Jefferson Journal Jan|Feb

JPR Foundation

Officers

Ken Silverman – Ashland

President

Liz Shelby – Vice President

Cynthia Harelson –Medford/Grants Pass Treasurer

Andrea Pedley – Eureka Secretary

Ex-Officio

Rick Bailey

President, SOU

Paul Westhelle

Executive Director, JPR

Directors

Eric Monroe – Medford

Ron Meztger – Coos Bay

Rosalind Sumner – Yreka

Dan Mullin – Eugene Karen Doolen – Medford

JPR Staff

Paul Westhelle

Executive Director

Darin Ransom Director of Engineering

Sue Jaffe

Membership Coordinator

Valerie Ing Northern California Program Coordinator/Announcer

Abigail Kraft Development Associate, Jefferson Journal Editor

Don Matthews

Classical Music Director/ Announcer

Geoffrey Riley Assistant Producer/ Jefferson Exchange Host

Colleen Pyke Announcer

Erik Neumann News Director/Regional Reporter

Dave Jackson Music Director/Open Air Host

Danielle Kelly Open Air Host

Soleil Mycko Business Manager

Angela Decker Morning Edition Host Jefferson Exchange Senior Producer

Charlie Zimmerman JPR News Production Assistant

Zack Biegel JPR News Production Assistant

Calena Reeves Audience & Business Services Coordinator

Liam Bull Audience Services Assistant Vanessa Finney Morning Edition Host

Roman Battaglia Regional Reporter

Jane Vaughan Regional Reporter

Nash Bennett Jefferson Exchange Assistant Producer

6 Federal Approval Clears Way For Klamath Dam Removal

By Juliet Grable

On Thursday, November 17, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, approved the surrender of the license for four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. The order is the last major regulatory step before these dams can be decommissioned. It marks the start of the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.

9 Dozens Of Oregon School Districts Likely Undercounting Homeless Students

By Kaylee Tornay/InvestigateWest

Federal law requires every district across the country to provide students experiencing homelessness full access to school and extracurriculars. But first, those students need to be identified — and at least 16 Oregon school districts with more than 20 students enrolled failed to identify a single homeless student during the 2019-20 school year, federal education data show. No homeless students might sound like good news, but experts say it reflects schools’ inability to identify homeless youth rather than actual levels of poverty and homelessness in their communities.

JEFFERSON JOURNAL (ISSN 1079-2015), January/ February 2023, volume 47 number 1. Published bi-monthly (six times a year) by JPR Foundation, Inc., 1250 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Periodical postage paid at Ashland, OR and additional mailing offices.

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

Jefferson Journal Credits:

Editor: Abigail Kraft

Managing Editor: Paul Westhelle

Poetry Editor: Amy Miller

Design/Production: Impact Publications

Printing: Oregon Web Press

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

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

Wine Tasting

Celebration

Friday, February 10 · 6 –9pm

Ashland Hills Hotel & Suites

After a 2-year hiatus, JPR is pleased to return to the Ashland Hills Hotel & Suites to celebrate!

Sponsored by...

Over 40 regional wineries and restaurants participate in our event with live music by the Danielle Kelly Jazz Project. This year also features the JPR Wine Pull + the JPR 50/50 Raffle. So, arrive solo or bring a date ... either way, join JPR staff and friends for a spectacular night out as the community comes together to celebrate the bounty of the region and public radio! Tickets and details available at ijpr.org/40th-annualwine-tasting or by calling 800-782-6191.

Ashland Hills Hotel & Suites is offering courtesy room rates from February 9-11 to JPR Wine Tasting guests. Call 541-482-8310 and ask for the JPR Wine Tasting discount.

TUNED IN

PAUL WESTHELLE

Transitions

As we turn the page on another year, JPR’s service to the region continues to evolve. In the year ahead, we’re making some significant changes to the Jefferson Exchange (JX), our civic affairs program dedicated to the issues, people and places of Southern Oregon and Northern California. Starting in January, we’ll begin producing the program in a new one-hour format, eliminating the hour dedicated mostly to conversations with authors. The program will air live weekdays at 9am on JPR’s News & Information Service so that listeners tuned in to the final hour of Morning Edition on our Rhythm and News Service can switch over to hear the JX in its entirety. An evening rebroadcast will continue, airing weekdays at 8pm.

We’re making this change in order to focus more of our staff resources on truly local and regional issues, rather than on exploring broader topics that are often covered by NPR and our other content partners throughout the day. It is our goal to improve both the breadth and depth of the topics we explore on the JX, by providing additional time for the program’s host, Geoffrey Riley, and senior producer, Angela Decker, to conduct independent research on the issues we take on and identify a broader array of knowledgeable spokespeople to discuss these issues from different perspectives. In order to create time for this contextual journalism, we’ll curate listener input received by email rather than by phone.

Another change that will take place on the JX is that Friday’s program will be reshaped to include many of the regular segments currently heard on the program, such as Underground History, Savor, Rogue Sounds and The Ground Floor, along with several newly created segments that will be produced in partnership with community organizations around the region. One of these new segments will be a weekly roundtable discussion with JPR reporters and other journalists who have done significant reporting on important regional issues. This segment will highlight some of that reporting, as well as provide additional background and historical context on the news and a discussion about future coverage being planned on these issues. Our Friday segments will engage guest hosts as a way to include new voices in the program and each segment will also be separately published as a podcast for inclusion in NPR’s developing Podcast Network (more to come on this soon).

The Jefferson Exchange remains a central element of our public service mission to explore the issues facing our region in a fact-based way that stimulates constructive civic discourse and inspires people to become engaged in their community. We look forward to hearing your feedback about the program as we work toward the goal of making it more local, more able to respond to emerging issues, and more relevant to life in our region.

Paul Westhelle is JPR’s Executive Director.

Federal Approval Clears Way For Klamath Dam Removal

By Juliet Grable

On Thursday, November 17, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, approved the surrender of the license for four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River. The order is the last major regulatory step before these dams can be decommissioned. It marks the start of the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.

After 30 days, the licenses will officially be transferred from the utility PacifiCorp, which operates the dams, to the Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC), a nonprofit formed specifically to oversee decommissioning and removal of the dams.

“I can’t overstate how emotional this day is,” says Frankie Joe Myers, vice chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “I just want to recognize all of the people who have fought along with us this whole way.”

Iron Gate Dam on the Klamath River.

Many stakeholder groups, including tribes, commercial fishermen, and watershed groups, have been advocating for the removal of the Klamath River dams for over 20 years, and while they celebrate the milestone, agricultural producers in the Upper Klamath Basin are wary.

“There’s a certain disillusionment,” says Paul Simmons, a water rights attorney and executive director of the Klamath Water Users Association. “[It’s] not so much related to the fact that the dams will be coming out, but to the abandonment of a partnership that was necessary for parties interested in removing dams to get that done.”

Dwindling salmon runs

The vast Klamath basin drains over 12,000 square miles and spans from southern Oregon to the north coast of California. For millennia, indigenous people relied on the river’s abundant runs of Chinook and coho salmon, along with steelhead, lamprey, and sturgeon.

Salmon in particular have declined precipitously over the past century. A host of factors are to blame, including the four dams built as part of the Klamath Hydroelectric Project. The first of the four dams was completed in 1912; the last, Iron Gate, in the 1960s. Only one of the dams has fish ladders, and the structures physically block fish from the Upper Basin and over 400 miles of habitat. The warm, stagnant water in the reservoirs feeds algae blooms, and the dams hold back sediment which could scrape disease-carrying organisms from the river bottom.

The last commercial harvest of coho salmon took place in the 1990s, and in 1997, the fish was listed as Threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Now, the fall run of Chinook salmon is the only commercially viable run left. With the decline of fish runs, tribes have lost a key food resource along with cultural connections to the river. Tribal and commercial fishers have lost their livelihoods.

The drought of 2001 marked a turning point. That year, the Bureau of Reclamation denied water to farmers in the Klamath Irrigation Project in the Upper Basin to help salmon in the parched river downstream. Simmons recalls that day as “shocking and terrifying.” “That was the day people learned that this kind of thing can happen,” he says.

In 2002, the Bureau held water for irrigators. Temperatures on the Lower Klamath River soared.

Myers, who had recently returned home to serve as fisheries technician for the Yurok Tribe, was taking part in his tribe’s World Renewal ceremony when the first dead Chinook salmon began washing up on the river’s banks.

At least 34,000 fish died in the event.

“It was absolutely shocking and absolutely life changing for me,” says Myers. He recalled the story his grandmother had told him, which contained a warning: If ever there comes a day when there are no salmon in the Klamath River, there will be no need for Yurok people here on earth.

“The 2002 fish kill made me really grapple with this concept that our way of life could go extinct,” says Myers.

The fish kill activated many tribal members to advocate for dam removal. They took every opportunity to comment on agency proceedings, underpinning their comments with scientific research.

The order is the last major regulatory step before four dams can be decommissioned. It marks the start of the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.

AMELIA TEMPLETON / OPB

PacifiCorp's Copco 2 dam on the lower Klamath River is one of four hydro dams that would be removed to facilitate fish passage.

“Meanwhile, the community also started going to Warren Buffett’s shareholders meetings and PacifiCorp headquarters,” says Regina Chichizola, executive director for Save California Salmon, a nonprofit that advocates for policies which protect fish and fish-dependent communities. For the next two decades, tribal members and their allies made dam removal a top priority.

An historic agreement

At full capacity, the Klamath River dams can produce enough electricity to power about 70,000 homes, though in reality, they produce about half that, says PacifiCorp spokesperson Bob Gravely. The reservoirs do not provide drinking or irrigation water.

After the 2002 fish kill, many groups realized they were going to have to work together to solve the Klamath watershed’s mammoth issues. They also saw an opportunity: PacifiCorp’s license for the four dams was set to expire in 2006. To receive a new license, the dams would have to comply with current standards, including those for fish passage.

“The question was, does it make more sense to proceed to make all the necessary upgrades to be able to obtain a new license, or pursue some other path, including removal of the dams,” says Gravely.

By 2010, a diverse group of stakeholders, which included tribes, federal and state agencies, farmers, fishing groups, and conservation organizations, had signed two agreements. The first, called the Klamath Basin Renewal Agreement (KBRA), was a basin-wide blueprint for restoring habitat, establishing reliable water supplies, and spurring economic development. The second, the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA), laid out a path for dam removal.

At first, the cooperation was pragmatic, recalls Simmons. “Everybody involved needed everybody else for something.” Over time, attitudes shifted. “At some point, it was like everybody wanted all of the parties to get their needs met,” says Simmons. “It was that powerful at one time.”

These agreements required Congressional approval to be implemented. They expired at the end of 2015 when Congress failed to consider them.

“That was really a sad day on the river,” says Myers, adding that the holistic, basin-wide approach was ahead of its time. “I don’t think at the time our elected officials really could grasp the magnitude of the work that we were trying to accomplish.”

A smaller contingent of stakeholders regrouped and decided on an alternative path to dam removal that went through FERC and didn’t require Congressional approval. A newly created entity called the Klamath River Renewal Corporation would take over ownership and oversee the decommissioning of the dams.

The amended KHSA, which was signed in 2016, left out many of the provisions that protected ag producers, says Simmons.

“Are we going to have new regulatory burdens? Are we going to have new cost controls? We were hoping to have those sort of protections in place. And we don’t yet.” Simmons is wor-

ried irrigators could get stuck with the bill for making required improvements such as screening irrigation diversions. He’s also concerned about the implications of imperiled species returning to the Upper Basin.

The process hit another snag in 2020, when FERC, concerned that the Klamath River Renewal Corporation wouldn’t be able to handle cost overruns, should they occur, ordered PacifiCorp to remain as co-licensee with KRRC. The company did not want to take on that liability and further burden its ratepayers.

“Something like 60,000 people called or wrote letters to PacifiCorp asking them to un-dam the Klamath,” says Chichizola. “An amazing amount of support came from all over the nation, especially from native organizations and climate justice organizations.”

The states of Oregon and California stepped in and agreed to share the financial burden with Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, which owns PacifiCorp. The agreement was formalized in a Memorandum of Understanding in late 2020.

Looking ahead

The $450 million price tag for dam removal is being funded through two major sources: $200 million from a surcharge on PacifiCorp ratepayer utility bills; and $250 million in bonds from the State of California.

It will be a long process. Throughout 2023, Kiewit Corporation, the company contracted for the removal of the dams, will build roads and other infrastructure. Copco 2, the smallest of the four dams, could be removed as early as June of next year, but drawdown of the remaining three won’t begin until 2024.

