‘ We Live in Earthquake Country’: What California’s 7.0 Teaches Us About a Future ‘Really Big One’ in Oregon
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By Lizzy Acker
On December 5, about 60 miles off the coast near Ferndale, California, the tectonic plates shifted under the Pacific Ocean, sending seismic waves through the ocean floor that
onto land and were felt from
By Juliet Grable
There’s some very sophisticated technology being used to try to understand how migrating salmon and steelhead are re-inhabiting the river, now that four hydroelectric dams have been removed. Then there are other research methods that are as much art as science.
APPLEGATE VALLEY OREGON
“Aside from the excellent Applegate wines I’ve had from producer, Vineyard, made such an impression on me over the last few years that I from the July the attitude, which are
“But Aside from the excellent Applegate wines I’ve had from Willamette producers, the wines of one producer, Troon Vineyard, made such an impression on me over the last few years that I drove seven hours from the Mendocino Coast in July to pay a visit to Applegate Valley, While I admire the way Troon farms and its empirical attitude, the proof is in the wines, which are invariably fresh, lively and expressive,”
—Eric Asimov The New York Times
—Eric Asimov, The New York Times
WESTHELLE
A Renewed Focus on Federal Funding TUNED IN PAUL
As we look to the year ahead, we expect a great deal of uncertainty. Following the November election, the incoming Trump administration has announced the formation of a committee called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The charge of this committee, according to the administration, is to reduce the size of government and save money by improving efficiency and eliminating waste, fraud and abuse. Who could be against that?
Yet a November Wall Street Journal op ed written by DOGE co-chairs, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, outlines a much broader vision for the committee that targets programs they don’t seem to value in addition to ones they think are being badly run. While the editorial doesn’t name many specific programs, it does single out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) as an example of “federal expenditures that are unauthorized by Congress or being used in ways that Congress never intended.”
To be clear, funding for our nation’s public media system is authorized by statute through the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 with the goal of facilitating the growth and development of public radio and television and making it available to all Americans. Funding levels for CPB are determined in the federal budget process through an appropriation bill approved by Congress and signed by the President. Also by statute, 89% of CPB’s annual appropriation must be distributed to local stations through programming and operational grants with no more than 5% allowed to cover CPB’s overhead expenses.
We look forward to the effort that’s ahead to educate both Congressional representatives and the public about how funding for public broadcasting works. In this process, it’s important to understand several key aspects about how CPB funding contributes to the effectiveness and sustainability of public radio and television stations that serve communities around the country:
• Federal funding for public broadcasting currently totals $535 million per year, an amount that equals approximately $1.60 per American annually. Of this amount approximately .40 per citizen supports public radio annually.
• CPB provides very little funding to NPR, or any other national program producer, with the vast majority of its funds going to more than 1,400 local public television and radio stations like JPR. CPB administers grants, evaluates station effectiveness and ensures accountability to Congress and the President.
• Approximately 40% of CPB grantees are considered rural, based on population density. In recent years, CPB has prioritized resources to rural stations which face unique challenges and higher costs than urban stations because they often operate multiple transmitters and translators in order to reach remote sparsely populated areas. A reduction or elimination of funding for CPB would have the most negative impact on stations serving rural communities.
• CPB is a very small federally funded program amounting to .008% of the overall federal budget, has very few federal employees, and works on a public-private partnership model. The funding CPB provides to stations leverages over $6 in privately raised funds for every $1 of federal support.
As the issue of continued federal support for public broadcasting unfolds in the coming year, we’ll keep you apprised so that you can share your views with your elected representatives when the time is right.
And while the future of federal funding for JPR may be uncertain, we do know that listener support is, and will remain, the essential ingredient that gives life to our service to the region. Thank you for supporting our work, now and in the year ahead.
Paul Westhelle is JPR’s Executive Director.
‘We Live in Earthquake Country’: What California’s 7.0 Teaches Us About a Future ‘Really Big One’ in Oregon
By LIZZY ACKER
In a subduction zone earthquake, one plate slides under another, lifting the top plate up…The Cape Mendocino earthquake was a different type of earthquake, a strike-slip event.
On December 5, about 60 miles off the coast near Ferndale, California, the tectonic plates shifted under the Pacific Ocean, sending seismic waves through the ocean floor that radiated onto land and were felt from Santa Cruz to Medford.
Within seconds, cellphones buzzed with alerts about the earthquake throughout California cities and towns and up into Oregon, reaching Ashland, Bandon, Lincoln City and Corvallis.
Shortly afterward, a tsunami warning was issued for coastal areas in California and Oregon. Beaches and low-lying areas were evacuated, though some people were drawn to the water, hoping to see big waves. Schoolkids ducked under desks or left buildings en masse and moved to higher ground.
That earthquake, the 2024 Offshore Cape Mendocino, California Earthquake, registered a magnitude of 7.0.
The Cape Mendocino earthquake was felt in parts of Oregon, but caused little damage and no known injuries. And the possible tsunami never materialized.
But for some, the quake was a reminder, and even a dry run, for a much bigger event that could cause catastrophic damage to the Pacific Northwest, a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake registering in the high 8 and even 9 range, referred to frequently, chillingly, as “the really big one.”
The Cape Mendocino earthquake sent a message, said Peter Ruggiero, an Oregon State University professor who works on earthquake preparedness: “We live in earthquake country.”
Big earthquakes present a unique problem for scientists, citizens and officials thinking about how to better survive them – they barely ever happen.
“The major disaster hazard that our region experiences is something that most people that live here, certainly anyone alive, has never experienced,” Ruggiero said. “In Oregon and Washington, we don’t have much of an earthquake culture.”
While Oregonians don’t have first-hand experience, big earthquakes have happened in living memory. There was the 6.9-magnitude Loma Prieta earthquake that shook San Francisco during the World Series in 1989, killing 63 people, causing extensive damage and thousands of injuries.
More comparable though, and more recent, was the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, which killed around 20,000 people.
That event was triggered by a 9.1 subduction zone earthquake, which caused widespread destruction, fires and a tsunami with a maximum height of 130 feet. As bad as the earthquake was, that wave was worse, causing the majority of the deaths and a nuclear accident.
Like the Tohoku Earthquake, “the really big one” would be a subduction zone event.
In a subduction zone earthquake, one plate slides under another, lifting the top plate up. In the case of “the really big one,” that would mean the Juan de Fuca plate subducting under North America, pushing North America up and creating a killer wave.
The Cape Mendocino earthquake was a different type of earthquake, a strike-slip event, which caused horizontal motion. Water was displaced, said Andrew Meigs, an earthquake expert from OSU, but it was measured in centimeters, not meters.
The Cape Mendocino earthquake was not on the Cascadia subduction zone, but it was on part of the same system of plate boundaries, Meigs said.
And that subduction zone earthquake is coming.
Scientists know that the last major Cascadia subduction zone quake happened on Jan. 26, 1700 – an estimated 9.0 earthquake that caused the coastline to drop several feet and sent a tsunami to Japan.
“Earthquakes do not occur periodically,” said Meigs. Instead, he said, pressure builds and builds until it is released.
“The longest interval of time between earthquakes is something like 1,050 years,” Meigs said, “and the shortest period of time is about 150.”
The average for the Cascadia subduction zone, he said, is between 500 and 600 years. Currently, the Pacific Northwest has gone 325 years without a massive earthquake.
The next one could happen at any time.
“It could happen on this call,” Meigs said, “or it could happen in 700 years.”
It’s impossible to know when “the really big one” will happen or even how big it will be, but the consensus, among experts working on studying earthquakes and preparing the region for shaking and its aftermath is this: A Cascadia subduction zone earthquake is survivable. But everyone should be ready for it to happen today.
“This is so overwhelming,” said Jenna Tilt, a social scientist working on earthquake resilience along the coast. “But the thing that we say a lot is, those that think about this and prepare are the ones that are able to weather the storm.”
An event like The Cape Mendocino earthquake was a chance for everyone, from researchers to citizens, to prepare.
For some scientists, said Erin Wirth, a research geophysicist with the USGS, it was a chance to test the tools they are using, the instruments that record the earthquakes and the speed at which they are able to get more instruments out into the field to test for aftershocks.
“Another thing that we can learn from this event is how sites around the earthquake may respond to future earthquake shaking based on how they responded during this earthquake,” she said. “So, for instance, did some areas shake more or less than we expected? Where did we observe shaking-induced landslides?”
Researchers are also looking at the human side of earthquake preparedness and are interested in how the response to
The shelves were emptied at Hoby's Market in Scotia, CA in the wake of the Dec. 5 7.0 earthquake.
PHOTO DYLAN MCNEILL / THE TIMES STANDARD
The Cape Mendocino earthquake can inform their work.
Take, for example, ShakeAlert. It’s a relatively new system from USGS that sent out early warnings to at least half a million people last week.
It sends messages to people in areas that could be impacted as soon as an earthquake is detected, giving people extra seconds to “drop, cover and hold on,” the recommended steps to stay safe in an earthquake.
These alerts are sent through the same process as Amber alerts, so any phone that receives those alerts will also receive ShakeAlerts.
“ShakeAlert is in a constant state of improvement,” said Robert de Groot, ShakeAlert operations coordinator, adding, “These earthquakes teach us something new…The system performed as designed and did exactly what we expected it would do.”
The Cape Mendocino earthquake was only the second earthquake where the system was activated in both Oregon and California. It didn’t just send notices to phones, but some institutional alarms were set off.
In Medford, de Groot said, alerts were delivered in the Medford School District and at Providence Medford Medical Center, instructing people to drop, cover and hold on.
Still, he said, they are always looking for ways to improve the system.
“Every bit of data that we get from the earthquakes and how the system performs gives us clues into how to improve our earthquake detection algorithms,” de Groot said.
ShakeAlert is part of a much wider system being built to prepare for the actual earthquake and tsunami and what comes after. Across the Pacific Northwest, researchers are looking for ways to improve the chances that as many people as possible will survive the inevitable Cascadia subduction zone earthquake.
The Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries has spent years creating maps of what inundation would look like in cases of different types of earthquakes and tsunamis. They have a tool that allows anyone to put in an address on the coast of Oregon or Washington and see exactly how they should evacuate on foot, noting where bridges may fail and whether they need to run or jog to safety.
“The geography of the Oregon coast is such that our tsunami zones are relatively narrow,” said Laura Gabel, a coastal field geologist for the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. “There’s accessible high ground for a lot of people on the Oregon coast.”
But, much like checking a theater for the fire exits before a movie or knowing where to go in an emergency plane landing, people need to know their routes before a disaster happens.
So social scientist Tilt and others are working with the department on ways to make those maps more accessible, especially to people on the coast who don’t speak English and people who may just be visiting.
The Cascadia Coastlines and Peoples Hazards Research Hub, which Tilt and Ruggiero work for, is also looking for ways to help people survive earthquakes and tsunamis while improving infrastructure and responses to more predictable events like flooding, erosion and climate change.
