SEP/OCT 2024

September/October 2024

Threatened Bull Trout in The Klamath Basin Thriving After 30 Years of Conservation Work

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Directors Eric Monroe – Medford Ron Meztger – North Bend Rosalind Sumner – Montague Dan Mullin – Eugene Margaret Redmon – Redding 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 AJ McCalla Announcer

Mike Green Assistant Producer/ Jefferson Exchange Host Erik Neumann News Director/Regional Reporter Dave Jackson Music Director/Open Air Host Danielle Kelly Open Air Host Soleil Mycko Business Manager Natalie Golay Jefferson Exchange Senior Producer Charlie Zimmerman JPR News Production Assistant Zack Biegel JPR News Production Assistant Calena Reeves Audience & Business Services Coordinator Heather Holben Audience Services Assistant Vanessa Finney All Things Considered Host Roman Battaglia Regional Reporter Justin Higginbottom Regional Reporter Jane Vaughan Regional Reporter Milt Radford Morning Edition Host Dave Young Operations Manager

JPR News Contributors Juliet Grable Kevin Opsahl

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Lars Svendsgaard Traci Svendsgaard Robin Terranova Richard Van Hoose Tom Werner

JEFFERSON JOURNAL (ISSN 1079-2015), September/ October 2024, volume 48 number 5. 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.

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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

September/October 2024

JOURNAL

FEATURED

6 Threatened Bull Trout in The Klamath Basin Thriving After 30 Years of Conservation Work

By Roman Battaglia Bull trout have populated the Klamath Basin for thousands of years. But they’ve nearly been wiped out by competition from non-native fish. The 30-year recovery of this trout is proving to be a rare success story among endangered species.

12 Southern Oregon Property Owners Grapple with a Shifting Insurance Market

By Juliet Grable Insurance companies and residents alike are struggling to adapt to a new era of risk in the face of climate-driven wildfires, and property owners in rural communities are on the front lines.

5 Tuned In | Paul Westhelle 11 JPR News Focus: Health & Medicine | Ben Botkin 17 Down To Earth | Jes Burns 19 Inside The Box | Scott Dewing 21 Recordings | Dave Jackson 22 JPR News Focus: Energy | Monica Samayoa 23 JPR News Focus: Poverty & Homelessness | Jane Vaughan 24 JPR Radio Stations & Programs 26 JPR News Briefs 29 JPR News Focus: Healthcare | Lynne Terry 31 JPR News Focus: Education | Jane Vaughan 35 JPR News Focus: Government | Ben Botkin 37 JPR News Focus: Environment | Justin Higginbottom 39 JPR News Focus: Law & Justice | Justin Higginbottom 41 JPR News Focus: Music, Arts & Culture | Justin Higginbottom 43 JPR News Focus: Law & Justice | Kevin Opsahl 45 Milk Street | Christopher Kimball 46 Poetry | Patty Wixon cover: Bull trout and kokanee, Gold Creek, WA.

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 COURTESY OF U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE/R. TABOR

Jefferson Public Radio welcomes your comments: 1250 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520-5025 | 541-552-6301 | 1-800-782-6191 530-243-8000 (Shasta County) | www.ijpr.org · jprinfo@sou.edu

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TUNED IN PAUL WESTHELLE

And The Winner Is …

S

ummer is awards season in newsrooms around the country, a time when several prominent news organizations recognize the best journalism produced in the previous year. Here at JPR, we submit stories that we believe reflect our best work, not to pat ourselves on the back, but to see how our work stacks up against our peers.

These awards are judged by accomplished journalists, communication professionals and academics so recognition is very meaningful to both reporters and newsroom leaders.

National Awards Among the national awards JPR earned this year is a prestigious National Edward R. Murrow Award.

These awards are presented by the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) to newsrooms whose work demonstrates the spirit of excellence that Edward R. Murrow set as a standard for the broadcast journalism profession. JPR received recognition among small market newsrooms in the category of Investigative Reporting for its September 2023 story “DA Charges Former Ashland Massage Therapist with Sexual Abuse.” The story was reported by JPR reporter Jane Vaughan and edited by JPR News Director Erik Neumann. Jane worked on this story over several months as the Jackson County District Attorney conducted its investigation and we published and broadcast it shortly after the DA filed charges. According to JPR News Director Erik Neumann, her reporting “relied on numerous public records requests from county and state agencies, multiple background interviews with friends and family members of victims to corroborate accounts of sexual abuse, and tireless attempts to get comment from individuals named in court documents.” This is the second National Murrow Award earned by the JPR newsroom and the first in the Investigative Reporting category.

Another news organization that recently recognized JPR’s local journalism is the Public Media Journalists Association (PMJA), a group that highlights the best audio journalism produced by public radio stations nationwide. JPR earned four first place 2024 PMJA awards in the following categories: • Continuing Coverage: “After the Dams: Restoring the Klamath” – Reporting by Juliet Grable, Erik Neumann and Jane Vaughan

• Digital Writing: “After a century of displacement, Shasta Indian Nation sees hope in dam removal” – Reporting by Juliet Grable • Interview: “Exploring life with a death doula” – Interview by Vanessa Finney • Student Podcast: “Fresh Eyes: High school podcasters explore the recent spate of ‘swatting’ events” – Reported and produced by the Truth to Power team at Ashland High School with editing

by JPR Producer Angela Decker and News Director Erik Neumann.

Regional Awards In addition to national recognition, JPR also earned five regional awards from The Society of Professional Journalists Region 10, which covers the western states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and Alaska. JPR received awards in the small market audio division for the following stories: • Audio / Environment & Natural Disaster Reporting: First Place - Roman Battaglia and Hal Bernton, “A giant Oregon wildfire shows the limits of carbon offsets in fighting climate change” • Audio / Investigative Reporting: First Place - Roman Battaglia, “Lawsuits against Ashland parks department highlight lack of oversight” • Audio / Feature - Soft News: First Place - Roman Battaglia, “Ukrainian family recalls one year since fleeing to Ashland” • Writing / Series: First Place - Juliet Grable, “After the dams: Restoring the Klamath” • Audio / Feature - Hard News: Second Place - Jane Vaughan, “Royal Oaks move-in delayed by uninhabitable homes. Now what?”

Looking back, the breadth and depth of JPR’s coverage is as varied and diverse as the communities we serve. It is also a direct reflection of the commitment our listeners have made to enable us to expand our newsroom by supporting our local journalism.

Paul Westhelle is JPR’s Executive Director.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 5

Threatened Bull Trout in The Klamath Basin Thriving After 30 Years of Conservation Work

By ROMAN BATTAGLIA

Bull trout are the only remaining native fish species in Crater Lake National Park.

B

ull trout have populated the Klamath Basin for thousands of years. But they’ve nearly been wiped out by competition from non-native fish. The 30-year recovery of this trout is proving to be a rare success story among endangered species.

At a small dam on Sun Creek made out of corrugated vinyl sheeting, National Park Service Fish Biologist Dave Hering shuts off water leading into a metal box the size of a small elevator.

Michael Scheu, one of Hering’s team members, climbs inside. Surrounding his feet are twelve bull trout. They got trapped here trying to head upstream. Scheu collects half of them in a black bucket, handing it off to another team member above.

Bull trout are the only remaining native fish species in Crater Lake National Park. They used to be found all over the Klamath Basin, Hering says, including nearby Fort Creek.

“Fort Creek is a place where a bull trout was sampled in the 19th century and actually held in the Smithsonian,” says Hering. “And for decades, including the whole first 15 years of my career here, we didn’t have bull trout there anymore.”

Competition killed the trout Competition from a closely related cousin, the brook trout, introduced for fishing in the early 1900s, was the primary factor leading to bull trout being listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1998.

6 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

ROMAN BATTAGLIA / JPR NEWS

The brook trout, introduced for fishing in the early 1900s, was the primary factor leading to bull trout being listed as threatened.

Native to the eastern U.S., brook trout evolved with slightly different traits that allow them to outcompete the bull trout in its natural habitat. They mature at a younger age, thereby producing more eggs over a longer period of time than bull trout, among other advantages.

In 1989, scientists found a disturbingly small number of bull trout high up Sun Creek, inside the national park. Mark Buktenica is the now-retired fish biologist for the park service who began the effort to save the species.

“The National Park Service mandate from Congress is pretty clear,” Buktenica said on a 1999 episode of Oregon Field Guide. “We’re supposed to preserve and protect these ecosystems in their natural condition. Well, the natural condition for Sun Creek is to have resident bull trout.”

Back then, Buktenica and his team built two dams on Sun Creek to prevent non-native fish from getting further upstream.

Then, they used a specialized poison to kill any brook trout upstream of the dams.

Hering took over Buktenica’s work when he retired in 2017.

He says he’s gotten more and more invested since their population has grown in number.

“A lot of people – anglers and fish enthusiasts – describe it as sort of an ugly fish or one that isn’t as nice to look at as some others. But I think they’re beautiful,” Hering says.

Hering was there when, in 2017, scientists reconnected Sun Creek to the Wood River for the first time in over 150 years. The tributary had been isolated on private land and used for irrigation, cutting bull trout off from other parts of the Klamath Basin.

A rare recovery Retired Southern Oregon University Aquatic Ecologist Michael Parker says most successful endangered species recovery programs share a few core ingredients: extensive knowledge of the species and its habitat, collaboration with other government agencies and getting private landowners on board.

“Getting all those together to align in a way that then you can start doing the restoration work and the recovery work, I don’t think that comes together all that often,” Parker says. “And that’s why this is such a special case.”

736 animal species are listed as either threatened or endangered according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Fewer than 50 have been taken off the list because they’ve recovered.

Two include the bald eagle and the gray whale. Another 32 species have gone extinct since being listed.

Bjorn Erickson oversees the conservation of around 300 endangered plant and animal species in California, Nevada and the Klamath Basin region. He says he’s seen a growing number of recoveries in recent years. He says removing the threats that caused the species to decline in the first place is what leads to success.

“I think what it demonstrates is if we can do a good job of getting rid of the threats that have been acting on species and the things that have caused them to decline historically, then species in many cases have the ability to take care of themselves,” Erickson says.

He says a similar recovery to bull trout happened with a number of plant and bird species on San Clemente Island off SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 7

ROMAN BATTAGLIA / JPR NEWS

NPS Fish Biologist Dave Hering (right) and Fisheries Technician Michael Scheu release the bull trout into Sun Creek, above the dams that keep non-native fish away, July 10, 2024.

the coast of Los Angeles. The Fish and Wildlife Service worked to remove non-native herbivores, including goats, deer and sheep that were introduced to the island for grazing.

Once those species were removed in the 90s, the native vegetation rebounded, as well as the San Clemente Bell’s sparrow.

Those species were taken off the Endangered Species List in 2023, a few decades after the recovery work took place.

“There’s inherently going to be a lag between when something is listed, and when we can take it off the list because it’s recovered,” Erickson says. “We need to restore habitat, we need to protect habitat, eliminate other threats.”

Star treatment The bull trout Hering’s team collected in the trap at Sun Creek are taken to a mobile lab set up in the bed of his pickup.

Then, they’re weighed, measured, and get their picture taken.

They’re hoping the pictures can be used to identify individual fish in the future using machine learning, the same way that social media platforms like Facebook can recognize your face.

“Now that I’m looking at the pictures, processing through them, it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, you can see that one is totally different.’

8 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

It has its own constellation of spots that’s different from any other fish you see out there,” says Scheu, the fisheries technician.

The fish then have a small radio-frequency tag implanted near their dorsal fin, which can be tracked with sensors that are placed throughout the creek. That data shows bull trout have grown exponentially since Sun Creek was reconnected to the Wood River.

Hering says when they first ran this migration trap in 2021, they caught just 16 bull trout all year.

“I was just ecstatic. I thought, ‘Wow this is amazing! We’ve got 16 bull trout!’ The next year we caught 35 fish in the trap,” Hering says. “And that was even better. It was like, ‘This is really cool, things are working.’ And then last year, 2023, we ended up catching 185 bull trout in the season.”

They’ve already caught 203 fish this year, with months left to trap even more.

After tagging the fish at their mobile lab, the bull trout are loaded into a cooler and driven upstream above the dams where researchers have killed off non-native brook trout.

ROMAN BATTAGLIA / JPR NEWS

The extent of bull trout habitat in the Klamath Basin, according to the USFWS (in white and blue). A large portion of their habitat was impacted by the 2021 Bootleg Fire. Data/Imagery: USFWS, NIFC, NASA.

Repopulation The Sun Creek bull trout will help create a reservoir of fish that can be used to help repopulate other places, Hering says.

“Many of us who are working on this in this area don’t really have the patience to just watch them do the rest of the job to repopulate the basin,” he says.

Historically, bull trout in the Klamath Basin were much more interconnected with each other. But, as the landscape was altered for irrigation and other purposes, they became isolated in small pockets around the basin.

“The biggest threat to small, isolated populations is the fact that some unpredictable environmental catastrophe or perturbation can take place that can wipe out an entire population,” says Parker, the SOU ecologist.

An example of this threat happened when the 2021 Bootleg Fire northeast of Klamath Falls damaged a number of the remaining bull trout populations in the basin.

“If they were all connected, those areas that would have fires could be recolonized,” Parker says.

Bull trout can be found in other parts of the Pacific Northwest. But, according to the 2015 bull trout recovery plan from the USFWS, the Klamath Basin population is the most imperiled. That plan also estimates that recovery for this area could take 50-70 years and cost almost $38 million.

Hering is working on a project starting this year to manually move bull trout from Sun Creek to other tributaries to jumpstart their reintroduction.

He says the only way to allow bull trout to survive long-term without intervention is by removing non-native brook trout from the entirety of the Klamath Basin.

“If we remove them from a few places where it’s important to do that, to preserve native species, maybe that’s a cost that we’re willing to pay,” says Hering.

He says while anglers are banned from catching bull trout in the Klamath Basin right now, with continued recovery they may be able to start catching them again.

