Cascadia’s Ecosystem Advocates (CEA)

(An all-volunteer, nonprofit grassroots advocacy organization under 501(c)3 umbrella-group League of Wilderness Defenders)

VISION of Cascadia's Ecosystem Advocates: To develop healthy, long-term, mutually-beneficial relationships between humans and the natural ecosystems that sustain life on Earth.

MISSION of Cascadia's Ecosystem Advocates: To promote genuine solutions for the health of Earth's communities of life (human, animal, plant, and fungal) through education, coalition building and grassroots advocacy.

As CEA spends 99% of its time educating, organizing and on-the-ground campaigning -- compared to only 1% of its time fundraising -- any (tax-deductible) donations are welcome and greatly appreciated!

To donate, please send a check to our mailing address below or call with a credit card number.

Contact Cascadia's Ecosystem Advocates:
Mailing Address: CEA, 454 Willamette St., Suite 205, Eugene, OR 97401
Email: info at eco-advocates.org
Phone: 541-302-0159

Go to Walkforwild.org to sponsor a Pacific Crest Trail hiker, with proceeds going towards CEA!

WHAT'S SO SPECIAL ABOUT CEA?

Cascadia's Ecosystem Advocates believes that for the environmental movement to be truly effective it must unite its many fragmented factions, employ new, creative strategies, reach out to other movements (social justice, civil rights, labor, etc.), and never waver from a strong stance.

To read more about what distinguishes Cascadia's Ecosystem Advocates from other environmental groups, please read our opinion piece (http://www.eugeneweekly.com/2007/06/21/views1.html) in the Eugene Weekly.

To sign up for our monthly email Action Alerts to keep you updated on ways to get involved with ecosystem advocacy, please send an email to info at eco-advocates.org with the subject "Action Alert."

COALITION & ALLIANCE BUILDING

With the goal of increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the environmental movement, CEA continues to foster and facilitate 4 separate coalitions in the Eugene area:

For more information or to get involved, contact Samantha Chirillo at schirill at uoregon.edu.

CEA also works with students and organizations from University of Oregon and Lane Community College to bridge the gap between campus and town activism in Eugene.

CLEARCUTTING THE CLIMATE



Roseburg Lumber Clear-Cut off Highway 38 near Umpqua River

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization claims that 25-30% of human-caused carbon emissions released to the atmosphere comes from logging the world's forests; logging is the second largest cause of climate change after the use of fossil fuels, according to NASA.

CEA co-organized the groundbreaking "Clearcutting the Climate: a conference of science and action" at the University of Oregon on January 26, 2008 to provide the latest science on the topic of forests, logging and climate change; expose fraudulent "solutions" to the forest/climate crises; as well as to facilitate collaboration between citizens and activist groups addressing climate change and forest depletion.

A DVD of Clearcutting the Climate is available for $20 by mailing a check to: CEA, 454 Willamette St., Suite 205, Eugene, OR 97401, emailing info@eco-advocates.org or calling 541-302-0159. For more information -- including videos of conference presentations -- go to http://www.forestclimate.org or check out our Truthout.org perspective.

BOOM, BUST & THE B.LM.!

With most of its ire focused on the U.S. Forest Service, the environmental movement has let the Bureau of Land Management, or B.L.M., fly under its radar for too long. The awful truth is the B.L.M. is responsible for some of the most atrocious native forest clearcutting in the continental U.S., the bulk of which is happening in the unique and fragile forests of southern Oregon. Read about (article "BLM to Slaughter 39 Square Miles.") the 24,000 acres (nearly 39 square miles!) of forests on the chopping block, given away to the timber industry under the toothless Northwest Forest Plan.

As if that weren't bad enough, the B.L.M. has proposed its now-infamous Western Oregon Plan Revision, also known as the "Whopper," which would return us to the "good ol' days" of logging without laws on 2.6 million acres of public land in western Oregon. CEA was among the first organizations to sound the alarm on the B.L.M.'s W.O.P.R., which would increase old-growth clearcutting by a staggering 700%!

Since early 2007, CEA has played a leading role in educating the public on the W.O.P.R., encouraging and facilitating citizen comment-writing in opposition to the B.L.M., collecting signatures to pressure elected officials (particularly Sen. Wyden and Rep. DeFazio) to oppose the plan, creating lobbying coalitions, co-organizing rallies, and leading hikes to forests that are threatened by the W.O.P.R.

