Jefferson Journal July-August 2023

They say it takes a village to raise a child...

Together, with you, we're the village it takes.

Relief Nurseries partner with parents to give them the support, tools, and information they need to be the best parents they can be.

Together, we can give Oregon's children the best start possible.

LEARN MORE AT OregonReliefNurseries.org

JPR Foundation

Officers

Ken Silverman – Ashland

President

Liz Shelby – Vice President

Cynthia Harelson –Medford/Grants Pass

Treasurer

Andrea Pedley – Eureka Secretary

Ex-Officio

Rick Bailey President, SOU

Paul Westhelle Executive Director, JPR

Directors

Eric Monroe – Medford

Ron Meztger – Coos Bay

Rosalind Sumner – Yreka

Dan Mullin – Eugene

Karen Doolen – Medford

JPR Staff

Paul Westhelle Executive Director

Darin Ransom Director of Engineering

Sue Jaffe

Membership Coordinator

Valerie Ing

Northern California Program Coordinator/Announcer

Abigail Kraft

Business Support Manager/ Jefferson Journal Editor

Don Matthews

Classical Music Director/ Announcer

Geoffrey Riley Assistant Producer/ Jefferson Exchange Host

Colleen Pyke

Announcer

Erik Neumann News Director/Regional Reporter

Dave Jackson Music Director/Open Air Host

Danielle Kelly Open Air Host

Soleil Mycko Business Manager

Angela Decker

All Things Considered Host Jefferson Exchange Senior Producer

Charlie Zimmerman

JPR News Production Assistant

Zack Biegel

JPR News Production Assistant

Calena Reeves

Audience & Business Services Coordinator

Liam Bull Audience Services Assistant

Vanessa Finney Morning Edition Host

Roman Battaglia Regional Reporter

Jane Vaughan Regional Reporter

Ella Hutcherson Snowden Intern

Josh Raines Network Engineer

6 How Did The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Financial Troubles Become So Serious?

By Jane Vaughan

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has recently struggled with staffing changes and financial turmoil. These shifts at the Ashland theater company have led many to wonder: how did OSF get here?

9 Paradise Lost: Copco Lake Residents Brace For Dam Removal

By Juliet Grable

The impending removal of four hydroelectric dams on the main stem of the Klamath River has thrown Copco Lake, a normally tranquil community, into turmoil. While many people are celebrating the removals and what they could mean for salmon runs and the overall health of the river, Copco residents are devastated to lose their namesake lake.

Jack Barthell

Derral Campbell

Craig Faulkner

Ed Hyde

Alan

Autumn Micketti

Peter Pace

Krystin Phelps

Frances Oyung

Laurell Reynolds

Crystal Rogers

Raymond Scully

Shanna Simmons

Lars Svendsgaard

Traci Svendsgaard

Robin Terranova

JEFFERSON JOURNAL (ISSN 1079-2015), July/August

2023, volume 47 number 4. Published bi-monthly (six times a year) by JPR Foundation, Inc., 1250 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Periodical postage paid at Ashland, OR and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to The Jefferson Journal, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR. 97520

Jefferson Journal Credits:

Editor: Abigail Kraft

Managing Editor: Paul Westhelle

Poetry Editor: Amy Miller

Design/Production: Impact Publications

Printing: Oregon Web Press

Jefferson Public Radio is a community service of Southern Oregon University.

The JPR Foundation is a non-profit organization that supports JPR’s public service mission.

PHOTO: KIM BUDD/OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

DRIVING ROUTE

Takes approx 5 min

BIKE/WALK ROUTE

Takes between 7–25 min depending on if biking or walking

The Brave New World Of AI In Journalism

An email from NPR this week announced that NPR is “actively engaged in developing a framework and set of principles to guide its decision-making on all aspects of AI (Artificial Intelligence) investment and usage.” The email went on to say that NPR would be consulting with experts across a wide range of areas, including editorial, legal, security and data governance, to evaluate how AI might be used at NPR and across the NPR Network.

Also, recently, the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) issued guidelines for the use of AI in journalism. According to RTDNA, these guidelines are among the first regarding AI from a national journalism organization. The RTDNA guidelines read more like a warning label than a set of standards or policy statement. In a section labeled “Accuracy, Context and Clarity” the RTDNA guidelines say that newsrooms should consider the following questions:

• Can you fully understand the capabilities and source material for the AI program before implementation?

• What are your safeguards to protect against inadvertent plagiarism?

• Can you independently verify the AI tool’s accuracy?

• Are there opportunities to test the AI tool prior to publication?

• What is your newsroom system and set of expectations for human review before publication?

AI has been used to produce works of journalism for some time. The Associated Press reports using AI since 2014 to generate automated data-driven text stories, covering topics such as financial reports and sports results. The AP says that thanks to AI it increased its output by a factor of 10 on corporate earnings stories for all publicly traded companies in the United States.

But, today’s AI is not the AI of yesterday. The current iteration of AI, called generative AI, is capable of scouring large volumes of data at high speed and synthesizing the information contained in that data into narrative text that mimics natural human language pretty well. This new capability, powered by sophisticated language models, now enables an AI chatbot to generate a relatively balanced article on a topic based on a set of parameters programmed into its code.

The implications of generative AI (and what comes after it) for journalism are far-reaching. On the bright side, journalists could use AI to mine data that was previously unmanageable, to develop deeper, fact-based stories. On the dark side, tech companies (many of which have now become media companies, think Google and Apple) will use AI to generate content cheaper and faster as a way to maximize profits, without the need to compensate the journalists who create the original source material from which AI stories are derived.

A recent article by Maggie Harrison on the website Futurism describes the danger of AI to the fragile journalism economy. The article’s leave-nothing-to-the-imagination title says it all, “Google Unveils Plan to Demolish the Journalism Industry Using AI.” Harrison describes a demo of a new AI-powered search interface recently unveiled by Google that puts at the top of every Google search an AI generated summary called an “AI snapshot.” Harrison maintains that because research shows that information consumers hardly ever make it to the second page of search results, or even to the bottom of the first page, this AI snapshot will be a game-changer that will crowd out original journalism and further destabilize the revenue streams that support it. Harrison writes: “… the demo raises an extremely important question for the future of the already-ravaged journalism industry: if Google’s AI is going to mulch up original work and provide a distilled version of it to users at scale, without ever connecting them to the original work, how will publishers continue to monetize their work?”

It’s a good question that deserves an answer. Our democracy may very well depend on it.

Paul Westhelle is JPR’s Executive Director.

The implications of generative AI (and what comes after it) for journalism are far-reaching.

How Did The Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Financial Troubles Become So Serious?

by Jane Vaughan

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival has recently struggled with staffing changes and financial turmoil. These shifts at the Ashland theater company have led many to wonder: how did OSF get here?

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, 88 years old, is the primary cultural attraction in Southern Oregon. It’s also one of the largest professional regional repertory theater companies in the country, which is why a recent announcement about an emergency fundraising campaign seemed sudden to many in the community.

In April, OSF announced it needed to quickly raise $2.5 million, or else shut down the 2023 season, which was set to begin only a week later. In June, they said they had met that goal, but now needed to raise another $7.3 million to complete the season.

According to OSF’s audited tax documents from 2013-2021, there are a variety of reasons why the theater company ended up in such a tight spot.

Lack of liquid assets

The first has to do with how OSF holds its assets. According to its 2021 financial audit, their total assets were nearly $96 million. But the majority was held in ways that weren’t easily usable.

“If you look at their total assets, or total net worth, [it] actually looks quite high,” said Renee Irvin, Director of the School of Planning, Public Policy and Management at the University of Oregon, who specializes in nonprofit finance. She reviewed OSF’s 990 tax forms.

“You have to take into account that a lot of that is in the form of their land and buildings. So that’s, you know, their buildings are worth quite a bit. You can’t just simply get rid of your stages. So it’s very non-liquid,” she said.

While Irvin said this breakdown is normal for big arts nonprofits, it also means OSF couldn’t easily access that money.

In addition, almost all the money held in its approximately $39 million Endowment Fund was restricted by donors to be used for specific purposes, according to OSF’s financial audit from FY21. Only about 15% of the theater’s endowment fund was unrestricted.

Breakdown of OSF’s total assets in FY ’21

OSF’s assets totaled nearly $96 million in FY ’21. This graph depicts how that money was held. The money held in property and equipment is not liquid, while most of the money held in the Endowment Fund is restricted.

Cash and other assets

$25,047,445

Endowment Fund $38,664,051

Property and equipment $32,141,439

Breakdown of OSF’s approximately $39 million Endowment Fund in FY ’21

This graph shows restrictions on OSF’s Endowment Fund in FY ’21. The vast majority of it is restricted, meaning it cannot be easily accessed.

Without donor restrictions $5,633,232

With donor restrictions $33,030,819

OSF was left with about $25 million in cash and other assets, which includes investments, inventory and prepaid expenses. While that might seem like a lot of money, the company’s total operating expenses for FY21 were over $18 million.

So although OSF’s assets totaled about $96 million, it was mostly restricted or held in the form of things like buildings, meaning it couldn’t actually be used to address financial problems.

“OSF does have many assets and many advantages and wonderful stages and facilities. But there are times, like our postCOVID world, where the cash has been a little more difficult to lay our hands on,” said OSF Board Chair Diane Yu.

Dependence on plummeting ticket sales

Of course, the most obvious answer for these money troubles is COVID. It’s no secret that performing arts organizations around the country were hit hard by the pandemic. In March 2020, as worries about the pandemic were becoming clear in Southern Oregon, OSF laid off about 80% of its workforce.

Yu said the company was affected both by COVID and by choking wildfire smoke, which forced them to cancel some shows in their outdoor Elizabethan theater.

“We’ve been basically in a recovery mode since the 2020-21 pandemic. And I think that’s the real reason why things have been stressed more. We’ve had some management and infrastructure issues that didn’t adapt well to those two major business disruptions,” she said.

Some in Ashland also say OSF’s decline in ticket sales is the result of alienating its core audience of primarily white, middle-aged tourists through shows that are too focused on social justice and racial issues rather than on traditional Shakespeare.

Yu said historically, OSF has gotten 70-80% of its operating revenue solely from ticket sales for plays.

Liam Kaas-Lentz, managing director at Portland Center Stage, said theater companies usually earn about 50-60% of their revenue from ticket sales. He said Portland Center Stage’s ticket sales are currently down about 30%.

Meanwhile, OSF’s revenue from ticket sales plummeted during peak COVID years by almost 98%, according to an analysis for JPR by Kevin Marold, a forensic accountant in Portland who reviewed OSF’s audited financial statements between 2013 and 2021, the most recent year they were available. He excluded 2019 from his analysis because a lack of detail in those tax documents made it difficult to compare to other years.

As the vast majority of OSF’s revenue from ticket sales went away during COVID and the majority of their other assets were held in infrastructure like buildings, they had few options to pay the bills.

To adjust, OSF has also done fewer shows and shortened its season in recent years. That was meant to be a way to save money, but Yu said it also meant there were fewer tickets to sell and fewer ways to make money.

“Those things which are consistent with trying to conserve on the expense side do have an effect on the revenue side. So that’s to make it an exquisite challenge,” she said.

Yu said ticket sales currently make up between 25-35% of the theater’s revenue.

In addition, Marold said OSF’s memberships have declined recently.

“During 2020 and 2021, memberships contributed approximately $1.8 million on average or a decrease of nearly 60% of the historical norms,” he said, based on his analysis of OSF’s audited financial documents.

According to OSF’s new interim executive director, Tyler Hokama, its 2022 audited financial statements are not yet complete.

A sign in downtown Ashland advertises OSF’s emergency fundraising campaign.

According to its 2021 financial audit, OSF’s total assets were nearly $96 million. But the majority was held in ways that weren’t easily usable.

OSF’s total revenue from 2013–2021 While OSF’s revenue mostly increased over time, it dropped drastically in 2020 and again in 2021. 2021 is the most recent year for which data is available.