But, the technology to remove brook trout from the basin likely isn’t available yet. That would have to include the entirety of the around 64,000-acre Upper Klamath Lake, the largest freshwater body in Oregon by surface area.

“It’s a difficult job even in a simple place,” Hering says.

Still, he says the success they’re seeing with bull trout shows the dedication needed to help species recover.

“To my mind, when something’s listed under the Endangered Species Act, that shouldn’t be sort of a mark of distinction as the thing blinks out of existence,” Hering says. “It oughta be a call to action to actually do something.”

R oman Battaglia is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. 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 JPR newsroom.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 9

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HEALTH & MEDICINE

BEN BOTKIN

They say the new approach could lead to the development of a “one and done” shot to cover all flu variants in five years

OHSU-Led Research Fuels Hope for a Universal Flu Vaccine regon Health & Science University researchers say they have a promising new approach to developing a universal influenza vaccine — potentially within five years.

Such a vaccine — a “one and done” dose — would provide a person with lifetime immunity against a rapidly evolving influenza virus and help safeguard against a pandemic like the recent one that also caused a respiratory illness. Flu strains have triggered six major epidemics in the past century and a half, with the worst in 1918 when millions of people died worldwide.

Flu vaccines — and COVID shots — are based on targeting a particular strain that’s circulating. A universal flu shot would have to work against all strains of the virus, which mutates over time. So researchers adopted a new, OHSU-developed approach, according to the study, which was published recently in the journal Nature Communications.

Researchers started by inoculating 11 monkeys with the 1918 flu virus. They then were exposed to an avian H5N1 influenza virus from 2005, a viral infection that originated with birds but is highly infectious for humans. Six of the 11 monkeys survived the exposure to H5N1.

That’s a good outcome for the experiment considering the strength of the H5N1 virus, said senior author Jonah Sacha, professor and chief of the Division of Pathobiology at OHSU’s Oregon National Primate Research Center.

“We did that because we wanted to make it a really difficult test, so that if we saw any kind of signal, we could be confident that what we were seeing was real,” Sacha said in an interview.

A control group of six primates did not receive the vaccine and also was exposed to the H5N1 virus. They all died.

Sacha said the method used to deliver the vaccine could potentially help other mutating viruses like SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

“It’s a very viable approach,” he said. “For viruses of pandemic potential, it’s critical to have something like this. We set out to test influenza, but we don’t know what’s going to come next.”

Different approach The key to the vaccine’s success was its method of delivery, called a platform. The one used in the flu vaccine trials was also developed by OHSU and is in clinical trials for HIV vaccines.

The approach involves putting small amounts of the vaccine into a common herpes virus cytomegalovirus, or CMV, which infects people but usually produces no symptoms. Nevertheless, CMV prompts an immune response which trains the immune system to fight the flu strains in the vaccine.

COURTESY OF CHRISTINE TORRES HICKS / OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY

O

Jonah Sacha, an Oregon Health & Science University researcher and senior co-author of a new study, says new research could lead to a universal influenza vaccine within five years.

This is different from typical vaccines, including the existing flu vaccines, which rely upon an antibody response that targets the latest version of the virus.

By using an old version of the influenza virus, it was effective despite all the mutations of the past century.

“It worked because the interior protein of the virus was so well preserved,” Sacha said. “So much so, that even after almost 100 years of evolution, the virus can’t change those critically important parts of itself.”

The OHSU researchers worked within a secure laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh, where they exposed the vaccinated primates to small particle aerosols containing the avian H5N1 influenza virus. That virus is currently infecting dairy cows. If that virus started a pandemic, a quick response would be necessary, researchers said.

“Should a deadly virus such as H5N1 infect a human and ignite a pandemic, we need to quickly validate and deploy a new vaccine,” co-author Douglas Reed, associate professor of immunology at the University of Pittsburgh Center for Vaccine Research, said in a statement.

Besides OHSU and the University of Pittsburgh, other involved institutions included the Tulane National Primate Research Center in Louisiana, the University of Washington, and the Washington National Primate Research Center at the University of Washington.

Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 11

Southern Oregon Property Owners Grapple with a Shifting Insurance Market

By JULIET GRABLE

I

nsurance companies and residents alike are struggling to adapt to a new era of risk in the face of climate-driven wildfires, and property owners in rural communities are on the front lines.

The Pinehurst Inn sits above Jenny Creek on a sharp bend of Highway 66 in southeast Jackson County. With its rustic log posts, generous wraparound porch, and tidy planter beds, the two-story home is a landmark at the eastern edge of the rural mountain community called the Greensprings.

Don and Denise Rowlett have called the Pinehurst Inn home since 2008. For several years they ran the inn as a business; now the six-bedroom dwelling serves as a private residence for the couple and their family.

The 23-acre parcel abuts public land and private timberland on three sides. Built in 1895 and extensively renovated in 1987, the property has always been difficult to insure. This spring, the Rowletts received a letter from their insurance company.

“It basically said they would keep us insured until the end of the month then we were on our own after that,” says Don Rowlett.

After receiving the notice, Don called Russ Schweikert, their agent and a partner at Ashland Insurance. Schweikert drove up from Ashland, walked the property, and took pictures.

“He went to bat for us. He talked them into taking us back,” says Rowlett.

The company offered the Rowletts a policy, but their annual premium increased by nearly $2,000.

Since the 2020 Labor Day fires devastated parts of the state, property owners across Southern Oregon have seen their insurance rates go up—or worse.

“There’s an ongoing flow of people who are alarmed because of communications they’ve received from insurance companies whether it’s increases or a threat to cancel or difficulty finding insurance,” says Representative Pam Marsh, a Democrat who represents southern Jackson County. “If you look at the places people live that are adjacent risk areas, those are the places you’re hearing about.”

12 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

The historic Pinehurst Inn in Jackson County has been a private rural residence since 2015.

Since 2020, the state has seen nearly $3 billion in wildfire-related losses. Companies and residents alike are struggling to adapt to a new era of risk in the face of climate-driven wildfires, and property owners in rural communities are on the front lines.

A national crisis A New York Times investigation published this May revealed that selling homeowners insurance was unprofitable in 18 states last year, prompting companies to raise premiums, cancel policies, or leave states altogether. Much of the shake-up is being driven by natural disasters related to climate change.

In Colorado and other Western states, it’s wildfires; in Florida, it’s hurricanes; in Midwestern states like Illinois and Nebraska, it’s major storms and flooding.

“As climate change continues, we are just going to see more pressure on the insurance company, which carries the weight of those disasters ultimately,” says Marsh.

The report paints a dire picture of the potential consequences: if people can’t get their properties insured, they won’t be able to acquire mortgages. Declining property values could set up a domino effect of lost tax revenues for counties to fund schools and other vital services.

The situation has reached a crisis point in California, where companies like Allstate and Farmers Direct have declined to write new policies or renew existing ones in response to legislation that has made it hard, if not impossible for them to stay profitable.

Insurers operating in California can’t raise rates more than 10% without embarking on a lengthy review process. They are also prohibited from using so-called “catastrophe modeling”— modeled predictions of disasters like wildfires and storms—to set rates. In response, many of the industry’s largest companies have simply left.

“The good news in Oregon is that we’re not California,” says Schweikert.

PHOTOS: JULIET GRABLE

Don and Denise Rowlett stand in front of the historic Pinehurst Inn, which they have owned since 2008.

Insurance companies and residents alike are struggling to adapt to a new era of risk in the face of climate-driven wildfires, and property owners in rural communities are on the front lines.

Oregon still has a robust home insurance market, with 105 companies operating within the state at the end of 2022.

On top of that, Oregon has strong consumer protection laws. HB 82, passed last year, requires insurance companies to notify property owners when premium increases are related to wildfire risk, and to describe what mitigation actions property owners could take—removing trees, for example, or clearing combustibles from around the house— that could result in a discount, incentive, or other premium adjustment.

Insurance companies don’t have to provide coverage if a homeowner acts on their suggestions, says Andrew Stolfi, Oregon insurance commissioner and director of the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services. “However, these new requirements create transparency.” Measures homeowners take could also help them find coverage elsewhere.

“Our friends to the south would love those choices,” says Schweikert.

the wake of the pandemic, it’s not a good time to invest in such real estate. That means companies must rely more on selling insurance to be profitable. Reinsurance rates—that’s insurance for insurance companies—are also high right now, says Stolfi, adding that property owners outside of high-risk zones are seeing premium hikes, too.

Liles, like many Oregonians, is shopping around for better rates with a new insurance company—a trend Schweikert has noted in his office. In the recent past, most clients would stick with the same policy and company, and his team would “remarket”—or change companies for—about 10% of their accounts.

“In 2023, we re-marketed about 69% of our clients with the same staff,” he says.

Schweikert himself is not immune to the trends. After the premium on his rental property shot up 86%, he sent a “WTF” to his own agent. “She said, ‘Write the check before they change their mind.’”

Risings premiums, shrinking choices

Coverage of last resort

Historically, Oregon has enjoyed some of the lowest premiums for home insurance in the country. Valkyrie Liles, who lives a mile west of the Rowletts, said her family’s premium was just $700 in 2015. After increasing slowly but steadily for several years, it shot up from $1,880 to $2,604 in the last year. Another Greensprings neighbor, Matt Worthington, has seen his homeowner’s premium rise from $2,200 to $4,650 in just two years.

The reasons behind the spike in premiums are complex, says Schweikert. “It’s a conflagration of all these things happening at one time, and it’s hitting consumer checking accounts like mad.”

Wildfire seasons like 2020 cut deeply into companies’ bottom lines. But insurance companies don’t just rely on selling insurance to make money. They also invest the money from premiums in the stock market or real estate. A strong economy is not a good time to buy stocks, explains Schweikert, and with occupancy rates in commercial buildings still flagging in

As unpleasant as it may be, a premium hike beats not being able to obtain coverage at all.

“The higher you get up in the woods in Ashland, the fewer options you have,” says Greg White, who owns Reinholdt and O’Harra Insurance in Ashland. Writing new policies in the Greensprings or off of Dead Indian Memorial Road or old Highway 99, all of which are in Jackson County, is “nearly impossible,” he adds. “Based on their wildfire score, insurance companies will say ‘No, thank you.’”

Each company has its own way of calculating the wildfire risk. What they don’t rely on is the Oregon Statewide Wildfire Hazard Map created by Oregon State University, says White.

The map is intended to help Oregonians understand the degree of the wildfire hazard for their properties—and hopefully, take action to mitigate it—but when the map was first released in 2022, many residents associated it with spiking insurance rates and lost coverage.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 13

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“All of this stuff was happening before the map even came out,” says White. “The companies had already made their decisions. It was just poor timing.”

Property owners who can’t find coverage elsewhere can turn to the FAIR plan, a state-sponsored insurance pool. Oregon is one of the majority of states with this option of last resort.

Typically, premiums are higher, and coverage for homeowners is capped at $600,000.

Right now, the number of Oregonians taking advantage of the FAIR plan is “astoundingly low,” says Marsh. According to the Oregon FAIR Plan Association, there were 1,698 policies at the end of 2023, up from 1,535 at the end of 2022 and 1,425 at the end of 2021.

“We are seeing definitely an upward trend in policies being written today, largely driven by the issue of wildfire concerns,” says Steve Steinbeck, Executive Director at the Oregon FAIR Plan Association. “A good majority of the standard carriers are pulling out of high-risk wildfire areas, so that’s driving a lot of the business and growth that we’re currently seeing.”

County-wide data shows notable jumps in FAIR plan applications and policies between 2022 and 2023 in certain towns, including Ashland, Rogue River, Grants Pass, and Cave Junction.

The cap for homeowner coverage recently increased from $400,000 to $600,000, but that’s not enough to fully insure many properties, says White, citing as an example a client on Dead Indian Memorial Road east of Ashland with a “beautiful property” who had to resort to the FAIR plan.

“He probably needs $1.5 million just on the structure,” says White. He is advocating for an alternative type of coverage for high-risk wildfire zones, similar to earthquake coverage.

Marsh, whose family used to own and manage the nearby Green Springs Inn, is among the state’s legislators pushing to expand the FAIR plan’s coverage.

“The FAIR plan either needs to cover the basic and special needs of consumers or have a pathway to help people obtain that coverage,” says Marsh.

Accounting for mitigation In 2014, at the very end of July, lightning sparked a fire in far southeast Jackson County near the Greensprings community. As the Oregon Gulch Fire blew up, residences along Copco Road evacuated. The fire was two miles down the creek from the Pinehurst Inn. Don Rowlett was a volunteer firefighter with the Greensprings Rural Fire District at the time, so while he was off fighting the fire, Denise packed some clothes and a few valuables. Luckily for them, the wind shifted and the fire burned to the east away from the Greensprings.

Oregon Department of Forestry firefighters told Denise Rowlett they would defend her home. “They literally told me they would take a stand here. This was one of the most defensible places on the mountain at the time, and even now,” she says.

This spring, the Rowletts’ insurance company gave two main reasons for not wanting to renew their policy: they suspected the couple was operating a business at their residence (they were not) and that the property was “not protected” by a tax-based fire department. The nearest station managed by Jackson County Fire District 5 is 20 miles from the property,

According to Reinholdt and O’Harra Insurance owner Greg White, writing new policies in the Greensprings or off of Dead Indian Memorial Road or old Highway 99, all of which are in Jackson County, is “nearly impossible.” but a station operated by the all-volunteer Greensprings department is less than six miles away.

Schweikert sent the insurance company photos showing that the nearest trees are set back substantially from the structure, which satisfied them—for now.

The Rowletts understand risk mitigation. Their home is surrounded by a gravel parking area on three sides. They are removing oily juniper shrubs from around the house, and they keep the grassy knoll above the home mowed. They also have an impressive fire suppression system, consisting of a fire hose on a reel plumbed to a 5,000-gallon storage tank. The tank is on a hill, so if they lose power, they can rely on gravity.

Marsh and other legislators would like to see property owners rewarded more for actions like these, but she thinks the companies need more validated data about which measures actually reduce risk and vulnerability.

