June is a Month of Action - Jump In!

With gridlock at the state and federal levels, it’s time for the PEOPLE to swing into action to demand REAL ACTION.
In June there are at least FIVE ways you can plug in and make a difference!

Take Action

1. Deep Roots Forest Climate Action Camp June 1 - 4
​We understand that Pacific Northwest forests are absolutely necessary to sequester and store massive amounts of carbon. We understand that forest defense is climate defense! We have an incredible opportunity (brought to us by the Climate Emergency Fund and the Deep Roots Action Camp Coordinators) to prepare us for concrete local action to demand protection for this natural climate solution. We hope you’ll join us. (Location & logistics details available when you register.)
Learn more & register here.
Background: Learn & practice nonviolent direct action skills, connect with others in the forest & climate defense communities, and sleep under the stars! The Camp will take place in the Pacific Northwest, in Southwest WA (about an hour from PDX). Together, we’ll learn & draw from the lessons & strengths of both the climate justice and forest defense movements, with the goal of building a vibrant direct action movement to protect our communities, forests, and climate. Over the course of four days, we’ll build relationships, learn new skills, and get connected with ongoing campaigns to protect communities, climate, and forests throughout the PNW. Trainings & workshops include organizing & participating in direct action, creating vibrant protest art, forest defense, strategy and tactics, and more! Following the Camp, there will be opportunities to plug into upcoming actions and campaigns. Free. Register here and contact us at info@350eugene.org about carpooling.

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2. Sunday, June 11th - Road Trip to PDX for a Land and Water Rally to Stop Fossil Fuels!
The climate justice movement here in the Pacific Northwest has stopped nearly every fossil fuel project proposed in the region — from Jordan Cove LNG to the Kalama Methanol Refinery and more. Still, fossil fuel companies are doing everything in their power to push projects through, with Zenith Energy trying to expand its crude oil terminal in Northwest Portland and TC Energy trying to build on GTN XPress so it would carry an additional 150 million cubic feet of gas a day.
We've shown fossil fuel companies time and time again that our movement is powerful. It's time for us to show up again, en masse, to say that we don't want fossil fuel projects built or expanded through the Pacific Northwest, or anywhere.
Join us on Sunday, June 11th at Cathedral Park in PDX, as we gather on land and water with thousands in a week-long nationwide mass mobilization of distributed actions to tell President Biden we demand an end to fossil fuels, including the dangerous Zenith oil-by-rail expansion and GTN XPress. (See all the US People v Fossil Fuels events here.)
A group will be leaving Eugene together that morning. Email us at info@350eugene.org to be part of the Eugene Climate Contingent. (Destination: Cathedral Park, North Edison Street, Pittsburgh Avenue Portland, OR 97203)
Register here and let the PDX organizers know you’re coming! We are the Thin Green Line!

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3. LET THEM GROW! A once-in-a-generation opportunity to tell our federal land managers to protect our federal forests! (Please please please make an on-line comment by June 19th!)
In 2022 on Earth Day, President Biden issued an executive order calling on the Forest Service (under the USDA) and Bureau of Land Management (under the Dept of Interior) to conserve mature and old-growth forests as a climate solution. HOWEVER… mature and old-growth forests are still on the chopping block! We must now make massive comments to the federal land managers to demand they enact policies to protect federal forests. The two agencies have “inventoried” mature and old-growth (MOG) forests and have initiated a “rule-making” process, which includes accepting public comments until June 20th… Nationally, organizers have set a goal of 500,000 comments. We can do this.
Cascadia Wildlands has created this easy to use form to tally and submit our messages to Secretaries Haaland and Vilsack. Takes 2 minutes.
Suggested talking points for your personal remarks:

• It’s great you inventoried the forests and have initiated rulemaking. What we need now are clear and durable rules to protect them.
  
• Move swiftly to protect mature and old-growth forests, especially from logging, as a common sense, nature-based climate solution for storing large amounts of carbon.
  
• Address logging. Your agencies have targeted 370,000 acres for logging. Our public comment: don’t do it.
  
• We’ve already lost so much. Protect the mature forests and trees both for their current important values and also so they grow to become old growth to expand their significant current contributions, help mitigate the climate crisis, contribute to healthy watersheds and confer ecosystem resilience.
  

Comment today! Thank you. More about the new national Climate Forests campaign here.

4. Rather meet in-person and submit your comments to the USFS & BLM?
​We’re helping organize our very own “Field Hearing” here in Eugene on Tuesday, June 13th at UO Law School, Room 175 from 6 to 8:00 pm. You can come and make recorded comments in person or sit down and write your comments for submission with other attendees. Very informal, but maybe more fun for you than on-line commenting! A good opportunity to network with your climate buddies and hit the ice cream shop nearby. See you there!

5. Banner drop over I-5 on Monday, June 26th
​Tell Pres. Biden to protect mature and old growth forests! We’re joining other PNW forest climate activists in Oregon and Washington during a week of action to send a message that this is the year to protect our forests for the climate. This will be a serious, but fun, one-hour gig, with social time following. Stay tuned for details.

Save the Date

Stay Healthy and Cool this Summer Workshop with DIY Coolers and Air Purifiers

Where: Hilyard Community Center, 2580 Hilyard St, Eugene, OR 97405
When: Sunday June 25th, 3 - 4:30 pm
Hosts: Beyond Toxics, NAACP & Fossil Free Eugene
Seeking BIPOC and low-income community members / participants
Everyone deserves to feel comfortable this summer! Registration is open for the latest Just Transition Workshop on protecting yourself from the summer heat & smoke.Participants will be provided with information on air pollution, both from wildfire smoke and indoor air pollution from gas appliances as well as the dangers of heat domes to make sure that folks have the tools they need to stay healthy and cool this summer. The event includes a DIY workshop! (Participants will receive a $30 stipend for their time and participation.) Register here.
Presenters:
Jocelyn Wensel is a Medical Student and the Health Workforce Development Program Coordinator at the NAACP
​David De La Torre, the Healthy Climate Program Director for the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility.

After the presentations, there will be a DIY workshop to create either a swamp cooler or an air purifier that everyone can take home with them, thanks to local partner, BRING Recycling.

We know the truth, no matter what they say!

Inside Big Beef’s Climate Messaging Machine: Confuse, Defend and Downplay: (The Guardian, by Joe Fassler, May 3, 2023.)
How Big Oil is manipulating the way you think about climate change: (Salon, by Kathleen Dean Moore, May 13, 2023.)

Our comrade Emily Johnston, one of the founders of 350 Seattle, a Valver-Turner and KXL arrestee at the White House with Bill McKibben, has launched an amazing podcast called “A Wild & Beautiful World.” Through interviews (e.g., Naomi Klein, Kathleen Dean Moore, Bill McKibben) she explores Wendell Berry’s question: “We don’t have a right to ask whether we’re going to succeed or not - the only question we have a right to ask is: What’s the right thing to do? What does this Earth require of us if we want to continue to live on it?” You’re in for a treat.
Five great actions to make a difference this June. See you in the streets!