tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6058130272770450817.post-56615488030905815992007-07-13T07:38:00.000-07:002007-07-13T15:55:12.380-07:00A night time thunderstorm, one with a deluge of rain, cooled and cleaned our air, giving us a morning when we can draw in deep breaths as we gaze at the clear blue sky broken only by the occasional puffy cloud. No haze yet.<br /><br />It's said Native Americans did not live in this lush valley of the Willamette River but in the hills above. They visited to hunt and fish but didn't stay. They understood the illness that came from the stagnant air filled with pollen and moss spores but we assume we are somehow able to survive the breathing problem. There are a lot of other benefits to making our home in this moderate climate of abundant growth.<br /><br />My home place in Oregon is in the valley of the Willamette River as it makes the long curve out of the mountains and begins the journey north to join the mighty Columbia River on the Washington State line.<br /><br />Our valley is fertile and green with a rich variety of crops. Heading north, the freeway passes through hay fields, past pastures with grazing cattle and sheep, and along hillsides covered with vinyards. On picturesque old highways covering a similar route, a passerby would find truck farms, hazelnut orchards, mint fields, nursery stock and huge fields of grass being grown for seed to supply golf courses, ball fields, and lawns everywhere.<br /><br />Those are the fields surrounding the newly built mansions of the grass seed farmers. The young men who own their own airplanes and lease the land from the family farmers who can no longer make a living.<br /><br />Yesterday they began to burn their fields, an annual event that goes on for weeks. It's true, they aren't allowed to burn as many acres as they did a few years ago and it can't be at their convenience but it only takes a slight shift in the wind to leave nearby communities gasping and choking for all the weeks of the burn season.<br /><br />This was the year our legislature made huge strides in coloring Oregon green, requiring our three largest utilities to obtain twenty five per cent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025 with emphasis on solar. (We have the perfect place for solar in the lava waste lands of the eastern part of the state.)<br /><br />They passed a basketfull of other bills, updates of the bottle bill to include plastic, an incentive package for develpment of alternative fuels, increased funding for the Envioronmental Protection Agency to monitor water and air pollution, a moratorium on drilling for oil, gas, or sulfur off the Oregon coast, a program requiring manufacturers to provide free recycling for computers and televisions and last but not least, authorization to clean up toxins in our Willamette River.<br /><br />A good start, long delayed. To my dismay they stopped just short of eliminating the grass seed field burning. Admittedly, not as important in the big picture as the steps they did take but miserable for the unwise humans who have made their home here.<br /><a href="http://www.jo-brew.com/">www.Jo-Brew.com</a>Jo-Brewnoreply@blogger.com