Sound, Rothstein sided with American Indian spokesman for the West Coast are owned by locals. A lot of them are Clayoquot Sound and Nootka Sound. complainants (the Northwest Indian Suscainabiliry Association, is that lung; after American sportsfishing yachts, and others CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 BARBED Imagine No More BPA. It's Easy If You Try WIRE By Paul Koberstein

he Bonneville Power Administration says it can't afford to pay the Even more grotesque is the manner in which the BPA spends its money. It high cost of saving Columbia River salmon anymore. The eight sena• gives over a billion dollars a year co pay nuclear power debt in Washington T tors in Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana agree. They have state and subsidies to the aluminum industry and corporate agriculture. The asked governors in their states for help in writing a new law effectively capping BPA's Hardy is not talking about capping these costs. Instead, he is proposing the BPA's fish costs. to protect and in some ways expand these forms of corporate welfare. At the or chat the BPA's fish programs have worked. Numerous runs have gone same time, he wants to raise rares paid by people served by Puget Power, extinct under the BPA's watch, most recently coho in che Snake, with sockeye Portland General Electric and Pacific Power & Light. as good as gone. Before the BPA came to be, Snake River chinook were among Interestingly, the agriculture subsidies total about $345 million a year, the greatest salmon runs in the world. They, too, have roughly equivalent to the yearly cost of salmon recov• just about been finished off. ery, according to a revealing new study by the Nonetheless, BPA Administrator Randy Hard Columbia Basin Institute, a small non-profit based in says salmon costs are killing his agency. His pleas Salmon are a metaphorfor the Portland. The problem at BPA, according to the insti• have been greeted with some sympathy from experts tute's director Bill Bean, has less to do with spiraling who worry that the agency will uccumb from lost Northwest'srich natural heritage. fish costs than with the way it has mismanaged water. cu comers. The BPA also reels under a galaxy of debt. Consider, for example, the 500,000 acres of farm• The senators' plan would link fish costs to the land in Eastern Washington that's irrigated from water BPA' gross receipts. It also would create a new fish The BPA is a metaphorfor reek- pumped uphill from a reservoir behind Grand Coulee planning authority with greater power than the exist• Dam. Decades ago, taxpayers built the dam, canals and ing Iorthwesr Power Planning Council, tO be headed, pumps. Each year, the BPA pays $25 million a year to some say, by Angus Duncan, a retiring Oregon council less managementof resources. pump that water, a direct subsidy to the irrigators. The member. cost is passed along to you arid me and all other But there are deeply troubling questions about the BPA bailout bill. It ratepayers. The irrigators use the water on their fields, but not only on their U) would waive all laws requiring the restoration of Snake River salmon and fields. They also se nd it through a series of seven small hy

1980s, "wou d threaten the continued exis• the Gorton language that he wrote a letter tence of the marbled rnurrelet." According to Regional Forester John Lowe is late July Clinton Snubs to federal officials, the sales targeted by the arguing strongly rider contain as much as 20 percent of the against logging known nesting sites for the bird. occupied sites and Gorton,Halts Most national environmental groups asking for clear have focused on language in the rider that direction. "I exempts logging of dead, dying and dis• thought rt was Timber Sales eased trees from compliance with environ• important to get it mental laws. Most of these trees are east of on the record," he the Cascades. But after visiting the said later. in Murrelet National Audubon Society's sanctuary at Activists as Tenmile Creek, in rural Lane County, Ore., well as Furnish Audubon Vice President Brock Evans waited on pins and Sites declared that the law's potential harm to pine needles for the the rain-soaked, far from fire-prone Coast directive to descend By Oma lzaeson Range forests would be "as bad as anything from D.C. in the Salvage law." Administration offi- s de k-bound D.C. bureaucrats last cials weighed in with month sorted through critical word• he so-called "Section 318" sales are their decision Aug. 23: they backed the ng in legislation environmentalists named after a 1989 pro-logging rid• "occupancy" standard, saying that birds call "logging without laws," 14-year-old Ter in which Congress freed 1.1 bil• known to be occupying an area should be DUELING ADS Alexia Kelly already had made her decision. lion board feet of timber from the shackles considered to be nesting, even if an actual "It's kind of scary, but I'll do (civil dis• of a federal injunction and shielded them nest cannot be found. The directive called obedience) if it'll ave trees," she aid. from future court challenges. But Congress this approach "the best scientific informa• "Thi is something that needs to be done but did not exempt them from require• tion available" and called Gorton's stan• because we're inheriting the earth and I'd ments of the Endangered Species Act. All dard "potentially quite dire for the entire !~£~e'P!~1'i:::,;~~ustthe like it robe reasonably intact." but about 5 percent of.the Section 318 sales marbled murrelet population and for relat• announced it was cutting rates for 15 Kelly was one of 60 people who have been logged; most of what remains is ed conservation efforts, including the big corporations that already enjoy sub• attended a ses ion sponsored by activists located in isolated old-growth patches in President's Forest Plan." sidized electricity. Most are aluminum from Oregon's the Siuslaw National Meeting Gorton's nesting standard companies. BPA also said 55 percent of rural Lincoln and Forest on Oregon's would be nearly impossible because actual the region's residential ratepayers would Lane counties in central coast. The birds are so hard to find, scientists say. "It's get a price break on electricity These early August to industry's backers in a small, brown bird tucked away in moss, are customers of public utilities such as train people in Congress want those 80 to 100 feet up in the canopy - it's just Seattle City Light. But the other 45 per• civil disobedi• stands logged, and completely camouflaged," says biologist cent, customers of investor-owned utili• ence, the time• about the only thing John Neiger, part of a team conducting ties such as Portland General Electric, honored tactic of preventing that from murrelet research on the Oregon coast this Pacificorp and Puget Power. face rate putting bodies on happening has been summer. increases. the line for prin• the tiny marbled Chuck Willer, ciple's sake. murrelec. The bird's director of the fany who made fate in this part of its Newport, Ore.• their way to a range rests with how based Coast Range remote coastal Subsection K is Association, called valley for the interpreted. the dispute a bla• craining said they The fight here tant example of had never been boils down to special-interest more active than whether politicians politics. "After writing a letter to may substitute their the vote, a few of elected represen• own judgment for the Northwest tatives. chat of biologists political hacks for They gath• about how ro deter• the timber ered to prepare a mine when a mur• industry tried to defense for some relet is nesting, or to revise what of the lase ancient put a new twist on an Congress forests on the age-old question: If a intended to suit their own political Oregon coa c, murrelet nests in the handlers - the big money timber boys] areas in the forest and no congres• t Siuslaw National sional eyes see the f the law's intent was to keep log Forest which scientists sa are vital to the nest, is ir really there? plans out of the courts, it failed.' urvival of the threatened marbled mur• In a Jul. 27 letter, a contingent of six I Aug. 29, the Northwest Forest relet in this part of its range. Hill conser atives, led by Sen. Slade Resources Council, an industry group, filed "We are not the Earth First! contin- Gorton. R-\Vash., informed Interior a motion of intent to sue in Lane County Message: The two full-page ads ent," according to Yachats Ore., activist Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Agriculture federal court. shown here ran in The Sunday Paul Engelmeyer, "ho say he has always Secrecary Dan Glickman that the lan• But Brock Evans, vice president of the Oregonian's Aug. 20 edition in the done his monke United States." planned. (Apparently even Gorton and After years of watching the Pacific We don't," Of concern ro En elmeyer, Kelly and company draw the line at felling trees in Northwest's timber wars, Evans says, lay the ochers wa the arcane but very seriou which murrelets are sitting on their eggs. people are more educated on the issue, and ub ection K of the Emergency alvage The salvage rider requires land managers, less likely to succumb to rhetoric." If I were The Facts:B oth ads, while cor- Timber Sale Program. one of several "rid• in those circumstances, tO offer equivalent the timber industry," he says, "I wouldn't rect, mask the poor management deci• ers" Congrc racked onto the budget-cut• rimber volume elsewhere.) But because want that kind of egg on my face." • sions that have forced both utilities to Vl ting Rescis ion cc signed b President (l) murrelet ne c are hard to find, the scien• increase rates in recent months. BPA's Clinton in July. ubsection K directs the ~ tific protocol followed by everyone from problem has been its inability to cope 3 Forest Service to violate the Endangered enviros to industry giants uses the less-tan• er with changing energy markets. PGE. (l) pecies Act by allowing logging in rand ., gible standard of "occupancy" as a predic• meanwhile, is asking its customers to occupied by murrelets. Last ummer. the tor of nesting. pay the high cost of decommissioning its '.S. Fish and \\'ildlife Service aid logging Jim Furn· sh, supervisor of the Siusluw abandoned Trojan Nuclear Plant. these sale , which \ ere prepared in the lace National Forest, was so concerned about MORE ON PAGE 6 Field Notes c o N r , N u E o Ca itolrnlm------millions of tons of rock. Over its life, the mine would process 13,000 tons of Farmers Join ore and dump 34,000 tons of waste rock every day. Gold would be extracted by Media Dogs Murkowski percolating a cyanide solution through it Protest of at an indoor facility. The leftover solu• M mbers of Congress, who flee the to veto. The House attached 17 riders to tion would be deposited at the tailings Capitol every August to escape its version of the EPA appropriations bill; ponds, where it could become an attrac• the heat and hype, last month each would roll back environmental pro• Gold Mine tive nuisance to birds and ocher wildlife. uldn't quite slip away without tections. A rider protecting the Sitka mill In all, the mine would disturb 766 acres reporters nipping at their heels. Alaska could be hard to kill. The meaning of by Kathie Durbin on the mountain, most of it federal land. Sen. Frank Murkowski felt them chew• Koetz' voice mail was clear: The EPA Battle Mountain estimates the mine ing on his hind end all month long. would have to drop its plans to put or 15 years, Roger Jackson has would employ 150 workers and produce Alaska Pulp's plant on the Superfund list, raised hay and grain, sheep and 180,000 ounces of gold per year. There was the New York Times story on or face even more budget cuts. F goats on his 140-acre spread in Already, the mountain has been deeply Aug. 10, accusing the chairman of the northeastern Washington's Okanogan scarred by Battle Mountain's prospect• Senate Energy and Natural Resources The trouble with the plant, according to County. Last June, the Okanogan ing. Rough roads slice its east-facing National Forest released its recommen• slopes, which are pocked with drill holes Committee of what amounted to a con• the EPA, is that it had dumped at least a dation for an enormous open-pit gold and plastic pipes. flict of interest. Murkowski is pushing a million pounds of dioxin-contaminated mine on Buckhorn Mountain six miles Yet from near Buckhorn Mountain's bill that would dramatically increase log• waste into Silver Bay near Sitka until southwest of his farm. When Jackson four-and-a-half-mile summit ridge, the ging in the Tongass National Forest. The ordered to stop in 1990. "What you have learned that Battle Mountain Gold Co. surrounding country still feels wild and bill would benefit Ketchikan Pulp Co., a here is the most blatant and obvious planned to operate the mine 24 hours a primitive. To the north lies the Kettle company in which he happens to own examples of discharge of a hazardous sub• day, seven days a week during the eight• River Valley; stock. The Times noted that Murkowski's stance into a bay that is a commercial year life of the mine, beyond, in Canada, financial disclosure statements filed with fishery," the EPA's John Meyer told The he and fellow farmer are the distant the Senate show that on May 1, 1992, he Times. "There's people who eat that Jim Newton placed • mountains of the bought between $1,001 and $15,000 stuff, and we can't tell them whether an ad in the Oroville Gran bee worth of stock in Portland-based there's a problem or not." newspaper. "Except Wilderness Area. for the occasional In its draft EIS, Louisiana-Pacific Corp., which owns the rancher haying, we Ketchikan Pulp Co., now the only timber terfering with the Executive ~ the Forest Service almost always hang proposes some processor in the area. That stock is now Branch is the latest tactic up our hats after modifications co worth between $15,001 and $50,000, employed in the conservative dark, round here," Battle Mountain's according to Murkowski's latest filing. nght's all-but-declared war on the said the ad signed by plan. For instance, environment. Another example came in a 45 farmers. They the company addition, the Natural Resource July 27 letter to two Cabinet secretaries. called on the compa• would have to par• Defense Council says Murkowski and five others - Sen Larry ny to operate the tially backfill the Murkowski owns substantial hold• Craig, R-Idaho, Sen. Slade Gorton, R• mine only 12 hours • pit with processed gs in two banks that rely heavily on Wash., Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, Rep. a day. ore as it mines, timber profits in southeast Alaska, the Jackson knows his leaving a smaller Charles Taylor, R-N.C., and Rep. Pat goats would get the jitters from blasting area permanently disturbed after the Anchorage-based National Bank of Roberts, R-Kans. - howled at Clinton's because he's seen chem flatten them• mine is played out. Alaska and First Bank of Ketchikan. plan to ease the ecological pain likely to selves against fences when low-flying . But the Okanogan Highlands Murkowski also holds stock in Chevron, a come with the notorious salvage rider. Stealth bombers on maneuvers pass Association, an environmental group big oil developer in his state. "I see that And at a hearing, Murkowski woofed at overhead. The Forest Service admits based in Tonasket, said the Forest as an outrage," Pam Miller, Alaska pro• an assistant secretary of Agriculture, "If that noise from mine operations repre• Service review fails to adequately con• gram manager for The Wilderness we have to cut off your funds, we'll cut sents the greatest short-term potential sider such issues as the permanent de• Society, told The Oil Daily. "He has a per• off the funds. Gentlemen, we're going to disturbance to wildlife, though its envi• watering of the mountain, the effects of sonal stake" in an industry he regulates get your attention." ronmental impact statement doesn't wind-blown dust on air quality, as a committee chairman. address the effect on farm animals. increased sedimentation of screams, Then there's the fate of the Arctic If the company won't change its destruction of important wildlife corri• plans, the farmers will push through a dors, and hazards posed by a steady Murkowski's bill to increase the cut in National Wildlife Refuge's county zoning ordinance prohibiting scream of trucks on narrow mountain southeast Alaska is going against the Coastal Plain. Interior Secretary around-the-clock mining, vows Newton. roads. The road between Oroville and grain of public opinion. Gov. Tbny ce Babbitt says he's asked Clinton "There's no reason we should have our Chesaw would see an increase of 274 Knowles and many local communities to veto an expected budget measure call• lives disrupted like this." vehicles a day, adding to the risk of acci• have denounced it for the damage it ing for oil development on the plain. But, Resistance by local farmers is merely dents and toxic chemical spills. would do to watersheds and long-term as the Anchorage Daily News reported, the latest development in a long-running The alliance also contends Battle community stability. Murkowski can• Louisiana Sen. Bennett Johnston "virtu• debate over development of the Crown Mountain Gold is cutting coses on the celled a hearing in Washington Aug. 8, ally dismissed the prospects that Jewel Mine - a debate chat is now project to produce healthy dividends for holding instead "workshop." No official Congress won't open the refuge." The reaching a crucial decision point. The stockholders. Karl Elers, the company's record was taken. A week later, a hostile Fairbanks Daily-Nes»: Miner quoted question: Is forested, 5,602-foot chief executive office}, predicted in a crowd of 400 showed up to protest at Murkowski as saying the Coastal Plain is Buckhorn Mountain in the peaceful speech last year that me cost of develop• Okanogan Highlands a suitable site for ing and operating the Crown Jewel another workshop in Sitka. "the last great chance to find a major ao an open-pit gold mine using cyanide and Project would be roughly $200 per world-class oil discovery in North :iE other toxic chemicals to extract minute ounce below the current market value he second August "hit" on America." .:: particles of gold from low-grade ore? of gold, and more than twice the average Murkowski was an even more c Most such mines have been developed alarming report that he has been c:i profit margin for mines of this type. The U.S. Geological Survey, however, is c in desert regions like Nevada's Elko At least 18 other mining companies interfering with an EPA investigation not so bullish on the refuge's oil poten• t: County, where water is scarce. But five have initiated intensive exploration in of the Alaska Pulp Corp. in Sitka. On tial. In June, the agency (which is target• ~ streams originate high on Buckhorn the area. "There are low-grade ore bod• Aug. 24, The Times reported that 1aureen ed for elimination by House budget cut•