White thinks that nothing will convince companies to write policies in high-risk areas they are avoiding. “Big companies that are writing all over the country are not going to change the rules for one house in Southern Oregon in an area where they wouldn’t write,” he explains.

Stolfi says that actions individual property owners take are important, but “only one key step.” “It’s also important to evaluate how the neighborhood is collectively improving its wildfire risk,” he adds.

Some companies are trying to find a way to give a discount for the Firewise program, where neighbors take collective measures to “harden” homes and create defensible space around structures. Such an incentive could prompt more people in high-risk zones to do so.

The state is compiling a list of incentives and discounts offered by every insurer in Oregon, says Stolfi.

Meanwhile, reinsurance costs are starting to level off, as is inflation, he adds. “If that continues, that will help dampen premium increases.” But another wildfire season like 2020 could reverse those trends, and then some.

Mitigating risk at all levels, from the homeowner and neighborhoods, in forests around communities, is the best way to make sure Oregonians have the benefit of a competitive insurance market.

“We can’t tell insurance companies what to do,” says Marsh, but “We can partner with them.”

J uliet 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. Juliet is a volunteer firefighter and EMT for the Greensprings Rural Fire District. During her off time, she can be found exploring back roads and back country with her husband Brint and pup Roca.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 15

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DOWN TO EARTH JES BURNS

“We’re probably underestimating how far [inland] tsunamis inundated the coast.”

— Tina Dura, head of the Coastal Hazards Lab at Virginia Tech

How Tiny Fossils In Oregon’s Coastal Marshes Could Help Us Prepare For Big Earthquakes f all goes to plan, the long metal rod of the core sampler will cut down through the soil of the salt marsh like a knife through warm butter.

Mike Priddy and David Bruce take their places in the waisthigh grass.

“Ready?” Bruce asks as they grab the t-shaped handle. “One. Two. Three!”

The two graduate students push down with all of their weight.

The rod disappears into the earth, plunging through layers of sediment that have been building up in Oregon’s Salmon River estuary for hundreds, even thousands of years.

“The Oregon coast is one of the best places in the world, with the longest record of marsh history, which makes it a great candidate to study old tsunamis,” says Priddy, a PhD student at Virginia Tech.

This estuary just north of Lincoln City has seen its fair share of Cascadia subduction zone earthquakes and the often-massive tsunamis they trigger.

The core the seismologists pull out of the ground doesn’t just reveal the recent geological history of the marsh in the sediment layers. It also contains the fossilized remains of millions of tiny microorganisms. By combining what they can learn from both of these together, the researchers hope to rewrite our understanding of how tsunamis affect the Pacific Northwest coast.

Tina Dura, head of the Coastal Hazards Lab at Virginia Tech, is leading the research. Her lab is part of the Cascadia Region Earthquake Science Center (CRESCENT), which includes researchers from the University of Oregon, Oregon State, Portland State and other institutions across the country.

She kneels on the squishy ground and opens the 3-foot-long plug of sediment her students just pulled out of the ground.

“Oh, my goodness!” Priddy says, as the layers of mud, sand and soil are revealed.

“That’s what it should look like,” Dura says, then laughs after looking up at Priddy’s face. “Mike’s gonna pass out.”

Right in the middle, between layers of muddy marsh sediment, is a 2-inch band of beach sand. It was washed more than a mile inland by the tsunami from the last Cascadia earthquake in 1700.

Looking at this tell-tale evidence of a massive tsunami, Priddy quips in the lilting drawl of a fancy southern woman, “I’ve got the vapors! The tsunami vapors!”

The core tells them the tsunami wave inundated the spot where they’re standing more than 300 years ago — but how

COURTESY OF TINA DURA / OPB

I

Virginia Tech researchers David Bruce, Tina Dura and Mike Priddy (left to right) snapped this selfie with a core sample on the Oregon Coast.

The gray sand stripe in the middle is evidence of the 1700 Cascadia earthquake.

much farther inland did it travel before washing back out to sea?

Cascadia earthquake threat The Cascadia subduction fault runs north-south about 100 miles off the Pacific Northwest coast. Here the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate is constantly pushing against the North American plate, with Juan de Fuca being forced down — or subducted — underneath the continent.

But the plates don’t slide past each other easily. They lock together where they meet, causing the top plate to bend upwards.

At some point, the pressure at the fault becomes too much. The plates grind past each other, triggering an earthquake along the Cascadia fault line and one or more tsunamis. On the coast, in the span of just a few minutes, the land drops, or subsides, raising relative sea level as much as six feet or more. Moments later, the tsunamis roll ashore, engulfing everything in their paths.

The last time this happened was about 300 years ago.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 17

Down To Earth Continued from previous page

far left: Researchers working on the Oregon Coast are using

TODD SONFLIETH / OPB

buried microscopic fossil to figure out how far past Cascadia Subduction Zone tsunamis have traveled inland. They believe our current estimates used to make tsunami hazard maps are likely too low.

Now, these seismologists working on the Oregon coast are trying to learn just how far Cascadia tsunamis can travel inland so coastal communities can be prepared for the next big one.

“Tsunamis are very dangerous,” Priddy says. “They can happen very quickly. And it’s important for people to know where they can go to [get] out of the Tsunami Inundation Zone.”

Priddy and Dura suspect our current estimates of how far a tsunami could travel inland are too low, and they’re looking for the evidence to back up their hunch in local salt marshes.

The layer of beach sand they find about a mile inland under the Salmon River marsh is their first clue.

“To get this sand transported and dumped onto this marsh required a big wave and a persistent push of water,” Dura says.

Following this logic, past researchers have headed inland, taking core samples until the sand layer disappears. And they’ve concluded that’s where the tsunami stopped. Our tsunami inundation maps are drawn, in part, based on this data.

But it’s not that simple.

“We know from observations of recent subduction zone earthquakes that tsunamis inundate much further inland than they carry sediment,” Dura says. “We know from observations in Japan, for example, that the inundation reached kilometers more inland than where you have sedimentary evidence.”

In the massive Japanese earthquake and tsunami of 2011, nearly 20,000 people died. The same could happen in the Pacific Northwest.

“We’re probably underestimating how far [inland] tsunamis inundated the coast,” Dura says.

The fossils hold the answers To get a more accurate picture of how far inland tsunamis can go in Oregon, Priddy is taking a closer look at the cores with a powerful microscope.

“I appreciate things that we don’t see with the naked eye,” he says.

What separates these seismologists from other earthquake scientists is that they’re looking for tiny, fossilized algae called diatoms.

“Diatoms are unicellular photosynthetic algae, and they are prevalent in all aquatic environments,” Dura says. “They’re in all water — like they’re in tap water even. They’re in my swimming pool. They’re in your fish tank.”

18 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

left, top: Diatoms are unicellular algae with tough exteriors made of silica. These diatoms were found in core samples collected on the Oregon coast.

COURTESY OF DAVID BRUCE/VIRGINIA TECH / OPB left, bottom: A core sample from the Oregon Coast shows a mix of sand and other sediment. The Virginia Tech researchers are using the cores and the microfossils they contain to calculate earthquake subsidence and tsunami inundation.

JES BURNS / OPB

Diatoms have intricate shells called valves.

“Their main kind of features and structures are all based on silica, which is pretty resistant to… abrasion, erosion, chemical [interactions]. They’re pretty hardy, little single-celled algae,” says Bruce, a Virginia Tech PhD candidate who’s using diatoms in his research as well.

When they die, diatoms can stick around unbroken in the sediment for thousands of years.

But despite their hardiness, they’re not tough enough to survive a tsunami intact.

Dura had seen layers of jumbled, broken-up diatoms in the sediment before and didn’t really know what to make of it.

“It’s chaotic, the diatoms fractured,” she says. “What I started to realize is that’s probably the tsunami — the chaotic inundation of a tsunami bringing in finer sediment.”

Diatoms are smaller and lighter than grains of sand, so they ride the tsunami wave further inland.

“Looking at broken diatoms as an indicator — you know, they’ve been trashed on their way into the marsh — makes a lot of sense,” says Sarah Woodroffe, a professor of physical geography at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Woodroffe has used diatoms to study land subsidence and sea level change in Alaska, but isn’t involved in the team’s research.

By looking under the microscope for these layers of broken-up fossils in core samples collected further inland than where the telltale sand layer disappears, Priddy will get a better sense of just how far the tsunami flood waters traveled.

What the seismologists find could give coastal communities the information they need to provide more accurate tsunami evacuation maps. It could also inform where these communities build.

“If a new school is going to be built, or a new shopping center, or new retirement community, they will know better where to put those — and not put those in a tsunami hazard zone,” Priddy says.

And ultimately, these tiny, beautiful fossils may help us safeguard the future of the Pacific Northwest coast.

Jes Burns works for OPB’s Science & Environment unit as a science reporter and producer of the Northwest science show “All Science, No Fiction.”

INSIDE THE BOX

“If you were to fully turn Google’s search engine into something like ChatGPT,” says Alex de Vries, a data scientist in the Netherlands who studies AI power usage, “the energy use of Google would spike. Google would need as much power as IreSCOTT DEWING land just to run its [AI] search engine.”

And that’s just for AI-generated text responses. AI image-generation systems use significantly more energy. One recent study estimated that generating a single image using AI requires as much energy as charging your smartphone.

According to a recent report in Forbes, “Big Tech is spend“ ing tens of billions quarterly on AI accelerators, which has led rtificial intelligence (AI) power consumption is increasing to an exponential increase in power consumption.” and could have a significant impact on the environment.

An “AI accelerator” is a high-performance parallel computing Some say that AI’s energy needs conflict with environmental suscluster that is specifically designed for the efficient processing of tainability, and that the rush to implement AI in business has disAI workloads, much of which now run on Nvidrupted corporate sustainability plans.” ia’s high-end graphics processing unit (GPU).

That’s the “AI Overview” summary generThe Internet is neither “The rise of generative AI and surging GPU ated by Google’s generative AI when I run a light nor airy. It takes up shipments is causing data centers to scale from search for the phrase “AI power consumption”. space. A lot of space. It tens of thousands to 100,000-plus acceleraI don’t know how much power was conis sprawling and dirty tors,” reports Forbes, “shifting the emphasis to sumed to generate that AI summary, but for power as a mission-critical problem to solve.” sure, it was more energy intensive than a and power hungry.

The current US electrical grid capacity, plain old fashioned Google search. however, will be unable to meet the burgeoning demand to While many technology pundits and policy wonks have solve this mission-critical problem. Goldman Sachs Research been preoccupied with pontificating about the promises and estimates that the U.S. utilities industry will need to invest $50 potential perils ushered in by the AI revolution, debating safety billion in new power-generation capacity just to support proand equity concerns and projecting how AI is going to impact jected data center growth. jobs and the economy, its dirty little secret of exponential powBut that’s going to be just enough to keep the Internet’s er consumption has been quietly mushrooming into a big dirty lights on. We will rapidly need other power sources to supply secret that could have profound negative impacts on the planet the exponential energy demands of generative AI and the conand human civilization. tinued build-out of power-hungry AI accelerator infrastructure.

It’s easy to forget that when you use your computer or “I think we still don’t appreciate the energy needs of this smartphone to send an email, read the news, scroll through so[AI] technology,” Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, recently said. cial media, or play an online video game, a massive amount of “We need fusion or we need, like, radically cheaper solar plus technology infrastructure is required for any of that to happen. storage, or something, at massive scale—like, a scale that no one “The Cloud”, as the global Internet is often referred to, does is really planning for.” not “exist above us” nor is it “no longer in a physical place” as Well, that doesn’t sound good. one prominent Presidential candidate has erroneously claimed.

On a whim, I asked Google’s generative-AI search, “Can AI The Cloud that you connect to is a very physical place made up destroy humanity?” of massive data centers located right here on Earth.

Its response: “As of July 2024, it’s not clear if artificial inIn fact, we should stop referring to the global Internet as telligence (AI) can cause human extinction. However, some “The Cloud”, a nebulous description that connotes lightness believe that AI could pose a significant threat to humanity…In and leads people to falsely perceive the Internet as something January 2024, a survey of 2,700 AI researchers found that a just benignly floating out there somewhere in the ether. The Inmajority said there was at least a 5% chance that superintelliternet is neither light nor airy. It takes up space. A lot of space. gent AI would destroy humanity…However, others say that AI It is sprawling and dirty and power hungry. If we want to give it experts don’t have a good track record of forecasting the future. a nickname, we should probably call it “The Machine” or “The Some say that there’s hope that we can have tech that makes Blob” or “The Galactic Energy Monster”. things better if the people who are making it are good people, The Internet already requires a lot of power, accounting for smart, and care about the right things.” an estimated consumption of 3 percent of all global electricity.

I’m not so much worried about AI as a technology as I am And that’s the low estimate. Some studies suggest it’s 9 percent about that last part—that the people creating it are good and and will be 20 percent by 2030. smart people who care about the right things. Let’s hope there’s What we do know for sure is that generative AI tools, espemore than a 5 percent chance of that. cially Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, require more power than traditional Internet storage and processing services.

According to a recent Goldman Sachs report, a ChatGPT query uses, on average, 10 times more electricity to process than a Scott Dewing is a technologist and writer.

He works with and writes about high tech plain-vanilla Google search. A single ChatGPT query requires 2.9 from his home office located inside a watt-hours of electricity, compared with 0.3 watt-hours for a Goolow-tech barn in Carver, Oregon. gle search, according to the International Energy Agency.

AI’s Big Dirty Secret

A

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 19

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RECORDINGS DAVE JACKSON

Bonny Light Horseman recorded their latest album here at Levis Corner House in Ballydehob, County Cork Ireland.

It’s Still Rock & Roll To Me

I

n the last year, there have been a fair number of full-length albums that, while not necessarily concept albums, take the listener on a sonic journey. The latest releases by Peter Gabriel – I/O. Brittany Howard – What Now, Beyonce – Cowboy Carter, and Gary Clark Jr – JPEG RAW, have songs that are connected by ambient music, spoken word interludes, and in the case of Brittany Howard, the musical drone of crystal bowls.