Resource Environmental Solutions is spearheading the restoration of the reservoir footprints and will conduct long-term monitoring of the sites.

Thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the basin is seeing a welcome infusion of funding for restoration. Ongoing and planned projects should improve conditions for salmon and other fish both above and below the dams, and in the river’s tributaries.

“I believe that what we really are doing with this project, and why I call it a resiliency project, is creating conditions,” says Mark Bransom, executive director of the KRRC. “We’re trying to create conditions that allow the many communities that rely on a healthy Klamath River an opportunity to recreate some type of balance that existed before the dams.”

Removing the dams won’t solve all of the Klamath Basin’s problems. Climate change is also altering what’s possible, says Myers.

“We have to make harder decisions now, and we have to have better leadership,” he adds. “Our decisions about what the future looks like really need to [focus on] what can we save in the basin.”

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.

Dozens Of Oregon School Districts Likely Undercounting Homeless Students

By Kaylee Tornay/InvestigateWest

Madysun Wilson had already given up on graduating when the dean at her high school showed up during her shift at Papa Murphy’s in Coos Bay, Oregon.

She was technically homeless, crashing at a friend’s house after leaving her family home at 15. Casey McCord, the dean, had been calling her relatives for weeks letting them know Wilson was on the verge of dropping out of Marshfield High School.

The next day, Wilson agreed to come to her school, where McCord marched her to the back of the building to introduce her to Melinda Torres. Torres is the employee tasked with connecting with and supporting homeless students in the Coos Bay School District.

Torres urged Wilson not to drop out — offering that if she really didn’t want to finish her studies at Marshfield, the school could help pay for her General Equivalency Diploma (GED). They could also help her get clothes and food. It worked: Wilson passed her high-school-equivalency tests in December 2021 and now, at 17, is working toward an associate degree at Southwestern Oregon Community College. She dreams of working with homeless youth in the future.

“For the majority of my life, I didn’t think I was going to graduate high school,” Wilson said. But with help, she decided, “I wanted to (do) better. I want to get out of Coos Bay.”

In a way, Wilson was lucky to attend Marshfield, where staff at her school kept track of her living situation and pushed her to complete her GED. Many schools across Oregon are far less successful in identifying homeless students and connecting them with food, shelter and academic support, an InvestigateWest analysis found.

Federal law requires every district across the country to provide students experiencing homelessness full access to school and extracurriculars. But first, those students need to be identified — and at least 16 Oregon school districts with more than 20

students enrolled failed to identify a single homeless student during the 2019-20 school year, federal education data show. No homeless students might sound like good news, but experts say it reflects schools’ inability to identify homeless youth rather than actual levels of poverty and homelessness in their communities.

“If you’re a tiny, rural district with 11 students, yeah, sure,” said Barbara Duffield, executive director of SchoolHouse Connection, a national nonprofit focused on improving outcomes for homeless youth. “But otherwise, you’re not going to have a district that has no student experiencing homelessness, especially year after year.”

Homeless students can get assistance from their schools, but unless they’re identified, they get none.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN/INVESTIGATEWEST

Melinda Torres, Homeless Liaison and At Risk Kids Program Manager, speaks with Marshfield High School senior Alex Garcia Pascual at the ARK Center on the campus of Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Oregon on Tuesday November 15, 2022.

Additionally, data analysis by InvestigateWest and the Center for Public Integrity suggests at least 21% of Oregon districts are under-identifying the number of homeless students attending their schools.

The problem of undercounting is not unique to the Beaver State. Public Integrity’s analysis estimates that, nationwide, as many as 300,000 homeless students might be going uncounted each year. Black, Latino and Native Alaskan and American Indian youth were overrepresented in the homeless student population.

Failing to identify homeless students isn’t simply a matter of bureaucratic bookkeeping. It can mean the difference between a student accessing free school meals or going hungry; getting to participate in athletics or missing out; or receiving help with transportation to school or being dropped, particularly in Oregon, where the law requires schools to unenroll students after 10 consecutive days of unexcused absences.

In Wilson’s case, she believes her story would be quite different without the intervention by her school.

“Honestly, I could see myself still working at that Papa Murphy’s, doing nothing,” she said. “Thank goodness Melinda plugged me in.”

Data reveal disparities

In the late 1980s, homelessness was rapidly rising in the United States, and women and children were making up an increasing share of the unhoused population.

So in 1986, Congress passed the Homeless Persons’ Survival Act, which was later renamed the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. It included a broad range of emergency measures and long-term interventions. One of those was a requirement that schools ensure homeless students had access to the same educational opportunities as their non-homeless peers.

That work begins with identification of students, which is why the law requires districts to report their numbers of students each year. State departments of education, meanwhile, are tasked with providing professional development opportunities for school districts and enforcing their compliance with the law.

Some research suggests that an accurate or even conservative estimate of homelessness in a student body should wind up totaling at least 5% of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch. The Florida Department of Education has even incorporated that as a statewide benchmark to ensure schools are not missing students.

In Oregon, dozens of districts fell below that benchmark in the school years preceding the pandemic, data from the 20182019 and 2019-2020 school years show.

In 2018-19, 37 Oregon school districts counted less than 5% of their free and reduced lunch populations as homeless. That number ticked up the following year, to 42 districts, including the Salem-Keizer School District with 41,200 students and Wallowa School District with 181 students.

In fact, the number of districts potentially undercounting their homeless students could be higher, because Public Integrity’s dataset omitted charter schools, which, in Oregon, means about 30 school districts are excluded from the analysis. Another 24 school districts that did not report reliable data on their free and reduced lunch population were also not included in the analysis.

Oregon Department of Education officials said they don’t use a benchmark to assess whether districts are accurately counting their homeless students. Chris James, the department’s senior strategic adviser for homeless and vulnerable youth, said he views the state’s approach as collaborative rather than punitive. Oregon education officials did not provide any examples of the state challenging a district’s data or the fact it reported no homeless students.

“In my experience, it is not to be the heavy hand of enforcement, as much as helping them,” James said of the state’s approach to the issue.

The U.S. Department of Education, which has oversight of the states, described a similar approach. States where school districts fail to follow the law are subject to increased monitoring, but the federal agency would not tell Public Integrity how often that happens.

A spokesman said only that the agency “engages in monitoring and compliance activities that can include investigating alleged non-compliance.”

Advocates, though, said accountability from the state and federal department of education can be critical to ensuring students don’t go uncounted.

“If a district doesn’t think there are any consequences for not identifying students — for not transporting them, not enrolling them — they’ll just keep doing it,” said Duffield, the executive director of SchoolHouse Connection.

About a dozen school districts reported zero homeless students in both 2018-2019 and 2019-2020. The majority of those

Southwestern Oregon Community College freshman Madysun Wilson works on her laptop in her dormitory room at the Coos Bay, Oregon school on Tuesday November 15, 2022.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN/INVESTIGATEWEST

schools serve extremely rural areas or small towns, largely in Eastern Oregon. All have fewer than 1,000 students.

Grant School District 3 in Grant County, which had a student population of 594 in 2019-2020, reported no homeless students both that year and the previous year, though 50.8% of its students qualified for free or reduced lunch.

“It’s frustrating for me to not know,” said Catrina Gabbard, the district’s homeless liaison since 2016. Under the McKinney-Vento law, each district is required to designate at least one staff member as a homeless liaison who is responsible for connecting students with resources, reporting data and training other staff on the law so they can assist with identification.

Larger school districts may have more than one person designated as homeless liaisons. But as is common in many smaller districts, Gabbard wears multiple hats: She is also an administrative assistant at an elementary school.

Gabbard attributed most of her difficulty identifying students to stigma. In one instance, she learned that a student was homeless only after they left the district and later returned. They had never told any school staff or even informed their extended family members while it was happening, she said.

“I don’t know what to do. It is a hard thing to tackle,” Gabbard said.

Research has shown that rural students experience homelessness at rates roughly equivalent to those in urban communities. And the definition of homelessness in education is broader than that used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

“I would definitely be very suspicious of a number of school districts in a county saying zero students are experiencing homelessness,” said Marisa Zapata, director of the Homelessness Research and Action Collaborative, a research center at Portland State University.

Liz Ross, director of federal systems for the Oregon Department of Education, said in an email that the department “reviews data for outliers, trends and patterns, size of district, as well as extenuating circumstances (such as natural disasters) prior to determining if outreach is necessary.”

Not all rural communities appear to undercount homeless students. Elsewhere in Eastern Oregon, the tiny Long Creek School District had identified several students as homeless among its population, despite being a tenth of the size of Grant School District 3. About half of its 39 students qualify for free and reduced lunch, and the district reported just over 7% of all students experienced homelessness in 2019-20.

Jennifer Garinger is the homelessness coordinator for the district, the deputy clerk and the office manager. She said her multifaceted roles and her family’s connections in the town all help ensure that students don’t slip through the cracks. One son-in-law is assistant fire chief and drives a school bus, and another is the youth pastor and a coach.

“It’s just Long Creek culture,” Garinger said. “What works here is the kids and the families just know they can ask (for help).”

Still, she said, certain aspects of small-town life can also impede the identification of homeless students.

It’s not uncommon for families to live in multigenerational households or to move into a trailer on someone else’s property, she said. Both of those situations could qualify a student for McKinney-Vento services, but they’re not the kind of “traditional homelessness” residents might think of, Garinger said.

Often, “by the time (students are) counted, they’re housed,” she said.

Effective partnerships remain rare

Mary Ferrell knows the challenges of effectively supporting students experiencing homelessness from within school walls.

She did it for several years in the Medford School District in Southern Oregon as a homeless liaison before launching a new venture: a nonprofit that works adjacent to the schools in the region to support the work of identifying and assisting homeless students and their families.

That was in 2009. Now, 13 years later, the Maslow Project has relationships with seven school districts and manages the McKinney-Vento subgrants awarded to four of them. The students they serve are typically identified by their schools’ liaisons and then are connected with Maslow Project caseworkers who help them and their families with everything from clothing to academic support to temporary and permanent shelter.

“The nice and unique thing about Maslow is we are able to leverage … the funding we get through individual donations and grants to pair up with the school funding that we manage,”

Melinda Torres, Homeless Liaison and At Risk Kids Program Manager, discusses the clothing items available to children in need at the ARK Center on the campus of Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Oregon on Tuesday November 15, 2022.

MICHAEL SULLIVAN/INVESTIGATEWEST

Ferrell said. “We’re able to make that money go further because of the type of nonprofit we are.”

None of the districts included in Public Integrity’s dataset that Maslow works with fell below the 5% of free and reduced lunch threshold, suggesting the collaborative outreach approach is bearing fruit in identifying students.

The students who work with Maslow also graduate at higher rates than in other parts of Oregon: In 2021, 88% of the students connected with Maslow graduated, compared with 60.5% of homeless students across the state, according to the nonprofit.

Torres, the McKinney-Vento liaison in Coos Bay, was inspired by a Maslow training she attended. After learning about the project’s drop-in center where students could find clothing, food and other essential resources, Torres decided to try to re-create the center in her district.

Today, Coos Bay community members who are up to 21 years old and their families can visit the ARK Project at Marshfield High School, which Torres runs for the school district. The site offers laundry access, food and hygiene products, clothing, and school supplies.

“We also help with getting birth certificates, permits, licenses, GED testing prep,” Torres said.

Bowie Rae Sekne moved to Coos Bay shortly after his 18th birthday and now receives support from the ARK Project. Housing disruption is not new to him: Throughout his childhood, he said, family issues frequently led him and his siblings to spend nights in hotels or at their grandmother’s house.

No one at his school ever identified him for McKinney-Vento services.

“I didn’t get as much support that I really needed,” Sekne said.

Torres has helped him secure copies of his birth certificate and Social Security card, and together they’re working to get Sekne his learner’s permit to drive. For the first time in a long time, he’s excited about his future.

“Especially with homeless youth,” Sekne said, “it’s really hard to have the tools you need to work on school stuff.”

Other times, Torres’ work involves more broadly circulating information about what rights students experiencing homelessness have. They are entitled to retain enrollment in their school of origin even if they move out of the district, for example, and the district is required to help with transportation if needed.

Torres also has formed partnerships with other community organizations. She works closely with Alternative Youth Activities, a nonprofit that supports the education of students dealing with housing instability. It was Alternative Youth Activities that helped Wilson study for her GED, for example.

Despite the success of such community partnerships, they remain relatively sparse in other parts of Oregon.

In some cases, Ferrell said, “There may be fears around lines of authority, control of limited resources, or fears of being replaced.”

New money, no silver bullet

In 2021, Congress included $800 million in the American Rescue Plan to help schools serve homeless students.

Of that, $7.4 million came to Oregon schools.

That comes on top of less than $900,000 Oregon receives in federal funding tied to the McKinney-Vento law — dollars that are exclusively doled out through competitive grants.

A greater number of school districts in Oregon were able to access that Rescue Plan money, and they could spend it more freely than McKinney-Vento funds.

Klamath Falls City Schools, for example, budgeted $13,500 to assist two students with housing over three years, records show. North Marion School District budgeted nearly $6,000 in prepaid debit cards and gift cards to help students purchase materials “necessary for students to participate fully in school activities,” such as shoes, clothing and uniforms.

“That was honestly kind of a miracle, a unicorn pot of dollars that gave us flexibility we have not ever had with school funding before,” Ferrell said of the American Rescue Plan funds.

In April, 92 members of the U.S. House of Representatives signed a “Dear Colleague” letter, urging the leadership of the House Education Committee to renew the $800 million in funding, which represents 1% of the federal education budget, for the fiscal year that started Oct. 1.

“Investing in a young person’s life will enable them to avoid chronic homelessness, intergenerational cycles of poverty, and pervasive instances of trauma,” the letter read.

Budget bills from both chambers of Congress requested increases to the program budget, but they are far less than the renewal the House members requested. Federal budget negotiations are expected to resume in December.

Duffield said increasing support for homeless students is a key component to improving their outcomes.

But other pieces are needed, too, she said. One is accountability — districts need to know their state is being vigilant about compliance with the law.

“Policymakers at the state and federal level are ultimately the ones who have the power to change this,” she said. “They can appropriate more dollars, they can require more oversight.”

Duffield also called for greater awareness about youth homelessness, and the kinds of obstacles students face when they are dealing with housing instability.

Often, she said, “these students aren’t visible because they are dealing with so much trauma.”

This article was produced in partnership with the Center for Public Integrity, The Seattle Times, Street Sense Media and WAMU/DCist.

MUSIC, ARTS & CULTURE

CHRIS M. LEHMAN

OSF Joins Performance Venues, Arts Groups To Ask Oregon Lawmakers For More COVID Recovery Funds

Venues that rely on live audiences were among the hardest hit by the pandemic. In 2020, Oregon lawmakers crafted a $50 million relief package. Now, many of the organizations that received money say they need a booster shot, so to speak, of recovery funds.

David Schmitz, executive director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, told the Oregon House’s Interim Committee on Economic Development that many arts groups, including his own, are at risk of shutting down.

“We face a fiscal cliff like none we have experienced in our rich, 88-year history,” he said. “Oregon will be far less vital, far less empathetic, and far less spiritually vibrant because the cultural organizations you know and love will close.”

Schmitz said attendance in 2022 at the Ashland venue was less than half of what it was pre-COVID.

“That is not sustainable,” he said. “Especially when you consider the rising costs of materials (that) we need to make our plays, the escalating cost of wages and employee benefits, the security challenges for our staff, and the challenges of finding housing in our community because of the Almeda Fire.”

OSF is joining other cultural groups in asking for $60 million in funding during the next legislative session. They have a legislative supporter in the form of Rep. Rob Nosse, D-Portland.

“They’re all still struggling because the audiences have not returned,” he said.

But at least one member of the committee was skeptical that more funding would ultimately help.

“I don’t want to sound like I don’t value the arts. I think the value is undeniable,” said Rep. Jami Cate, R-Lebanon. “But I do want to be realistic.”

Cate suggested arts organizations may simply have to adjust to a new normal brought on by the pandemic.

“How much do we continue to invest in an industry, hoping that they get back to those pre-pandemic numbers?” she asked.

Supporters of the funding proposal said they just need a little more time, pointing to venues in other states that have recovered after being closed for shorter periods of time during the pandemic.

“We are working to bridge from pre-pandemic to the future,” said Isaac Marquez, the cultural services director for the City of Eugene, which operates several arts venues including the Hult Center. “But as you know, recovery is not straight-forward.”

The funding request will go before lawmakers during the 2023 legislative session. While lawmakers convene their work in January, most fiscal decisions are finalized during the clos-

ing weeks of the session. That means it could be until June before the arts groups learn if they’ll receive another round of state funding.

While lawmakers used federal money for the previous round of legislatively-approved arts funding, Nosse said that source is no longer available. That means the new round of funding would likely come from either general fund tax dollars, or from lottery revenues.

David Schmitz, executive director of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, told the Oregon House’s Interim Committee on Economic Development that many arts groups, including his own, are at risk of shutting down.

PHOTO COURTESY OREGON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL

CREDIT BRIAN BULL

OSF’s Allen Elizabethan Theatre during a tour.

Performing arts venues, including Eugene’s Hult Center in this undated photo, were hard hit by the pandemic.

Presenting world-class ensembles in the Southern Oregon University Music Recital Hall in Ashland, Oregon.

ERIK NEUMANN

Survivors Of The Mill Fire Want To Rebuild, But Insurance Access Will Determine What’s Possible

On the day the Mill Fire started, Alonzo Greene was at his home in Lincoln Heights. He heard a “boom” outside, so he went out on his porch, where, he said, he smelled fire.

“I kind of thought it was a structure fire, and I thought that I’d be able to help,” he said.

Greene grew up in Weed. For 23 years, he was the assistant pastor at the Mt. Shasta Baptist Church, and he recently retired as a firefighter. Immediately, he realized the situation was bad.

“All these houses were burning,” he recalled. “This house up on the hill was totally involved right then. I saw a cousin of mine, told him this was bad, you’ve got to get out of here. I went from there to Ms. Calvin’s house, beat on her door, kicked it in. She was scared. I’m like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to get out. Your house is on fire.’”

As the fire swept across the neighborhood, he crammed six residents into his truck to evacuate.

Most of Lincoln Heights was lost during the fire on Sept. 2. Around 12 homes are still standing, out of about 60 that were once there, according to Greene. Two people were killed, including one of his cousins.

Lincoln Heights is an anomaly: a predominantly Black neighborhood in rural, far-Northern California. In the early 1920s, the lumber industry drew Black residents from the South to Weed to work at the local lumber mill. Growing up, Greene worked at the Roseburg Forest Products mill. His father worked there when it was the International Paper Company. So did his grandfather when it was Long Bell Lumber Company.

Denise Hopkins was also born and raised in Weed and is a resident of Lincoln Heights. She lost two houses in the fire. One was her own home and the other was a rental.

“When we finally got to get in there and see everything, it was just devastating because we’d been in that house for 40 years. And so we lost all of our family heirlooms and our family things,” she said. “Things can be replaced, but memories, that’s the hardest part.”

Many of the homes were passed down through multi-generational Lincoln Heights families, which Greene said makes the recovery process all the more urgent.

“They might not have even had paperwork,” he said. “They just [had] a hand-me-down. They just keep staying there. Some of the people are not able to go anywhere. This was all they had.”

When the Mill Fire started in early September, a “heat dome” had driven up extreme temperatures across California and contributed to the fire’s destruction. Such heat events are becoming more common because of human-caused climate change.

There’s a term for the way climate change disproportionately affects communities of color, like Lincoln Heights, and the poor. It’s called “the climate gap.”

It was defined by a group of researchers including Rachel Morello-Frosh, a professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Her research focuses on how vulnerable communities are impacted by climate change. She said Lincoln Heights is a good example in a rural community.

“That community has managed to persist, and then this wildfire, literally in a very short period of time, has devastated it. Its ability to come back from that I think remains in question,” she said.

Kim Greene, who is not related to Alonzo Greene, was the mayor of Weed when the fire took place. She said there was already a housing shortage in Weed beforehand, and residents’ ability to rebuild will depend on whether they had insurance.

“There were a lot of people who weren’t insured, and there were a lot of people who were under-insured. Because, you have a house that was built in 1935, you can’t replace it with the insurance you had on that house right now,” Greene said.

Similar losses happened after Hurricane Katrina, according to Morello-Frosh.

“What happened in New Orleans is a huge reason why the demographics of New Orleans shifted significantly. Because a lot of Black families who lost their homes could not afford to

CREDIT ERIK NEUMANN / JPR

Alonzo Greene and his German shepherd at home in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Weed, CA. Greene’s house was spared by the Mill Fire but many of his neighbor’s homes were destroyed on Sept. 2

JPR News Focus: Wildfire

“That’s probably what will happen and what we’ve seen in communities across the country,” Morello-Frosh said.

Right now, residents are in the cleanup phase. The fire has not yet been approved as a federal disaster, so FEMA isn’t currently helping with the recovery process. The state of California has agreed to pay for housing for displaced residents at hotels or in trailers. Roseburg Forest Products, where the fire started, has donated an initial $50 million for residents.

There have been other fires in the area in recent years: the Boles Fire in 2014, the Lava Fire in 2021. Greene said he only knows of one resident of Lincoln Heights who decided to move. Everyone else, he said, wants to rebuild.

“It’s going to look totally different. But it’s still going to be Lincoln Heights,” he said. “With that, I believe that we can make it as great as we want.”

For more about Lincoln Heights, its history, and the 2011 film From the Quarter to Lincoln Heights, turn to page 43

rebuild and come back because they were woefully under-insured and they didn’t have flood insurance,” she said. If state and federal recovery efforts don’t take these insurance inequities into account, the same demographic shift could happen in Lincoln Heights.

Erik Neumann is JPR’s news director. He earned a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and joined JPR as a reporter in 2019 after working at NPR member station KUER in Salt Lake City.

CREDIT ERIK NEUMANN / JPR

Lincoln Heights resident Denise Hopkins volunteering at the Siskiyou Food Assistance food bank where she volunteers every week. Hopkins lost her home and a rental property during the Mill Fire.

Announced in September, the California legislature is funding a $25 million fellowship program meant to strengthen local reporting in underserved areas across the state.

Could Oregon Duplicate A Bold New California State Initiative To Fund Journalism?

I

n October, before the election, I covered a story about election deniers and claims of voting irregularities in Southern Oregon and Northern California. It focused on residents who were going door-to-door to “clean the voting rolls” and roadshow election deniers sowing distrust in local elections. All the while, academics and county clerks did their best to debunk these claims. In one case in Shasta County, the clerk notified state and federal authorities of the possibility of intimidation because of self-styled voter integrity groups targeting individuals in their homes.

There are many causes for this fractured civic reality we’re living through today, but one reason is the disappearance of trusted sources of information. There are no longer agreed upon facts when we’re all stuck in individual echo chambers.

In 2022, the Agora Journalism Center at the University of Oregon’s journalism school released a report titled “Assessing Oregon’s Local News and Information Ecosystem.” It was an effort to measure the value of local news to our civic health by mapping local outlets around the state that regularly produce original news. “The civic health of communities is connected to the availability and quality of local news,” the report reads. It identifies growing news deserts around Oregon, as well as the headwinds many local newsrooms face today. To cite one example from the report: “daily circulation of the Eugene Register-Guard reportedly dropped from nearly 80,000 in the year 2000 to under 20,000 in early 2022.” The report also noted a number of recent innovative journalism startups, including nonprofit websites like Underscore and the Oregon Capital Chronicle that freely share content, and collaborations between newsrooms to scale up coverage of important issues like the state governor’s race. But there’s another experiment that is beginning to take shape across the border in California: major state investments in local media.

Announced in September, the California legislature is funding a $25 million fellowship program meant to strengthen local reporting in underserved areas across the state. The money will fund up to 40 fellows per year for at least three years. The goal is to create new journalism jobs in California in communities in need of local reporting. “The program aims to strengthen local reporting across the state and to combat the gaps in credible local news coverage that have been filled by disinformation,” according to the legislation’s sponsor Sen. Steve Glazer, D-Contra Costa.

The program will be administered by the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, which has made major efforts in re-

cent years to attract a more diverse faculty and student population through tuition support in an effort to expand the field of who gets to be a journalist. (Incidentally, I earned a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley J-School in 2014.)

This concept is not entirely new. The nonprofit Report for America started in 2017 with the goal of putting early-career journalists in local newsrooms “to report on under-covered issues and communities.” In 2022 RFA funded 300 reporter positions around the country. The yet-to-be-named California program will fund a fraction of that number, but according to the Berkeley J-School, it is thought to be “the largest state allocation ever made in California and in the U.S. to support local journalism.”

Public radio and public television have long-received support from the federal government through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. At JPR, about 10% of our budget comes from CPB on an annual basis. But as journalism is increasingly being seen as a public good and an essential element of a working democracy, the push for government funding local media is also growing. In 2021, the Local Journalism Sustainability Act was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives with bipartisan support. That year Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden helped introduce the same legislation in the Senate. The bills would support news organizations and subscribers through a series of tax credits. But, let’s be honest, given how few bills Congress can agree upon these days, it’s unlikely federal legislation will provide a solution.

California’s new experiment to support local journalism could be duplicated in Oregon. The 2023 Oregon legislative session begins in mid-January. While California’s budget is orders of magnitude larger than Oregon’s, even a fraction of California’s $25 million investment could help put reporters in communities that the Agora Journalism Center report identifies as being on the verge of becoming news deserts, including Crook, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Klamath, Lake, Morrow, Sherman, Wallowa and Wheeler counties.

One way or another, Oregon citizens will have access to information. It might come from bold, new journalism startups. But it could also come from unverified Nextdoor rumor-mills, opinion blogs masquerading as journalism, or worse, intentional misinformation from traveling election deniers.

JPR's Erik Neumann is JPR’s interim news director.

A Legacy of Public Radio...

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

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

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

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

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

The End Of Writing

The year 2023 might be the last year I write this column. Do not panic (or celebrate) dear reader. I’m not retiring. I’m not quitting. I’m probably just being replaced. Not by another writer. Not by a human anyway, but by a machine. Soon this column will be written by an AI. This is news to my beloved editor who probably just rolled her eyes at my manufactured drama and is perhaps thinking that I actually do need to be replaced after 20+ years of writing the Inside the Box column.

The truth of the matter is that I and most of my fellow writers are going to be replaced by AI writers. That might sound like a rather bold prediction until you consider what a writer is and what a writer does.

Writers gather and process information. From a sea of information, we then struggle to craft order out of chaos, separate noise from signal, and make sense of the world. Then we labor to structure all of that with words, sentences, and paragraphs. Those structures can result in a short one-line poem or balloon into a 1,000-page tome. But regardless of the length, all writers use language to encode and decode meaning. Writers were the first coders and for thousands of years have been writing and rewriting the code that has programmed and reprogrammed human civilization.

AI’s takeover of writing started innocently with word processing software, which made it easier for writers to draft and edit on a computer rather than writing by hand or on old-fashioned mechanical typewriters. I’m old enough to have lived through that transition.

When spellcheck was introduced to word processing software, I no longer had to remember how to spell words like harassment or embarrassment or diarrhea. The software would do it for me. Then came grammar checking and I no longer would make stupid grammatical mistakes like using “it’s” when I should have used “its”. It’s what’s saved me from making many grammatical embarrassments.

Spelling and grammar checking software was invented back in the 1970s, but it didn’t become mainstream until the rise of personal computers and word processing software throughout the 80s and 90s. As the tools of writing became digitized, so did the means by which it was published and distributed. Today, most writing is created, published, and consumed on the Internet.

AIs learn through machine learning, a process similar to human learning. If information is digitized, an AI can learn it through machine learning algorithms. And while AIs learn at roughly the same rate as humans, they don’t sleep or get sick, make bad decisions on the weekend or have children to take care of so they can churn through data sets 24/7/365.

Writers learn how to write by reading other writers and

practicing the craft of writing. An AI writer learning how to write can crank through the entire Western canon of literature in a fraction of the time it has taken me to consume just a fraction of it. It’s taken me a lifetime to write millions of words. An AI writer can write a million words in 72 hours.

A glimmer of the end of human writers rippled through the tech world and mainstream media this past December with the announcement of ChatGPT being made publicly available. ChatGPT is an AI writer developed by OpenAI. Since its public release, millions of users have signed up to test drive ChatGPT, including yours truly.

“Will AI writers replace human writers?” I asked ChatGPT via chat.

“It is possible that AI writers could be used in certain contexts to help generate content,” ChatGPT responded, “but it is unlikely that they will replace human writers entirely. While AI systems like language models have shown impressive abilities in generating text that is similar to human-written text, they are not capable of the same level of creativity and originality as human writers. Additionally, writing is more than just stringing together words in a grammatically correct way; it requires a deep understanding of the topic being written about, as well as the ability to convey ideas and emotions in a way that resonates with readers. These are abilities that AI systems, including myself, do not possess.”

Various AI writers have been used for several years now for cranking out marketing and blog post content, but ChatGPT eclipses those. Since its public release, it’s been used to write jokes, news stories, movie scripts, programming code, and academic essays that would receive a passing grade.

In response to all the hype around ChatGPT’s debut, one of WIRED Magazine’s recent headlines declared, “ChatGPT’s Fluent BS Is Compelling Because Everything Is Fluent BS”.

“ChatGPT was trained on real-world text, and the real world essentially runs on fluent bullshit,” the article declared, “And it’s not just the creative industries. Fluent bullshit is everywhere: in viral LinkedIn posts and rules for life podcasts, in fundraising decks and academic journals, even in this article itself.”

In my interview with ChatGPT, it appeared to corroborate and agree with WIRED.

“Machine learning algorithms can be trained on large amounts of data, but they are not capable of the same level of critical thinking and analysis as a human,” ChatGPT told me. “Additionally, machine learning algorithms are only as good as the data they are trained on, so if the data

AI’s takeover of writing started innocently with word processing software

is incomplete or biased, the AI system’s understanding of the topic will be limited. In short, while AI systems may be able to generate text that is similar to human-written text, they are not capable of the same level of understanding and critical thinking as human writers.”

I think ChatGPT was being a bit modest by not adding the word “yet” to that last statement. While it and other AI writers are not currently capable of the same level of understanding and critical thinking as human writers, that’s going to change and likely change rapidly.

And when it does, it won’t just be human writers getting replaced by AI writers, marking the end of writing as a uniquely human vocation, it will be the beginning of the end of scientists, engineers, programmers, philosophers, teachers, and all other professions that require a high level of understanding and critical thinking that is currently uniquely human.

When our machines become more capable of understanding the world and thinking more critically than we humans do, it won’t just be the end of writing, it will be the end of everything and the beginning of something quite different.

Scott Dewing is a technologist, teacher, and human writer who hasn’t yet been replaced by an AI. He lives in the State of Jefferson.

JAMES COLLIER

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ACCIDENTS

JANE VAUGHN

Train Derailments And Poor Safety Communication Prompt Worries At Siskiyou County’s Cantara Loop

Tom Ferrel, a retired engineer, has grown used to the sound of heavy equipment driving by his house on its way to the train track to clean up the latest accident.

“They don’t get by without us knowing it because the house is just shaking under the weight,” he said. “I heard those two pieces of equipment go by at about 10 o’clock at night. And it’s like, uh oh. I think it’s another derailment!”

Ferrel lives a 20-minute walk away from the Cantara Loop in Mount Shasta. The loop is a tight curve in the track that goes over the Sacramento River, with an uphill grade trains have to navigate when going north. On a snow-dusted December afternoon, Ferrel pointed out apple orchards and animal tracks and described fishing and swimming in the river below.

But in mid-November, nine lumber cars tumbled off the track at this location. And it’s not the first time. The most famous derailment was in 1991, when thousands of gallons of herbicide spilled into the river, killing marine life and sickening people downstream. Derailments also occurred in the area of the curve in at least 1976, 2009, 2021, and a second derailment in 2022. Together, these incidents make up a disturbing pattern.

Part of the problem is the structure of the Cantara Loop. The turn has a tight radius and is built on an upgrade. Freight trains can be thousands of feet long. As they exit the curve, they accelerate up the canyon, creating tension on the remaining cars in

the middle, like a curved string being pulled straight. The phenomenon is called string-lining, and it can cause the cars still in the loop to pop off the track. Weight distribution throughout the train can also play a factor in derailment.

“It keeps happening. That’s the discouraging thing,” Ferrel said. “They haven’t figured it out.”

He’s worried about a repeat of the 1991 environmental catastrophe.

“It’s very concerning because they transport a lot of nasty stuff on rails, including increasingly oil. And it’s going to be horrid if it happens again,” he said.

This track is owned and maintained by Union Pacific Railroad, based in Omaha. They declined to comment for this story, saying in a statement, “Union Pacific works diligently to prevent derailments and other accidents. We continuously inspect our tracks, locomotives, and other equipment, and we utilize a variety of technology to inspect locomotives and railcar wheels. We also comply with all federal rules and regulations in working toward ensuring our trains operate safely.”

However, data from the Federal Railroad Administration shows that Union Pacific has been responsible for almost a third of accidents in California over the last 10 years.

According to a damning Federal Railroad Administration audit performed last fall, the FRA said it has “growing con-

Why do trains keep derailing at the Cantara Loop?

The Cantara Loop near Dunsmuir, CA has been the site of two train derailments in 2022.

PHOTO: JANE VAUGHN

cerns” about “Union Pacific’s safety performance” and “the concerningly high number of safety incidents.” For example, inspectors found that Union Pacific inaccurately documented the location of hazardous material in a train, sometimes not listing it at all. The audit said Union Pacific’s track inspectors “lacked knowledge that could also lead to an increased likelihood of derailments.”

Karl Alexy, Associate Administrator for Railroad Safety and Chief Safety Officer for the Federal Railroad Administration, said the organization has been “focusing in on Union Pacific.”

Still, he said there’s more concern about the company than about the Cantara Loop specifically.

“We are aware of a couple of incidents [at the Cantara Loop], and there is nothing outstanding out there that gives us great concern,” he said.

What is concerning is the lack of communication between Union Pacific and local emergency personnel. Bryan Schenone, Director of the Siskiyou County Office of Emergency Services, coordinates emergency response for the area, so he said he’s usually the first one called when something like this happens. But he said he was not notified in February or November when freight trains derailed at the Cantara Loop.

“Normally, as emergency manager, I would be contacted for that. I don’t know if they just didn’t feel that the contact needed to be pushed out. Normally, we should have been absolutely engaged in that,” Schenone said.

He said he usually has good communication with Union Pacific, but when he doesn’t know about an incident, he can’t help

with emergency response or other vital needs. He hopes to continue conversations with the railroad and local senators in order to hold the company accountable.

“If it’s happened twice in 16 months, it’s not like it’s not gonna happen again. And we’ve been very lucky and very fortunate that they’ve been empty cars, they’ve been lumber cars. But what if they’re not?” he said.

Passenger trains run along this same track. Amtrak also declined to comment about any safety concerns, saying in a statement, “Amtrak’s highest priority is ensuring the safety of our passengers, our crews, and the communities we serve.”

Down at the track in the Cantara Loop, a massive metal guard rail was built in 2001 to keep cars from again spilling into the Sacramento River. But despite this safety feature and a scathing audit, trains continue to jump the track at the Cantara Loop.

A nearby plaque honors the residents who helped restore the Sacramento River after the 1991 environmental disaster.

A large metal guardrail has been installed to keep train cars from falling into the river again.

PHOTO:

JANE VAUGHN

PHOTO: JANE VAUGHN

PHOTO: JANE VAUGHN

Mount Shasta resident Tom Ferrel has grown used to heavy equipment lumbering by his house to clean up the latest train accident.

ROMAN BATTAGLIA

The winners of the first offshore wind auction on the West Coast were announced Dec. 7. The auction netted over $750 million dollars after two days of bidding.

California Dives Into Offshore Wind Market With First West Coast Auction

Five companies won the rights to build the first large-scale floating offshore wind farms in North America.

The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management auctioned almost 400,000 acres of ocean off the coasts of Northern and Central California.

This week’s auction is the first step to help meet California’s goal of deploying 25 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2045.

President Biden has also set nationwide offshore wind goals, including deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030, and an additional 15 gigawatts of floating offshore wind by 2035.

This project will meet almost a third of that goal when finished.

Dreaming of wind turbines

The idea for commercial offshore wind in Northern California picked up around 2016, when Matthew Marshall from the Redwood Coast Energy Authority began to promote the idea to federal agencies.

“I think we might have been a little bit of a catalyst to move things forward, sooner than they might have happened up here,” Marshall said.

As the executive director of the RCEA, Marshall is focused on sustainable and equitable energy production for Humboldt County. His organization decides where the county gets its electricity from.

The RCEA looked to the windy waters off their coast as a means of advancing their goals.

“In 2018, we selected a team of companies to work with because we realized, ‘Hey, we wanna see this move forward in a way that the community has a say in the process and is part of the decision making,’” Marshall said.

The RCEA provides community support and engagement, while their developer, Mainstream Renewables, has the funding to bid in an offshore wind auction.

In early 2021, the State of California and the U.S. Department of the Interior announced an agreement to speed up the sale of offshore wind leases near Eureka and Morro Bay.

Offshore wind auctions have attracted big names in the energy industry, including BP, Shell and Ørstead. Just one of six leases off the coast of New York was sold for a record $1.1 billion in February.

But offshore wind is much different on the West Coast. Developers won’t be able to put turbine foundations on the seafloor like they do in the East.

“So you have floating platforms that are anchored to the seafloor,” said Arne Jacobson from the Schatz Energy Research Center at Cal Poly Humboldt. “Those can go to

much much deeper water situations. So everything on the West Coast is gonna be floating.”

Once deployed, the turbines will be the deepest offshore wind projects in North America.

Some sections of the Northern and Central California leases can be as deep as 1000 meters. For comparison, the depth of most areas along the East Coast are less than 100 meters, such as the Vineyard Wind project.

Jacobson adds none of the infrastructure on land has been built up either. The developers who win will have to build production facilities, expand ports, and lay new power lines.

A portion of the funds the developers bid in the auction may go to investment in local communities, such as Humboldt County.

Developers were able to offset up to 30% of their bid through commitments to invest in local tribes, workforce training, infrastructure and the environment.

What’s next

The winning companies will now focus on building up the infrastructure needed to manufacture turbines and tow them out to sea. There are very few ports that meet the specific demands to build and deploy floating wind turbines.

“I don’t think there’s really anywhere else at this stage that’s very far along in being ready to do that,” said Arne Jacobson at the Schatz Energy Research Center. “Humboldt Bay is well situated to be the first and leading port for developing offshore wind on the West Coast.”

Jacobson said Humboldt Bay meets very specific requirements needed to build and ship floating wind turbines. Unlike those fixed to the seafloor, Jacobson said the floating turbines are built completely on land, and towed upright to their anchor-point. That means the port needs to be deep enough to support both ships and turbines, without a bridge blocking the way.

With turbines standing hundreds of feet tall and blades that can be longer than a football field, that means the San Francisco Bay – an otherwise likely candidate – is out of the running because of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Not a typical auction

Despite 43 bidders listed as eligible by BOEM, only seven showed up to Tuesday’s online auction.

Prices rose, from $6 million to nearly $200 million.

The auction continued for two days until two of the bidders finally dropped out, with a final cost of $757 million for all leases. The most expensive sold for $173 million to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners.

Other leases were sold to German firm RWE, Norwegian Equinor, Ocean Winds (a joint venture between French Engie and Portuguese EDP) and U.S. based Invenergy.

The developer that RCEA has been working with, Mainstream Renewables, was not able to win one of the leases in Northern California. But, RCEA Executive Director Matthew Marshall said they’ll still work with the developers who won as they begin almost a decade-long project to get floating turbines in the water.

“There could have been some large market, multinational oil company or somebody that maybe wouldn’t leave as good a taste in everyone’s mouth,” he said. “Or at least they’d be a skeptical partner.”

Marshall said both the winners in Northern California were previously interested in the region. He’s optimistic they’ll be good companies to work with.

RWE has sent representatives to Humboldt County recently, to talk with members of the fishing industry and the rest of the community, and they’re a member of the Eureka Chamber of Commerce.

Leases in Central California won’t face as big of a roadblock regarding energy transmission. Humboldt County will require huge powerline upgrades to deliver the energy to the rest of the state.

“On the other hand, there’s not an obvious port on the Central Coast from which to deploy offshore wind,” Jacobson said. “So I think it’s quite possible that the port that will be used to assemble and deploy offshore wind systems for the Central Coast will be Humboldt Bay.”

Humboldt County has faced an economic downturn from the loss of manufacturing and most notably, the timber industry. Those losses have left abandoned mills and warehouses dotting the coast.

Marshall says it could take nearly eight years for turbines to start producing enough electricity to sell beyond Humboldt County. Next, developers will begin planning and going through the permitting process before they can actually start building turbines.

Offshore wind could be the next industry to revitalize the Northern California coast. Marshall says the goal of RCEA is to ensure the wind industry is here to stay, and that the huge investments in renewable energy will bring benefits to the local economy.

After graduating from Oregon State University, Roman Battaglia came to JPR as part of the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism in 2019. He then joined Delaware Public Media as a Report For America fellow before returning to the west coast where he now serves as a regional reporter for JPR’s award-winning news department.

STEPHEN BOUTWELL/BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT

The Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind pilot project off the coast of Virginia Beach

GEOFF RIDDEN

me now leave to leave thee.” Twelfth Night

After six years writing about theatre for the Jefferson Journal, it’s time for me to bow out and to leave the stage. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to record this unprecedented period in the history of drama in our region, and I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to see so many plays and to talk to so many theatre practitioners about their work and their aspirations. Since I’m also stepping down as an occasional presenter on the Classics and News Service of JPR, the coming year does represent significant changes for me.

I am pleased to end on a positive note. I much enjoyed the final productions of the OSF 2022 Repertory Season, and, although there have been negative comments on social media complaining that the planned 2023 season at OSF does not include enough representation of the works of Shakespeare, I note that 40% of the plays staged in 2023 will be by Shakespeare, and that compares favorably with the ratio in pre-pandemic seasons.

I’m optimistic too about the prospects for community theatre in the Rogue Valley and I want to illustrate that by focusing on the work of two young actors, Alex Boyles and Erny Rosales. Both of these young men hail from California (Alex from Chico, and Erny raised in Corning). They sing, they dance and they act; I know because I’ve had the pleasure of seeing them on stage at several local theatres, not least the Camelot, where they appeared together in the 2018 production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead — now which one was which?

In the past year you may well have seen them at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre. I was in awe of Erny’s work in In the Heights; he played not only the role in which he had been cast but also the role he had been understudying. Yes, two entirely different roles in the same show, on the same afternoon. And Alex, who has become an established member of the company, bravely bared his all in The Full Monty, and then played a more fully-costumed character in White Christmas at the Thomas Theatre.

I asked each of them for a little background:

Tell me a little about your early life

AB: When I was 3 my parents put me in piano lessons because, according to my mother, my older brothers would practice and then I would sit down and play it better than they did. I’ve always been involved in music, singing as well as piano. I started acting in school plays, but it wasn’t something I actively pursued until the summer between 7th and 8th grade when I did Shakespeare in the Park. I then went to college… getting a BA from CSU Long Beach and then an MFA from Ohio State University where I also taught during and after graduate school.

ER: I went to school in Corning K-12, loved my family, food, video games, and had a wild imagination (all while being the

shy quiet kid)

What did you do before you came to the Rogue Valley and what brought you here?

AB: My wife was running an art gallery while I was in grad school and she met someone from SOU. We had always wanted to come to Ashland and, in the summer of 2013, she was offered a job here: she took it and we moved, even though she was seven months pregnant. That next OSF season I got my first understudy contract.

ER: I had just finished the Musical Theatre program at CSU, Chico. I had family in the Valley and what was supposed to be a summer break has turned into almost 10 years of an incredible experience

What day jobs have you had?

AB: I’ve given piano lessons, I was briefly a barista. I’ve been a server at a few restaurants and now I narrate audiobooks for a living.

ER: McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, Taco Now, Peanut Butter factory worker, Blueberry Field laborer, server...quite a few...!

What local Theatre companies have you worked with?

AB: All of them! I started by understudying for OSF for their 2014 and 2015 seasons, then I worked at Camelot, then at the newly-created CTP, and then I worked for New Stage at the Craterian, I did one show at the Randall, and then I started at the Cabaret!

ER: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Oregon Cabaret, Camelot, Collaborative Theatre Project, Randall Theatre, Thanks for the Memories, Next Stage Rep

Is the Post-Covid world very different for the theatre?

AB: It both is and it isn’t. There are a lot of rules and proce-

“Give

Alex Boyles

Erny Rosales

dures in place to make sure everyone’s masking while rehearsing, and making sure things are disinfected after every show. But in other ways theatre is just the same. We are still putting on shows, still giving it our all, still hoping to give people a brief respite from everyday life and just enjoy themselves. And if anything, we are even more committed to doing theatre now. I mean, if we can put up with all these new rules, you know we must really want to do it.

ER: Very, the first few shows while still in the heart of the pandemic proved to bring its own challenges with safety, regulations, and uncertainty. It seems like summer was an unfortunate time with a big COVID spike among theatres leading to scrambling to deal with show postponements and cancelations. This current era is still challenging with low ticket sales all throughout the Valley.

And when can we see you next?

AB: I’ll be in Almost Maine at Camelot and then in Kinky Boots at the Cabaret.

ER: Currently, I am participating in multiple call-backs and hope to announce a show for everyone to see very soon!

Geoff Ridden has taught in universities in Africa, Europe and North America. Since moving to Ashland in 2008, he has become a familiar figure on radio, in the theatre, in the lecture hall and on the concert stage. He is artistic director of the Classic Readings Theatre Company and has a particular interest in adaptations of the plays of Shakespeare. Email geoff.ridden@gmail.com

Oregon Workers And Employers Will Soon Pay Into State’s New Paid Leave Program

Oregon’s new paid family and medical leave program starts collecting money from workers and larger businesses in January. The program, Paid Leave Oregon, will eventually provide up to 12 weeks of paid time off to workers who are seriously ill, bonding with a new child or experiencing crises such as domestic violence.

People won’t be able to use that paid time off until at least September 2023, but they’ll start to see deductions from their paychecks in just a few weeks.

Here’s what you need to know:

What will the new paid leave benefits be?

Oregon lawmakers approved the creation of a statewide paid leave program in 2019, but the program’s implementation was delayed during the pandemic.

Big picture: In September, Paid Leave Oregon should start offering workers up to three months of protected paid leave in these categories:

1. Family leave — to care for a family member who is seriously ill or injured; or to bond with a new child after birth, adoption, or foster care placement. (Some pregnancy-related situations may qualify for 14 weeks of paid leave.)

2. Medical leave — to deal with a worker’s own serious health condition.

3. Safe leave — to help survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, harassment and stalking.

About a dozen states offer some kind of paid leave program. Karen Humelbaugh, the director of Paid Leave Oregon, said it will fill a critical need — especially for low-wage workers whose jobs don’t provide paid time off.

“When they need time off, they’re generally forced to make a choice between being able to support their family or to take the leave they need to take care of themselves or a loved one,” she said.

Workers in Oregon will be eligible for coverage if they’ve earned at least $1,000 the year before they apply for benefits. That includes seasonal and part-time workers.

I’m an employee. What do I need to do right now?

Nothing. Just know you could have a little less take-home pay in January.

Whether you work for a small business or a large one, your employer should start deducting your contribution from your

paycheck in the new year, then pay it into the system. The money goes into a trust fund that will be used to pay future Paid Leave benefits.

How much will this cost me as a worker?

For 2023, you’ll contribute 0.6% of your gross wages.

If you go to paidleave.oregon.gov, you can see examples of what this might cost in dollars and cents. For example, a fulltime worker earning standard minimum wage in 2023 would contribute about $3 per week. If they later needed to use the paid leave program, they could receive $540 per week in benefits.

Am I covered if I’m self-employed or an independent contractor?

Not automatically. But you can choose to participate and pay into the program if you want. Tribal governments can also opt in.

What are the rules for employers?

Businesses with 25 or more employees will share the cost of the program with their workers. Those businesses should start paying employer contributions in January — 0.4% of gross wages.

Small businesses don’t have to pay into the system, but they still have to withhold and submit their employees’ contributions. The state is offering an incentive to small businesses to voluntarily participate, however. Small employers who choose to pay employer contributions may qualify for assistance grants when their staff take paid leave. That could help cover the cost of hiring fill-in workers.

Some employers want to offer their own paid leave programs and opt out of the state system. The Oregon Employment Department has to approve those alternative plans and they’re not allowed to cost workers more than the state plan would.

Remember, Paid Leave Oregon covers all employees who work in Oregon. So out-of-state employers still need to send in contributions for their remote workers in Oregon.

KATE DAVIDSON

Oregonians should see deductions from their paychecks in January. Paid leave benefits are scheduled to roll out in September.

I’m an employer. How do I do all this?

Have you met Frances?

We all know the Employment Department’s archaic computer system enraged laid-off Oregonians when the pandemic hit. The outdated technology contributed to lengthy delays delivering unemployment benefits to people in need.

Paid Leave Oregon is the first big benefits program being administered through the agency’s new, modernized system — named Frances (after FDR’s labor secretary Frances Perkins). Unemployment benefits are scheduled to follow in 2024.

Oregon employers have already started using Frances Online to file their combined payroll reports. They’ll submit contributions there too.

Fast forward to September. Will I be able to apply for paid leave benefits in Spanish? Vietnamese? Russian?

Yes. The Employment Department says downloadable paper applications will be posted in at least five languages. But it’s not yet clear if workers will be able to apply for benefits online in languages other than English when the program goes live in September.

The Employment Department has a problematic history with language access.

Many Oregonians with limited English proficiency were left in the lurch when pandemic unemployment spiked to record levels in the spring of 2020. At the time, workers could only apply for unemployment benefits online in English. Interpreters were supposed to be available by phone, but the general call lines were hopelessly jammed. There was no separate phone number for people seeking language assistance.

Humelbaugh says she is committed to language access in the new paid leave program and is hiring bilingual and bicultural staff.

Workers and employers can currently toggle through a dozen translations of paidleave.oregon.gov to read information about the program in languages ranging from Afrikaans to Vietnamese. They can also ask questions through a contact us form that’s available in multiple languages. Or they can call 833-854-0166, a toll-free line that responds with a language prompt.

The agency says it’s on track to have the business side of the Frances system available in English and Spanish when employers start submitting contributions in January.

It also says it’s working to make the online application system available to workers in multiple languages when benefits launch in September.

“However, with an IT project this large and with so much complexity (including being interactive and having layers of security), we cannot commit to a specific date yet for those languages to be available,” Humelbaugh said by email, following an interview.

How would I prove I need safe leave benefits?

People who experience abuse often don’t report it to authorities.

But when paid leave benefits roll out in September 2023, people applying for safe leave will still need to verify the basis for their claims.

“Obviously with safe leave, our first priority is going to be the health and welfare of the individual applying,” Humelbaugh said. “We are committed to making sure that the benefit is accessible without further burdening or potentially retraumatizing the survivor.”

Safe leave applicants will be asked to submit any of a range of records, including police reports, formal Title IX complaints, protective orders, or supporting documents from clergy, law enforcement, health care providers, counselors or victim services providers.

But the Employment Department also has the discretion to waive that requirement on an individual basis — for example, if a person can’t access services, or fears for their safety or the safety of their child. In those cases, claimants may be able to get benefits after providing a written statement attesting they are eligible for safe leave.

Kate Davidson is OPB’s business and economics reporter. She was previously OPB’s All Things Considered host.

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

Hosted by Danielle Kelly & Dave Jackson.

JPR's

ENVIRONMENT, ENERGY & TRANSPORTATION

CONRAD WILSON & JOHN RYAN

String Of Electrical Grid Attacks In Pacific Northwest Are Unsolved

The electrical grid has been physically attacked at least four times in Oregon and western Washington since late November, causing growing alarm for law enforcement as well as utilities responsible for parts of the region’s critical infrastructure.

According to information obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW Public Radio, at least two of the incidents bear similarities to the attacks on substations in North Carolina on Saturday that left thousands of people without electricity for days.

Portland General Electric, the Bonneville Power Administration and Puget Sound Energy each confirmed a total of four separate attacks on electrical substations they manage in Oregon and Washington. Attackers used firearms in at least some of the incidents in both states, and some power customers in Oregon experienced service disruption as a result of an attack.

All three utilities stated they were cooperating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI declined to confirm whether it was investigating.

“The FBI routinely shares information with our law enforcement partners in order to assist in protecting the communities they serve,” Joy Jiras, a spokeswoman for the FBI in Portland said in a statement Wednesday. “We urge the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement.”

Electrical substations are complicated and potentially dangerous parts of the electrical grid that keep the nation’s lights on. Substations convert high-voltage electricity that travels across long-distance transmission lines to the lower voltages used by businesses and residences.

The Bonneville Power Administration, a federal agency that markets hydropower throughout the Pacific Northwest and owns 15,000 miles of transmission line and 200 substations, had confirmed at least one incident. The agency called it a “deliberate physical attack” that damaged a substation in Clackamas County, Oregon, early on Thanksgiving morning.

Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW obtained an email written by Kenneth Worstell, a security specialist with the Bonneville Power Administration, that details that attack. Two people cut through the fence surrounding a high-voltage sub-

Four electrical substations in the Pacific Northwest were attacked in recent weeks. Substations convert high-voltage electricity that travels across long-distance transmission lines to the lower voltages used by businesses and residences. Pictured: Bonneville Dam power lines.

station, then “used firearms to shoot up and disable numerous pieces of equipment and cause significant damage,” Worstell wrote.

Worstell’s memo also referenced “several attacks on various substations,” recently, in western Washington, “including setting the control houses on fire, forced entry and sabotage of intricate electrical control systems, causing short circuits by tossing chains across the overhead buswork, and ballistic attack with small caliber firearms.”

(“Buswork” is a term for the maze of wires and switches that hum overhead at a substation.)

Worstell stated that online extremist groups are calling for the attacks and providing instructions on how to do it.

“There has been a significant uptick in incidents of breakins related to copper and tool or materials theft, but now we are dealing with quickly escalating incidents of sabotage,” Worstell wrote.

CREDIT BRADLEY W. PARKS / OPB

Emails obtained by OPB and KUOW show that at least four electric substations in the region have been attacked, at least two by people with firearms.

A spokesperson for Puget Sound Energy, the largest utility in Washington, confirmed two incidents in late November at two of its substations. Spokesperson Gerald Tracy declined to provide locations or any other details, citing an ongoing investigation by the FBI.

“We are aware of recent threats on power systems across the country and take these very seriously,” Tracy said in an email.

In Oregon, a spokesperson for Portland General Electric confirmed an attack on a substation “in the Clackamas area that occurred in late November 2022.” The utility declined to provide specifics of exactly when the incident occurred and what transpired.

Records obtained by Oregon Public Broadcasting and KUOW indicate the incident disrupted electricity in some areas of Clackamas County, knocking some of the county’s computer systems offline. Records show the incident occurred on Nov. 28, four days after the Bonneville Power Administration facility, also in Clackamas County, was damaged.

“Our teams have assessed the damage and begun repair to the impacted facilities,” Portland General Electric’s Allison Dobscha said in a statement Wednesday.

Seattle City Light, the sole power provider for the Northwest’s largest city, said it had not experienced any attacks.

“Because of these attacks, we’re making sure that we’re being extra vigilant,” Seattle City Light spokesperson Jenn Strang said. “We’re being very diligent about enforcing our physical security in and around our critical infrastructure.”

Traffic lights were dark, schools closed, and tens of thousands of people without power for days in central North Carolina after gunfire attacks on two electrical substations in rural Moore County the evening of Saturday, Dec. 3.

“What happened here Saturday night was a criminal act, and federal, state and local law enforcement are actively working to bring those responsible to justice,” North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper said at a press conference on Monday.

After that incident, NewsNation reported that a federal bulletin had warned of attacks on power facilities, noting reports from utilities in Oregon and Washington.

OPB.

John Ryan focuses on climate change, energy, and the ecosystems of the Puget Sound region. He has also investigated toxic air pollution, landslides, failed cleanups, and money in politics for KUOW.

Elizabeth Letz, Merlin · 1979 Dodge Van

“This 1979 Dodge Van, B 200, 360 engine, V-8, 36-gallon gas tank is my baby. I never called her that, but she is. When I read Anne McGaffrey’s Dragon of Pern series, I called her Silver Dragon in my head, never out loud. That V-8 still liked to haul ass and take on hills, even as late as 2019. Having a vehicle without a computer, nor electronics has been a joy. Open the windows and vents for air. Now, forty-three years later, I’m retired. But the Dodge Van will come out of retirement as a donation to JPR.”

form at www.jprauto.org

Conrad Wilson is a reporter and producer covering criminal justice and legal affairs for

BID. WIN. SUPPORT.

JANUARY 23–FEBRUARY 6

INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT WWW.IJPR.ORG/AUCTION

Thanks to the incredible generosity of our regional business community and those bidders who went all-out, JPR’s first ever Online Auction last year was a tremendous success! In fact, it was so triumphant that we present you with the 2023 Online Auction!  Bidding begins on January 23.

JPR is grateful to those who contributed! There are many more donors listed on our website that we were not able to include due to print deadlines.

Don’t miss this opportunity to bid on amazing donations from these generous contributors...

Britt Cottage

Love Aesthetics

Vintage Wine Bar & Restaurant

Melody Jones

DOWN TO EARTH

ROMAN BATTAGLIA

By cleaning up the feeder creeks like Little Butte, the water that comes into the treatment plant is cleaner, and requires less filtering or chemical treatments to make it safe to drink.

Partnership Helps Improve Drinking Water, Restore Fish Habitat In Oregon’s Rogue River Basin

The Rogue River Watershed Council has been restoring sections of Little Butte Creek north of Medford. It’s part of a unique partnership focused on cleaning up drinking water and restoring fish habitat that has provided almost $4 million dollars for environmental projects across the Pacific Northwest.

The program, from the Drinking Water Providers Partnership, provides grants across Oregon and Washington that simultaneously improve drinking water quality and restore fish habitat.

The partnership is taking new applications for projects through Jan. 7, 2022.

“One of the real benefits, I think, of this kind of partnership is to recognize the connection between clean, safe drinking water, public health, and restoration projects that benefit all the other beneficial uses,” says Craig Harper, watershed administrator for the Medford Water Commission, which provides drinking water to residents of the Rogue Valley.

Harper says Little Butte Creek empties out directly where the commission collects water from the Rogue River.

The Rogue River Watershed Council has been removing invasive species and placing logs in the creek to slow erosion and filter out contaminants.

Restoration Biologist Lance Wyss points out a new livestock fence they installed to restore riparian forest along the creek.

“It creates a larger filter from the stream and what the groundwater has to go through,” Wyss says.

Once the cows were moved further away from the creek, Wyss and his team were able to focus on invasive blackberry bushes that had taken over the riparian forest, outcompeting native shrubs and grasses.

“We’re just getting something out of the way for the natural process to start again,” he says. “So we’re helping the riparian forest recover by getting the major impediment out, which is usually Armenian blackberry” (also known as Himalayan blackberry).

Wyss says they haven’t done any seeding on this project at all. Once the invasive species are removed, the native plants that were once struggling are able to thrive again.

By cleaning up the feeder creeks like Little Butte, the water that comes into the treatment plant is cleaner, and requires less filtering or chemical treatments to make it safe to drink.

Their work will improve water quality for hundreds of thousands of residents who use water along the Rogue River.

This is one of four projects that the Rogue River Watershed Council has been funded through the DWPP. A restoration of a portion of Bear Creek in partnership with the City of Rogue River is their next proposal, according to watershed council Executive Director Brian Barr.

CREDIT ROMAN BATTAGLIA / JPR

CREDIT ROMAN BATTAGLIA / JPR

Biologist Lance Wyss points at the riparian forest they’ve restored near the creek. The entire area behind him was filled with invasive blackberry bushes.

The South fork of Little Butte Creek, where the Rogue River Watershed Council has been doing restoration work. They placed logs throughout the creek to slow the river down and reduce erosion, as well as provide habitat for native fish.

LAURA SULLIVAN

Recycling Plastic Is Practically Impossible — And The Problem Is Getting Worse

The vast majority of plastic that people use, and in many cases put into blue recycling bins, is headed to landfills, or worse, according to a report from Greenpeace on the state of plastic recycling in the U.S.

The report cites separate data published in May which revealed that the amount of plastic actually turned into new things has fallen to new lows of around 5%. That number is expected to drop further as more plastic is produced.

Greenpeace found that no plastic — not even soda bottles, one of the most prolific items thrown into recycling bins — meets the threshold to be called “recyclable” according to standards set by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation New Plastic Economy Initiative. Plastic must have a recycling rate of 30% to reach that standard; no plastic has ever been recycled and reused close to that rate.

“More plastic is being produced, and an even smaller percentage of it is being recycled,” says Lisa Ramsden, senior plastic campaigner for Greenpeace USA. “The crisis just gets worse and worse, and without drastic change will continue to worsen as the industry plans to triple plastic production by 2050.”

Waste management experts say the problem with plastic is that it is expensive to collect and sort. There are now thousands of different types of plastic, and none of them can be melted down together. Plastic also degrades after one or two uses. Greenpeace found the more plastic is reused the more toxic it becomes.

New plastic, on the other hand, is cheap and easy to produce. The result is that plastic trash has few markets — a reality the public has not wanted to hear.

Trent Carpenter, the general manager of Southern Oregon Sanitation, says when they told customers a couple years ago that they could no longer take any plastic trash other than soda bottles and jugs — like milk containers and detergent bottles — people were upset. They wanted to put their strawberry containers, bags, yogurt cups and all manner of plastic trash in their recycling bin.

