350 Salem OR is a grassroots organization taking local action for a stable climate and sustainable planet.
350 Salem offers recommendations regarding the new Salem CAP.
Salem is moving forward with its Climate Action Plan and a new subcommittee will make recommendations on strategies for early implementation of the plan. Speaking for 350 Salem OR, Laurie Dougherty submitted comments recommending changes in the make-up of the CAP subcommittee.
She also urged the CAP subcommittee to align current development patterns with city climate goals. Development is ongoing and results in infrastructure that lasts for decades, so these actions need to begin as soon as possible. Read our recommendations.
Biden’s old-growth forest executive order has a giant hole.
In honor of Earth Day, President Biden signed an Executive Order on Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities and Local Economies, an important step in recognizing the importance of mature and old-growth forests in mitigating the climate crisis. The order directs federal agencies to inventory remaining old-growth forests on lands managed by both the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). But the order fails to protect these last remaining mature and old-growth forests while this inventory is conducted, and ignores the threat posed by logging.
Take Action: Tell President Biden that U.S. climate strategy should protect older forests!
Check out the Salem Bike Vision!
We hope you’ll support the Salem Bike Vision being promoted by City Councilor Virginia Stapleton, Cherriots Board Chair Ian Davidson, and Salem Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Vice-President Dylan McDowell.
Funding a connected network of buffered bike lanes throughout Salem is one of the best things we could do to get people out of their cars and reduce emissions to meet our climate goal of Net Zero by 2050. You’ll recall that cars and trucks produce more than half of Salem’s emissions. Let’s do this! LEARN MORE
Local farmers decry the dangers of a planned industrial-scale chicken operation.
Join Tom Ellis on 350 Salem’s radio program, The Elephant in the Room as he interviews Kendra Kimbirauskas, from Farmers Against Foster Farms. Kimbirauskas talks about Foster Farms’ plan to install six industrial chicken operations in Linn County. The mega operation, he says, would hurt local, free-range chicken farmers and endanger the Willamette watershed.
Take a walk with us!
Join 350 activists and friends with “Just Walk Salem Keizer” for friendship and exercise on Wednesday morning walks. Participants meet at 9 a.m. at the mobile sculpture on the west side of the Cherriots Bus Station, on High Street. Walks to Riverfront Park usually bring sightings of heron, osprey, ducks, geese and hawks, and sometimes deer.
Climate Science Basics: just the facts …
We stand in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and believe silence is no longer an option. We encourage you to support local organizations doing social justice work, including Salem-Keizer NAACP, Causa, Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste (PCUN), Black Joy Oregon, and youth-group Latinos Unidos Siempre (LUS). Read our Land Acknowledgement Statement.
Fifty years from now people will likely look back on this era through the lens of having seen catastrophic climate changes that we cannot even imagine. Our legacy will depend on the level of moral courage we display in this difficult challenge.
350 Salem OR Co-coordinator Phil Carver