The production on these albums is layered and complex, and maybe even over-produced, though in glorious ways. They make a statement that technical studio wizardry is every bit as legitimate as organic music. Though the songs are fine as standalone singles, listeners can set a mood by playing the entire collections from start to finish. I was prepared to write this piece about the return of the long play artform that began decades ago and helped to launch FM radio formats. The return still may be true, but I’m struck by a couple of newer albums with stripped down production and instruments created before the year 2000, that showcase masterful songwriting and tight arrangements.

The Wood Brothers have been favorites of Open Air hosts for well over a decade. Frontman Oliver Wood just released his second solo album Fat Cat Silhouette. The core band toured as a trio including Wood, Jano Rix (multi-instrumentalist and producer and part of the Wood Brothers) and bassist Ted Pecchio.

Like the Wood Brothers catalog, Fat Cat Silhouette features Oliver Wood’s distinctive vocals and gritty guitar tone, and the highly coordinated work of Jano Rix playing drums and keyboards simultaneously while providing great harmonies with a groove held together by Ted Pecchio’s tasty bass lines.

Wood and Pecchio have been friends and musical partners going back to Col Bruce Hampton’s Codetalkers. Along with Rix, these musicians seem to be able to finish each other’s musical sentences so to speak and that familiarity makes for tight tracks that range from subtle folky tunes to funk grooves that find the sweet spot between rock, folk and blues — with a splash of gospel. In the era of high gloss production, this album was recorded live in the studio before being finished in the booth. The live sound gives it a satisfying raw feel made all the more warm by the contrast of overdriven guitar keyboard and guitar sounds, under perfect harmonies.

On a similar note, the supergroup Bonny Light Horseman released the epic-length 20-track double album Keep Me on Your Mind/See You Free in late Spring. The band consists of singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Tony award winning creator of the Broadway sensation Hadestown — Anais Mitchell, with Eric D Johnson (Fruit Bats, The Shins) and Josh Kaufman (The National, Hiss Golden Messenger, Josh Ritter).

With a rich background in different genres of music both performing and producing, Bonny Light Horseman has a diverse

folk rock sound that is simultaneously fresh and original but so familiar it’s as if you’ve heard these songs before but can’t figure out where. The new release was recorded live in Levis Corner House (pronounced “leh-viss”), an Irish pub in Ballydehob, County Cork; the tracks include occasional background chatter and pub noise coming through the mix. Like the new Oliver Wood album, Bonny Light Horseman plays generally organic instruments, or at least those with analog tech, including the house piano in Levis that they lubricated with olive oil to decrease the squeaks. The album was finished in New York, but Anais Mitchell says that 95% of it was recorded in Levis. The warm, rich sounds practically put the listener at a table in the pub swaying along with the catchy tunes.

There is no better or worse, between digital and analog technology in music. I often hear people complaining about electronic instruments saying things like “anyone can push a button.” At the same time, anyone can strike a drum with a stick and make a sound. Anyone can hit a piano key or pluck a stringed instrument. It takes creativity to turn that sound into music. The lush, wall of sound produced by layer upon layer of multi-tracking and digital instruments is the 21st century version of what the Beach Boys of the Beatles were doing 60 years ago. They took advantage of the technology they had before them and stretched it to its full potential. It was the creativity of the artists and the producers at the time that made it worthwhile. The digital sound has come of age this century where musicians have embraced artificial sound to create entirely new styles of music, using the technology to add dimension to their sound rather than mimic something else.

Even though the more produced sound is the current wave, thankfully, there is still no lack of singer/songwriters and folk artists who continue to add to a tradition of playing “three chords and the truth.” Artists like Bonny Light Horseman, Oliver Wood, Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, continue to blaze trails and seek new sounds in forms of music that have been around for centuries. They too are picking up where others left off to make music their own.

In the end, it’s art — specifically, music, and whether it’s a big studio album with a multi-million-dollar budget creating a huge sound suitable for The Sphere or a Superbowl Halftime Show, or a couple of people harmonizing with acoustic guitar accompaniment, it’s still rock and roll to me.

Dave Jackson is the Rhythm and News music director at JPR and hosts Open Air, JPR Live Sessions and Open Air Amplified. Since a 2024 back injury, his dogs Phil and Clover now consider him the 2nd best human participant in the game of fetch.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 21

JPR NEWS FOCUS

ENERGY

MONICA SAMAYOA

The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, finalized its environmental assessment for two areas off the Oregon Coast and is moving closer to a lease auction.

Southern Oregon Floating Offshore Wind Clears One Bureaucratic Hurdle in a Long Process regon’s coast is inching closer to generating renewable electricity using floating offshore wind turbines, though any construction is still years away.

On Aug. 13, the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, or BOEM, announced it has finalized an environmental assessment. The assessment looked at potential impacts from issuing leases to develop floating offshore wind in the region. BOEM is the federal agency tasked with identifying, proposing and leasing the ocean areas.

But residents and fishery groups say their requests to pause and delay these leases are falling on deaf ears. That has led one Southern Oregon county to ask voters to decide whether to actively oppose development in November.

In February, BOEM proposed two locations off the coast of Coos Bay and Brookings, totaling nearly 195,000 acres of potential wind development.

Shortly after, BOEM announced it was preparing to accept proposals to develop in those areas, but first needed to finalize the environmental assessment.

The agency has concluded, after a public comment period, that issuing leases in mid-October will have “no significant impacts to people or the environment.”

The assessment only reviews the process of issuing a lease.

It does not allow construction, and does not assess environmental impacts of developing offshore wind projects.

“BOEM relies on the best available science and information for our decision-making regarding offshore wind activities,” BOEM Director Elizabeth Klein said in a statement.

The agency said it worked with state government officials, community members and tribes to gather input on how to shape its environmental analysis and is committed to ensuring any offshore wind development in “Oregon is done in a way that avoids, reduces, or mitigates potential impacts to ocean users and the marine environment.”

Offshore wind leases will give developers the right to submit proposals for BOEM to review, the agency said. And that will trigger a new environmental impact statement.

As the demand for more renewable energy increases nationwide, there is pressure to utilize ocean winds to generate more power and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. BOEM estimates Oregon’s coast could have the potential to power more than one million homes with wind energy.

But the push for floating offshore wind has driven residents, commercial fishing groups and tribes in the region to call on federal regulators to halt the leasing of the areas until there is a better understanding of environmental and cultural impacts.

22 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

MONICA SAMAYOA / OPB

O

FILE-Coos Bay Harbor Entrance Viewpoint, near the Charleston Marina on Dec. 7, 2023. Offshore wind turbines could potentially be seen from this site if they are developed along the Southern Oregon coast.

Last week, Coos County commissioners unanimously voted to put a non-binding question on the November ballot asking voters whether the commissioners should oppose floating offshore wind development.

Though the vote would not have any weight on BOEM’s decision to lease the areas, it could be symbolic, said Heather Mann, executive director of Midwater Trawlers Cooperative, a commercial fishing trade association.

“I think they’re desperate to say, ‘Look, nobody’s listening and we have a responsibility to our communities, to our coastal economies, to our constituents and they are telling us no one’s listening to us,’” she said.

Mann, who worked with an informal group to develop a state roadmap defining standards for offshore wind energy, said BOEM continues to rush the process. The fishing industry and others have called for a halt numerous times. She said people have sent in hundreds of comments asking for more information regarding the environmental and coastal impacts of offshore wind, as well as what will happen to the ocean’s ecosystem.

“We’re moving to a place now where we are considering coming out and just saying no to offshore wind rather than being willing to work through a process, because that process is stalled,” she said. “BOEM is moving forward regardless, and we feel that our livelihoods, but also the ocean, is imperiled from this type of activity. So I think people are outraged at the speed with which this is moving.”

She said a full stop would allow for the remapping of the entire Oregon Coast and a look at ocean depths deeper than 1,300 meters. Mann said there is much Continued on page 30

POVERTY AND HOMELESSNESS

JANE VAUGHAN

Grants Pass Designates Four Sites for Homeless Campers

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lthough the Supreme Court ruled in Grants Pass’s favor in June, the city still has to follow a 2021 Oregon state law which says cities have to be “objectively reasonable” as they regulate where people can camp.

So, since the Supreme Court’s ruling, Grants Pass has been working to designate certain locations in the city where homeless people can camp.

The four city-owned sites will have chain-link fencing, accessible bathrooms, handwashing stations and trash service.

Two of them will also have security cameras.

The four locations are: • 1.284 acres at the future Water Treatment Plant site at 755 SE J St. • 36 acres in the southwest corner of Riverside Park • .7 acres at 850 E. Park St. • almost half an acre near City Hall, at 704 NW 6th St. The city also plans to eventually use a site next to the police station as a campground once a structure there has been demolished. That lot is at 712 NE 7th St. and is about a quarter of an acre.

During the meeting, Councilor Dwayne Yunker pushed back on residents who said the city council doesn’t understand the severity of the problem.

“We don’t need to be told that you don’t want them in your area. We’re trying to fix this as best we can. I don’t want them either. But they’re human beings. We gotta do something! “ he said.

These will be the only places in the city where homeless people will be allowed to camp, and people will only be allowed to stay there temporarily. People staying at the Water Treatment Plant site will be able to stay for 96 hours before they must relocate to another of the sites. People staying at the other three sites will be able to stay for 24 hours before they must relocate to another of the sites.

Under Oregon state law, people must be given at least 72 hours’ notice to move their belongings before they will be removed.

The program will cost the city over $250,000 a year. According to meeting materials, that funding can be allocated from ARPA money, the General Fund and council-identified lands and buildings projects.

However, the timeline for when these new rules will be enforced is uncertain. Despite the Supreme Court ruling, Grants Pass is still under a federal District Court injunction as part of the ongoing legal case. This new resolution won’t be enforced until that injunction is lifted. At the council meeting, the city

JANE VAUGHAN/JPR NEWS

MONICA SAMAYOA / OPB

JPR NEWS FOCUS

The Aug. 7 Grants Pass City Council decision comes after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the city’s ban on camping in public places.

Tents in Fruitdale Park in Grants Pass in May 2024.

manager said he doesn’t know exactly when that will be.

Some residents were worried about how these four sites might strain law enforcement staffing and the number of bathrooms that would be needed at the sites, among other issues.

Councilor Brian DeLaGrange tried to reassure them.

“There’s no perfect plan. We’re just doing the best we can.

No matter what we do, no matter where we site these things, there’s going to be people that are upset,” he said. “This is a starting point. We plan to adjust.”

The council plans to discuss car camping and access to potable water at the sites at a future meeting.

On Aug. 7, the city council also amended municipal code to clarify regulations regarding camping, criminal trespass and other related issues.

Jane Vaughan is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio.

Jane 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.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 23

STAT I O N S

&

P RO G R A M S

Classics & News Service Monday through Friday..

4:00pm 5:00pm 7:00pm

5:00am Morning Edition 8:00am First Concert 12:00pm Siskiyou Music Hall 2:00pm Performance Today 4:00pm All Things Considered 6:30pm The Daily 7:00pm Exploring Music 8:00pm State Farm Music Hall

Sunday..

5:00am 9:00am 10:00am 12:00pm 1:00pm 2:00pm 4:00pm 5:00pm 7:00pm

Saturday..

5:00am Weekend Edition 8:00am First Concert 10:00am WFMT Opera Series 2:00pm Played in Oregon 3:00pm The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center

Stations FM Transmitters provide extended regional service.

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

Big Bend 91.3 FM Brookings 101.7 FM Burney 90.9 FM

Weekend Edition Millennium of Music Sunday Baroque American Landscapes Fiesta!

Performance Today Weekend All Things Considered Chicago Symphony Orchestra State Farm Music Hall

KSRS 91.5 FM

KZBY 90.5 FM

KLDD 91.9 FM

KSOR 90.1 FM

KNYR 91.3 FM

KLMF 88.5 FM

KHEC 91.1 FM

KSRG 88.3 FM

KOOZ 94.1 FM

KNHT 102.5 FM

KWCA 101.1 FM

Grants Pass 101.5 FM Happy Camp 91.9 FM Lakeview 89.5 FM Langlois, Sixes 91.3 FM LaPine/Beaver Marsh 89.1 FM

Lincoln 88.7 FM Mendocino 101.9 FM Port Orford 90.5 FM Weed 89.5 FM

ASHLAND

ASHLAND

FM Translators provide low-powered local service.

Translators

All Things Considered New York Philharmonic State Farm Music Hall

Camas Valley 88.7 FM Canyonville 91.9 FM Cave Junction 89.5 FM Chiloquin 91.7 FM Coquille 88.1 FM

ROSEBURG

COOS BAY

YREKA

MYRTLE POINT/COOS BAY

Coos Bay 90.5 FM / 89.1 FM Etna / Ft. Jones 91.1 FM Gasquet 89.1 FM Gold Beach 91.5 FM

KLAMATH FALLS

RIO DELL/EUREKA

MT. SHASTA

CRESCENT CITY REDDING

WFMT OPERA SERIES September 7 – The Queen of Spades by Pyotr Tchaikovsky September 14 – Highway 1 by William Grant Still and The Dwarf by Alexander Zemlinsky (it’s a double feature) September 21 – Turandot by Giacomo Puccini September 28 – Tristan und Isolde by Richard Wagner

PHOTO COURTESY OF WFMT

October 5 – Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini October 12 – La Clemenza di Tito by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart October 19 – Samson by Jean-Philippe Rameau October 26 – The Shining by Paul Moravec (YES! It’s a Halloween special, an adaptation of Stephen King’s famed horror novel!)

24 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

Baritone Brian Mulligan as Jack Torrance in The Shining by Paul Moravec and Mark Campbell

STAT I O N S

&

P RO G R A M S

Rhythm & News Service Monday through Friday..