In 2020, construction was completed on the Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building, an Oregon State University building created to not only withstand a 9 or higher earthquake but also as a vertical tsunami evacuation route, accessible 24 hours a day and open to the public.
Seaside moved some schools out of the tsunami inundation zone in 2021.
“There is progress,” said Tilt.
This diagram from the U.S. Geological Survey shows how the West Coast ShakeAlert system is intended to work.
USGS National Seismic Hazard Map
a
None of these systems or solutions are perfect.
For some people, it was unclear when the alert came through on Dec. 5. It was uncertain just how serious the danger was or how near. For some, it was an invitation to go down to the beach and try to spot big waves.
The evacuation maps are hard to find and require knowing your address. In an emergency, you might not know where to look.
Not everyone has a cellphone, or a phone that can handle a lot of text, or speaks English, or reads, or sees, or hears.
The most vulnerable people are also the most at risk in any disaster. During the earthquake and tsunami in Japan in 2011, nearly 60% of those who died were over 65. What happens if you can’t receive the alerts? What happens if you can’t run or walk to safety?
These are the questions officials are working on, helped by the data that smaller earthquakes like The Cape Mendocino earthquake provide.
But individuals and families need to work on them too.
The Cape Mendocino earthquake should be a reminder to everyone: even in the most severe earthquake, the biggest version of “the really big one,” many people will live. Officials agree on that point, that a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake is survivable. But you need to be ready. Get an emergency kit ready. Make sure you have a plan, wherever you are, for what to do in a disaster and make sure your phone gets alerts. If you’re on the coast, know your evacuation route.
“We don’t want people to panic,” research geophysicist Wirth said. “We just want people to be prepared.”
This feature appears courtesy of The Oregonian and was first published Dec. 12, 2024 at www.oregonlive.com.
The Oregonian’s Lizzy Acker is a reporter on the life and culture team and the author of the advice column, “Why Tho?” She covers everything from ice cream to Oregon’s legal psilocybin program to car-less travel.
5 Things for to Know About Dec.
5 California Earthquake
The earthquake was bigger than the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Dec. 5 earthquake registered at 7.0 magnitude, making it stronger than the 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake that shook San Francisco during the World Series in 1989.
But, U.S. Geological Survey officials said at a press conference on Dec. 5, because the Loma Prieta quake happened on land, and because some of that land was unstable, that earthquake caused a lot of damage.
This earthquake, on the other hand, happened about 40 miles off the coast. While some structural damage was possible in places like Eureka, authorities did not expect anything on the scale of the Loma Prieta.
A tsunami warning was initially issued for a large part of the California and Oregon coast.
The warning was called off after about an hour, however. According to officials, the earthquake was caused by horizontal movement of the plates, which is why a tsunami didn’t materialize.
Oregonians reported feeling the earth shake.
Over 13,000 people reported feeling Thursday’s earthquake, with concentrations of reports in the Medford area and even further north.
Many Oregonians also got warnings on their phones.
The earthquake was a test of the ShakeAlert early warning system. At least half a million people received alerts on their phones in Oregon and California, officials said, including in places like Bandon, Eugene and Corvallis.
ShakeAlert sends messages to people in areas that could be impacted as soon as an earthquake is detected, giving people extra seconds to follow earthquake safety protocols and stop, cover and hold on.
Earthquake alerts are sent through the same process as Amber alerts, so any phone that receives those alerts will also receive ShakeAlerts.
Earthquakes are relatively common in the area where the quake began.
The general area where the earthquake occurred is known as the Mendocino Triple Junction, likely near the Mendocino Fracture Zone, according to Tim Clements, a research geophysicist with the USGS.
The earthquake was not on the Cascadia Subduction zone, he added, but it was near it.
“The Mendocino Triple Junction is where the Gorda, North American and Pacific plates meet,” Clements said Thursday morning.
The same area experienced a 6.4 earthquake on Dec. 20, 2022, a 6.2 on Dec. 20, 2021, and 6.6 on Dec. 8, 2016, he said.
But, even by those standards, Thursday’s quake was a big one, officials acknowledged.
Map shows
hypothetical "9.0 Scenario Earthquake" off the Pacific Northwest. Courtesy of USGS
www.landconserve.org
Photo: Frank Lospalluto
Fishing For Science: Researchers Cast Nets in the Newly-Freed Klamath River
By JULIET GRABLE
There’s some very sophisticated technology being used to try to understand how migrating salmon and steelhead are re-inhabiting the river, now that four hydroelectric dams have been removed. Then there are other research methods that are as much art as science.
Under a lead-gray sky on a cold, rainy November morning, James Whelan follows a small procession of trucks on a bumpy, rutted-out road along the Klamath River in northern California. Driving a stick shift while wearing a wetsuit is tricky, but nothing compared to the tangle-net survey he’s about to lead.
“This is definitely the most unique type of netting I’ve done,” says Whelan, project manager for California Trout. “Alright, just go jump in the river and hold onto the other end. By the way it’s pretty sketchy…yep, I figured that out pretty quick!”
Whelan and a small crew are sampling at four different locations along the Klamath River at and upstream of the old Iron Gate dam site as part of the Klamath River Monitoring Program. They hope to catch and tag any large fish that are in the river right now—Chinook salmon, steelhead, and possibly, coho.
The tangle-net surveys are part of the comprehensive monitoring that’s happening since four dams were completely removed from the Klamath River earlier this year. Agencies, tribes, conservation organizations, and researchers are eager to follow fish as they explore the reconnected habitat above the dams.
“The major questions we’re answering are really foundational,” says Damon Goodman, Mount Shasta-Klamath regional director at California Trout. “How many fish are entering their historical habitats? What species, and where do they go?”
Actually answering these questions requires many hands. On this day alone, Whelan’s crew includes technicians and biologists from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Karuk Tribe, and the Bureau of Reclamation.
The first site is at the top of Ward’s Canyon, just below the old Copco 2 powerhouse. Whelan and Alex Corum, fisheries biologists with the Karuk Tribe, wade into the river with the net
while five of their crew wait in the shallows with an assortment of buckets and nets. Soon, only Whelan’s head bobs above the water as the swift current carries him. Once he’s downstream of Corum, he swims to shore, and the crew fans out along the outstretched net.
Whelan says you can usually feel it when a fish hits the net.
“You’re never quite sure at first, but if you start feeling them roll and shake and tangle themselves up you’re like, oh yep, that’s a fish…sweet!”
But this time, they’ve caught nothing but driftwood.
Complementary tools
After the dams were completely removed this fall, Chinook salmon began exploring the new territory almost immediately. Fish biologists scrambled to get personnel and protocols in place.
“As soon as we had our gear together, the fish showed up, so we’ve been running to keep up with it ever since,” says Corum.
James Whelan holds his end of the net before wading out into the current for another pass.
PHOTO:
JULIET
GRABLE
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“The major questions we’re answering are really foundational ... How many fish are entering their historical habitats? What species, and where do they go?”
Damon Goodman, Mount Shasta-Klamath regional director at California Trout
He and Whelan began tangle-netting in September. They are tagging every large fish they catch in the nets with a passive integrated transponder, or PIT tag, and radio tags. Thanks to mobile trackers and a series of 15 stationary receivers, they can track any radio-tagged fish from the old Iron Gate dam site all the way to Upper Klamath Lake in Oregon.
The collaborative has also installed a sonar station in the river at the Iron Gate dam site. The device uses high-frequency sound waves to create “movie-like” images of any fish that pass by it.
“Sonar is being used at this location as a counting station to get an understanding of how many fish are running into this new habitat above the former Iron Gate dam,” says Corum.
The sonar is very precise, and it can “see” fish no matter how murky the water is. On one day in October, it detected 290 fish that measured over 20 inches. Most of these were likely Chinook.
Keith Denton, a sonar consultant from Washington State, says the technology was first developed to detect mini-submarines. Denton has been using sonar to track fish on the Elwha River in Washington State for 15 years. Since two dams were removed from that river in 2011 and 2014, steelhead, Chinook, and coho runs have been expanding into habitat that was previously inaccessible.
“The sonar imagery is perfect. Not only do you get the total number, you also get run timing,” says Denton. “This is information that literally didn’t exist before that we now have access to.”
Denton is consulting with partners on the Klamath on the sonar technology and data analysis; he’s also helping crews tweak their netting technique.
James Whelan and Alex Corum deploy the tangle net at the top of Ward's Canyon while Dave Rose, technician at the Bureau of Reclamation, stands by.
Learning to read the river and select the best spot for deploying the net takes time, says Denton. “It can be kind of intimidating; you’re dragging around this 20-meter net in the river, you’ve got dry suits on, the weather gets crappy…but to be honest with you it’s my favorite part of the job.”
One thing the sonar can’t do is accurately identify species. For example, while adult Chinook are hard to mistake for anything else, young males, called jacks, can be about the same size as a large steelhead.
The tangle-net surveys help validate what the sonar eye sees, says Whelan.
“That’s another reason we’re doing these netting surveys is trying to catch fish and almost proportion out: How many Chinook are there versus how many steelhead are there? How many jacks are there versus how many adults are there?”
They will continue netting through early spring, but the sonar station will stay in the river most of the year.
“We’re pushing this monitoring to be as holistic as possible,” says Goodman. “We’re going to learn things about all kinds of different fish, which are all important to the ecosystem.”
One fish at a time
The second of two sites Whelan’s crew samples is a place on the river called Copco Village. It’s near Fall Creek, where the hatchery has been relocated.
The technicians note a deep, quiet pool on the far side of the bank that looks “fishy,” and right away someone spots a large male Chinook salmon near a gravel nest, or redd.
“That’s a big one,” says Whelan. “That’s a big fish if we could figure out a way to get him.”
They decide to deploy the net slightly upstream so they don’t disturb the redd. On their second pass, they net a large female steelhead.
Jacob Peterson, a fish technician with ODFW, carefully untangles the fish and uses a small dip net to guide it toward the bank, where a floating trap is waiting.
“She’s starting to ‘chrome out;’ I think she’s an actual downstream steelie,” says Corum.
The fish has a rosy blush down her side, but the rest of her body is silvery—a sign that she’s come up from the ocean to spawn. Unlike salmon, which die after they return to freshwater, steelhead can spawn multiple times. Those that stay in freshwater their whole lives are called rainbow trout, and the prized rainbows in the Upper Klamath Basin are known as redband trout.
Corum, Whelan and Carolyn Malecha, a fish biologist with ODFW, squat next to the fish, while the rest of the crew huddles around them.
“We’re going to need scissors for genetics, and the envelope for info,” says Malecha. Quiet descends as she measures the fish and clips a sample from the dorsal fin—this will yield information about the genetic markers related to run timing.