Reliance on one-time gifts and grants

Without those ticket sales or memberships, OSF has become increasingly reliant on one-time gifts and grants, Marold said.

Irvin said the type of grassroots emergency fundraising campaign that OSF did earlier this year can really only be a onetime strategy.

“The unusual thing to me is the very public nature of the ask. It is unusual to, and very difficult actually, to raise money for a budget deficit. That just doesn’t excite donors in general. So you can do it maybe once and say, ‘Hey, we’re in a tough spot,’” Irvin said. “But, you know, putting your hands out and asking for an extraordinary gift like this with a grassroots appeal is sort of a one-time strategy, and you can’t do this year after year.”

“Our model was fine when we didn’t have all these crises,” Yu said. “But the crises that we’ve experienced have had an impact. And that’s what we’re adjusting to now.”

The Shakespeare company received over $5 million in Paycheck Protection Program loan money during the pandemic, nearly all of which was forgiven. In November, it received a $10 million grant from The Hitz Foundation, and in December, the OSF board released $4.5 million from its Endowment Fund to help support operating expenses. Yu said that money has all been spent.

“Without those one-time forms of other support, the organization would have already been done for,” Marold said.

OSF’s long-term viability

Irvin praised OSF for cutting costs in recent years and said its administrative salaries were quite modest.

“We are moving in the right direction, I believe, and if we continue to keep moving forward together, we will keep, you know, having shows and having live theater at OSF,” said Interim Development Director Kamilah Long.

Marold, meanwhile, said based on his analysis of OSF’s tax history, he’s unsure about its long-term viability, with a lack of cash flow, the difficulty of relying on one-time gifts and dwin-

dling ticket sales.

“My goodness, I would say they are in danger,” he said. “What I see is a company that has lost its most significant revenue stream and is generating some pretty significant losses.”

He said OSF’s financial statements did not reveal any red flags or suspicious activity.

According to an interview with Long in April, the company’s financial trouble “predates the leadership. And so it’s not even a leadership problem. It’s just a cumulative problem, I believe, that has been not addressed for a while.”

Of course, OSF is not the only theater struggling and depending on grants and other funding.

“It is not hyperbolic to say that the field itself is on a precipice,” said Kaas-Lentz. “It’s going to take a lot of government agencies and foundations to step up and keep the industry from closing down.”

Former Executive Director David Schmitz, who left OSF in January, did not respond to requests for comment.

Yu said planning for next year’s season has “a slight pause on it,” and OSF will need to do more fundraising for that. The company will announce additional specific fundraising goals for the 2024 season later this summer, after the nonprofit’s annual budget has been completed.

Still, Yu is optimistic about the future. OSF hopes the recently-hired Hokama will put the company on the right path.

“We know what some of the both infrastructure and these cash flow issues are,” Yu said, “and acknowledging the issues and knowing what they are is the first step towards resolving them.”

Jane Vaughan began her journalism career as a reporter for a community newspaper in Portland, Maine. She’s been a producer at New Hampshire Public Radio and worked on WNYC’s On The Media. Jane recently earned her Master’s in Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.

SOURCE: 990S FROM FY 2013–2021 JANE VAUGHAN/FLOURISH

Paradise Lost: Copco Lake Residents

Brace For Dam Removal

by Juliet Grable

The Copco Lake store has been closed for over a decade; still, it’s easy to imagine stopping in for some bait and sandwich fixings, or chatting with a neighbor in one of the mismatched rocking chairs on the front porch. The sidewalk in front of the store is cracked, but the building is tidy, and on a sunny day in late May, Francis Gill is mowing the lawn. Danny Fontaine, Gill’s husband, recalls a time when rafters, still breathless after riding in on the Klamath River’s Class 3 and 4 rapids, crowded the grass.

“It was really lively,” says Fontaine. “And so we’re thinking, well, that would be really cool to recreate that out here.”

Home to about 100 residents in Siskiyou County, California, Copco Lake is just 30 minutes from Interstate 5 and Yreka. The store, fire station and community center are clustered on the lake’s southeast end—what Fontaine calls “town.”

“I usually refer to it as Walton’s Mountain, because it’s such a tight community,” says Fontaine, who serves as deputy chief of the volunteer fire department under Gill. “Everybody knows everybody, and we’re all friends. If anybody needs help, or is in trouble, we’re there.”

The pair recently purchased the store and plan to reopen it, but for now the shelves are bare, the coolers empty.

“We’re going to hold off on this until we know what’s exactly going to happen,” says Fontaine.

The impending removal of four hydroelectric dams on the main stem of the Klamath River has thrown this normally tranquil community into turmoil. The smallest of the dams is scheduled to be deconstructed this year. The reservoirs behind the remaining three—Copco 1, Iron Gate, and J.C. Boyle—will be drawn down starting next January; by summer, it’s expected that the river will flow freely for the first time in over 100 years. And while many people are celebrating the removals and what they

Continued on page 11

top: Fontaine and Gill recently purchased the Copco Lake store with plans of reopening. They have decided to wait to see the effect of dam removal in the area.

below: The southeast end of Copco Lake. The reservoir will be drained in early 2024 and make way for the free-flowing Klamath River after four hydroelectric dams are removed.

The impending removal of four hydroelectric dams on the main stem of the Klamath River has thrown this normally tranquil community into turmoil.

World-Class Musicians, Thrilling Performances

2023–2024 SEASON

Celebrate CMC’s 40th Season

Tangos and Jazz

“When the music says swing, we swing. When the music says groove, we groove.” Grammy nominee and International Tango Competition winner Quartet San Francisco expresses itself in its agility and standout virtuosic playing. QSF was founded in 2001, with crossover specialists who excel in multiple styles — from jazz to tango, pop to funk, blues to bluegrass, gypsy swing to big band, and beyond.

Saturday, July 15 – 7pm

Tangos and Jazz - Music of the Americas

Gerardo Matos Rodriguez: La Cumparsita

Augustin Bardi: Gallo Ciego

Astor Piazzolla: Nuevo Tango

Leonard Bernstein: West Side Story: Excerpts

Duke Ellington: The Mooche

Chick Corea: Spain

Raymond Scott: Powerhouse

Raymond Scott: Celebration on the Planet Mars

Raymond Scott: The Penguin

TICKETS: ChamberMusicConcerts.org · 541-552-6154

could mean for salmon runs and the overall health of the river, Copco residents are devastated to lose their namesake lake.

“A lot of people feel the same way—that they came here to retire on a lake and came here to retire in this lifestyle,” says Gill. “And now that’s being taken away from them forcefully.”

Though they were angry at first, Gill and Fontaine are trying to imagine a future without the lake, in part so they can help their neighbors.

“People are going through all forms of the stages of loss and grief,” says Gill. “We love our community so much, and the people in it, that we’re just trying to do our best to hold together what we can.”

Linda Ebert and her husband, Steve, moved to the north shore of Copco Lake in 1999. An avid fisherman, Steve taught high school science until he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. They chose their home in part because of the gentle slope and easy access to their private dock and the lake.

“He knew he was going to become more and more disabled,” says Ebert. “That attracted him, that and the beauty of the lake.”

Steve died in 2021; now, Ebert is anticipating other losses, including the birds and wildlife that thrive along the shoreline.

“It’s a lot of habitat. Deer are born in those tules, not to mention duck nests, goose nests,” she says. “All that’s going to be wiped out.”

According to Fontaine, many residents feel they were left out of the decision-making process, and they’re worried about how dam removal will transform their community and homes. Will properties lose value? Will the lakebed become a barren wasteland? Who will own the land between the river and the homes?

Some are also concerned that the effort and cost and heartache will all be for naught—that removing the dams won’t improve water quality or help salmon runs.

Ebert calls dam removal “a grand experiment.” “It’s going to be a real question mark how this is going to enhance fishing,” she says. “It’s been a problematic river and it’s been dammed a long time.”

Compensating losses

The electric utility PacifiCorp has transferred ownership of the four dams to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, or KRRC, a nonprofit corporation set up to oversee decommissioning of the dams and the restoration of the reservoir footprints. KRRC has acknowledged that property owners who live around the reservoirs and below Iron Gate, the lowest of the four dams, could experience direct physical impacts from dam removal.

Will properties lose value?

Will the lakebed become a barren wasteland? Who will own the land between the river and the homes?

Groundwater wells that are “hydrologically connected” to Copco Lake might not be as productive. Homes built on unstable soils on the rim of Copco Lake could settle or slump. Some properties downstream of Iron Gate that are located within the 100year floodplain could face a higher risk of flooding.

To help compensate residents, KRRC launched the Klamath Mitigation Fund this spring.

“We have invited private property owners into this claims process to evaluate the opportunity to be compensated with funds,” says Mark Bransom, CEO at KRRC. Residents whose claims are settled must agree not to litigate.

KRRC recruited Joan Smith, a longtime public servant in Siskiyou County, and Monte Mendenhall, regional manager for PacifiCorp, to administer the fund. They have sent letters to individual property owners, held virtual information sessions, and visited residents in person.

Patty Vinikow, a Copco Lake resident whose home is perched on a rim of basalt rock on the north shore, says she was informed in a letter this spring that her home could be vulnerable to settling.

“So I’d be living in a home that at best might crack and fracture, and at worst might tumble down the edge of a 50-foot cliff,” says Vinikow, who purchased her property two years ago. “Believe me, I would never have bought here if I’d known that.”

Vinikow has been offered vouchers to cover the cost of six months of lodging, should she choose to temporarily relocate while the reservoir is being drawn down. The actual cost of any mitigation measures won’t be estimated until (and unless) slumping actually occurs.

KRRC is offering $5,000 to residents whose wells could be affected. Vinikow calls the compensation a “pittance.” “You know wells are $20- $30,000 to redrill,” she says.

Bransom says that the flat fee is intended to help pay for the deepening of existing wells, or to upgrade equipment.

“We discovered through a well monitoring program that we implemented that the majority of wells that we monitored are not in fact hydraulically connected to the reservoirs,” says Bransom, adding that few, if any wells are expected to see reduced production, much less go dry.

far left: The Copco Community Center is a hub for the small Siskiyou County town.

Danny Fontaine standing in the Copco Community Center holding framed newspaper clippings about Copco Lake.

Ebert is not eligible for compensation from the mitigation fund, and although she’s been assured that her property is not at risk for flooding, she’s concerned about the pulse of sediment that will be released when the J.C. Boyle Dam is removed upstream of her home.

“They’re going to fill the river channel with sediment, so the water will be spreading out with all this junk in it,” she says.

Ebert doesn’t have a computer or Internet access, but she has mailed letters and attended meetings held by the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors to voice her concerns and to request help salvaging her dock, which property owners must remove by October 30.

Gill wishes there had been more face-to-face and town hallstyle meetings over the years, but he admits that the residents’ anger may have discouraged physical visits to the community.

“Yes, everybody is very angry and hurt,” says Gill. “But if they came out to our community and called us to a meeting, there might be some feelings in the room, but there wouldn’t be any type of violence or scary things. That’s not how this community works.”

The bad guys

Kevin Felts is all too familiar with the brew of emotions

Copco Lake residents are experiencing. For 20 years, his family co-owned a vacation cabin on then-Northwestern Lake, in southwest Washington. The serene setting, with cabins tucked around the shoreline, felt like traveling back in time, says Felts.

“Our kids grew to love the outdoors there,” he says. “It was just a magical place for our family.”

The lake formed when the White Salmon River, a tributary of the Columbia, was dammed in 1913. Tribes and environmental groups had long lobbied for removing Condit Dam to provide habitat for struggling salmon and steelhead. Rumors of dam removal were already swirling when Felts purchased the cabin.

“It caused a great deal of consternation,” he says. “Nobody likes to have their ox gored, right? We all have things we treasure, and when somebody comes along and wants to take them away from us or alter them, it’s painful.”

Mirroring the present-day Klamath River, PacifiCorp, the dam’s owner, decided removing the dam would be less expensive than retrofitting it with fish ladders.

