Tag: Oregon

Megaloads go to court

Lawsuit questions whether transport is more good than harm

By George Plaven, East Oregonian

PENDLETON, Ore. — A third and final shipment of massive oil refinery equipment is bound for Canada after departing the Port of Umatilla earlier this week. But while the convoy lumbers south on Highway 395, opponents representing environmental and tribal concerns filed a petition in Marion County Circuit Court that would keep future loads off the road without increased public input.

Petitioners Peter Goodman, with the nonprofit organization Act on Climate, and Carl Sampson, headman-chief of the Walla Walla Tribe, allege the Oregon Department of Transportation didn’t properly consider public interest when permitting the loads hauled by Hillsboro trucking company Omega Morgan.

State law allows ODOT to issue variance permits for oversize loads “if it determines the public interests will be served.” Yet the department declined to hold public hearings, provide notice or allow any opportunity for comments, according to the petition.

If the petitioners succeed, a judge would order ODOT to set aside permits for megaloads until determining actual public interest. Goodman and Sampson are also asking for a permanent injunction against new variance permits until the department establishes rules for public involvement.

Patrick Cooney, ODOT communications director, did not discuss litigation but said the agency issues 100,000 permits every year. In broad terms, public interest is served by allowing movement of freight and commerce across the state, he said.

“We do that in such a manner that there’s no damage caused to the system by oversize loads,” Cooney said.

The petitioners, however, claim it is not enough to find something in the public interest by only examining potential damage to highways. It requires that, overall, more good than harm is done as a result of the loads.

Megaloads will eventually supply the tar sands of Alberta, Canada with machinery necessary to extract and ship oil, Goodman said, leading to global climate change.

“The cargo is so damaging to the environment,” he said. “The end result for climate change is really disastrous.”

At approximately 400 feet long, 22 feet wide and weighing more than 900,000 pounds, the megaloads take up both lanes on two-lane highways and are too big to fit under interstate bridges. The route being used now instead runs indirectly south into the John Day Valley and east toward Homedale, Idaho, before cutting back north through Montana and into Canada.

The loads travel approximately 35 mph, and are not permitted to drive in hazardous weather. Numerous delays have already slowed the first two shipments, which Omega Morgan began moving in December.

Protesters also held several demonstrations throughout the region, resulting in some arrests.

In addition to increased carbon emissions from tar sands oil, members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation oppose megaloads on their ceded territory.

Sampson — known ceremonially in the Walla Walla Tribe as Peo Peo Mox Mox, or Chief Yellowbird — asked how decades of government-to-government relations can simply be ignored to accommodate these loads in his affidavit to the court.

“Help me understand why we, the people of this land, have not had voice on such an important matter,” Sampson said. “The simple passage of these loads alone is an affront to the traditional values and ecological integrity of the lands I have been stood up by my people to protect. We have a strong tribal culture that will suffer irreparable damage if the megaload is not stopped.”

Omega Morgan project manager Erik Zander has said there is no plan to use the route as a long-term industrial corridor through Oregon. Goodman said they remain concerned about the possibility, especially as oil sands deposits are developed in Utah.

That’s why the public needs a voice in the ODOT permitting process, he said.

“We feel the citizens of Oregon should have a say,” Goodman said. “It is not worth risking planetary climate chaos for profit for relatively few people.”

_ Read more on eastoregonian.com. Contact George Plaven at gplaven@eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4547.

Tribes’ court action could halt megaload

Megaloads protest at Port of Umatilla Dec 2013.Photo source: Warrior Publications
Megaloads protest at Port of Umatilla Dec 2013.
Photo source: Warrior Publications

 

February 11, 2014

Christina Marfice of the Argus Observer

VALE—With the last of three Omega Morgan megaloads poised at the Port of Umatilla, waiting out winter weather before beginning its crawl across the state, several agencies have filed a court action seeking to halt it.

Peo Peo Mox Mox Chief — Headman of the Walla Walla Tribe Carl Sampson and ActOnClimate’s Peter Goodman filed a “petition for review of agency decision” Tuesday, alleging that the Oregon Department of Transportation failed to meet what they say is a legal obligation to determine whether the permit it issued last week for the megaload’s travel “serves the public interest.”

