April 20th, 2015
It’s with a heavy heart that we are sharing the news of the recent passing of Audrey Moore. Over the last two years, Audrey has been a truly formidable force and trailblazer for community rights in Oregon.
Though having moved to Oregon believing she could settle into the tranquility of a well-earned retirement in the Illinois Valley of Josephine County, those days were replaced by a fierce and uncompromising fight against the legalized poisoning happening all around her in the form of pesticides, the worst offender being the timber industry aerial spraying around her home.
After years of toiling within the rigged regulatory system and told by the highest office in the state that there is nothing to be done to stop the madness because the state’s hands were tied by the power of the timber industry, Audrey discovered community rights in the spring of 2013.
She sent an email to CELDF in March of 2013 that began, “I was one of the attendees at PIELC [Public Interest Environmental Law Conference] who was able to hear Thomas Linzey and yourself [Kai Huschke] on the panel following his Keynote. There are no words other than FINALLY! There is light at the end of the tunnel.” From that moment forward there was no turning Audrey back, and she put her heart and soul into working to correct the injustices around her up until her last days.
“Audrey had that perfect combination of ‘pants on fire’ fight, lucidity of the issues, and resolve that makes me do what I do to help people like Audrey protect their communities”, said Kai Huschke, CELDF organizer for Oregon. “Losing Audrey leaves a void inside of me as well as the community rights work in Oregon.”
Audrey is to be credited with mobilizing the country’s first Freedom from Pesticides Bill of Rights campaign in Josephine County, which also became the very first community in Oregon to qualify and vote on a local community rights law. Audrey also gave to community rights as a board member of the Oregon Community Rights Network and the National Community Rights Network.
The best way imaginable we can think of to remember and honor all that Audrey gave to community rights and the fight for the right of local, community self-government is to continue that fight and to do so with the same brains, passion, tenacity, zest, and resolve that Audrey gave both to community rights and to the rest of her life.
Our hearts go out to her family, friends, and anyone else touched by this amazing human being.
From all of us at CELDF, please join us in remembering Audrey Moore.