“PacifiCorp was the good guy because they were willing to take the dam out; we were the bad guys because we had cabins on the lake and we wanted to keep the lake,” says Felts. He wishes critics had put themselves in the cabin owners’ shoes.

In October of 2011, Condit Dam was breached. Great chunks of silt sloughed away, forming a steep canyon.

“We watched it happen,” says Felts. “It broke our hearts in a way, but in another way—I have to be really honest with you— we were upset when it was gonna happen but by the time it came around I was like, ‘I get it. The fish are important. A wild river is a wonderful thing to witness.’”

PacifiCorp paid to have the foundation of Felts’ cabin replaced and offered to pay for a new well. The families declined, and soon after the dam was removed, they sold the cabin.

Imagining the future

With its wood paneling, flower-print couch, and commanding brick fireplace, the Copco Lake community center feels a little bit like your grandparents’ living room. Here, residents gather for BBQ dinners, raffles, and arts and crafts; Gill and Fontaine, who serve as president and vice-president, host karaoke nights. Fontaine prefers Steely Dan, and Gill likes Garth Brooks, but with a hard drive stocked with 600,000 songs, they can accommodate just about any request.

Though they will mourn the loss of the lake, Vinikow, Ebert, Gill and Fontaine all plan to continue living at Copco Lake, even after the lake is gone. Gill and Fontaine say what makes Copco Lake special is ultimately the people who live there.

“We’re in creation mode; trying to create something out of it,” says Fontaine. “But we don’t know because I can’t see what’s under the water yet. It’s like this big surprise.”

As soon as the reservoirs are drawn down, restoration crews will plant thousands of seeds, shrubs and trees in the muddy expanse that was Copco Lake. KRRC has released artistic renderings envisioning what the river corridor could look like once the vegetation has taken root and begun to mature.

“We did it with the best of intentions, to address some of the concerns that folks expressed about a moonscape and a mud bowl,” says Bransom. In the same breath, he warns that it will take time for the river and the surrounding landscape to heal.

“I think that people need to take a long view of this,” says Bransom. “As tribal folks tell me often, the river and the lands are going to have to undergo some additional pain before the long-term restoration of balance will be expected to be achieved.”

Though he’s skeptical that salmon will be able to run all the way up the Klamath in low water years, Gill says that in the best-case scenario, the freed river will be “beautiful.” “You know, greenery and plant life going down to the river, there’ll be big salmon runs and steelhead runs coming up through here,” he says. “There’ll be anglers; there’ll be rafters. And it will still be paradise.”

Juliet Grable is a writer based in Southern Oregon and a regular contributor to JPR News. She writes about wild places and wild creatures, rural communities, and the built environment.

Patty Vinikow purchased her home on Copco Lake two years ago but has been told it could be subject to "settling" once the reservoir is drawn down.

CREDIT: PATTY VINIKOW

JULIA SHUMWAY

Oregon has spent nearly $125 million since 2020 to turn vacant hotels and motels into shelters through the Project Turnkey program, adding more than 900 beds.

Shelters For Klamath Tribal Elders, Homeless Rural Residents Funded By Oregon’s Project Turnkey

Ashelter for tribal elders in southern Oregon, a safe resting space for domestic violence survivors on the southwest coast and Malheur County’s first year-round shelter are among the latest projects funded under a state program that pays to turn vacant buildings into homeless shelters.

Oregon has spent nearly $125 million since 2020 to turn vacant hotels and motels into shelters through the Project Turnkey program, adding more than 900 rooms to help hundreds of people get off the streets. The four new projects announced Tuesday by the Oregon Community Foundation, a Portland-based entity that oversees the funding, aim to help more homeless residents in rural Oregon. The projects receive state funding and are managed by local governments or nonprofits.

About 18,000 people are homeless statewide, and about 62% of homeless Oregonians lack shelter, according to data collected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Gov. Tina Kotek has set a goal of getting 1,200 more homeless Oregonians off the streets by January 2024.

The largest grant announced on May 31 was for the Housing Authority of Malheur and Harney Counties, which received more than $4 million to buy and renovate a 17-unit apartment

building in Ontario. It will become transitional housing, with a focus on serving people who are chronically homeless, families with children, elderly people and people with disabilities.

It’s Malheur County’s first year-round shelter, Housing Authority Executive Director Kristy Rodriguez said.

“This has been a long-time goal for many service providers in our area to watch our most vulnerable populations thrive and succeed to stabilization,” she said.

The Klamath Tribes in southern Oregon received just more than $2.3 million to buy and renovate Melita’s Hotel and RV Park, just southeast of Crater Lake National Park in Chiloquin. The motel will provide housing for tribal elders, and a restaurant on site will be turned into a soup kitchen and community gathering space. Eventually, the tribe plans to turn the empty RV sites into transitional housing.

Klamath Tribes Chairman Clayton Dumont said in a statement that the new shelter is part of a larger effort to ensure tribal members have warm, dry places to sleep. He noted that one in four Native Americans live below the poverty line.

“In our Klamath, Modoc, Yahooskin cultures, elders are our most important teachers. They are how we know who we are,” Dumont said. “Thus, tribal elders who are without or in danger

The Klamath Tribes in southern Oregon received more than $2.3 million to buy and renovate Melita’s Hotel and RV Park to provide housing for tribal elders.

JPR News Focus: Housing

Continued from previous page

of being without shelter will be our priority for this newly acquired tribal property. mo sepk’eec’a (Much thanks) to Oregon Community Foundation for being such good partners through the acquisition process.”

Another $1 million is going to Coos County, where the nonprofit Alternative Youth Activities will transform a wing of the Old Charleston School in Coos Bay into nine shelter units for youth and families. Local school districts and other service providers can refer families or homeless youth to the shelter, and the organization will help teens earn GEDs and access workforce training along with other services.

“This funding will open additional doors to provide affordable, stable housing to south coast youth and families. We can’t thank Project Turnkey enough,” Executive Director Scott Cooper, said in a statement. “These additional units will provide youth with a stepping stone between emergency shelter and longer-term housing as they move toward independence.”

In neighboring Curry County, Oasis Advocacy and Shelter received $647,400 to buy and renovate a multi-bedroom house as a shelter for domestic violence survivors and medically fragile people. Oasis will partner with the nonprofit Brookings CORE Response to provide counseling, safety planning, advocacy and resiliency training and help shelter residents connect with other services.

I ride the bus…

The four projects announced Tuesday join four others that received funding earlier this year from the $50 million allocated by the Legislature last year. A shelter at a former Salem motel with rooms for about 100 people opened in April, and a 69-bed shelter is opening in Lincoln City.

A 22-room shelter in Astoria and a hotel in The Dalles that will provide shelter for 15 families and at least 30 adults are also in progress with funding from Project Turnkey.

The Oregon Community Foundation plans to announce additional grants in June. Lawmakers have not allocated more money specifically for Project Turnkey, though they approved $200 million in March to add at least 600 new shelter beds in urban areas and 100 new beds in rural Oregon.

The Oregon Capital Chronicle is a professional, nonprofit news organization. They are an affiliate of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers. The Capital Chronicle retains full editorial independence, meaning decisions about news and coverage are made by Oregonians for Oregonians.

Julia Shumway is a senior political reporter for The Oregon Capital Chronicle

“I ride the bus because I don’t like to drive anymore, and I can count on the bus to get me to the store without needing to ask my kids to take me. It also takes me to my grandkids!” — Margaret

PRESS PASS

ROMAN BATTAGLIA

JPR Welcomes Ella Hutcherson As Summer 2023 Snowden Intern

Every year since 2019, Jefferson Public Radio has hosted a summer intern through the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism. The University of Oregon program places recent and soon-to-be graduates from all Oregon colleges in newsrooms across the state.

Current JPR reporter Roman Battaglia was the first intern JPR hosted in the summer of 2019. This year, JPR welcomes Ella Hutcherson, a recent graduate from the UO and former managing editor of Ethos Magazine. Hutcherson and Battaglia sat down to chat about his Snowden experience and her expectations as she learns how to report for a public radio station.

Roman Battaglia Could you tell me about your journalism experience coming into Snowden?

Ella Hutcherson I joined Ethos Magazine my sophomore year, which is an independent student publication. I joined it as a fact checker. So that was sort of my basis for journalism was just this like, very meticulous, rigorous fact checking process. But while I was learning how to do that, I also was very adamant about writing. So, I made them let me write, and I published a few longer feature pieces. That’s still something that I really like to do.

I remained at the magazine the whole time I was in college. I became an editor my junior year, I was the managing editor this year. I also took on an internship at Eugene Weekly, after my sophomore year, and I did arts and culture while I was there, mostly. I also worked on the homeless obituary projects that they did. I stayed on after my internship as a freelancer very sporadically.

Roman What is Ethos Magazine?

Ella Yeah, the mission is basically just to uplift marginalized voices in Lane County. So, we try to do things that aren’t necessarily getting covered in other places. This year, our cover stories were about Oregon nonprofits after Roe v. Wade, and how they were dealing with the overturn [of the law]. We did a story about this clown couple in Portland. And then our most recent edition that just came out, the cover story is about the local women’s tackle football team.

I was wondering about what your highlights of the Snowden experience were, since you were at the same place?

Roman When I came in, I had experience with the audio side of stuff, like I knew how the radio worked. But I’d never done any reporting in the field. So, I learned a lot about how to get good audio.

I think it depends on the intern who comes in since you have different experiences. You have a lot more experience in

writing. It sounds like your training might focus more on [reporting] the actual audio piece and how to create an audio story.

You’ve done like a lot of different kinds of reporting like education reporting, science reporting and other diversity, equality stuff. What are you most interested in exploring while you’re here at JPR?

Ella Yeah, I have yet to find something I really don’t like doing in journalism. I really had a lot of fun doing arts and culture when I was at Eugene Weekly, getting to talk to directors and authors and artists. That kind of thing was really, really fun for me. I’ve really enjoyed the science reporting that I’ve been doing lately. I just really like getting to talk to people who are passionate about something and getting to kind of put that on display. I think it’s really important, the education reporting, all of that is really important. I don’t have a bad time doing it, but it’s way more, I think, emotionally fulfilling and fun when people want to talk to you, and are excited about what they’re doing than it is when they’re like, “I have to talk to you, or you’ll print that I didn’t,” type thing.

Roman What do you hope to learn the most about during your internship?

Ella I’m just excited to learn about the public radio format, and getting to develop my skills in audio. But also, I think I want to learn about, the community in Ashland and in that area, and get to familiarize myself with Southern Oregon a little bit more. Lately, especially in my senior year, it feels like I have kind of just been raring to go. It’s like, school almost starts to get in the way at a certain point. I’m excited about just the workflow of it and being able to work at a faster pace, dedicate more time to reporting and getting to do more without having to worry about those other things.

Is there anything that you wish you had known or wished you had thought about before going into your Snowden internship?

Roman I think that knowing you’ll get the support that you’ll need is important. I came in and was like, “Oh, my god, this is such a professional field. I feel like I’m not capable of doing any of this stuff.” But everyone obviously knows that you’re not a full-time journalist yet. And if you make a mistake, you just kind of learn that that’s all part of the learning process. And that’s what will help make you better.

Look for stories by Ella starting in July, 2023.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Ella Hutcherson

JPR News Recognized With Journalism Excellence Awards In 2023

The JPR newsroom received a series of awards in 2023 from the Radio Television Digital News Association, the Public Media Journalists Association and the Society of Professional Journalists. Listener support makes all of this high-quality, local journalism possible!

Radio Television Digital News Association: The Murrow Awards are presented by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) for outstanding broadcast and digital journalism. These awards recognize news organizations across the country whose work demonstrates the spirit of excellence that Edward R. Murrow set as a standard for the broadcast journalism profession.

This year, JPR won awards in four separate categories in RTDNA’s small market division among public and commercial radio stations in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. This is the sixth consecutive year JPR has won in the Hard News category.