“The position of Sampson and Goodman is that these megaloads are not ordinary vehicles to be permitted on Oregon scenic highways using routine practices established for normal oversize loads, but that they are extraordinarily large industrial loads (longer than a football field and weighing up to 900,000 pounds), causing substantial harm to the citizens of Oregon and therefore not in the public interest,” reads a press release describing the action. “At the very least, they argue, ODOT should not be making a unilateral decision without a process for hearing public comments on whether these megaloads are in the ‘Public Interests.’”

ODOT spokesman Tom Strandberg said he sent out news releases about the megaloads, and ODOT visited the Umatilla Tribe. But he said he was not sure what else was done as far as outreach. He said public hearings are not part of the permitting process. But according to Monte Grove, ODOT’s Region 5 manager, ODOT is rethinking its process for public involvement in regards to permitting megaloads because they are getting bigger and bigger.

“And now here we are, in the middle of winter, with no formal notification, no Tribal consultation, no information to our Tribal members at our monthly council meetings that not one, but three monster megaloads are coming onto our ceded boundary lands,” Sampson wrote in a statement.

“Why did the Oregon Department of Transportation allow a variance permit of such magnitude on our sovereign and inherent Treaty rights, allowing interruption into our ceremonial, cultural, social and spiritual homelands without regard to the importance to our people?”

Omega Morgan adjusted its shipping route last year after a court ruling prohibited the Hillsboro-based shipping company from using Idaho’s Wild and Scenic River Corridor for megaload transport. Its circuitous route takes it from Umatilla to Pendleton, south on U.S. Highway 395 to Mount Vernon and east on U.S. 26 to Vale where it turns onto Clark Boulevard. It proceeds south to Highway 201 into Idaho near Homedale, then through Montana and into Canada, where its loads are bound for the tar sands oil fields in Alberta.

Christina Marfice is a news reporter at The Argus Observer. She can be reached at (541) 823-4822 or by emailing christinam@argusobserver.com. To comment on this story, go to www.argusobserver.com.

Oregon School District considers ban on Sherman Alexie novel

By JESSICA ROBINSON Feb 3, 2014

Nwnewsnetwork.com

 

A school district in Sweet Home, Ore., is considering whether to pull a book by Northwest author Sherman Alexie from junior high classrooms.

Credit Kraemer Family Library / FlickrFile photo of "The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian." An Oregon school district is considering whether to pull the book.
Credit Kraemer Family Library / Flickr
File photo of “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.” An Oregon school district is considering whether to pull the book.

“The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” is frequently targeted for removal from school reading lists for its language and depictions of violence and sexuality.

The Sweet Home school district says it received five requests from parents to have the book re-evaluated.

“It’s not frustrating that parents want to have an alternative unit,” says eighth grade language arts teacher Chelsea Gagner. “Every parent has the right to know what their child’s education is like. I’m not frustrated with that. I am frustrated that a small handful of parents are trying to take it away from the rest of the kids.”

Gagner says her students are already about 100 pages into the book.

Parents had to give permission for their kid to participate in the unit on “Part-Time Indian” – and most did. But the superintendent of the district says the people who filed complaints worried the students who weren’t allowed to read the book would be singled out by their peers.

The school board hopes to make a decision next week.

 

Read more here.

 

Students from Oregon tribes fare extremely poorly in school, groundbreaking study finds

This file photo shows young people in a classroom in Siletz in 2007. (Fredrick D. Joe / The Oregonian / 2007)
This file photo shows young people in a classroom in Siletz in 2007. (Fredrick D. Joe / The Oregonian / 2007)

By Betsy Hammond | betsyhammond@oregonian.com
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on January 22, 2014 The Oregonian

Children who are members of Oregon Indian tribes fare extremely poorly in Oregon schools, in part because so many of them miss a lot of school, a new study shows.

They also suffer academically because 30 percent are enrolled in the state’s worst performing schools, compared with 7 percent of students statewide who attend schools with bottom-tier results, the study found.

Only about 40 percent of Oregon students who are official members of an Oregon tribe can do math at grade level, and only about half read at grade level in elementary and middle school, the study found.

And just 59 percent of tribal members in the class of 2011 earned a diploma within five years of starting high school, compared with 72 percent of all Oregon students.

“It is disturbing to see that so many tribal member kids all across our state are not getting an effective education,” said Kathleen George, director of the Spirit Mountain Community Fund. “It feels like they are out of sight and out of mind.”

