You know you want to keep Bagby safe from strip mall malfeasance. There are many places to soak in hot water that are readily available to the private ssector. But the Forest Service is hot to sell off a treasured sanctuary that devoted volunteers have maintained for Lo, these [past decades. And Bagby isn't the only sanctuary on the slopes of Mt. Hood and other wild areas scattered across Cascadia. One might waste time wondering why...or one might call/e-mail Kathleen Walker:
kwalker@fs.fed.us 503-622-2024. The Forest Service website is an impenetrable morass of misleading information. It is likely that this individual is not the right person to contact. However hers is the only info available that can be connected to the Bagby question. I would bet money that if enough people pelted Kathleen Walker with angry messages, the Forest Service might begin to listen. But you will never know the answer to that one unless you try it. If you seriously want to know what the Forest Service is up to: www.bark-out.org. It's all there.
On to tar sand. The term emerged at about the same time we started talking about Peak Oil. And for good reason. Tar sand is by far and away the most polluting, most expensive means making petrol. There is literally nothing good about it. It doesn't even create a significant number of living-wage jobs. You may think this is all happening in northern Alberta. You may think the machinery originates in South Korea and winds up in Lewsiton, Idaho via magical realism...But you know how it gets from the South Korean tankers to Idaho? That's right: the Port of Portland....Two websites:
www.fightinggoliath.org and allagainstthehaul.org
- KBOO