Next Malecha fits the steelhead with a tiny passive integrated transponder, or PIT tag, and a much larger radio tag. This device is about the size of a roll of nickels, and each one costs about $200. It will “ping” every six seconds or so, allowing for precise tracking.
Five minutes later, the steelhead is swimming freely again. They take another pass with the net, hoping to catch the Chinook, but it eludes them. After a full day of sampling, they only catch and tag the one steelhead.
Since they began sampling in September, the partners have tagged four fish—two Chinook and two steelhead. Thanks to the telemetry stations and mobile trackers ODFW staff have been deploying via truck, they’ve tracked one of the Chinook across the Oregon border. But even as the fall Chinook season winds down, they’re looking ahead to the coho run, which should start any day now.
Goodman of Cal Trout says it’s important to remember this is a long-term project. The sampling effort will continue for at least five years, not only adding to the body of knowledge on this dam removal project, but others yet to come.
Similarly, it will take several generations of fish to rebuild the number and diversity of fish throughout the Klamath watershed.
“The Elwha helped us understand this, and it’s a much smaller drainage area,” says Goodman. “We’re at the beginning of this story, not the end.”
Juliet Grable is a writer based in Southern Oregon and a regular contributor to JPR News. She writes about wild places and wild creatures, rural communities, and the built environment.
PHOTO: JULIET GRABLE
Carolyn Malecha, James Whelan, and Alex Corum measure and tag a female steelhead, or hen that the crew caught in the Klamath River near Fall Creek.
DOWN TO EARTH
KATIE FRANKOWICZ
Commercial urchin divers were among the first to start raising the alarm about the forests in recent years.
New Report Shows How Oregon’s Kelp Forests Have Dwindled
Anew report spells out exactly how much Oregon’s kelp forests have shrunk over the past decade or so — and the picture is bleak.
According to a status report released by the Oregon Kelp Alliance in November, nearly 900 acres of bull kelp forest has essentially disappeared off the Oregon Coast since 2010. Only around one-third of Oregon’s kelp forests remain — important oases facing ongoing threats and stressors in a changing ocean.
For the past two years, the Oregon Kelp Alliance has been developing a tool kit to aid in the recovery of the kelp forests, piloting various approaches and techniques without a clear sense of what could work for the Oregon Coast.
Now, with their new report forming a foundation and federal funding in hand, they hope to build on that early work and move forward on a plan over the next two years to restore this diminished — and diminishing — ecosystem.
“We have things that we understand well and that we need to start moving on,” said Sara Hamilton, science coordinator for the Oregon Kelp Alliance. “And we have things that still need more research and development … but we’re not going to be able to wait until we have a perfect understanding of this system before we start acting.”
Key questions
Even with a better sense of the tools they need to use and the landscape they are working in, key questions remain.
In their report, the Oregon Kelp Alliance includes a list of critical areas of future investigation. On the list are questions like: How do temperature changes and marine heat waves impact kelp forests? What sites along the Oregon Coast are most desirable for restoration work? Or protection? What criteria should be used to make those decisions?
There is a need, the report says, for more environmental monitoring to better understand how forces like climate change are impacting the forests.
Overall, the decline of kelp forests remains understudied and not well understood off Oregon while the condition of the kelp forests themselves varies widely.
There is little data for the kelp from the 1800s through the 1980s except for statewide surveys in 1911 and 1954, looking at the extent of bull kelp. In the 1980s and ’90s, satellite imagery became available that has provided additional information about the historic distribution of kelp — the waving fronds at the top of bull kelp extend to the ocean surface and can be seen from space.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife surveyed the forests throughout the ’90s when there was interest in commercial harvest of kelp. The state ultimately banned the commercial harvest of bull kelp over concerns about how much the biomass of kelp could shift from year to year. Bull kelp is listed as a priority species in Oregon’s Conservation Strategy.
The Department of Fish and Wildlife did additional surveys in 2010 and 2022. Scott Marion, a marine habitat project leader with the state, led recent state survey efforts and told KMUN he expects there will be a stronger focus on the kelp beds now and — likely — more regular monitoring going forward.
Kelp forests are a key marine ecosystem. They act as a home and nursery for a number of fish species important in Oregon’s commercial and recreational fisheries. Commercial urchin divers were among the first to start raising the alarm about the forests in recent years.
“We had these anecdotal accounts that there was loss, but we didn’t really have a statewide understanding of how extensive that was,” Hamilton said.
When the Oregon Kelp Alliance went out to collect data and statistics to try to determine the extent of the problem, they found “exactly what community members have been saying, which is really extensive loss,” Hamilton said.
When it comes to wrapping their heads around the issue, however, Hamilton and Marion say there are several challenges.
First, there is the fact that kelp is mostly an annual species. In recent surveys and in looking at older surveys, Marion chart-
Kelp forests once grew thick here, but have been grazed down by growing populations of sea urchins, in this image from 2020. According to a status report released by the Oregon Kelp Alliance in November, nearly 900 acres of bull kelp forest has essentially disappeared off the Oregon Coast since 2010.
PHOTO
Down To Earth
Continued from previous page
ed how the kelp beds were both contracting and moving into other areas.
“We’re not looking at a situation where the kelp contracts to some kind of minimal core,” Marion said. “It’s moving around. It’s recruiting to new locations. It’s a very dynamic resource.”
Tom Calvanese, the head of the Oregon Kelp Alliance and field station manager for Oregon State University’s Port Orford Field Station, says that when they’re thinking about replanting kelp or clearing areas for kelp, they need to keep in mind the “lag effect” of an annual species
“Like, what happens this year is a function of what happened last year,” he said.
Urchins
One of the biggest drivers in bull kelp loss appears to be a boom in purple sea urchin populations. The urchins multiplied around the time a mysterious disease decimated sea star populations, in particular sunflower sea stars, voracious predators of urchins.
Purple urchins graze on kelp and can enter long dormant states when all the kelp is gone, biding their time until there is food again. This can make it tricky to reestablish kelp where “urchin barrens” — areas where there is nothing but urchins visible as far as a diver can see — have taken over.
Over the last two years, one program the Oregon Kelp Alliance piloted is to send down divers with hammers to smash purple urchins and clear out areas for kelp to return. The group has also collaborated on experiments with developing a potential commercial market for purple sea urchin, removing dormant urchins and feeding them up in a lab setting.
Purple sea urchins are only one part of the problem, however. There are also warming ocean conditions, exacerbated by marine heat waves off the West Coast over the past decade. And while there have been hopeful sightings of young sunflower sea stars recently, these key predators have yet to make a clear recovery.
And even urchins as an explanation for kelp forest loss is not clear-cut.
Marion said there are plenty of urchin barrens now along Oregon’s southern coast, but there are also places where the urchin density appears normal. The Oregon Kelp Alliance’s report found kelp forests with high purple sea urchin populations that didn’t seem affected by the urchins.
Port Orford, a place Hamilton knows well, no longer has thriving kelp forests. Meanwhile, a spot near Cape Foulweather is bursting with life, the kelp seemingly doing better than ever.
When faced with so much loss elsewhere, Hamilton said the healthy forests and sea star sightings have been “surprising, confusing, exciting.”
Unfortunately, kelp forest loss is becoming a global problem. Fortunately, that means groups like the Oregon Kelp Alliance have a lot of examples of what has worked elsewhere and what they might want to try here.
Calvanese believes the tools the group is developing for Oregon could be successful.
“I cannot predict the future,” he said, adding, “but this is the beauty of being part of a global effort.”
There is evidence from places in New Zealand and elsewhere that focused removal of purple sea urchins can have a big impact. Calvanese said it’s important that Oregon Kelp Alliance take a systems approach, however, pulling at a lot of different levers.
“We are talking about an ecosystem that’s out of balance and our task is to restore that balance,” Calvanese said.
This story comes from the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington. Copyright 2024 KMUN
Purple sea urchins off the Oregon coast.
SCOTT
A close-up of a purple sea urchin.
LYNNE TERRY
Oregon’s Only Pediatrician in Legislature Offers New Approach to Help Vulnerable Children
The only pediatrician — and medical doctor — in the state Legislature treats vulnerable children in her practice and now she’d like to help them as a policymaker.
Sen. Lisa Reynolds wants to reverse cycles of poverty, drug addiction, illiteracy and mental illness by funding programs for vulnerable people during pregnancy and their child’s first year of life.
That’s the most effective way to help children later reach their full potential, she told members of the Senate Humans Services Committee on Tuesday during a presentation of her initiative — which she’s calling Momnibus — that will be introduced next session. It follows the “Black Maternal Health Momnibus Act” that was introduced and died in Congress last year and stems from her practice at the Children’s Clinic in southwest Portland.
Research shows the brain develops in the first years of life.
“If there’s disruption in that time period, whether it’s being in a situation where a parent is not able to truly bond or attach to a child, or even in a worst-case scenario, when child is removed from their home because of child endangerment, that really interrupts human brain development,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds, a Democrat who chaired the House Committee on Early Childhood and Human Services, has focused on children’s issues during her two terms representing the 34th House District in northwest Portland. In November, she easily won a third term but was sworn-in Monday as a senator, taking the Portland-based seat vacated by Elizabeth Steiner, who’s also a physician and was just elected state treasurer.
Reynolds has more than a dozen children in her practice in foster care — all because their parents have a drug problem. The initiative would aim to reduce those placements by addressing drug and behavioral health problems, poverty and housing for vulnerable pregnant people and their children early in life and expand the traditional health care workforce to includes more doulas, lactation specialists and peer workers, who are trained professionals with personal experience of addiction and mental health problems.
Tackling poverty, drug addiction and homelessness in an integrated way and focusing on young children is the only way to move the needle, Reynolds said.
Building on current programs
She’s working on the initiative with Dr. Angela Zallen, a Eugene pediatrician, who told the committee that the state should expand two related programs — Project Nurture and Nurture
Oregon. Project Nurture, launched in 2015 by Health Share of Oregon, a large Medicaid insurer in the Portland area, provides prenatal, inpatient maternity and postpartum care for women addicted to drugs. The program, at four sites in the Portland area, has reduced the placement of kids in foster care and decreased child neglect and abuse, according to Health Share. In 2020, the Oregon Legislature mandated that the Oregon Health Authority expand Project Nurture to focus on rural areas and it is now in five rural counties: Benton, Deschutes, Jackson, Lincoln and Umatilla counties.
The Momnibus initiative would expand the program further and ensure five-day hospital stays during any point in a pregnancy or right after birth to support the mother during withdrawal, start drug addiction treatment and help with breastfeeding and bonding.
Another focus of the initiative is housing. It proposes funding long-term rental assistance for vulnerable families through the first year of their child’s life and encouraging the building of multi-bedroom units in subsidized housing projects. Reynolds said ensuring stable housing is key to getting families off to a good start.
“When we talk about the importance of being present and bonding with your baby, that’s really hard to do if you are either homeless or are really in fear of losing your home,” Reynolds said.
