Eugene Weekly : News : 11.16.06

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Amazon Headwaters neighbors decry forest development

BY ADRIENNE VAN DER VERK

Lisa Warnes has always paid attention to the streams in her neighborhood. A decade after moving to Eugene in 1980, she noticed that local waterways were changing for the worse. "They used to handle the rain just fine," she noted. "But since the early '90s, I've seen storm events where the creek was cresting and showing signs of decay."

Neighbors and police gather when a bulldozer appears on Nectar Way. PHOTO: Kevin Matthews

Warnes and her neighbors have reason to be concerned. As residents living on the border of the East Fork Amazon Headwaters Forest, their lives are intertwined with an ongoing controversy regarding the sale of a 40-acre plot between Nectar Way and Dillard Road to Portland housing developer Joe Green.

As the vice president of the South Eugene Neighborhood Association, Warnes has been at the heart of her community's fight to preserve the ecologically sensitive acreage. According to Warnes, storm water runs off roofs and driveways much more rapidly than it escapes the forest floor, potentially elevating levels of arsenic and E. coli in Amazon Creek. The loss of rare plant and wildlife also troubles her deeply.

But there is a more immediate loss at stake for the neighborhood. A bulldozer recently lumbered up the Nectar Way hill, preparing to enter the forest and conduct a geotechnical soil analysis contracted by Green. An alarmed Warnes immediately got on the phone, demanding a city presence and summoning every concerned neighbor she could contact. Block members and supporters gathered around the bulldozer's crew asking to see a permit. When none was forthcoming, Warnes contacted the Eugene Police Department.

"They were hauling in a hydraulic drilling machine," Warnes remembers. "I asked the city if someone would be there to show them how to use the equipment in the way that was the least invasive. The city claimed the bulldozer would not take out any trees or impact any soil. How is that possible?"

City staff postponed the survey pending an investigation into the need for permits. Warnes was on the phone for days on end, talking to city officials, attorneys, land use experts and other activists. But in the first week of November, the surveyors returned. Neighbors gathered for two days, standing helplessly in the rain as they watched the equipment plow through the forest floor, leaving broken trees and devastated foliage in its wake.

On the third morning Anita Glantz heard what she believed was yet another bulldozer. Outraged, she rallied friends, threw on rain gear and went into the woods, prepared to sit in front of the machine if she had to.

"I feel a real stewardship for this land," she said. "We have gone through all the legal and ethical means to negotiate and compromise and protect [it]. Other people are not aware of how extensive the destruction [from the survey] really is, and this is being done with city approval!"

Senior Planner Alissa Hansen reports that the surveyors have, in fact, been responsive to the city's requests on behalf of the neighborhood. "I've had very positive interactions with the people in the neighborhood, but I think when things don't go the way they want, they think we agree with the developers rather than being objective," she said.

Attorney Mark Hoyt, who represents Joe Green, says the city has been "very careful to make us follow the letter of the law." He said he's unaware that the survey caused damage to the area and invites input from the community at every step of the process.

Warnes not only has input; she has evidence. South Eugene organizers have photographed and videotaped erosion and breakage done by the equipment, even posting a clip on YouTube.com, and will use the images to continue their push for support at the upcoming public hearing on Dec. 13. Warnes and Glantz both fear a mounting assumption that the development is inevitable, but they're prepared to fight until the end.

"It's been a long couple of weeks. Our whole lives have been on hold," Warnes said.

Glantz concurred. "I've never been arrested; I've never done anything violent. I haven't been involved in anything political since the first Gulf War," she said. "But we need to bring attention to the fact that this is happening. I just want to sit down and make this stop."