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Will Falk – Oregon Book Tour
Will Falk – Author, Lawyer, Environmental Activist
Poetry is a tool to be used in resistance. For those of us who have forgotten, poetry leads us back to our natural heritage. Poetry teaches us to listen to a world filled with voices.
WHEN: Friday, March 13th @6pm
WHERE: Eugene Garden Club (1645 High St. / Parking across street)
How Dams Fall 
With brutal honesty and an unflinching commitment to witnessing the river’s wounds in all their painful detail, How Dams Fall is an intimate conversation between a human and a river. In a time when the Colorado River is at record low levels and water shortages look inevitable, this essay is a must-read for outdoor enthusiasts, naturalists, water advocates, and anyone who has ever fallen in love with the natural world.
Join us at PIELC 2020 – Sunday @9am
We know it’s early – But Exciting it will be!
Date: Sunday March 8, 2020
Time: 9:00-10:15am
Where: UO Campus (Exact location TBA)
Panel: Establishing the Rights of Nature
It is neither acceptable nor is it necessary to poison the environment to engage in commerce. In fact, it is the antithesis of a sustainable and responsible economy. But to stop harmful unsustainable developments like Jordan Cove and Pacific Connector Gas Pipeline, determined environmental activists must first acknowledge that working within an “environmental protection” system, complicit with industry, is activism’s failure, not the system’s failure. Rather than pledging obedience to an unjust, dead-end system, activists across the country and around the world must become civilly disobedient in the name of justice, true sustainability, climate and a viable doorway into the future. Establishing the rights of nature, giving ecosystems standing, may be the single most effective means of reversing the Earth-wide trend of habitat destruction.
We have focused on a panel of individuals assembled from three geographic areas from around the United States:
1.) Will Falk—Author “How Dams Fall”; Lawyer who represented the Colorado River in Rights of Nature case.
2.) Markie Miller—Representative from Toledo, Ohio Community Rights whose CR group won the Lake Erie Bill of Rights initiative protecting the integrity of Lake Erie. She was invited to speak at the United Nations.
3.) Kai Sunburn—spokesman for Community Rights San Juan County who will be submitting this spring, their own Rights of Nature initiative – The Salish Sea Bill of Rights.
4.) Michelle Holman – Community Rights Lane County
Public Interest Environmental Law Conference
Move: Migration on a Changing Planet
March 05-08, 2020
This year, PIELC will host a conversation about 
migration on a changing planet. Changes to the environment have always affected the movement of humans and other life on earth. Recently, global awareness has shifted to issues of migration as the impacts of land use and resource extraction accelerate climate change and ecological crises. Conflicts and environmental disruptions force humans to leave their homes and face untold tribulation. Entire ecosystems creep toward the poles, and species climb to higher elevations. Climate, animal, and plant cycles fall out of sync with alarming consequences. Many species dwindle while others quietly wink out of existence. No place on earth is free from these changes.
The new Rights of Nature campaign ties right into this year’s theme. Stay tuned for more information as we do have a panel! We’ll have special guests from the LEBOR effort in Toledo Ohio, along with a guest from the Rights of the Salish Sea efforts. We are so excited about this year’s conference – we hope to see you at our table in the hallway!
Upcoming Important Film Showings
We have some exciting film showings coming your way. A perfect way to educate yourself as the weather gets colder outside. Both showings include Q&A’s with people involved! Stay warm inside and cozy up for these:
Community Rights Lane County is excited to be cosponsors along with Encircle Films, Eugene PeaceWorks/KEPW Community Radio 97.3FM for:
Thursday, Nov. 7th @6:30pm
Corporate Coup D’etat
Followed by Q&A with
producer Jeff Cohen
Broadway Metro – 888 Willamette
Community Rights Lane County, Wisdom of the Elders, along with Native American Studies present:
Sunday, Nov. 10th @7pm
The Peoples of Western Oregon
Followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers
UO Many Nations Longhouse
Film Showing in Florence Oregon – Invisible Hand
Community Rights Lane County & City Lights Cinema
Invisible Hand
When: Tuesday, Sept. 17th
Where: City Lights Cinema
Florence, Oregon
(1930 Highway 101)
Check back often as the event gets closer for more details.