Continued on page 30
Senator Lisa Reynolds
MARCH 7-17, 2025
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ALEJANDRO FIGUEROA
Oregon Commercial Dairy Farms Start Weekly Testing for Bird Flu
Oregon agriculture regulators will test the milk of every commercial dairy across the state weekly, amid rising concerns over bird flu in dairy cattle.
As of December 18, Oregon is not among the dairy-producing states that have reported a positive case of avian influenza on dairy cattle, but as outbreak concerns continue to rise, state agriculture regulators said they are taking a cautious measure.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza, or H5N1, virus has made its way across commercial and backyard poultry farms throughout the nation since around 2022. It wasn’t until March when it was detected for the first time at a Texas dairy farm.
Since then, over 700 herds across 16 states have tested positive for the virus, including herds in Nevada and Idaho. California, the nation’s largest dairy-producing state, has had the highest concentration of positive cases with over 500 confirmed cases. As of mid-December, Oregon has not had a case in cattle, although in November agriculture officials reported the first-ever case of avian flu in the U.S. on a pig at a Central Oregon farm.
There is evidence that suggests the H5N1 virus is mainly spreading from cow to cow, unlike in commercial or backyard poultry farms. Those birds usually catch the virus from wild migratory waterfowl.
Though there are no known active cases in Oregon, officials don’t want to have to play catch up if or when there is one, said Ryan Scholz, the state veterinarian for the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
“We want to have a surveillance program in place before we have a case so that if we ever do have a case, if it is introduced, we can catch it before we’re weeks on to it and hopefully catch it at the first cow on the first farm and stop it there,” he said.
Tami Kerr, the executive director of the Oregon Dairy Farmers Association, a dairy lobbying group, told OPB the group supports the state’s decision.
“While pasteurization effectively eliminates pathogens from milk, our farmers recognize the importance of taking additional steps to protect herd health and prevent potential risks,” Kerr wrote in a statement
Oregon has over 140 commercial Grade A milk producers. That’s a designation given by the federal Food and Drug Administration; it essentially refers to the type of milk that can usually be found on grocery store shelves.
This announcement comes after the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a federal order on Friday requiring milk pro-
Health officials maintain the nation’s milk is safe to drink so long it’s been pasteurized, though they do warn people against drinking raw milk.
ducers and processors to share milk samples when requested, in an effort to test the nation’s milk supply for bird flu and put a halt to outbreaks.
Officials with the federal government say that federal policy will help them “swiftly identify which states, and specific herds within them, are affected with H5N1.” And that it will give farmers and farmworkers the ability to better protect themselves from getting sick.
California, Oregon, Colorado, Michigan, Mississippi and Pennsylvania will be among the first states brought into the program for testing.
Health officials maintain the nation’s milk is safe to drink so long it’s been pasteurized, though they do warn people against
The milking parlor at a Polk County farm in Oregon, April 11, 2018.
Health And Medicine
Continued from previous page
drinking raw milk. Although scientists are still working to understand how drinking raw milk could make people sick with bird flu, some of the health risks of raw milk could include E. Coli or salmonella sickness.
In Oregon, people can only buy raw cow’s milk directly from a farm, it’s not sold at traditional grocery stores. Scholz said there is currently no plan to test milk from raw dairy farms. That’s because those farms don’t tend to have the same high-level risk as larger commercial farms.
“They tend to be smaller operations that are typically fairly disconnected with the traditional Grade A dairy world,” he said. “And they don’t tend to have a lot of the same high-risk activities that are associated with transmission of this virus from farm to farm and into new areas.”
The agency could later regulate that segment of the industry, but they are focusing on the high risk facilities first, Scholz said.
Alejandro Figueroa is a reporter for Oregon Public Broadcasting, a JPR news partner. His reporting comes to JPR through the Northwest News Network, a collaboration between public media organizations in Oregon and Washington.
JPR NEWS FOCUS CRIMINAL JUSTICE
BEN BOTKIN
If the person stays in treatment, they can complete the program and not get charged. If they drop out, they will get charged.
Oregon’s Experiment in Tackling Drug Crisis Starts with About 220 People in Deflection
Officials from Washington to Malheur counties told lawmakers they’ve slowly rolled out deflection programs following the recriminalization of low-level drug possession.
Oregon is in the midst of a new experiment with a group of early 220 Oregonians who’ve been caught with drugs.
Six months ago, they would have faced a $100 citation, something most ignored. But with the recriminalization of low-level drug possession Sept. 1, they have gone into a deflection program and are receiving treatment instead of facing a misdemeanor charge.
Their situation — and the new deflection programs planned by 28 counties — were the focus of a discussion Wednesday during a meeting of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Addiction and Community Response.
Several who testified and even the committee’s co-chair, Rep. Jason Kropf, D-Bend, said that the funding for the deflection programs is not enough. But county officials from eastern Oregon to Lane and Washington counties also were optimistic about the programs’ initial outcomes, thanks to lawmakers giving them the flexibility to design their programs and experiment as situations change and ideas emerge.
“We decided, of course, to start small and think big,” said Danielle Farr, Washington County’s deflection program coordinator.
So far, 29 people are currently in its deflection program.
In general, the way deflection works is that police officers come across someone with a small amount of drugs who could be charged with misdemeanor possession. If the person is eligible for deflection, they are offered treatment instead of getting charged. A trained peer navigator with personal experience with addiction connects with the person to get them assessed to determine what kind of treatment or other help, like housing, they need.
If the person stays in treatment, they can complete the program and not get charged. If they drop out, they will get charged.
Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton told lawmakers the system, which grew out of House Bill 4002 this year, strikes the right balance between public safety and public health and is a “beautiful experiment” that allows counties to learn from each other.
But the process is not always smooth. Barton said it can be difficult to maintain contact with people who do not engage
with treatment and then fail to appear for a court date. That’s why Washington County staffers at the courthouse talk to people when they show up for their first court date to try to get them to join the deflection program and avoid the court process.
Responses to people vary
From county to county, the response when police find eligible drug users varies.
In Lane County, a peer navigator may go directly to the person right away when they hear from Eugene police. But if the call is in Florence, they may have to follow up later because of the distance.
Lane County District Attorney Chris Parosa said the program is tailored for the individual. The goal is to see them make strides toward recovery, even if they continue to use drugs.
“What we’re really looking for is effort from our participants,” he said.
Thirty-five people are in Lane County’s program, he said.
Portland Police Officer Donny Mathew checks a timer on his phone, waiting for treatment providers to arrive after arresting a woman for drug possession in downtown Portland, Sept. 10, 2024.
Criminal Justice
Continued from previous page
It includes strict requirements. If someone disappears and doesn’t show up for meetings, they are dropped from the program after 30 days.
Geography can affect the county’s response, too.
Malheur County, the second largest geographically in Oregon, has a small population: about 32,000. The fact that people are spread out has made it difficult to identify potential participants and get them into the county’s program.
Malheur County District Attorney David Goldthorpe told lawmakers the county has one person in its program.
The county borders Idaho and has many out-of-state visitors but they don’t qualify, meaning any Idahoan picked up with drugs cannot participate in the deflection program.
Other factors can make someone ineligible, like a criminal history of violent crimes or sex offenses, he said, which helps keep deflection outreach workers safe.
Ben Botkin covers justice, health and social services issues for the Oregon Capital Chronicle
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BRIAN BULL
& GOVERNMENT
“It really is an amazing opportunity for us to become stewards again.”
— Angela Sondenaa, director of the CTSI’s Natural Resources Department
Roughly 170 Years Later, Siletz Tribe Regains Part of Its Coastal Territory
In Oregon, a coastal piece of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indian’s ancestral territory has been restored. The Nov. 18 announcement coincided with the 47th anniversary of the tribe regaining federal recognition.
The 27-acre section of Cape Foulweather, on the Oregon Coast between Newport and Lincoln City, has been reacquired by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. The tribe purchased the land from the McKenzie River Trust with a $2.01 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Other partners include Lincoln County, The Nature Conservancy in Oregon, and the Oregon Dept. of Land Conservation and Development. A major focus for this collaborative effort is to conserve and tend to ecologically significant areas of the Oregon coastline.
“It really is an amazing opportunity for us to become stewards again,” Angela Sondenaa, director of the CTSI’s Natural Resources Department, told KLCC. She hopes to reintroduce cultural burning to the coastal prairie section, to rejuvenate its ecosystem.
“The Cape Foulweather area is an incredibly diverse and sensitive ecological area,” she said. “It’s been a cultural gathering site for millennia for our people.”
In a release issued by the CTSI, tribal council member Robert Kentta said “Before settlement, this land was home to our families, who fished from the rocks and canoed in the ocean, and gathered mussels from the rocky shore. Now we will have the opportunity to reinvigorate our connections to traditional lifeways.”
In the same release, Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek said that the return of Cape Foulweather to the CTSI “is of monumental historic significance. I want to express my gratitude to the local government partners and community-based organizations that came together to protect a beautiful place and support the efforts to return ancestral land to the tribe.”
Sondenaa added that it’s been a good year for the Siletz. In December 2023, President Biden signed a bill sponsored by Representative Val Hoyle, restoring gathering, fishing, and hunting rights to the tribe on their ancestral lands.
“And it will provide direct opportunity for tribal members to gather and resume subsistence harvest in the rocky coastline there,” Sondenaa said.
The Siletz reservation was established in 1855 by Congress and President Franklin Pierce. It was further diminished through land cessions.
Then, in the 1950s, Congress began eliminating many tribes’ federal status through legislation. This included the Western Oregon Indian Termination Act of 1954, which authorized ending the government-to-government relationship with the CTSI, as well as the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde.
On Nov. 18, 1977, after years of land loss and economic disruption, the CTSI regained its federal status. This event is marked by a “Restoration Pow-Wow” every year.
Copyright 2024, KLCC.
Brian Bull is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Oregon, and remains a contributor to the KLCC news department. He began working with KLCC in 2016.
Aerial photo of Cape Foulweather on the Oregon Coast.
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NEWS BRIEFS
Recent Environmental Assessment in Favor of Coquille Indian Tribe Opening New Casino in Medford. Other Tribes Aren’t Happy.
By Justin Higginbottom/JPR News
The Coquille Indian Tribe has sought approval to build a casino in Medford for around a decade. For that to happen, the tribe must place just over two acres of property it owns within the city into federal trust. On Nov. 22, the Department of the Interior released a Final Environmental Impact Statement in favor of the plan.
The problem, according to other tribes in the region, is that the Coquille’s reservation is more than 150 miles away, near the Oregon coast, where they already have a casino.
Lindsay Campman, communications director with the Cow Creek Band of Umpqua Tribe of Indians, said the Medford casino would upset Oregon’s informal one casino per tribe policy — which is not technically state law — and draw customers and money away from other tribes.
“With this one decision, this kind of opens the doors for casinos to pop up across Oregon in new cities, in urban places, in neighborhoods. And that is not something that Oregonians want,” Campman said.