JPR was recognized for work in the following categories:

Hard News

• “Elections officials describe intimidation and misinformation from local ‘voter integrity’ groups” by Erik Neumann

Excellence in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

• “Survivors of the Mill Fire want to rebuild, but insurance access will determine what’s possible” by Erik Neumann

Excellence in Sound

• “Thru-hikers find ‘magic’ on the Pacific Crest Trail” by Roman Battaglia

Digital Digital Coverage of Life in Southern Oregon by Juliet Grable

• “Proposed modular home project could address multiple housing woes in Southern Oregon”

• “Bringing back the beavers”

• “Keeping tabs on Crater Lake”

• “Battered by the pandemic, Ashland reimagines its tourism economy”

Public Media Journalists Association:

The Public Media Journalists Association recognizes journalists who have produced the best audio work from across the public radio

news business. JPR was honored with four 2023 PMJA awards for the following categories (PMJA awards are given to newsrooms, rather than individuals):

Breaking News

• “Mill Fire in Siskiyou County tests communities battered by wildfires”

Digital Writing

• “Bringing back the beavers”

Feature

• “Archeologists use canine forensics to find cremated remains after wildfire”

Interview

• “‘Cheerleading for a broken system’: fire exclusion in the Klamath National Forest”

Society of Professional Journalists:

The Society of Professional Journalists recognizes excellent journalism produced by their peers in a variety of mediums and categories. JPR is a member of SPJ Region 10, which spans the western states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska.

The JPR newsroom earned five SPJ awards for the small market public and commercial radio division in the following categories:

Government and Politics Reporting, first place

• “Elections officials describe intimidation and misinformation from local ‘voter integrity groups” by Erik Neumann

Technology and Science Reporting, first place

• “Southern Oregon wildfire teams deploy drones that shoot flaming ping-pong balls” by Roman Battaglia

Breaking News, second place

• “Mill Fire in Siskiyou County tests communities battered by wildfires” by Erik Neumann

Investigative Reporting, second place

• “Train derailments and poor safety communication prompt worries at Siskiyou County’s Cantara Loop” by Jane Vaughan

Racial Equity Reporting, second place

• “Survivors of the Mill Fire want to rebuild, but insurance access will determine what’s possible” by Erik Neumann

Southern Oregon Land Conservancy preserves and cares for the farms and ranches, oak woodlands, forests, streams, and native habitats throughout the Rogue River region.

Our goal is to raise $65,000 during our Save an Acre campaign, making it possible for us to conserve 250 more acres. That’s only $200 an acre! What a deal to save land for people, for nature, forever.

Despite being a small town, Ashland is home to a thriving community of drag queens, kings and everyone in between.

ROMAN BATTAGLIA

Ashland’s Drag Community Thriving, Despite Challenges

Ashland has more fans of drag than you might think. The artists who produce today’s shows are just the latest building on a rich but tenuous history of drag in the small Rogue Valley town, population 21,000.

At times, it was at risk of dying out all-together if not for a handful of dedicated drag artists.

“I was really the first person to come into that performance already knowing that I wanted to do it professionally,” said Maisie Smith, who goes by the drag name Bettie Wood.

Wood was referring to the annual “Winter’s a Drag” show, hosted by SOU’s Queer Resource Center. When Wood first participated in 2016, the show only featured people who were new to drag and trying it out for the first time.

In time, more drag performers would join her, including Austin Ewing, who goes by Dandy Lyon.

“I could see that there was such a demand and a support,” Lyon said. “We would fill the Rogue River room with people who wanted to see this show once a year.”

The group of friends eventually formed a drag family called the GreenHAUS, which, alongside Wood and Lyon, included local drag artists Daddy Devito, Holly Hazmat and Sammy Drake.

Lyon said in the ensuing years, the world of drag opened up to them. Lyon inherited a show called Dancing Queens, held at what was once Ashland’s Vinyl Club, and was reopened as Trapdoor after the pandemic. The drag family also started an all-ages show in 2019 at the Black Sheep pub, opening up drag in the community to those who were not just students or over 21.

“That’s when I saw a lot of the appeal not only come from SOU, but from community members,” Lyon said. “That’s when I saw a lot of diversity of the Southern Oregon drag scene. A lot of people started coming out of the woodwork there.”

“Because Ashland is seen as the liberal bubble, it does draw performers from the rest of the Rogue Valley to come and perform here,” Wood said.

But, Wood said just as they were building a thriving fanbase for drag in Ashland, the COVID pandemic struck, putting things on hold.

“When I left, and when the pandemic shut everything down, everyone who was in my era of drag left; just scattered to the winds,” she said.

Wood says she was already worried, because most of the drag performers she knew were graduating from SOU at the same time, and there wasn’t a guarantee that there would be a next generation of drag in Ashland.

Aside from a few one-off shows like virtual performances Wood organized, drag became rare in Ashland during the pan-

demic. Lyon said they were lucky to be able to start an annual Halloween drag show at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre in late 2020.

Chance McCloud, who performs under the name Bleu Dinah, started doing drag right before the pandemic, and built an online following during the lockdown. She says she wanted to create a more accessible drag show than the ones that used to be run out of Ashland’s clubs, an event where SOU students and others under 21 would be allowed.

Her new show, now called Bleuprint, started in January of 2022, as a birthday celebration. Bleu now organizes the Ashland show from Portland, where she lives after graduating from SOU.

“I have my friends here and I’ll bring them down, they will even say, ‘Wow, that was the most fun I’ve ever had in drag,’” said Bleu. “The people in Portland, they see drag all the time. And so in Ashland, we’re creating something different and new.”

Local drag queen Miss Jaxon performs in front of a crowd at the SOU student union, April 2023

ROMAN BATTAGLIA/JPR

JPR News Focus: Arts And Culture

Continued from previous page

Bleuprint is still the show that gets her excited. She brings in a nearly packed crowd to the Black Sheep pub in downtown Ashland every month. Bleu’s childhood friend and drag partner Jenna Saisquoix also helps with the show’s production.

Bleu says she decided not to make her show open to all-ages, like the show once hosted by the GreenHAUS, because of the politics surrounding drag right now. State legislatures across the country have passed laws banning drag performances in public.

“We will at some point,” she said. “But the political climate is really rough right now. Consistency is key, and I think if we can start with our 18+ crowd right now and make sure that college students are accounted for, then that’s a good starting line.”

All-ages shows are also more difficult to plan, according to Wood.

“That was a show that we really monitored the content of,” she said. “No explicit swearing or sexual content, anything like that. We had regulars who were bringing their six-year-olds to come see these shows.”

Despite the worries that drag would die out after the pandemic, you can find a show in Ashland nearly every week, sometimes multiple on the same day, which is more common in a bigger city.

“I think we have a very special scene here,” said local drag queen Andrew Jackson, who goes by Miss Jaxon.

Jaxon is a senior at SOU and the drag queen producer who recently hosted a show at the student union, designed to bring more performers onto the scene.

She also produces a few others, including the show originally called Dancing Queens, now called Pride Night, which Jaxon inherited from Dandy Lyon.

Jaxon is graduating this June, and plans to stay in Ashland for just a few months to continue producing shows.

“I love Ashland, been here for four years,” she said. “But, now that I’ve lived in Oregon my whole life, I’m ready to spread my wings.”

That’s why Jaxon has been trying to make sure there’s another generation of drag performers behind her when she has to leave Ashland. She says the recent show at SOU was a success, and inspired a few new drag artists who are interested in taking their performances to a bigger stage.

Jaxon says Ashland and the Rogue Valley as a whole is cut off from the rest of Oregon’s drag scene. Ensuring a long-lasting future beyond the career of any one drag artist means building more connections.

“Because right now it’s just Ashland knows Ashland,” said Jaxon. “But I want Ashland to be connected to Portland, Eugene, Salem, Bend. Wherever else there’s drag in the state.”

Resilience, creativity and acceptance remain at the heart of what makes Ashland’s drag scene special. These artists are dedicated to keeping their art alive through any future challenges that come their way. Bleu Dinah wants to inspire new drag performers to leave a lasting legacy.

“I just want to inspire people to do drag,” said Bleu. “And I know that Bleuprint probably won’t last forever, but I’m still living every show like it was our last.”

After graduating from Oregon State University, Roman came to JPR as part of the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism in 2019. He then joined Delaware Public Media as a Report For America fellow before returning to the west coast.

Drag queens Jenna Saisquoix and Bleu Dinah, performing a number together during a May 2022 Bleuprint show

ROMAN BATTAGLIA/JPR

JPR NEWS FOCUS ENERGY

JANE VAUGHAN

The Fountain Wind Project Proposal Includes 48 Turbines That Would Generate About 205 Megawatts Of Power.

Texas-based ConnectGen has submitted an application for the 48-turbine wind farm near Highway 299, 35 miles northeast of Redding, near the existing Hatchet Ridge wind farm. The application was deemed incomplete by state regulators in February and is still being developed.

But a California state law, AB 205, that took effect last summer means that once the application is deemed complete, the project’s future now lies with the state’s Energy Commission rather than with the County Board of Supervisors, as in previous proposals.

Supervisor Kevin Crye said the county is losing its local control.

“You’re taking away the people’s right to govern and oversee, foster, shepherd — whatever term you want to use — their own county. I think it’s completely wrong. It’s a complete overreach of the state,” he said.

In 2021, residents were concerned the turbines would create a barrier when fighting wildfires in the area and damage mountains that are sacred to the Pit River Tribe. The project was voted down twice that year.

Paul Hellman, director of resource management in Shasta County, said the county still opposes the project.

“We are actively working on reviewing and strategizing how best to, you know, what steps to take that would best achieve the outcome of defeating the project,” he said.

The proposal drew widespread public criticism two years ago, which Crye believes ConnectGen is ignoring.

“Don’t say they [the people] have a say if you’re just gonna go around them anyway, because that’s insulting to the people, and it’s really insulting to the elected officials that made that vote and put that time in,” he said.

Elizabeth Huber, director of the Siting, Transmission and Environmental Protection Division at the California Energy Commission, said they are working with ConnectGen to complete the application.

“We’ve got ongoing meetings with the applicant, and it’s on data requests that we need in order to do our comprehensive environmental review. And so we’re in the middle of a back and forth as well as meeting and answering some clarifying questions,” she said.

Once the application is completed, the CEC will begin a nine-month-long review process before voting on the project.

The process includes preparing an environmental impact report, holding public meetings to solicit feedback and gathering data.

This is the first application the commission has reviewed under the new guidelines created by AB 205.

Shasta County banned large wind energy systems in an ordinance last year, but the state could still approve this project under the new law.

Hellman said that the project is still in the early stages and that ConnectGen had indicated that the earliest the application would be completed is August.

Huber encouraged the public to submit comment on the proposal via the CEC’s website.

ConnectGen did not answer emailed questions. The Pit River Tribe did not respond to a request for comment.

Jane Vaughan is a reporter and producer for JPR.

A visual simulation of the Fountain Wind project from 2021.

PHOTO: CONNECTGEN

Classics & News Service

4:00pm

5:00pm

7:00pm

provide extended regional service.

90.1FM is JPR’s strongest transmitter and provides coverage throughout the Rogue Valley.)

provide low-powered local service.

Translators

2:00pm

WFMT Opera Series

July 1 – Nixon in China by John Adams

July 8 – Il Proscitto by Saverio Mercadante

July 15 – I Lombardi by Giuseppe Verdi

July 22 – Wozzeck by Alban Berg

July 29 – Li zite ‘ngalera by Leonardo Vinci

August 5 – Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten

August 12 – La Sonnambula by Vincenzo Bellini

August 19 – Manon by Jules Massenet

August 26 – L’Incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi

Curtain call for Opera Rara’s Il Proscritto

PHOTO: RUSSELL DUNCAN

Rhythm & News Service

FM Transmitters provide extended regional service.

Translators provide low-powered local service.

News & Information Service

Transmitters provide extended regional service.

provide low-powered local service.

