Document text
Organizers open arms at forest conference By Vickie Aldous Ashland Daily Tidings Environmentalists are hoping to attract a broad spectrum of the public to their 12th Annual Forest Conference in Ashland. A change in the title of the conference is indicating the more open-arms stance of organizers. "In the past, it was labeled the Forest Activists Conference," said Darcy Cronin, outreach coordinator for the Ashland-based group Headwaters, which is co-hosting the event with Southern Oregon University's Ecology Center of the Siskiyous. "We intentionally dropped 'activists' out of the title. We want to be inclusive of all of the community." The three-day conference beginning Friday features a variety of events for adults and children, according to organizers. Entrepreneur Paul Haw-ken, founder of the Natural Step method for businesses to develop environmentally sound practices, will deliver the keynote address on Friday evening along with activist and tree-sitter Julia Butterfly Hill. The event, co-sponsored by Headwaters and SOU's Women's Resource Center, begins at 7 p.m. in the Britt Ballroom on campus. Tickets are $5 for students and conference participants and $10 for the general public. Saturday's events in the SOU Stevenson Union building include sessions on fire science and policy, Klamath Basin water solutions, wolf recovery in Oregon, genetically engineered trees and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Children can take part in free activities and learn more about the local environment. "We have a lot of free children's activities. We want to be more family-friendly," Cronin said. Darryl Cherney - who won a $4.4 million lawsuit against the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Oakland Police Department after the agencies accused him and Judi Bari of an attempted car bombing - will deliver the lunch keynote address. A Saturday night benefit concert with Darryl Cherney and the Chernobles at Q's Bar & Grill in Ashland will follow. The cost for Saturday's events, excluding the free children's activities, is $20. All of Sunday's events are free, starting with a 10 a.m. community forest rally at Triangle Park and ending on the downtown Ashland plaza for an 11:30 a.m. conference closing. Participants in local hikes and a restoration field trip will leave at noon from the entrance to Lithia Park. In previous years, the conference fee was on a sliding scale from $75 to $150, with a $50 fee for students. Organizers lowered fees to encourage more people to attend, according to Cronin. Pre-registration information shows people who have not attended the conference in the past are planning to come, she said. "So far, the numbers are looking really good," Cronin said. "We're hoping to get a lot of folks in the door." The conference typically draws about 300 people, although more than 400 people have sometimes attended, she said. About 200 participants come from out of town, including visitors from Washington and northern California, according to Cronin. A Headwaters report from 1998 showed the conference provided a $110,000 boost to the local economy. For more information or to pre-register, call Headwaters at 482-4459 or visit headwaters.org on the Internet. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -