The Other Oregon - Fall 2018 by designstudio.eomg

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON VOLUME 1, ISSUE 1 | Fall 2018

TWO ECONOMIES

CONNECT RURAL & URBAN OREGON

Resource-driven rural industries rely on consumers in the city, but are prone to boom-and-bust cycles INSIDE Â» PAGE 12

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WELCOME / ABOUT US

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

he Other Oregon was Joe Beach’s idea. It came from his deep understanding of and appreciation for rural Oregon. Joe is the editor and publisher of the Capital Press, a weekly newspaper covering Northwest agriculture. He also directs reporters covering state government for our company’s capital bureau in Salem. Although Capital Press is well known and beloved in rural areas, Joe knew that most people living in urban Oregon were not reading the stories of rural farmers, ranchers and those who make their living in the world of agriculture and natural resources. Capital Press is part of EO Media Group, an Oregon-based, family-owned newspaper group that began when my great-grandfather became an owner of the East Oregonian in Pendleton in 1908. Now we own 10 newspapers besides the Capital Press: five on the Oregon coast, one on the southwest coast of Washington and four in northeastern Oregon. All cover the news, triumphs and challenges of rural communities. We believe there is really just one Oregon — we are interconnected and we’re all in this together. We wish there wasn’t an urban-rural divide. We want to help create a more robust urban-rural interface — where urban Oregonians have connections to rural Oregonians, and vice versa. Most of the food urban-dwellers eat comes from rural lands — much of it from right here in Oregon. Electricity is generated in rural Oregon — from our dams, wind farms, solar projects and power plants. And increasingly, much of our data — social media accounts, iCloud storage and much more — is stored in giant data centers in rural Oregon. So, what is the magazine called The Other Oregon all about? It’s a way to help urban Oregonians, especially those who have political and economic clout, get a glimpse of real life in rural Oregon — and help make personal connections and build relationships along the way. — Kathryn B. Brown, Publisher

This inaugural issue of The Other Oregon is being distributed in print to 5,000 key decision makers in Oregon, including legislators and congressional representatives, state agency heads, economic development groups, mayors and city managers, county commissioners, chamber directors, the heads of Oregon colleges and universities, our steering committee members and leaders of large businesses in urban areas. For information about subscribing or advertising: kbbrown@eomediagroup.com • 541-278-2667 • TheOtherOregon.com

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

FALL 2018 Publisher Kathryn B. Brown Editor Joe Beach Contributors Dick Hughes Aliya Hall Mitch Lies Katy Nesbitt Gary West Desiree Bergstrom Mateusz Perkowski George Plaven Brad Carlson E.J. Harris Designer Adam Drey Copy editor Martha Allen Advertising designer John Bruijn

CONTENTS COVER STORY » 12 FEATURES What, and where, is rural Oregon? » 4 Is Salem listening? » 6 Insko sets EOU’s course » 10 MAKING A LIVING Agriculture is big business » 16 RDI builds rural economies » 18 Minimum wage debate » 22 THE LAND Living in the fire’s wake » 24 Water is the life blood » 26 THE CULTURE Rural lifestyle draws student home » 30 Living in Oregon, on Mountain Time » 32 Help is 30 miles away » 34 Klamath County facts and figures » 36 Where in the world is ... » 37

THANKS TO OUR STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Fall 2018 | 3

FEATURES / RURAL OREGON

WHAT, AND WHERE, IS

4 | The Other Oregon

RURAL OREGON?

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

Rural communities share similar concerns, but represent complex and diverse demographics By DICK HUGHES

f you think metropolitan Oregon is diverse, consider rural Oregon. “I would argue Portland and Eugene are more similar to each other than Astoria is to Baker City,” says Eric Schuck, an agricultural economist at Linfield College in McMinnville. Those differences make it difficult even to define rural Oregon. “What is Bend these days? Bend proper, is it urban? Is it rural? Or is it something different and new?” says Kevin Curry, an adjunct professor at Linfield and former Republican staffer in the Legislature. Curry also cites Oregon House District 26, currently held by Rep. Rich Vial, R-Scholls: “This seat includes both Wilsonville and Sherwood, as well as a tiny bit of Hillsboro, but also a major swath of unincorporated, and traditionally rural/agricultural, Washington County. Is this rural or urban? Rep. Vial has to represent both interests. “Since the goal of an elected official is to represent their district, and in doing so get re-elected, their voting interests in the Legislature should be to maximize support in their district. Obviously, this becomes more difficult for ‘mixed’ districts like Rep. Vial’s seat.” Some Democratic legislators face similar challenges. “There are Democrats representing a lot of rural Oregonians. They, too, struggle to speak up for people in their district,” says House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland. In any case, there are few truly rural legislators left. Political scientist Jim Moore of Pacific University notes that most lawmakers representing rural Oregon live in cities. “It’s tricky because so many [legislators] from Southern Oregon and Eastern

Oregon aren’t rural,” he says. “They’re from Bend, they’re from Klamath Falls, they’re from Medford, so they’re suburban.” And those rural towns are turning into rural Portlands, according to Sen. Brian Boquist. “The dynamics have changed. You can’t say ‘rural Oregon’ anymore. The

“The dynamics have changed. You can’t say ‘rural Oregon’ anymore. The food you can get in downtown Portland in the Pearl District you can get in downtown Enterprise.” Sen. Brian Boquist

food you can get in downtown Portland in the Pearl District you can get in downtown Enterprise,” he says. “What happens in Portland can happen 10 minutes later in Enterprise, if not 5 minutes.” One dividing line for rural Oregon might be the absence of high-speed internet. That lack of access includes Boquist’s home – a farm in Polk County. The difficulty of defining “rural” also extends to charitable and educational institutions. For example, when awarding grants, The Ford Family Foundation considers 26 of Oregon’s 36 counties as exclusively rural. Yet the definition became more challenging when the foundation teamed up with the Oregon State

University Extension Service to produce “Oregon by the Numbers,” a statistical look at the state and its counties. “At the county level and the local level, data can help people know themselves better,” says foundation President Anne Kubisch. Their report, published this summer, uses the U.S. Census Bureau definition of rural, which starts with a definition of urban: An urban area is densely settled, with at least 500 people per square mile and a population of at least 2,500. “Rural” is any area not included in an urban area. By that definition, Douglas County, home to The Ford Family Foundation, is only 41 percent rural. On one end of the rural scale, Multnomah County is 1.3 percent rural; Washington, 5.6 percent; Marion, home to the state capital, 13.1 percent; Lane, 17.5 percent; and Clackamas, 18.1 percent. On the other end, coastal Tillamook is 69.6 percent rural; and five Central and Eastern Oregon counties are 100 percent rural – Gilliam, Grant, Sherman, Wallowa and Wheeler. In Southern Oregon, Josephine County is 45 percent rural while neighboring Jackson County is 20.1 percent. Despite the sometimes broad definition of rural, each county and each community has its own personality. “All of my communities are a little different,” says Courtney Warner Crowell, a Regional Solutions coordinator for the office of Governor Kate Brown. She serves 10 counties in Eastern Oregon. Some have a lot of traded sector industries and renewable industries. Some have the natural beauty that draws tourists. Some are frontier counties. And one, Malheur, faces unique economic pressures from being on the border with Idaho. Warner Crowell is part of a sixthor seventh-generation family rooted in Baker City. After spending years in urban Oregon working for state government and Democratic politicians, she returned a year ago. “I love it out here,” she says. “I drive a lot but there’s no traffic.” Fall 2018 | 5

FEATURES / CAPITOL

Is Salem Listening? Legislators say rural Oregon has a voice at the Capitol, but how much it is heard or understood is open to debate By DICK HUGHES

“D

oes rural Oregon have a voice at the state policy table?” asks Anne Kubisch of The Ford Family Foundation. “A narrow section does but not the many different constituencies in rural Oregon.” Most of Oregon is rural. Yet within that vastness, differences abound. “Each county is so different, so policy responses need to have some differentiation. What happens in Wheeler and Wasco counties is different from Deschutes,” says Kubisch, president of the Roseburg-based foundation. So at the seat of state government in Salem, the question becomes not only “is the voice of rural Oregon heard” but which voice and when? “Rural Oregon is heard. That is a true statement. Now is it understood? That is an entirely different question,” says Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario. “If you haven’t lived there, you won’t understand what’s being said.” Rep. Sherrie Sprenger, a Scio Republican who lives across the state from Bentz, shares that view but phrases it differently.

6 | The Other Oregon

“Many times the voice of rural Oregon is not heard,” she says. “There is a voice and I think many times liberal Oregonians don’t hear our voice and make assumptions. That’s a ‘bad’ on them. And sometimes rural Oregonians scream at them. That’s not better.”

Competing views

Therein lies the disconnect between rural and urban, Republican and Democratic policymakers. Democratic legislators, who are centered in urban areas, believe they go out of their way to understand the needs and concerns of rural legislators, largely Republicans, who in turn believe the urban Democrats don’t go nearly far enough. “I think this is a question for any perspective, that people are heard in the Capitol,” House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, says. “To make sure everyone has a voice, you have to do it intentionally. “I think we do try to understand rural interests. I’ll be honest – I think there are legislators who make an effort to understand [but] some people are not good listeners.” In discussing rural Oregonians and their legislators, Sen. Michael

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario

House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland

Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem

Dembrow, D-Portland, says: “I really do think they have an outsized influence in the Capitol vis-à-vis the numbers. There is an outsized understanding of the problems rural Oregon has.” Rural Republicans disagree. “Democrats want to do whatever is good for Portland,” says Republican Sen. Brian Boquist, who lives in rural Polk County. “People have no idea what it’s like to be a rancher or a farmer or even a state employee in Burns or Lakeview.” Republican Sen. Fred Girod, who lives along the North Santiam River east of Stayton, describes the Legislature’s urban-rural political split this way: “For them, it’s a green vote. For rural Oregon, it’s a matter of jobs and our lifestyle. They listen but they won’t modify their opinion.”

Rural residents feel left out

Such sentiments resonate throughout rural Oregon. Research indicates rural Oregonians — especially those living east of the Cascades — feel they aren’t heard and aren’t listened to. Those feelings create deep frustration. “It creates problems that folks in one part of the state feel they have policies that are not in their best interests,” says John Horvick, vice president and political director of DHM Research in Portland. One factor could be that research also indicates Oregonians pay closer attention to national issues, and often divide along those lines, than to state issues. Yet at the Oregon Capitol, most legislation passes on a bipartisan basis,

Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas

although it’s the difficult issues that grab the headlines. “To people who are in rural Oregon, they don’t feel they have a voice because that’s all they hear about is the conflict,” says political scientist Jim Moore of Pacific University in Forest Grove. “But they’re doing pretty well because the Democrats and Republicans are pretty close so there’s a rural voice on the major committees that are out there. “It’s just when they want to push something, they’re never going to be able to beat the Willamette Valley and Portland-area voices. There are just too many of them.” Democrats control both chambers of the Legislature and are close to gaining a supermajority. Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, agrees with Moore that rural legislators have considerable influence by serving on powerful committees. “I’m an urban legislator,” he says. “I’ve always felt I have an obligation to our state for representing the entire state. If I don’t have that attitude, I shouldn’t be in the Oregon Legislature.”

Lawmakers travel the state

At the behest of Courtney and others, key legislative committees — dealing with transportation, education, state budgets and other issues — sometimes hold public hearings throughout the state. “You learn things that surprise you,” Courtney says. “I am fascinated by rural, small-town Oregon.” In addition, many boards and

Fall 2018 | 7

FEATURES / CAPITOL commissions meet around the state. That sometimes leads to such ironies as the Oregon Transportation Commission meeting in decidedly non-urban John Day while discussing potential tolls on metropolitan Portland freeways. At the Oregon Capitol, legislators who lead committee hearings are encouraged to make time for Oregonians who’ve traveled at least 100 miles to testify. Even then, the testimony might be limited to one to three minutes. About two-thirds of Oregon legislators, including the majority of Democrats, live within 90 minutes of Salem. Many of their constituents can scurry to the Capitol even when a hearing is scheduled on barely an hour’s notice. That opportunity eludes most people living along the coast or in Southern, Central or Eastern Oregon; although the Legislature is working on technology for allowing testimony from remote sites. “We end up having policies given to us by many of the liberals,” says Tillamook County Commissioner Tim Josi, a Democrat and former legislator. “It’s making it difficult for rural Oregon to be economically viable.”

Oregon’s size an issue

Each of the 60 Oregon House districts contains roughly the same population. Each of the 30 Senate districts comprises two adjacent House districts. To include the same number of people as urban districts, rural districts must be far larger geographically. “People do not understand from downtown Portland the sheer size of Oregon,” Bentz says. Neither do they understand the variety within rural Oregon. Sprenger, the Scio lawmaker, represents a district that lies a few miles off Interstate 5 in the Mid-Willamette Valley. It covers parts of Marion and Linn counties and includes 10 communities. In contrast, Bentz lives close to Idaho and represents the Legislature’s largest district. It covers six counties – Baker, Grant, Harney, Jefferson,

8 | The Other Oregon

Malheur and Wheeler — and parts of five others — Clackamas, Deschutes, Lake, Marion and Wasco. Bentz says he appreciates the efforts made by the Legislature to understand rural Oregon. Still, he says, the wideopen spaces of rural Oregon suffer from the “straitjacket of regulations” imposed by the state. “One size does not fit all,” Bentz says. “The Portland shoe is about a size 2 and the Eastern Oregon foot is about a size 10. It’s not a good fit.”

FRE

How are Oregon counties similar? Different? Find out in this free report. Oregon by the Numbers, a report from The Ford Family Foundation, pulls together a suite of community measures and displays them in an easy-to-digest format. Each county gets a close-up look with charts and infographics. The 131-page report is available for free through The Ford Family Foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Select Books program. www.tfff.org/OBTN

FEATURES / EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY

Insko sets a course for Oregon’s rural university

Eastern Oregon University President Tom Insko stands in front of Quinn Coliseum on the EOU campus in La Grande.

Photos by E.J. Harris/EO Media Group

By KATY NESBITT

A GRANDE — Eastern Oregon University’s recent designation as Oregon’s rural university is just the beginning of President Tom Insko’s vision for the 89-year-old institution. Insko himself is a prime example of the kind of student and alum the university wants to produce. Raised in northern Union County, the Elgin High School graduate studied math and business economics, played basketball and was involved in student government at Eastern before becoming one of the region’s most recognized leaders. Upon graduating from Eastern in 1994 Insko got his MBA at William & Mary in Virginia. He said one of the 10 | The Other Oregon

reasons he wanted to go to a school of that caliber was to validate his prior education. “Growing up in a small, rural community I felt like I had gotten a great education,” Insko said. “When I went to William & Mary and did very well I knew I had received a phenomenal education. That is why I am so passionate about what we do in rural communities and how it prepared me for the next step.” Insko’s next step wasn’t the one he planned. It was 1996, the height of the high tech boom. With his eye on a job at Intel he received an unexpected offer. “Out of the blue I got a call from Boise Cascade. I was asked if I was interested in going to work there. I told them no,” Insko said.

He said he worked for the wood products company as an undergrad, but the wood products industry was in decline and had serious challenges — not the path he intended. It was his wife, Emily, who helped him see the advantages of the Boise Cascade position. “Emily reminded me of the people I had met and the products the company made and asked me, ‘Can you see us raising our family in this community?’” Insko said. “So I chose Boise Cascade because it was the right place to me and it brought us right back to La Grande.” Insko was with Boise Cascade for 20 years. As his career advanced he became involved with the university, serving on the university’s foundation board of directors and later as a trustee of Eastern’s governing board. He could

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

see firsthand the financial troubles facing the university and the instability in its leadership. An offer to serve as the university’s president led to another heart-to-heart with his wife. “There were a number of things that got Emily and me sitting down and talking about making this transition. It wasn’t a career move in the monetary sense – it came back to the heart. We love Eastern Oregon and there is more to life than moving up the corporate ladder,” Insko said. Insko said his first concern as president was Eastern’s identity. He said in the early 1990s under President Dave Gilbert the university was very much focused on its entanglement with the rural region, but over the past couple decades that identity became lost. Insko and Tim Seydel, vice president for advancement, had a new vision toward serving rural students and economies. “We are unapologetic about being the rural campus.” Insko said. “Our goals are to be the cultural education and economic driver of rural places.” Eastern had organically become recognized as Oregon’s rural campus based on its location, but Seydel said discussions with Insko and legislators over the course of several years led to writing a bill explaining the reasons why the designation was appropriate. “We were the first in the state to offer distance learning and we serve Oregon’s 12 most eastern counties as well as rural communities on the west side,” Seydel said. Seydel and Inkso shared their draft bill with Reps. Greg Barreto and Greg Smith, as well as Sens. Bill Hansell and Cliff Bentz. Barreto said he testified in front of the House of Representatives on the bill’s behalf. “Part of the designation was to set the university up to make it unique from other universities and help with funding,” Barreto said. “It was a great idea and went through very easily.” Bentz also testified in favor of the bill in the senate.

