Pacific Green Party of Oregon

By Nick Perry-Guetti

On Wednesday evening February 1st at University of Oregon - a presentation sponsored by the Pacific Green Party Lane Greens Chapter and given by Coast Range Forest Watch - discussed an ancient forest under threat from a land management administration whose focus seems unclear. CRFW’s co-Director Max Beeken spoke to a full lecture hall in Straub Hall concerning the beautiful 83,000-acre tract of public land, rich in old growth and biodiversity and ecologically valuable for its capacity to absorb carbon, and the issue of its legally and economically questionable sale for timber harvest.

Beeken said that according to the Department of State Lands, the Common School Fund (CSF)––which owns most of the forest––is losing money due to logging restrictions prompted by concerns for federally protected species who reside there. However, Beeken’s data indicated two problems with this story: 1) the CSF does not seem to be losing money at all according to its own statistics, and 2) Elliott’s timber sales are responsible for less than1% of the CSF’s revenue in any case. “Oregon just voted overwhelmingly to support the Fund,” Beeken said. “With such a huge $1.2 billion windfall, it’s hard to see why the forest needs to be sold when timber sales hardly seem to a;ect the Fund’s revenue at all.”

Nevertheless, parcels have been sold to private timber companies. Many of these parcels, upon examination by volunteer wildlife biologists, were found to contain threatened species such as marbled murrelets. Some sales were withdrawn or stopped largely due to the efforts of forest activists, necessary despite Oregon Revised Statute 530.450, which arguably prohibits the sale of most of the forest.

Held in U of O Straub Hall Room 145 starting at 6 p.m. Details listed in the Facebook event posting. This presentation will provide you with background on the Elliott State Forest and the sale process that is underway -- as well as give you the latest developments and provide practical ways you can be involved in keeping the Elliott State Forest in public ownership. Hosted by the Lane Greens Chapter of the Pacific Green Party.

Our Green Party platform supports rent control and ending no cause evictions.  If you can't rally at city Hall please use the event page to contact city commissioners.  This event is HUGE, and we need EVERYONE who's able to join us next Thursday, February 2nd at Portland City Hall to demand our City Council pass relocation assistance for renters.

We'll be hosting a rally at City Hall at 1pm, and the hearing itself will begin promptly at 2pm.

If you have been or are at risk of being displaced from your home because of a no-cause eviction or rent increase, Portland City Council needs to hear from you! Please consider testifying in front of Council next Thursday, and contact Portland Tenants United to let us know you want to speak!

You can also email or call City Council officers at the numbers & addresses below - in particular, Commissioners Saltzman, Fish, and Fritz need to hear from you. We encourage you to share your story with your elected officials, or just a short message of support: "relocation assistance would give displaced tenants a little room to breathe - please support Commissioner Eudaly's proposal next Thursday!"

* Commissioner Nick Fish: 503-823-3589 / [email protected]
* Commissioner Dan Saltzman: 503-823-4151 / [email protected]
* Commissioner Amanda Fritz: 503-823-3008 / [email protected]

Measure 2-100, Benton County’s pioneering Ranked Choice Voting initiative, has been drawing support and attention from near and far:  from local newspapers to a Seattle think-tank, and from a neighboring county to Vermont’s Howard Dean.   Read the full text of the news release here.