In the fall of 2014, for the first time in United States history, an ecosystem filed to defend itself in a lawsuit claiming its ‘right to exist’ in Grant Township, Pennsylvania. For attempting such a radical act, Grant’s rural community of 700 people were sued by a corporation, then by the state government, and are now locked in a battle to defend the watershed they call home, the water they drink, and enforce the local laws they enacted that gave legal Rights to Nature.
Half a continent away in Standing Rock, North Dakota, the same industry threatening Grant Twp. is using militarized force against indigenous tribes and allies fighting to protect Mother Earth. The two, Grant Township and Standing Rock, are joined in an international fight to protect more than just water. They fight for their community, democracy, and for Nature as a living entity unto itself.
Produced by award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo, INVISIBLE HAND takes you behind the curtain of the global economy where ‘Rights of Nature’ becomes “capitalism’s one true opponent.”
Fundraiser for Freedom from Aerial Herbicides Alliance!
Freedom from Aerial Herbicides Alliance is raising money for their campaigns to secure out Right in Lane County to say NO to corporate harms.
The Axe & Fiddle is donating 10% of sales to our campaigns!
Democracy School *** NEW*** Early Bird Registration!
Lane County Democracy School
WHEN: October 18th (6pm-9pm) & 19th (9am-4pm)
WHERE: Eugene Garden Club
This year’s two day event is offering early bird registration for the first time ever! Register early, get a great deal, then tell all your friends to join you for this revolutionary new way of thinking and organizing.
REGISTRATION REQUIRED – Sliding Scale Cost: $85 – $150 (Limited Scholarship funds.)
***EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION – $65 – ENDS AUGUST 15th***
“If you take no other training this year, do the Democracy School. It is a superlative unfolding revelation of how corporations have hijacked democracy. It meticulously deconstructs the historical arc that brought us to this precipice. But most importantly, it then departs into the highly pragmatic and inspiring work now underway that is slowly turning the tide . . . This Second American Revolution may be the most important political work going on anywhere in the country or the world.“
-Kenny Ausubel, Founder and Co-Executive Director, Bioneers
Volunteer of the Year Award
Lead, Follow or Get the Hell Out of the Way!
At April’s Community Rights Action gathering, we honored stellar volunteer, Barbara Bochnovich, with the newly created Lynn Bowers 
“Lead, Follow or Get the Hell Out of the Way” award. The award honors the memory of Lynn Bowers who was one of the chief petitioners of the Freedom from Aerial Herbicides spray ban initiative; a tireless activist and an exemplary human being. Barbara’s dedication to the efforts of Community Rights Lane County makes her fully deserving of this award. Thanks again, Barbara … and all CRLC volunteers!
Community Rights Action in April
Action Plans & Rights of Nature
It’s no surprise that we plan on pushing the Lane County Commissioners to refer our initiatives to a vote of the people. So this month we’ll be talking about, and planning, our future interactions with those commissioners. Let’s all gathering together and let them know we aren’t going away anytime soon.
Also in the works is a Rights of Nature initiative. We’ve done some initial research, but we also want input from our volunteers and supporters. We hope to help start collecting signatures this summer, so time is of the essence!
WHEN: Monday, April 15th, @6pm
WHERE: First United Methodist Church
Film Screening of Invisible Hand
Community Rights Lane County
The UO Climate Justice League &
Eugene Weekly
presents….
Invisible Hand
When: Tuesday, April 9th @7pm
Where: Redwood Auditorium at the University of Oregon
In the fall of 2014, for the first time in United States history, an ecosystem filed to defend itself in a lawsuit claiming its ‘right to exist’ in Grant Township, Pennsylvania. For attempting such a radical act, Grant’s rural community of 700 people were sued by a corporation, then by the state government, and are now locked in a battle to defend the watershed they call home, the water they drink, and enforce the local laws they enacted that gave legal Rights to Nature.
Half a continent away in Standing Rock, North Dakota, the same industry threatening Grant Twp. is using militarized force against indigenous tribes and allies fighting to protect Mother Earth. The two, Grant Township and Standing Rock, are joined in an international fight to protect more than just water. They fight for their community, democracy, and for Nature as a living entity unto itself.
Produced by award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo, INVISIBLE HAND takes you behind the curtain of the global economy where ‘Rights of Nature’ becomes “capitalism’s one true opponent.”