Calan Taylor, Bandon 1999 Volkswagon Vanagon

“The van I donated is called the Hushpuppy… named after the girl from Beasts of the Southern Wild. In its early life it was used as a road trip mobile… It’s been to the south end of Baha twice, used for going into the woods [for] mushroom picking, and lots of family camping trips. Over the last four years it’s primarily been used as a surf-rig. My favorite memory is [from] Baha. We came into San Juanico, [or] Scorpion Bay, on this road… that’s used for the Baha 1000. We had been travelling down it for about 30 miles, and for the last 20 miles had to keep the van going above 30 miles per hour, otherwise [we’d] sink into the sand. We were essentially flying over 4-wheel drive terrain in a front-wheel drive van and somehow made it. We always knew we would donate it to JPR at the end of its career. It’s a good way to send it off into its next life.”

Hassle Free

Tax Deductible · Free Pickup

MEERAH POWELL

County commissioners and community members objected to what they viewed as a ‘woke agenda’ from the century-old program

Conflict Over Religious Symbols Leads Josephine County To Cut Funding For OSU Extension Service

An ongoing disagreement over religious expression in a government-funded program has led to the apparent termination of a decadeslong partnership between Oregon State University and a rural county in southern Oregon.

Josephine County’s Board of Commissioners voted Wednesday to cut future funding toward Oregon State University’s Extension Service.

That decision comes after some commissioners and community members said at previous meetings the extension service had a “woke” agenda — specifically within the 4-H youth program.

The board cut the tax funding in a 2-1 vote. It also voted 2-1 to terminate a service agreement between the county and OSU for a number of programs. Those decisions halt local tax funding toward 4-H, gardening programs and other services leaving the future for extension service programming in the region unclear.

Josephine County Chair, and former Republican state senator, Herman Baertschiger Jr. said community concerns about the OSU Extension Service have been lingering for some time and haven’t been properly addressed.

“This problem started last fall and you have no reconciliation, and it’s June of this year. That’s a failing administration,” Baertschiger said. “They know they have a problem and they haven’t made any headway solving it, in my opinion.”

During previous meetings, Josephine County’s Board of Commissioners and local community members shared anecdotes of kids in the local 4-H program wearing shirts with Christian symbols on them being told they had to turn the shirts inside out to conceal the symbols. Community members also said religious-affiliated groups were barred from attending farm animal auctions with 4-H.

Staff with the extension service said those anecdotes don’t tell the whole story.

4-H is the only nationwide youth organization administered through land-grant institutions — in Oregon’s case OSU — according to the university. It began as an agricultural program for youth in rural communities focused on raising and auctioning farm animals, but it has also grown to include community service projects, art, music and science.

“I think the situation that’s been presented to you has been exaggerated,” Kayla Sheets, administrative office manager and local liaison for the OSU Extension Service, said to the Josephine County commissioners at a meeting last week.

According to the Grants Pass Daily Courier, accusations have been floating around the Josephine County community and social media that local 4-H leaders with the OSU Extension Service told a child participating in a livestock show at last August’s county fair to turn their T-shirt, displaying a large cross, inside out. That child was part of a local club called “Faithful Farmers.”

“It just saddens me, you taking God out of 4-H,” Baertschiger said during a meeting last month. “It still says ‘In God, we trust’ on every single dollar bill. We say it in our Pledge of Allegiance. It’s just politics. It’s just flat politics.”

Cathy Haas, OSU’s director for 4-H youth development and program leader, told OPB that to her knowledge no OSU employees asked children to turn their T-shirts inside out. However, Haas said she advised OSU’s 4-H faculty to have conversations about purchasing new T-shirts for the Faithful Farmers club.

The OSU Extension Service has a “religious neutrality policy,” stating that because 4-H is a publicly-funded program, it cannot include any religious activities or “overt references to a specific religious belief in club names or symbols.”

Jennifer Alexander, communications director for OSU’s division of extension and engagement, said the extension service held a community forum last January to hear and respond to questions from the community and to clarify its policies, including that religious neutrality policy.

Josephine County Commissioner Herman Baertschiger speaking at a wildfire townhall in Grants Pass in 2022.

JPR News Focus: Government

Around that same time, Alexander said local community members and stakeholders expressed the desire to allow groups other than 4-H to sell through the youth livestock auction.

According to The Daily Courier, a new group ended up being formed called “Youth and Ag of Josephine County,” which includes members from a local ministry. As of last month, the new group had signed up nearly 300 kids to participate in livestock shows, according to the newspaper.

Alexander with OSU said the number of youth participating in Josephine County’s 4-H did take a hit. At the end of last year, the local 4-H had 277 youth in the program. In January, that number fell to 49. But, she said about 130 youth are participating in the program now.

The decline in participation gave critics on the county commission another reason to eliminate funding.

“When you have all these kids and families leave a program, it’s failing,” Baertschiger said during Wednesday’s meeting. “Why would I want to fund something that’s failing?”

With the Josephine County Board of Commissioners’ decision to cut off funding to the OSU Extension Service, the future is unclear not only for the local 4-H program, but other programs focused on adult gardening, emergency preparedness and community health.

According to the OSU Extension Service, the service district and ongoing tax levy in Josephine County was originally approved by voters in 1996. However, the extension’s history in Josephine County goes back much further — the first OSU extension agricultural agent was hired with county financial support in 1916.

The only other county in the state that does not provide local funding to the OSU Extension Service is Multnomah County, which ended its partnership with the service in 2003, according to the Portland Business Journal, due to a tightening county budget.

Before the commission’s vote Wednesday, the OSU Extension Service was receiving funding from Josephine County through a levy of roughly $0.04 per $1,000 of assessed property value. That would’ve resulted in an estimated $414,000 in tax revenue for the service district for the upcoming fiscal year, according to the OSU Extension Service.

The extension service also received funding through the state and federal government, but only on a matching basis. Without a local county match, OSU cannot provide matching state or federal funds to support any extension or 4-H activities, according to the university.

While $323,000 in Josephine County service district dollars were projected to go toward roughly three full-time positions through the OSU Extension Service this next fiscal year, Oregon State University provides salary and other payroll expenses for an additional 11 faculty and staff members that serve the county, totaling more than $500,000, according to the extension service.

Budget documents from the extension service show that Josephine County tax dollars make up about 14% of the extension’s budget while state and federal funding makes up roughly 36%.

OSU Extension Director Ivory Lyles says the decision by the county commission leaves an uncertain future for extension services to the county.

“The commission’s votes today will require an evaluation of the impact these decisions will have on our delivery of Extension services to Josephine County residents in the coming year,” Lyles said in a statement to OPB. “We will develop a transition plan based on funding projections for the coming year. We will keep Extension participants, stakeholders and Josephine County residents informed as we move forward.”

Josephine County Commissioner Dan DeYoung was the only member of the three-person commission to vote against cutting extension service funding.

He called on his fellow commissioners to “pump the brakes,” work collaboratively with OSU to talk through potential changes to programming, and re-evaluate the tax funding for the extension service next budget cycle.

Ultimately, Baertschiger and board Vice Chair John West did not agree.

“I don’t believe that OSU and those folks are listening, and I don’t believe the answer is to continue to give them the money to continue on with the way that they’re going,” West said.

Leadership at Oregon State University’s main campus in Corvallis also expressed their disappointment in the decision and are hoping to find a way to continue serving Josephine County.

“We hope that in time, discussions between county commissioners, community members, and university and OSU Extension leaders can restore what has been more than two decades of successful relationships and impactful service to local residents,” OSU Vice President of University Marketing and Relations Steve Clark told OPB.

Meerah Powell is a Higher Education Reporter for OPB.

Meerah

The homes were meant to be prioritized for Almeda Fire victims. Replacing them could cost $20–25 million.

New Modular Homes For Wildfire Victims In Phoenix Found To Be Uninhabitable

About 60 modular homes in Phoenix that were meant to be prioritized for Almeda Fire victims were recently discovered to be uninhabitable.

Replacing the homes could cost $20-25 million.

The state had purchased about 120 modular homes to be installed on the site of the Royal Oaks Mobile Manor in Phoenix, which was destroyed in the 2020 fire.

The project broke ground in November and planned to house 118 families. But families were told this week that their move-in date has been postponed indefinitely after about half of the homes were found to be uninhabitable.

Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland, said the defects were discovered in recent weeks as the homes were being installed.

Elib Crist-Dwyer, disaster relief team organizer at the nonprofit Rogue Action Center, said for fire survivors, this is just another example of the frustration and disappointment they’ve had to face.

“We are seeing a real erosion in the trust that survivors have in the agencies that are supposed to be working for them,” he said.

Crist-Dwyer said the homes were “sitting for about a year while local and state officials kind of figured out where those mobile homes were going to be placed. And during that time that those units were sitting, they became unfit for folks to live in them.”

But Marsh said the problem with the homes is not that they were sitting for a year, but that they were not built up to code.

“The flaws that we’re finding are not the result of sitting. They are flaws in the actual construction of the units,” she said.

She said mold has been discovered in some of the homes, as well as leaking water and multiple other code issues.

Crist-Dwyer said the other half of the homes are still at the manufacturer in Idaho, and there are concerns those homes could also be uninhabitable. The manufacturer is Nashua Builders in Boise, ID.

“I think our expectation is that none of the ones that were ordered are going to be acceptable,” she said. “We clearly need to start all over with this process.”

The Rogue Valley has a severe housing shortage, and these modular homes are in high demand.

Oregon Housing and Community Services wrote in a statement: “OHCS determined that these homes are not suitable, healthy or safe to live in. OHCS expects the delay will be at least six months from the original timeline (move-in was slated for September/October 2023). Move-in will be in Spring 2024

at the earliest. OHCS acknowledges this is another delay for wildfire survivors who have already waited too long for a stable home, but the agency is absolutely committed to providing safe and healthy housing. This is not an area in which we will compromise. OHCS is working together with local partners to provide the families and people affected by the wildfires with stable homes as quickly as we can.”

Marsh said replacing the homes will take at least until next year.

“That’s really disappointing, terribly disappointing because all of this recovery is taken much too long, much longer than anybody would like,” she said.

Meanwhile, many families who were victims of the 2020 wildfire are still living in hotels and other transitional housing.

“And so here we are, already almost three years post disaster, and folks are being told that they have to wait at least another year for these to come online,” Crist-Dwyer said.

Jackson County Housing Authority, which will manage the park, has not responded to a request for comment. Nashua Builders could not be reached for comment.

JANE VAUGHAN

Jane Vaughan is a reporter and producer for JPR.

State, county and local partners break ground at the site of the new Royal Oaks development in Phoenix in November 2022. Half of the homes were recently found to be unfit to live in.

ROMAN BATTAGLIA/ JPR

For over two decades, The Folk Show has featured an eclectic blend of all things folk and some things not-so-folk. Singer/ songwriters, Americana, bluegrass, Celtic, traditional, old-time, and some surprises are featured each week.

Hosted by Robin Terranova.

Sundays 6pm–9pm

JPR’s Rhythm & News Service www.ijpr.org

Join Host Geoffrey Riley and Producers Angela Decker & Nash Bennett for in-depth conversations about the issues and ideas vital to our region.

Weekdays – Live 9–10 AM

Rebroadcast 8–9 PM Jefferson Public Radio’s News & Information Service

Email: exchange@jeffnet.org

jazz sunday 12:00pm on jPR’s Rhythm & news Service

Northwest Labs Discover A Spray That Removes Pesky Moon Dust, A Sweet Substitute For Plastic And More

In this monthly rundown from OPB, they feature the most interesting, wondrous and hopeful science coming out of the Pacific Northwest, from Jes Burns, creator of “All Science. No Fiction.” And remember: Science builds on the science that came before. No one study tells the whole story.

Oh, sugar forks!

Single-use plastic is everywhere, and it’s actually pretty difficult to get around using it completely. Despite how bad this stuff is for the environment, we really haven’t found an alternative that’s caught on.