The outcomes are much worse than has generally been understood because Oregon tracks students as Native American if they or their parents say they are. But only about 5 percent of those students are enrolled members of an Oregon tribe, the study found.

Compared with tribal members, students the state tracks as Native American are less likely to be in special education, more likely to live in a city or a suburb, less likely to move during the school year and less likely to get suspended from school.

The study was paid for by the Spirit Mountain Community Fund, the philanthropic arm of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. It was conducted by ECONorthwest and overseen by the Chalkboard Project.

Seven of Oregon’s nine federally recognized tribes and tribal confederations took part: the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua, the Burns Paiute, the Klamath, the Grand Ronde, the Siletz, the Umatilla and the Warm Springs.

Together, those tribal groups have about 3,200 students in Oregon public schools, or about 250 per grade.

That compares with about 67,000 students statewide whose school records indicate they are solely or partly Native American.

Two of Oregon’s smaller tribes did not participate in the study: the Coquille and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw.

ECONorthwest and the Chalkboard Project have a special arrangement with the Oregon Department of Education that gives the research firm access to otherwise confidential student records.

Leaders of the seven tribes provided the department with the names of their school-age members. The department in turn informed ECONorthwest researchers which Oregon student ID numbers belong to an enrolled tribal member.

Using their large database of student records, researchers then were able to compile an unprecedented statistical portrait of how tribal young people fare in Oregon public schools.

Ramona Halcomb, director of education at the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, said those findings “are not what we were hoping for, but they’re useful so we know how far we need to go to get to our goal.”

During 2011-12, one of every three students from an Oregon tribe was “chronically absent,” meaning the student missed 10 percent of school days or more, the study found.

Students who miss that much school are unlikely to ever read or do math at grade level or to earn diplomas, other studies have shown.

The 33 percent chronic absentee rate among tribal members was much worse than the high statewide chronic absentee rate of 19 percent and the 23 percent chronic absentee rate for all students who identify as Native American, the study found.

Authors of the study are urging tribes and state policymakers to consider working with foundations or nonprofits to find a strategy to cut tribal children’s chronic absenteeism rate in half. That would likely require changes in both schools and tribal households, the study said.

George said she and other tribal leaders plan to follow through.

“We need to help foster a change in culture to help our children understand that showing up in school every day is the path to success in school and later in life,” she said. She said they will work “to help children see school as a place that is important, that is a path to success and where they feel valued and see the value for them.”

Tribal children are concentrated in Oregon’s worst performing schools, the study found.

All three schools attended by students who live on or near the Warm Springs reservation, Warm Springs Elementary, Jefferson County Middle School and Madras High, rank in the bottom 5 percent of Oregon Schools based on their 2011-12 test scores and graduation rates. So does Chiloquin Elementary, which serves the tiny town where the Klamath Tribes are based.

George said she was alarmed to learn that tribal children are five times more likely than other children to attend a school with rock-bottom results, many of them in rural parts of Oregon. “That is an important finding that we need to address. There is no denying that part of the solution must be to bring change to these rural schools and help all the children in these rural schools.”

One surprisingly good outcome for tribal youths: Members of Oregon tribes who graduate from an Oregon high school enroll in college at about the same rate as Oregon students as a whole. Roughly 60 percent of both groups enroll in a community college or four-year college within 16 months of finishing high school, the study found.

Other findings about students who are members of Oregon tribes include:

  • Almost half live in rural areas and another one-third live in small towns. Only 20 percent live in a city or suburb.
  • 17 percent are in special education, compared with 13 percent of Oregon students as a whole.
  • 11 percent were suspended from school, compared with 7 percent of Oregon students as a whole.
  • 75 percent qualify for subsidized school meals, meaning they live in low-income families.
  • 11 percent changed schools at least once during the 2011-12 school year.
  • Only 46 percent of tribal members in middle school passed the state reading test, but 69 percent of tribal members in high school did.

— Betsy Hammond

Peter Yarrow Concert to Benefit Native American Nonprofit

 

Peter Yarrow’s “An Evening of Love and Laughter,” a concert benefiting Portland-based Wisdom of the Elders

Salem-News.com Jan-13-2014

(PORTLAND, OR) – Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul & Mary fame, will perform a concert for Wisdom of the Elders, a Native American nonprofit in Portland, at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 14, at Augustana Lutheran Church, 2710 NE 14th Ave., Portland. For tickets, visit www.wisdomoftheelders.org/wisdombenefit.