Click here to join us in opposition to the W.O.P.R.!

In 2007, with filmmakers Tim Lewis ("Pickaxe") and Trip Jennings ("Fire Scars"), CEA co-produced "Boom, Bust & the B.L.M.!," a DVD project designed to defeat the W.O.P.R. "Boom, Bust & the B.L.M.!" exposes the B.L.M.'s backroom sweetheart settlement with the timber industry to log some of the nation's last 5% native forests, highlights the voices of ornery rural Oregonians who want to see their forests alive and standing for future generations, and contains a unique Citizen's Action Toolkit to help concerned citizens organize in opposition to the B.L.M.'s plans.

"Boom, Bust & the B.L.M.!" DVD is available for $20 by mailing a check to: CEA, 454 Willamette St., Suite 205, Eugene, OR 97401, emailing info@eco-advocates.org or calling 541-302-0159.

In Late 2007, CEA convened and is facilitating the "W.O.P.R. & Beyond" Coalition, consisting of 20 environmental organizations collaborating to defeat the W.O.P.R. and to develop a plan for appropriate and truly sustainable human/forest relationships. If you want your organization (or just you, yourself!) to be a part of the "W.O.P.R. & Beyond" Coalition, please email us!

MYTH-BUSTING: "FUELS REDUCTION" & FOREST BIOMASS EXTRACTION


“Fuels treatment” or understory clearcut on Medford BLM.

CEA has launched an information campaign with educational panels and presentations, op-eds and letters to the editor, and public events to debunk the following three myths of the logging industry, corrupt politicians and beholden government agencies:

Myth # 1: "Wildfire is bad!"

In reality: Fire is a rejuvenating influence in our western forests and must be returned to the landscape.

Myth # 2: "We must thin native forests to limit risk of wildfire!"

In reality: Science demonstrates that nearly all forms of logging can harm ecosystems and increase the risk of fire.

Myth #3: "Forest biomass is a green, renewable energy source!"

In reality: Forests provide clean air, pure drinking water, fertile topsoil, carbon storage and a livable climate and must not be sacrificed to feed our nation's energy addiction.

In 2007-2008, CEA challenged the fraudulent "Oakridge Thinning and Fuels Reduction Project," which would log thousands of acres of native temperate rainforest on public lands in the Willamette National Forest outside of Oakridge, Oregon under the guise of "community protection."

CEA involved local foresters, scientists, environmental groups and concerned citizens to investigate and oppose the project, attended Forest Service field trips, ground-truthed project units, voiced uncompromising opposition at procedural meetings, and led public hikes. Click here (Roy Keene's article) to read a condemnation of the project by forester Roy Keene of the Public Forestry Foundation, and click here (article "Abuses of Senator Wydens HFRA") for more abuses of the so-called "Healthy Forest Restoration Act."

CEA is currently offering "Firewise" home demonstrations to model the best way to prevent a home from burning in a wildfire: protecting 100 feet around the home (not logging fire-resistant backcountry native forests). If you live in a forest-edge community in Lane County and would like to offer your home for a "Firewise" demonstration, please contact us!

Since 2006, CEA has educated members of Congress (particularly Sen. Wyden and Rep. DeFazio), Oregon State legislators, Governor Kulongoski, the general public, and even some within the forest conservation community on the dangers of allowing -- and promoting -- forest biomass extraction on public lands for use as a “green” renewable energy source. CEA maintains that the best solution to climate change is energy conservation, efficiency of technology, and the development of the most renewable alternative energies (such as biogas, solar and wind) -- not to allow forests to be further exploited as a feeding trough for the forest biomass energy, timber, or utility industries.

In 2007 and 2008 at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference, CEA presented a slideshow on the negative consequences of "fuels reduction" in native forests to thousands of species of birds, butterflies, fungi, and amphibians .

In 2007, CEA fiercely lobbied for the amendments to Oregon State legislation -- The Renewable Portfolio Standard -- that would legally define forest biomass to ensure genuine environmental safeguards and provide citizen oversight to the logging industry's latest attempt to liquidate the region's last native forests.