But researchers at Boise State University have developed a new material they think could help solve our single-use woes. The material is made of a sugar called isomalt — the glory of baking shows everywhere — with additives of cellulose (from plants), sawdust or wood flour. The additives boosted the strength of the normally-brittle isomalt.

Moon dust spray

Moon dust is some unpleasant stuff. It’s comprised of silicate, which causes lung disease in miners on Earth, and it’s real sticky because of static cling. The dust has wreaked havoc for astronauts in the past — causing “lunar hay fever” and damage to gear. With NASA targeting the next moon landing for 2025, scientists are looking for ways to get rid of the dust.

Researchers at Washington State University have found a way to remove more than 98% of the dust on coated mini-astronaut dolls tested in a vacuum in the lab.

They used a liquid nitrogen spray (so cold!), which essentially boiled when it hit the warmer surface of the proxy space suits. This action caused the dust to lift off the material surface and float away on the nitrogen “steam.”

In addition to being more effective at dust removal than the brushes and vacuums used by the early moon explorers, the researchers say the liquid nitrogen also does far less damage to the suit material.

Read the study in the journal Acta Astronautica.

The result is a substance that’s harder than plastic, lightweight, and quickly dissolvable in water. The researchers then experimented with a food-grade coating that would keep the material from dissolving when wet. To recycle, just crack the coating.

The bonus is that the material can be dissolved and reformed into new items without loss of strength. And for those errant forks that end up on the ground: the authors say the dissolved material could actually be beneficial to soil.

Read more in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering.

Building better batteries

To get to 100% renewable energy — with energy sources like solar and wind that aren’t making electricity around the clock — we’re going to have to be able to store electricity on the grid to use when nature isn’t making enough. The best batteries available at this point are lithium-ion batteries, but they’re spendy, mining lithium can be fraught and some of the chemicals involved are toxic.

The quest for the next big thing in batteries is ongoing, and researchers at Oregon State University are focusing on zinc. Zinc batteries have the potential to be safer and cheaper for the

XIULEI

This image released by Washington State University shows a 1/6-scale astronaut after dust application (left); after dust application and treatment in a vacuum (center); and after dust application, treatment in a vacuum, and spot treatment with a handheld liquid cryogen spray (right).

This photo from Boise State University shows multiple injection-molded objects created from a new isomalt-based plastic substitute.

JPR News Focus: Science

Continued from previous page

grid, but it’s been difficult to create a version that recharges efficiently.

The OSU researchers have developed a new electrolyte (the liquid or paste-like solution in batteries) that allows the battery to charge and recharge with virtually no loss of energy. The electrolyte also solves some of the common safety issues related to zinc batteries.

The scientists say the breakthrough represents a critical step forward in getting zinc-based batteries on the market.

Read the article in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Yellow fever cure?

Yellow fever is a pretty nasty disease spread by mosquitoes in the tropics of Africa and South America. As the name suggests, sufferers can start to appear yellow with jaundice. There’s a vaccine, but no cure if someone gets infected. And the impact of the disease is only expected to get worse with climate change.

But a team including researchers at Oregon Health and Science University are testing a new treatment that is showing great promise. They’re using a medical technology called monoclonal antibodies, lab-made proteins that help your immune system ward off infection (and probably best known for their role as a COVID treatment).

In animal tests, hamsters and monkeys infected with yellow fever showed no signs of infection after receiving the treatment. Two different strains of monoclonal antibodies were tested with similar success.

Mabloc, the company leading the development of the treatment, will use these results to inform a future clinical trial on humans.

Read the paper in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Untangling the ocean

Over the past few years, hundreds of whales have been found tangled in commercial fishing gear off the West Coast. Scientists believe the actual number of entanglements is much

higher. Steps have been taken to reduce this number, but whales are still getting caught up.

Now researchers at Oregon State University and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife are looking to science in hopes of reducing the chances of entanglement. The scientists overlaid 10 years of population data for humpback and other whales off the Oregon coast with Dungeness crab fishery logbook data. They then looked at when and where the two groups were most likely to cross paths.

Climate conditions (like marine heat waves and upwelling season) seemed to drive the most risk of conflict as whales looked for food closer to shore.

ODFW says it will use the new analysis to (possibly) tweak commercial crabbing rules to reduce the chances of that much larger — and decidedly unwanted — catch.

Read the paper from the journal Biological Conservation.

Jes Burns is a science reporter and producer for OPB’s Science & Environment unit.

In this photo provided by Xiulei “David” Ji, shows wind energy generation.

This photo by NOAA Fisheries shows a stranded gray whale with a crab pot line.

GRACE GEDYE

Four Things California Can Do As Home Insurers Retreat

After California’s largest home insurance provider said it wouldn’t issue new policies, consumer and insurance industry groups have ideas for what they’d like to see California do. Here’s the debate over four of those ideas.

After State Farm declared in late May that it wouldn’t sell any new home insurance policies in California, people shopping around for new insurance had one fewer option. When days later it was revealed that Allstate had quietly made the same decision last year, Californians are now left wondering: How bad is this? And how should the state respond?

The “crisis” in California’s insurance market was caused by “a laser focus only on affordability,” said Nancy Watkins, a principal at Milliman, an actuarial firm, at a legislative hearing on Wednesday. The companies are operating with “very crude tools” at the expense of availability and reliability, she said.

She said the current regulatory system is too rigid. “It’s like you’ve got your steering wheel locked straight ahead, you’ve got your speed set on cruise control, and now you find yourself on the Pacific Coast Highway,” she said. “What insurance company would agree to that?”

Home insurance premiums in California are a little cheaper than the national average — and much lower than premiums in other disaster-prone states like Florida and Louisiana. That’s without accounting for the fact that California has some of the most expensive housing in the country.

California still has about 115 companies offering home insurance, said Michael Soller, a deputy commissioner for the state’s insurance department. As for whether more companies are likely to follow State Farm and Allstate, “we don’t think that will happen,” he said.

Consumer and insurance industry groups and other experts have ideas for what they’d like to see California do in the wake of the news — few of which they agree upon. Here’s the debate over four of those ideas.

Require State Farm to keep issuing new policies

There’s disagreement whether this idea, backed by the group Consumer Watchdog, is legal.

The idea hinges on how insurance prices are regulated in California. Under current laws, insurance companies can’t just charge whatever they want: They have to submit their proposed

California home insurance premiums in the middle of the pack nationally California ranks 24th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia with an $1,241 average premium for homeowners in 2020. Nationwide, the average was $1,311. $735 $2,165

Source: National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Data: 2020 average premiums for dwelling fire and homeowners owner-occupied insurance policies for HO-3 policy forms. Credit: Erica Yee, CalMatters

rates to the insurance department, which they back up by explaining their projected costs, losses, revenue and more. State regulators can approve a company’s proposed rates, or deny them, if they think, for example, the rates are unjustifiably high, or so low that they could put the company’s finances at risk.

Harvey Rosenfield, founder of Consumer Watchdog, said if a company suddenly says that it’s not going to take the same number of customers that it had projected when it got the department’s approval, then it has changed the assumptions on which the approval was based.

“They granted themselves a de facto rate increase by reducing the risk” in a state where that’s illegal, said Rosenfield. The department could issue a notice to State Farm, he said, and tell the company it needs to keep selling new home insurance policies until it submits new rates and those rates are approved. The insurance department disputes that it has the power to do this. “Their claims are not supported by law,” said Soller, the deputy commissioner. “There’s a reason why it hasn’t been done by any insurance commissioner before.”

JPR News Focus: Wildfire

Continued from previous page

Let insurance companies use forward-looking catastrophe models

The kinds of data and statistical models insurance companies can use to set prices may sound like a nighttime sleep aid, but it’s a matter of lively discussion in insurance circles.

When a company tries to justify rate changes, it is required to rely on past losses to project future losses. It can’t use factors like the locations of new homes it is covering — whether they’re in downtown San Francisco or rural wine country — or the increased risk of wildfires due to climate change.

“We do it in a very old-fashioned way, and it needs to be updated,” said Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, an insurance industry group that counts State Farm as a member. He supports the use of forward-looking models, which are generally provided by other private companies. California already permits insurers to use models for earthquake insurance.

If a company is trying to figure out how much it should charge for earthquake coverage, it would look at proximity to fault lines, Frazier said, but for wildfire insurance, California doesn’t do that.

“For wildfire it just says ‘Well, looking backward, what have you paid over the last 20 years for wildfire clients?’” he said.

Consumer groups generally oppose letting insurance companies use models, fearing that companies will use them to justify extreme price hikes, and that complex math will make scrutiny a challenge.

“They’re just very sophisticated crystal balls,” said Amy Bach, executive director for United Policyholders, a consumer group. Modeling companies generally see their models as intellectual property, which can pose a challenge for transparency. “Our fear is that they overstate risk,” said Bach.

About a week and a half after State Farm’s announcement, the insurance department said it would host a public workshop

A burned-out property sits next to a home that’s still standing in the Paradise, Calif., area on April 23, 2019.

on use of models in insurance pricing, ahead of considering regulations. That workshop will take place on July 13.

On June 14, the Assembly’s insurance committee held a hearing on models. When asked by a legislator whether the department was moving toward incorporating catastrophe models, a department representative confirmed that it was.

“Historic losses do not fully account for growing wildfire risks, or risk mitigation measures taken by communities,” said Michael Peterson, a deputy commissioner at the insurance department, during the hearing.

Address the increasing cost of insurance — for insurance companies

Insurance companies are just like us: They buy insurance! When insurance companies buy it, it’s called “reinsurance.”

The cost of reinsurance has risen dramatically, and State Farm cited “a challenging reinsurance market” as one of the reasons it decided to stop selling new home insurance policies in California.

When insurance companies explain their costs to the insurance department as part of the process for justifying their prices, they aren’t allowed to include the cost of reinsurance. The department hasn’t historically permitted it, Soller said, because it doesn’t regulate reinsurance.

“What are insurers supposed to do when, on the one hand, the Department of Insurance is telling them ‘maintain your solvency’ and then, on the other hand, when their costs go up, you can’t charge for it,” said Frazier.

Insurance industry groups say it would help if they could incorporate the cost of reinsurance into their prices. But consumer groups say that the move would cause premiums to spike.

“Californians would see immediate massive rate hikes — both as soon as that went into effect and ongoing,” said Carmen Balber executive director of Consumer Watchdog. A reinsurance provider regulated by California would address problems she sees with the reinsurance market, Balber said, but that doesn’t exist currently.

Reduce the risk of disasters

The underlying problem is that disasters happen in California — at an increasing rate thanks to climate change — and that homes are at risk. They’re in the middle of the woods, or surrounded by flammable grasslands, or on the edge of bluffs that are expected to erode. Making homes less likely to burn, flood or collapse would be good for homeowners and would also make California feel less risky to insurers.

There’s no shortage of ideas for how to reduce risk, and there’s been action on this front in recent years. The insurance department, for example, has required insurance companies to consider whether homeowners take certain steps to protect their homes — like installing fire-resistant vents and clearing out vegetation under decks — in their prices.

California has set aside $2.7 billion for wildfire resilience over the past three years, according to the insurance department. When the department convened a group of environmental advocates, researchers, and public policy and insurance experts to make recommendations on how to reduce the risks of climate change, they came up with a long list. Among the recommendations:

• Create statewide hazard maps so that future risks are more clear to the public

• Increase funding to retrofit homes

• And apply fire-resistant building codes in areas with moderate to higher fire risk.

Cutting greenhouse gas emissions would ultimately be the best way to reduce the risk, said Alice Hill, chair of the group convened by the department and a senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. But the world will get warmer even if we reduce emissions, she said, so focusing on where and how homes are built remains important.

“That could mean not building in areas that are just becoming too risky,” Hill said.

Grace Gedye covers California’s economy for CalMatters. CalMatters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.

A Legacy of Public Radio...

So much has changed since JPR began in 1969. In many ways, public radio has grown up. What was once a struggling—almost experimental—operation has become a permanent and positive presence in the lives of so many in Southern Oregon and Northern California and across the nation.