Peter and Skky Obenwa, of La Grande, talk with EOU President Tom Insko and his wife, Emily, in the Tailgate Zone before the start of the Mounties football season opener against The College of Idaho in La Grande.

“Like other school districts and businesses in frontier Oregon, when we need funding, the rural designation helps present the position a little better,” Bentz said. “If you are going to have a designation with that singular focus it helps people see the value of big, open spaces.” Before the designation the university was already focused on making education accessible and affordable to students around the West, but especially in Oregon with 11 outreach centers around the state — some located in community colleges while others partner with Education Service Districts. At Ontario’s Treasure Valley Community College, Insko said they have what is called a “2+2” program that makes sure students who finish community college in two years can transfer all of their credits and finish at Eastern with a bachelor’s degree in just two more years. Eastern and Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton have dual enrollment allowing students to take classes at different institutions at the same time that count toward a degree.

“By providing the locations and working with rural communities we are making it affordable, the most significance access issue to education we have,” Insko said. Eastern’s online courses are another way of making higher education easy to access for those who have barriers to a brick and mortar college experience. “Eastern is the pioneer for the non-traditional and distance education,” Insko said. “We meet people where they are and provide people that hand up, either online or on campus.” To best prepare students for careers and provide the region’s employers with well-trained employees, Insko said the university formed the Rural Engagement and Vitality Center in partnership with Wallowa Resources. Through the center Eastern is facilitating and developing a talent pipeline for the region. “We are providing unique experiences while working on real, deep experiential learning so when students graduate they have developed essential skills,” Insko said. “We want to be more intentional with how we work with potential employers early on.” Fall 2018 | 11

COVER STORY / ECONOMY

Two economies connect rural & urban Oregon Courtesy Oregon Department of Forestry

Rural areas are tied to natural resources, including logging, ranching and fishing. Those industries are subject to boom-and-bust cycles that impact the stability of local economies.

Resource-driven rural industries rely on consumers in the city, but are prone to boom-and-bust cycles By DICK HUGHES

hen the Eagle Creek Fire struck the Columbia River Gorge in 2017, Gov. Kate Brown and other Portland-area politicians lamented the damage to their beloved recreation area. They spoke with good intentions. But their comments rankled rural Oregonians, reinforcing the perception that Portlanders see the Gorge and much of rural Oregon only as their playground. To rural residents, those orchards, farms and natural resources are their livelihood. “All the Portlandia people drive through it and see, ‘This is what we 12 | The Other Oregon

according to Tim Josi, a former Democratic legislator who is retiring this year as a Tillamook County Commissioner. “There is a certain amount of condescension and arrogance,” he says, reflecting a widespread feeling. “They know what’s best for us.”

want it to look like,’” says state Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas. Lawmakers say it is more common that rural legislators have some familiarity with urban areas than the other Oregon’s two economies The decisions made by state policyway around. The result is that urban makers impact a rural Oregon economy, lawmakers, who control the Legislature, sometimes pass legislation including recreation, that that profoundly affects regions remains largely dependent on where they have never been. natural resources. “When you’re legislating “Oregon now has two economies: one rural and resourcewith recreation in mind, you’re driven, the other urban and legislating our backyard and consumer-oriented,” says Eric our livelihood and our schools,” Eric Schuck Schuck, an agricultural econosays Rep. Sherrie Sprenger, mist at Linfield College. “They R-Scio. “It’s not our recreation.” each need each other, but they don’t The concept of rural Oregon as Portland’s playground breeds unhealthy attialways understand what drives the tudes among some urban lawmakers, other.

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

“They don’t understand each other because they do fundamentally different jobs.” Rural areas are tied to natural resources, including logging, ranching and fishing. Residents have longtime connections to the land. The urban economy centers around technology, commerce and so-called “creative” industries. Urban workers are more mobile. There are a number of people moving into urban areas, whereas some rural areas deal with stagnant or declining population growth. If there is no room in the local economy for young people entering the workforce, they migrate elsewhere. Rural areas are more prone to boombust cycles, according to Schuck, and many rural jobs are geographically fixed. They are tied to the land or water and can only be done by people who EO Media Group live close-by. A sign posted April 3, 2016, in Jordan Valley demonstrated opposition to a proposed 2.5 “It’s neither good nor bad. It just is,” million-acre national monument in Malheur County. Schuck says. For example, “if you don’t do your job unless you live in Clatsop County compared with a job where you and recreation opportunities. Longtime go from one of the richest to one of the can work anywhere you have a phone residents value those same qualities poorest.” line.” while also seeing trees as a harvestable Anne Kubisch, president of The Ford Meanwhile, mismatches exist in crop to be replanted. Family Foundation, backs that viewhow economies around the state are point. performing. Raw feelings “There’s still some very raw feelings Overall, the Oregon economy is More and more people are from the timber wars and water wars remarkably strong, with “a deciding where to live based from the 1980s and 1990s,” she says. bunch of really hot economies centered around Portland, on scenic beauty and related Rural residents, Kubisch says, “feel Eugene and Salem,” Schuck amenities, not economics, says like people in Oregon don’t realize says. In rural areas, the economy Mallory Rahe, a community they’re people who live an environmentally balanced lifestyle. is neither red-hot nor unhealthy. economist with the Oregon State Mallory Rahe “I think there’s the stereotype There’s another tier to the University Extension Service. [among environmentalists] that ‘we’ve Oregon economy, as well: That trend has both advantages got to preserve the land because otherpeople who live on the outskirts of an and disadvantages. wise these people won’t take care of urban area, where they can enjoy a Some rural communities are it.’” scenic lifestyle but are close enough to growing even though longtime residents don’t want to. Retirees who move Oregon is known for growing some take advantage of urban amenities. in have different impacts as taxpayers, of the world’s best timber. A combiSchuck says this has economic, political and social ramifications. nation of factors — including governconsumers and conservationists. ment policies, automation, changes in High-income people like being in “I think everyone from rural Oregon international markets and increased the semi-rural, amenity-driven areas. has a love of the land, and we want timber production in other regions — But their interest in the land is different to manage the land the best we can,” has drastically reduced the number of from the extractive industries, and that says Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton. But wood-products jobs. Meanwhile, as difference plays out in land-use and because of government policies that wildfires have ravaged federal lands, environmental decisions. They may inhibited logging and caused mills to private timber companies have managed want to protect the forest for its beauty shut down, “I’ve watched my district Fall 2018 | 13

COVER STORY / ECONOMY Many rural communities are centered around farming and ranching. The industry is worth $23 billion annually to Oregon’s economy.

E.J. Harris/EO Media Group

their forests so any fires are not as hot and any burned timber is soon salvaged. Kubisch wants forest management to be front and center in discussions about the rural economy. Thirty-some years of macroeconomic change have created an economic and social crisis in Douglas County, where her foundation is based. She is witnessing the second and third generations of people who have not had viable jobs. The number of children in foster care has doubled amid increases in child and spousal abuse, substance abuse and mental health issues. Girod, the Republican senator, says that even when Oregon policymakers discuss scientific management of natural resources, they often cannot agree: “The bad thing about our science in the Capitol is it’s predicated on which biologist you use.” As for the lack of affordable housing, it has become a statewide issue. One consequence is that the methamphetamine epidemic has extended further into rural Oregon because of cheap housing, according to Girod, who lives in the Santiam Canyon. Diversification is hard for resource-dependent economies, especially ones far from an urban center; however, it’s unrealistic to expect the wood products industry to return all the way to its glory days. “It’s limiting to be focused on the 14 | The Other Oregon

past. It’s much harder but more productive to focus on the future,” says economist Rahe. Rural economic development sometimes requires creating the entire value chain, from the initial product to the end user. Economic development must be led locally instead of by outsiders. “Business owners in rural Oregon understand their place. They understand their workforce. They understand their transportation options. They understand their businesses better than anyone else,” Rahe says. There also must be a recognition that small communities are stretched thin. Residents take on all the local civic responsibilities in addition to their own business, education and family roles. Rahe and others say there are a number of successes in the rural economies, such as coastal fishermen selling their catch to small, locally owned businesses instead of big corporations. “There’s a lot of interest from the consumer side and challenges from the producer side,” she says. Other examples include forest cooperatives in Eastern Oregon. “It’s not about becoming equal in the state in some ways, because urban will always dominate,” Rahe says. “It’s recognition there are areas where both areas can benefit. Urban Oregon should want a strong economy in rural Oregon.”

