www.EWEB.wtf - update - Fry Day, August 20, 2021
- EWEB completed their clearcut, cutting the largest Doug firs (including the 15 foot circumference champion tree) and Ponderosa pines. The largest Black Oaks were cut on August 2 when EWEB clearcut most of this public forest, rushing to destroy just as the state Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) issued a temporary stay of execution based on a challenge brought by former EWEB commissioner Sandra Bishop. LUBA lifted the stay on August 17, cutting resumed on the 18th and the champion big doug fir was cut down on the 19th.
Eugene environmental groups stayed silent. They did not dare challenge EWEB's mismanagement that let existing tanks degrade to the point they are unrepairable and are silent about real estate overdevelopment, including future expansions of Eugene to Veneta and Junction City which will need lots of water. They also ignore plans for massive widening of Beltline highway (12 - 14 lanes).
In a democracy the public comment period never ends. Silence is consent.
Spencer Butte mountain is about thirty million years old. It was created long before primates evolved. It rose shortly after the Old Cascades (the western part of the range, no longer active geologically).
But that longevity is making way for a small "mountaintop removal" project in August 2021. The Eugene Water and Electric Board is about to clearcut, blast and level part of a ridge near the base of Spencer Butte to expand Eugene's water storage capacity.
mountain top removal - only alternatives considered were to shift the precise location a few feet to pretend to mitigate impact to either Doug firs or oaks.
Eugene was built by destroying one of the greatest forests on Earth
1950s utility mindset (when property bought)
EWEB's planned nuclear reactor
have learned a lot about climate and deforestation
saving remnants isn't enough for climate recovery
would make an excellent neighborhood and nature conservation park
one tank mostly in field would not have much impact
not better management of existing sites
52nd and willamette
sunrise and blanton
really impossible to replace in place?
52 and willamette better placed to fight fire in the south hills part of eugene, will need the extra capacity at the highest point in the city
it will be more capacity when finished
envision / expand Eugene
Urban Reserves - 2062 plan - Veneta - Junction City - North Eugene all merged
end of the Alaska Pipeline may preclude that scenario, fracking postponed rationing
climate refugees, buy a house in Eugene where you can live sustainably
why not taller tank one? - twice as tall - yes, heavier but is that impossible to engineer?
or just redundancy if the earthquake breaks only one, much like the new I-5 bridge over the Willamette is wide enough to have two lanes of traffic in each direction if one of the bridges is too damaged.
distribution lines, not just tank failures, expected in the Cascadia earthquake
McKenzie burnt houses and cars pollute the river
pentachlorophenol plume near intake
McKenzie roughly world oil supply
secondary source - Willamette
dam inundation maps
urbanization and drought
deforestation and desertification
EWEB - and nearly everyone - was silent about converting the lower McKenzie into a giant tree farm
much more flammable than old forests - Lane County code admission
A Forest Journey - moisture retention - not only carbon
oak reforestation
old oaks and firs not mitigated with a dozen or even hundreds of saplings
big doug on its way to old growth champion tree
doesn't look good for oaks in the lowland hills of the southern Willamette valley, but that's not an excuse to clearcut the nicest legally unprotected forest in Eugene.
carbon and oxygen credits
salamanders, seasonal spring / forest wetland
hint of what it once looked like and might be after the industrial age is over, after Cascadia earthquake
monarch butterflies
diverse bird populations
interior forest habitat
any environmental group take a stand?
in the 1990s there were numerous tree sits in nearby forests
individuals, some of them neighbors
informal group, a bit discombobulated
SaveEWEBforest
- informal, never really organized
- Sandra Bishop
- first website - ad for speakers bureau
- second website - ad for Oregon Light Therapy
finally removed after complains
no photos of big tree, except an obscure link at the bottom that just indicated it was one of many trees on site
inquiries - there are lots of photos of it, but weren't
likely the respondant didn't understand the difference (he moved to Eugene after spending three decades in Arizona in an environment where they do not have large Doug fir trees)
paid forest groups made deal with big timber at start of covid
aerial spray of poison - foundation funded environmental groups vs. downwinders
water conservation at home
graywater
compost toilets
rainwater catchment
permanent state of emerge and see
all will be needed after Cascadia earthquake - not to start doing then but to have it in place
EWEB emergency wells - map
Firewise in the city
Burying power lines
fireworks ban as way to get people's attention that our fire department is excellent but we need more than that
biological warfare -
the ultimate capitalist weapon
destroys people but not property