5:00am Morning Edition 9:00am Open Air 3:00pm Today, Explained 3:30pm Marketplace 4:00pm All Things Considered 6:00pm World Café 8:00pm Folk Alley (M) Mountain Stage (Tu) American Routes (W) The Midnight Special (Th) Open Air Amplified (F) 10:00pm Turnstyles 3:00am World Cafe

Saturday..

FM Transmitters provide extended regional service.

FM Translators provide low-powered local service.

5:00am 9:00am 10:00am 11:00am 12:00pm

Stations

KSBA 88.5 FM

KNCA 89.7 FM

KSMF 89.1 FM

KSKF 90.9 FM

KNSQ 88.1 FM

ASHLAND

COOS BAY

KLAMATH FALLS

Weekend Edition Wait Wait ...Don’t Tell Me! Radiolab Snap Judgement E-Town KVYA 91.5 FM

BURNEY/REDDING

CEDARVILLE/ SURPRISE VALLEY

MT. SHASTA

1:00pm 3:00pm 5:00pm 6:00pm 8:00pm 9:00pm 10:00pm 12:00am

Mountain Stage Folk Alley All Things Considered American Rhythm The Retro Cocktail Hour The Retro Lounge Late Night Blues Turnstyles

Sunday..

5:00am Weekend Edition 9:00am TED Radio Hour 10:00am This American Life 11:00am The Moth Radio Hour 12:00pm Jazz Sunday 2:00pm American Routes 4:00pm Sound Opinions 5:00pm All Things Considered 6:00pm The Folk Show 9:00pm WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour 10:00pm The Midnight Special 12:00am Turnstyles

Translators Callahan/Ft Jones 89.1 FM Cave Junction 90.9 FM

Grants Pass 97.5 FM Port Orford 89.3 FM Roseburg 91.9 FM Yreka 89.3 FM

News & Information Service Monday through Friday..

AM Transmitters provide extended regional service.

FM Transmitter FM Translators provide low-powered local service.

Stations

12:00am BBC World Service 7:00am 1A 9:00am The Jefferson Exchange 10:00am Here & Now 12:00pm BBC News Hour 1:00pm Today, Explained 1:30pm The Daily 2:00pm Think 3:00pm Fresh Air 4:00pm The World 5:00pm On Point 6:00pm 1A 7:00pm Fresh Air (repeat) 8:00pm The Jefferson Exchange (repeat of 9am broadcast) 9:00pm BBC World Service

Saturday..

12:00am BBC World Service 7:00am Inside Europe 8:00am Left, Right & Center 9:00am Freakonomics Radio

KTBR AM 950

KHWA 102.3 FM KJPR AM 1330

KSJK AM 1230

KRVM AM 1280

KPMO AM 1300

KAGI AM 930

KSYC 103.9 FM

KNHM 91.5 FM

TALENT

GRANTS PASS

ROSEBURG EUGENE YREKA

MT. SHASTA/WEED MENDOCINO

BAYSIDE/EUREKA

SHASTA LAKE CITY/ REDDING

10:00am Planet Money/How I Built This 11:00am Hidden Brain 12:00pm Living on Earth 1:00pm Science Friday 3:00pm To the Best of Our Knowledge 5:00pm Radiolab 6:00pm Selected Shorts 7:00pm BBC World Service

Sunday..

12:00am BBC World Service 7:00am No Small Endeavor 8:00am On The Media 9:00am Throughline 10:00am Reveal 11:00am This American Life 12:00pm TED Radio Hour 1:00pm The New Yorker Radio Hour 2:00pm Fresh Air Weekend 3:00pm Milk Street Radio 4:00pm Travel with Rick Steves 5:00pm To the Best of Our Knowledge 7:00pm BBC World Service

Translators

Ashland/Medford 102.3 FM Klamath Falls 90.5 FM / 91.9 FM Grants Pass 97.9 FM

Redding 96.9 FM Roseburg 96.3 FM Eugene 98.7 FM

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 25

NEWS BRIEFS Sutherlin Residents Will Vote On Future Of Psilocybin Businesses In November Jane Vaughan/JPR NEWS

R

esidents of the Douglas County city get to decide on the emerging therapy because a two-year moratorium on these businesses expires at the end of this year.

Psilocybin, found in psychedelic mushrooms, is used to treat mental health issues like PTSD, severe depression and substance use disorders.

It was approved for therapeutic use in Oregon in 2020, the first state in the nation to do so, but municipalities are allowed to govern its use within their borders.

On July 8, the Sutherlin City Council voted to ask voters this fall whether or not psilocybin-related businesses should be allowed locally.

The Council also voted to prohibit psilocybin-related businesses in the city, but Melanie Masterfield, the Sutherlin city recorder, said that has no effect on the current moratorium, and the issue will still head to voters.

“The way the election process works when a topic needs to go on the ballot – first an ordinance needs to be passed with according to what Council believes is in the best interest of the community. In this case, our council does not want to allow psilocybin facilities in the city so therefore the ordinance reads as such,” she wrote in an email. “It’s all in formality for the election process to put a subject on the ballot.”

Masterfield said if voters approve psilocybin businesses in November, there would still be restrictions on where in the city they could be.

“Because of how the city is designed and outlined, there’s very minimal places that a facility could go. We do have code development restrictions and guidelines that would have to be followed. So one just couldn’t go anywhere,” she said in an interview.

Psilocybin businesses include licensed manufacturers, laboratories and service centers, where the drug can be consumed.

26 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

About two-thirds of Sutherlin residents voted to temporarily ban psilocybin businesses within city limits in a 2022 moratorium.

Masterfield said when that moratorium was approved, the city still had a lot of questions about the drug.

“It came through legislation so fast, we didn’t really know anything about it and what it was and what the pros and cons were,” she said.

A variety of groups, including veterans’ organizations, support its therapeutic use, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration designated psilocybin as a breakthrough therapy for treatment resistant depression and major depressive disorder. Opponents of psilocybin use are concerned about potential negative side effects and say more research needs to be conducted.

In 2016, voters in the city banned recreational and medical marijuana sales and businesses.

This fall, Sutherlin voters will get another say in whether or not psilocybin businesses will be allowed in the city. Whichever decision the voters make will take effect on Jan. 1, 2025, and will be permanent.

Curry County Sued Over Citations for Homeless People Jane Vaughan/JPR NEWS

A

man who was formerly homeless argues he was unlawfully cited while camping outside.

In a lawsuit filed on July 13 in federal court, John Malaer claims that in July 2022 he was living on property owned by Curry County in the small, coastal community of Harbor, across the river from Brookings.

He says the county’s code enforcement officer posted a trespassing notice outside his tent that did not comply with state law. The lawsuit says that notice was later rescinded.

On the same day, the county then leased that property to a private individual for $1 a year, turning it into private property.

The lawsuit argues the county did not give adequate notice of this change before then threatening to arrest those camping on the property and issuing a criminal citation to Malaer later that night.

Alicia LeDuc Montgomery, the lead attorney representing Malaer, said for the county to lease property, it has to be in the public interest.

“How can they possibly say that leasing public property, where the public is using it for the basic necessity of being able to sleep somewhere at night or access services that they need to survive, is outweighed by a $1 revenue stream per year?” she said.

The lawsuit was filed against the county, Sheriff John Ward, two men who were sheriff ’s deputies at the time, former County Commissioner Christopher Paasch and the former Code Enforcement Officer Melvin Trover.

The Board of Commissioners and Ward did not respond to a request for comment.

According to an agenda item from a July 6, 2022 Board of Commissioners meeting, Trover sought to have the county vacate the property and lease it to property manager Ron Reel.

The goal was to “address the tents.”

Instead, the property was leased to Ue Ching Ow, who appears to be an anesthesiologist in Monterey, CA. The site is near Shopping Center Avenue and Zimmerman Lane in Harbor, near a liquor store.

“The County engaged in this leasing as a bad faith attempt to levy criminal charges against unhoused campers, including Mr. Malaer, and avoid complying with state laws intended to protect the rights of individuals camping on public property, simply because Mr. Malaer and others remained camping in public view on public property for lack of other housing or resource options and asserted their rights,” the lawsuit reads.

The lawsuit also claims the county violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, since Malaer is disabled and “could not physically comply with the order or move all of his property in the time demanded.”

LeDuc Montgomery said they’re seeking a jury trial, as well as economic and compensatory damages of an unspecified amount.

“Everything depends on circumstances. But if the room is clear and the meeting continues in session, then the press has to be allowed to remain to cover the meeting,” said Loy. Supervisor Kevin Crye has come out in support of the new rules, which were put in place by the county, rather than the board itself. Board members Mary Rickert and Tim Garman are critical of the updated policy.

“I’ve never heard of anything like this. I don't know why it's necessary. I think the Brown Act has clear rules in place. And I don't understand the need for this separate policy,” said Loy. It’s not unusual for Shasta County Board of Supervisors meetings to be the site of disruptions and heated exchanges with public attendees. Just last week Jenny O’Connell Nowain, the wife of Elections Commission candidate Benjamin Nowain, refused to leave the chambers in a sit-in until Supervisor Patrick Jones apologized for saying that her husband did not support the commission’s mission.

The session was paused and the public was kicked out of the chambers while police removed Nowain. But journalists stayed in the room and recorded the incident. That kind of reporting would not be allowed with these new policies.

New Shasta County Policies for Media Worry Free Press Advocates Justin Higginbottom/JPR News

S

hasta County has issued new policies for media covering public Board of Supervisors meetings. Those rules have raised concerns over press freedom. New policies released on July 26, clarified by the county this week, give the option for press to attend supervisor’s meetings inside a media room apart from their usual media section in the chambers where the public sits. The media room is separated by glass from the chambers but includes audio from meeting microphones.

According to the new policy, any journalist not in that room may be asked to leave if the chambers are cleared due to a disruption, such as a protest. That could restrict journalist’s ability to cover those incidents, including police actions, if they are not already in the newly designated media room. According to a statement from Shasta County, if the public is cleared from a meeting then entry into the media room will not be permitted until the board reconvenes.

The new policy could lead to a violation of California’s Brown Act, which guarantees public access to meetings, according to the nonprofit First Amendment Coalition’s legal director David Loy.

Join Host Mike Green and Producers Natalie Golay & Charlie Zimmerman 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

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 27

SOU_JPRGiftAnnuityAD_2024.pdf

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JPR NEWS FOCUS

HEALTHCARE

LYNNE TERRY

About 80% of Medicaid members in Oregon have retained coverage since a nationwide unwinding began compared to less than 4% in Texas, which was last.

Oregon Tops Country in Share of People Retaining Medicaid, Study Finds regon, known nationally for its innovative approach to Medicaid, has kept more people than any other state on the free health insurance since an unwinding of enrollments started last year, a new study found.

About four of five people enrolled in the Oregon Health Plan have retained Medicaid coverage since April 2023, when the state began examining the eligibility of its 1.5 million enrollees, according to a study by Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. During the pandemic, the federal government offered states extra benefits to keep people enrolled in Medicaid – known as the Oregon Health Plan in Oregon. That meant that even if people’s income increased and they no longer qualified, they still retained free dental, mental and health care benefits.

Oregon’s 80% retention rate is followed by 71% in Arizona, 70% in North Carolina, 63% in Washington state and 62% in Connecticut, the Georgetown study found. Texas was last – barely 4% retained coverage – and Pennsylvania was second to last, with a 5% retention rate.

Oregon’s rate – helped in part by the creation of a new health care plan approved by the Legislature – means that more people have primary care providers and take care of problems early instead of depending on emergency care, said Sean McAnulty, a member communications coordinator at the Oregon Health Authority, which oversees Medicaid.

“The real goal is to get people using more primary care, preventative care services, which catch those health problems early and reduce the overall cost of care to everyone across the health care system,” McAnulty said.

The free benefits, split between the state and federal government, which pays about 60% of the cost, also help members’ financial health, McAnulty said.

Retaining a high percentage of Oregon Health plan enrollees moves Oregon closer to its goal of having 98% of residents covered by some kind of insurance, whether it’s Medicaid, an employment plan, private coverage or Medicare, McAnulty said. The Oregon Health Authority’s 2020 to 2024 strategic plan set the 98% goal as a target for this year. McAnulty said state officials don’t know what the current rate is. Previously, it has hovered around 94%.

A total of 232,000 people have lost Medicaid benefits since the unwinding began, according to the Oregon Health Authority, and they’re being directed to buy an individual plan on the federal health insurance marketplace. Amy Coven, a health authority spokeswoman, said more than 145,000 Oregonians are covered this year by a plan purchased on the marketplace, which is the only place where lower-income consumers can ob-

RAWPIXEL / PIXABAY

O

tain subsidies, often in the form of tax breaks. State officials don’t have access to marketplace data and thus don’t know how many who’ve lost Medicaid bought a private plan, Coven said.

This month, the state launched a new free plan, the OHP Bridge Plan, for those who earn more than the federal income limits for traditional Medicaid – up to 138% of the federal poverty level, or nearly $21,000 a year for one person or more than $43,000 a year for a family of four. The OHP Bridge plan extends Medicaid benefits to those who earn up to 200% of the federal poverty level. That means that individuals who earn about $30,000 a year or families of four who earn $62,400 a year qualify.

Oregon Health Authority officials expect the plan to cover 100,000 Oregonians by 2027.

Health authority officials said extending coverage to people through the bridge plan helped push up the Medicaid retention rate. Nearly 23,000 people who had Medicaid benefits but no longer qualified have been moved to the bridge plan, they said Wednesday.

State officials also tried to keep people covered by Medicaid as long as possible by checking the qualifications of those most likely to retain coverage first and pushing more complex renewals toward the end of the process. Oregon gave people more time to respond to the renewal process than any other state, ofSEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 29

JPR News Focus: Healthcare

JPR News Focus: Energy

ficials said. Medicaid members have 90 days to respond to a renewal letter, and they are notified 60 days before benefits end.

People who failed to respond initially can reopen their case 90 days after losing benefits.