We continue to seek and depend on regular membership contributions from supporters, especially new generations of listeners. But in the long run our future will depend, more and more, on special gifts from long-time friends who want to help Jefferson Public Radio become stronger and more stable.

One of the many ways that friends can choose to express their deep commitment to public radio here in our region is by supporting Jefferson Public Radio in their will or trust. This is a way to make a lasting contribution without affecting your current financial security and freedom.

To support Jefferson Public Radio in your will or trust, consult your attorney or personal advisor. The legal description of our organization is: “The JPR Foundation, Inc., an Oregon non-profit tax-exempt corporation located in Ashland, Oregon.”

If you would like more information about making a bequest to support Jefferson Public Radio call Paul Westhelle at 541-552-6301.

AUDIE CORNISH

LAKSHMI SINGH

DAVID GREENE

ROBIN YOUNG

ARI SHAPIRO

STEVE INSKEEP

UNDERGROUND HISTORY

CHELSEA ROSE

Art-eaology

Underground History has recently featured two individuals that have applied their creative vision to the world of archaeology. We spoke with mixed-media artist Sam Roxas-Chua about his time working with the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology’s Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project (OCDP) while he was the artist in residency at the Portland Chinatown Museum (PCM), and musician Stephen O’Malley about his recent event, You Origin, which transformed the Neolithic alignments of Carnac in Brittany into an immersive three-day musical event. While “arteaology” isn’t a word yet, my recent experiences have suggested that maybe it should be.

As we have discussed on the podcast and in the journal, archaeology is facing many modern challenges: budgetary issues, labor shortages (seriously, go get a degree in archaeology!), and the increasing distrust accompanying the post-truth conspiracy-laden era we find ourselves in. Like many other disciplines, we must do more with less, and to me there is no better way to do that than collaboration. Archaeologists regularly team up with— or poach ideas from—geologists, geographers, historians, and so forth, and we are getting better at recognizing the value of partnering with stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds. While most people recognize the intrinsic value of art, I think that its scientific or research value is often underestimated.

During the years of his residency at the PCM, Roxas-Chua visited archaeological and heritage sites across the state in search of the stories of past Chinese Oregonians. He was embed-

In centering the idea of how a place was historically experienced: the sound, the smells, the feel of the space, he added a humanity to its past residents that is so often lost in the telling of their stories.

ded into some of our field projects in John Day, where we were investigating the Chinatown that once surrounded the Kam Wah Chung & Company, which is now a state heritage site. He used audio recordings to hear the descendants of the birds that would have sung to the 19th century residents of the John Day Chinatown and the sound of the creeks and boots flowing and walking across mines abandoned more than a century ago. He made ink from the ashes of long dead fires, and wrote poetry about the art hanging on walls above beds that were long left cold. Roxas-Chua used all of his senses when he visited the archaeological and historical sites, and as a result he was able to observe and absorb so many details that we, as professional archaeologists, didn’t notice. In centering the idea of how a place was historically experienced: the sound, the smells, the feel of the space, he added a humanity to its past residents that is so often lost in the telling of their stories.

Meanwhile, O’Malley, of SUNN O))) fame, worked with French archaeologist Olivier Agogue, Directeur du Musée de Préhistoire de Carnac, to transform the more than 100-acre monolithic site into an outdoor venue where “Musical Interventions” could be safely staged for small dispersed groups across a landscape made

Image of You Origin, an immersive musical event at the alignments of Carnac, France in May, 2023.

Underground History

Continued from previous page

up of roughly 3,000 stones that predate Stonehenge. The standing stones align in rows that span for miles, forming a liminal space between the land and the sea that has been revered by residents and tourists for centuries. O’Malley observed the way sound and light moved across this ancient landscape, how it bounced or was absorbed by the standing stones, and created a series of bespoke compositions that were presented from dawn to dusk, tailored to various locations across the site. O’Malley’s decades of practice manipulating sound and space to create sensory musical experiences allowed him to make observations about this mysterious site and the way people could have used it are valuable insights to modern scholars like Agogue. While archaeoacoustics, or the study of the relationship between humans and sound over time, has been applied to studies of the pyramids, Stonehenge, and caves in an effort to determine how noise moved through these spaces centuries ago, it is an underutilized line of inquiry, and one that does not always incorporate the expertise made available by musicians and other non-traditional knowledge holders.

O’Malley’s collaboration with Carnac is an effort worth duplicating. Inviting in and allowing folks to see and experience heritage sites with fresh and creative eyes can not only lead to innovative ways in which these resources can be shared with the public, but also provide important insights into the ways in which they may have served historical communities and expand the ways in which they can add value to modern ones. Similarly, I encourage archaeologists to find an artist to embed into your projects. Having Roxas-Chua on the OCDP team has taught all of us so much and led to new ways to present our findings. Po-

ems and paintings are now added to the reports and conference papers, undeniably expanding and enhancing the ways in which Chinese heritage in Oregon is shared and made available to its modern residents.

Chelsea Rose is an archaeologist with the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) and co-host of Underground History, a monthly segment that airs during the Jefferson Exchange on JPR’s News & Information Service.

Sam Roxas-Chua presented his work in Southern Oregon at Grizzly Peak Winery during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Image of You Origin, an immersive musical event at the alignments of Carnac, France in May, 2023.

COORDINATES

With a line from H. Alexander

Dedicated to Chelsea Rose, Oregon Chinese Diaspora Project, The Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology, Oregon State Parks, Malheur National Forest, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Portland Chinatown Museum, and the Oregon Historical Society

We have to walk these hills in the rain or under a hot canopy of blue over bright forecasts. We do it for the butterfly that lands on fingers to ask which way is home. We must continue to walk these hills to touch bone or tin or fragments so old it holds back like a hand of a friend who once brought us a cup of cool river water.

Throats thirst like a river.

When I walk these hills. I carry a photograph of my mother. It’s folded inside my right shirt pocket. It guides me the way her soft hands used to. It takes me to places where pools dry under trees—a found shelter for a shoelace, a button, or pieces from tools made from other broken things.

I admire salvaged geometries.

When I walk these hills, I am found. When I walk these hills, I’m taught to see the perimeters of a home or daytime shelters where rock piles shaped into half-moons protect fire from wind and wind from flipping pages on my field journal where I write the location of my body.

We are strengthened by the backbones of history.

My teachers are archaeologists. They teach me to sift through the day, the way the sun reflects its face on a broken lip of a cup or a piece of a bird’s breast bone or the galaxies inside of stone. Yes, let it be beautiful when I sing the last song.

DOWN TO EARTH

JONI AUDEN LAND

Tainted, Brown Drinking Water Grips A Southern Oregon Town

Janel Harlan remembers drinking water from the hose as a child in Lakeview. Back then, the water looked clean, something she rarely thought about.

But when Harlan returned to her Southern Oregon hometown as an adult, she was stunned by what she saw coming out of her faucet.

“It was like dark, sludgy Coca Cola,” Harlan said. “It was disgusting.”

For Lakeview’s 2,500 residents, this smelly brown drinking water has become the norm — at least, for now. Many avoid wearing white clothes, because they get stained in the washing machine. Some residents reported using baby wipes to bathe instead of showering. When the water gets particularly brown, the town’s lone grocery store runs low on bottled water.

Other people have gallons of spring water shipped to them, or pay for expensive home filtration systems.

Lakeview’s leaders are sounding the alarm, hoping state and federal lawmakers can step in to provide the tens of millions of dollars needed to fix the crisis. But, that kind of funding is unlikely, as Oregon grapples with billions of dollars’ worth of backlogged water infrastructure projects statewide.

City officials say Lakeview’s water is safe to drink. Recent testing shows samples passed federal standards for regulated contaminants, with levels of lead nearing those limits. Another potentially harmful element found in the water, manganese, isn’t federally regulated. Many residents aren’t convinced the water is safe, and for some, the uncertainty conjures memories of a decade-long history of water problems in one of Oregon’s most remote corners.

‘Borrowed time’

The color of Lakeview’s water can range from a light beige to a dark black, sometimes resembling a cup of coffee.

Shelley Weber, a hairdresser who’s lived in Lakeview her whole life, said she runs the water through a filter to avoid the color.

“It’s never good when I’m shampooing somebody’s blonde or white hair and the water looks like that,” Weber said.

The causes of the water’s dark tinge are both natural and manmade. The geology around Lakeview is rich in manganese and iron, natural elements found in the town’s groundwater supply. When these elements combine with chlorine during the treatment process, it activates rust in the water and gives it that brown color, according to city water managers.

This process also corrodes the pipes. Over time, the pipes become so worn down that they dirty the water further, continuing a vicious cycle that has worsened the problems over time. Leaks and breakages are increasingly common, threatening the stability of Lakeview’s entire system.

“We repair leaks almost every day,” said Lakeview Town Manager Michele Parry.

The rural community doesn’t have a way to finance major infrastructure projects.

“We’re on borrowed time,” Parry said. “We don’t have the capabilities like our urban counterparts, with population, with more taxes.”

Parry said the upkeep of the pipes has been neglected for a long time. She points at multiple photos of pipes in various states of decay.

“That’s not a pipe — that is danger,” she said.

In 2021, the Oregon Legislature approved $15 million for Lakeview to build a new water treatment plant, stemming from American Relief Plan dollars the state received. City leaders are now pressing lawmakers for an additional $30 million to begin overhauling the pipes.

Testing shows Lakeview’s water has remained within federal standards, but that doesn’t mean it’s free of lead and other metals.

Residents in Lakeview, Ore., have been dealing with discolored water for years, as seen in this provided photo from Shelley Weber's home in Lakeview. Officials say it stems from minerals in the groundwater combined with the town's dated infrastructure.

COURTESY OF SHELLEY WEBER

Lakeview has no formal treatment plant at the moment. Currently, the town pumps water out of a well, adds chlorine, stores the water in a tank and then pumps it out to the community.

But even if a new treatment plant comes online in early 2026 as planned, nearly 50 miles of pipes are so corroded and damaged, the water will likely remain discolored for years to come, according to Amber Hudspeth, an environmental scientist hired by the city.

“Doesn’t matter if [the water is] clean if you put it into a dirty bucket,” Hudspeth said. “Lakeview is going to continue to have issues with the quality.”

State Rep. Mark Owens represents Lakeview and helped secure the money for the new treatment plant. He said another influx of funding is unlikely to happen until he and his colleagues in the state Legislature have more information.

“We have to show how we’re going to solve the problem with the funding,” he said.

Lakeview could be part of a bleak trend, Owens said. A 2021 League of Oregon Cities survey found municipalities across the state need some $23 billion for water and sewer infrastructure updates.

“This is not unique to Lakeview,” Owens said. “This is going to continue across most of Oregon.”

Concerns about lead and manganese

Routine testing shows Lakeview’s water has remained within federal regulations for safe drinking water, but that doesn’t mean it is free of potentially harmful contaminants.

The city’s latest Consumer Confidence Report showed the amount of lead in the water at 11 parts per billion, nearing the federal action level of 15 parts per billion. Nearby towns have much lower lead levels: Bend and Burns reported having zero lead in their water. Klamath Falls reported less than 1 part per billion.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency maintains that no level of lead is safe, and ingesting lead can pose serious health risks, especially for infants. However, only amounts above 15 parts per billion are considered a violation of federal law.

Hudspeth said 11 parts per billion of lead still falls within federal guidelines for safe drinking water and that she’s not worried.

“If you are practically 25% down below the standard, that is well within the threshold of a water system that’s operating well,” Hudspeth said. “I would say that level is not a level of concern.”

Drexell Barnes, the water quality manager for the City of Bend, said that just because water complies with federal limits, doesn’t mean it’s safe.

“It’s the difference between a health guideline and a regulatory guideline,” Barnes said. “Any amount of lead, we know, is not safe.”