n article in the University of California Berkeley Wellness Letter last ven more important than changing the rules on hiring and firing is chang• month caught my attention. Ir called for political action. In all the years ing the way laws are written. For example, in Fox's area of toxic substance A I've been reading this esteemed medical newsletter from UC Berkeley's E control, she claims "it is very easy to impose restrictions on new chemicals, School of Public Health, I don't recall it ever politicizing health issues. The call but it is very difficult to do anything about existing chemicals because of the way was for citizens to urge their representatives to roughen, not dilute, laws regulat• the statute is written." ing the nation's drinking water. So I'm more concerned now. The threats must be Clearly throwing more money at a wasteful agency isn't the answer, but then greater than maybe even I perceived, if my favorite, rather conservative, Wellness neither is elimination of the agency chartered with stewardship of our environ• Letter felt a need to go activist. ment. How then, can the EPA be made to work better and more efficiently? And they are not the only ones. Indeed the American Lung Association's Some think employee performance and independent peer reviews, and public director of state government relations, Paul G. Billings, expressed outrage about oversight, can make the difference. just how real the threats to air and water are, threats of which he believes the But increased public involvement doesn't look likely. Au contraire, moves are public isn't being made fully aware. "Ir's frightening, and it's happening through being made to weaken community notification of water and air violations. the back door - this promoting of exemptions for polluters." Imagine the rationale in eliminating the Toxic Release Inventory which requires industries to report their emissions of hazardous substances to the gener• s September rolls in, so do our congressional representatives, bringing with al public. It's difficult to think of a sound reason. True, if polluters don 't have to chem perspectives on rolling back regulations as well as dollars to the EPA, tell the public what they put out, then the pressure is off to regulate and chat does A the agency responsible for enforcing our nation's environmental laws and save money for polluters, but not for us. Says Billings, chis is "just a piece of spe• now under intense scrutiny. One appropriations bill recently passed by the House cial interest legislation to satisfy the whims of polluters.". would slice more than 30 percent of the EPA's budget. Cuts that deep would J use one example of polluters writing environmental law is the House-pro• "effectively shut down the agency, which is already a bare bones operation," says posed legislation that would allow many hazardous waste incinerators to go unreg• Mary Fox, an agency staffer. "EPA would grind to a halt and we'd be in trouble." ulated simply because they are used to fuel cement kilns. The question must be As an example, she notes that only one hardworking individual is responsible asked, do legislators really' want to cut budgets or do they want to pump up big for reviewing aquatic toxicity data used to evaluate new chemicals coming onto business? the market. If that person is laid off there will be nobody to do that job. Popular GOP thinking these days is that environmental regulation should be "The agency wouldn't be able to do anything," she says. "There'd be a lot left to the states. This worries environmentalists and health advocates who more exposures to workers, communities, streams - killing fish ... and that's just believe national oversight is necessary to ensure even protection across the states. my program. Rivers would catch fire again. And, people would nor be able to get Fox is further concerned that "the states are so heavily reliant on industries. information on pollutants in their area." Industries have much more control on state laws. And you really can't trust indus• The American Lung Association's Billings agrees, "You'll have more pollu• try to do it [regulate themselves]." tion, more sick people, more sick kids." Still, he thinks "environmental regula• Bur what really concerns Billings is that if the debate drags on over EPA bud• tions can be improved. We'd all like to see the EPA do a better job. Bur imagine get and regulatory reform, dollars won't get appropriated to that agency to carry if there were no EPA. It's like education. There are a lot of problems with the sys• our its charter. "If appropriations bills don't pass, government will be essentially tem, but you've still got to have one because the alternative is worse." shut down during negotiations." And protection from dangerous toxics will be left The EPA's Fox points to countries that do not have a national agency like the to the discretion of profit-making industries. That's starting this fall. So start boil• EPA and to the serious environmental and public health problems there that ing your water! result. The effective abolition of the EPA "would have major consequences on every person," she says. d now my Wellness Letter tells me about the mounting evidence of dan• But one EPA official, who asked not to be identified, also sees the need for ers posed by the waterborne parasite cryprosporidium, and that for the improvements in the system. "I see so much waste here." While some employees N.rrst rime ever, this June, federal health experts have recommended some work very hard, others just read the newspaper all day, the official points out, Americans boil their rap water. The EPA was expected to toughen regulations in adding, "Under the current system it is very difficult and expensive to fire them. order to prevent crypto outbreaks [for which there is no cure], but Congress has Half the people you'd want to fire are in management. You have to change the now proposed a regulatory moratorium that would delay or halt this. Not that I'm rules for how government hires and fires people. At the EPA you get rid of some• a big fan of the EPA, but I am worried about losing it. one by promoting them. As a consequence there are a lot of highly paid people who don't do anything." ( Robin Klein can be reached at [email protected] .)