To qualify for Medicaid in Oregon, you have to be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident or legal immigrant and meet the income qualifications. For many people, state officials have been able to verify that information by checking a federal data hub. McAnulty said that earlier in the unwinding process, the state automatically terminated benefits if Medicaid members had reported earning more than allowed, but he said now state officials will ask members to confirm their status before ending benefits.

less fishing activity beyond that point and less disruption to current activities.

“If that were to happen, we would be willing to stand down and participate in that process,” she said.

But Mann cautioned if BOEM does not slow down, Oregon could see the same potential impacts New England is experiencing now — such as a July 13 blade failure that led to thousands of fiberglass shards and pieces washing up ashore. Federal and state officials are currently working on how to safely remove the damaged blade and other remaining turbine parts from the ocean.

“It’s mind boggling that people aren’t saying hold on a minute after what just happened, we need to slow down, not speed up this process,” she said.

BOEM said it is preparing a final sale notice and inviting qualified participants for a lease auction of the proposed areas in mid-October.

Continued from previous page

Lynne Terry has more than 30 years of journalism experience.

She reported on health and food safety in her 18 years at The Oregonian, was a senior producer at Oregon Public Broadcasting and Paris correspondent for National Public Radio for nine years.

Continued from page 22

Copyright 2024 Oregon Public Broadcasting

Monica Samayoa is a reporter with OPB’s Science & Environment unit. Before OPB, Monica was an on-call general assignment reporter at KQED in San Francisco. She also helped produce The California Report and KQED Newsroom.

“We try to stay involved in a lot of different community programs because one of our goals is to add more diversity in the media and film industry.”

Mylz Blake ‘17

Co-founder of digital creative agency Black Cub Productions

30 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

sou.edu

•

855-470-3377

JPR NEWS FOCUS

EDUCATION

JANE VAUGHAN

School districts across Oregon announced this year that they’re struggling with major budget deficits, leading to layoffs and program cuts.

‘An Existential Moment’ as Oregon’s Public Schools Struggle with Budget Shortfalls

I

n a big, bright conference room in Medford’s Oakdale Middle School in May, residents, teachers and parents gathered to talk about the Medford School District’s proposed 2024-25 school budget.

Many were upset.

“The one constant in my time at [Medford School District] has been a decrease in the services given to students,” said Paul Cynar, social studies teacher at South Medford High School.

Kirstie Christopherson, an elective tech arts teacher at North Medford High School, said this round of budget cuts should have been focused elsewhere.

“This round should not impact the classroom staff nor their support because the kids should be able to continue to have great learning environments,” she said.

The district is facing a $15 million budget shortfall over the next two years, so there were some significant proposed cuts, including getting rid of over 32 positions, reducing funding for trainings and cutting back on summer programming.

Medford is not alone.

The Bend-La Pine School District is cutting $21 million from its budget over the next two years. The Ashland School District will have to cut another $2.5 million, in addition to $2.4 million it cut this budget cycle. Districts across the state are facing similar challenges.

Yet, in 2023, Oregon’s state legislature allocated over $10 billion for school funding this biennium – the most ever.

Medford’s Oakdale Middle School in June 2024.

tary school, middle school and high school. And now families are saying, ‘We want to have some option in that,’” Champion said.

Medford is considering consolidating elementary schools as a result of declining enrollment.

How we got here Districts have blamed these shortfalls on many things: declining enrollment, inflation, inadequate state funding, the end of federal COVID money and increased special education needs.

Some of these costs can be seen as “a direct output of the COVID situation,” in particular, declining enrollment, according to Medford Superintendent Bret Champion.

The district has seen a more than 100% increase in the number of kids being homeschooled since before COVID, according to Champion. With remote school during the pandemic, parents saw firsthand how their kids were learning, and some wanted a change.

“Whenever I went to school, there was no question exactly where I would go to elemenSEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 31

JPR News Focus: Education Continued from previous page

Superintendents have pointed to other causes of lower enrollment: Oregon’s declining birth rate, the cost of housing and local wildfires.

School districts’ state funding is based on student enrollment. As the number of kids declines, so does the funding. At a certain point, the school no longer breaks even.

And funding from the state is crucial. Back in the 90s, a series of ballot measures drastically shifted Oregon’s school funding landscape from relying on local property taxes to relying mostly on the state. Now, the vast majority of money for schools in Oregon comes from the state, in various forms.

However, the legislature has many priorities competing for that funding.

“We have a housing crisis. We have a homelessness crisis.

We have a mental health crisis. We have an addiction crisis. We have a public defender crisis,” said State Representative Pam Marsh. “[There’s] so many different fronts where we need public investment.”

Some superintendents have complained that the state’s school funding model doesn’t keep up with inflation.

State Representative Susan McLain, a member of two legislative education committees, said there are disagreements between schools and the legislature about how to address inflation.

“Many of our school districts would like to see us just have an adjustment that happens automatically,” she said.

Inflation is considered for every budget, she said, but since more than three-quarters of the school budget comes from the state, it would be risky to have the state on the hook for so much money as inflation spikes.

“We think it’s extremely important for us to look at that inflationary factor on a budget process. And so having an adjust-

32 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

Medford Superintendent Bret Champion in June 2024.

ment that happens automatically is not something that we felt is really best practice as we would like to see it,” she said.

The job of the state’s Quality Education Commission is to figure out how much money schools need to create “an optimal public education system.”

But the state has never given as much money to schools as the Commission recommends to create that quality education.

The Commission says even with over $10 billion allocated for this biennium, the state is only giving about three-quarters of what schools need to operate the way they should.

For the past few years, school districts have had federal COVID relief money to rely on, but that’s also dwindling. The deadline to spend that money is coming up at the end of September.

How the Ashland School District chose to spend its COVID money led to layoffs this year.

During the pandemic, the district hired over 70 new full-time staff to help maintain operations, including enforcing social distance requirements and helping with behavioral needs.

“That caught up with the district, and the action that we’ve taken to reduce staffing has taken longer than we expected. Relying on attrition, people normally coming or going, that didn’t happen fast enough,” said ASD Director of Business Services Scott Whitman. “We are at a

our students require some one-on-one assistance just to make it through the day,” he said. “That’s just costly. It’s necessary, and we’re happy to do it. But it does cost.”

‘An existential moment’

Ashland School District Director of Business Services Scott Whitman (left) and Former Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove in June 2024.

point where we went through layoffs towards the end of this year to make up that difference.”

Former Superintendent Samuel Bogdanove, who retired at the end of the school year, defended the district’s decision as “a wise investment for kids. But it was a tough, tough thing to have to move away from.”

Those additional staff are not needed now, since the district currently has about 300 fewer students than it did in 2017. Bogdanove said the district’s declining student numbers are partially due to the end of an open enrollment law in 2018-2019, which had allowed students to transition into the Ashland district.

Meanwhile, districts are also seeing increasing numbers of students with high needs since the COVID pandemic, both those with identified disabilities and those with generalized mental health and behavioral needs.

There’s “a much broader general sense of need for both academic remediation to catch up some of that missed learning, as well as emotional and mental health and behavioral supports,” Bogdanove said.

Many students with special education needs receive individualized education plans, or IEPs, which provide special instruction and support, like speech therapy or counseling.

The state provides funding for up to 11% of a district’s enrollment, but if a school has a higher percentage of kids with IEPs, those aren’t covered.

According to Champion, 15-16% of Medford’s student population has had IEPs in the last few years, so funding for those kids’ needs comes out of the district’s pocket.

“We’re seeing students who are struggling with a whole host of things, behavior being prime among them, and that some of

Governor Tina Kotek’s office and legislative committees are studying ways to improve the state’s funding system.

Representative Marsh wants to make sure that additional money will actually get results for students.

“Legislators and the public need to really understand how putting more money into schools will make a difference for kids. That needs to be drawn in neon and bright lights, that connection,” she said.

There’s also a deeper question here, according to Marsh: are there ways that public schools could work better? In the years since the COVID pandemic began, now seems to be the time to reassess the system.

“We are just at an existential moment with our K-12 schools when we have to figure out how to renew the confidence of the public in those schools and how to fund them at a level that is both sustainable and that can produce good outcomes for kids,” she said.

Champion also sees the moment as critical for the future of public education.

“Frankly, there is a narrative across the nation that is very anti-public schools. And if we don’t work to try to take control of that narrative, then we’re going to continue to get beaten down.

And that’s something we can’t afford,” he said. “It is critical that we invest in and hold accountable our nation’s public schools.”

Meanwhile, some districts will still have to cut millions of dollars in the next few years. State budget proposals for the next biennium are already in the works. And next month, hundreds of thousands of students in Oregon will eagerly return to school.

Jane Vaughan is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio.

Jane 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.

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JPR NEWS FOCUS

GOVERNMENT

BEN BOTKIN

Stamp’s hiring will give the agency a fresh start with an executive who has experience as a social worker and administrator.

Longtime Multnomah County Administrator Appointed New Measure 110 Executive Director

A

bbey Stamp is taking on a new role that will put her at the heart of Oregon’s fentanyl overdose crisis — and the next chapter of the state’s effort to combat drug addiction.

The 51-year-old longtime Multnomah County administrator will start Oct. 15 as the new executive director of the Oregon Health Authority’s Measure 110 program. Stamp is taking the helm at a time when Measure 110 has reached a crossroads since Oregon voters passed it in 2020 to decriminalize low-level drug possession and plow millions into programs for drug users. The state recriminalizes low-level drug possession beginning Sept. 1 as counties establish deflection programs to divert people to treatment.

For the last 11 years, Stamp has been executive director of Multnomah County’s Local Public Safety Coordinating Council, which works on criminal justice reform issues and policies in the state’s largest county.

In an interview with the Capital Chronicle, Stamp said she wants to change the perception of Measure 110, which fell out of favor among law enforcement agencies and the public over the lack of enforcement for drug possession. Stamp said it was “really devastating” to her personally that the term “Measure 110” had become a derogatory term.

“I’d like to contribute what I can to change that,” Stamp said.

“Measure 110 funding is still intact, and it can still do important things in our communities to help folks get on the journey towards recovery.”

Change of approach The measure decriminalized possession of small amounts of hard drugs and put a $100 citation system in place without criminal penalties. But as public drug use became rampant, with more than 1,000 Oregonians dying of overdoses in 2023, state lawmakers approved a new misdemeanor penalty to encourage people to enter a diversion program.

Even so, Measure 110 will continue to play a dominant role in Oregon’s fight against addiction. The program, overseen by the Oregon Health Authority, will continue to receive millions of dollars a year in cannabis revenues for addiction programs and support, including treatment, housing, support groups and services run by peers, who are in recovery from drug addiction.

The agency has distributed more than $275 million in funding, health authority data show, but the rollout has been bumpy.

A state audit in January 2023 found the health authority’s rollout was fraught with obstacles and red tape.

Abbey Stamp, who starts her new job on Oct. 15, has worked for years in behavioral health and criminal justice.

The authority, which announced Stamp’s hiring on Aug. 8, has struggled to fill the position. Angela Carter, the former manager of the program and a naturopath, quit in August 2023 and accused the agency in a letter of ignoring requests for staffing and resources, calling the authority “maliciously negligent,” The Lund Report reported at the time.

Stamp’s hiring will give the agency a fresh start with an executive who has experience as a social worker and administrator.

“As a licensed clinical social worker and administrative leader, Abbey brings to this position expertise as a behavioral health provider and as an equity-focused policymaker,” Ebony Clarke, the authority’s behavioral health director, said in a statement. “Through her leadership, Abbey will continue to create and strengthen intentional partnerships with providers across the state to ensure those with substance use disorders have access to support and services in their communities.”

Stamp’s annual salary will be $141,000, and her program’s budget — not counting grants — is about $7.5 million annually with about 25 staffers.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 35

JPR News Focus: Government Continued from previous page

Path to the health authority Stamp has worked at Multnomah County since 2004 in different roles, first as a mental health consultant who provided outpatient mental health and alcohol and drug assessment services to youth. She also worked as the juvenile court improvement coordinator and a consultant.

Prior to her county career, Stamp worked as a social worker at Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center, a clinic that provides services to low-income people. During that time, she provided counseling and advocacy services, including for Spanish-speaking clients.

Her path to social work started with an interest in law school. After graduating in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in ethnic studies from Mills College in California, Stamp went to work for a criminal defense attorney in Portland as a Spanish interpreter and paralegal.

That experience opened her eyes to the need for social justice, she said.

“That was my first foray and where I really began to develop my values and my ethics around criminal justice policy,” Stamp said. “I always really believe that only in very rare circumstances should a human being ever be put in a cage.”

That’s because she saw what happened when people weren’t treated.

“I saw a lot of pain and suffering in the clients we defended, and a lot of illness and a lot of trauma and a lot of untreated housing instability and behavioral health conditions,” she said.

“And that is why I chose to go to social work school and not go to law school.”

After graduating with a master’s degree in social work and management from Portland State University in 2002, Stamp started her career.

At this point, she said she is looking for a change after 11 years in her current role, which she said is an “incredibly political environment.”

And Stamp said she wanted to get into a leadership role that can impact policies and programs, rather than be a facilitator and mediator among participants and officials.

“I want to get back into real programming and agency work and to take on a leadership and administrative role,” she said.

Stamp has seen Multnomah County’s response to the fentanyl addiction crisis up close. She served as the county’s representative during a 90-day emergency declaration the state, county and city of Portland called in January to respond to fentanyl overdoses. She saw up close the efforts to coordinate resources and plan responses, such as police officers on bicycles responding to people in the streets and outreach work.

That work, she said, shows how programs and organizations can work together, especially as new programs roll out under House Bill 4002, the law that recriminalized drug possession.

As she starts her new role, Stamp said she plans to travel the state and meet with local individuals.

Janie Gullickson, executive director of the Mental Health & Addiction Association of Oregon, said Stamp is a good fit for the role and a champion for social justice.

“Her approach is very organized, which I appreciate, because it puts some necessary structure in place when things feel pretty chaotic,” Gullickson said. “I think that’s what she can also bring to the position of executive director.”

Oregon Capital Chronicle is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.