She said the favorable environmental impact statement won’t deter her tribe, which operates a casino in Douglas County, from continuing to challenge the proposal.
“Our leaders are committed to fighting this issue tooth and nail, because we absolutely believe that this legal decision is wrong… and it’s a disgrace to tribal nations across the country,” Campman said.
But Coquille Indian Tribe Chair Brenda Meade said criticism toward her tribe doesn’t take into account its unique situation.
After losing federal designation in the 1950s, the tribe regained its status in 1989 with the Coquille Restoration
Act passed in Congress. That law included Jackson County in the tribe’s service area. Meade said purchasing property and placing it in federal trust is how her tribe, scattered across Southwest Oregon after assimilation programs, is able to have a reservation.
“It’s sad to hear another tribe say, ‘Get back to the reservation.’ It’s offensive,” Meade said.
She said the prediction that this latest decision will lead to a proliferation of tribal gaming is overstated. After all, she said, it’s taken the Coquille Indian Tribe more than 10 years to get this far. The proposal began under the Obama administration, was rejected during President Trump’s tenure and revived with President Biden.
“We are celebrating, but we still have a little bit more work to do,” Meade said.
The federal government will now consider public comments on the proposal during a 30-day “waiting period.” Meade said she expects a final decision on the casino this winter.
Grants Pass School District removes two books from high school library
By Jane Vaughan/JPR NEWS
This marks the first time the district has removed challenged books from its libraries.
According to a Nov. 30 report from Director of Secondary Education Trisha Evens to Superintendent Tim Sweeney, in September two residents requested review of two books: All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson and Flamer by Mark Curato. Those residents don’t have children in the district, and they had not read the books they challenged.
The process for requesting review of a book includes filling out a Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials form.
The district then formed a 12-member committee to review those books, as well as two others that received complaints from the public: Beyond Magenta by Susan Kuklin and Lucky by Alice Sebold. A district representative said in a statement that these books “went through the process per directive from Superintendent Sweeney following policy KL (Public Complaints).”
The review committee included staff, teachers, administration, parents and the library media specialist.
After reading and discussing the books, the committee voted to remove two from the Grants Pass High School Library: All Boys Aren’t Blue and Lucky. The first is a memoir focusing on the author’s Black, queer identity. The second is a memoir about the author’s sexual assault.
The district has not given specific reasons why those two books were removed. A district representative said in a statement, “Each committee member had the opportunity to discuss each book and share their thoughts and reasons. Votes were cast by secret ballot.”
All Boys Aren’t Blue and Flamer, a graphic novel, are two of the top 10 most challenged books of 2023, according to the American Library Association
All Boys Aren’t Blue has been checked out six times from the Grants Pass High School library since it was purchased in October 2020, according to district data. Lucky has been checked out 37 times since it was purchased in May 2007.
Flamer and Beyond Magenta will remain on the shelves.
This decision is final unless the complainants appeal it.
The removal comes as the district’s conservative-leaning school board is working on updating its policy on instructional and library materials. The teachers union has said that policy would create the potential for censorship.
Politically divisive topics are not new in Grants Pass School District 7. In 2021, the district fired two employees when they created a video called “I Resolve Movement: Response to Gender Identity Policies.” In it, they discuss a series of resolutions regarding transgender students’ pronouns, name changes and bathroom access at school that some consider to be transphobic.
After receiving what the district claimed was nearly 100 complaints, it placed the pair on leave and later fired them for violating district policies. (The board later reversed its decision; one of them is still employed by the district).
The two women sued, claiming their First Amendment right to free speech was violated. In March 2023, the case was dismissed. In June 2024, they took the case to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where it remains.
Aformer worker has sued several Rogue Valley forestry companies, claiming they didn’t provide adequate training or medical care.
A lawsuit filed in late 2024 by former forestry worker Joaquin Barraza-Cortes seeks over $42 million in damages from Ponderosa Reforestation, Ponderosa Timberland and Pine West Reforestation.
The complaint accuses those Rogue Valley forestry companies, which hire foreign workers through the H-2B visa program, of a litany of safety violations including not providing proper training and protective equipment.
In 2022, Barraza-Cortes was hired as a foreign seasonal worker for tree thinning work within the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest. While using a chainsaw, without formal training according to the lawsuit, he was severely injured by a falling tree limb, resulting in a spinal cord injury. The complaint claims that Barraza-Cortes has since been unable to work or care for himself.
Barraza-Cortes’ former employer, Ponderosa Timberland, declined to comment on the lawsuit.
His attorney, Mayra Ledesma, said that government contracts for forestry work often go to companies that cut costs and don’t provide proper resources.
“They specifically [contract] under the guise of recruiting small businesses,” said Ledesma. “Really what that means is they just want cheap labor. And they know that these labor brokers… go out and they get H-2B workers.”
Foreign workers employed in forestry, especially from Mexico like Barraza-Cortes, are commonly called “pineros.” The American Farm Bureau Association says over 12,000 foreign guest workers had jobs in forestry last year.
Lourdes Sanchez, another attorney for Barraza-Cortes, said migrant workers like her client are often deterred from reporting safety violations.
“The employer has to want you the following year,” said Sanchez. “And that’s also an incentive for not reporting safety issues or not reporting injuries because you want to be invited back the following year.”
The complaint notes Barraza-Cortes had worked for eight seasons with those companies named in the lawsuit before his injury.
Loggers have the highest rate of fatal work injuries according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
TIFFANY CAMHI
This budget gap could force colleges to make program cuts and pass the financial burden on to students and families in the form of rising tuition.
Oregon’s Public Universities and Colleges Want More from Governor’s Proposed Budget
The state’s public universities and community colleges are calling for increased investment in higher education.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s proposed budget allocates more for higher education than the last biennium. But university and community college leaders say the budget doesn’t keep up with increased costs institutions are facing.
The leaders argue the inadequate funding could make higher education more expensive for Oregonians and slow down the state’s workforce development efforts.
The governor’s $138 billion budget, released earlier this week, is a guideline for state lawmakers ahead of next year’s legislative session. In her proposal, Gov. Kotek doubled down on her top three funding priorities: confronting Oregon’s homelessness and affordable housing emergency, K-12 education and addressing the state’s behavioral health care crisis.
Higher education appears to be lower on the list of concerns.
“This is generally what we expected given the Governor’s collaboration with agencies during the development of Agency Request Budgets, the state’s revenue constraints and numerous pressing statewide priorities,” said Higher Education Coordinating Commission Executive Director Ben Cannon in a statement. Back in August, HECC commissioners sent a letter to the governor, objecting to the budget-setting process which led up to this week’s recommended budget.
In the 2025-2027 biennium, the governor recommends $4.39 billion for the agency responsible for two main funding streams for colleges and universities: operating revenue to run the institutions and financial aid programs to help students afford the cost of college.
The proposal, a 6.4% overall increase from the last biennium, sets aside more than $25 million to build up education pathways that lead to behavioral health care jobs and nearly $29 million to expand select need-based grants, like the Oregon Opportunity Grant.
But those investments fall well short of what college leaders say are necessary, especially when it comes to financial aid for needy students.
Higher education leaders in both the community college and university realm want to see lawmakers increase funding for the Oregon Opportunity Grant, the state’s largest student financial aid program. Both the Oregon Community College Association and the Oregon Council of Presidents are calling for an additional $150 million investment in this program alone, more than five times what the governor’s budget recommends.
Operating revenue for the schools is not where it needs to be either, argue college leaders and funding advocates. State support for Oregon’s 17 community colleges saw a boost, with the governor’s budget recommending more than $870 million. But that number is still $50 million below what colleges need to maintain their current operations and services to students, according to the OCCA.
This budget gap could force colleges to make program cuts and pass the financial burden on to students and families in the form of rising tuition. That would ultimately threaten colleges’ mission to serve students and communities, said Portland Community College President Adrien Bennings in an emailed statement.
“Fulfilling this mission requires adequate investment to sustain the programs and services that our students and employers depend on,” said Bennings. “Without it, we risk undermining access to education and workforce training when it is needed most, especially in critical areas like housing construction, behavioral health and child care.”
Leaders from the state’s seven public universities share a similar sentiment.
Gov. Kotek’s budget proposed nearly $1.08 billion to support university operations and research. That’s a slight increase from the last biennium, but with costs rising, the proposed funding level falls about $14 million short of what universities need to sustain their current operations, according to OCOP.
The sign of Portland Community College’s Southeast Campus in Portland, Ore., on May 16, 2016.
BRYAN M. VANCE / OPB
JPR News Focus: Education
Continued from previous page
“We’re thankful to see the Governor hasn’t proposed deeper cuts to higher education in Oregon, but we’re acutely aware of the continued need for investment in Oregon’s public universities and its students,” said Portland State University’s Vice President of Finance and Administration Andria Johnson in a statement.
Portland State, particularly, is relying on the state legislature for significant investment in public universities as it attempts to close an $18 million budget deficit this school year.
OCOP said it will advocate for an additional $195 million in public university support from the state legislature next year.
It remains to be seen whether lawmakers will heed these calls. But it’s sure to be an uphill battle for higher education
advocates as they’re set to compete with the state’s more visible crises and face a state legislature that has historically underfunded public colleges and universities.
“Oregon is already far behind most other states when it comes to supporting public higher education,” said Johnson. “Now is not the time to fall farther behind.”
Tiffany Camhi covers higher education for Oregon Public Broadcasting.
JPR News Focus: Health
Continued from page 17
In late 2024, the Oregon Health Authority launched a Medicaid initiative that offers rental assistance to vulnerable patients for up to six months. The program is experimental and includes nearly $1 billion in funding for housing and other services. Most of the money comes from the federal government, and Reynolds said it could be used to help families stay housed during the first crucial months of their children’s lives.
“We’re really looking at prohibiting the expulsion of a baby or a pregnant person just for lack of rent nonpayment,” Reynolds said.
Tackling workforce and poverty
The initiative also includes measures to expand the perinatal workforce, establish a perinatal provider fund while setting up a task force to recommend other ways to bolster and diversify the perinatal workforce.
The last focus of the initiative is child poverty. Among a few ideas, Reynolds and Zallen said the state could expand the existing tax credit for kids for low-income parents by increasing the amount allowed and extending it to more people by increasing the income limit.
“When we talk about moving the needle on reducing child endangerment or kindergarten readiness or third-grade reading scores or preventing substance use disorder, it really comes to ending child poverty,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds and Zallen have been working on the initiative for more than a year with Oregon health, social service and housing professionals. They’ve met with Gov. Tina Kotek and her staff and discussed ideas with advocates and nonprofits.
“When we talk about the importance of being present and bonding with your baby, that’s really hard to do if you
are
are either homeless or
really in fear of losing your home.”
