Quarry on Native Lands

King's unsustainable mining project proceeds

Few are aware of Ed King’s (King Estate Winery) unsustainable investment in the Old Hazeldell Quarry mine in Oakridge. Currently forestland, TV Butte is set to be rezoned to open a quarry. Aggregate rock will be extracted from TV Butte for road paving projects for 50 years. Once U.S. Forest Service land, the property of the proposed quarry site is known as TV Butte on Dunning Road. This is the original location of the town of Oakridge, once called Hazeldell. Continue reading 

Save TV Butte

Land harbors irreplaceable Indigenous history

Old Hazeldell Quarry, an investment of Ed King (King Estate Winery), has applied to Lane County to change the zoning of a place in Oakridge known as “TV Butte.” The area, which is outside Oakridge’s urban growth boundary, is currently zoned F1 and F2 forestlands. If the zone change is granted, the property would be open to quarry mining.  TV Butte is the center of an irreplaceable and endangered piece of local pioneer and Indigenous history.  Continue reading 

Stop the Klamath Agreements, Save our Wild Salmon

The Klamath Agreements may to be on their final days.  Rep. Greg Walden (R- Hood River) is rumored to attempt to slam through fraudulent legislation for the Klamath agreement this week. The bill as is no longer includes language for dam removal, a primary bargained for benefit to signatory tribes. Rate payers have been charged a fee on their monthly bill from PacifiCorp for a number of years for dam removal. But if legislators have no intention of removing the dams, where did fees rate payers have been charged go? Continue reading 

Sacred Salmon and the KBRA

The tribal turmoil over water rights on the Klamath

Over the weekend hundreds of participants along the Klamath River gathered in ceremony for the 2015 Great SalmonR un of the Klamath-Trinity Rivers.  For the first time this year, the Klamath Tribes participated in the run, which has been extended to Chiloquin, Oregon. Members and descendants from all the Klamath Basin river tribes took part in the ceremonial event, beginning May 29 at at the Pacific Ocean and concluding in Chiloquin June 1. Continue reading 

Klamath Tribes and the KBRA Fish Kill

Politics have taken priority over tribal member’s inherent rights and the rights of Klamath River salmon. The controversial Klamath Basin Restoration Act (KBRA) claims to restore fish however KBRA mandates recently denied increased flows to Klamath River Chinook salmon.  An article by Associated Press reporter Jeff Barnard warned “A deadly salmon parasite is thriving in the drought, infecting nearly all the juvenile Chinook in the Klamath River in Northern California as they prepare to migrate to the ocean.” Continue reading 

No Oil Export Terminal

Respect treaty rights on the Columbia

I have lived about a half mile from the Kinder Morgan Eugene Terminal (which used to only be publicly advertised as Jerry Brown Co) here on Prairie Road in Eugene since I was in second grade. I attended Irving Elementary in the Bethel School District through fifth grade. My family and I never questioned the terminal or how it operates. But once I became an adult, I realized the huge risk that deregulated railways are and how much fuel rolls by our home every day. I personally became concerned about the safety and health of our community. There are six schools within a five-mile radius. Continue reading