36 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

JPR NEWS FOCUS

ENVIRONMENT

JUSTIN HIGGINBOTTOM

A Jackson County resident had questions after she learned about elevated arsenic levels in her drinking water. Her concerns reveal gaps in water regulation throughout the state.

Southern Oregon Residents Worry State Isn’t Monitoring Water Quality Closely Enough After Arsenic Scare eresa Blazer has lived at Rogue Meadows for nine years. It’s a tidy mobile home park in the town of Shady Cove, just off the Rogue River where her retired husband regularly catches his daily limit of Chinook and coho salmon.

In February, by chance, Blazer found out she had been drinking dangerous levels of arsenic. She was asking a neighbor in a nearby park that shares well water about a boil notice she had received after a water line broke. The neighbor, instead, brought to her attention a different letter from park management that revealed their well water had above the federal legal limit of arsenic.

“They had received this notice in January about high arsenic.

And I was like, ‘Well, our park never received that. I wonder why?’” says Blazer from her home, which today has stacks of printouts from the Oregon Health Authority’s website displayed on a table.

Blazer, who has that unique energy of a semi-retired mother with a son now out of the home, started digging into public data from the OHA about her water system.

“I found out as I looked through our backlogs of our community well… that we’ve had an ongoing arsenic problem for not just the last several months but actually for the last several years,” she says.

She’s spent days at this point going through records at her computer with her little chihuahua, Dia, sitting patiently by her side.

She found out her park’s water system had a running annual average of arsenic – averages of water samples taken over the span of months – above the federal limit last year. The same goes for 2021 and 2020. Meanwhile, the park has had a spattering of individual tests above that limit going back to 2008.

Public notices are required by state rules if water contamination levels go above federal limits. But she says those notices have reached residents inconsistently at best. Residents should have been issued notices in 2020 and 2023 according to the OHA’s website. Blazer says she didn’t get those. Although she says she did receive notices in 2018 and 2021.

Blazer also found, again through the OHA’s website documenting the agency’s interaction with her park’s water system manager, that their well’s arsenic treatment system has been waiting on final approval by the OHA to show its effectiveness at removing the metal for the last three years.

She’s stopped filling Dia’s bowl with tap water.

“It’s definitely something that I have discussed with my own primary doctor, just in recent months since this started,” says Blazer. “And she’s very concerned about it. She advises me not to drink the water.”

JUSTIN HIGGINBOTTOM / JPR

T

Teresa Blazer looks at Oregon Health Authority information about her home's water system in Shady Cove in May of 2024.

Drinking water with high levels of arsenic over the long term can cause cancer, skin lesions, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and impact neurological development in children.

Blazer lost so much confidence in the park managers and the OHA that in March she started testing the water out of her faucet herself. As she would find out, that was a good idea.

She says a sample she took on March 16 had twice the legal limit of arsenic. By coincidence, her park’s water manager took a test on that same day. The results they sent to the OHA said otherwise.

“Their tests came back very much below the legal limit. So they were saying that our water was completely safe and there was nothing to worry about,” says Blazer.

Tony George, drinking water program coordinator for Jackson County, says he’s been working with the park owners on their arsenic problem.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 37

JPR News Focus: Environment Ron Kelso, the owner of one of three parks on the water system, says they are following state regulations to guarantee the safety of their water. Tom Jarmer, who owns Blazer’s Park, didn’t respond for comment.

George, with Jackson County, says the conflicting results of that March 16 test are because the park’s water manager mistakenly took a sample from the wrong water source. After retesting, Blazer’s results were proven correct.

George explains that ridding a water system of arsenic contamination can take some time.

“Arsenic isn’t an issue that’s an overnight fix,” says George. “[The Park owners] have been working on their arsenic treatment system, they’ve upgraded it, they’ve spent tens of thousands over these last few months.”

George says that the Rogue Valley is known to have relatively high levels of arsenic in its geology.

“Arsenic, it’s naturally occurring. It’s found in the Earth’s crust,” he explains. “There’s certain areas like Southern Oregon that have an increased concentration of arsenic in the geology.”

George says that concentrations of arsenic can increase as wells are drawn down, like during drought, and that might be what’s happening in this case.

But the issues at Blazer’s home reveal wider concerns about the regulation of Oregon’s drinking water. The OHA doesn’t usually audit test samples or check to see if residences receive public notices — that is, unless a resident like Blazer makes waves.

That means it can be left to chance for the agency to come across mistakes or even wrongdoing. For example, in 2012, a water treatment plant supervisor and water quality technician for the Coos Bay-North Bend Water Board pleaded guilty to falsifying samples when testing for coliform bacteria in city water. That was stumbled upon by someone on the water board.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the OHA said the lack of legal access to private property and a lack of funding prohibit the agency from conducting independent monitoring for all public water systems. The statement also explains that it’s not feasible or practical for the OHA to check if all residents received required public notices.

Back at Rogue Meadows in Shady Cove, sometime after Blazer started raising issues with the OHA, all residents began getting notices about their water’s arsenic levels, likely thanks to her pressure on agencies and park owners.

Carrie Youtsey, a 79-year-old resident who has lived at the park for decades, doesn’t think the notices go far enough. Although the letters note that there are health risks for long-term consumption of arsenic at levels above the federal limit, it also tells residents that this contamination is not an emergency and that residents should perform no corrective actions (Blazer says that park owners have told residents they can continue drinking the water).

Youtsey thinks the water has had an impact on older residents and she no longer trusts the park owners.

“All I know is that the person that’s in charge now? I wouldn’t trust him any further than I can spit and I don’t spit very far,” she says.

38 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

JUSTIN HIGGINBOTTOM / JPR

Continued from previous page

Teresa Blazer is seen at her home in Shady Cove.

The OHA says they have an agreement with the park owners to finally get their arsenic treatment system approved, which will ensure arsenic levels are below the federal limit. In an emailed response the agency also says that a test in June showed no detectable levels of arsenic.

But Blazer, who at this point has mile-long email chains with the OHA, Jackson County and state senators, isn’t taking their word for it.

“I’m going to continue testing. I know it costs me a lot of money, but I’m going to continue to test and every time the water operator here does his own test, I’m going to be doing one right after that,” she says.

She says some residents have started chipping in for the costs of those tests. For them, Blazer’s filling a gap in the guarantee of clean drinking water — something they think the state should have done from the beginning.

Justin Higginbottom is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. He’s worked in print and radio journalism in Utah as well as abroad with stints in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He spent a year reporting on the Myanmar civil war and has contributed to NPR, CNBC and Deutsche Welle (Germany’s public media organization).

JPR NEWS FOCUS

LAW AND JUSTICE

JUSTIN HIGGINBOTOM

The State Sent a Southern Oregon Woman Back to Prison Illegally. She’s Still Waiting for an Apology

I

f Terri Lee Brown didn’t finally have it all last winter, it seemed at least close.

She had spent over four years in Oregon’s women’s prison, Coffee Creek Correctional Facility, for mail theft but was let out early in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. Brown was one of nearly 1,000 prisoners former Governor Kate Brown commuted to protect those with health conditions. Brown has the lung disease COPD. It was a rough start for her when she was released.

“When I got out in the middle of COVID, it was very, very hard to navigate. The world had changed so much,” says Brown.

“You couldn’t go anywhere or do anything and finding a job was hard.”

Being a convicted felon didn’t help in her job hunt. But eventually Brown got on her feet. She was working nights at a hotel and studying to get her associates degree during the day.

She rented a house in Grants Pass with her children.

One afternoon, in February, she had just returned home from running errands with her daughter.

“And next thing I hear, ‘Miss Brown, come out, come out with your hands up!’ And I went out and there was like three officers in my yard,” Brown recalls. “And they’re telling me to put my hands behind my back.”

She was confused and scared. She asked why she was being arrested and the police said mail theft. Memories of those years in prison flooded back.

“I looked over at my daughter and she just had this look in her eyes, like such disappointment at me. It broke my heart and I started crying because at this point I don’t know what’s going on,” she says.

She told her daughter to grab her certificate of parole which she had proudly hung up in their house. But it didn’t help. She was sent back to prison. It took days for her to learn why she was there.

The current governor, Tina Kotek, had revoked the previous governor’s commutation of Brown’s sentence.

“Terri had never been provided any notification, no letter from the governor’s office saying that her clemency had been revoked or the basis for which the revocation occurred,” says Bobbin Singh with the Oregon Justice Resource Center. That organization eventually took Brown’s case to the Oregon Supreme Court.

They learned that the governor had asked for lists from local district attorneys of those who had violated the conditions of their release after their sentence was commuted.

This was during a time when political pressure was building for action after some of those released during COVID went

Terri Lee Brown

on to commit new crimes. Jesse Lee Calhoun, one of those let out early, has been charged with the deaths of three women near Portland. Although a study last year by the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission shows those commuted during COVID were slightly less likely to commit a new crime compared to those released normally.

In Washington County, where Brown was first paroled, the district attorney sent a note to the governor letting her know that Brown had left the state without permission and committed assault.

Brown admits to not following the conditions of her release early on and that she was sanctioned for that. She calls it a slipup. But she was never prosecuted for that assault. And she went on to complete her parole. She did her time.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 39

Law and Justice Continued from previous page

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“Even a superficial review of Terri and her life when they did the revocation, which was two years after that sanction, I think anybody would have said it would have been nonsense to put her back into prison,” says Singh.

The governor’s office refused a request for comment on this story.

By Singh’s count, the governor revoked over 120 commutations. He still doesn’t know what criteria the governor used in those decisions.

If those revocations were made just from the lists provided by the DAs, then Singh says that could misjudge cases like Brown’s — messy and not easily summed up by court records or notes from prosecutors.

“If she’s just rubber stamping it, that’s problematic… The DAs are providing information but I think not all of it is accurate, it needs to be confirmed,” says Singh.

The Oregon Justice Resource Center challenged Governor Kotek’s authority to revoke commutations made by a previous governor, which would effectively mean that, anytime in the future, a governor could cancel legally ordered releases. Surprisingly to Singh, the state actually fought to keep Brown in prison. But the Supreme Court ruled in Brown’s favor in May, saying that her “imprisonment is unlawful.” Singh says that ruling could apply to others.

“It seems like a lot of cases are factually indistinguishable and that Terri’s case, the Supreme Court case, would probably require some sort of relief for most, if not all those individuals in some way,” says Singh.

Brown was released from prison, again, in May. But that life she was building, which seemed so close just last winter, has receded.

“You know, I shouldn’t be in this position. I put myself in a position where I was okay. I’m not okay no more,” says Brown.

“I’m barely holding on to my house with my kids.”

While she was in prison, her daughter had to work to help pay the bills so they could keep their home. Brown says the short-staffed prison where she was sent messed up her medication. She’s struggled with her health since getting out.

“Still to this day nobody has reached out to me to apologize for what they did,” says Brown.

She doesn’t have the money for school right now but wants to head back eventually. Her life is messy. And once again not easily summed up by court records and statements from prosecutors — but finally getting better again.

Name Organization Address City State / Zip Phone Email

Justin Higginbottom is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. He’s worked in print and radio journalism in Utah as well as abroad with stints in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He spent a year reporting on the Myanmar civil war and has contributed to NPR, CNBC and Deutsche Welle (Germany’s public media organization).

JPR NEWS FOCUS

MUSIC, ARTS AND CULTURE

JUSTIN HIGGINBOTOM

From Train History To Train Hopping, A California Town Celebrates America’s Rails unsmuir, population just under 2,000, is as much of a railroad town as exists in America. It owes its creation to trains, built around a division point where crews and equipment were changed, now just out of earshot of I-5 traffic darting between Redding and Yreka. Steam locomotives once stopped among these pines, adding “pusher” engines to give them enough power for the northern climb toward Mt. Shasta.

In the early 20th century, nearly everyone worked on or around the rails. Those were good jobs that workers could raise a family on. And the town still gives thanks.

On a hot afternoon in early June, Sandra Hood, president of Dunsmuir’s Railroad Days committee, announces the start of celebrations which have occurred in this valley for most of the last 80 years. Locals and visitors line the town’s main street for the annual parade to celebrate the region’s history with trains.

The brick storefronts, some closed or close to it, look like a town that could have been forgotten for a time but is in the process of being remembered, with young families dipping into new cafes and breweries.

A lot has changed since the first Railroad Days.

“We don’t have the trains like we used to. But the spirit of those engineers and rail workers is still here,” says Hood.

New technology and new ownership mean fewer people are needed to keep the trains moving. There’s less timber to haul.

Nina Alameda, greeting visitors at a railroad museum in a small Amtrak building, remembers a different era of Railroad Days — when Southern Pacific ran the tracks.

“Southern Pacific really supported the town and supported Railroad Days. They would bring the Shasta Daylight down and park it here so that we can see it,” says Alameda, who’s lived in Dunsmuir for all of her 85 years. “But they don’t do any of that anymore.”

Union Pacific now operates these rails and Alameda isn’t the only local unhappy about it. She says the company is less involved, not only in Railroad Days but the town. There are fewer jobs you can raise a family on. Not as many people from the company live in Dunsmuir.

And there’s been another change in train culture over the years: those riding the rails. Alameda says the town has always attracted them, like during the Great Depression when people traveled in boxcars searching for work.

She remembers, as a child, one of them knocking on her family’s door to ask for a pair of shoes.

But a different population now rides the rails. Although they no longer resemble Halloween costumes inspired by the Grapes of Wrath, they have a general uniform — tattoos, worn

JUSTIN HIGGINBOTOM

D

Train enthusiasts with the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture participate in Dunsmuir’s Railroad Days on June 8, 2024.

overalls, piercings — that make them easy to pick out from the family crowds in Dunsmuir.

They can make Alameda weary.

“It’s a little more scary. You don’t really know who they are and what they’re up to,” she says.

What some of them are up to tonight is watching a band play in a decommissioned boxcar at the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture, around 15 miles up the tracks from Dunsmuir.