Peter Yarrow, of the famed 1960s folk group Peter, Paul & Mary, will perform “An Evening of Love and Laughter” to benefit Portland-based Wisdom of the Elders, a Native American nonprofit, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14, at Augustana Lutheran Church, which donated use of its facility at 2710 NE 14th Ave.

Peter Yarrow, of the famed 1960s folk group Peter, Paul & Mary
Peter Yarrow, of the famed 1960s folk group Peter, Paul & Mary

Yarrow, who wrote some of the trio’s hits, including “Puff, the Magic Dragon” and “Day is Done,” has merged music and social activism in recent decades.

Since 1993, Wisdom has served the Native American Community through cultural programs, including a Northwest Indian Storytelling Festival and a collection of video oral histories of Native elders.

Recently, the organization has begun to focus on the effects of climate change on Native communities; its Wisdom Radio for this season focuses on the issue. Joining Yarrow will be his son Christopher, who will sing and play the washtub base. The younger Yarrow, a Portland resident, plays with local bands Baby Gramps, KingniK and Tevis Hodge Jr.

Tickets, which range from $5 to $60, can be purchased through www.wisdomoftheelders/wisdombenefit. The $60 sponsor ticket includes a meet-and-greet with Yarrow and book signing.

What: Peter Yarrow ‘s “An Evening of Love and Laughter,” a concert benefiting Portland-based Wisdom of the Elders

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 14

Where: Augustana Lutheran Church, 2710 NE 14th Ave., Portland

Tickets: $20 general admission; $15 seniors and students, $60 sponsor tickets, $5 children 14 and

Younger

Contact: Daniel Dixon, Daniel@wisdomoftheelders.org, 503-775-4014

Oregon’s Treasurer Casts Doubt On I-5 Bridge Tolling Plan (in WA)

 

By Chris Lehman

Jan 10 2014 nwNewsnetwork.org

Oregon’s state treasurer says he won’t approve bonds for a new I-5 bridge across the Columbia River without a guarantee: that Oregon can collect tolls from Washington drivers.

An artist's rendition of the proposed 1-5 bridge over the Columbia River.Columbia River CrossingSource: nwNewsNetwork.org
An artist’s rendition of the proposed 1-5 bridge over the Columbia River.
Columbia River Crossing
Source: nwNewsNetwork.org

The statement Friday is a response to a new analysis that says tolls will be enough to pay off the bonds for the project.

Oregon Treasurer Ted Wheeler says it’s not that he doubts enough drivers will use the proposed bridge, dubbed the Columbia River Crossing. It’s that he’s not sure enough of those drivers will actually pay the toll.

The new I-5 bridge would rely on electronic tolling. The money is either collected from a vehicle-mounted transponder or by scanning license plates and sending the driver a bill.

Here’s the thing: the majority of bridge commuters live in Washington. So the state of Oregon would need to work out an agreement with its cross-river neighbor to collect tolls from Washington drivers. Talks are under way between the states but no deal has been reached yet.

Wheeler says without such a deal, he’s not sure whether toll money would be enough to pay the debt on building the bridge.

Lawmakers in Olympia are wary of turning over control of tolling to Oregon. But Washington lawmakers have not approved any funding from their state to help build the bridge.

Oregon Proposes Removing Hatchery Fish From Wild Fish Areas

A new plan for six species of salmon and trout in Oregon's coastal rivers would shift the balance of hatchery and wild fish. | credit: caddiseug/Flickr
A new plan for six species of salmon and trout in Oregon’s coastal rivers would shift the balance of hatchery and wild fish. | credit: caddiseug/Flickr

By Cassandra Profita, OPB

Hatchery-reared fish would get the heave ho from certain rivers along the Oregon Coast under the latest strategy to help Oregon’s wild salmon and steelhead.

The new management plan proposed by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife would designate several coastal rivers as “wild fish emphasis areas,” while increasing the number of hatchery fish planted in other coastal rivers to expand fishing opportunities in those waters.

