Last month, on Earth day, Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley planted three trees at David Douglas School District’s Fir Ridge high school with help from Friends of Trees and students from the school’s urban agriculture class. From left: Fir ridge Principal Joy O’Renick (obscured by the new tree), senior Jordan Epperly, Friends of Trees staffer Litzy Venturi, Senators Merkley and Wyden, seniors Amber Sloan, Dominique Gardner and Angel Velasquez. Senior Randy Dinh is kneeling in front.
STAFF/2016
As part of their Earth Day appearances, Oregon’s U.S. Senate delegation planted trees on the Fir Ridge school campus in the David Douglas School District last month. They weren’t just going through the motions. Ron Wyden, Oregon’s senior senator, was ebullient. After brushing off a question about a rumor that he’s not running for re-election, saying of course he is, he got busy planting three trees with Senator Jeff Merkley—who’s always happy visiting the school district both he and his children matriculated from—students from Fir Ridge’s urban agricultural class and Friends of Trees staff. “It was terrific to join Fir Ridge’s students to plant trees on our 47th Earth Day,” Merkley said in an email after the event. “My interest in environmental policy began on the first Earth Day in 1970—at a school less than a quarter of a mile from Fir Ridge—when my eighth-grade teacher engaged us in thinking about how to be good stewards of our planet.”
During the press conference, Wyden touted the recent passage of his two clean energy bills through the Senate, which promote both geothermal and marine power generation for homegrown renewable energy. “Earth Day is the day to recommit to protecting our environment 365 days a year,” he said.