This weekend the land becomes a sort of a haven for those in love with underground elements of train culture: labor organizing, folk music and train hopping. Boxcar riders travel from around the country to get here.

One traveler from Tuscon goes by the name of Turtle. He didn’t want to give his real name as his preferred method of travel is illegal. For him trains mean freedom, if only from the Arizona desert.

“I never got to experience the seasons. I got to chase the leaves and it was beautiful,” Turtle explains. “I got to look outside this train bro, and see from yellow to red to dead. And it was beauty to me.”

Tonight, Turtle and his fellow travelers are partying outside a repurposed train depot. On this property there’s a communal kitchen with signs reminding them to call their moms and 50 acres of forest where they can unroll their sleeping bags.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 41

JPR News Focus: Music, Arts and Culture Continued from previous page

JUSTIN HIGGINBOTOM

The town of Dunsmuir in far Northern California hosted its first Railroad Days in 1941.

But the town’s relationship with the railroad industry has changed over the decades. And a subculture of train enthusiasts now celebrates alongside the town — in their own way.

Within boxcars, the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture also hosts a library on train culture and an exhibit on labor organizer and singer Bruce Duncan “Utah” Phillips.

When a train passes by, those gathered tonight hurry out to the rails with beer in hand for praise.

“We all love trains. And we get to meet here. I get to shake hands with our homies we haven’t seen in a while… because if you travel bro, there’s a lot of hi’s and byes,” Turtle says.

Sandra Hood with the Railroad Days committee says locals have mixed feelings about the annual arrival of boxcar riders.

“Many of them that come in are wonderful. They’re helpful, they’re pleasant,” she says. “And then you have those that are a little edgy. But then, of course, all towns have edgy people.”

There’s been some brawls and public drunkenness in the past. Nothing Dunsmuir hasn’t seen before.

Hood says one year a local came across a stash of old Railroad Days buttons, which they make every celebration. Some dated back to the 40s. Hood says they decided to sell them to raise funds. They were a big hit with the travelers.

“They were probably one of our biggest buyers. Because it was a simple token to take along with them and pass along to people that they met,” says Hood.

Back at the parade, the travelers and locals share the sidewalk to watch the trainless train celebration.

Turtle, the train hopper from Tucson, sums up a sentiment likely uniting those here today: respect for what the country’s rails once were and what they can still mean.

“These tracks cut through America. These are the veins of America,” says Turtle. “So explore your railroads. Get to know America. That’s real America. And it’s beautiful. Straight up.”

Justin Higginbottom is a regional reporter for Jefferson Public Radio. He’s worked in print and radio journalism in Utah as well as abroad with stints in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. He spent a year reporting on the Myanmar civil war and has contributed to NPR, CNBC and Deutsche Welle (Germany’s public media organization).

42 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

JUSTIN HIGGINBOTOM

The Bucket Brigade play at the Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture in Weed, California on June 7, 2024.

A train-hopping traveler that goes by the name of Turtle is seen at Black Butte Center for Railroad Culture’s train library on June 7, 2024.

JPR NEWS FOCUS

LAW AND JUSTICE

KEVIN OPSAHL

An Ashland woman is suing the city’s police department and Providence Medford Medical Center over her claims that they forcibly catheterized her following a DUI charge in October 2019.

Ashland Woman Sues Police, Providence for Alleged Forced Urine Sample

A

n Ashland woman is suing the city’s police department and Providence Medford Medical Center over her claims that they forcibly catheterized her following a DUI charge in October 2019.

Liese Behringer, now 68, alleged in a civil complaint that staff at Providence Medford Medical Center staff forcibly inserted a catheter into her even though she agreed to provide a urine sample — just not in front of then-Ashland Police Officer Justin McCreadie who had arrested her. The officer, who is now a detective for the Jackson County Sheriff ’s Office, had obtained a warrant for the urine sample, but not to do it with force, Behringer’s attorney, Joy Bertrand, said in court on Tuesday. The city of Ashland and Providence have both denied wrongdoing.

“This is about changing policy and practice as much as it is about this one incident,” Bertrand said in arguments before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mark D. Clarke.

According to court records, Behringer pleaded guilty in July 2020 to one count of driving under the influence of intoxicants.

She was sentenced to 20 days incarceration and allowed to serve the term in the community, instead of the Jackson County Jail. She also was required to pay $500 in monetary penalties.

Behringer’s complaint, originally filed in October 2021, noted Providence’s February 2020 letter to the woman, stating that the hospital reviewed the incident and found that its care provided to her was “appropriate” to assist law enforcement, which the hospital said it is often asked to do. Providence further stated that the hospital has “no written policy or protocol” in such a situation.

Behringer’s complaint also noted a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from 2017, which found that law enforcement’s forceful use of a catheter was “a gross personal indignity far exceeding that involved in a simple blood test.” Judges in other states, including South Dakota and California, have found the practice unconstitutional, according to the Oregonian, and similar lawsuits have also been filed in Indiana, Utah, New Jersey and Idaho.

Behringer is demanding compensation for her injuries and punitive damages to be determined at trial. Behringer also seeks an order from the court prohibiting similar conduct from Providence and Ashland police.

On August 13, in a hearing over the telephone, Bertrand, as well as attorneys from Providence and the city of Ashland, argued over whether another witness from the hospital was needed to answer questions about its policies and procedures.

Providence sought a protection order to limit Behringer’s scope of discovery.

“Providence doesn’t know how to respond to produce yet another witness,” who would not only review evidence in the case, but answer all questions related to the hospital’s policy and procedures, said Iain Armstrong, Providence’s attorney.

Bertrand disagreed, adding the Providence attorney’s comments underscore why a deposition of an employee is needed.

“We are seeking to bind Providence and its representatives to positions in this case,” Bertrand said. “The former employees that have been deposed are simply that — they cannot bind Providence, and Providence is the defendant here. Providence has to take a position on these facts.”

Bertrand said Providence’s policies and procedures regarding how it handles situations similar to Behringer’s would soon become known in court.

“What are the policies and what were the practices — not just written policies, but what were the practices of Providence?” she said. “What did you tell your employees was the proper thing to do when presented with this circumstance?

Only Providence can answer that.”

Armstrong cited state statute, which says that a licensed physician or a person under their supervision may use medical procedures to gather evidence in a criminal investigation and “shall not be held civilly liable” for those actions if they are done in a “medically acceptable manner at the request of a peace officer.”

Armstrong said that if another Providence witness were called, he hoped they would address only the medical acceptability of something rather than legal analysis.

“It’s Providence’s position that posing that to a health care provider or administrator is unfair and improper,” Armstrong said.

He added that he did not want the hospital witness to be “taken by surprise” under questioning.

Clarke said he thought Providence could bring a witness forward to talk about the hospital’s policies and procedures, but he also thought other witnesses had already answered some of Behringer’s questions. The judge said he would craft an order soon, but did not say exactly when a decision would be made.

Kevin Opsahl is a journalist based in Medford. He moved to Rogue Valley in September 2021 to cover education for the former Mail Tribune. Kevin was hired in February 2023 to cover public safety for Rogue Valley Times, where he worked until June 2024.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 43

A Nature Notes Sampler II is a broad collection of radio commentaries based on Dr. Frank Lang’s popular series that aired on JPR since the publication of the first volume in the year 2000. This collection of essays offers Dr. Lang’s same eclectic, often humorous view of the natural world in the mythical State of Jefferson and beyond.

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MILK STREET CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL

Food-Processor Lemon–Olive Oil Ice Cream

F

ruity, peppery extra-virgin olive oil brings unexpected flavor and richness to cakes, muffins and quick breads, and it adds lushness to this bright, refreshing ice cream. If you have a bottle of top-shelf olive oil, this is the time to use it, but we’ve tested decent supermarket brands and had great success. Just be sure to use extra-virgin olive oil, which has much mor echaracter than refined regular and light olive oils.

Crushed amaretti cookies or crumbled shortbread are great mix-ins for this ice cream. And try drizzling scoops with a little olive oil and finishing with amarena cherries or a sprinkling of flaky salt.

Don’t forget to chill the evaporated milk. If room-temperature or barely chilled, it will not whip properly. Also, don’t whip the evaporated milk until it holds stiffpeaks. If overbeaten, it will cause the ice cream base to deflate during the initial freezing. Lastly, be sure the base is fully frozen before processing. If it is only partially frozen, it may separate as it freezes.

MAKES ABOUT 1 QUART 10½ HOURS 20 MINUTES ACTIVE

Ingredients

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest, plus ¼ cup lemon juice Kosher salt 1 12-ounce can evaporated milk, chilled

Directions 1. Place a large bowl in the refrigerator and chill for at least 15 minutes. Meanwhile, in another large bowl, combine the condensed milk, oil, lemon zest and juice, and ⅛ teaspoon salt; whisk until homogeneous.

2. Pour the cold evaporated milk into the chilled bowl.

Using a hand mixer or a whisk, whip the milk until it resembles softly whipped cream, has doubled in volume and forms mounds when the beaters or whisk are lifted; do not whip to stiffpeaks. Whisk about a third of the whipped milk into the condensed-milk mixture to lighten it. Now, using the whisk, fold in the remaining whipped milk until the mixture is well combined; it will resemble frothy yogurt.

3. Transfer to a 1½-quart container and cover tightly.

Freeze until the center is fully frozen, about 6 hours; the timing will vary based on the shape of the container and the temperature of the freezer. To check if the center is frozen, dig into it with a spoon; it should be solid, without any liquid.

4. Remove the base from the freezer and let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes to soften slightly. Using a sturdy spoon or ice cream scoop, transfer to a food processor; return the now-empty container to the freezer to keep it cold. Process until the mixture resembles a milk shake, 1 to 3 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed.

5. Return the base to the chilled container. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap directly against the surface, then freeze until firm, at least 4 hours. The ice cream will keep for a couple weeks.

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.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024 JEFFERSON JOURNAL | 45

A Closet in the Bathroom

POETRY

Her particulars accumulate…

She made living feel alive.

—Mary Szybist

PATTY WIXON

Sisters Reunion Jigsaw Going through the door when it opens.

—Orson Welles A corner piece, the right blue for an edge of the market in Cameroon. Baskets of sambal oelek remind us how Mother always choked on hot pepper. We talk about who inherited this trait.

Market women sit on polished stools low to the ground. Bolts of fabrics in bold petals and leaves for dresses of bright red, orange, and yellow with head wraps in pink or green. Brown working hands wave elegantly. We hold out ours, look at knuckles too swollen to flex, one sister’s finger points ahead then at the last joint shifts sideways.

We imagine market music blaring, and when one of our phones dings, we click it on speaker, hear a granddaughter tell of school. She stops with I need to dissect a fetal pig. Jigsaw pieces show hanging beef and naked chickens. Talk turns to photos in the cloud, in abandoned albums, in shoeboxes in the garage. We bend close to search for shades. Sage reminds us of a lek where we watched grouse puff bulbous chests, hiccupping and swishing as if rinsing their mouths.

We look for pieces of Cameroon shoes— thin strips of leather with loops for toes.

Our shoes come off to compare toe shapes.

Three have Mother’s little ones with slivers for nails and bunion callouses she sliced off with a razor blade. Two final pieces: fresh fish lined in a tight row, a basket of amaranth seeds.

Writers may submit original poetry for publication in Jefferson Journal.

Email 3–6 poems, a brief bio, and your mailing address in one attachment to jeffmopoetry@gmail.com, or send 3–6 poems, a brief bio, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Amy Miller, Poetry Editor Jefferson Journal 1250 Siskiyou Blvd Ashland, OR 97520

Please allow eight weeks for reply.

46 | JEFFERSON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2024

A small dresser sat in the bathroom between the closet door and one to the bedroom, a door that creaked so was left ajar.

Mother nestled her socks and underwear snug in the top drawer, and slid the white plastic bones from her corset to fold it into the middle drawer. The bottom drawer held her jewelry— pearl earrings, a matching choker she rarely wore, colorful lapel pins, and a collection of elephants from countries she’d visited.

Mother didn’t know I could see into the bathroom from my bunkbed and watched each morning when she swung open the closet door, the hanging bag of shoes thumping against the wood. She pulled off her nightgown, hung it on a hook inside the closet door. Moving fast was her nature.

In the mirror on the door, I could see her bend to pull on underwear, stand straight to slide in the bones of her corset.

She wrapped the wide band snug beneath her breasts and over her hips. Her hands wove laces around the long line of hooks and yanked them tight, top to bottom. She’d sit again to pull on her nylons and clip the tops to elastic strips hanging from the corset, two over each thigh side and back.

Next her slip which hung loose from its straps edged yellow from wear, and over that a work dress with belt pulled not quite tight. Finally, she laced her shoes—orthopedic from having polio as a child. Sometimes she’d reach for a sweater on the high shelf above the hangers. Later I learned she’d tucked two urns in the back of that shelf— one holding ashes of my little brother, the other of my dad.

The Jefferson Journal honors and remembers Patty Wixon, who, along with her husband Vince, edited the poetry page of this magazine from 1980 to 2015. Patty died in July 2024.

Patty was the author of four books of poetry, The Great Hunt (2021), Dear Spoon (2015), Side Effects (2014), and Airing the Sheets (2011). A founding member of the Friends of William Stafford, she helped establish the Stafford Archives. For 20 years she hosted an annual poetry program at Southern Oregon University while also finding time to volunteer as a costume stitcher for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. She organized the International Writers Series in Ashland, which segued into Chautauqua Poets and Writers, a program that brought nationally known writers into the Rogue Valley for 13 years. In 2014 Patty and Vince Wixon were awarded the Stewart H. Holbrook Literary Legacy Award for their contributions to the literary life of Oregon.

Nickel Creek

september 22 • 7:30pm Platinum-selling, Grammy Award-winning trio Nickel Creek is mandolinist Chris Thile, violinist Sara Watkins and guitarist Sean Watkins. Together a sum of more than their staggering parts, the trio revolutionized bluegrass and folk in the early 2000s and ushered in a new era of what we now recognize as Americana music.

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