She adds: “Urban Oregon is not out to destroy rural Oregon. They’ve raised their family and grown up in a different context but they’re not the enemy. It’s just hard for some people to understand others. And some try harder than others.” Urban and rural buy from each other and are dependent on each other. Electricity, water and food come from rural. Many services and manufactured goods come from urban. Much of the business at the Port of Portland involves shipping Oregon agricultural products. Because Oregon is an export state, urban traffic — whether Salem’s inadequate bridges or metro Portland’s heavy congestion — delays rural products from getting to domestic markets and overseas. And when the Big One hits Portland and Western Oregon, rural Oregon is counted on to be the savior. “One thing I think Oregonians don’t really understand and appreciate is how interconnected we are. Many jobs in urban Oregon rely on products grown or created in rural Oregon, for example,” says Kevin Curry, an adjunct professor at Linfield. “Consider the value the wine industry brings not only to Yamhill County and McMinnville but to the urban Portland area via tourism and wine-focused businesses. … “Maybe there isn’t as much of a divide as we think.”

DISCOVER YOUR TRUE NATURE THE EASTERN EDGE eou.edu

OREGONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S RURAL UNIVERSITY

MAKING A LIVING / FARMING BUSINESS

Agriculture is big business with small margins Cost of regulation and labor have big impacts on the bottom line

By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI

t’s an old cliché that farmers are never happy about the weather, but their complaints to the Oregon Farm Bureau often have nothing to do with the elements. As public policy counsel for the organization, Mary Anne Cooper regularly hears about the growing burden of government restrictions on farm businesses. “We’ve never spent so much time on paperwork,” she said, summarizing the sentiment. “We’ve never

spent so much time figuring out what’s expected of us.” Oregon’s farmers and rancher sell roughly $5 billion of crops and livestock a year and the agriculture industry contributes about $23 billion, or 10.6 percent, to the state’s net product — the amount of value-added income generated in-state. After expenses, Oregon’s 34,200 farmers and ranchers earn a total net income of roughly $800 million, which averages out to about $23,000 per operation.

With a value of $947 million, greenhouse and nursery products are the state’s largest crops. A variety of labor, safety and pest regulations impact producer profitability. Courtesy Oregon Department of Agriculture

16 | The Other Oregon

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

More than 326,000 jobs are linked to farming and ranching, representing nearly 14 percent of Oregon’s total employment, even after the industry has mechanized tremendously over the past century. While farmers are generally proud to employ fellow Oregonians, a steady procession of new labor requirements — such as paid sick time — are spurring further automation, farm advocates say. “The costs associated with having a workforce are astronomical,” said Barry Bushue, president of the Oregon Farm Bureau. “The cost of regulation imposed by legislation is huge.” As new rules make it Barry tougher to earn a return on Bushue investment in agriculture and timber production, fewer people are finding reasons to stay on the family farm or woodlot, he said. The effect tends to compound over time, as people can’t remain in rural areas due to the lack of doctors and other critical service providers, Bushue said. “Rural towns are getting smaller and smaller and smaller,” he said. It’s not only farmers who are seeking ways to cut labor costs — so are the food processing and wood products facilities that are the economic lifeblood of many small towns. “As we’ve become more efficient, we’ve seen these rural communities hollowed out to a great degree,” said Bruce Sorte, a retired economist at Oregon State University who studied Oregon’s agriculture industry. The jobs still available in agriculture and affiliated industries are becoming more skilled and better-compensated, but there are fewer of them, he said. In the past, the jobs lost in rural areas haven’t been readily replaced, effectively meaning that people had to move away and switch careers, Sorte said. Realistically, that means state government should plan to invest in education, training and otherwise “cushioning” dislocated rural workers, he said.

Sean Ellis/EO Media Group

An onion field is shown in this photo taken outside Ontario, Ore.

“It will challenge policy makers and businesses to pick up the slack of those jobs when they’re not needed,” Sorte said. The average Oregon farm is less than 500 acres, with about 97 percent of the operations family owned and operated. Environmental enforcement that makes farming more challenging and expensive is disruptive to the small farms that Oregon ostensibly values, since they often can’t afford to keep up with the multiplying rules, said Cooper of the Farm Bureau. “That is really frustrating. It creates a lot of uncertainty,” she said. However, the outlook for Oregon agriculture isn’t all doom and gloom. More than 220 agricultural commodities are produced in the state, which leads the country in growing such crops as hazelnuts, blackberries, Christmas trees and multiple kinds of grass and clover seed. “We’re very competitive with other parts of the country,” said Bryan Ostlund, an administrator for several commodity commissions that collect money from growers for crop research and promotion. As more permanent crops such as

hazelnuts and grapevines are planted, that creates a healthy competition for acreage with grass seed and other row crops, Ostlund said. Such competition gives growers options when certain commodities are oversupplied and prices fall. The popularity of cover crop seeds, including radish and turnip seeds, have increasingly given farmers an alternative to traditional grass seed crops, he said. “It provides an excellent opportunity for growers.” Oregon’s close proximity to the Pacific Ocean also makes the Asian export market accessible for growers, which helped a lot when they faced a surplus of grass seed during the most recent recession, Ostlund said. About 40 percent of Oregon’s agricultural production leaves the country and 80 percent leaves the state. Shipping the seed to China helped reduce the domestic inventory, making way for the strong grass seed prices growers are seeing today, he said. “International export is critical,” Ostlund said. The risk, of course, is that agriculture is vulnerable to trade disputes and dependent on transportation infrastructure that needs modernizing, he said. Water infrastructure is also a key concern, since nearly two-thirds of harvest crop acres are irrigated, and irrigated farmland produces more than three-quarters of Oregon’s crop value. Irrigation depends on canals, pipes and storage reservoirs that were often built 75 to 100 years ago, said April Snell, executive director of the Oregon Water Resources Congress. “All of it is in need of repair,” she said. “They were built in an era when the federal government heavily invested in water infrastructure, as well as roads and bridges.” Notwithstanding vows by the current presidential administration to invest in infrastructure, farmers can’t depend on the federal government fully funding an upgrade of irrigation systems, she said. “For them to be able to pay for that individually is very difficult,” Snell said. Fall 2018 | 17

MAKING A LIVING / RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Nonprofit has been working to rebuild rural economies

Courtesy Rural Development Initiatives

The Regards to Rural conference is the Rural Development Initiatives’ signature event.

Rural Development Initiatives was born in the collapse of the timber industry By ALIYA HALL

or 27 years, Rural Development Initiatives (RDI) has made it its mission to strengthen rural places, people and economies. Having originally organized as a result of the collapse in the timber industry and federal policy shifting the economy in rural places, RDI functioned as a responsive and reactive 18 | The Other Oregon

service — helping communities rebuild their economy. Shortly after, it brought in a leadership development component, to create innovators who could take on the complex issues of managing the financial system. “The work really is about revitalizing economies, or we’re going to keep watching them decline,” Heidi Khokhar, executive director said. “There’s a trajectory in the future where there’s not

rural anymore, just urban.” Khokhar, who has been with the organization since 1988, imagines a different future, and said it’s RDI’s goal to make it happen. With a network of over 10,000 leaders, Khokhar said the first goal was to build the strength of the community. For the 13 years between 2003 and 2016, RDI focused around 80 percent of its work on the leadership program,

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

partnering with the Ford Institute for Community Building. “I chose RDI as our partner as they brought skill in training, knowledge about communities (particularly economic development), expertise in managing training and events, and connections,” Tom Gallagher, former director of the Ford Institute for Community Building, said in an email. “Oregon is fortunate to have this nonprofit located in the state where it, and all the graduates of the various training, are available to guide and support the governmental and nonprofit organizations striving to serve rural residents. No other state has an RDI equivalent, but they all wish they did.” Although that gave communities the capacity to make change, Khokhar said that it made RDI look like a leadership organization and disappear into Ford’s shadow. “We got very good at (leadership), but never was it the mission,” she said. “It was a means to the end. We since transitioned away from that and went back to what we would have done back (when RDI started) if we had the capacity we do now.” She said RDI recommitted to economic development in 2012, but even by the project numbers it is equally split between leadership and economic building programs, and it’s becoming more integrated. RDI has 16 different action-oriented programs. One of Khokhar’s favorites is a business retention and expansion program, which focuses on building a town’s Main Street. “Main Street is where we believe the answer is for rural communities, strengthening downtown businesses,” she said. “(The program’s) intent is to work with the community to understand what businesses they have, how to keep them, expand them and transition them.” If Khokhar had to pick something that exemplifies RDI’s approach, however, she said it would be the WealthWorks program, which is designed to bring rural assets to the