.::1::;:. I f.· C 71 p I' t ' which argued for a ~ percent reduction, says would drop full regulation of many persistent C en t ra ti a Od an ' haze ~t Mount Rainier National Park is "rea- dangerous wastes. including toxic radioactive Oregon Groups Sue I Wi hs ~eprieve sonably attributable' to S02 emis~ions from ' waste. I to Protect Steelhead t l \ the Centratia plant. I "It means out behind soriie business irt the The state boar1d that regulates air quality;in The park's s11perintendent, Bill Brtggle, notes alley wher~ kids play, there might be toxic In 1994. the Oregon Natural Resources Council southwestern Washington will allow a coal- that the Centralia plant is now the largest waste stored for two yeats, totally forgotten filed petitions to protect wild steelhead in fired electric plant outside Centralia to dump emitter of sulfur dioxide among coal plants in abolft leaking," says Gerry Poll11t. executive California. Oregon and Washington under the as much as 55,000 tons of sulfur dioxide Into the W~st. director of the Seattle-based Heart of Endangered Species Act. A decision is six the air each year - a 13 percent reduction Amehca Northwest. "They are doing this months late, and ONRC says it will sue. from current emissions. The Aug. 15 ruling , because dangerous waste is expensive: to by the Southwest Air Pollution Control Wash j ngton Cal if orn ia prot~tt the .public agains( and businesies Often steelhead suffer from excessive diver- Authority was unanimous; despite requests I I havelgotten;to them." Anjong those business- sions of water from streams. In July, the n by environmental groups, the National Park Relax Toxic Ru es es, apparently, is Westinghouse, the prime Oregon Water Resources Department approved 00=- Service. and one of the plant's owners to contractor at Hanford. Westinghouse wants to a water diversion for flood irrigation In one n postpone any decision. Members of the Hantord Public Interest import vastquantities of inixed radioactive important steelhead basin. the Middle Fork c:::11=• . T' d . . A Network. a coalition of Northwest groups work- waste for bur·ial at Hanford, where under the John Day. On Aug. 27, WaterWatch, another ""'). =- A s C asca d1a unes reporte ,n its ugust • o f I d bl k h d Issue ("The Big Dirt(), the plant is a major ing to resolve problems at the nuclear new rules ii would be stored without regula- regon group. i e suit to oc t e iversio11. .... source of airborne sulfur dioxide (S02). · weapons site, announced plans to sue the tory oversight. "Hanford \!Ould likely the Interestingly, the state has spent $100,000 i: " Washington Department of Ecology over Its nat·ional dump·,ng ground for all of the fed er- restoring the river's riparian areas to help the "' 00 n.. itrous ,o.-.xides and tiny particulates in lh d "Th · d bl tt· · , recent decision to relax the state's landmark . al government's nuclear weapons plant mixed stee ea . is is an mere i y ine 1c1ent use Ul Westerll'Washington. S02 in the atmosphete f · ilh lh d t• (1) · hazardous waste regulations. The proposed waste," Pollet says. o water in a stream w1 a stee ea pe 1- can cause serious, even fatal health prob: d f l d h ESA •· rules would drop the state's regulation of can- tione or isling un er t e • says 3 lems in humans. l cer-causing chemicals. The new rules would The California Legislature recently passed WaterWatch lawyer Karen Russell. "It is a per· 0- To meet.the new standards ttt,e plant would, allow a toxic content in waste that's 10 times similar legislation rolling back that state's feet example of the state spending a lot of "*(1)-, have to import cleaner coal from other parts greater than the current standard. This waste stringent haiardous waste ;regulations. money doing watershed restoration work, and, of the country or partially "scrub" the S02 , could b.e stored or reused anywhere, or I at the same time turning around and over- . rk Service, i burnediln local incinerators. The rules also allocating the stream." . ~.,rf!Elt.. {P.~:t'$]~.,~.t.:~fil!,~~'4' ~.~~·:;:~~::·~t-~tl,,,~~· ~~~Ill~,-~·:-~--~~·~~·-;:.~··~-~~,J;,-t:_.~,.,~· ~··~·.:·~:ll~· ~r&~•!':,.,~.·~·~· 1·t,~··~··~·:·~·,,..~·~·~·:·~...::·: ·~::·:···~·~·~::·:·:·:··~·::·!ti=·•::··::·::·~·=..:· ··:·:::·::·:· ·:::· ·:· :·:··:·:·::::~..-:.·:'l.:~..:==·:::!· '..!10 Commentary The Browning of Bob Packwood Environmentalistsused to love the Oregon senator. A leadingactivist tells what went wrong. by Andy Kerr

ometimes ['m a Later I lobbied him. Then I came to loathe to the Vietnam War and his old age. The The significance of an Oregon politi• whore!" said a him. Now I pity him. This is a saga of two election was so close that it went into cian in 1970 coming out for French Pete defensive Bob Packwoods: the Passionate Packwood and recount. I supported Packwood because he must be emphasized. At that time, French Packwood in his the Political Packwood. A good politician was young and an underdog. Vietnam was Pete held a symbolic importance to the capitol office over a needs both. Packwood started out with lots far too esoteric an issue for this teen-ager environmental movement nationally at '' glass of wine with of passion, but passion's evil twin has won growing up in Creswell, a small lumber least 10 times what the threatened Opal three shocked national environmental the duel for his soul. When the charges of town south of Eugene. It was two years Creek ancient forest holds today. The group leaders. l didn't go to the meeting, sexual harassment first surfaced, I was dis• before the first Earth Day, and the envi• Forest Service had plans to cut essentially but my colleagues all were amazed by the believing. Why would he do these things? ronment wasn't yet a political issue. every old growth tree in the state. None whoring remark. I wasn't. "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac," were to be saved, even as museum pieces, The three had been trying tO lobby observed Henry Kissinger. But of course, it let alone a functioning forest across the Packwood. a Republican from Portland, on wa n 't about sex; it was about power. 1 ~Q~-1 ~ First Term: Dark landscape and over time. Packwood came limiting log exports from public land (he And now, as the Senate Ethics Green out for French Pete because, in his heart, was in favor of limits) and saving our own Committee concludes its three-year inves• he knew it to be right; and (even though it forests (he was not in favor). They tigation into allegations of sexual harass• In his first term and in those times, annoyed the hell out of the political status employed a tried-and-true lobbying tech• ment leveled against Packwood by more there wasn't an Oregon politician better on quo) it put him in good stead with the nique - pointing out inconsistencies in a than two dozen women, and this tragic, environmental issues than Bob Packwood. emerging and increasingly influential envi• politician's positions. My colleagues comedic drama unfolds to its inevitably He was the first senator calling for popula• ronmental movement. thought they had him, but Packwood ugly conclusion, I want Packwood to get tion control. But then, as now, the issue in Packwood also fell in love with the copped to the inconsistency in a vulgar, yet what he deserves. But I won't forget a time Oregon politics was trees: to keep any landscape of Hells Canyon, and became colorful and honest way. The three had long ago, when the Passionate Packwood standing or not. As a very junior senator, friends with the few courageous environ• never heard anything so forthright out of was stronger than the Political Packwood, Packwood favored protecting French Pete mentalists then in Northeast Oregon. the mouth of a United States senator, I and there was a senator who went to Valley as part of the Three Sisters Packwood had very much wanted to save explained that it's part of what I called his Washington to do some good. Wilderness near Central Oregon. This Hells Canyon. His bill to preserve it pre• "residual honesty." greacly annoyed Oregon's senior Senator, vented the damming for hydroelectric In the beginning Packwood was as Mark 0. Hatfield, who was in favor of log• power the last 100-miles of the free-flow• regular a guy who ever thinks about run• 1 ~Q~ First Election: New and ging it, as was every other politician in ing Snake River. I first saw Packwood in ning for office, except he used environ• Unknown Oregon, including Morse before his defeat. the flesh at the dedication of the Hells mental issues. He was a liberal (then called Packwood was blocked by Hatfield from Canyon National Recreation Area in 1976. a "moderate") Republican. He sought In 1968, Liberal Democratic Senator getting on the committee with jurisdiction Of all the politicians who spoke, Packwood power because of a passionate desire to do Wayne Morse had been in the U.S. Senate over natural resources. He couldn't get the was the most passionate. He said these L QJ ..0 good. Over time, like essentially every oth• longer than I had been alive (I was 13 at the committee tO hold a hearing on his bill to words that I will never forget: "If we save E er politician, he came to seek power for its time). The "Tiger of the Senate" was chal• save French Pete so environmentalists all the wilderness still left today, in it won't Q) K own end - the consummate politician. lenged by moderate Republican Bob hired a stenographer, set up an empty chair be half enough 50 years from now." At that Q) V1 What follows is a very personal and Packwood. It was the first political race in for Hatfield and held one anyway in point, I, and the environmental movement, narrow look at Bob Packwood and the which I ever took an interest. Morse was Eugene. Packwood later in~erted the tran• would have walked through hell for the 0 environment. I once respected him greatly. being attacked for his staunch opposition script into the Congression I Record. junior Senator from Oregon. money and a better campaign organization. That spring, Hatfield, did what he Vietnam War and favor gun control, But he still wanted to split Weaver's base, said he'd never do again: hold another Environmentalists had fallen a long way rn1n-rn~~ Second Term: just to be sure. wilderness hearing in Oregon. After the from the heady moment in 1976 at Hat Hesitation Sensing this, two other Oregon hearing, the three of us, as principles in Point; they no longer could claim friends in Natural Resources Council staffers and I the Conservationists for Packwood politi• the Northwest congressional delegation. r n 1974, Morse tried co take back his seized an opportunity: James Monteith, cal action committee (all on our own time, In 1992, in his fifth bid for election to old scat and died crying. His replacement then Executive Director and Chair of since ON RC's tax status prohibits partici• the Senate, Packwood made no pretense of on the ballot was Democratic State Sen. Conservationists for Packwood; Tim pation in electoral politics) met with courting the environmental vote; in fact he Betty Roberts, who was ranked as voting Packwood and Elaine Franklin (his infa• ran against the environment. The correctly 86 percenr of the time by the mous aide and protector) in John Day. We Democrats had chosen AuCoin to chal• Oregon League of Environmental (now were helping him hustle votes at the lenge Packwood. Packwood had gobs more Conservation) Voters. (Roberts is now a county fair. When it was time for money than AuCoin. Environmentalists leader in today's get-Packwood effort.) Packwood to leave we went up the hill to were backing AuCoin as the lesser of two OLEY chose to give a joinr-endorsemenr, the John Day airport. evils, but with none of the vigor they would which deeply offended Packwood. He While waiting for the plane, we hud• have had for Harry Lonsdale, the forest thought he deserved the sole endorse• dled and worked out a deal. Packwood lover and former board member of ONRC ment, after all he had done for environ• would move the bill through the Senate whom AuCoin had edged out in the mentalists. The street fighter in immediately after Labor Day. We Democratic primary. Packwood valued loyalty, and the talked frankly about Hatfield, no fan I'd figured that AuCoin would be bet• environmentalists let him down. As a of wilderness. Packwood most confi• ter than Packwood, even though both had result, during his second term, the dently and clearly said, "I'll handle whored for Big Timber (such have histori• junior senator was very quiet on Mark. It won't be a problem." As cally been the choices facing Oregon envi• environmental issues. He still sup• we watched rhe Senator and his ronmentalists). The fact chat Packwood ported French Pete, but not much aide fly off, we were feeling pret• once really believed in wilderness was else. Ironically, it was Hatfield ty good. We'd wired up another immaterial. He didn't any longer. Then I who got the credit and glory for wilderness bill for Oregon, just heard the Washington Post was running the the passage of the Endangered two years after Hatfield had said sexual harassment story. But with American Wilderness Act of "never again." We we're Packwood and his lawyers at full bark, the 1978, which returned French pumped. The August recess Post was extra nervous about checking the Pete to wilderness status. passed quietly for us, but not for facts, and delayed the story. Its blockbuster In his second term, Jim Weaver. He dropped out of ran Nov. 22 - two weeks after the election. Packwood concentrated on some the race for senator. The very safe environmental issues, Democrats chose State Rep. like whales (not a lot of people in Rick Bauman (yet another state 1 ~~J-1 ~~( Killed Off or Born Oregon want to cut up whales). A legislator with a good environ• Again? clearly discernible voting pattern mental record) as the fill-in. le was was beginning to emerge. His absolutely no contest. The morning after his re-election, in national League of Conservation When Lillebo and I went to his inimitable way, Packwood mused to the Voters record had peaked in the see Packwood in his Capitol Hill press that we could no longer cut as much years of his re-election, and was the the day after Labor Day, we goc the timber as we once did in the Pacific lowest the year afterward. The politi- run-around. "The senator is quite Northwest; that Big Timber would have to cal Packwood was beginning co domi• busy ..... " We knew something was up. compromise. As I heard this, I marveled at nate the passionate Packwood. The Lillebo, who has haunted the halls of the man. What a consummate politician! election of 1980 brought forth another the Hill more than any of us, staked out a He sleeps with Big Timber before the elec• Democratic state senator with an even bet• place Packwood must pass in the course of tion, and doesn't even have breakfast with ter OLEY voting record (95 percent), Ted his business. He buttonholed Packwood in them in the morning! He was already posi• Kulongoski. This time, the OLEY board the hall and the ugly truth became evident. tioning himself for 1998, when he would voted to endorse just Kulongoski. It was There would be no Hells Canyon run again for the Senate, in a time when he the Republican landslide year of Ronald Wilderness bill. There was no need with knew that Big Timber would be a much Reagan, the first President to make the Weaver out of the race. The 300,000 wilder• smaller political force. I called Lillebo to environment a partisan issue. Packwood ness acres of insurance that Packwood (and discuss this and we decided that we should was increasingly distanced from environ• Lillebo, ONRC's Northeast Field Hatfield) were willing to pay to ensure a go see Packwood. As Ted Kulongoski once mentalists, whom he increasingly viewed Representative (most times a Democrat, split in the environmental community no told me, "With Bob Packwood you have a (and in my opinion, accurately) as knee• occasional Republican); and myself (then a longer had to be paid. We were in shock. 50-50 chance on any issue at any rime." jerk Democrats. reluctant Democrat and much more so now, We were hurt. We'd been had. This totally amoral politician was floating but sure as hell not leaning Republican) and we saw the opportunity for him (the concocted a scheme to designate an addi• political Packwood, not the passionate 1 ~~ 1-1 ~~a Third Term: The End tional 300,000 acres of Wilderness in the 1 ~~J-1 ~~L Fourth Term: Dark Packwood ) to start greening again. of the Packwood Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. Brown But then the W11shi11gtrm Post story did Curve The first Packwood bill had saved the river finally hit and the firestorm began. It would from dams, but not the forest from chain- The political Packwood crushed the not have been politic of us to start siding up The biggest and most difficult issue in saws. Our strategy was to bring Bob passionate Packwood. He was through with to Packwood again, and in face I joined the Oregon environmental politics was still Packwood back to the environmental fold environmentalists. They couldn't be relied crowd crying to force him from office. wilderness for federal land . Packwood took because we knew Weaver had no chance of upon, nor for that matter could environ• Packwood's political friends were abandon- no significant role in what became the winning the enate race. mentalists rely on him. He sized up his ing him in droves. Nobody wanted to be Oregon Forest Wilderness Act of 1984. And We also knew Packwood was damn potential next election opponents ( the associated with this philandering political what role this former great lover and defend- good when he was your champion, and we guy's default setting in running his political pariah. Nobody except Big Timber who er of wilderness did cake was negative. As he hadn't yet "lost" him. We persuaded calculus is, like any other politician, the was as badly in need of friends as considered his re-election bid for 1986, Packwood to introduce the Hells Canyon next election) and they all appeared to be Packwood. Packwood thus was thrust back Packwood knew he needed to split the lib- Wilderness bill in early 1986. We had held a greener than he. Of course, we're talking into the arms of the clearcutting crowd, erals (in order to win, statewide Republican 10-year anniversary re-dedication of the relative here, but Reps. Les AuCoin, Peter who offered sanctuary when all others were -4 candidates in Oregon always have to do this Hells Canyon National Recreation Area at Def'azio or Ron Wyden or Gov. Neil calling for his head. ....i: - witness Hatfield, the pacifist, anti-nuke Buckhorn Lookout, north of Hat Point and Goldschmidt had all out-greened OD timber beast). Challenging him this time equally spectacular, Packwood said it again: Packwood (not by much for half of them). A11dy Ken; exeaaioe dimtor of !he Orewm (/) was Jim Weaver, a populist Democratic con- "If we save all the wilderness still left today, In 1989, environmentalists were successful Natural Rrsounrs Couno], has wrestled in the ro gressman from Eugene and darling of the in it won't be half enough 50 years from in their first big court injunctions. The fol• mudpit 4 p()/itir:r rm /;eh(llf /)! the wild 1111d the j environmentalists. Weaver had championed now." No longer would I walk through hell lowing April, at the timber industry's peak future sinre the FordA dmi11istmtirm. He lives in g..ro French Pete and many other wild areas; that for the guy, but it was politically necessary moment, Packwood spoke to an estimated Joseph and m•oti:s i11 Portlmlfl. , J0,000 disgruntled timber workers in --0 the Oregon Wilderness Act of 1984 con- for him to say it and act like he meant it. He --0 rained nearly one million acres is testimony further said he didn't want his place in histo• Pioneer Square in Portland, and conve• \.n to the tenacity of the man. Packwood was ry to be the passage of the Tax Reform Act niently painted environmentalists as the confident of beatingWeaver, Hehad tons of _ of 1986; he w.mted it to be Hells Canyon. same people as chose who opposed the 0 Cover