CEA has also been in close communication with Lane County Commissioners, as well as other local interests who are considering the feasibility of forest biomass extraction for bioethanol production in Lane County. CEA continues to inform them how forest biomass extraction, while possibly feasible on the small scale, can be a pandora's box of future forest destruction best left unopened.

LEGISLATIVE PRESSURE & LOBBYING

CEA was at the forefront of organizing the public to defeat Senator Smith's disastrous post-fire "salvage" logging bill, the deceptively-named "Forests for Future Generations Act," which would've sped through clearcut logging after the natural, regenerative disturbances of wildfire, insects and windstorms.

CEA remains one of the strongest voices encouraging that an ecosystem-based approach to forest protection be adopted in proposed legislation by Senator Wyden and Congressman DeFazio that would truly protect and preserve the wild lands and waters of Cascadia for future generations.

AMAZON HEADWATERS FOREST


Amazon Headwaters.

CEA has been outspoken in the need to protect Eugene's rare gem, the Amazon Headwaters forest, one of the last patches of native forest left inside the city's Urban Growth Boundary. To protect Amazon Headwaters, CEA has led public hikes, urged elected officials, written opinion pieces in local newspapers and assisted with the acquisition of grant money

NORTHWEST ECOSYSTEM SURVEY TEAM (NEST) NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT!


NEST new climber training in Siskiyous in 2006.

Since the 2002 “McKenzie Survey and Action Camp,” CEA has aided the all-volunteer NEST to climb in -- and save! -- hundreds of acres of old growth forests on public lands throughout the Cascades, Umpqua watershed, and Siskiyou Mountains of southwestern Oregon. In 2006 and in 2007, CEA provided logistical and administrative support for NEST in the McKenzie and Siskiyous, where NEST climbed at least 500 trees and found dozens of red tree vole nests (a main food source of the endangered spotted owl)!

Under the NW Forest Plan, agencies are required to survey for species that depend on old growth (such as spotted owls) and consider their presence in planning timber sales, but often do not perform adequate surveys. This "Survey and Manage" requirement is under constant attack and is absent from Rep. DeFazio’s draft legislation. CEA is advocating for a legislative provision that would require an agency response to citizen-generated data, particularly NEST surveys.

This year NEST climbers are in more need than ever to be able to continue this vital, but dangerous, work to save old growth forests. Due to limited finances, most of NEST’s climbing gear and ropes are now too old and worn to be safely used to climb this summer.

Please consider making a financial donation ($5-500) to aid them in replacing this gear. CEA and NEST are also in need of funds to provide transportation and pay for other necessities of NEST’s work over this coming spring and summer.

Please contact info@eco-advocates.org to donate or make further inquiries regarding NEST.

STUMPQUA'S DIRTY MONEY


StUmpqua Rally.

In 2000, CEA launched the boycott of Umpqua Bank, better known as "StUmpqua" whose board of directors include some of the most notorious timber barons in the state of Oregon, including: Allyn Ford, CEO of Roseburg Lumber, Lynn Herbert, CEO of Herbert Lumber and Dan Giustina, CEO of Giustina Forest Products.

CEA realizes that the profits garnered from Umpqua Bank by its timber baron board will be siphoned directly into continuing their ecocidal practices of clearcutting and herbiciding across Oregon's forests.

Through public protests, generation of citizen comments, opinion pieces, media creation and personal correspondence, CEA continues to place uncompromising pressure on Umpqua Bank, by encouraging local businesses, such as Market of Choice, to remove their accounts from StUmpqua and do their banking with an environmentally and socially conscious local bank.

Click here to download the "Why Boycott Umpqua Bank" Brochure.

TRUE GREEN SOLUTIONS

CEA is active in promoting genuine solutions to create a truly sustainable Eugene and Lane County (as a model for the rest of the nation) on issues ranging from renewable energy, to appropriate transportation, to pesticide alternatives:

Bicycles

Pesticides

Renewable Energy

DEFENDING EUGENE'S DRINKING WATER


McKenzie River.

Since 2005, CEA has been instrumental in the campaign to protect the forests in Eugene's unparalleled drinking water source, the McKenzie River watershed. CEA has taken part in the collection of thousands of citizen signatures in favor of protecting the McKenzie, helped win the endorsement of a dozen businesses that depend upon a healthy McKenzie, organized public events such as Watershed Action Week, led public hikes, given school presentations, taken part in groundtruthing and assistance with NEST survey work, along with working to raise and maintain awareness of the need to protect the McKenzie.

