The field burning town hall meeting that took place Wednesday, November 14th during the evening at St. Peters Catholic Church was a hit. As even Mayor Kitty Piercy and Eugene City Councilor from Ward 5 Mike Clark made it out to the event. A classroom full of concerned citizens, activists, and local politicians filled the room in regards to the issue. Can you guess what the topic was about? Well the hour and a half meeting featured a formal presentation covering some basics on the issue. Lisa Arkin, executive director for the Oregon Toxics Alliance lead the town hall with an opening speech and then proceeded to show a short documentary on the ill health effects of field burning to residents in the Willamette Valley. The documentary showed a lot of people suffering from asthma and other respiratory ailments whose suffering worsened during "burn days" this past summer.
A lawyer from WELC or Western Environmental Law Center, Charlie Tebbutt, gave an impressive speech explaining to everyone that exhaustive measures have been taken utilizing two branches of government. He explained that a bill was not given due diligence to ban field burning last year through the legislative branch. He also explained how repeated attempts to sway the governor of Oregon to ban field burning have failed (executive branch), and now the only viable option left is the judicial branch(litigation). Support from Lane County and the city of Eugene would be needed as a plaintiff to sue the grass seed industry. The lawsuit would cost the city and county some serious money to go through with...anywhere from $100,000 to $250,000. Due to its high cost, it would take an awful lot of convincing for field burning to have a real chance at getting banned with the backing of the county.
The rest of the evening was from Lane County Residents who poured their hearts out and told their stories of how field burning has effected their lives and their health. Middle and old aged residents with COPD or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease which is a term to refer to two lung diseases: chronic bronchitis and emphysema, had stood up and in their raspy and out of breath voices told their horror stories of not being able to breath on days that field burning occurred in the valley. The stories themselves were heartbreaking yet passionate and endearing.
Looking at the response of Mayor Kitty Piercy and Eugene City Councilor Mike Clark to the stories of people who were directly unnecessarily effected by particulate matter from field burning was quite frankly...priceless. I really wondered what was going through their heads while all those people told their stories. In the end, they both stayed after the meeting was over to express their concerns. I hope something positive came from this meeting.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Eugene Field Burning Town Hall Attracts Mayor Kitty Piercy
at 3:15 PM
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7 comments:
Nice blog site for those Oregonian's concerned about the ecology of the state ( a mere microcosm to the world at large) - which is close to 100%.
Keep it up!
Tris
- I really wondered what was going through their heads while all those people told their stories, were they empathetic, or were they thinking "why did I come hear." -
I was thinking about what that would feel like. I was thinking about my kids and how I will explain to them some day what I do and don't do.
I really did appreciate the chance to learn more.
Mike
Mike,
Thanks for commenting, I'm glad you have found my blog, I was the youngest there at the meeting...
...the fact that you came means a lot, and I'm glad to hear that you took to heart the issue at hand, I myself was moved,
I hope you can help us with this issue Mike, it would mean the world :)
sorry about the length.... i got on a rant... ha. but its still worth reading.
I've lived in the mid-Willamette valley my whole life, moving only from Linn county to Polk to go to school, reading about this meeting in Eugene i notice one distinct group not represented- the grass seed farmers themselves. i say farmers as opposed to industry because im referring to the individual farmers, the ones who i worked for, for four years in high school, one of which did not burn fields. I do not necessarliy condone or endorse field burning and dislike the smoke and smell, but I think it is at the very least inconsiderate and at the most insulting to farmers not to include them in the looking for a solution to an obvious problem. the fact that folks in Eugene are pondering what to do about an industry that they have no economic interest, and not including the people who are the source of the problem in is wrong. I know from growing up in the "grass seed capitol" that the farmers and locals are mostly resentful of outsiders telling them what to do. Farming can be done without burning fields, but it will take sometime to achieve and may have unintended consequences. Such as 1) killing or hurting the grass seed industry and thus a huge part of the local economy and 2) an increase in the use of pesticides resulting in more pollution to rivers/lakes/streams.
So when you kind Folks in Eugene are considering what to do, making plans for how to end field burning, why not solicit input from some farmers? also mind the fact that field burning is already highly regulated and restricted. acreage burned has decreased from a peak of 500,000 acres (approximately) to around 50,000 a year.
Thanks for your comment, in fact, there were farmers at the meeting who spoke and chose to represent themselves as farmers who don't like the smoke either.
I get an occasional farmer that burns and comments here every time I post a field burning issue, and there are plenty of studies that show the contrary of having to use more pesticides, I am fully aware of the restrictions in acreage allowed to be burned, and other states that have banned burning did not suffer from the ban but in fact continued to grow and generate more profit.
If you are a farmer that would like to talk about the pros and cons, by all means, lets set up a meeting and talk about, I would love to get an interview from a field burning farmer on the record here at OregonEcology.com
no im not a farmer, i just grew up in grass seed farming country and worked for a few of them. I support banning field burning, but i think it ought to be done with as much input from Linn County farmers as possible. Like i said, when folks in Eugene tell farmers in Linn county what to do, it is generally not recieved well and percieved by many as outsiders or "environmentalists" telling them what they can and cannot do. This is of course a huge over-generalizattion and i do realize the problem of getting farmers to ban field burning, or to even entertain that notion. as for getting your interview, good luck with that.
I appreciate your feedback, it would be nice to get some pro burning farmers in a public forum with those that are against it just to see the dynamics of how that would work,
in the end this issue is going to have to get a lot of public support in order for it to get banned, so who knows what will happen anyways.
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