Eugene Weekly : Views : 1.4.07

Natural Resistance:
Left Behind
The dolphin and the butterfly
BY MARY O’BRIEN

Yangtze River’s freshwater dolphin, the baiji (Lipotes vexillifer), and Willamette Valley’s Fender’s blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides fenderi) shared at least six characteristics: 1) Bluish color; 2) reputation as a benign, beautiful creature; 3) depletion by humans of food source to one thousandth of its previous extent; 4) decline of its own population to dangerously few individuals; 5) governmental recognition as endangered; and, 6) after being recognized as endangered, the continuation of human activities known to threaten their extinction. [Read More]

 

Viewpoint:
Suburban Renewal
Detaching ourselves from a painfully flawed idea
BY JAN SPENCER

A recent EW article titled “Retrofitting Suburbia” (11/16) addressed a fascinating and timely land use issue: reinventing suburbia. And it missed a number of key points.

The article nicely described the physical setting of my Suburban Renewal Project in River Road, such as food growing all over, chickens and some human interest. It did little to explain why someone would devote a great deal of time over a half dozen years and spend a fair amount of money towards a fundamental makeover of a quarter acre chunk of suburbia. [Read More]