The idea is to improve the way six species of wild salmon and steelhead are managed without shortchanging those people who count on hatcheries to produce enough fish for them to catch.

To find the right balance, the agency convened several stakeholder committees with members from sportfishing, commercial fishing and conservation groups. Stakeholders spent months debating which rivers should get more hatchery fish and which ones should get less.

ODFW’s Coastal Multi-Species Conservation and Management Plan aims to conserve six species in 20 different river basins along the Oregon coast. None of the species are listed under the Endangered Species Act, and the state wants to make sure it stays that way.

The fish face threats from habitat loss, predators and overfishing. And also from their own hatchery-raised relatives. Studies show hatchery fish can compete with wild fish for habitat, and they can impact genetics through interbreeding. Several lawsuits are targeting hatcheries in the Northwest as scientists continue to document conservation risks to wild fish from hatchery releases.

Of course, hatcheries also serve an important role in coastal communities.

“They provide fish for people to catch,” ODFW program manager Tom Stahl says. “We’re trying to balance the hatchery program in terms of providing that fishing opportunity and also conserving wild fish populations.”

The state plan, which is currently in draft form and open to public comment, wouldn’t reduce the overall number of hatchery fish being released into coastal rivers. In fact, it would increase that number slightly from 6 million to 6.3 million per year. But it would reduce the number hatchery fish being released in some rivers such as the Kilchis, Siletz, and the Elk.

The plan has sparked outcry from both sportfishing and conservation groups. Some fishermen prefer to catch fish on rivers that would have fewer hatchery fish under the plan, and some conservation groups have put a lot of effort into improving wild fish runs on rivers that would get more hatchery fish.

After sitting on one of the committees, Alan Moore of the conservation group Trout Unlimited says it will be impossible to make everyone happy.

“The Kilchis River will be a wild fish emphasis area, and hatchery production will be moved to Nestucca River,” Moore says. “Trout Unlimited is planning a bunch of habitat conservation work on the Nestucca. We’re wondering: Should we be thinking about moving it to a different river where it stands a better chance of helping wild fish?”

Meanwhile, fishermen who rely hatcheries to ensure enough fish to catch are counting to make sure that the hatchery fish proposed to be removed from the Kilchis are actually going to be released somewhere else.

“Everybody’s counting fish,” Moore says.

The plan would also put more effort into preventing hatchery fish from interacting with wild fish overall, Stahl says, and it proposes a sliding scale for fishing seasons that would allow more fishing in years with higher predicted runs of fish.

“The plan really is trying to be proactive in increasing conservation as well as increasing fishing opportunity,” he says. “We’re threading that needle.”

ODFW is holding six meetings this month to collect public comments on the plan. The first meeting is from 6 to 9 pm Thursday at ODFW Headquarters, 4034 Fairview Industrial Drive SE, in Salem.

Other meetings will be held from 6 to 9 pm:

  • Jan. 21 at the TIllamook County Library Meeting Room, 1716 3rd St., in Tillamook;
  • Jan. 23 at the Best Western Plus Agate Beach Inn, 3019 N. Coast Highway, in Newport;
  • Jan. 27 at Douglas County Library Meeting Room, 1409 NE Diamond Lake Blvd., in Roseburg;
  • Jan 28 at North Bend Community Center, 2222 Broadway St., in North Bend; and
  • Jan. 29 at Reedsport Community Center, 451 Winchester Ave., in Reedsport.

Northwest Teams Lead A Growing ‘Green Sports’ Movement

Cassandra Profita, Earth Fix

Northwest sports teams are leading an effort to use the widespread appeal of basketball, football, baseball and hockey to spread an environmental message.

A group formed by six teams in Portland, Seattle and Vancouver, B.C., called the Green Sports Alliance set out three years ago to improve the environmental performance of professional sports. The alliance has grown to hundreds of teams across the country that are now competing to see who can be the greenest.
Baseball fields, basketball arenas and football stadiums across the country are installing solar panels and wind turbines. They’re selling local and organic food to their fans, and replacing trash cans with recycling and compost bins.

Supporters of this movement say sports offer a fun, non-political way to promote environmentalism. It saves money, cuts carbon emissions, and the environmental benefits count toward the teams’ record of community service.