“We had to re-educate individuals that a great deal of that material is ending up in a landfill,” Carpenter said. “It’s not going to a recycling facility and being recycled. It’s going to a recycling facility and being landfilled someplace else because [you] can’t do anything with that material.”

That message has been difficult for the public to absorb with so many different bins in public spaces, and their own communities telling them to put their plastic in recycling containers.

Carpenter says they wanted to be transparent with their customers and tell them the truth, unlike companies that con-

tinue to tell customers that plastic, such as bags and containers, is being turned into new things.

“Politically it’s easier to just say ‘Gosh, we’re going to take everything and we think we can get it recycled,’ and then look the other way,” Carpenter said of the other companies. “That’s greenwashing at its best.”

Greenpeace found a couple facilities are trying to reprocess cups and containers — sometimes called “number 5s” because of the markings on the containers. But the numbers are low. While 52% of recycling facilities in the U.S. accept that kind of plastic, the report found less than 5% of it is actually repurposed — and the rest is put into a landfill.

Similarly, the National Association for PET Container Resources, an industry trade group, found in 2017 that only 21 percent of the plastic bottles collected for recycling were turned into new things.

The low reprocessing rates are at odds with plans from the oil and gas industry. Industry lobbyists say they plan to recycle every piece of plastic they make into something new by 2040. In interviews with NPR, industry officials were unable to explain how they planned to reach a 100 percent recycling rate.

An NPR investigative report found in 2020 that industry officials misled the public about the recyclability of plastic even though their own reports showed they knew as early as the 1970s and 1980s that plastic could not be economically recycled.

The American Chemistry Council, an industry lobby group, initially did not respond to NPR’s request for comment on the

LAURA SULLIVAN/NPR

Unwanted used plastic sits outside Garten Services, a recycling facility in Oregon.

NPR News Focus: Environment

Greenpeace report. After publication, Joshua Baca, vice president of plastics for the group, sent an email to NPR calling Greenpeace’s views “misleading, out of touch and misguided.”

He said the industry believes it is “on the cusp of a circularity revolution” when it comes to recycling plastic by “scaling up sortation, advanced recycling, and new partnerships that enable used plastic to be remade again and again.”

Environmentalists and lawmakers in some states are now pushing for legislation that bans single use plastics, and for “bottle bills” which pay customers to bring back their plastic bottles. The bills have led to successful recycling rates for plastic bottles in places like Oregon and Michigan, but have faced steep resistance from plastic and oil industry lobbyists.

“The real solution is to switch to systems of reuse and refill,” Ramsden said. “We are at a decision point on plastic pollution. It is time for corporations to turn off the plastic tap.”

After years of embracing plastic recycling, many environmental groups say they hope the public will finally see plastic for what they say it is — trash — and that people will ask themselves if there is something else they could be using instead.

Down To Earth

This partnership breaks the mold of siloed government programs and brings together groups that may not typically communicate, according to Tonya Graham, executive director of the Geos Institute.

“Over time, as they get to know each other, as they develop that partnership, they may find other places where they can work together that are not necessarily Drinking Water Provider Partnership type projects, but they’re something else that benefits the community and the landscape at the same time,” Graham says.

The Geos Institute helped found the DWPP in 2016 to combine separate funding sources.

Applicants apply for the partnership as a whole, and the institute, working with both state and federal agencies, decide where each proposal should receive funding from.

Graham says each of the five funding sources has different requirements, so this process makes it easier for applicants by taking out some of the research and time needed to fill out multiple applications.

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

Connected & Protected

As Oregon’s first land trust, we have conserved more than 12,400 acres in the Rogue River Region, with support from a broad, committed community of people. Together, we are leaving a legacy of open spaces, clean water, and healthy, extensive spaces for wildlife. Protected—and connected—in perpetuity, these exceptional natural areas make our communities more desirable places to live and work, sustaining Oregon’s distinctive landscape and character. Can you help?

Photo by Harry Brindley

RECORDINGS

NOAH BRANN-LINDSDAY, DANIELLE KELLY, DAVE JACKSON

The List(s)

They’re still sweeping up the confetti. Auld Lang Syne is likely still in your head. Another year begins, and it’s time to reflect on the last. That means best-of lists and your hosts on Open Air are excited to weigh-in on the best albums of 2022. We broke it down into individual lists and one for those where there was mutual appreciation.

The Noah List (Host: The Folk Show and Open Air)

From twangy singer-songwriter ballads to driving indie-electro, my tastes stand squarely with one foot in each camp, and there was a lot that fit that bill in 2022.

LP – Churches

Celebrating all things non-binary with a vibrant and crisp cast of characters–so fabulous!

Lane 8 – Reviver

Coloradan Daniel Goldstein aka Lane 8, serves up tasty, resonant, thoughtful beats. We turned up the studio monitors loud when the mail arrived that day!

Tears for Fears – The Tipping Point Pleasantly in-depth, listenable and fresh, and still evocative of their heyday in time and music.

Amanda Shires – Take It Like a Man

Her 2022 masterpiece. Surprising, sharp-witted and musically infused with some of the best in the biz, I can’t get enough. She sounds bold, sassy, confident. We love it! Her best effort yet.

Marcus Mumford – Self-Titled This solo release drips of the confident English-American’s brand of folk rock, in all the right ways. (Also on DK’s honorable mention list)

The Lone Bellow – Love Songs for Losers

Combining the best of production, songwriting, soulfulness and catchy riffs, The Lone Bellow’s latest is crunchy and slick simultaneously. Eminently listenable.

Highasakite – Mother

Musicianship, storytelling, beats, lush production and pithy writing abound. Soaring vocals and tight execution make this a must-listen.

Declan O’Rourke – Arrivals

Dubliner Declan O’Rourke’s Arrivals arrived early in the year, recorded late in the last, and felt fitting for the dreary season of its release and pleasing strumming, heart and lilt.

Punch Brothers – Hell on Church Street Out-banjoin’ and mandolinin’ just about any would-be old-

timey musician, this excellent production is an ode to Tony Rice’s 1983 album of the same name.

Sophie & the Broken Things – Delusions of Grandeur Crunchy country with tight songwriting, fatalistic stories, and an appearance by Logan Ledger.

The Danielle List (Host: Open Air)

I am a sucker for dance inducers or earworm “sing-alongers” so for those reasons, these are a few of my top favorite albums from Open Air for 2022 (in no particular order).

Lucius – 2nd Nature

This has me dancing around the car, house, radio station every time with an infectious 70’s club groove and feel-good, selflove messages woven throughout. It’s girl power amplified by some backing vocals from Brandi Carlile.

Florence and the Machine – Dance Fever

She again managed to incorporate heavy, universal human experience into anthemic bangers that had me steering wheel drumming along to the builds of every chorus.

Black keys – Dropout Boogie

I’ve never wanted to play a game of kickball in my life, now I do, with Dan Auerbach as team captain of course. Fun, stompy, repeatable choruses.

Sylvan Esso – No Rules Sandy More synth-based, loopy goodness as always.

Joanne Shaw Taylor – Nobody’s Fool

Another instant favorite for me. This is not a debut album, but the twelfth for this British blues soul guitar rocker. Support on this album from the likes of Joe Bonnamasa. I’m grateful to Open Air for putting this one on my radar.

Bonnie Raitt – Just Like That

The songwriting queen still reigns supreme. Her lead off-track, “Made-Up Mind”, felt like a well-worn classic the moment I heard it. I love that she included a cover of the California Honey Drops song of “Here Comes Love”. It had Dave and I scratching our heads at first trying to figure out whose guitar and whose vocal riff was whose.

Paul Cauthen – Country Coming Down Expanding on his tongue in cheek humor, sarcasm. Upbeat songs making fun of himself and pop country culture.

Goose – Dripfield

Jammy goodness that stuck to the back of my mind for hours after each listen, some tracks moody, some more party, all on repeat. (Also on DJ’s honorable mention list)

Bonobo – Fragments; Ry X – Blood Moon; Adrian Quesada –Jaguar Sound; Abraxas – Monte Carlo. These albums are perfect for zoned out daydreaming with a great beat.

Kurt Vile – Watch my Moves

Kurt shared his lockdown imagining and playtime with his kiddos on this album, full of quintessential Vile quirkiness.

Dope Lemon – Rose Pink Cadillac

Hard to put my finger on why, but Angus Stone’s solo project title track adds a new favorite pet name to my arsenal. Groovy, toe tapping weirdness. (Also on DJ’s honorable mention list)

Seth Avett – Sings Greg Brown

Melts me to hear one of today’s pop folk stars breathing new life and awareness to one of my all-time favorite veteran folk heroes Greg brown. “Poet Game” makes me tear up and “You Drive Me Crazy” gives me a silly grin. (Also on DJ’s honorable mention list)

Honorable Mention: Wild Rivers, Sidelines; Nicki Bluhm, Avondale Drive; Alt J,The Dream (on DJ’s honorable mention list); Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder, Get on Board; Craig Finn, A Legacy of Rentals; Wilco, Cruel Country; Andrew Bird, Inside Problems; Lettuce, Unify; Avi Kaplan, Floating on a Dream; Caamp, Lavender Days; Mt. Joy, Orange Blood; Color Green, Color Green (also on DJ’s honorable mention list), Maggie Rogers, Surender; Jack Broadbent, Ride; Jake la Botz, Hair on Fire, Marcus Mumford, Self Titled; Larkin Poe – Blood Harmony, Caitlin Rose, Cazimi.

The Dave List (Host: Open Air, Music Director: Rhythm & News)

Of the over 300 hundred albums we added to the JPR Music Library in 2022, I found about 24 that could be considered my favorites.

Andrew Bird – Inside Problems.

The violin-playing wordsmith returned with his signature wit and clever insights set to infectious grooves that borrow from Beethoven and songs that celebrate the life and work of author Joan Didion. (Also on DK’s honorable mention list)

Seth Walker – Hope I Know.

The title track borrows from a Hawaiian poem on this Jano Rix (The Wood Brothers) produced album. Like many albums written during the pandemic, it is quieter and introspective and rewards us for really tuning-in.

Jake Blount – The New Faith.

An award-winning banjo player and musical scholar, Blount released an album of Afro-centric, post-apocalyptic spirituals set in a world destroyed by climate change. Based on old gospel, it imagines how these future climate refugees would worship and what that might sound like.

Melissa Carper – Ramblin’ Soul.

It’s heartfelt, humorous and dabbles in old country, rock-abilly, Texas swing and even a little old school jazz. It makes me smile every time. We’ll have a JPR Live Session with her later this month.

Honorable Mention: Alt-J, The Dream; Dope Lemon, Rose Pink Cadillac; Goose, Dripfield; Adrian Quesada; Boleros Psicedellicos; Color Green, Color Green; Tami Neilson, Kingmaker; Jake La Botz, Hair on Fire; Brennen Leigh (w/Asleep at the Wheel), Obsessed With the West; Molly Tuttle and Golden Highway, Crooked Tree; Beth Orton, Weather Alive; Seth Avett, Seth Avett Sings Greg Brown; Yates McKendree, Buchannan Lane. Late arrivals I’m still absorbing but may otherwise make the list — Larking Poe, Blood Harmony and Rayland Baxter, If I Were a Butterfly.

Some we agree on:

Tedeschi Trucks Band – I Am The Moon I-IV. (DJ) I’m calling it one album. From the concept through to the final product, this 4-LP series started with an ancient poem and parallels between TTB and the Derek and the Dominoes album Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs and features the 12-piece band at their musical and creative best. (DK) Sufi poem woven into stellar horn lines, guitar riffs and melodies from one of our in-house all-time favorites.

Coffis brothers – Turn up my Radio (DJ) The Coffis Brothers, worked with Tim Bluhm of the bay area band Mother Hips. They have a classic California sound reminiscent of The Byrds and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. (DK) Santa Cruz band I’d love to see live. It’s their goofy rhyming for me: “Holy toledo I think it’s pretty neato”

Jennifer Hartswick – Something in the Water. (DJ) Trumpeter and vocalist Jennifer Hartswick is an original member of the Trey Anastasio Band. She is joined by Christian McBride on bass on her latest release – a jazz/pop/ rocker showcasing her skills as a multi-faceted musician and performer.

(DK) Funky band and sassy, commanding vocals from the girl who was an original member playing trumpet in the Trey Anastasio Band as a teen.

Vieux Farka Toure’ et Khruangbin – Ali (DK) The merging of the Malian and Texan desserts and a tribute to the late Ali Farke Touré proved to be otherworldly. (DJ) When I first heard that Vieux Farka Toure’ joined forces with the Texas psych-funk trio Khruangbin, I got chills. The result, a tribute to Vieux’s father, the late Ali Farka Toure’, withstood the high expectation with room to spare.

