Welcome to our monthly newsletter, where we highlight some of the amazing work our volunteer teams have been up to and how you can take action!
TEAM UPDATES
Want to get involved but not sure where to start? Fill out the Volunteer Form, or come to our 350PDX Volunteer Orientation! The next Volunteer Orientation is Tuesday, March 12, 6:00-8:00PM, at the 350PDX Office (3639 Mississippi Ave, Portland) — learn more and register here.
Fossil Fuel Resistance Team
Our team continues to work together with our partners on our 3 main campaigns: fighting Zenith Energy’s dangerous oil-by-rail facility, fighting the GTN Xpress fracked gas pipeline expansion, and advocating for a clean air standard at Multnomah County. This past month, we co-hosted the 13th Rumble on the River Community Forum, which focused on how so-called “renewable fuels” are not a climate solution. If you missed it, it will soon be posted on our Youtube channel so stay tuned. It’s a great time to join us!
Communities in the Blast Zone coming together
Do you live in the blast zone of Zenith’s oil trains? Use this map to find out. If you do, call and write to the City of Portland and share that you live in the blast zone and are concerned for your safety. You can also pick up a yard sign to have in your front yard or apartment window to educate your neighbors about the blast zone and what they can do to #StopZenith. Send an email to stopzenith@350pdx.org to coordinate receiving a yard sign from one of our team members.
We’re also helping folks hold Neighborhood Parties to educate their community about the issue, reach out to dineen@350pdx.org to learn more.
GET CONNECTED: Our next meeting is in person on Tuesday, March 12 at 5:30 pm, on Zoom. It’s a great time to join the team! Reach out to Dineen and Melanie to get plugged in and schedule an orientation meeting: dineen@350pdx.org, me
Take action: Fight for Clean Air in Multnomah County
Multnomah County has a huge opportunity to fight back against the gas industry and enact policies that ensure cleaner and safer air for us all to breathe. The problem? They’re stalling, and need to hear from us to take this bold action. Join us in calling and emailing Multnomah County Commissioners to say we need Clean Air Quality Standards NOW!
Want to come testify to the County about this issue? We will help you come up with a 2-minute testimony you can share. Meetings are Thursday mornings at 9:30 am. Reach out to Dineen at dineen@350pdx.org to learn more about how you can support.
Forest Defense Team
The Forest Defense Team has been quite busy working for the trees of the Pacific Northwest!
Legislative session: We have also been active in the state legislature during the short session. As is often the case, many bills, including some we supported and one important one that we opposed, have died before getting a vote in either the Senate or the House. At present, it looks like this legislative session, which ends March 10th, will not have a big impact on forest/climate policy.
Ax Drax Biomass Campaign: Our team continues to organize in coalition with groups throughout the PNW to oppose the expansion of industrial-scale biomass, particularly a proposed Drax biomass production and export facility in Longview WA. We’ll be co-hosting a showing of the movie “Burned: Are Trees the New Coal” at the Kelso Theater Pub in Kelso, WA on March 23rd. We’re also gathering public comments to oppose a permit from the Southwest Clean Air Agency (Washington) that Drax would need to obtain in order to build their facility – comments are due on March 29th. You can read more about this campaign and how to get involved at https://350pdx.org/ax-drax
State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan: State Forester Cal Mukumoto just released his recommendation that the Board of Forestry adopt the Habitat Conservation Plan for Western Oregon State Forests, and the Board voted yes on the recommendation today! The Forest Defense Team spent the past two years advocating for this Plan to support threatened and endangered species in the Coast Range, and are excited to see it being approved.
GET CONNECTED: We meet every first and third Monday of the month. Our next team meeting is on Monday, March 18th from 6:00pm-7:30pm over Zoom. Contact Brenna, Felice, or Tyler for meeting info and to get involved with the team.
Shade Equity Social — March 11, 6-8pm at our office (3639 N Mississippi Ave) – Please register for the event
We’re hosting our fourth Shade Equity Social on Monday, March 11th from 6-8pm, and you’re invited! At that event, we’re bringing together people and organizations from all over the city of Portland to discuss the upcoming city elections and to make plans to ensure that future city policy works to expand the urban canopy. 350PDX is a 501(c)(3) so the conversations will not focus on supporting particular candidates, but rather how to make urban forests a meaningful campaign issue. We could use volunteers for several roles, so please get in touch if you can help support this event! Food & drinks provided. Families are welcome & child care provided.
Climate Justice Policy Team
Last month, the Climate Justice Policy Team was focused on passing climate justice bills in the Oregon legislative session. Since the session began in early February, we’ve helped mobilized hundreds of Oregonians to contact their legislators, sending emails, making calls, and meeting with them in person.
Some of our priorities did not receive funding or are not moved forward out of their committees. However, we are excited to announce that several climate justice bills have passed the legislative session, including the COAL Act (HB 4083) and the Marine Reserves bill (HB 4132), and that Healthy Homes was funded as part of the housing package in SB 1530 for the full $15 million we asked for. This is a huge win, and a testament to the power of the local climate justice movement!
GET CONNECTED: If you’d like to join the climate justice policy team, we will be meeting on the second Wednesdays of each month, usually on Zoom; our next meeting will be next Wednesday night, 3/13 at 6:30–8pm. Email Cherice Bock for the link.
Members of most of our 350PDX teams attended a lobby day on February 20, meeting with 15 legislators from the Portland area to say that we cannot take a year off from good climate policy. See more photos here.
