The Portland area’s guide to green living THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2013 WWW.PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM Bob Sallinger, conservation Going strong director of the Portland Audubon Society, tracked this coyote around Portland’s Alameda neighborhood one Sunday morning. Ex-smoker COURTESY OF BOB SALLINGER recycling LO boys stay unbeaten cigarette ■ They’re here. They’re not that queer. Get used to them. butts TerraCycle fi nds new ways to reuse — See SPORTS, A19 tobacco, packaging COYOTES in the city By RAYMOND RENDLEMAN ike hawks, coyotes are near-mythical Pamplin Media Group creatures for city dwellers because they represent a chance meeting with raw na- “Coyotes are literally impossible heading into West Linn showdown Jasmine Stoner, a server at L ture. This is real wildlife, loping down to get rid of.” The Hutch tavern on Glisan the road in broad daylight. The coyote brings up Street in Northeast Portland, associations with wolves, jackals and hyenas. A — Bob Sallinger, sees fi rsthand how many cig- fox-like creature with a bouncing gait, the coyote conservation director, Portland Audubon Society arette butts get tossed in the has proved far more cunning and resilient than streets. other urban mammals. Stoner quit smoking in De- Whatever your friends cember of STORY BY might tell you, they’re not Coyotes have a compensatory breeding rate: 2011, and all JOSEPH on the increase in Portland only the alpha male and female of the pack breed. the trash real- — the city is pretty much But if you kill them, all the other pairs start breed- ly gets to her. GALLIVAN saturated. ing and the population explodes. Toxic stuff “Coyotes are literally COURTESY OF BOB SALLINGER Sallinger heard that coyotes were habituated to ending up in impossible to get rid of,” Most people went about their normal routines as this being fed by humans in Portland’s Alameda landfi lls — or says Bob Sallinger, conservation director at the coyote strolled through the Alameda neighborhood. neighborhood, so he spent an hour following a down the gul- Portland Audubon Society, who fell into the role of coyote one Sunday morning. “The coyote walked lets of unsus- coyote expert in 1992. “People have been asking right past people out strolling, people gardening, pecting birds me since the early 1990s, ‘How do I get rid of Case in point is Portland International Airport, and the vast majority didn’t notice him. A few — includes them?’ ” Sallinger says. “But even if you manage where staff tried in vain to clear coyotes from the would do a double-take and go back to talking on “It’s spit-soaked to kill the entire pack, they will fi ll back in almost runways. Sallinger’s consistent advice was that disgusting cigarette fi l- immediately.” improved fencing works better than traps. See COYOTES / Page 2 ters, partially and smoked ciga- wasteful, rettes, outer plastic pack- so I wanted aging, inner to do foil packag- something ing, tar- 4-H fi nds a stained roll- about it.” ing paper, — Jasmine loose tobacco Stoner pouches and new stall in ash. “It’s dis- gusting and wasteful, so I want- ed to do something about it,” Portland’s Stoner says. No, she’s not going to spend her off-duty time preaching urban corral about the evils of smoking and trying to get people to quit. Ac- Nature up close cepting that smoking will never be fully eradicated, she’d like to Clubs study gardens, do something about all of those cigarette butts, which, contrary to popular belief, are not biode- stewardship projects gradable. By STEVE LAW So Stoner, 33, is distributing Pamplin Media Group metal coffee cans to willing res- taurants and bars to fi ll with 4-H isn’t your country cousin Fern’s club butts and other cigarette-relat- any more, at least in Portland. ed trash before sending it all off The venerable youth program — scrapped in to New Jersey-based TerraCy- Multnomah County after 2002 budget cuts— is cle, which is internationally making a comeback here and focusing on city known for fi nding new uses for slickers. Conceived more than a century ago as hard-to-recycle materials. Serv- PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP: CHRISTOPHER ONSTOTT a way to modernize farming practices by tar- ers can now end their shifts by Richard Levine sorts and processes organic cotton to be used in futons at the Cotton Cloud Futons factory warehouse in geting farm children, 4-H is now stressing envi- emptying ashtrays into her Northwest Portland. ronmental stewardship and science themes. cans rather than into the trash. The 4-H club at Joseph L. Meek Professional Coyotes ramble through “As an ex-smoker, I’d like to Tech High School in Northeast Portland is help clean up the streets,” Ston- studying remotely operated vehicles and will er says. deploy them