Oregon Group is Headed to Gulf to Bear Witness

Steve Duin is a participant of PDX 2 Gulf and also a writer at The Oregonian. This segment of his recent article is cross-posted from OregonLive.

Among the projects Mike Rosen oversees at the Bureau of Environmental Services is the planting, over the course of five years, of another 83,000 trees inside the city limits.

In this green swale, you might consider that child’s play. Who would begrudge the black walnut or white oak that lowers energy costs, raises property values and intercepts stormwater in its rush to the river?

You’d be surprised, Rosen says. Once they’re up and running, trees will uproot utility lines, upend sidewalks and strain rain gutters.

“It’s the right tree at the right spot,” Rosen says. Even when armed with the best of intentions, you need to be strategic when you put down roots and alter the landscape.

On Aug. 7, Rosen will lead two dozen Oregonians on a 10-day pilgrimage to the Gulf Coast. They want to measure the impact of one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history, and encourage the shrimp boaters, hoteliers, beachcombers and off-shore oil workers now soaking in 184 million gallons of spilt petroleum.

They hope to return with a painful but powerful story of the strategic changes we all need to make in the landscape of environmental protection and personal responsibility.

Several weeks ago, Rosen was inspired to move past the blame game and organize a thoughtful response to this mind-numbing catastrophe.

“There’s no shelter,” he said, “in thinking, ‘It’s OK, it’s not in my backyard.’ This IS our backyard.”

Read the full article here.

[Image: U.S. Coast Guard]