Queen , Charlene • Islands

,• ea,n • H(YJte .S1r..11i erness by Kathie Durbin

6•s Anthony bland:, ting rights on millions of acres of ging road in a symbolic act of defiance about the Queen Charlottcs. A trans- "crown" (public) land managed by the against continued industrial cutting of Canada tour built national support for provincial government. their ancestral homeland, and young South Moresby's preservation. South Moresby, the unlogged Haida men began building a longhouse In 1987, after the most intense for• south end of the archipelago, encom• to stake their claim. Just weeks before est preservation campaign British passes 138 islands, from rocks inhabit• my visit, Miles Richardson, the presi• Columbia had seen up to that time, the ed only by seabirds to Moresby Island dent of the Haida Nacion, had Canadian and provincial governments \\ ith its coastline of deep coves and the renounced his Canadian citizenship co signed a memorandum of understand• San Cristoval mountain range at its dramatize the fact that the Haida never ing stating chat South Moresby, the em end of the island, from the logging spine. Its shores are home to whales, ceded these islands by treaty or lost southernmost part of the archipelago, camp at Powrivco Bay to Dodge Point, has been laid bare. As we chugged into z porpoises, sea lions and a quarter of all them in war. The pilot I hired to fly me would be set aside as a national park ;;; sheltered Windy Bay, I saw that even ::, nesting seabirds on Canada's Pacific over South Moresby in a seaplane preserve. The agreement saved deep 0"' A battered memorial pole this sanctuary had been entered. A w Coast. Bald eagles marked Ariel's refused to land at Windy Bay. He wooded valleys including Windy Bay, i' at the abandoned Haida course on our 1994 voyage, keeping explained that he relied heavily on l-laida village sites where totem poles, clearcut patch angles downhill from the ~.. village of Skedans. watch from their perches high in the business from logging companies. mortuary poles and timbers from cedar ridgeline where logging evidently con• .. limbs of Sitka spruces. By then an international campaign longhouses lie buried in moss, rare tinued until the last possible moment . I:!"' 0 :,: In I 986, when I first came co South to save South Moresby was well under• wildlife species, colonies of tufted Q. Moresby, these islands were disputed way. The Islands Protection Society in puffins and ancient murrclets, lakes, emorics of that first trip linger territory. Lyell Island, with its enor• Victoria had published Islands at the bogs and intertidal narrows rich with like a summer twilight in the mous spruces and red cedars rising Edge, a book of gorgeous photographs sea life. M Charlottes: Ravens standing rom the deck of the 46-foot sailboat Ariel, I scanned the from a forest floor of spongy yellow and natural history essays, which told The decision was a huge victory on the road. Wild bog sounds. A boat mosses, was the spiritual center of the the story of the islands' biological trea• for environmentalists and for the Haida trip to Chaatl, a deserted Haida village southern horizon as Lyell Island, lapped by the blue waters of campaign co protect them. Herc, in sures and the tragedy about to befall Nation. The establishment of the near the wild Pacific, where Colin 1985, I laida elders in ceremonial but• them. The Canadian naturalise David reserve under a first-of-its kind joint Richardson, our Haida guide on a pri• Laskeek Bay, slowly separated itself from the much larger ton blankets and robes blocked a log- Suzuki produced a television pccial management agreement between the vate tour, led us to two standing totem land mass of Moresby Island. I had waited eight years for this return Canadian Park Service and the Haida poles looming out of ocean mist and Nation remains the most significant pushed back a chunk of sod co show us pilgrimage to the Queen Charlotte Islands - to a place where Haida victory for acrivisrs fighting the B.C. the bones of his Maida ancestors. A timber juggernaut. But the timber long beach where we camped on our Indians and Canadian environmentalists changed history. Yet now industry and island residents also bene• last night in the islands, broke and that the moment was at hand, I felt a sense of foreboding. ficed. dirty and inhaling the sea. As part of the agreement, the gov• This time we were traveling In 1986 South Moresby was an imperiled jewel, and silence. ernment agreed ro pay $37 million in through true wilderness, but our com• fortable sailboat accommodations kept 11111 though I saw it only from a distance, in a small seaplane, it The Queen Charlotte Islands, often referred to as the compensation for "lost business oppor• ~ shimmered unsullied in my imagination. In 1994, I am about Canadian Galapagos for their biological treasures, are a string tunity" to Western Forest Products, everything at a distance. Despite our I:'", .,:: to see it at close range. I am also about to confront the paradox of ecological jewels set on the edge of Canada's continental which owned exclusive logging rights captain's sailing skills, tides and shal- : c of life on an exploited planet: Can any natural place ever live shelf 60 miles off the British Columbia mainland. Unique on South Moresby. A logging contractor lows kept us out of some inlets. My ~ i5 up co the Eden-like expectations of chose who seek out plane and wildlife species evolved here, in part because of was paid nearly $1.6 million, employees one attempt at a hike was a hands-and- ! ~ Earth's last wild sanctuaries? received $866,000 in severance pay, and knees affair on faint animal trails in a -4 00 their geographic isolation, in pare because their climate, tem• cl For two days my companions and I had sailed south along pered by offshore currents, provided a refuge from the full a South Moresby Forest Replacement soaking rain. Still, I returned from this ~ the eastern coastline of chis 180-mile-long archipelago, past impact of the last great ice age. Account was set up to provide money close-up wilderness encounter covered ; with mud and moss, wet co the skin - ~ bald mountainsides and bleeding road cuts clearly visible from These misty isles are the ancestral home of the Haida, for intensive forestry experiments in Vl (1) o- the calm waters of Hecate Strait. We had skirted Talunkwan gifted artists and fierce warriors who ruled the inland waters areas still open to logging. and giddy with the sense (true or not) of having explored a place for the first l ~ Island, so notorious for the damage wreaked by rapacious log• south to Vancouver ls land. Exploitation of the islands' forests By the time the chainsaws fell 3 E ging chat it gave birch to a new noun: "talunkwanization." and minerals, salmon and sea otters, began with the arrival of silent, Lyell Island was already well on time. i-, ~ Here at Lyell Island, the talunkwanization of the area the white trappers and explorers in the 18th century. But it wasn't the way to being stripped of its coastal South Moresby is dotted with the ~ Haida call Gwaii Haanas stopped. Here the line was drawn in until the 1970s that widespread commercial logging of the rainforest. The Tangil Peninsula i a abandoned villages of the Haida. We the forest. Here the whine of chainsaws and roar of bulldozers islands began under British Columbia's system of tree farm shorn finger of land jutting visited Skedans, Tanu and, near the e ceased and an irreplaceable island wilderness was left to its licenses, which give giant corporations virtually unlimited cut- The sheltered cove off the coast of Haida village of Skedans. east, and the entire north- CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 e Cover Story co N 11 N u E o

forester, Larry Pedersen, the commit• income. Stein River area and Meares Island. · 1 t '"".as a wake-up call .the likes. of tee demanded that the ministry quick• But the islanders saw things differ• Jheirlives areti~d up in nothing more . which· few residents of Helde ly reduce logging rates in the Queen ently. Not only did they demand that than seekin9 a way to put people less · Gwaii will forget. Charlotte timber supply area (TSA). Pedersen slash logging rates, but they fortunate than themselves out of work. At a community meeting in early "Our community requires a sus• insisted that he revise "cut calcula• They will see every trapper, miner, log• March members of the council of tainable natural resource base. It is tions" to reflect greater protection of ger and fisherman out of work and dri• Haida Nation released a map pro• clear from our observations and from Haida Gwaida's remaining temperate ver on welfare. They know not what duced from satellite images of Haida the documents that your Ministry has rain forest. · · '··· they do, or the deprivation they cause Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands off prepared that our local TSA is not cur• In a subsequent letter to BC's min· .·· to minorities that are ill equipped to the British Columbia coast). rently being managed in this way, as ister of forestry, Andrew Peltier, they fight back." Jokingly referred to by some as indicated by the current AAC which is went one step further. They demand• Then years after the Moresby dis• "the yellow peril" the map showed 2.2 times the Long Term Harvest Level. ed logging ·· companies in the TSA pute, however, a prominent member the area of temperate rain forest From the standpoint of the well being relinquish their cutting rights, of the Share' movement on Haida logged on the archipelago since tim• of our island community; we need "The current allocation of cutting Gwaii - Blll'Beldessi ~-· was ~mohg :· ber companies began clear-cutting in major changes in this state of affairs," rights in the. Queen Charlotte repre• those to sign the letters calling for earnest 50 years ago. the islanders wrote. sents a significant threat to the future of deep cuts in logging rates· o the It was an astonishing picture. The ministry document of imme• our island's community;" the islanders islands. He sided with conservation- Large, continuous sections of clear• diate concern was c,i "timber supply wrote. "The socio-economic analysis . isi~; many of whom have argued thet cuts on Moresby and Graham lslands analysis" of the Queeri Charlotte TSA. confirms that the return to our islands. . they are nqtppposed to logging ..::.. were colored solid yellow. Old forest That analysis concluded that the! cur• is unacceptab!ylow. It is:our beliefthaf but rather the rate of logging and who fire sites, decades away from logging, rent rate of logging· within the TSA 100 percent of the TSA should be man• benefitsfrom What is cut. · · were colored musty brown while must be reduced by 52 percent to aged by the communities of these Betdessi 46 years old. He's stretches of bog and muskeg were reach a· lohg-term, supposedly sus• islands." worked in the forest industry since he portrayed in shades of doppled tainable level Just what impact the letters will was 16. For )be past six. years, he's green and brown. In an accompanying socio-eco• · h~ve on the. powers that be in Victoria.. . been a truck~ grfver for TitnberWest, In the lexicon of the professional nomic document, the Ministry pro· is unknown beceuse the Ministry has once of the majorcompani~slogging forester, the remaining "mature forest" posed three ways of dealing with this yet to announce what the logging · . on Haida GwaiL·he is currently presi• on the map appeared pitifully small problem. The first two options were rates will be, dent of Share the Rock, Share's Haida certainly insufficient to permit the con• evidently favored by the . report's But on the islands the map, meet• Gwaii chapter. ,.;. , . , ... tinued logging of 2 million cubic authors and involved gradual reduc• ing and letters heve had an empow• But Belc::i~§si says hifshare group meters of timber a year. tions in the AAC over ·.· several erjng effect~ These are the same" · is no longer part of the umbrella orga• The meeting over, community decades. In these scenarios, over-log• islands, it should be remembered, that. nization, Share'B.C. He says the· lead• representatives including long-time ging would continue but at stepped• were the focus of natiqnal and interna• ership of the, provinc;ial organization loggers and native leaders decided down rates. tional attention. a decade ago when has lost touch with the grassroots. And to do something. They met to air their Eventually, logging rate, would : ?2.. Haida .,:>rptesters, were arrested.· working at the grassroots level is what differences and see what they could fall below long-term levels·· to com• cind ipter found 'ln criminal contempt· ., . Beldessi's most concerned abbi.Jt, do about a yearly timber cut (allow• pensate for decades of .over-logging. ' . for, blockading logging operations 9n>' "A lot of peopie view u~/as' 'jish- · able annual cut or AAC) that was too Then, in the distant future, they would the southern half of the archipelago. · ing communities' or 'loggingj:;ommu• high to be sustained. begin to creep back up to sustainable The arrests proved the turning nities' for the short term, nqtas com• The results were no less remark• levels. The authors presumably fig~ point in the 13-year struggle to save . munities of people who ere-cornmlt• able than. the image that had united ured this was most palatable from a ... So.uth Moresby's temperate ra.in. for• ted to living her:e- Who w · hE!re .. and them. In two ground-breaking docu• community perspective in that it didn't ,. est from declr-cut logging. The i3rea, will b~ · here . Until . they .. . -•. away;''. ments released less than two months involve a big one-tirne drop in lo·g• ' ,.'known as· Gwaii Haanas, was later B~ldessi says; '!We want to start to after the map was published, commu• ging rates. To bolster their case, they declared a F:laida Heritage Site and . process more Wood on-island. And nity leaders on the islands delivered looked at the costs of dropping log• National Perk Preserve in 1987. we think that wilt more tban cover ·the two strong messages to BC's Ministry ging levels to a long-term rate now. The subsequent loss of 100-plus loss of jobs (alleged to be at risk with of Forests. Their conclusion: this third option · ,,,fogging jQbs on Sout~·Moresby also·· · a lower AACJ.- We have yo~ng peo• In a letter signed by nine island would cost 373 person-years in marked .a w(')tE!rshed ·i~ .the history of pl~ leaving 'the Islands in uth Moresby. . qoarte.red far to the south of the arch• Indeed, language that would later ip~lago. be incorporated by Share forces in .- As the authors of the socio-eco• their battles With conservationists was no~ic analysis noted in their report, 94 borrowed from Moresby Island resi• percent of all the timber logged on dents like R.I. Smith, editor of the Red . 8aida Gwaii is exported to Greater Neck News, a.publication that regular• .. V~ncouver ;t;:,r Vencouve» Island. ly blamed environmental campaign• Me~nwhile,"two local .sawmills on ers for the woes of resource industry lii':lida Gwaii h{lve. been without tim• workers. ber since June of 1994. And even " ... many of us in the resource when they· dicl have timber holdings, industry face increasing unemploy• they emourited-to only three percent ment due to political environmental• of the total volume logged. ists," Smith ·once wrote. ''The same Of the 695 iull-time forest indus• kind of people living in our cities by try jobs directly attribt.ltable to log• the thousand, support an end to log· ging in the Queen Charlotte TSA, ging in places like SoU.th Moresby, the only 169 jobs or 24 percent accrue to southern tip of the archipelago, Canadian government have signed a And logging to the north has con• Ninstints, a United Nations world her• document agreeing to disagree on who tinued unabated. In 1986, passengers on island resident;'. The vast majority of itage site from which the proud owns and has jurisdiction over these the ferry from Prince Rupert saw intact ,, Jobs are crf;lated;hundreds qt miles Kunghit Haida ruled Gwaii Haanas. islands. Yet although a legal struggle for forested headlands as they sailed into ' to the south iri urban, settings far Several decaying mortuary poles and the future of Gwaii Haanas continues, a Skidegate Channel. Now a large brown LTuiem~ved .. ,1;;:Jr?~> . tryei , ;rer,rc!lni~g""' house timb rs remain from the impres• four-member Archipelago Management crescent clearcut is visible from l O miles expanses ot,ommercially acces~i· sive village that once curved around a Board, with two Haida and two Park offshore, and the view from Queen bte old tbfqr~st. ,1, •. '. ,;; crescent beach . Service representatives, has reached Charlotte City takes in several large . ,. . E~ch, , '~r{bugh': W(?od 'floWs '' , In 1829, according to a Haida leg• agreement on several key park manage• clearcuts - an in-your-face message to . .: through t w.{Tlills al!'.,ng'ttie Fra~( . end passed down, Kwanduhadgaa, a ment issues. It is funding a number of visitors who have traveled long dis• ·. iRivefin r vc;i~ou,~ertoJill'a soV, · famous medicine man of Tanu, fell ill archeological and environmental restora• tances to see these isles. Jd line 9f, {0991119 tru,cks svetchjng and went into a trance in which his spir• tion projects. And it has decided to set a "One area I'm looking at right now ;;,,trom"'Vanc6aver#~crQ.ss 0Cah'ada,,:to. it left his body and flew over the ceiling on the number of tourists was clearcut last year," said Kevin Halffax anc::J. back as far as Montreal islands. To his horror, he saw the vil• allowed to visit village ruins, Hocspring Weaver of the B.C. Forest Service from :Yet the pro(;essing · qt that vast amount lages abandoned, all but two: Skidegate Island and other popular sites beginning his office in Queen Charlotte City. "We II of logs .:.