Tracking Green Stats

The green sports game isn’t as exciting to watch as a slam dunk, a home run or a touchdown. But it has racked up some impressive stats:

  • The Portland Trail Blazers have cut the carbon emissions at the Moda Center by 50 percent since 2008 and saved $3.3 million in utility costs in five years.
  • The Seattle Seahawks and Sounders installed the largest solar array in the state of Washington at CenturyLink Field in 2011; and
  • The Seattle Mariners raised their recycling rate from 38 percent in 2010 to 90 percent in 2013 and saved $2.2 million in utility costs in seven years.

The teams are tracking their environmental performance with help from the Natural Resource Defense Council and the Environmental Protection Agency. So they know where they stand in the environmental rankings. According to Martin Tull, executive director of the Green Sports Alliance, that has spurred some friendly competition.

“When one facility puts up 3,000 solar panels, the next time an owner is going to build a stadium, he wants to have 3,001,” Tull said. “We try to use that as much as we can to give them little catalyst to have the biggest solar array or to have the least energy used.”

Scott Jenkins, vice president of ballpark operations for the Seattle Mariners, said his team has been trying to match the San Francisco Giants’ recycling rate for years. This year, the Mariners fell a little short once again as the Giants reached a 95 percent recycling rate.

“Every time I think we’re going to catch up to them they raise the bar a little bit more,” Jenkins said.

Tracking environmental performance has also yielded some interesting data. When the Blazers commissioned a study to measure their carbon footprint in 2008, it revealed that 70 percent of the carbon emissions associated with the Moda Center come from fan and employee transportation to and from the arena. Team transportation and business travel, by comparison, only accounted for 4 percent of the team’s carbon emissions.

“That surprised us all,” said Justin Zeulner, sustainability director for the Blazers. “We realized we have to start engaging with our fans and our community to get to our impacts because they’re the ones selecting behavior. They’re the ones that decide: How am I going to get to the game?”

Making it fun

Sports teams aren’t looking to bog people down with environmental doom and gloom. Instead, they say, they try to make the idea of sustainable living fun. One hockey arena, for example, invites fans to shoot aluminum cans into the proper recycling receptacle.

The Mariners introduced two recycling superheroes: Captain Plastic and Kid Compost. They roam the concourse of Safeco Field offering photo ops and recycling and composting assistance. The compost from the games goes to Cedar Grove Composting, which in turn creates bags of Safeco Soil made from compost at its facility. Fans can take that compost home to use in the garden; the team also offers “kitchen catchers” to hold household food scraps.

The Blazers have a living wall that invites fans to high-five a hand print if they support the team’s environmental mission. It also has a chalkboard for people to share how they’re going green in their own lives.

Watch the video:

 

Saving money

Tull says money is another motivation for teams going green – and one the alliance uses to attract new members.

“When we sit down with a new team that we haven’t worked with we ask a very simple question: Would you like to learn how other teams have saved millions through conservation,” he said. “And what do you think they say? They say hell yeah.”

Northwest sports teams are among the first to prove that conservation measures such as replacing light bulbs and reducing water use at event centers have a quick return on investment.

“When you look at your bottom line and say I’m saving $400,000 a year in utilities, I’m saving $200,000 a year on my waste costs, and I’m building brand value and doing what’s right, it really is a no-brainer to get into that area,” said Scott Jenkins, vice president of operations for the Mariners.

Selling environmentalism

For those who are rooting for a cleaner environment, Tull says, sports teams are a great way to sell the idea to a mass market.

“If I talk to a middle school student and say, ‘Did you realize the Portland Trail Blazers cut their energy use in their house by 30 percent?’ It’s a lot more exciting than if we say, ‘Did you realize that this local bank did a retrofit and cut their energy use?’”, said Tull. “Even with the exact same statistics it’s always going to be more exciting if it comes through the lens of sports.”

Allen Hershkowitz, director of the Natural Resource Defense Council’s Sports Greening Program, says his environmental group hatched the idea of using sports to sell environmentalism back in 2004.

Sporting events themselves don’t have huge environmental impacts, he says, “however, where the impact of sports is enormous is in its cultural and market influence. The cultural and market influence of sports is almost unparalleled.”

He cites a statistic: 13 percent of Americans follow science while 63 percent follow sports.