Courtesy Rural Development Initiatives

market without creating an extractive relationship. She used timber as an example. If it’s cut down to build houses in Portland, that isn’t sustainable for the community. “We need to take resources and build more local wealth, making it worth more because it is valuable,” she said. Although the biggest challenges for RDI are lack of funding and resources, as well as a disparity in urban education on the return of investing in rural communities, Khokhar said she focuses on the opportunities instead of the

challenges. A turning point for her emerged in 2016, when she became frustrated that despite all their hard work, they were still losing. She said that moment made her realize RDI needed to move into policy and raise awareness of rural voices. “The most compelling thing is now I feel almost an urgency to this work that I didn’t feel before,” she said. “We’re going to lose the battle to retain rural communities if we can’t figure out how to invest in rural communities.” Fall 2018 | 19

MAKING A LIVING / RURAL DEVELOPMENT Despite the challenges that RDI is working to overcome, Khokhar said there are communities that are success stories. She said Independence, Ore., continues to, “show the world how to do economic development from a rural lens” and Vernonia, Ore., keeps building itself back up after floods. Shawn Irvine, economic development director of Independence, said that he worked with RDI in 2006, and had a great experience with their program because RDI understood how rural communities work. “It’s one of these things that’s hard to quantify in numbers, but the impact is really significant in the terms of being tangible,” he said. “One of the biggest outcome was a better connection between community members and community leaders.” Khokar said her favorite success stories are those of communities that have taken great strides. According to Khokhar, there is no other organization like RDI in the Pacific Northwest, and the organization has taken on the role of expanding leadership programs into Washington. Already, there are 500 leaders in five Washington regions. RDI itself has 13 employees, eight of whom work in the field with the communities. When it comes to the importance of protecting rural, Khokhar said that it has to do with being an American. “I think it’s important because when we as a place talk about who we are, often we’re talking from our ruralness,” she said. “Beautiful landscapes, ingenuity connection to land, people and history — it’s often a rural voice. Consequences will come when we leave rural behind. We’ll regret when the last rural kid graduates and moves somewhere urban. It matters. Rural kids, places, people and economy matters.” 20 | The Other Oregon

Profile: Heidi Khokhar, Rural Development Initiative Q: What’s your rural experience? Khokhar: I’m a rural kid. I grew up outside of Josephine County, Oregon, and I watched an economy shift. I was there when the mill closed. I had classmates going to work in the mill, who don’t work in a mill. My experience is I was there. I didn’t know it was my calling — I took this job because it was a job. I didn’t understand rural development at all. I put myself back in school when I fell in love with the mission. I am rural. I came from rural, and I discovered rural was my mission over time. Q: How did you get involved in this effort? Khokhar: I’m great at finance; I started my own business. I got involved initially in program support, and the administrative side of organization. The moment I fell in love is when I read the Charleston strategic plan in 1999. Reading their situation and reading this strategic plan that was really the local people making this plan to address this bleak situation, it was inspiring to me. Local people taking local action on their own issues and really grappling with stuff. These were local volunteers, not experts. When my life shifted, I put myself back to school because it was that that I wanted to do. I worked very hard in the early days for the Ford Institute leadership program. I delivered the program in over 50 communities. I’ve rewritten the curriculum over seven times. That’s how I got involved. It was easy to get involved and put what I was good at to work. I’ve never been at the right place at the right time, except that once. Q: Have your perceptions of rural

Oregon changed over the years? Khokhar: Yeah, and rural Oregon has changed over the years. I think I have a stronger understanding of the complexity of rural. It’s not one thing; it’s multifaceted within each community, and each community is different. Another thing that’s changed is the interconnectedness, even growing up, I was rural and there were city kids and country kids. We were just different. I think I’m becoming more clear about the connectedness between urban and rural. It’s important. That perception has shifted. Before it was more us versus them. I also feel there’s an urgency now, and that has shifted. Not that it was lazy work, but we had time. The world is faster ever increasingly, and the things being left behind are being left behind faster. Q: What is the one thing you want urban Oregon to understand about rural Oregon? Khokhar: I wish that we knew our interconnectedness, and I wish we knew the complexity of rural. I think we simplify rural; we simplify something that’s complex. The work I’ve done internally, and the work we’ve done with diversity, equity and inclusion has been eye-opening work. In some ways, rural is its own inequity. It has been oppressed, it has been marginalized and it has been stereotyped. All those things that can be tied to race and gender, you can apply to this as well. It helped me to understand the complexity and unpack the problem. If urban knew anything, it’s that there is interconnectedness, the investment is worth it and the opportunity to learn is great. A little investment makes a big difference.

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MAKING A LIVING / MINIMUM WAGE

Photos by EO Media Group

When the Legislature voted in 2016 to increase the minimum wage, Malheur County farmers and business owners traveled nearly 400 miles to tell lawmakers how the increase would impact them.

What works in the city doesn’t always work in the country Minimum wage increases impact rural employers and workers differently than their urban counterparts 22 | The Other Oregon

By DICK HUGHES

he debate over the minimum wage exemplifies the ideological and economic splits in urban, rural and in-between Oregon. “When we pass a law that Portland wants, we affect rural,” says Sen. Alan DeBoer, R-Ashland. “Rural wants to be left alone.”

The 2016 Legislature created a threetier minimum wage, with Democrats saying they were bending to the needs of rural Oregon. The highest hourly wage is in the Portland area, the lowest in the mostrural counties. Sen. Michael Dembrow, D-Portland, and Rep. Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, pushed the three-tier proposal

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

Oregon’s minimum wage

O Advocates for an increase in the minimum wage argue that without big increases the urban working poor won’t be able to afford basic shelter.

even though their urban constituents didn’t particularly care for the concept. Publicly, Republican legislators still dislike the increase; but Dembrow says some have thanked him privately for the three-tier approach. Dembrow says legislators constantly talk about how to minimize the negative effect of state policies on rural areas and, if possible, turn those negatives into positives. “I really think there’s a broad recognition that it needs to be a priority,” Dembrow says. “Politically and ideologically, there may be differences. But we are trying to take the needs of rural Oregon into account.” The largest proportions of minimum-wage workers tend to be in rural areas, especially Eastern Oregon, according to the state Employment Department. As of this summer, Malheur County had the most with 13.3 percent of workers earning the $10.50 minimum wage. Yet across the border in Idaho, the minimum wage is $7.25 — more than $3 lower per hour. Eastern Oregon legislators say it’s no wonder that Malheur County is hemorrhaging employers and jobs, and agricultural employers staying in the county are stampeding toward automation. After snow and ice damaged more than 300 buildings in Malheur County during the winter of 2016-17, many of those businesses rebuilt across the border in Idaho, according to Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner. “Urban folks do not completely

understand the effects of border states on Oregon. They don’t compete with neighboring states,” he says. Smith and Sen. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, give credit to two liberal Portland Democrats — Gov. Kate Brown and House Speaker Tina Kotek — for visiting Eastern Oregon to see the economic issues firsthand. Kotek said Bentz, who was then in the Oregon House, brought the right people together to tell her their stories. “It deepened my perspective,” Kotek says. “I did a lot of listening. Most of the time it was not me talking. It was me listening.” It’s a matter of building relationships and being able to see things from others’ viewpoints. “There’s only one way to do that — spend time with each other,” Kotek says. “We don’t do that enough, not just as legislators but as people.” Lawmakers and the governor responded by allocating $5 million to study the region’s competitive disadvantages, make investments and develop recommendations for the Legislature. “It’s important that legislators from Salem do the fact-finding missions and go out to rural areas and get the sense of what is involved,” says Erick Schuck, an agricultural economist at Linfield College. That way, he said, they learn “what’s it like to be from part of the state that’s very different from everyone else.” Dembrow, the Portland senator, concurs: “People do appreciate when urban people go out.”

regon’s highest minimum wage, currently $12 an hour, applies to work within the urban growth boundary in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. However, employers within those counties but outside the UGB – the basic dividing line between urban and rural – will pay the lower standard wage. That standard rate currently is $10.75 per hour and covers the rest of the Willamette Valley, the Central and North Coast, and parts of Central and Southern Oregon. Those counties are Benton, Clatsop, Columbia, Deschutes, Hood River, Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln, Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook, Wasco and Yamhill. The South Coast, Eastern Oregon and the rest of Southern and Central Oregon make up the non-urban tier. A $10.50 wage applies in those 18 counties: Baker, Coos, Crook, Curry, Douglas, Gilliam, Grant, Harney, Jefferson, Klamath, Lake, Malheur, Morrow, Sherman, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa and Wheeler. Oregon’s minimum wage will increase each July 1 through 2022, reaching $14.75 in the Portland metro area, $13.50 in the other urban counties and $12.50 in nonurban counties. Starting In 2023, any increase in the standard minimum wage will be based on a Consumer Price Index published by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Portland metro wage will be $1.25 an hour above the standard rate, and the non-urban wage will be $1 less than the standard rate. Source: Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries

Fall 2018 | 23

THE LAND / WILDFIRES

LIVING IN THE FIREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S WAKE

Courtesy Gearhart Fire Department

24 | The Other Oregon

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

Courtesy NRCS

At left, the remains of a wheat crop following the Substation Fire in Wasco and Sherman counties in July. Dryland wheat fields produce a crop one year and are left fallow the next to build soil moisture. At right, Wasco and Sherman county wheat fields and rangeland burned by wildfires this summer are in danger of rapid soil erosion. Farmers and ranchers will spend the next several years rebuilding soil quality, and repairing and replacing fencing, farm equipment and structures.