~.>c1ose''to 12 'mimo.n' cubic and Masser. When he asked what had next year. Although che preserve was got a lot of flak over it, but we couldn't ' ,,!'Jl~~~rs· a y~ar·;_ b?Jrely ~~m.s .to r happened, a mysterious black man told visited by only 2,800 people lase year, do anything about it because it was pri• tHster · with· Greater · Vancouve#s r him chat God had wiped chem out some areas already are showing wear vate land." , dents. . . because He did not like the heathen and tear. The challenge, says Anna Positive things have come to these At least ·thiit's David Ewart's totem poles or the smell of the corpses Gadja, community relations manager for islands since 1987. A special cruse fund in the mortuary poles. By century's end, the.Parks Service, is, "How do you was established to help the timber• after a series of smallpox epidemics maintain that wilderness experience dependent communities of the Queen swept through the Haida villages, the over the long cerm?" Charlotte Islands diversify their seer's dire prediction that the villages In reality, the question should be, economies. Remarkably, the island's res• would be abandoned had come to pass. "How do you restore a sense of wilder• idents decided against making Gwaii Treading mossy trails past fallen ness to an area that has been intensively Haanas a world-class tourist destination, house timbers and decaying totem poles managed in the past?" At Jedway, roads deciding that was inappropriate for such at these village sites is a somber and and rusting equipment mark the site of a fragile area. The fund's trustees also profound experience - the highlight of a huge abandoned mining operation. At rejected offering subsidies to business any trip to Gwaii Haanas. It is made Rose Harbour, a former whaling station developers because it didn't want to more meaningful by the attract off-island specula• presence of Haida Gwaii tors. Instead, interest from Watchmen, some of them the fund will be used to hereditary chiefs, who build new sewers and other now contract with the infrastructure projects. Park Service to guide vis• Since 1987 the Haida itors, explain the signifi• have taken a stronger hand cance of the cedar poles in determining the future carved with fierce visages of their homeland as well, of bear, beaver and myth• said Vicki Husband of the ic creatures, and deter Sierra Club in Victoria. trespassing and vandal• "They're challenging ism. Sadly, that's a contin• renewal of tree farm licens• uing problem; at es elsewhere on the islands Ninstints, our guide's and proposing more pro• wife told us she had tected areas. They've said recently caught a fisher• to the residents, 'The tim• man climbing one of the ber companies come and fragile mortuary poles. go. We stay.?' At Windy Bay, where a modern cedar house decorated with black-and• ildness is still co be found in red Haida totem designs offers shelter Gwaii Haanas. But ic takes to tired kayakers, our guide is Robert W extra effort and an ability to Vogstad, a young artist, part Haida and shut out evidence of past insults part Norwegian. He wears a black wool ··How do you restore inflicted on these islands. beret, jeans and a blue shirt and tells Leaving Ninstints, we trimmed us that he is a recent graduate of Emily Ariel's jib to catch strong ocean winds Carr College of Art in Vancouver, wildernessto an area and flew south along the wild Pacific named for the artist who ventured coast, breathless with the speed, the alone into Haida villages to paint in the thump of waves and the cold sea spray. early part of the century. Vogstad is still that has been Passing between two small islands at an apprentice, but already he has the archipelago's southernmost tip, we joined the ranks of Haida sculptors smelled a colony of sea lions and saw a who journey to Slatechuck Mountain extensivelymanaged tufted puffin dive for fish. on Graham Island to mine the soft On our way hack north we sailed black argillite that only the Haida may far from shore. The raw clearcuts are remove. in the past?" less visible from this distance. Gwaii Vogstad believes the Haida could Haanas, hidden in mist, is healing. run the park if their leaders would set aside politics and build coalitions with Kathie Durbin, a amtributi11K editor lo other coastal natives. The Haida have Cascadia Times, writes from Portland. always been greedy; he says; they enthusiastically provided sea otter pelts where a few families live on a private by the thousands to traders, wiping out inholding, rusting tanks used to melt the island population. He wonders whale blubber lie on the beach, and one aloud whether, left to their own devices, resident has decorated his yard with the LI) rt> Ben Parfitt writes from the Haida might not sell off the rest of flotsam of the whale rendering plant. ~ · · Vancouver, SC.. the timber too. However, Vogscad and Less obvious but more ecologically rt> ,'·· ... ' . 3 ~ CJ" the other Watchmen we talked to were threatening, introduced deer have rt> adamant that Haida must continue to devoured all the berries and ferns in • manage tourists at the village sites, not some areas. Yet under Park Service turn the job over to the Park Service. rules, only Haida subsistence hunters The Haida Nation and the may shoot them. . .:~*'~"' r··, e ... r,-_ ••"· t-'\P\."7:"'-I ,. :.. :,. Greenlt=ND------• Cascadia Calendar Ozone's Revenge By G.B. Veerman lyric for petroleum e ntarnina• "air sparging." A sparging system is tion: All you need is the air that like a kid who sticks a straw in a milk• A you breathe. And some ozone. shake and blows bubbles. Only the If turning the tables on groundwa• shake is a contaminated soil or ter pollution has ever seemed impossi• groundwater. And the straws are ble, take a taste of this sweet irony: a gigantic. life-sustaining atmospheric gas that Air is pumped into the contamina• fossil fuels have helped destroy over tion zone to form an oxygen-rich area a the years looks like one of the most in which dissolved volatile organic powerful weapons to destroy fossil compounds volatilized in the soil are fuels in the ground. sucked out. The contraption attacks And it's been in front of our faces petroleum pollution without having to the whole time. It's ozone. Although dig up earth or ravage underground emissions from gas-burning automo• aquifers. n biles have been blamed for depletion But in soil that's saturated with of the ozone layer for years, scientists crude oil or diesel, which don't often have only recently developed ways to cooperate when someone wants to deploy ozone against the toughest clean them up, sparging has limited petroleum contamination in soil and success. If the ground has clay, sand or groundwater, with stunning results. faults, it's even more difficult. The The highly-reactive gas is one of the solution? Blow ozone down the straw. most powerful oxidants known to sci• With the air sparging technology, ence. It can tear into th heaviest, ozone can be delivered to a contamina- most unreactive tion plume in virtu• hydrocarbons and ally any soil, where it reduce them to shad• In Alaska. where it instantly begins to break down hydro• cam, ows of their former crude oil production Taxpayi r'Sub~i~i:es.&q~~.PXjf~~"'1!1ental Degradation) call Z'Ol selves carbon carbons. The 447-1880, or visit the NEW·ttorne,:,if)):a:ge:,, dioxide and water - and fuel demands are process is known as with lightning speed. "ozonation." http://www.speakeasy.org.new If only spotted high. and where soils In Alaska, owls were so versa• where crude oil pro• tile. are complex. ozone duction and fuel Ozone is espe• appears to be a crucial demands are high, cially efficient in and where soils are attacking diesel fuel weapon to train complex, ozone and crude oil, nei• against land-based oil appears to be a cru• ther of which is very cial weapon to train reactive with other contamination. against land-based chemicals, and oil contamination, therefore difficult Unfortunately. the Leety says. and costly to degrade technology doesn't Unfortunately, the or extract from soil technology doesn't and groundwater. come without a come without a With three oxygen price tag. Because a atoms, ozone is a price tag. sophisticated elec- very unstable gas trical reaction is that rapidly obliter- required to generate ates the chemical bonds that make the gas, ozonation could be stuck on hydrocarbons like crude oil so tough the environmental wish list until to destroy. someone comes up with a cheap, "If you've got a difficult com• mobile way to produce the gas. Once pound that you need to remediate that is accomplished, remediators will ' ' ',,.~!~, quickly, it's very good," says Jeff have to convince companies that "PJ . , . ~ ... ,, , , , b 'a'p}oblic education project on poli- Leery, Project Manager at the Alaska ozonation really works. Although GTI, cy c~okes for nuclear weapons.disposal, Oct. 5-6 ar office of Groundwater Technology for example, has used ozone sparging Inc., a company that has innovated the in the Lower 48 in lab and field trials, ~~titi:;~~:~~iil~~i~;~c~ri1~&~~?!~1f~¥t~1k. use of ozone for hazardous waste it is still crying to get oil companies in Wa~hing·r dn PSR,'(206)"547-2630. . ' .. remediation. Alaska to warm up to the technology. 00.... h '"" Older remediation technologies "Results on paper don't do a lot :E have worked best with toxins that are for [Alaskans]," Leery muses. "But up .:: highly soluble, volatile or reactive in here, we're dealing with lower solubil• ,c soils that are fairly uniform. Then ity materials like crude oil, and I think ii ,c there's the real world. Not all ozone may be the exact technology to c., 00 groundwater contamination fits such use against it." ,c c.:. ideal specifications, Leery says, How delicious an irony it would especially in Alaska. That's where be if ozonation were embraced in a o-LI") o-: ozone can help. state that accounts for about one ,.__ Interestingly, ozone has been fourth of US oil production. That (!) ..0 used for almost J 00 years to treat would be what you might call turning E waste water. Only in the last two years tables.

