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Tillamook County Wellness Page 9
Headlight Herald
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2020
VOL. 133, NO. 30 • $1.00
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
Junior Livestock Auction goes virtual Organizers hope for good turnout at modified sale
T
Joe Warren Publisher
his year’s Junior Livestock Auction (JLAC) will be a virtual presentation due to the novel coronavirus and the state’s restrictions for Tillamook County dealing with COVID-19 regulations in terms of gatherings. According to Mike Trout, president of the JLAC committee, even though the fair will be different this year, he hopes the community will support the sale for the kids as in the past. Just logon to: tillamookjlac. fairwire.com to register as a buyer. At the site, after you are registered, you can look over entries, review orders , confirm orders and pay for them. This year’s auction will see swine, goats, sheep, beef, rabbits, chickens and turkeys. “These kids work so hard we wanted to be able to host the auction for them this year,” said Mike Trout president of the local JLAC said. “For many of these kids, it is their college money.” Like a live auction, this auction will move quickly starting with the Grand Champion animals, Reserve Champion next and so on. Sales according to Trout will be about every 10 minutes. You can view all sale information on
the site after you are registered. Work to accommodate a sale of this magnitude and importance has been planned since the virus broke out. “I talked to the committee first thing I said, we will hold an auction some how,” Trout said. “So we had the kids move forward with their projects, we’re providing a place to market their animals, like we do every year.” A lot of hard work goes into these auctions. Trout says 110 kids are entered this year showing animals. “Tuesday all animals will be weighed in, they have to make weight,” Trout said. “The kids work so hard on these projects, we really get good participation from the kids and the buyers.” No matter the turnout, Hanna Obrist, who is showing her pig this year and has for the past four years said she learns some valuable lessons from the experience. “It brings us into a bigger community,” Obrist said. “It teaches us responsibility.” Ryleigh Crabtree is also showing pigs this year. She said it’s been good to be able to raise a pig through the pandemic. “It’s brought a since of normality,” she said. “When we started we didn’t know if there would be an auction, but I just keep working raising my pig.”
Jake Willhite and Ryleigh Crabtree check on their pigs last Friday. They are both entering the swine division in the Junior Livestock Auction at this year’s Tillamook County Fair. Photo by Joe Warren For Cassandra and Gideon Wehage, it’s been a fun experience. Cassandra is an old pro at showing animals, It’s her last year to participate. And she is coaching her little brother Gideon. “I’ve done it every year since
Salmon solace
fourth grade,” Cassandra said. “This year will be Gideon’s first year.” With all the hard work and preparation, Trout is optimistic about the sale. He says the community really supports the
On the heels of six years of proven success, the Salmon SuperHwy has received the second year of funding of a $1.24 million total award from NOAA’s Communitybased Restoration Program. The funds will allow the project to continue with momentum through 2022. Launched in 2014, the Salmon
INDEX Classified Ads......................10-14 Fenceposts..............................5-7 Letters......................................4-5 Obituaries................................... 6 Opinions..................................4-7 Gardening Matters.................... 7
SuperHwy (SSH) project replaces old and failing culverts that pose a migration barrier to threatened salmonid populations. To date, more than 80 miles of critical spawning habitat for chinook, coho and chum salmon, steelhead, cutthroat trout and lamprey in the Tillamook Bay and Nestucca River watersheds have been reconnected. SSH has also been praised for increasing public safety by reducing the possibility of road washouts and flooding. “Often, the effects of barrier removal are immediate,” said Dave Harris of the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership. “We observed salmon spawning in Mapes Creek upstream of the former barrier culvert just weeks after the habitat was reconnected.” The key to the Salmon SuperHwy’s success is strategy and collaboration. “Working as a team, we’re able to maximize efficiency and accomplish more,” said Sarah Zwissler with Trout Unlimited who serves as the SSH Coordinator, “Each partner brings skills and resources to the table, and together
we’re making a difference for fish and our communities.” The benefits of SSH don’t end at restoring fish passage and improving infrastructure, it also boosts the local economy. A University of Oregon study shows roughly 80% of restoration project dollars stays in-county, with 90% remaining in-state. The Salmon SuperHwy is a collaborative partnership of federal, state, and local agencies and organizations, and private stakeholders, working together to reconnect aquatic habitat in the Tillamook, Nestucca, and Sand Lake watersheds. Based on inventories of undersized and failing culverts that were barriers to fish, the partnership developed a strategic, scaled approach to reconnect migrating salmon with critical spawning and rearing habitat that will maximize benefits and minimize costs. At its completion, the Salmon SuperHwy will reconnect salmonid populations with more than 180 miles of previously blocked spawning habitat across six major watersheds.
n See JLAC, Page 2
Gov. Brown releases school health metrics G
NOAA awards the Salmon Superhwy $1.24 million
Auction. “The last few years has been exceptional for us,” he added. “We hope this year will be just as
Hilary Dorsey Staff Writer
ov. Kate Brown released Tuesday, July 28, new metrics to guide school district decisions about when it is safe to resume in-person instruction, and when a transition to comprehensive distance learning is necessary. Brown said closing schools in the spring was one of the most difficult decisions she made during the pandemic. She uses science and data as her guide. There is clear evidence that students receiving education in the classroom is better for students. “It fosters our students’ social and mental wellbeing, their overall health and often their physical safety,” Brown said. “I know that most parents agree.” This is a highly contagious virus, Brown said. American Academy of Pediatrics is clear that only with safeguards in place and low cases, can schools open for in-person instruction. “The plan each public district adopts for the coming school year is, and remains, a local decision,” Brown said. “And yet, in the time since then, the virus has continued to spread and we must follow clear public health metrics to know when and where it is safe for school to convene inside school buildings.” These requirements will give schools and communities the opportunity to make sound decisions, Brown added. Studies show younger students, kids under 10, have lower rates of illness than older children and adults. “Overall, these requirements align with recommendations from both public health experts and educators,” Brown said. Doctor Dean Sidelinger of Oregon Health Authority said some places have reopened schools safely, such as in Denmark and Germany. There is no simple statewide answer for Oregon. School district may offer limited onsite learning for students with disabilities. “Oregon public health officials have developed transparent evidence-based metrics to help school boards and school districts make local decisions based on local conditions to determine how they can safely reopen school to in-person instruction,” Sidelinger said. The metrics for in-person instruction or hybrid instruction model for all grade levels states the statewide test positivity rate needs to be at or below 5 percent over seven days for three weeks in a row. In the county, there needs to be 10 or fewer cases per 100,000 people over seven days and a 5 percent or less test positivity rate. There needs to be a trend of three weeks of decreasing cases. “Schools will provide in-person education for students in Kindergarten through third grade,” Sidelinger said. “It’s expected that these in-class options will be offered to the extent possible under the reopening plans.” The metrics for K-3 include fewer than 30 cases per 100,000 over seven days and test positivity of 5 percent or less over seven days. Sidelinger said younger students get the virus at lower rates. “We know that opening schools to in-person instruction is not a one way journey,” Sidelinger said. “If we see increasing cases in the community, it may be time for schools to consider moving back
n See METRICS, Page 2