—Senator Lisa Reynolds
The initiative has the backing of officials in Oregon’s Department of Human Services, the Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Housing and Community Services, as well as advocates for underserved populations, members of the medical community and social service experts.
Reynolds does not know how much these measures would cost or whether she’ll introduce a series of measures or one big bill. But she said the initiative would flip Oregon’s current approach to social services by directing funding toward the start of life rather than paying after problems occur.
“We need to have the courage and the will to reprioritize some of our spending streams so that we’re providing resources at the beginning instead of catching folks after they fall off the deep end,” Reynolds said.
Lynne Terry, who has more than 30 years of journalism experience, is Oregon Capital Chronicle’s editor-in-chief.
JPR
MIKE MCINALLY
POLITICS & GOVERNMENT
The border change would require the approval of the Oregon and Idaho legislatures and, eventually, the U.S. Congress.
Greater Idaho Movement Asks Trump for His Support
The leaders of the Greater Idaho movement have asked President-elect Donald Trump to support their efforts to have counties in eastern Oregon join Idaho.
Supporters say Idaho is more in tune with them politically, economically and culturally.
“Unlike typical politicians, you have a unique ability as a practical problem-solver to get things done, and your support can bring a peaceful resolution to Oregon’s long-standing eastwest divide,” the three leaders said in a Dec. 4 letter to Trump.
Matt McCaw, the executive director of Citizens for Greater Idaho, said Thursday morning that the group has not yet received a response from Trump.
“It takes time for these things to filter through, but we are hopeful that somebody from the administration will reach out to us and pick this up,” McCaw said. “This is an idea whose time has come.”
The letter also was signed by Mike McCarter, president of Citizens for Greater Idaho, and Sandie Gilson, the vice president.
Trump’s background in business and not politics is an advantage, McCaw said: “He’s a businessperson, he’s a problem-solver. He’s shown that he’s been open to outside-the-box thinking. And we think that this is a perfect fit.”
Over the last four years, voters in 13 eastern Oregon counties have passed initiatives requiring county commissioners to meet regularly to discuss the merits of moving the Oregon-Idaho border so that the counties are part of Idaho.
McCaw said a meeting with Trump or a surrogate would allow the Greater Idaho officials to bring the administration up to speed on the movement. And after that, he said, “what we would hope is that the administration could help get the state of Oregon to the negotiating table.”
“The people of eastern Oregon want this to happen,” McCaw said. “The people of Idaho want this to happen.”
“However,” the letter to Trump said, “Oregon’s Legislature and governor remain sullen, preferring to ignore the results of these citizens’ initiatives while continuing to march the state ever more left.”
The letter added that “eastern Oregon residents recognize that representative government will never come from Oregon because we are outvoted on every issue the progressives put forth, leaving us completely disenfranchised.”
While Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris easily won in Oregon, outpolling Trump by more than 320,000
votes, it was a different story in the 13 eastern Oregon counties in the Greater Idaho effort: Trump beat Harris by more than 50,000 votes in the region.
Legislative approval needed
The border change would require the approval of the Oregon and Idaho legislatures and, eventually, the U.S. Congress. A measure urging leaders of the two states to discuss the change passed the Idaho House of Representatives in 2023 but languished in the state Senate. A similar measure was introduced in the 2023 Oregon Legislature but went nowhere.
McCaw said he expects Greater Idaho measures will be introduced again in the Oregon and Idaho legislatures in 2025.
In July, Greater Idaho leaders sent a letter to Gov. Tina Kotek asking for a meeting. Kotek has not responded, McCaw said, but the offer stands: “We would love to sit down with the governor and start that conversation and advocate for the people of eastern Oregon and see where it would go from there.”
In a September conversation with eastern Oregon journalists, Kotek said she had received the invitation but had not yet decided how to respond.
“I’m still considering whether that makes sense to go,” she said at the time. “I very much respect all the Oregonians who made their voices heard and said ‘we’re frustrated’ when they voted for the measures in their counties. …. I think what I’m trying to figure out is, what’s the best way to continue that conversation with Oregonians?”
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to a Capital Chronicle request for comment on Thursday.
The Oregon Capital Chronicle is a professional, nonprofit news organization. We are an affiliate of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers. The Capital Chronicle retains full editorial independence, meaning decisions about news and coverage are made by Oregonians for Oregonians.
The Greater Idaho movement calls for several eastern Oregon counties to secede and join Idaho.
2024–2025 SEASON
Telegraph Quartet
Friday, September 20 v 7:30pm
Quartetto di Cremona
Saturday, October 26 v 3pm
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Winds & Piano
Friday, November 15 v 7:30pm
Israeli Chamber Project
Wednesday, December 4 v 7:30pm
Isidore Quartet
Wednesday, January 8 v 7:30pm
Ulysses Quartet
Friday, January 24 v 7:30pm
AGAVE with Reginald Mobley, countertenor
Sunday, February 9 v 3pm
by request: tenThing
By Request: Underwritten by Dr. Margaret R. Evans & Anonymous
Wednesday, February 26 v 7:30pm
Marmen Quartet
Saturday, March 8 v 3pm
Leonkoro Quartet
Friday, March 21 v 7:30pm
Trio Zimbalist
Saturday, April 12 v 3pm
UNDERGROUND HISTORY
CHELSEA ROSE
The Truth is Out There
Underground History recently participated in an international effort to promote “Real Archaeology.” This coordinated media blitz was done in response to the rise of pseudoarchaeology and scientific conspiracy theories, as well as to amplify resources where real archaeological content was being produced and shared, and to both pre- and de-bunk false stories and theories that are circulating. Archaeologists certainly aren’t the only ones on the firing lines in what is becoming an increasingly posttruth era, but there are real concerns, and consequences, when false historical narratives gain traction.
My Underground History conversation with Dr. Flint Dibble--one of the scholars leading the charge and raising awareness about the bad science that is encroaching -- covered why these alternative theories are problematic, and even dangerous. Flint also provided the listener with helpful hints on how to identify dubious content: including uncritically comparing like with like over vast spans of time and space, discoveries of “Lost Civilizations,” and narratives that undermine Indigenous knowledge and technology. In arming ourselves with the tools to recognize when something is veering out of the documentary and into the entertainment realm, we can become more responsible consumers of television and social media content.
The creation and endurance of fringe theories was on my
Archaeologists certainly aren’t the only ones on the firing lines in what is becoming an increasingly post-truth era, but there are real concerns, and consequences, when false historical narratives gain traction.
mind during my recent trip to Egypt. One of my travelling companions, and fellow archaeologist, and I were excited to visit the Dendera Temple of Hathor, in part because it is home to the infamous “Dendera Light.” The breathtaking temple is one of the locations where a hieroglyphic can be found depicting a snake emerging from a lotus flower. This inscription is depicting an Egyptian creation myth, but has been interpreted by some as a literal presentation of an Edison-style light bulb or electric lamp. Proponents argue that this is why there is no soot staining the insides of Egypt’s highly decorated temples and tombs. Scholars counter that Egyptians knew that adding salt to torches minimized the production of soot. No light bulbs needed.
Similarly, my Underground History conversation with Egyptologist Dr. Arto Belekdanian brings up another common trope in pseudoarchaeology conspiracy theories: that we have no idea how pyramids (or you could insert other impressive ancient structure here) were built. But we actually do have a pretty good idea. No aliens needed—just sand. But the sand in Egypt is a bit different to the coarse beach kind we have here in the American West. It is fine and flows and can be manipulated almost like water; a fact that was shrewdly used by ancient engineers to achieve “unbelievable” feats. Some of these tech-
Archaeologists Chelsea Rose (right) and Rita Peyroteo Stjerna in Dendera Temple of Hathor in Qena, Egypt
Underground History
Continued from previous page
niques have been recreated by modern scholars (a quick youtube search will produce plenty of experimental archaeology videos that demonstrate these methods), and Dr. Belekdanian described how some practices can even be seen immortalized in ancient art.
So how do make sure that we are consuming factual information in this day and age? A good place to start is to look to descendent, vs. interstellar or “extinct,” communities when researching and interpreting the past. You can also check out the #RealArchaeology hashtag on social media or their website to see a list of trusted content producers: https://real-archaeology. com. And, of course, you can stay tuned to Underground History on the Jefferson Exchange where we always strive to produce fun, entertaining, and real content for you to enjoy. It might be harder to find these days, but the truth is out there!
Chelsea Rose is the director of the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) and host of the Underground History podcast, which airs during the Jefferson Exchange on JPR’s News & Information service and can be found on all major podcast platforms.
Dendera Temple of Hathor in Qena, Egypt
JPR NEWS FOCUS ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY AND TRANSPORTATION
ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Approves New Recycling Rules to Reduce Packaging Pollution, Make Producers Pay for Waste
The Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act rules were approved by the Environmental Quality Commission to reduce waste from packaging.
Starting this summer, Oregonians across the state will begin to receive a standardized list of what can and cannot be recycled statewide, and owners and managers of apartment complexes and multi-unit housing will need to prepare to provide recycling for residents.
These are among new rules around recycling finalized in late 2024 by Oregon’s Environmental Quality Commission following four years of negotiation and planning. The Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act will go into effect July 1, 2025, and beyond making it easier for Oregonians to recycle, will establish new packaging fees on companies selling products in Oregon, based on the weight and recyclability of the material.
Hard-to-recycle materials, such as plastics, will command higher fees from companies than products that are easily recycled, ideally incentivizing producers to choose lighter, more sustainable materials. This follows regulations in Oregon in recent years that require manufacturers to pick up some of the end-of-life costs of paint, mattresses and electronics, or to invest in programs to recycle such products.
“Part of the goal is to move companies into more recyclable materials. There is a cost to packaging that needs to be internalized,” said Sen. Michael Dembrow, who championed the Plastic Pollution and Recycling Modernization Act in the legislature in 2021.
The rules also give authority to collect and invest some new packaging fees to the Circular Action Alliance, or CCA, a nonprofit based in Washington D.C. Local governments and the alliance will be in charge of reinvesting fees in projects that improve Oregon’s recycling infrastructure. The alliance was formed in 2022 by 20 multinational corporations in the food, beverage, retail and consumer goods industries, including Amazon, Coca Cola and Nestle. It oversees similar recycling programs that are rolling out as a result of new policies in California, Colorado, Maine and Maryland.
Under Oregon’s new rules, environmental officials will release a standardized list of items that can be recycled across the state beginning this summer. Owners and managers of multi-family buildings, such as duplexes and apartment buildings, will also need to eventually provide recycling services for residents.
Two other bills passed in Oregon in 2023 will require manufacturers to label products to indicate whether and where
Oregon is working on modernizing its recycling system so residents can trust the items they’re recycling are actually recyclable.
they can be recycled in Oregon and ban the use of styrofoam containers for takeout food. The latter, Senate Bill 543, will go into effect in January. Rules under Senate Bill 123, the Smart Labeling Bill, must be finalized by 2027.