By MITCH LIES

ozens of farmers in Sherman and Wasco counties could only watch from a distance this summer as wildfires scorched what looked like a bumper crop of wheat — a much needed bumper crop after several years of lower-than-average yields and low prices. Between the Boxcar, Substation, Long Hollow and South Valley fires, approximately 235,000 acres of cropland, pastures and rangeland in the two counties went up in flames, with much of the damage occurring in late July, during what would have been harvest, as drought, high winds and continuous vegetation created an ideal cocktail for the spreading inferno. The fires cost farmers millions in lost crop revenue. That, however, is just the tip of the iceberg, according to Brian Tuck, field crops extension agent for Wasco and Sherman counties. Farmers and ranchers will spend the next several years repairing and replacing fencing, farm equipment and structures, he said. And farmers are digging into savings to plant cover

crops this fall on ground left bare by the wildfires, hoping to preserve top soil and what little moisture will fall from the sky in this dryland wheat country over the next several months. As devastating as these occurrences are to local communities, according to State Conservationist Ron Alvarado, these losses are not unusual. “We have seen it more than just this year,” Alvarado said. “It has been the last decade where these fires are just burning hotter and they are bigger and they are more intense.” With the Klondike Fire growing to more than 100,000 acres this summer, it marked two consecutive years Southwest Oregon forests have experienced what the National Interagency Fire Center terms megafires, with last year’s Chetco Fire reaching 190,000 acres. Sage grass country has suffered significant damage to wildfire in Southeast Oregon over the past decade, trapped in a cycle where highly flammable cheatgrass is the first to recover from a fire, creating fuel for the next wildfire to exploit. And increasing wheat country’s vulnerability to wildfires, no-till farming has all but eliminated fuel breaks.

“Back in the old days, when you were tilling and you had stubble mulch, there were breaks in the topography,” Tuck said. “Now we are mostly no-till and you’ve got stubble all the way across these counties and fires have more fuel to burn.” The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service invests in fire prevention on private forestlands, Alvarado said, and it expects to invest between $6 million and $6.5 million on post-fire rehab in Wasco, Sherman and Morrow counties this fall. “You want to get in there and treat the burned acres and ensure that we don’t get into any other resource concerns like water quality and air quality because of erosion,” Alvarado said. Still, with more fire lurking around the corner, in wheat country, rehab efforts just don’t seem like enough, Tuck said. “If fire is going to be a more serious issue, what do we do to reduce the impacts?” Tuck asked. “That is a conversation that I think we need to have.” For rural Oregonians, living with wildfires has become a way of life. Fall 2018 | 25

THE LAND / WATER

Water is the lifeblood of rural Oregon But managing a finite resource inevitably leads to conflict across the state By GEORGE PLAVEN

s the old saying goes, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over.â&#x20AC;? Nowhere is that more true than in rural Oregon, where demand for finite water resources pits the needs of farms, fish, tribes and industry at odds with one another on the rustic landscape.

26 | The Other Oregon

Water is the lifeblood of rural Oregon. It is what transforms the desert into fertile farmland, producing $4 billion to $5 billion annually in crops and livestock. It is what draws tourists to the great outdoors, supporting 172,000 direct jobs. And it is what sustains fish and wildlife, at the heart of tribal food and culture. Competition for water inevitably leads to conflict, especially in drought years like 2018,

Water is vital to rural Oregon, sustaining healthy environments and economies. Courtesy Oregon Department of Agriculture

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

with Oregon reeling from low winter snowpack that leads to low summer stream flows. Water rights in Oregon — like other western states where water is more scarce — are governed by the doctrine of prior appropriation, established during the California Gold Rush. The law essentially declares “first in time, first in right,” and prioritizes senior water rights holders when water supplies run short. The Oregon Water Resources Department oversees 21 districts statewide, each with its own local watermaster who regulates water deliveries and responds to complaints. Add in the listing of threatened and endangered species, which carry their own federal protections, and the job only gets more complicated. Dan Keppen, executive director of the Family Farm Alliance in Klamath Falls, has witnessed firsthand how the push and pull of endangered species management has led to bitter legal disputes between Native American tribes and irrigators in the Klamath Basin. The Klamath Tribes, which have “time immemorial” water rights, are suing to hold more water in Upper Klamath Lake for endangered Lost River and shortnose suckers, while at the same time northern California tribes have successfully sued to send more water down the Klamath River to flush away a salmon-killing parasite caused by low flows and high water temperature. That creates a double whammy for farmers, Keppen said, who are curtailed first along with the Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge. “We’re in danger of losing a generation of farmers and ranchers,” Keppen said. In Central Oregon, irrigation districts are modernizing infrastructure that will boost water savings, in turn providing more water for fish and the Oregon spotted frog, which was the subject of an environmental lawsuit in 2016. Marc Thalacker, who manages the

Courtesy Oregon State University

Returning Chinook salmon on the Umatilla River. Much of the water in Oregon streams and rivers is used to maintain fish and other aquatic wildlife.

Three Sisters Irrigation District near Bend, said they are nearly finished converting all 64 miles of open canals to closed pipes. Open canals historically leaked away half of all water in the system, Thalacker said. The district used to routinely dry up Whychus Creek, a tributary of the Deschutes River that provides spawning habitat for Mid-Columbia salmon and steelhead. Today, Thalacker said they are able to maintain 30 cubic feet per second of water in the creek during summer, which is enough for fish recovery. While Thalacker said the Endangered Species Act has its problems, he believes water conservation will help to restore balance for farms, fish and frogs in the basin. “We’re feeding a huge part of the world,” Thalacker said. “Ultimately, folks are really going to have to think about where their food comes from, and do they want a secure food supply, or do they want the ESA to cut off their food supply.” Farmers are not the only ones impacted by water shortages in the West. Liz Hamilton, executive director

of the Northwest Sportfishing Industry Association, said recent drought years have taken their toll. She pointed to the drought of 2015, which triggered salmon die-offs and prompted afternoon fishing bans across Oregon. “Rivers that get above 72 degrees are lethal to many fisheries,” said Hamilton, whose organization is based in Oregon City and represents roughly 300 businesses in the Pacific Northwest. “Our industry has just been whacked over the last several years.” Back on the Klamath River, a California nonprofit is working toward removing four hydroelectric dams to benefit salmon and steelhead runs. But even that may come with an unintended consequence for another sector of outdoor recreation. Will Volpert, owner of Indigo Creek Outfitters in Ashland, has been running whitewater rafting trips on the Rogue and Upper Klamath rivers since 2011. Without dams to provide steady, predictable flows, Volpert said it remains uncertain whether he can keep running whitewater trips on the Klamath, which makes up a quarter of his business.

Fall 2018 | 27

THE LAND / WATER

Sean Ellis/EO Media Group

The Malheur Siphon is a 4.3-mile long steel pipe that carries irrigation water from Malheur Reservoir to the northern part of the Owyhee Irrigation District system.