By Michael Castleman

en elevated lead levels turned up in Chicago drinking water a few years ago, city officials urged the public noc to become alarmed. "Relax," one said, "To have any problem, you'd have to drink a half gallon a day for 70 years." That remark sums up the environmental health plight of America's 30 million senior citizens. Thousands of elderly Chicagoans have consumed Chicago's lead-tainted water for 70 years or more. But until quite recently, no one has given much thought to the consequences of such life-long expo• sures. Fortunately, a small but growing number of health experts and environmentalists have begun to focus on the many environmental health hazards the elderly face. A medical journal recently described the case of a 79- year-old widow who suffered severe physical and mental health deterioration during the six months after her hus• band's death. She complained of dizziness, exhaustion, poor coordination, memory loss, and feeling disoriented. A bat• tery of standard medical tests showed nothing wrong. Her physician and family assumed she was becoming senile, and agreed that the best place for her was a nursing home. Then by chance, a physician well-informed about envi• ronmental health effects reviewed her case. Despite her grief, she had remained healthy for four months after her hus• band's death. She sold their home and moved into a new con• dominium. Her symptoms appeared after living there for two months. Further investigation revealed that she had high blood levels of toluene, a toxic chemical used in construction materials, whose rapid offgassing can contaminate the indoor air of new buildings, even those that are reasonably well ven• tilated. On the advice of the environmental physician, the woman moved out of her condo, and into her daughter's old• er home. Within three weeks, she was back to her old self. This story is by no means unique. The elderly spend Elderly Face Special EnvironmentalRisks about 80 percent of their rime indoors, and as a result, suffer That may change if John Grupenhoff, age 61, has his College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine greater-than-average exposure to indoor air pollutants, way. A former federal official who helped draft the 1967 (ACOEM) to develop a continuing education course for among them: carbon monoxide from gas appliances; volatile Clean Air Act, Grupenhoff recently founded the Senior physicians devoted to documenting and evaluating the organic compounds from paints and polishes; and formalde• Environment Corps (SEC, see Resources), a Maryland• effects of lifelong exposures to toxic substances (sec hyde from just about everything new: carpets, drapes, pan• based national organization dedicated to alerting doctors, the Resources). It should spur more physicians co rest for toluene eling, and home furnishings. In addition, compared with elderly, and the public to the special environmental hazards instead of wriri ng off disoriented older Americans as "senile." most adults in the prime of life, the elderly are more sensi• faced by the older population. SEC is still in its formative The modest groundswell of elder activism represents tive to low-level toxic exposures. stages, with just two chapters - one in Charlottesville, Va., an important new step for environmentalism. Bur the elder• A particularly insidious - and ubiquitous - hazard for whose members recently sponsored a skin-cancer-screening ly will never get the respect they deserve until Americans the elderly is lead. Lead paints and leaded gasoline were program for local elderly, the ocher in Missoula, Mont., shake the tenacious notion that most late-life disabilities banned 20 years ago, but the neurotoxic mineral can still be whose members have focused on the major respiratory haz• result from "old age." Problems like memory loss, difficulty found in much of the nation's air and water because of its ards caused by large-scale wood burning, an important concentrating, and deterioration of sight am! hearing may, in persistence in the environment. High levels are well known source of home heating in that area. some cases, be natural results of the aging process. Bur an to cause learning disabilities in children, but lead also Another new environmental organization devoted ro examination of the medical literature shows chat in many increases the elderly's risk of memory loss, kidney problems, the elderly is the Environmental Alliance for Senior cases, these symptoms may also be caused hy exposure to and heart disease. These ailments are often considered Involvement (EASl, pronounced "easy"), launched quietly toxic substances. "inevitable" in old age, so their appearance rarely arouses in 1991 as a joint project of the American Association of What better way for the country to confront pollution's suspicion of lead poisoning. Bue ic should because the aging Retired Persons and the Environmental Protection Agency. effects on the elderly than ro raise an army of vibrant, vital process itself increases the elderly's blood lead levels. Until this year, EASI coordinators devoted their energies to seniors to teach the nation's young whippersnappers a lesson. The body accumulates lead in bone tissue. After age 50, recruiting participation by national environmental organiza• bone begins to break down. The process, osteoporosis, tions. To date, 14 organizational members have signed on, Resources: affects both sexes, but it proceeds more quickly in women. including the Nature Conservancy and the National Senior Environment Corps. Contact John Grupenhoff Osteoporosis can be slowed with a diet rich in calcium and Wildlife Federation, along with several hundred individual at 6410 Rockledge Dr., Suire 203, Bethesda, MD, 20817. weight-bearing exercise (walking, gardening, etc.), but most members. Now, says spokesman Paul McCawley, an envi• (EASI). For information, contact no. Box 368, The Plains, of the elderly suffer some of its effects: loss of height, ronmental educator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture VA 22171; (703) 25.,-5821. (./) in Washington, EASI intends co launch educational pro• American College of Occupational and Environmental -{g scooped posture, and increased risk of fractures. In addition, ~ as bone deteriorates, the lead scored in it is released into the grams, with environmental health issues "a high priority." Medicine. Contact the Education Department at 55 West 3 EASI's probable first target: water pollution, particularly Seegers Rd., Arlington Heights, IL 60005; (708) 22a-6850. er bloodstream, giving many elderly high blood levels even if Cb they live in environments with low lead levels. To dace, water-borne lead 's effects on the elderly. Paul l\lcCawley (202) 720-2506. • efforts to control lead exposure have focused on children. EASI and the SEC haven't made headlines yet, but -o The elderly have been largely forgotten. Few gee tested for they and other elderly environmental activists have achieved San Fml/('ism-b11serl teriter Mir/1(/e/ r:as//e111a11 cooers health ~ blood lead levels. one notable success. They helped persuade the American a11rl 111er/i(i11e.for 11a1io1111/ 111af!.azi11es. Bikers Versus Bigfootin the GROUND TRUTH I NG Dark Divide By Kathie Durbin

he sign at the Juniper Ridge trailhead, erected by If logic rather than politics prevailed, the Dark Divide Environmental Policy Act. the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, warns that no would be congressionally protected wilderness. ln response, a coalition of 12 Washington hiking and Tthree-wheeled or four-wheeled motorized vehicles Environmentalists proposed official wilderness designation environmental groups has filed suit against the Forest are allowed on the trail. It takes a second or two for the for the area in the early 1980s, but as Pyle recounts, pres• Service seeking an injunction to halt the project until the omission to register: There's no mention of the two• sure from Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson and other heavy• agency conducts a full environmental impact statement. wheeled variety. weight Washington politicians who opposed locking up its (The Forest Service had hoped to award a contract for the At first the damage motorbikes have done isn't that valuable old-growth forests squelched the deal. Hard as it $167,000 project by the end of September.) apparent. But as the path climbs south toward Juniper is co believe, in recent years hikers, horseback riders and Environmentalists also want the Forest Service to address Peak and an area known as the Dark Divide, deep V• perhaps Bigfoot him/herself have had to share the Dark the longterm impacts of its future plan to connect the two shaped ruts cut into the steep mountain trail, making it Divide with motorcyclists, who have found managers of ridge trails to new off-road-vehicle trails, creating a 30-mile impossible for hikers to stay on the trail. Near Juniper the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, and the Randle loop trail that could attract trailbikers from throughout the Peak, along a knife-edged saddle between drainages that Ranger District in particular, quite willing to accommodate region. offers thrilling views of three Cascade peaks on clear them, despite the obvious incompatibility between trail "The motorcycle project threatens the potential days, bikers have carved shortcuts across the switchbacks wilderness scams of the Dark Divide Roadless Area," says and churned a wildflower meadow into a deep, sand• "If we manage to hang onto a Ira Spring, a photographer and guidebook author who filled wallow. serves on the board of the Washington Trails Association, The Dark Divide, bridging the Cispus and Lewis sizable hunk of Bigfoot habitat. we one of the plaintiffs in the suit. River drainages, is the largest unprotected roadless area in Seattle lawyer Karl Forsgaard, representing the envi• Washington. This 57,000-acre section of the Gifford will at least have a fragment of the ronmental coalition, said his clients engaged in negotia- Pinchot National Forest is renowned among a select group tions v ith the 'orthwest Motorcycle ociation to work of hikers for its verdant old-growth valleys, its craggy rock greatest green treasure the temper• out an agreement trading trails inside the Dark Divide for formations and its incomparable views of Mount Rainier, ate world has ever known." crail el ewhere on a mile-for-mile basis, but the motorcy• Mount St. Helens, Mount Adams and Mount. Hood from cle group ultimately backed out of the talks. open, mile-high ridges. What · at take here is more than the condition of a It's also famed for another reason: The Dark Divide bikes and hikers. The Forest Service has even allowed couple of trails, Thousands of miles of Jogging roads are and surrounding wild country have produced more report• trailbike races over the fragile alpine soils and plants of available for people who prefer to experience the national ed Bigfoot sightings and footprints than just about any Juniper Ridge. forests as a green blur from the seat of a motorbike. But region in the Pacific Northwest, as Washington writer and Though the steepness of the trail has limited use by places like the Dark Divide are scarce and dwindling fast. naturalist Robert Michael Pyle details in his new book, bikers until now, the orange-tipped stakes recently planted If Bigfoot ha found refuge here, it' no wonder. So have Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide. (The area amid the orange-tipped Indian paintbrush that embroider the northern potted owl, the peregrine falcon, the rnoun• south of Estacada, Ore., vies for that distinction as well.) the meadows of the Dark Divide signal that this may soon rain goat. the _ 'orch American lynx, the California wolver• Ape Cave on the south boundary of the Mount St. Helens change. Under a proposal advanced by the Northwest ine and ocher denizens of its deep forests and rocky out• Volcanic Monument is named for Bigfoot, and Skamania Motorcycle Association, the Juniper Ridge Trail and the crops. County actually passed an ordinance protecting Bigfoot in Langille Ridge Trail to the west would be relocated and Pyle, in Where Bigfoot Walks, says it best: 1969. improved - to motorcycle standards. New switchbacks "If we manage to hang onto a sizable hunk of Bigfoot My companions and I saw no bikers - no hikers would he built to provide a gentler incline for novice bik• habitat, we will at lease have a fragment of the greatest either - and no Bigfoot tracks as we trudged through ers in an effort to attract more use. Much of the work green treasure the temperate world has ever known. If we intermittent downpours four steep miles to Juniper Peak would be paid for out of a special gas tax fund dedicated to do not Bigfoot, real or imagined, will vani h; and with its in August. It was no day for stunning vistas, but even on a off-road vehicle trail development. hadow will flee the other who dwell in that world. day when swirling mist conceals the peaks, parting only Despite the project's proximity to mountain goats and Looking at that tangled land, one can just abour accept briefly to reveal their silhouettes before closing in again, its potential effect on soils, vegetation, wildlife, hikers and that Sasquarch could coexist with towns and loggers and Juniper Ridge, high and aloof, is a place of mystery. As the noise levels in the Dark Divide, the Gifford Pinchot hunters and hiker , all in proportion. Bue when the topog• trail winds south past jagged rocks into the heart of the National Forest decided there was no need for an environ• raphy is finally earned outright, no one will anymore imag• Dark Divide it too disappears in mist, promising only a mental assessment and granted the project a "categorical ine chat giants are abroad in che land." quest deeper into unknown territory. exclusion" from requirements of the National

Congress took a major seep towards favor of protecting the Arctic .ational rider but Congress did accept important Save the Arctic opening the Arctic National Wildlife Wildlife Refuge. We need an outpouring changes that will preserve my admini - Refuge to oil drilling in May. The Alaska of support unlike anything we've ever rration ability to adhere ro the standards National Wildlife delegation and Big Oil launched a sneak done before! and idelines in our current forest assault on the Arctic Refuge through the plan . he changes give the agencie the Refuge budget process. Hidden in the House Al Thieme di ererion which we wiU exercise fullv, and Senate budget resolutions is $1.3 bil• Portland OR to protect our nation's narural resources. To the editor: lion in revenues that would be derived from selling leases to drill in the Arctic :\'m · hat the rider has become law. I Call the following number to contact Refuge! have directed the secretary of senators and congressman and urge chem Clinton Defends Agriculture, e secretary of the Interior ...... to protect Alaska's Arctic Wildlife Refuge At stake is the coastal plain, called and the head of other federal agenci from oil exploration and drilling. Time is "America's Serengeti" because of its Salvage Rider to carry out amber salva e activities con• .::• short and the corporations are throwing c unique wildlife. Musk-oxen, millions of j tent with the spirit and intent of all iii all their money at.this one. Urge the sen• migratory birds, and the nation's most exi tin environmental law . Be assured c u ators to vote against S. 343. Exxon has important onshore polar bear denning To the editor: that we will not violate environmental financed the 800 number and hence the ..c areas are found here. The 152,000-mem• tandard - they are too important to u message reflects their bias. Dial 1-800- ber Porcupine caribou herd migrates As you know, I signed the cissron protecting our quality of life and our 444-1555. They will give you a short hundreds of miles to give birch in chis bill because it helps to reduce deficit fur• economy. recorded message. Follow the instruc• sensitive habitat for which scientists ther while maintaining respo ible tions for a touch tone phone. Enter a zip report there is no alternative. The investments in children, education, Bill Clinton a3 code.(they ask for yours but it doesn't .o Gwich 'in people of Alaska and Canada national service and job traini z. The White Hou e E have to be.i. it can be any in the US). depend on the herd for food and sustain• However, I opposed a salvage logging Washington DC '5_ Make a choice of the elected politician's ing their traditional native culture. provision as it threatens to impair, rather ~ office you want to be connected ro. than promote, sustainable ec ·omic When the senator's staff person answers We have a very short time to swing activity. The House and Senae were tell them you oppose oil drilling in the more members of Congress to vote in unwilling to abandon the salvrge timber Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Pointofi~~~f~gn\g~ . Say Goodbye to "Ecosystem management" By Denzel and Nancy Ferguson