The "Trapper" logging sale remains threatened despite NEST surveys discovered dozens of red tree vole nests, supposedly protected under the Northwest Forest Plan's Survey and Manage. However the Forest Service maintains that these voles are unimportant because there are healthy vole populations south of the arbitrary border of Highway 22 (which separates the North Santiam River to the north and the McKenzie drainage to the south).

Several other logging projects encompassing thousands of acres of native forests in Eugene's drinking watershed continue to move forward including, "Two Bee," "Quentin," and the "Bridge Thin Project" in the hammered Quartz Creek Watershed.


"Sten" logging sale, Unit 43. Logged fall 2005.

"Blue River Face" Unit 3. Logged 2004.

In 2006, the Eugene City Council passed a non-binding resolution opposing any and all forms of mature and old growth logging in its municipal watershed, the McKenzie River.

FIGHTING FOR THE "BISCUIT"


The Wild Illinois River and North Kalmiopsis.

In 2005 and 2006 CEA threw itself into the fray to protect the 80,000 acre North Kalmiopsis Roadless area in the wild Siskiyou Mountains in southwest Oregon, the second largest roadless area in the state of Oregon.

CEA organized 3 campouts and ground survey missions into the North Kalmiopsis (“Blackberry”) logging sale, discovering football field-sized mudslides throughout the timber sale planning area, above and below proposed Biscuit "salvage" logging units. CEA relentlessly urged Senator Wyden and Rep. DeFazio through community petitioning, lobbying of staff, organizing public demonstrations, and creating and running radio ads to act strongly and decisively to protect the roadless area from further degradation and potential catastrophic damage.


Sen. Wyden and Rep. DeFazio received our message loud and clear but, sadly, did not stop the sale, which was subsequently logged. If mudslides shut down the lower Rogue River fishery and wipe out salmon spawning beds downstream, the public will know who to hold accountable.

EARLY CEA CAMPAIGNS

CEA was founded by Shannon Wilson in 1998 during the "Salvage" Rider and since that date has protected thousands of acres of forests, including:

More Campaigns (2001-2005)

WHO ARE THE CO-DIRECTORS OF CASCADIA'S ECOSYSTEM ADVOCATES?

Samantha Chirillo (schirill at uoregon.edu) grew up in the Appalachians on the outskirts of Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Received a B.S. in Microbiology with a Minor in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from The Pennsylvania State University in 2000. She moved to Eugene in 2002 and received her M.S. in Biology from the University of Oregon in 2005. She is currently pursuing a Master of Public Administration degree and Nonprofit Certificate at the University of Oregon and expects to graduate in August 2008. In 2006, she worked as a Canvasser and Phone-Banker for Cascadia Wildlands Project and the Sustainable Forestry Network. She has worked as a member of the Many Rivers Group chapter Executive Committee of the Sierra Club since 2007 and Co-director of CEA since 2006.

Josh Schlossberg (josh at forestcouncil.org) was born and raised in New York's Hudson River Valley and attended Marlboro College in the Green Mountains of Vermont, where he also worked in the public school system. In 2003, Josh moved to Eugene, Oregon where he received a graduate certification in Not-for-Profit Management from the University of Oregon and has been an active part of nearly every spectrum of ecosystem protection (from lobbying Congress to grassroots organizing to direct action). Along with his CEA co-directorship, Josh is currently Communications Coordinator for Native Forest Council and Research Editor of the Forest Voice newspaper

Shannon Wilson (tsuga at efn.org) grew up in southern Oregon's Siskiyou mountains. In 1991 after working for the Umpqua National Forest as endangered species surveyor he moved to Eugene to do the same for the BLM. He refused gainful employment with both agencies because of unethical practices of both. However, since the passage of the “salvage logging rider” in 1995 he has worked virtually fulltime on forest protection campaigns throughout the Cascadia bioregion. Since 1998 as co-director of CEA he has continued to work on protecting the Cascadia bioregion.

Cascadia’s Ecosystem Advocates, 454 Willamette St., Suite 205, Eugene, OR 97401

Website last updated Wed Apr 27 21:31:26 PDT 2008.