“We might need different boats, we might need to change our trip capacities, or we might not be able to boat it at all,” Volpert said. “I hope that when the dams come out, we find that there is more water in the river than what they’re talking about right now.” All sides seem to agree water has been over-allocated through the years. J.R. Cook, founder and director of the Northeast Oregon Water Association in Pendleton, has been working 16 years on a plan to satisfy the region’s agricultural base, while simultaneously allowing badly depleted groundwater aquifers time to recharge. The latest proposal has growers in three project areas from Boardman to Hermiston pumping water from the 28 | The Other Oregon

Columbia River, which would be mitigated from other sources to protect salmon in the river’s main stem. State lawmakers approved $11 million for the infrastructure in 2015, but Cook said it has been a slow, grueling process. “It’s one of those where people have to trust in the long-term vision,” Cook said. Chris Marks, water rights policy analyst for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation’s First Foods program, said their mission is to protect clean water and healthy fish runs. The tribes first restored spring Chinook salmon in the Umatilla River in 1981. Since then, the tribes have invested millions of dollars in restoring

historic floodplains and habitat. Marks said managing water is enormously complex, but returns immense value to the state. “I think, in the long-term, it is worth it to invest in wise water management,” Marks said. Cook said the majority of Oregonians share the same goals across the urban-rural divide — even if they don’t always realize it. “Our region wants the same healthy populations, we want fish in the rivers and we want healthy ecological functions,” Cook said. “Healthy water and healthy environments lead to healthy urban and rural communities, where everyone can enjoy the American Dream.”

Columbia River, Umatilla, Oregon

At Umatilla Electric Cooperative, we continue to grow because the families, farms, businesses and industries we serve in northeastern Oregon continue to invest and grow. We look forward to new opportunities coming our way, including the wise and productive use of the water that powers our communities. We continue to explore investments in solar or wind generation on behalf of our members, and we are helping our region plan for a “green energy corridor” that will connect renewable projects in southern Morrow County to the Northwest power grid. Our access to public preference power helps keep our electric bills among the nation’s lowest. Our carbon-free energy sources protect the environment today and for future generations. In support of the cities, counties and ports in Umatilla and Morrow counties, we invite you to consider our communities as you plan your future investments. We are public power. We are MORE POWERFUL TOGETHER.

Learn how a shared vision makes us #MorePowerfulTogether at UmatillaElectric.com.

THE CULTURE / RETURNING HOME

Rural lifestyle draws student back home

30 | The Other Oregon

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

The Bergstrom farm in Culver, Ore.

Allure of Eugene doesn’t compare to draw of tiny Culver Let’s get this straight now, farming is hard but rewarding work. It’s eating cold ural Oregon is known for convenience store jo-jos left over from its beautiful landscapes, lunch in a tractor cab at 9 o’clock at night recreational activities because you are too busy to stop. and as a place people It’s baling alfalfa at 2 a.m. before from the urban centers visit. But the dew dries up, blaring the as someone from a small farm radio to stay awake. It’s spending town in Central Oregon, I can two hours moving water lines tell you there is more draw to the every morning and every night area than natural beauty — rural with no days off. It’s not a trendy Desiree Oregon isn’t just a place you weekend activity. So why would Bergstrom live. It’s a lifestyle. anyone be drawn back? It is important to point out that Often I point my car east, out as a student at the University of Oregon, of what I now view as the over-hyped I don’t live in my hometown full time, college town of Eugene, to head home. though I visit as often as I can to help my The closer I get the better I feel. The air family out on the farm. It is also safe to changes, through the static of the radio the say I see my community differently than familiar country station begins to come some of the people who still live there. I into tune and my body releases much of went away from the community to study the tension it holds from the pressure of journalism — of all things — in Eugene, school, work and life. shifting in my perspective. Here is the kicker about my small In the same way, Oregonians living home town that makes it hard to explain in urban areas crave the concept of rural the lure of rural community: I am no less Oregon, not the reality busy when I am home. In fact, often times I originally went away to “the city” I am working more and running all over for school, a new adventure and more the country from small town to small town things to do on the weekends. I craved on errands and visiting old friends. the novelty and wonder of the city not the I want to be there because unlike trendy reality. Now, three years later, I am drawn Eugene, strangers wave at passing cars. back to the place I couldn’t wait to leave. “Traffic jams” are caused by a tractor or Unfortunately, my love of journalism a combine instead of an influx of people and writing may hinder my ability to go getting off work at the same time. back anytime soon. The downside of a Meeting new people in rural spaces small town and a rural region is that only isn’t a chore or a large time investment certain types of jobs are available — there like it is in a university town where you aren’t a variety of media outlets to choose can go to 20 different events and never see from. The same soil that funded much of the same person twice. The spaces to meet my education will not support my career people in rural communities are often the same way. few and far between, but those spaces That doesn’t stop me from wanting to are strong community builders because go back, even considering job options that everyone goes to the church or the little have nothing to do with my degree, just to corner store or the local diner. be able to live in a small town. The real draw of a town with less than The draw of my hometown isn’t in the 2,000 people is the sense of community ‘glamour’ or idea of driving a tractor or and support rural Oregon towns possess moving irrigation pipe – two things I do — the feeling of being at home and often. belonging somewhere. In conversations with other students, Rural Oregon’s draw is its people and my instructors and even strangers at the communities — and yes, also its beauty. university, I often hear how they think Desiree Bergstrom is a senior at the farming is cool or would be fun to try. University of Oregon from Culver, Ore. By DESIREE BERGSTROM

Fall 2018 | 31

THE CULTURE / MOUNTAIN TIME ZONE

An hour ahead Mountain Time no mystery to Malheur County residents By BRAD CARLSON

astern Oregon’s sliver of Mountain Time Zone was created back when railroads ruled commerce and conference-call confusion was many decades off. Many locals say the early 1920s move was for the best, economically linking communities including Ontario, Nyssa and Vale to the Boise, Idaho, metro area that begins just across the Snake River to the east. Some say it had lasting impact on Oregon politics. Greg Smith, economic development director for Malheur County, laughed when asked how Oregonians to the west respond to reminders that Malheur is on Mountain Time. “You get jokes about it and you get teased,” said Smith, a member of the Oregon House of Representatives who splits time between Ontario and Heppner, which is on Pacific Time. He recalled a colleague in the Legislature from Malheur County starting his daily office hours well before anyone else at the State Capitol in Salem to accommodate constituents back home. “Again, it’s just another indicator we in Malheur County are not always part of the state of Oregon,” Smith said. “They don’t seem to know we are here,” said Jordan Valley, Ore., resident Bob Skinner, vice president of the national Public Lands Council. In Western Oregon offices where he has attended meetings, he even has seen state maps on which mapmakers

32 | The Other Oregon

“put the legend right over us.” Ontario attorney and State Sen. Cliff Bentz said, “People are constantly astounded that Eastern Oregon stretches clear to the foot of the Rocky Mountains. They just don’t understand how large the state is, which is reflected in many more areas than just the time zone.”

“Again, it’s just another indicator we in Malheur County are not always part of the state of Oregon.” Greg Smith

The Gate City Journal of Nyssa on May 11,1923, reported the hourahead time change would take effect two days later. “It is to be presumed that time in the entire county will be changed to conform to railroad time, to avoid the inconvenience which various cities in southern Idaho have found during the time ‘railroad time’ and ‘city time’ has been an hour apart,” the story said in part. A major rail facility was in Huntington, around the present-day line between Mountain and Pacific time. On Dec. 2, 1910, the Weekly Chemewa (Ore.) American reminded readers that standardized time zones were still fairly new at the time, an 1883-84 nationwide initiative as travel was becoming more extensive. “Before that, every town had its own time zone,” said Gary Fugate, president of the Malheur Historical Project. “When the railroads came in, got across the U.S. in the 1860s and up into our area in the 1880s, they needed to be on schedules.” Local input helped finalize Eastern

Oregon’s Mountain zone, but Ontario as recently as 1942 contemplated returning to Pacific, he said. Sandy Hemenway, Columbia Bank vice president, Ontario branch manager and treasurer of the Ontario Area Chamber of Commerce, said Mountain Time comes up in conversation. “This has happened multiple times if I am talking to someone and it comes up, she said: “‘Oh, I thought all of Oregon was on Pacific Time.’ If they are on the other side of the mountains somewhere, some people don’t realize this.” Meetings are best scheduled by clearly stating the starting time in both time zones, Hemenway and Bentz said. Bentz has had colleagues from the west arrive an hour late for meetings. Hemenway has seen online calendar reminders of upcoming meetings post the wrong start time. Mountain Time can offer practical advantages in addition to the tie-in to the greater Boise economy, said Hemenway, whose bank’s headquarters are on Pacific. “If you get to work early and send someone an email, they may be impressed,” she said. And there is an extra hour, in effect, to meet transaction-processing deadlines. Chris Christensen, an Oregon Cattlemen’s Association district vice president who lives north of Vale, functions just fine on Mountain Time. “Part of living here is dealing with that,” he said. Meetings among people in both zones must be coordinated carefully, the start and end of the business day in each zone considered. “It’s just something you have to program into your travels,” Christensen said.