“So, if you want to reach Americans, you’ve got to go where they’re at,” he said. “Using the non-political, non-partisan, politically neutral space of basketball, baseball, football, hockey, tennis, soccer to educate people about the need for recycling, energy efficiency, water conservation and safer chemical use. It’s a spectacular platform and at the same time tens of millions of pounds of carbon have been reduced.”

Peter Murchie is an environmental health manger for the EPA in Seattle. He says his agency is hoping that fans will take environmental lessons home with them from the big game. He’s hoping the movement will trickle down to younger sports teams, too.

“Sports translates down into your local communities,” he said. “If you see that the Seattle Seahawks or Portland Trail blazers being green, there’s a chance that your local little league and youth sports will also look at how they can do things in a more sustainable way. That gets an even broader marketplace.”

What about climate change?

So far, sports teams are leading by example and sticking with subtle environmental suggestions. However, this year several league commissioners sent letters to Congress acknowledging the issue of climate change.

The Trail Blazers are the first and only professional sports team to sign a climate declaration. Zeulner says he’s hoping the unifying nature of sports can move people beyond political barriers toward taking action on climate change.

“You can go to a sporting event and be sitting with people who are complete strangers to you, but you’re all focused on that energy of what’s happening on the field – what’s happening on the playing surface,” he said. “You start seeing people high-fiving each other, hugging each other over this thrill of whatever the sport is. The emotion of that sport. These are Republicans and Democrats. They’re different races. Different sexes. It doesn’t matter. Sports gives you that opportunity to strip all those barriers down and realize we actually want the same things.”

The Green Sports Alliance is already expanding into college sports and is now looking at the prospect of including teams across the globe in Europe and South America.

Conservation Group Turns Christmas Trees Into Salmon Habitat

When submerged in a coastal stream, an old Christmas tree offers young salmon protection from predators and new potential food sources. | credit: Courtesy of Tualatin Valley Trout Unlimited
When submerged in a coastal stream, an old Christmas tree offers young salmon protection from predators and new potential food sources. | credit: Courtesy of Tualatin Valley Trout Unlimited

Cassandra Profita, Earth Fix

Before you kick your dying Christmas tree to the curb, consider this: Members of the conservation group Trout Unlimited would love to turn that tree into fish habitat.

On three Saturdays in January, the Tualatin Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited will be collecting Christmas tree donations at two locations in the Portland metropolitan area. Later, they’ll place the trees into a side channel of the Necanicum River near Seaside, where they will provide predator protection and food sources for baby coho salmon.

The group is entering the third year of a program called Christmas for Coho. It’s is one of many groups across the country turning old Christmas trees into fish habitat. Similar projects have taken place in California, Missouri, Ohio and Louisiana.

Tualatin Valley Trout Unlimited board member Mike Gentry helped place Christmas trees into a coastal stream the first year of Christmas for Coho – back in 2012. He said he saw baby coho swimming to the site as soon as the trees hit the water.

“Even while we were still working in there placing the trees, we could see many little bitty fish gathering around us and coming in under the trees,” he said. “We weren’t even done with the project.”

Untitled
Christmas trees in a coastal stream. Photo by Michael D. Ellis

Once submerged in water, Christmas trees provide places for microorganisms to grow and attract other critters that baby salmon can eat before they head out to sea.

“They’re like magnets for fish,” said wetlands restoration consultant Doug Ray of Carex Consulting, who is also a member of the Tualatin Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited. “The fish will stay under the cover of the branches during the day and come out at night to feed.”

The Pacific Northwest could be using recycled Christmas trees all over the place to help salmon, Ray said. Within days of putting the trees under water, a brown algae starts growing on the needles. Other critters flock to the branches to eat the algae, and a new food web is born.

“They’re covered within a couple of weeks,” said Ray. “It’s like a Chia pet. Just add water.”

Ray and Gentry are hoping that the Christmas for Coho program will encourage more people to start turning Christmas trees into salmon habitat.

“If everyone in Oregon took their Christmas trees and put them into a stream instead of chipping them into mulch, it would be a really valuable gift to salmon,” said Ray.

The Tualatin Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited will be collecting trees on Jan. 4, 11 and 18th from 9 am to 4 pm at two locations: Royal Treatment Fly Shop, 21570 Willamette Dr., in West Linn; and Northwest Fly Fishing Outfitters, 10910 NE Halsey, in Portland.