Portland City Council Meet & Greet
March 20, 6:00-8:00PM, at the 350PDX office (3639 N Mississippi Ave, Portland)
We now turn our attention to working on mobilizing climate justice voters for the Portland city council elections! Join us on March 20, 6–8pm, for an exciting launch of our work in this area. We’ll have a candidate meet + greet with over 20 city council candidates agreeing to attend, representing every district! This will be our March action night, we’ll have dinner and drinks available, and you’ll have a chance to meet candidates and hear what they care about in relation to climate justice in Portland. You can also share what’s important to you as a voter in their district.
Please invite friends to attend this with you! We want to show candidates the strength of the climate justice vote. We also want to start building up momentum and excitement for the potential we have ahead of us this year, to make a positive change in our city leadership in the transition to a new form of voting and new city council districts!
Register here and send the link to your friends.
Candidates who have agreed to attend so far (or a few of them will send a campaign surrogate): Andra Vltavín, Angelita Morillo, Bob Weinstein, Candace Avalos, Cayle Tern, Chris Flanary, Christopher Olson, Daniel DeMelo, Debbie Kitchin, Jamie Dunphy, Jennifer Park, Laura Streib, Marc Koller, Mariah Hudson, Marnie Glickman, Mitch Green, Moses Ross, Olivia Clark, Rex Burkholder, Robin Ye, Sarah Silkie, Steph Routh, Timur Ender
DO YOU NEED A SUMMER INTERNSHIP? – Apply by April 14
Come work with us for 10 weeks this summer! Those 18 years of age and older can apply to participate in our summer internship cohort on Climate Justice Organizing & Policy Advocacy. Interns will work a total of 120 hours over 10 weeks at $20/hour, for a total of $2400. Course credit can be arranged. Apply by April 14. See the position description here.
If you’re a high school student, we are also considering a volunteer youth cohort, so please email Cherice Bock (cherice@350pdx.org) to indicate interest.
Arts Team
The Arts Team holds frequent art builds to create signs, puppets, banners, and more! Our next art build is planned for Sunday, March 10, where we’ll rehabilitate our tree puppets, complete our Mr Capitalist puppets, and accomplish other timely tasks. We’ll also discuss a new mural in the the art build space and perhaps start painting the wall with primer, as well as practice drums for our action drum corps and discuss plans for Earth Day.
GET CONNECTED: Get in touch with Donna (murph1949@aol.com) to join the Arts Team and/or the art builds, which happen every second Sunday of the month.
Creative Team
The Creative Team uses storytelling to make the climate justice movement irresistible. We’ve finished gathering submissions for a writing and art contest — Flash Futures PNW: A Climate Fiction & Art Contest. Now we’re working on selecting submissions to add to a zine that we’ll be publishing in the spring! We’re also excited to support the Forest Defense Team in further developing their messaging for the Ax Drax campaign.
GET CONNECTED: Fill out this form to get on our creative roster, or reach out to Julia at julia@350pdx.org to get involved with the team.
SW Team
Welcome to the Southwest Neighborhood Team, which includes neighborhoods on the south and west sides of Portland. We work together to bring awareness of climate change to our neighborhoods.
Our street corner demonstrations continue weekly in March, raising awareness of the climate emergency. One hour, once a week in a visible location, reaches hundreds of commuters. Street corner demonstrations in March are scheduled for every Monday from 12:30 – 1 p.m. at SW Terwilliger Blvd. and SW Taylors Ferry Road. Street parking is available or take the bus or ride your bike. We have extra signs to share. Our education efforts include one hour presentations to work, or civic or social group. To schedule a presentation, please contact Pat Kaczmarek at patk5@msn.com
GET CONNECTED: Join our monthly meeting on Monday, March 11th, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. on Zoom. A link will be sent out to SW Team members prior to our meeting. To get involved in our outreach actions, please contact Pat Kaczmarek at patk5@msn.com, or visit https://350pdx.org/
Washington Neighborhood Team
Our team hosts monthly sign waving and film events, tabling for climate justice in the neighborhood, and lots more! At our upcoming monthly online meeting on March 12, we expect to debrief the legislative short session and take a deep dive into plastics and why recycling them is so complicated and difficult. And we’ll discuss the outcomes of the Legislative Short session. Our sign waving team expects to be in action in Hillsboro on Saturday, March 16 from 11am to noon – check our Facebook page for more details. We are beginning work to partner with local youth groups to create an Earth Day event, and we continue to discuss whether to continue our work to host public film events.
GET CONNECTED: We always welcome newcomers to our regular monthly 6:30pm second Tuesday (online) meetings and at all our events. Our next online meetup will be on March 12. Contact Debby (debbygactivism@gmail.com) for the zoom link if you’d like to attend.
Brooklyn Neighborhood Team
The Brooklyn Neighborhood Team works to mobilize people in our community towards climate justice initiatives. Some of our projects include mobilizing people in the movement to Stop Zenith Energy, supporting a new cargo bike sharing scheme in the neighborhood, and amplifying clean air issues.
GET CONNECTED: Join our Brooklyn Climate Action Team mailing list here to get 1-2 emails a month with local action alerts. Know someone in our neighborhood? Forward this email onto them! Any questions, contact chris@350pdx.org.
Earth Day Film Screening of Tomorrow at the Aladdin Theater
Monday, April 22, 6:00pm, get tickets here ($3 each)
The 350PDX Brooklyn Team is hosting an Earth Day film screening of Tomorrow at the Aladdin Theater, and you’re invited! TOMORROW is not just a film, it is the beginning of a movement seeking to encourage local communities around the world to change the way they live for the sake of our planet.
In solidarity,
350PDX Staff
350PDX Board & Team Leads
