Monica Vaughan has organized college students to lobby the governor and legislators, in an effort to stop proposed liquefied natural gas import terminals she says will hurt the environment.

Last Saturday, it was time for some of those students to have a more down-to-earth experience.

About two dozen students from colleges from Eugene to Forest Grove participated in a bike-the-pipe ride along the Gales Creek portion of two proposed pipelines that would bring compressed gas inland from the liquefied gas terminals near Astoria.

That ride, from Maggie's Buns in Forest Grove to the school in Gales Creek, didn't just show the potential environmental damage of the line.

"With students meeting the farmers who have been struggling with this issue, it's that personal relationship that's been built," said Vaughan, who is an organizer for the Cascade Climate Network.

One of those relationships was with Anne Berblinger, owner of Gales Meadow Farm. Her story of how pipeline construction -- and maintenance of the right-of-way once it's built -- would affect her certified organic farm, is one of the most prominent examples of the impacts of construction of the lines.

"Hearing their stories about what the process has been like for them, and how disempowering it's been, with Anne talking about how much work they've put into the farm ... to think it could be completely destroyed by a corporation that wants to profit off of gas we don't even need, they're pretty powerful stories and motivation," Vaughan said.

The developers of the pipelines, Oregon LNG and Palomar Gas transmission, can use eminent domain to acquire easements on which to build their pipelines, if the lines get environmental approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The pipeline companies say very few landowners actually get to eminent domain and they will fairly compensate landowners for use of their property.

But Berblinger's opposition is based on more than a desire to preserve her farm.

"What I wanted to get across is that it's a very bad idea in itself, even if it did no harm -- and it does a lot of harm," Berblinger said. "It's a bad idea to be importing LNG or any other kind of fossil fuel instead of building our own renewable energy."

Dan Serres, the LNG coordinator for terminal and pipeline opponent Columbia Riverkeeper, was along for Saturday's ride.

"Going to the farms and seeing the wells that are going to be destroyed, the crops that aren't going to be planted, it put a very human and real face on an issue that they care about from a climate change perspective," Serres said.