No nation on earth produces more plastic waste than the U.S., according to a 2022 report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
The average person in the U.S. in 1980 produced about 60 pounds of plastic waste per year. Today, each person in the U.S. produces more than 200 pounds of plastic waste each year, according to the EPA. Up to 2 million metric tons of that waste escapes into the environment each year, and much of it ends up in waterways and oceans, eventually becoming microplastics.
The nonprofit Environment Oregon tested 30 rivers and lakes around the state in 2021 and found detectable levels of microplastics in all of them.
Despite efforts to improve plastic recycling, no more than 9% of plastic waste generated in the U.S. each year gets recycled, according to EPA.
Alex Baumhardt is a JPR content partner from the Oregon Capital Chronicle. Before that Alex was a national radio producer focusing on education for American Public Media. She has reported from the Arctic to the Antarctic for national and international media, and from Minnesota and Oregon for The Washington Post
PHOTO JULIA SHUMWAY/ OREGON CAPITAL CHRONICLE
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JES BURNS
SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT
Northwest Scientists Create a Flexible ‘Fabric’ That Converts Body Heat into Electricity
Mohammad Malakooti has a look in his eye — like a man who wants to break something. “We are going to actually go to 700% to make sure it’s going to break,” he said. “You know, sometimes we need to push the boundaries.”
It’s late winter on the University of Washington campus, and the “something” Malakooti wants to pull to seven-times its original size looks like a thick gray Band-Aid. It’s squishy to the touch, but with metal semiconductors inside that allow the stretchable device to convert heat into electricity.
“It can basically generate electrical energy from your body heat. You don’t have to do [anything],” Ph.D. candidate Youngshang Han said. “As long as I’m alive, I can harvest energy.” At first, Han seems a bit bewildered that his boss wants to fully break one of their prototypes. But they’ve already flexed it, stretched it and punctured it repeatedly with a pin – and it still works. So he’s all in.
The test starts, and the material begins to narrow and thins under the strain. The semiconductors inside bulge at the surface like bones under skin. A beep rings out, signaling the device has lost the ability to conduct electricity, but structurally, the band doesn’t rip apart.
“It survived. It’s just too strong,” Han said, laughing.
Their new power-generating band is technically called a thermoelectric device, and the engineers hope it can become an alternate source of electricity to help power our increasingly electronics-reliant world.
Turning heat into electricity
Heat is a form of energy, yet much of the heat we produce in our world — in factories, vehicles and even with our bodies — just vanishes into the air.
“Our body generates heat and dissipates it to the environment,” Malakooti said. “And this idea for wearable thermoelectric devices is: let’s recover that heat and use it for powering the small electronics or wearable sensors.” It could run low-power sensors that could monitor your temperature and heart rate. It could also be used in factories to make electricity from waste heat coming from hot pipes and machinery.
The basic technology relies on a physics phenomenon called the Seebeck effect. When one side is placed on something hot — like your skin — and the other side is colder, it generates electricity. The more you increase the difference in temperature between the two sides, the more electricity it makes.
As soon as the thermoelectric device touches skin, it generates enough electricity to power an LED. “This is another level—a huge jump from the status quo,” Han said.
“If you put the entire device in an oven, you won’t generate any electricity because there is no temperature gradient,” he says.
This heat-to-electricity phenomenon the researchers are harnessing isn’t new. NASA has used thermoelectric generators to power its probes and Mars rovers for decades, using red-hot radioactive plutonium as a heat source and the cold of deep space to keep the temperature difference high. That temperature gap can be more than 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
University of Washington Ph.D. candidate Youngshang Han sets up a test that will determine how far his device can stretch before losing conductivity.
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JPR News Focus: Science & Environment
Continued from page 37
But generating usable amounts of power with your body heat at room temperature is a much different challenge. The team has achieved this by developing new materials that can be 3D-printed into stretchable, flexible layers that encase the bone-like semiconductors.
These layers keep the cold side cold and the hot side hot to maximize the production of electricity. It also creates a flexible, stretchable substrate that can bend to maintain contact with skin as it moves — essentially creating wearable power generators.
To show how it works, they have integrated one of BandAid-sized devices into a cuff that straps onto your forearm. As soon as the device hits the skin, a tiny red LED illuminates.
“It might not be that impressive for the people outside this field, but powering an LED with your body at room temperature, this is another level. A huge jump from the status quo,” Han said.
Other possibilities
In recent years, the development of wearable electronics has exploded.
“I think it relates to the Internet of Things,” said Chih-hung Chang, Stephen Slavens Faculty Scholar at Oregon State University. Chang is not involved in the University of Washington research.
The Internet of Things is the idea of having a network of physical objects connected, monitored, and potentially controlled through computer systems and the Internet. Humans are increasingly part of these interconnected systems, which means you need devices people don’t mind carrying around.
“People see the possibility of having wearable electronics compared to the more rigid form of electronics,” he said. “There’s certainly a lot of interest in moving in that direction.”
And the idea of self-powered wearable electronics — like the devices being made by the University of Washington team — is attractive.
Their new power-generating band is technically called a thermoelectric device, and the engineers hope it can become an alternate source of electricity to help power our increasingly electronics-reliant world.
“Just think about your phone,” Chang said. “If you don’t have to charge it all the time and look for the plug-in to have power, that would enable a lot of freedom. You can see the value of that: If you want to have [24/7 continuous] data of your glucose levels, this would be a way to enable that.”
Generating power is just one function of the thermoelectric devices being developed by Malakooti and Han, but they have other ideas for how their new wearable technology can be used.
When the team’s LED cuff generates electricity from body heat, the spot where the soft device rests on skin starts to feel surprisingly cold — like a piece of metal.
“That part of your skin is losing temperature. So it should feel cold because now the device is using that heat to power the LED,” Malakooti explained.
Their flexible design opens the door for wearable cooling systems.
“Imagine you’re working out, you’re getting hot. You can have this for thermoregulation,” he said.
While the possibilities are numerous, these devices are not going to be powering our cities anytime soon.
“We need to be realistic. We are talking about milliwatts, we are not talking about watts or megawatts,” Malakooti said. “So this is not going to address the energy crisis in the world. It’s more like self-sustainable electronics.”
Think health monitors, weather gauges, smart kitchens — maybe even converting heat waste from electric vehicle batteries back into usable electricity.
And in a world that seems to need more and more energy every day, tapping into waste heat to help power our lives is a tantalizing solution.
“I kind of feel like I’m a dreamer. I dream about the possibilities,” Malakooti said. “I feel like we are discovering new phenomena. We are showing new applications. Possibilities that [are going to], maybe at some point, change our lives.”
Jes Burns works for OPB’s Science & Environment unit as a science reporter and producer of the Northwest science show “All Science, No Fiction.”
Mohammad Malakooti and Youngshang Han inspect the 3D printing quality of their new device that converts heat to electricity in this video still taken in March, 2024.
DAN EVANS / OPB
A Legacy of Public Radio...
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For over two decades, The Folk Show has featured an eclectic blend of all things folk and some things not-so-folk. Singer/songwriters, Americana, bluegrass, Celtic, traditional, old-time, and some surprises are featured each week.
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Who Are The Grateful Dead and Why do They Keep Following Me?
There are lots of superfan communities, think Trekkies, Swifties, Packers fans, Elvis fans, and The BeyHive, to name a few. Among them is a generation spanning group that began with folks now sporting more than a touch of grey - The DeadHeads, the tie-dyed, die-hard fans of the Grateful Dead. I count myself among the middle-aged generation of that group who hopped on the bus in the mid ‘80s when they released the album In The Dark, which gave them their first chart-topper, 20some years into a successful career.
Now, roughly 30 years after the death of singer/guitarist Jerry Garcia, the various legacy acts featuring members of the original line-up, and a lengthy list of tribute bands, still sell out large venues and the fan base consists of every generation since the ‘60s. What is it about this band, their music and the DeadHead community that has kept it going for so long?
As a kid, I missed the cultural phenomenon of the Grateful Dead. They were a band I was never exposed to. In 1987, at age 19, I was into ‘80s metal and classic rock, especially Rush and Pink Floyd. Someone suggested I go to a Grateful Dead concert. They were touring with Bob Dylan. Other than Truckin’ and the new album, I was unfamiliar with their music and completely unaware of the way they put on a live show and the community that followed them from show to show setting up mini-cities outside the venues.
My concert-going experience, only a few years old at the time, had been run-of-the-mill rock and roll from the ‘80s where band members would shout “Are You Ready to Rock!?” amid lights and flash pots to excite the crowd. With a name like Grateful Dead, I was expecting theatrics. On my way to the show, I distinctly remember playing the self-titled Whitesnake album on the high-dollar stereo system in my $500 Corolla. I don’t think I’ve listened to that album since that day.
We stayed in the parking lot outside Autzen Stadium the night before the show and took in the sights and sounds of the all-night party. It was a sea of tie-dye with music everywhere, food, merchandise, and, yes, drugs of all sorts. This wasn’t always welcomed in the cities hosting the shows. The community, however, banded together to try to keep the peace. This included volunteer medics to help with emergencies and talk people down from bad trips. They had even adopted something like a code of ethics to help remind people to keep it to the parking lot and not adjacent neighborhoods.
The next day, as the show began, there was no big announcement. The band casually walked on stage and began fiddling with their instruments. Minutes later the noodling turned into the song Iko Iko. Still unsure what was going on,
I began dancing with 20,000 other strangers. Throughout the show, there were only a few songs I recognized and was in fact a little put off by some of the endless improvisation that didn’t make much sense, especially to a hard-core Rush fan. I was intrigued however by the scene, and noted that when they were playing their structured parts of their songs, the grooves were tight and complex and the soloing, especially Jerry Garcia and keyboardist Brent Mydland, was deep and creative. The 2nd set staple, an improv, Drums, caught my attention as Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzman created infectious rhythms and quadraphonic thunder in the stadium. Without realizing it, I became a fan that day.
Initially my attraction was to the scene. It was fun, a little crazy, but felt generally safe and positive. With college and work and the Army Reserve, I never had the time to follow them from show to show. A little part of me wishes I had been a little less responsible and done so anyway.
Part 2 of this column will be in the next edition of the Jefferson Journal, or read it in its entirety at ijpr.org
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.
DAVE JACKSON
A sticker I bought at the parking lot of a Grateful Dead show. It’s been on this guitar case for about 30 years.
PHOTO: DAVE JACKSON
An eclectic blend of the best singer/songwriter, jazz, blues, world music and more, exploring the close connections between wildly different styles in an upbeat and spontaneous way.
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A Nature Notes Sampler II is a broad collection of radio com mentaries 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 es says offers Dr. Lang’s same eclectic, often humorous view of the natural world in the mythical State of Jefferson and beyond. Over 100 of Dr. Lang’s commentaries have been collected in this second vol ume. Make it your first collection of Nature Notes, or add it to the original publication for a complete set!
