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Monday Mailing Quote of the Week: "Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is to not stop questioning” –Albert Einstein Oregon Fast Fact: The federal government owns more than 50 percent of the land in Oregon.

Year 21 • Issue 04 29 September 2014

8 1. National Public Lands Day Brings Free Recreation, Service Projects Opportunities 2. Moving Food Along the Value Chain: Innovations in Regional Food Distribution 3. Rewriting the Rural Narrative - Webinar 4. The Hazelnut News Frenzy Continues 5. Competitive Standards Strengthens Oregon's Forests 6. Portland Will Still Be Cool, but Anchorage May Be the Place to Be 7. Oregon's Aging Water-Treatment Facilities Nearing End of Useful Lives With no Replacement Money in Sight 8. Brain Drain or Brain Gain? A New Narrative for Rural America 9. We Know So Little About Mushrooms That Unidentified Species Are Hiding in Plain Sight 10. This Guy's Ted Talk Describes The Next Great Design Challenge For Changing The World 1. National Public Lands Day Brings Free Recreation, Service Projects Opportunities Development of the Cline Buttes Recreation Area in central Oregon continues Saturday, Sept. 27, when the Prineville BLM office organizes work parties on location, between Bend, Redmond and Sisters, in conjunction with National Public Lands Day. User fees are waived that day on many national public lands; check locally.

The national event pulls together many land managing agencies across the country to organize public lands enhancement projects. The signature event in Oregon is the 30th SOLVE Beach and Riverside Cleanup, at various coast and river locations.

Portland also has a number of work sites. Look for a list of volunteer opportunities at these links for Oregon and for Washington, on the publiclandsday.org website. Note that not all events take place on Saturday.

To access the full story, click here.

2. Moving Food Along the Value Chain: Innovations in Regional Food Distribution – Report This report examines the aggregation, distribution, and marking of weight diverse food value chains to glean practical lessons about how they operate, the challenges they face, and they take advantage of emerging opportunities for marketing differentiated food products.

To access the full report, click here.

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3. Rewriting the Rural Narrative – Webinar - Thursday, October 9, 2014, 4-5 p.m. EDT Brain drain—the loss of 18-29 year olds—dominates the conversation about rural population change.

Yet at the same time, a lesser known migration is occurring. A majority of rural counties are, in fact, experiencing “brain gains” as newcomers age 30-49 move in. Most communities aren’t tuned in to positive migration and miss out on the opportunities that come with newcomers. Ben Winchester, research fellow for the University of Minnesota Extension, Center for Community Vitality, has studied the trend and has great ideas for making the most of positive migration patterns. Join our next CommunityMatters® and Citizen’s Institute on Rural Design™ webinar to hear Ben’s research on rural migration trends and the impacts they have on social and economic opportunity. Learn how communities are responding to these trends and what can be done in your town.

For more information about this webinar, click here.

4. The Hazelnut News Frenzy Continues Turkey's bad weather in March led to a spate of news stories last month warning of a possible big shortage of Nutella, the chocolate spread with an unusually fervent fan base.

Now we know the effects: Wholesale hazelnut prices are up 30 percent, according to the Hazelnut Growers of Oregon. That is very good news for American growers, who are working to expand the tiny-but-burgeoning U.S. crop, but the high prices are not expected to last.

And, predictably, there is no actual “shortage” of Nutella, though prices for it have risen as well — by as much as 60 percent, and may rise yet more.

To access the full story, click here.

5. Competitive Standards Strengthens Oregon's Forests A new study commissioned by Governor John Kitzhaber underscores the need for competitive, rather than restrictive, markets for wood and timber products harvested in Oregon. Existing building policies for sustainable wood products stifle, rather than foster competition.

Specifically, the market for “certified” timber has been disrupted by unnecessary policies that limit the type of wood that enters construction projects designated as “green” and artificially inflate the demand for products certified by one organization.

There are three primary organizations that certify forests in America: the American Tree Farm System (ATFS), the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI).

Yet green building policies that call for LEED certification give preference to wood certified by FSC and shut out timber recognized by ATFS and SFI. To access the full story, click here.

6. Portland Will Still Be Cool, but Anchorage May Be the Place to Be Alaskans, stay in Alaska. People in the Midwest and the Pacific Northwest, sit tight.

Scientists trying to predict the consequences of climate change say that they see few havens from the storms, floods and droughts that are sure to intensify over the coming decades. But some regions, they add, will fare much better than others.

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Forget most of California and the Southwest (drought, wildfires). Ditto for much of the East Coast and Southeast (heat waves, hurricanes, rising sea levels). Washington, D.C., for example, may well be a flood zone by 2100, according to an estimate released last week.

To access the full story, click here.

7. Oregon's Aging Water-Treatment Facilities Nearing End of Useful Lives With no Replacement Money in Sight Many of Oregon's water-treatment facilities are nearing need for replacement just as the federal money that financed them is running dry.

And while the state has loans it can provide to help build expensive replacements, it remains far from clear how local communities are going to be able to foot the bill.

That was just one eye-catching fact rolled out during a legislative briefing on the state of Oregon's water quality Wednesday in Salem.

House Interim Energy and Environment Committee members had plenty of questions, but their agenda was so full that Chairman Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, asked them to submit them in writing to later consideration.

To access the full story, click here.

8. Brain Drain or Brain Gain? A New Narrative for Rural America It seems the rural story has already been told. Small towns keep getting smaller. Schools and businesses are closing their doors. Young people are packing their bags for the city.

The loss of youth following graduation, the “brain drain,” dominates how we talk about rural population change. Hollowing Out the Middle describes the emptying of small towns. Fear feeds a narrative about rural areas “dying” or becoming “ghost towns.”

It is true that most counties – rural and urban alike – lose young people following high school graduation. Yet at the same time, a less recognized migration is occurring, and has been since the 1970s. Many rural counties are experiencing “brain gains” as newcomers age 30-49 move in. This migration is keeping small towns alive and contributing to a new narrative about rural places.

To access the full story, click here.

9. We Know So Little About Mushrooms That Unidentified Species Are Hiding in Plain Sight Unlike its “world’s largest” cousins—roadside attractions such as oversize balls of twine, frying pans, and thermometers—you won’t find signs along the highway in Eastern Oregon pointing drivers to the biggest living organism on Earth. Although it’s 3.4 square miles in size, the 2,400-year-old Armillaria solidipes fungus exists almost entirely underground, except when it sprouts small caps in the fall.

The Oregon mushroom bears little resemblance to what you buy in the grocery store—it’s as massive and unknowable as button mushrooms are familiar and mundane. But as commonplace as some fungi seem to be, a recent study published in the journal PeerJ is a reminder that mushrooms are, as a kingdom, more like that Armillaria solidipes than anything else—a huge, mysterious existence that we’ve only recorded the very edges of.

To access the full story, click here.

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10. This Guy's Ted Talk Describes The Next Great Design Challenge For Changing The World I'm a bike nut who lives in New York City, and I'm often frustrated by how difficult it is to get from A to B. Despite regularly ranking within the top 10 or 15 bike-friendly cities in the country, it's often needlessly difficult here to ride your bike like the utility vehicle that it is for so many around the world. A means to an end, a way to get to work and back.

Mikael Colville-Andersen is a noted speaker who travels the world to talk about urban design and mobility issues. In a 15-minute Ted Talk titled "Bike Culture by Design," he lays out a compelling case for how more bike-friendly city infrastructure can save lives and change the world.

Cyclist that I am, I'm predisposed to liking his ideas. But what do you think?

To access the full story and watch the Ted Talk, click here.

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