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

The dividing line between Oregonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Pacific and Mountain time zones is near Huntington. Brad Carlson/EO Media Group

Fall 2018 | 33

THE CULTURE / RURAL POLICING

911: Help is a phone call and 30 miles away By GARY WEST

n an emergency, help is only a phone call away. But in much of rural Oregon, a non-emergency call to law enforcement could mean a wait of hours or longer before an officer with a badge can arrive. In Oregon’s rural counties, where population numbers are small and distances are large, the nearest officer on duty may be many miles away. And there may be times when no one is actually on duty. Morrow County Sheriff Kenneth Matlack has been his county’s elected top cop since 2005. He and his deputies are responsible for covering more than 2,000 square miles and a population of about 11,200 people plus those who come to camp, boat, hunt or visit the county. The sheriff’s office also contracts for police services for the cities of Heppner (the county seat with a population of 1,291 people) and Irrigon (population 1,826). In rural areas, help may not be just around the corner. “A lot of times you are on your own, or it’s going to be a long time before someone gets there,” Matlack said. There are a total of about 35 people in Matlack’s department, including 20 uniformed officers, four of whom were just hired. “We will just now be able to be (staffed) 24/7,” Matlack said, of the new hires. But if any one of his deputies gets sick, is out for training or on vacation, there will not always be someone in uniform around the clock in the large rural county. “There will be times there will be holes,” Matlack said. But if needed, officers live in locations and communi34 | The Other Oregon

Gary L. West/EO Media Group

Marine Deputy Mike Cahill of the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office drives the department’s jet boat on the Columbia River.

ties throughout the county and can be called into service in emergencies. “We want our people living in a variety of locations in the county,” he said. His deputies also rely on assistance, when needed, from departments like the Boardman Police Department in northern Morrow County or Umatilla Police Department in neighboring

Umatilla County. “We’re big into mutual aid,” Matlack said. And his officers also assist neighboring law enforcement agencies and participate in regional programs like the major crimes team serving Umatilla and Morrow counties and the Blue Mountain Enforcement Narcotics Team (known as B.E.N.T.). Matlack and other public safety

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

E.J. Harris/EO Media Group

A suspect sits on the back of a patrol vehicle as sheriff’s deputies investigate a rash of burglaries near Hermiston.

leaders in northeast Oregon met this summer with state Rep. Greg Smith, R-Heppner, to discuss issues of public safety and mutual interest. Smith said it is important for local agencies to communicate with each other and him to prioritize what issues he should be tackling in the Legislature in Salem. Among the issues they discussed was how to get more law enforcement coverage in very rural areas to increase patrols and officers available to respond to calls on rural highways. Matlack grew up in the Irrigon area and went to high school in Umatilla, just a few miles down the road and across the county line. He was briefly a teacher before joining the Oregon State Police in 1974 and working at a variety of stations all over Oregon until he retired in 1999.

When he retired from Oregon State Police, he returned to Irrigon. “I missed the camaraderie of policing,” Matlack said. “I missed policing in general.” So he ran for sheriff in 2004 and took office in 2005. When hiring and training new deputies, Matlack looks for people who grew up in the area, too. “What we want to try to have in deputies are people who are problem solvers,” he said. He wants people who take ownership of the calls to which they are dispatched. “I can’t teach empathy, sympathy and compassion,” he said. “I can’t teach you to have a heart for people.” When possible, he hires from the volunteer reserve ranks and looks for people who have had some education in criminal justice or law enforcement. Military service is also valuable experi-

ence he looks for in deputies. And he also looks for a record of some sort of volunteer service like firefighting or a police reserve program where people learn a teamwork approach. “A spirit of giving is what I call it,” he said. At the public safety meeting with Rep. Greg Smith, rural leaders also talked about ways to improve access to training from the Department of Police Standards and Training so that when departments like the Morrow County Sheriff’s Office hire new staff they can get into training programs in a timely manner and return to the job back home. “Public safety is at the whim of inflation,” Smith said. Things like rising prices for fuel and ammunition can affect local budgets and hamper training at the gun range due to ammunition price and availability. Fall 2018 | 35

THE CULTURE / FACTS & FIGURES

Klamath County

Total land area: 6,136 sq. mi. Percent public land: 60

Facts and figures Population

Multnomah: 803,000 or 19.4%

Other: 1.37 million or 33.1% Total statewide: 4.14 million

City/town

Population

Klamath Falls (city limits)

21,770

(Klamath Falls urban growth boundary; approximately 42,000)

Washington: 595,860 or 14.4%

Deschutes: 182,930 or 4.4% Marion: 339,200 or 8.2%

Communities

Klamath: 67,690 or 1.6%

Clackamas: 413,000 or 10%

Merrill

840

Malin

815

Chiloquin Bonanza Other census-designated places (41)

740 455 43,070

Law enforcement officers in county

164

Sources: 2017 estimates from Population Research Center, PSU; State of Oregon Annual Report of Criminal Offenses and Arrests, 2015

Lane: 370,600 or 8.9%

Air quality

Health

Klamath County was impacted this summer by wildfires burning in northern California, southern Oregon, Washington and British Columbia.

Klamath rank on health outcomes .......... 35 out of 36 Oregon counties

(From July 23 — Aug. 22, 2018) Condition

(Based on length and quality of life.)

Klamath rank on health factors ............... 34 out of 36 Oregon counties (Based on weighted scores for health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors, and the physical environment.)

Item

Days

Klamath

Healthy air quality

Number of people per physician

Moderate

Number of people per psychiatrist

Unhealthy for sensitive groups

Number of people per registered nurse

Unhealthy

(Thousand board feet)

Major production in Klamath County includes cereal grains, alfalfa hay, beef cattle, potatoes, onions and sugar beets.

Source: oregonexplorer.info

178,999

Quantity

Number of farms

94,347

78,535

2010

2016

955

Land in farms (acres)

650,416

Percent pastureland

56.1

Percent cropland

31.5

Percent woodland/other

12.3

Average size farm (acres)

681

Average market value of products sold per farm

$190,036

Source: USDA Census of Agriculture, 2012

36 | The Other Oregon

Timber harvest

369,590

Item

488

353

16,703

6,280

167

101

Sources: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, County Health Rankings for Oregon, 2016 ; Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Health Professions-Occupational and County Profiles, 2014

Source: Air Quality Monitoring Data from Oregon DEQ

Agriculture

Statewide

1990

2000

You may not know Kingsley Field near Klamath Falls is the home of the 173rd Fighter Wing of the Oregon Air National Guard where air-to-air combat pilots train to fly F-15 Eagle tactical fighter aircraft.

Tourist attractions • Explore Crater Lake, Oregon's only national park. • Birdwatch at Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex. • Boat and ﬁsh on Upper Klamath Lake.

Colleges & universities • Klamath Community College • Oregon Institute of Technology

State representatives E. Werner Reschke (R) Mike McLane (R)

State senator Dennis Linthicum (R)

U.S. representative Greg Walden (R)

OREGON / GEOGRAPHIC NAMES

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS … 11 9

6 7

12 10

8 5

4 3

Information from Oregon Geographic Names, 7th edition (2003), by Lewis A. McArthur & Lewis L. McArthur. Oregon Historical Society Press, Portland.

A VOICE FOR RURAL OREGON TheOtherOregon.com

1. Berlin, Oregon — an unincorporated but populated place in Linn County. 2. Burma, Oregon — a former railroad operating station in Lane County, now known as Eugene Yard. 3. China Bar Rapids, Oregon — in the Rogue River in Curry County. There is also a China Cap and China Creek (Wallowa County), China Ditch (Gilliam County) and China Hat (Deschutes County). 4. Denmark, Oregon — a place near Humboldt Bay in Curry County with a post office until 1960. 5. Fuji Mountain, Oregon — a flat-topped 7,144-foot-high peak in Lane County, just south of Waldo Lake. 6. Matterhorn, Oregon — a 9,826-foot-high peak in the

Wallowa Mountains, Wallowa County. 7. Mecca, Oregon — a former post office on the Deschutes River, east of Warm Springs Agency, in Jefferson County. 8. Mount Popcatepetl, Oregon — a 1,015-foot-high peak in the Coast Range, Lane County. 9. Orient, Oregon — a place southeast of Gresham in Multnomah County. 10. Paris, Oregon — a former post office in Lane County (mis)named for postmaster George E. Parris. 11. Timbuktu, Oregon — a former timber salvage camp in western Washington County, just south of Saddle Mountain. 12. Waterloo, Oregon — a former post office in Linn County.

Fall 2018 | 37

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