The Oregon Health Authority considers manganese an “emerging contaminant,” which are chemicals in drinking water known or suspected to pose risks to human health that aren’t subject to federal regulatory oversight. Public health agencies have warned that consistently drinking water with high levels of manganese can lead to nerve damage and other health problems.

Infants and elderly people who drink more than 0.3 milligrams per liter of manganese in a 10-day period can experience impacts to the nervous system and learning problems, according to OHA.

Hudspeth’s tests of Lakeview water in 2022 showed six out of nine samples were above the federal health advisory level for manganese. One well showed concentrations that were over six times the health advisory level.

A toxic history

Many people who live in Lakeview don’t trust the water. Their suspicions go back decades, long before the taps ran brown.

In the late 1950s, this part of Oregon was a hotbed for uranium mining, with more than 130,000 tons of the radioactive element extracted in a two-year period. It was a huge economic boon for a region that’s often relied on the extraction of natural resources to boost the economy.

In the decades after the uranium mines near Lakeview closed, residents were concerned that tailings from the abandoned mill were making people sick with cancer, as OPB reported in 1980.

The federal government eventually cleaned up the tailings in the 1980s, and buried the radioactive waste in a clay pit several miles outside of town.

Janel Harlan was a small child when the clean-up happened, but she remembers the aftermath.

“The mines created a lot of issues,” she said.

Crews in Lakeview, Ore., found this rusty pipe during a repair of the town's water service lines. Public Works Director Sean Petitmermet said the pipe's condition was "average" for the town's system.

Lakeview Town Manager Michele Parry has called on state lawmakers to help her town replace dozens of miles of corroded pipes.

JONI LAND / OPB JONI LAND / OPB

Down To Earth

Continued from previous page

Lakeview’s government has held town halls about the new treatment plant in an effort to win back the public’s trust and ease concerns about safety.

Parry, the town manager, said she knew the town’s pipes were in disrepair for at least a year before making a public announcement this month, because she didn’t want people to be “freaked out.”

“I think that that’s unfair for us to talk about it and to put that information out into the public unless we have a solution,” Parry said.

Without any clear path for solutions, some residents seem resigned to living with discolored, smelly water.

Harlan, 41, remembers her mother and grandmother discussing their concerns that the water was having some sort of effect on the family’s health.

“They always felt like something was in the water,” she said. Harlan’s mother died of uterine cancer. Her children suffer from chronic illness. She’s also had health issues her entire life, and she worries the water could be to blame. Now, as an adult, she tries to use the town’s water as little as possible.

“I do not drink the water,” she said. “I don’t use it for my cooking. I don’t use it for my coffee. My pets don’t use it.”

Yutximy Santiago has lived in Lakeview for 12 years and said she’s mostly learned to adapt — don’t wash clothes on certain days. Stick to drinking bottled water, if you can.

“When I saw it the first time, I thought it was really gross. But now it’s like a normal thing. I guess you get used to it,” Santiago said.

Where There’s A Will There’s A Way! Our Gift To You...

JPR has partnered with FreeWill to provide a safe and user friendly online platform which lets you create a legally valid will, completely free of cost.

Nonprofit organizations across the nation have partnered with FreeWill to provide this tool for individuals who want to proactively manage their financial future, take care of loved ones, and contribute to community organizations that reflect their lifelong values. The platform makes it easy to put your intentions and priorities on paper... and all it takes is about 20 minutes of your time.

Go to iJPR.org/FreeWill-JPR to learn more, and get started today!

Joni Auden Land reports on Bend and Central Oregon.

A baseball field in Lakeview, Ore., is flooded following a water main burst on April 5. The town is asking the state Legislature for $30 million to replace its aging pipes.

JONI LAND / OPB

RECORDINGS

NOAH BRANN LINSDAY

Trajectories in Music

Ifound myself in a Toyota with my cousin at the wheel. We sped along toward Ketchum. Natalie Merchant coming through the speakers from cassette. I knew her music, and 10,000 Maniacs, but “These Are Days” had new meaning for young teen me, my mom having sent me to Idaho for the summer to learn watercolor with my aunt, the freedom as easy as the breeze from the open window.

Later in life, a fiancée surprised me with birthday tickets to see her by the Charles River. The concert was small, outdoor, folding chairs, sparsely attended. It’s still my favorite concert, on that dripping August Boston evening. Merchant was fantastic and fluid, playing just for me. The freedom and love in her music mirroring the hand I held and the opportunities we were seeking East.

Natalie Merchant’s latest is Keep Your Courage. Her unmistakable voice and easy joy spills forth throughout, with lush orchestration and crystalline production. Her duets with Resistance Revival Chorus Director Abena Koomson-Davis are some of the finest on the album. Mythic in nature from “Come On Aphrodite” to “Narcissus” and “Tower of Babel”, with Decemberist-esqe lyrics like,

You’re a tree with a broken limb, picked up and thrown by the wind

You’re the gale’s deafening pound, you’re the boom and you’re the howl

You’re hail stoning the deck, you’re the ship about to wreck

You’re Blackbeard on the bow with a fuse in your mouth

And you sail on, the eye of the storm

(from “Eye of the Storm”)

Keep Your Courage is a beautiful, sonically engaging, ultimately feminine, lyrical and loving album. And I continue to feel her singing directly to me.

I discovered The National, rounding my third decade, and figuring out my bearing. I was drawn to the angsty minor chord post-punk sounds, and of course Matt Berninger’s devil-maycare delivery in deep baritone, on cuts like “Lemonwood” (High Violet) and “Sea of Love” (Trouble Will Find Me).

When I was forty, in the middle of the pandemic, Berninger released Serpentine Prison, his first solo release. There is quality in maturation. His thoughtfulness now worn on his sleeve, not muttered between the lines. Like many artists working through those bad times, his work became more human, and honest, and gentle, with “Distant Axis” at the top of my picks. I mark eras of my life by certain artists, and Matt’s one of ’em.

The latest full-length from The National is First Two Pages of Frankenstein

After struggling to write and self-reflect, Berninger and bandmates rallied and produced a stellar, softer, melodic collection of ballads and anthems with notable guests, testifying to the band’s omnipresence in current music. Sufjan Stevens’ sounds color the lead-off track “Once Upon a Poolside”; Phoebe Bridgers harmonizes on “This Isn’t Helping” and the waltzy “Your Mind is Not Your Friend”; and even Berninger is a Swiftie, with Taylor joining the band on the excellent (and very Swift) “The Alcott”.

Through works by Matt Berninger and The National, I am digesting that despite–or even because of–age and trouble and hard times, art can mature. The words and music can return and spill out, even after they don’t for a while.

I am digesting that despite—or even because of—age and trouble and hard times, art can mature. The words and music can return and spill out, even after they don’t for a while.

Noah Brann Linsday is a host of Open Air, and The Folk Show on JPR’s Rhythm and News Service. He’s also a writer, poet, dancer, cook, bartender, artist and printer.

Support JPR Today

JPR relies on listener support as our primary source of funding. Support from new and returning donors enables us to continue broadcasting the programs you love. Basic membership begins at $45. You will receive 6 issues of the Jefferson Journal and you will also know you have done your part to help support public radio in the State of Jefferson.

Please fill out the form below and mail it to:

Jefferson Public Radio

Attn: Membership

1250 Siskiyou Blvd Ashland, OR 97520

Contributions can also be made online at www.ijpr.org

Enclosed is my gift for $________.

The JPR services I enjoy are:

Classics & News Rhythm & News

An eclectic blend of the best singer/songwriter, jazz, blues, world music and more, exploring the close connections between wildly different styles in an upbeat and spontaneous way.

Hosted by Danielle Kelly & Dave Jackson.

Weekdays 9am–3pm

JPR's Rhythm & News Service · www.ijpr.org

NEWS & INFORMATION:

Monday–Friday · 1:30PM–2PM

CLASSICS & NEWS:

Monday–Friday · 6:30PM–7PM

This is what the news should sound like. Hosted by Michael Barbaro and powered by The New York Times’ newsroom,  The Daily brings listeners the biggest stories of our time, told by the best journalists in the world. The Daily focuses on just one or two stories each weekday, offering listeners a 30-minute, deep, textured portrait of the characters and human stakes driving the news.

MILK STREET

CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL

Tomato Conserva

Tomato conserva may range from sweet and jammy to savory and richly oily. Ours is rich and savory, with a velvety texture, perfect for smearing on bread or tossing with pasta. We developed this recipe with cherry or grape tomatoes, which tend to be reliably good no matter the season. We found simmering them in a generous amount of olive oil was the best way to render the fruits silky-tender and concentrate their sweetness. A generous dose of water added to the pot helps the tomatoes break down quickly while preventing their natural sugars from scorching before the mixture reduces to a thick, chunky consistency. The conserva will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.

TIP: Don't be afraid to cook the tomatoes at a steady boil for the first 30 minutes; large bubbles should rapidly rise to the surface but the mixture shouldn't cook so vigorously that it foams. After 30 minutes, stir frequently to prevent scorching and help break up the tomatoes.

MAKES 2 CUPS

1 HOUR, 30 MINUTES ACTIVE

Ingredients

1 cup extra-virgin olive oil

4 medium garlic cloves, smashed and peeled

4 pints grape or cherry tomatoes

1 teaspoon white sugar

2 large bay leaves

Kosher salt

Directions

In a large pot over medium, combine the oil and garlic. Cook, stirring often, until the garlic begins to brown, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, sugar, bay and 1 teaspoon salt, then add 2 cups water. Bring to a boil over high, then reduce to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally and adjusting the heat as needed to maintain a steady but not too vigorous boil, until the tomatoes have burst and begin sticking to the bottom of the pot, 30 to 35 minutes.

Reduce to medium and continue to cook, stirring frequently and breaking up the tomatoes, until the oil separates to the surface, 20 to 25 minutes. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pot to prevent scorching.

Remove from the heat and cool for about 5 minutes. (If you prefer a slightly smoother texture, remove and discard the bay, then transfer the mixture to fine mesh strainer set over a medium bowl. Press on the tomato solids to extract as much liquid as possible. Transfer the solids to a cutting board, reserving the liquid in the bowl, then chop with a chef 's knife to the desired smoothness. Return the tomatoes to the bowl and stir to recombine.) Transfer to a pint-size jar, cool completely and cover tightly. Refrigerate for up to 1 week.

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street in downtown Boston—at 177 Milk Street—is home to the editorial offices and cooking school. It also is where they record Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street television and radio shows. Milk Street is changing how we cook by searching the world for bold, simple recipes and techniques. For more information, go to177milkstreet. com. You can hear Milk Street Radio Sundays at 3:00pm on JPR’s News & Information service.

POETRY

BEVERLY L. TABER Gray

The drought continues

The heat, when you are not accustomed to it, becomes oppressive

Covered in smoke from fires, thankfully not so close that we have to leave And yet it brings the memories of not long ago, when it was our turn.

We were lucky not to have lost life

And had means to recover

But here we are, years later still trying to rebuild our neighborhoods

That I will not live long enough to see recover

Most of the neighbors did not return, or left shortly after returning Only about a year and a half after our conflagration

The news of a terrible pandemic spreading rapidly

Now we are here in the home we built so many years ago

And yet feel so isolated in a place no longer so beautiful.

I need to wear a mask to protect myself from the thick acrid smoke

Or the deadly virus.

This new normal feels gray and lonely.

A special treat today

As the gray skies were clouds instead of smoke

And drizzles of rain pleasantly sprayed us, off and on through the day

The temperature dropped to a comfortable level

The other side of gray

Such a lovely day.

Beverly L. Taber says: “Retired Registered Nurse. Worked for Red Cross Blood Services of Southern California for 22 years. It was our dream to move to Northern California when we retired. Moved to Redding, in Northern California, 21 years ago, where I worked for another 10 years with a local blood bank. I live with my husband of over 41 years and our cat in the house we built here 20 years ago. We are survivors of the Carr fire, summer of 2018. Though much damage to our property and some to the house, our house was one of the few survivors of the fire.”

Miller, Poetry Editor