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Making Tracks Nestled between the Oregon Coast and Portland lies the 364,000-acre Tillamook State Forest, home to three federally protected species: the marbled murrelet, the spotted owl and the newly designated coho salmon. Only 45 minutes from Portland, the state-owned land also boasts 200 miles of old logging roads and trails--including 60 miles designated specifically for off-road vehicles. The forests' broad appeal should be evident this weekend, when the National Wildlife Federation hosts a "Weekend of Concern" to show that the forest is more than timber. The event is a response to the Oregon Department of Forestry's controversial proposed habitat-conservation plan, which argues that logging is beneficial to species protection. Pat Harris, state director of the Four Wheel Drive Association, says despite popular stereotypes, many back-country drivers have an environmental sensibility. "There are some areas we should not be in," he says. "True wilderness shouldn't be bothered." While Harris' group leads a back-country trip to promote environmental awareness, the Portland Audubon Society, the Mazamas and the Sierra Club will be asking forest visitors to lace up their hiking boots and tour the woods on foot. Oregon Trout, meanwhile, is holding a stream-side ecology workshop on the Wilson River. Organizers hope the various forest users will converge Saturday when
bluegrass, rock and folk musicians will be jamming at the Concert in
the Clearcut in a new meadow near Vernonia. For more information, call
the National Wildlife Federation at Just
Read It "This is not meant to be a book about Nike," Vanderbilt writes in
the preface, "but continual reference about that company is unavoidable
in a book about the athletic-shoe industry." Readers, even those here
in what New Yorker Vanderbilt calls "relatively far-flung Portland,"
will learn a lot--from the name of the substance used to tan shoe leather
(calcium hydroxide) to the kind of sneakers Spike Lee wore as a kid
(Converse). FOLLOW
UP The pilot, which gave residential customers in four Oregon cities the opportunity to choose between rival energy companies, broke down earlier this year when the only two competitors--Electric Lite and PGE's parent company, Enron--decided to stop marketing to residential customers. Since then both Electric Lite and PGE have publicly blamed the project's demise on the PUC's decision to support a competitive model different from the one PGE prefers. The PUC advocates a "portfolio" model that gives consumers more rate protections than PGE's "direct access" approach does ("Pulling the Plug," WW, April 8, 1998). Eachus says the PUC's support for the portfolio approach should have had no bearing on PGE's decision to discontinue the trial run. "The pilot project was compatible with both," he says. Eachus tried to demonstrate this when he called PGE officials before the PUC last week. "I wanted to get PGE on the record explaining their real reasons not to extend the pilot," he says. At the meeting, PGE officials said they aren't interested in continuing the pilot project because it isn't clear what's next for Oregon's energy market. PGE had hoped for an agreement ensuring that a pure free-market would evolve out of the pilot project. Eachus, however, suggests another possible reason for PGE's decision to pull the plug: The market forecast for energy has changed since PGE started pitching the free-market approach last year. The cost of power is expected to increase, he says, making it more difficult for potential competitors to beat the current regulated rate. --Josh Feit FOLLOW
UP McIntire is known as a vociferous opponent of bureaucratic waste. The TSCC, however, is one government agency that he values dearly. McIntire applauds the commission's ability to digest great heaps of data, put them into a form comprehensible to laymen and hold accountable public entities such as local school boards. He wasn't surprised the TSCC made enemies, but he was shocked to find Shannon, a fellow fiscal conservative, among them. As WW reported earlier this month, Shannon is proposing a bill that would abolish the tax supervising commission ("Rogue of the Week," Aug. 12, 1998). She told WW that she did so at the suggestion of her husband, who works for the Oregon School Board Association. In a letter sent to the OSBA Aug. 17, McIntire blasted the "willfully arrogant...attack on our tiny, highly regarded tax watchdog...from an organization whose members' dues are taxpayer-financed." McIntire was kinder to the senator. After reading the article last week, he called Shannon to plead the TSCC's case. "I'm fairly certain that Marylin was operating in the dark," says McIntire. "If she could see the service 'Tax Sup' provides, I think she would want to keep it." --Nigel Jaquiss
originally published August 26, 1998 |
