Safety enforcements begin ............................ PAGE 3 Regional Teacher of the Year .......................... PAGE 4
September 26, 2023
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Impact of logging on watersheds illustrated ALEX BAUMHARDT Oregon Capital Chronicle News Guard Guest Article
Oregon’s coastal communities that rely on drinking water from forested rivers and creeks have lost substantial tree cover during the last 20 years, a recent NASA analysis found. That’s bad news for residents and the environment. Forests not only improve the quality of surface waters, but also the quantity. They prevent erosion, and filter, direct and store rain and snow as they pass into streams, according to the researchers. And more than 80% of Oregonians, including most who live on the coasts, get some or all of their drinking water from surface water sources such as streams, rivers and creeks, Fast Fact according to the Oregon DepartAbout one-third ment of Environof forests across mental Quality. 80 drinking wa“We think of tersheds serving the coast range coastal cities have as having a lot of be cut during the water, a lot of rain last 20 years, NASA – and while that’s found. true in the winter – lately their streams are running pretty low during the summer months,” said Erik Fernandez, a program manager at the environmental nonprofit Oregon Wild who worked with NASA researchers on the analysis. Young trees planted to replace logged mature trees also end up sucking up more water, further depleting surface water supply, Fernandez said. He also expressed concern that planting new tree stands requires spraying herbicides and pesticides, sometimes aerially, that can harm water sources. Seth Barnes, forest policy director for the Oregon Forest Industries Council, said the more than 50-year-old Oregon Forest Practices Act, currently being updated, strongly protects water in Oregon’s logged forests. “There’s really literally hundreds of protections that are put in place when anything is harvested in the state of Oregon,” Barnes said. “Things like stream buffers, harvest practices that are very specific and nuanced, reforestation requirements, steep slopes protections.” Using data and satellite imagery from NASA collected between 1997 and 2023, four researchers from the agency’s Oregon Coast Range Ecological Conservation Team were able to look at logging impacts in forests within 80 Oregon Coast watersheds identified by Oregon Wild. About one-third of the forested land in those 80 watersheds — nearly 600 square miles — had been logged during See WATER, Page 12
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Lincoln City resident and Rotary eClub have joined in efforts to save children from being injured or killed by land mines in Ukraine
Courtesy Photos This photo shows one of the warning signs being placed.
JEREMY C. RUARK | Country Media, Inc.
L
incoln City resident Bob Gibson is on a mission to save children in Ukraine from injury or being killed from land mine explosions. At least 500 children have been killed and more than 1,000 injured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to Ukraine’s Prosecutor-General’s Office. Gibson is president of the Rotary eClub State of Jefferson, with members in Oregon, California, and Arizona, as well as Africa, Spain and Pakistan. The eClub utilizes Zoom and other technology to communicate and coordinate with each other.
These are some of the land mines uncovered from various locations in Ukraine.
This child was severely injured after stepping on a land mines that exploded.
How the effort began Gibson said one of the eClub members traveled to Ukraine last spring. He made a number of contacts and was able to observe, firsthand, the everyday challenges and issues faced by the Ukrainians. “We discussed their extensive needs and how we might help,” Gibson said. “The fields of land mines are an immediate and critical problem. They will be around for years. The land mines have been placed in fields, playgrounds, and other accessible locations.” Gibson said the Ukrainians are working to place warning signs and educating the young people about the dangers asso-
ciated with the land mines. “I felt this was a project that suited our Club’s capabilities,” Gibson said. “We developed a relationship with the Kharkiv Rotary Club Nadiya ‘Hope.’ The club president, Yulia Pavichenko, has been helpful in providing information and helping us organize a fund-raising webinar to raise money for these signs.” How to be involved Gibson said a secure link is posted at the eClubs website as a way for people to donate. The eClub’s website is www.stateofjeffersonrotary.org. The donate button is on the left side of the home page. “I would rather find money for the signs and education than raise money for prosthetic limbs and coffins for their young people,” Gibson told The News Guard. Gibson also operates The Photography Studio at 4846 SE Highway 101 in Lincoln City.
$220M earmarked for ocean observatories MICHELLE KLAMPE News Guard Guest Article
The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded a coalition of academic and oceanographic research organizations including Oregon State University a five-year, $220 million cooperative agreement to continue operating and maintaining the Ocean Observatories Initiative. Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution leads the consortium, which also includes the University of Washington. Under the initiative, five observatories in the Atlantic and
Pacific oceans, together outfitted with more than 900 instruments, continually collect and deliver data to shore via a cyberinfrastructure that makes the data readily available to anyone with an internet connection. The system measures physical, chemical, geological and biological properties and processes from the seafloor to the sea-air interface in key coastal and open-ocean sites, including critical climate indicators such as ocean water acidity and the concentration of dissolved carbon dioxide. Data collected helps address
critical questions about the Earth-ocean system, including climate change, ecosystem variability, plate-scale seismicity and submarine volcanism, with the goal of bettering understanding of the ocean and the planet. “This National Science Foundation facility is critical to helping scientists and the public understand the changes underway in our oceans,” said Tuba Özkan-Haller, dean of OSU’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, which oversees the
Courtesy photo from OSU OSU manages seven surface moorings off NewSee RESEARCH, Page 12 port and Grays Harbor, Wash.
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WEATHER
INDEX Police Blotter ............ 3 Opinion ...................... 5
Classifieds.................. 7 Comics ...................... 11
VOL. 96 NO. 36
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