John Craigie – Mermaid Salt.

(DJ) Written and produced during the lockdown, it has an elegant DIY sound showcasing Craigie’s masterful lyrics and dark humor. The mysterious ghost story, Helena, featuring haunting backing vocals by the Shook Twins, is, if I had to choose, my favorite song this year.

(DK) Beautiful stripped-down Craigie songwriting, akin to Sean Hayes on Lowlight, going a little more introspective as well as electronic.

Charley Crockett – The Man From Waco (DJ) Who doesn’t love a handsome man singing authentic Americana from the standpoint of someone who’s been there? Crockett checks all the boxes on this record, one of a couple he released in 2022, the other being an album of classic country tunes.

(DK) What Dave said.

Thanks for listening. The three of us couldn’t enjoy sharing music with you more. We look forward to seeing what’s ahead in 2023.

UNDERGROUND HISTORY

CHELSEA ROSE

Lincoln Heights

On Sept. 2, 2022 a fire erupted in the Roseburg Forest Products mill in Weed, California. Over the course of this devastating fire, it burned thousands of acres and leveled more than 100 structures. Much of that loss was in Lincoln Heights, a historically Black neighborhood dating to the 1920s. We were joined by second generation Lincoln Heights resident Al Bearden and documentarian Mark Oliver on a recent episode of Underground History to discuss the history of the community and where it stands today.

Two people were tragically killed in what was dubbed the Mill Fire and others were injured. Out of the roughly 60 homes that comprised the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, just a dozen survived. The loss of this close-knit community is similar to some of those lost in Southern Oregon’s 2020 Almeda Fire, where neighborhoods comprised of friends and extended families were destroyed and the complex web of insurance, extreme housing costs, and other barriers have made them nearly impossible to recreate.

In the 1920s, hundreds of African Americans came to Weed from the southern states to work at the mill, along with Italians

In the 1920s, hundreds of African Americans came to Weed from the southern states to work at the mill, along with Italians and other ethnicities.

and other ethnicities. While many towns relied on similar labor pools to support mills and other industries, Weed is unique in that this population put down roots and has remained in the area for generations.

Unsurprisingly, for the Black residents of this small rural town, life was not always easy. In the early years, the Black community was effectively segregated to an area called The Quarters, which included businesses and a cemetery, in addition to family homes. This area was later renamed Lincoln Heights.

The mill provided steady work for families, but Black men were barred from the more specialized jobs that many were more than qualified for. The second generation fought for change in the community after a chapter of the Congress of Racial Equity (CORE) was established in Weed in 1966. Residents used protests, marches, and boycotts to encourage local businesses to end discriminatory hiring practices and to allow the Black community to work in the very businesses that their dollars supported. The community also pushed to swap out the Southern street names that comprised their neighbor-

MILK STREET CHRISTOPHER KIMBALL

Don’t overheat the milk, and be sure the butter has cooled after melting. The 20-minute kneading time in the mixer warms the dough, so making sure the milk and butter are not too hot will prevent the dough from overheating,which can adversely affect the yeast.

MAKES 16 BUNS

6 HOURS, 1 HOUR ACTIVE

For the dough

390 grams (3 cups) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

103 grams (¾ cup) bread flour

80 grams (6 tablespoons) white sugar

1 tablespoon instant yeast

1 teaspoon cardamom seeds ground (see headnote) ¾ teaspoon table salt

1¼ cups whole milk, warmed to 100°f

113 grams (8 tablespoons) salted butter, melted and cooled

Swedish Cardamom Buns (Kardemummabullar)

Swedish kardemummabullar are soft, rich yeasted buns with an aromatic butter, sugar and cardamom filling. This recipe does require a bit of time commitment and willingness to roll, measure, cut and shape the buns. We think it’s worth it. Despite being rich with butter, milk and an egg yolk, the dough is remarkably easy to handle. It’s essential to use cardamom seeds that you have ground yourself. Preground cardamom doesn’t come close to having the same flavor, aroma or visual appeal. Be sure to purchase decorticated cardamom seeds—seeds that have been removed from the thick, fibrous pods—and grind them in a mortar with a pestle or pulse them in an electric spice grinder to a mix of powder and tiny flecks. For the dough’s first rise (the bulk fermentation), we use a 9-by-13-inch baking dish as the container. This allows the dough to cool more quickly once it’s in the refrigerator. It also makes the dough easy to roll into a rectangle for filling because it takes on the shape of the baking dish. If you wish to make the buns over the course of two days, the ideal stopping point is after putting the dough in the refrigerator; it can remain there for up to 24 hours before rolling, filling, shaping and baking. Leftover baked buns, if you have any, will keep for up to three days in an airtight container; they reheat well in a 350°F oven for 5 to 8 minutes.

1 large egg, separated, white refrigerated in an airtight container and reserved for brushing

For the filling

170 grams (12 tablespoons) salted butter, room temperature

163 grams (¾ cup) packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons cardamom seeds, ground

27 grams (2 tablespoons) white sugar

Directions

To make the dough, in a stand mixer with the dough hook, mix both flours, the sugar, yeast, cardamom and salt on low until combined, about 30 seconds. In a liquid measuring cup or small bowl, combine the milk and butter. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the milk mixture to the dry ingredients, followed by the egg yolk. Mix on low until the ingredients form a rough, sticky dough, 2 to 3 minutes.

Increase to medium-low and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic and pulls away cleanly from the sides of the bowl, about 20 minutes. The dough should be supple and soft to the touch; it also will feel warm.

Mist a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Scrape the dough into the baking dish and press it with your hands to flatten it into an even layer that is as thin as possible. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until just shy of doubled in size, about 1 hour. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill for at least 2 hours or up to 24 hours.

When you are ready to fill, shape and bake the buns, make the filling. In a medium bowl, mash together butter,brown sugar and cardamom until well combined; set aside. Line 2 rimmed baking sheets with kitchen parchment.

Lightly flour the counter and turn the chilled dough out onto it with a short end nearest you; try to maintain the rectangular shape. Lightly dust the dough with flour and roll it into a 12-by-16-inch rectangle of even thickness,occasionally flipping the dough to ensure it is not sticking. Spread the filling in an even layer on the dough, all the way to the edges. Fold the top third of the dough down over itself, then fold the bottom third up. Rotate the dough so a short side is nearest you and roll the dough once again into a 12-by-16-inch rectangle of even thickness.

Rotate the rectangle so a long side is parallel with the counter’s edge. Using a metal bench scraper or pizza wheel, trim the short sides to create straight lines; discard the scraps. Cut the dough crosswise into 16 even strips.

Pick up one strip by the ends and gently stretch it to about 16 inches by gently “bouncing” it against the counter while very gently pulling on the ends.

Twist the ends of the strip in opposing directions while gently stretching it to create a loose spiral about 16inches long.

Holding it in place between your thumb and your index, middle and ring fingers, wrap the strip around your fingers.

Fully wrap the strip around your index, middle and ring fingers without untwisting the spiral.

Tuck the end under and up into the center while sliding out your fingers to create a turban-shaped knot. Pinch the center of the bottom of the bun to seal so the coil does not unwind during baking. Place on one of the prepared baking sheets.

Shape the remaining dough strips in the same way, arranging 8 buns on each baking sheet, placing them in 2outer rows of 3 and an inner row of 2, for staggered spacing. Drape a kitchen towel over each baking sheet or cover lightly with plastic wrap and let rise until the buns are nearly doubled in size, 45 minutes to 1. hours (timing depends on the temperature of the dough as well as the ambient temperature in the room).

While the buns are rising, heat the oven to 400°F with a rack in the middle position. In a small bowl, use a fork to beat the reserved egg white with 1 tablespoon water.

When the buns are nearly doubled in size, lightly brush each on the first baking sheet with egg white, then sprinkle with half of the white sugar. Bake until the buns are deep golden brown, 15 to 18 minutes; it is normal for some filling to seep out and caramelize on the baking sheet. Meanwhile, brush the remaining buns with egg white and sprinkle with the remaining white sugar.

When the buns are done, cool on the baking sheet on a wire rack. Bake the buns on the second baking sheet in the same manner. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

Underground History

Continued from page 43

hood- and Dixie, Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama Avenue were replaced with Crestmore, Alameda, Church, and Wakefield Avenues respectively. These peaceful demonstrations were effective at breaking down some of the segregation that dominated the community throughout the mid-20th century. Al Bearden’s brother, Charles Byrd, became the first African American man to be elected sheriff in the state of California in 1986, and went on to serve the region for four terms.

The cluster of buildings and people that was, and hopefully can be again, the neighborhood of Lincoln Heights represents what we call ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage.’ It is a significant part of the history and culture of Siskiyou County, and the fire has left its future unclear. Residents are struggling to get the support they need to rebuild this neighborhood and keep the community together. Many of these homes were passed down through multi-generational families, and insurance premiums often don’t come near the actual costs of replacing an historic building. To further complicate things, zoning laws have changed since the buildings were built in the early 20th century, and as a result, many of the lots will not be approved for the same size and configuration of buildings that were there before. It can be tricky for folks to find housing while they sort out the long process of rebuilding, which will likely lead to a demographic shift for the neighborhood and town as residents are forced to move elsewhere.

Oliver’s 2011 film From the Quarter to Lincoln Heights, which he produced with James Langford, provides a fascinating overview of the community. The film is rich with photos and personal stories about current and former residents of Weed and the surrounding communities of McCloud and Mount Shasta. This film both memorializes and underscores just how much was lost to the fire. Sadly, it took this fire for me to learn about the community of Lincoln Heights. I hope others will join me in recognizing its importance to the region and look for ways to support its residents in sustaining it for the next 100 years.

You can pick up a copy of From the Quarters to Lincoln Heights on Mark Oliver’s website, and learn more about his other projects in the region: https://markoliver.org/from-thequarters-to-lincoln-heights

To read more about the Lincoln Heights neighborhood and the wildfire that destroyed much of it, turn to page 17.

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

Chelsea Rose is an archaeologist with the Southern Oregon University Laboratory of Anthropology (SOULA) and co-host of the 2022 Oregon Heritage Excellence Award winning Underground History, a monthly segment that airs during the Jefferson Exchange on JPR’s News & Information service.

POETRY

LAURI ROSE

Ovaries and Eggs

Nestled in the basket of your pelvis They rest like queens protected from the world. Surrounded by glistening bone and red muscle They succumb, on the occasion of the moon, To the gentle fanning of fallopian tubes Who court them with outstretched tendrils and Call like sirens, “Send me your children.”

No bigger than walnuts, one to each side They hold complete So many thousands of eggs; So many millions of chromosomes Twisting in mysterious combinations of Adenine, cytosine, guanine and thymine.

This then is a woman’s mystery, To go about life—dishes, cars, jobs— As though it didn’t matter That cradled deep inside, since before they were even born, are all these half-children patiently waiting.

Lauri Rose is a hospice nurse and poet living on a small homestead in the coastal mountains of Humboldt County. She shares the homestead with her husband, a dog, three cats, and three geriatric chickens. When she isn’t nursing or writing she enjoys watching the deer, gardening, and playing stick with her incredibly happy dog. She has been published in the Northcoast Journal, Nursing, The Sun, and several anthologies.

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 selfaddressed, stamped envelope to:

Amy Miller, Poetry Editor

Jefferson Journal

1250 Siskiyou Blvd Please allow eight Ashland, OR 97520 weeks for reply.

The Price of Grace

On the way to the outhouse I Startle the deer who gaze at me Their haunches a tight question mark. Slowly they relax And dip their antlered heads Deep into the lettuce bed. Why not? It is only me.

My neighbor built a fence 9 feet high. He made it out of the kind of wire they use On wild animal parks, “See it won’t bend,” He says Grabbing the top and pulling hard. Another friend got a young dog Who barks and chases and comes back smiling.

In the outhouse

Where one has time for philosophy, I contemplate my neighbors’ prudence— And abundance of lettuce.

The deer, I know from long association, Have now moved out of the garden, Are flowing down the road A gentle drift of variegated browns. As they amble by, fearless, I cannot feel entirely bad That I have been gifted With this lesson in grace.

So I think, as I button my pants, That perhaps it is not such a sin To hope they will reciprocate The favor of my lettuce unharassed With a glimpse of spotted fawns Barely licked clean and learning Where the red leaf lettuce grows.

Southern Oregon University 1250 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland OR 97520-5025