for underwater environmental Already, The Hutch’s neigh- monitoring at the Columbia Slough. bor, American Dream Pizza, as Avoiding toxic chemicals 4-H club members at David Douglas High well as The Lodge Bar & Grill School in East Portland are learning about near Southeast 66th Avenue and Powell Boulevard, and Pat- See 4-H / Page 4 ti’s Deli in Gresham have agreed to participate. TerraCy- in your couch, mattress cle will rework waste collected through the “cigarette brigade” ■ Chemical By JULIA SILVERMAN forters and couch cushions. She stand exposure to a small fl ame into a variety of industrial For Pamplin Media Group uses wool sourced from Oregon for 12 seconds without igniting. products, such as plastic pal- fl ame and cotton that’s turned into To comply, couches, armchairs lets, and the company will com- retardants Back in 1981, 17-year-old batting on site, selling to retail and ottomans are doused with portions of the urban area post any remaining tobacco. Terri Treat sewed a mattress and wholesale customers large quantities of chemically can be Stoner heard about TerraCy- with an antiquated treadle around the country. produced fl ame retardants. cle while collecting Capri Sun harmful sewing machine found at a The market for such products Those toxins migrate all over pouches to help raise funds for to children yard sale, painstakingly piec- has steadily expanded, especial- our homes, settling in the dust Woodmere Elementary School ing together the cotton bat- ly with increased publicity on mantels and in fi ne layers on in Southeast Portland, where ting and wool overlay. In a about potential health hazards the fl oor. They are often encoun- her son is in kindergarden. The black-and-white picture from posed by harsh chemical fl ame tered and sometimes ingested key to her success in collecting that era, she sits cross-legged retardants commonly found in by young children, who are most juice pouches was enlisting the on the ground at Portland’s upholstered furniture and mat- vulnerable to the potential support of Capri Sun drinkers, Saturday Market, one of her tresses. health effects. and she expects smokers’ coop- early mattresses on hopeful Thanks to a 1970s-era ruling Researchers at Duke Univer- eration will be essential to her display. from an obscure California gov- sity, the University of California latest campaign. Servers might That sewing machine is now ernment agency, the Bureau of at Berkeley and elsewhere have have time to empty ashtrays on view at the cavernous North- Home Furnishings and Thermal found that household chemicals PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP: JIM CLARK into cans, she says, but they’re west Portland warehouse where Insulation, the foam in uphol- in your bloodstream can be 4-H member Jesse Hartung, 13, places a harness on — See SUSTAINABLE LIFE, inside Treat’s staff makes all-natural stered furniture sold all over the a horse before going for a ride at Parkman Boarding See BUTTS / Page 3 futon mattresses, pillows, com- country must be able to with- See TOXIC / Page 3 Facility in Gresham. 3 • 75 CENTS have some background on the decision that you’re proposing tonight I would be interested in hearing that.” Studebaker: “How much detail do tially how Donaldson came to be pro- you want?” moted to the city manager position a Gustafson: “Let me try to speak very THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2013 • ONLINE AT LAKEOSWEGOREVIEW.COM • VOLUME 100, NO.made. Although the year ago — and it’s not unusual for carefully and very sensitively: This is meeting agenda noted new leadership to make changes it our fi rst full regularly scheduled meet- the council would dis- feels are in line with its style and val- ing, and there’s nothing more that I cuss a formal recruit- ues, it would be less typical to keep a want than for our group to be highly ing process for a per- choice few elected leaders in the dark functional and to have a good working as such a decision is made. relationship with each other. manent city manager, “I’m really worried about that. ... It ing city manager David Donaldson’s it did not mention con- one-year contract about a month early ‘A palace coup’ appears this decision to hire Mr. Coffee cluding Donaldon’s Discussion on Tuesday illuminated See APPOINTMENT / Page A2 Controversyand returning him to hisclouds former job as temporarycity appoint- appointments assistant city manager. Studebaker ment early and hiring a discrepancy about whether every then proposed replacing Donaldson in COFFEE a new interim manag- councilor had been informed of the de- On a 5-2 vote, Tom the chief executive post with Tom Cof- cision and its context. fee, a former assistant city manager Councilor Jon Gustafson to Stude- Coffee assumes city who worked for the city until 2001.