eing an environmentalist has always demanded a Similar bills, sponsored by Sen. Pete Domenici, R• high tolerance for frustration. But since the election N.M., and Rep. Wes Cooley, R-Ore., are pending in B of November 1994, the level of frustration has gone Congress regarding grazing by the commercial livestock ballistic. Remember, only 37 percent of registered voters industry on public lands. Here again, the justifications went to the polls, and only 7 percent of them considered are strictly social - perpetuating a traditional lifestyle, environment to be a major issue. The Contract with silencing critics of the free-enterprise system, and free• America, which doesn't even mention the word "environ• ing grazing permittees from legal challenges. The fact ment," was a campaign platform for many Republicans. that public lands ranching is pure pork-barrel and envi• Nevertheless, newly elected majorities now claim a man• ronmentally indefensible is not being discussed. How date co rewrite or negate myriad laws relating co environ• could anyone consider denying Americans their basic ment and public land management. Is someone piping sil• right to participate in public lands management for the ly sauce into Capitol Hill water supplies? sake of only 2 percent of the nation 's livestock owners The best explanation for what's happening is provid• wanting to harvest l.? percent of the nation's livestock ed by Newt Gingrich's book, "To Renew America." feed? Furthermore many public land grazers are wealthy Gingrich's basic theme is that Americans are unique in individuals or corporations - for example, J.R. Simplot, getting their marching orders directly from God - not the Idaho potato king, has the largest grazing allotments · recen . . . ~.the:Californiif a: from the state. Furthermore, he cites the creation of in Oregon, Idaho and Utah. No wonder we need Cow wealth as our driving national goal and strongly admon• Cops! Again - it's apples and oranges - no basis for Department of Health Services ishes anyone who would impede the process by "whin• communication. found risk factors for pesticide ill• ing," court actions, or expressing concerns about how ere- Rep. James Hanson, R-Utah, has introduced a bill ness were prevalent yet agricul• - ated wealth is distrib- that would give 272 uted. Newt contends million acres of tural inspectors ·were not detect• that elitists are the Bureau of Land ing routine and serious hazards. principal impediment Management to the Since 1973 California has required to the free-enterprise states. system. Gingrich's phi• reporting. of all .pe~ticide !lln;esses Environmentalists losophy has become to local heaith .off1Qers wlthln 24 have always sought sci• the basis for a mas• · hours. But.the -study found" entific data to support sive rewriting of contentions and argu• laws governing con- there are persistent concerns that ments. Scientific docu• sumer protection occupational pesticide illness ls mentation is accepted (food inspection, seriously underreported and that! validation of fact and drinking water stan• truth by courts and oth• dards), health and little progress ha~ been made to er agencies. Industry, safety (automobile reduce the endemic annual incl• politicians, and bureau• manufacturing, deuce belo~,?l;OOO case.s." crats, however, tend to speed limits) and •1(Amerib'Mark Hatfield As these events occur, environmentalists have every c, reason to become morose. But we would do well to New America, Robbins) • c::, justified his support by repeating his totally absurd claim ;; that 70 percent of the Blue Mountain forests are dying. remember that we occupy high ground in putting our faith • On the importance of wetlands .... Because the measure supposedly mer the goal of creating and fate with science. Science is fact, and reality will pre• ii wealth, the gagging of any would-be opponents or critics vail. Social and economic notions are fragile human cre• (nature's filters): A study in:llHnois ... ations - in constant change and subject co the old diccum was ideologically justified and written into the legislation. found that a 5.7-~.cre wetland VI -Cl) Thus, the proponents of this bill don't want to hear an about "the best laid plans of mice and men." could absorb 99 percent of the . discussion of the role of nurse logs, soil compaction, snag 3 retention, nutrient cycling, wildlife corridors, humidity pollutants from a 410-~cre water• CT '*(I) and temperature regulation, or any other such scientific Denzel and Nmuy Fe11.,r11so11 111-r m-1111thors ()/ Sacred Cows at shed.(August 95, Global Action ...... trivia. An enormous body of sound, scientific data showing the Public 'lrou~h. They live i11 Bates, Oil'. salvage logging to be ecologically and economically coun• and Information NftWork)· -; ,. · ': , terproductive was ignored. So much for ecosystem management. e Arts & OOHUlt4 B O O K R E U E W The Beautiful Harsh FWw of Life

By Pete Lavigne connection during a random separa• tion and mistaken reattachment to another red coat in the Christmas hifting shadows, analysis of dif• crush of shoppers is at once hilarious fering visions of reali cy, and touching. · S revealed complexities in simple turns of phrase, a gift for the percep• t seemed only appropri• tion of color, balance and light are ate, if a bit too conve- among the pleasures of David James I nient for this assign- River Teeth Duncan's latest work. River Teeth-. ment to read a baseball essay by David James Duncan, Stories and Writings reveals our world here, The Mickey Mantle Doubleday, 1995 in ways only an artist and storyteller Kaan, while flying cross- can elucidate. Duncan has proven country from Portland the himself with chis, his third book, a day last month the Mick was memo• mastery of revealed light and life. rialized at Yankee Stadium. As a New River Teeth is an unusual collec• Hampshire native who awoke to tion of essays and short stories mixed major league baseball in the twilight deftly and stylistically together as of Mantle's career during the sum• easily as the metaphorical and real mer of 1967, my baseball heart and rivers which often cake center stage hero has always belonged to (and in his writings. Publisher Doubleday been stricken by) New York's peren• should be commended for its backing nial division rival, the Boston Red That is not co say one should vacation in New England and try co of this quirky and ambitious collec• Sox and their spiritual leader - that skip or ignore the rest of che essays rebuild a dry stone wall damaged by tion, for Duncan has the artist's other Triple Crown winner and fel• and stories. Fans of Duncan's second fro t heaves through a century or touch in his meditations upon base• low outfielder, Carl Yazstremski. So novel, The Brothers K, will find spe• three of existence. It is illuminating ball, flyfishing, religion-and the it was with great interest chat I cial joy in the postscript Just Wind, work. I had thought chat Robert banality, harshness, beauty and cruel• approached chis essay, Duncan's and a Creek, another meditation on Frost had the lase word on the sub• ty of daily life. All subjects so closely deeply stirring elegy upon his broth• the joy of life, conviction and ject but chis essay adds another related and revealing of contempo• er John's life and death at the age of strength, death, a slice of the thoughtful and humorous chapter. rary American culture, yet spun in a 17 from complications of three Vietnam experience, and human rela• Giving Normal The Finger shares way that chose who have never lifted unsuccessful open heart surgeries. tionships with the land and water of with Her Idiots a cautionary tale of a fly rod, learned the pleasures of One hallmark of Duncan's writ• Duncan's beloved and estranged the implications of the scraighcjack• baseball or discovered a "river cooth" ing is his brutal honesty, an honesty Paci fie N orch west. ets, literal and metaphorical, chat still can feel included and identify chat more eulogy writers and deliver• Perhaps the bese story and essa people put upon one another by with the reflections upon life assem• ers should strive for. From the combination is Her Idiots and Giving blind adherence co one perspective, bled here. "preacher who didn't know John Normal The Finger. Her idiots had chis understanding, or frame of reference. The first essay, Red Coats, from Judge Kennesaw Mountain writer howling as only one who has This essay, like much of Duncan's reminds me immediately of the Land is (the first commissioner of base• ever lived on a sheep farm can. body of work, is an affirmation of life haunting image in Steven Spielberg's ball)" who "eulogized him so lavishly Various stretches of my life have lived co its fullest, and of the dangers movie Schindler's list, of the girl in and inaccurately that I was moved to been spent living and working near of assuming people can't change or hand-tinted color moving across the a state of tearlessness chat lasted for and on small farms in different pares grow because of their imple "flaw" of otherwise black and white screen years" to his description of John so of New England. The fictional not fitting in. amongst the hundreds of anonymous enamored with baseball that he descriptions of the utter nothingness, A final note. Enjoy Duncan's victims condemned to death by the "preferred playing a mediocre JV and the complete "stupidity" writing for the nuggets, the "river Nazi Holocaust. Duncan's red coat is shortstop to starring at varsity (defined by human terms at least) of teeth" chat endure long after you've read his memory of Christmas shopping in track." The reminiscence on the a sheep (single or flock ic makes no his work. Enjoy him also for his beau• downtown Portland as a three-year puzzle of a signed and dedicated ball difference) is hilarious and like much tiful, questioning clarity of vision - old - attached by his hand to a pre• from Mantle to John and the mean• of Duncan's writing, ultimately and for caking you into the dark cious grip on the back of his mother's ing of its timing, delivery and place sobering. For those who doubt this smudgy backwaters of existence. bright red coat. The description of in the life of the Duncan family is description of what life is like living the child's perspective on family dis• worth more than the rest of the book with sheep and stone walls, gardens Pete Lavigne is grassroots organizer tance and the meaning of life and combined. and holes, this writer invites chem to for the River Network in Portland.

On the shelves at Powell's The Astonishing Hypothesis WestNet The Scientific Search for the 5-0ul by Francis Crick

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V) (1) Fill out form below and mail to: j 3 CJ" (1) ( .ascudia Classifieds > 2~-6 -: orrhwest .23rd Place #406 Portland. 0 R 97210 Amount Enclosed ------L------~e ,, "\ __...... ---• _. \ \ ' ' ' Another ----- ...... _ ' ...... r-; ' ' ") Hatfield Legacy? \ I',,, If the Bonneville Power Administration and its patron saint Senator Mark Hatfield have their way, wild salmon may be nothing \ J but a memory. Hatfield has engineered yet another one of his infamous Congressional appropriations riders to put a "cap" on BPA's fish 6 wildlife budget. This arrangement will probably be secured with "sufficiency" language. In other words, if BPA \) spends a designated sum. it will be considered in compliance with laws such as the Endangered Species Act and the Northwest Power Act, even as salmon continue their plunge toward extinction.

What's more, Hatfield's "fish cap" won't help Bonneville's health any more than the health of our salmon runs. Sure, BPA has financial troubles. It is carrying a massive debt load from its misguided investment in nuclear plants, against which its budget for fish and wildlife pales in comparison. It also gives huge subsidies to aluminum smelters and other large industries. A real plan to protect Bonneville's competitiveness will have to get tough on this corporate welfare, ensuring that industrial cus• tomers can't escape their fair share of Bonneville's debt. And a real plan to protect salmon must be based on credible recovery measures, not arbitrary spending limits. If residents of the Pacific Northwest want salmon in their future, they need to make noise now!

Call Senator Hatfield at (503) 326-3386. If the response makes you

r----1 ------angry, call Diane Valantine, ONRC's Salmon and rivers Program I Leader for other ways to join the rising regional chorus of citizens : __ Call me about becoming a Salmon fi Rivers Activist leading the way toward salmon recovery. Diane can be reached at : __ Here's my contribution to join ONRC I I 503-223-9007 x224 or via e-mail at [email protected]. ! __ $30 __ $ioo I I Name -,- _

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