Eugene Weekly : News : 08.17.06

News Briefs: Jeff Hogg Denied | Wild Horse Roundup | Cold Wolf Welcome | Cohousing Update | Art From Anything? | Lane County Herbicide Spray Schedule |

Slant: Short opinion pieces and rumor-chasing notes

News:

Devilish Details


Police review rules may lack power, openess and independence.

Q & A:

Resisting an Illegal War

Refusenik Lt. Ehren Watada won't be silenced.

Happening Person: Isabel and Dillon Moran

JEFF HOGG DENIED

After spending three months in jail without charge, local nursing student Jeff Hogg hoped to walk on Aug. 15. Instead, he was told that his jail time may be extended six months beyond his planned release date of Sept. 30.

Protesters gather in Eugene Aug. 15 to support Jeff Hogg.

Federal Judge Michael Hogan sent Hogg to the slammer on May 18 after holding the 32-year-old in contempt of court for refusing to testify to a federal grand jury seeking information about eco-sabotage acts. If Hogg holds his ground, and the court grants the grand jury a six-month extension, Hogg could remain in jail until March 2007.

Hogg's attorney, Paul Loney, had filed a motion for his immediate release, arguing that since Hogg will never cooperate with the grand jury, there is no coercive value for keeping him in jail. Loney told the court that Hogg's detention has become punitive, harming his relationships with his parents, his life partner and his school. While in jail, Hogg missed both his final exams and his grandfather's funeral.

Federal prosecutor Stephen Peifer argued for Hogg's continued incarceration, stressing that although Hogg has not been indicted, cooperating defendants and witnesses have provided evidence of his participation in "the family" of eco-saboteurs. "He has no immunity yet," Peifer warned. "He only gets immunity when he starts answering questions."

On the witness stand, Hogg said that while he means no disrespect to the court, he is fundamentally opposed to grand juries, which operate outside of the regular court system with no judge, no lawyers and secret proceedings. He stressed that would be willing to testify at a jury trial if subpoenaed. "I have long-held beliefs about the grand jury system, and I'm not willing to compromise on those," he said.

Judge Hogan denied the motion to release Hogg, ruling that in light of new information — six guilty pleas from Operation Backfire defendants, the grand jury's extension request, additional criminal investigations — Hogg may eventually be persuaded to testify if he's kept in jail longer. — Kera Abraham

WILD HORSE ROUNDUP

Mustangs, in the minds of many Americans, are pure Hollywood: the untamed spirit of the West, galloping free our imaginations. But real, live wild horses roam public plains here in Oregon, their welfare increasingly threatened by a federal administration that sees their hooves and teeth tearing into sensitive habitat — and potential ranching revenue.

A contractor for ODFW rounds up wild horses at Sheldon Wildlife Refuge in June. Photo courtesy of Special Research Group 2006

The wild horse population has dwindled from about 50,000 in 1971 to some 20,000 today, about 1,000 of them at the Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge on the Oregon-Nevada border. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) wants to whittle Sheldon's mustang population to about 100 well before 2012, said refuge manager Brian Day. "It's just not reasonable to leave the horses to their own devices out there," he said. "The wild horses have to be managed through periodic gathers."

On June 19-20, the USFWS rounded up 335 mustangs at Sheldon by chasing them into holding pens with helicopters. A team of mustang advocates reports that at least four foals died in the process, an adult horse was killed and several mares aborted their fetuses. Day disputes those figures, saying that only two foals died from injuries related to the roundup, three adults died of unrelated injuries and one mare had a stillborn. The USFWS is planning another round-up at Sheldon for late October, or whenever an updated environmental analysis is completed, Day said.

The USFWS gives the captured horses to adoption agents, including Forever Free Mustangs in Oregon, who place them in homes, Day said. But he admitted that some of the horses could end up with owners who sell them to slaughterhouses. "It's always a possibility," he said. "But we have screened our adoption agents, and they're responsible for finding good homes for these horses."

Horse meat fetches up to $4 per pound in Japan and parts of Europe, and more than 90,000 horses, some of them wild, were killed in three foreign-owned slaughterhouses in Texas and Illinois last year. "Horses that sell at auctions for $500-$700, you can be pretty sure they're going to slaughter," said Camilla Mortensen of the Northwest Wild Horse Project.

Mortensen alleges that the USFWS is getting the horses off the refuge in order to sell grazing allotments to ranchers. "It comes down to leasing public land for cattle grazing," she said. "These horses have no protection."

But Day brushes off that claim. "We are sitting on grazing permits, but we have no plans to issue those," he said. Ranchers haven't held grazing permits at Sheldon since 1990, when the USFWS bought the permits back from ranchers with a grant from the Mellon Foundation, he said.

The dispute between the activists and the feds comes down to perspective. The USFWS views the mustangs as feral domestic livestock, while mustang advocacy groups see them as native wildlife. Wild horses evolved in North America but died out here at the end of the Ice Age; only those that had migrated via land bridge to Europe survived as a species. They were re-introduced to the U.S. with European settlers in the 1500s.

The split perspective leads to schizophrenic laws. Wild horse slaughter was permitted until 1971, when Congress passed an act calling wild horses "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West" and prohibiting their slaughter. In December 2004, Congress repealed that act with a new law allowing the BLM to sell "excess" wild horses at auctions; the new owners may slaughter them for their meat. Horses on USFWS land, such as the Sheldon mustangs, are also unprotected.