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JPR NEWS FOCUS
The Deadline for Getting a REAL ID is About to Get Real TRAVEL
Oregon transportation officials are expecting long lines as the deadline approaches in May 2025.
Soon, Oregonians without a passport will need a REAL ID card to board a plane in the United States.
Oregonians over the age of 18 need to acquire a REAL ID by May 7, 2025, to fly domestically. A valid U.S. passport, passport card or military ID can also be used as alternatives to REAL ID.
So far, about one-third of Oregon’s 3.7 million residents with a driver’s license, instruction permit or identification card have chosen to upgrade to REAL ID, which became available in July 2020. About half of Oregonians have a U.S. passport.
People can get a REAL ID at an Oregon Driver and Motor Vehicles office. To get one, they need to bring original documents with proof of identity, U.S. citizenship, birthday and two different sources proving your state address.
Oregonians can make an appointment online to get a REAL ID or walk into any DMV without an appointment. The REAL ID costs $30 in addition to the standard cost of an Oregon driver’s license, permit or ID card. It has a star in the upper right-hand corner. For those who renew their license and choose not to get a REAL ID, their ID will say “Not for REAL ID Act.”
After paying for a REAL ID card, the state will provide a temporary paper card, which TSA will not accept. It could take up to 20 days or more for a REAL ID card to arrive in the mail.
Chris Crabb, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Transportation, said the state is anticipating a rush of last-minute purchasers that could cause delays and long lines at state offices as the May deadline approaches. She encourages residents to get a BRYCE DOYLE
The state is anticipating a rush of last-minute purchasers that could cause delays and long lines at state offices as the May deadline approaches.
REAL ID sooner rather than later, partly because gathering the appropriate documents — such as a certified birth certificate if lost or misplaced — will take time.
“You can’t just show up at a DMV on May 1 taking a flight on May 8, and expect that you’re going to be able to get on that flight,” she said. “So we really want people to be thinking ahead now.”
Crabb also clarified that a REAL ID does not replace a passport.
“It won’t get you into Mexico. It won’t get you into Canada,” she said. “You’re still going to need a passport to go anywhere outside of the United States … We don’t want people to think that a REAL ID magically will get them anywhere.”
Crabb said the federal government is not planning to push back any deadlines, which it has done multiple times in the past. She said the Oregon Legislature approved funding during the short session earlier this year for 26 Oregon DMV staffers to help with REAL ID transactions at the state’s field offices before the May 2025 deadline.
A REAL ID will also be required to enter certain secure federal facilities, such as military bases or nuclear plants.
A REAL ID card costs an additional $30 each time a person applies for an original, renewal or replacement driver’s license, permit or ID. The license or ID card is valid for up to eight years.
Bryce Doyle covers Oregon politics and government for OPB. He previously worked for newspapers in rural Eastern and Central Oregon.
REAL ID is a driver’s license, permit or identification card that is also a federally accepted form of identification. REAL ID cards are marked with a star.
PHOTO COURTESY OREGON DMV
RECIPE
HEATHER ARNDT ANDERSON
Wood-Grilled Winter Squash Soup
If you paid attention in school, you know that the Three Sisters of Indigenous agriculture refers to a trio of crops — maize, beans, and squash — originally domesticated in Mesoamerica. Cultivation of these crops eventually spread north and east to Canada, coming to represent the basis of traditional Native American cuisine across most of what is now called the United States. Indigenous people in the Pacific Northwest didn’t traditionally grow these crops, but harvested as much of the plentiful salmon, huckleberries and starchy-sweet camas bulbs as they needed. These could be considered our region’s Three Sisters.
All squash* originated in the areas between today’s American Southwest and the Andes, domesticated about 4,000 years earlier than maize and beans. Some heirloom squash, like cushaw, haven’t changed much at all since their domestication ≥8,000 years ago, and are still cultivated by people in the northern reaches of what is now called Arizona. I had the opportunity to learn more about this squash when I received this week’s recipe from Jack Strong, executive chef at Jory Restaurant at The Allison Inn and Spa and a member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.
During his time at the helm of KAI (the restaurant located in the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa in Chandler, Arizona), his way of Indigenous culinary storytelling bagged him a James Beard Award. For this week’s newsletter, chef Strong generously shared the recipe that tells the stories of the Zuni, Hopi and Tohono O’odham people of Arizona.
In his original version of the recipe, the Tohono O’odham Ha:I squash and Rio Zape beans are nods to the lives and histories of Gila River tribespeople (even the garnish, cotton candy dusted with powdered chile, recalls the pima cotton traditionally grown by the same people). But chef Strong is a native (and Native) Oregonian, which got me wondering: What singular dish might tell the story of tribes of the Oregon Coast?
Maybe a soup made silky with pureed wapato, studded with juicy clams and oysters, punctuated with the bright acidity of red huckleberries and saline crunch of dulse? Maybe a spit-roasted chinook salmon, redolent with the smoke of western redcedar, lashed with a peppery pesto of searocket, wild chives and hazelnut?
As a culinary historian, I often reflect on the ways Indigenous women might have dabbled with the ingredients available to them — approaching their cooking with creativity and verve before their foodways were colonized with wheat, white sugar and liquor. In a region as superabundant as the Pacific Northwest, weaving and carving were not the only forms of creative expression. Cooking has never been solely for subsistence.
If you spend as much time thinking about food, plants and history as I do, you’ll find that Strong’s intricately woven tale of the Gila River tribes is not difficult to translate into Chinook Wawa. Here, though, I’ve tried to approach his recipe with the lightest touch, editing only to reflect local ingredient availability and the volumes typically prepared in home kitchens (I’ve omitted the cotton candy, replacing the sweetness with desert honey). For his scaled-up version originally served at KAI, see the cookbook “The New Native American Cuisine.” Serves 4-6
This silky, grilled heirloom squash soup comes from chef Jack Strong, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. While he was working at KAI restaurant in Arizona, he developed this recipe as a tribute to Gila River tribes.
*All summer and winter squashes are Cucurbita species; calabash or bottle-gourds, which come from southern Africa, are a different genus.
This recipe is part of OPB’s “Superabundant” series that explores the stories behind the foods of the Pacific Northwest. Every week, Heather Arndt Anderson, a Portland-based culinary historian, food writer and ecologist, highlights different aspects of the region’s food ecosystem.
Heather Arndt Anderson is an award-winning food writer and the author of four books on culinary history. She is the producer of OPB's Superabundant newsletter.
Ingredients
½ pound dry Rio Zape beans (or cranberry beans)
1 bunch fresh thyme
½ cup peeled and smashed garlic cloves, divided
4 cups mesquite chips, soaked in water for an hour (or alder wood, to make it Northwest)
1 medium-size (~2-3 pound) kabocha or small butternut squash, peeled and seeded
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ yellow onion, sliced
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 medium-sized carrots, peeled and chopped
2 shallots, sliced
2 red Hatch or Anaheim chilis, stemmed and seeded
2 quarts (8 cups) chicken broth
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 pint (2 cups) heavy cream
Juice of ½ lime
1 cup diced bacon (wild boar bacon is in the original recipe; optional)
Honey for drizzling (preferably mesquite or other desert honey)
¼ cup roasted Piquillo pepper (jarred is fine, or grill a red pepper with squash), diced
6 fresh basil leaves, finely sliced (chiffonade)
1 teaspoon chipotle powder or smoked paprika
Instructions
1. In a pressure cooker, cook the beans in salted water with the thyme and half of the garlic at 10 psi for 35 minutes. (If you aren’t using a pressure cooker, soak them overnight in salted water and simmer until tender, about an hour.)
Strain, reserving a cup of the cooking liquid. Blend half the beans with the cooking liquid to a smooth puree, then fold in the remaining whole beans, cover and set aside to stay warm.
2. While the beans are cooking, place wet mesquite chips on the grill. Cut and peel the squash into 1 inch-thick slices, then brush with some of the olive oil. Cook the squash with the grill cover on until it takes on grill marks and smoky flavor, about 8-10 minutes, flipping halfway through cooking. Remove to a plate and cover lightly with foil.
3. Heat the olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Sauté the onions, celery, carrots, shallots and the rest of the garlic cloves until glossy, about 5 minutes. Add the chiles, the grilled squash and chicken stock and simmer until the squash is tender, about 20 minutes. Puree in a blender, pass through a fine-mesh sieve, then add the salt, heavy cream and lime juice. Taste and adjust seasoning as needed, then return to low heat to keep warm.
4. Sauté the bacon (if using) until crispy, then remove with a slotted spoon to drain on a paper towel.
5. To serve, spoon the beans into the middle of your bowl, then gently ladle the soup around the beans like a moat. Drizzle a scant amount of honey over the top, sprinkle on the diced peppers and bacon, then dust the top with the chipotle or paprika.
HEATHER ARNDT ANDERSON / OPB
POETRY
RHIANNON CIELOS CHAVEZ
Co-Worker Part 2
I was in the library when I saw you clenching the dresser and crying but not loud, quiet like you didn’t want your daughters to hear the sound of cells multiplying in a leg or a lung, or the clacking sound of a “walking stick” when you limped into work every morning so carefully that Sesshu noticed too, noticed enough to put you in a poem about dogs and quiet houses on hillsides, reminding me how I saw you in the dining room breaking before you broke.
First-Gen Fatty
Pan Dulce
Having a dead dad means asking every brown man with a big belly you meet to buy you a concha and falling in love.
White people be like, organic and healthy, comfortable and safe, rich enough for Whole Foods, Sprouts, Trader Joe’s, kombucha and kale salad, whole-wheat, home-grown, free-range, spare change for the charity bucket out front, gotta take my kid to model UN, piano lessons at 10, stop at the bank, pay off my tuition, then set up position for my kid to survive, ivy league, college fund, food in his gut, football for fun, his uncle’s a cop, gonna show him the ropes, how to frame cholos and
Brown people be like, got diabetes from my mom’s side, from 50 cent bags of hot cheetos at lunch, from Dollar Tree brand fake fruit from a can, food stamps, got sixteen people sharing a bathroom, a 2-bedroom apartment, mom and dad cleaning white peoples’ living rooms, picking up cat crap, trimming their hedges, mowing their lawns, feeding their dogs, my tío got arrested again, cousin got pulled over, had his tattoos inspected, his trunk ripped open, brother got called a beaner at school, a wetback ’cause our abuelo died trying to get here, and now I’m gonna die from police bullets and gang wars and quesadillas and raspados
Rhiannon Cielos Chavez is a trans-masculine whitewashed Mexican from Los Angeles, California. They read their first chapbook, Beer Hunter (Armadillo Pussy Press), at Southern Oregon University’s 2023 Oregon Fringe Festival in Ashland, Oregon. Their work has been published by Angel Rust, Club Plum, zines and things, and Main Squeeze.
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
Please allow eight Ashland, OR 97520 weeks for reply.