Wild horse advocates are now lobbying for The American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act (HR 503), which would prohibit the transporting or sale of wild horses for slaughter. — Kera Abraham

COLD WOLF WELCOME

Endangered gray wolves haven't even made a home in Oregon yet, but the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), anticipating their arrival, is preparing to welcome them — with guns.

Under the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, adopted in December 2005, state officials are allowed to kill wolves that chew on livestock such as sheep and cows. But since wolves are an endangered species at both the state and federal levels, offing them would violate the Endangered Species Act. So the ODFW has applied for a special federal "gray wolf recovery permit," currently under review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to let officials shoot wolves with impunity.

Under the permit, the ODFW would be required to first try non-lethal methods, such as strobes and flagged fences, to reduce livestock casualties. State and federal wildlife agents, but not private landowners, would be allowed to kill wolves only as a last resort.

Gray wolves are native to Oregon, but local populations have been gone from the state for more than 50 years. Biologists expect them to eventually migrate back here from neighboring Idaho, where they are established.

Oregon's wolf management plan aims to help gray wolves survive in the state "while minimizing conflicts with humans, primary land uses and other Oregon wildlife." That may be a self-contradicting goal, as a healthy population of wolves seems destined to conflict with primary land uses (the state's land use planning never had wolves in mind) and other Oregon wildlife (a canine's gotta eat).

"They're going to kill wolves on public land, basically because we're subsidizing cattle to be on the open range," said Brooks Fahy, director of the Eugene-based nonprofit Predator Defense. "Wolves should get priority as an endangered species. Ranchers who choose to loose cattle on public land should not get that priority."

ODFW contacts were out of the office and unable to comment.

The Oregon Department of Administrative Services is currently reviewing ODFW's proposed legislation, which would, among other things, allow farmers and ranchers without permits to kill wolves "caught in the act" of killing livestock. — Kera Abraham

COHOUSING UPDATE

Plans for an ambitious downtown cohousing project at 11th and Lincoln are behind schedule but nearing completion, according to Eugene attorney Martin Henner, one of the project's proponents and financial backers.

"The architect and engineer are tweaking and tweaking," says Henner this week. "They say the plans will finally be done in a month. I will believe it when I see them in my hand."

Once the plans for the intentional community are complete, the next step will be putting the 24-unit, three-story condominium development out for bids. The accepted construction bids will determine the costs of the units. The architect is Jonathan Stafford of Eugene, and floor plans can be seen at www.eugenecohousing.org

So far, Henner says, the group has about 17 households committed to the project, and the group is meeting regularly.

The complex features individual, self-contained apartments with shared common areas, including a dining hall, library and workout room The first floor will be commercial space and parking.

For more information, see the EW online archives for April 20. Henner can be reached at 345-6466.

ART FROM ANYTHING?

A dragon crafted by Artists in Steel

A fire-breathing dragon made from old car bodies? How about a fan-tastic sculpture made from old fans? Part of the Gathering of Gardeners coming up in Cottage Grove in September is a garden art contest with a $500 grand prize. Just about anything goes, but the rules are the art must be made from recycled materials and be able to be displayed in a garden.

Entry forms are available by contacting the organizers through their website, www.thegatheringofgardeners.comEntry fee is $10 and the deadline is Aug. 31. Artists will set up their pieces Friday, Sept. 15 at the Village Green Resort.

The Gathering of Gardeners Festival Sept. 16-17 features speakers, workshops, music, food, plant vendors and activities for all ages.

Lane County Herbicide Spray Schedule

Weyerhaeuser Company (744-4600): Aerial application of Garlon 3A and 4, 2,4-D LV6, Escort, Chopper, Arsenal, Oust XP, Accord Concentrate and CRT to 189 acres near McCurdy and Tester Creek tributaries (#771-44743). Aerial application to 162 acres near Table Rock, Wilson Creeks, and Coast Fork tributary (#771-55742). Aerial application to 659 acres near Drury, and Whiskey Creeks and Mohawk River tributary in Eastern Lane District (#771-55748). For more info, contact the ODF at 726-3588.

Heceta Head Lighthouse State Park posted a potential Garlon 3A application before Sept. 2. For info, contact Dennis Lucas at 547-3416.

ISABEL AND DILLON MORAN

A couple of months ago, 10-year-old twins Isabel and Dillon Moran were enjoying an afternoon at Amazon Pool when Dillon noticed a man who seemed to be in trouble. "He said, 'I think I'm having a seizure,' and he fell," says Dillon, who won a commendation from the city for his quick action in summoning a lifeguard. Soon to be fifth-graders at Harris, the Moran twins are Amazon Pool regulars who learned to swim in the YMCA's after-school program. "I'm on the swim team," says Isabel. "I swim because I'm training for basketball." The twins often do volunteer work at the Y, such as minding the front desk or reading to younger kids. They volunteer big-time when they accompany their father, Springfield special-ed teacher Tim Moran, and his students, on community-service projects. "We volunteer a lot at Grassroots Garden," says Isabel. "I picked the largest carrot two years in a row. It accidentally got cut up in the stew." Dillon is leading a project, along with several special-needs young people, to adopt "Ki," an injured red-shouldered hawk, at the Cascades Raptor Center.