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Monday Mailing

Year 22 • Issue 04 05 October 2015

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Who Has The Right To Live On Oregon's Waterways?

Oregon Ag Department Developing New Strategic Plan USDA Infographics Showcase Women in Agriculture Webinar: Introduction to Cooperative Development Creating Opportunity and Prosperity Through Strengthening RuralUrban Connections Wouldn’t It Be Nice?

Web Resources From The Natural Hazards Center The Real Estate Crisis in North Dakota's Man Camps Come Drought or High Water County Boast Oregon’s Top Enterprise Zone Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.

1. Who Has The Right To Live On Oregon's Waterways?

From the three-bedroom boat on the lower Willamette River that he calls home, artist and self-styled pirate Phil Fake is working on a painting.

At a glance, it looks like something from the Romantic period — clouds cut a wide, cotton canopy across a brilliant blue sky; brightly colored houseboats form an orderly row between tall, white-capped pilings. Near the far shore, sailboats bob cheerfully on a slow current. The scene looks utterly serene.

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.

Don’t be fooled, said Fake.

“That painting might look like a beautiful panorama of this basin, but it’s actually a political statement about some people who are very seriously arguing with each other.”

To access the full story, click here.

2. Oregon Ag Department Developing New Strategic Plan BOARDMAN, Ore. — The Oregon Department of Agriculture is drawing up a new strategic plan to guide the agency’s activities in the future.

The goal is to develop a document that’s actually useful to ODA officials rather than gathering dust on a shelf, said Ron Sarazin, a consultant who’s assisting ODA with the process.

“It’s got to be something that’s used on a day-to-day basis,” Sarazin said at the recent Oregon Board of Agriculture meeting in Boardman.

To access the full story, click here.

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3. USDA Infographics Showcase Women in Agriculture 969,672.

That's the number of women farmers in the United States, according to data USDA released in infographic form on Monday.

The agency has previously promoted women's involvement in the industry through development of a blog, digital outreach and a women's ag network.

The latest release of shareable infographics – one for each state – coincides with a series of five women in ag stories running on the USDA blog Sept. 28-Oct. 2.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Webinar: Introduction to Cooperative Development October 7th from 3:00 to 4:00pm, EDT. Join Margaret Bau, Cooperative Development Specialist, as she hosts a webinar that teaches the basics about what exactly a Co-op is, and the collective benefits Co-ops generate for diverse communities all around the world. No preregistration necessary.

Link: https://cc.readytalk.com/r/x0c1beqian8i&eom Participants are encouraged to use computer’s audio and the “Chat” feature, however, a regular conference line has been set as a backup: (866) 525-2577, ID#: 46262925 5. Creating Opportunity and Prosperity Through Strengthening Rural-Urban Connections This issue brief highlights examples in which regional development organizations can benefit from linking rural regions with urban centers. Includes information on broadband development and its implication for improving access to healthcare services.

To access the issue brief, click here.

6. Wouldn’t It Be Nice?

When it comes right down to it, fixing up a city’s downtown while polishing its main-street appeal is essentially a recycling project.

That notion was a piece of the broad concept that Sheri Stuart of Main Street Oregon delivered to an estimated 45 attendees at a Sept. 17 Town Hall held at the Stayton Public Library.

Stuart imparted Main Street’s methods to downtown revitalization at the event, which was intended to afford local residents a glimpse at approaches that may be suitable for Stayton to implement as part of a methodical process to sprucing up its historical 3rd Street downtown district.

Oregon Main Street’s coordinator, Stuart was invited by Stayton city officials in part at the behest of a recent resident survey, which indicated a strong interest in pursuing a revitalized downtown business district. Among those in attendance were City Manager Keith Campbell, City Planner Dan Fleishman, business owners, and members of the city council and chamber of commerce.

Main Street is designed for just such a charge.

To access the full story, click here.

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7. Web Resources From The Natural Hazards Center Caring for Older Adults in Disasters Curriculum Disasters can be especially trying for the elderly, who are more likely to need medical assistance, pharmaceuticals, or rely on power-dependent medical equipment. That’s why the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health has created this curriculum aimed at individuals who train health professionals to respond to disaster situations. The curriculum includes 24 lessons that address preparedness, recovery, and response for older adults. Special considerations, psychosocial impacts, ethical and legal issues, access and functional needs, and clinical considerations are covered.

Arctic Matters Since the Arctic is barometer for the impacts of climate change, it’s sometimes difficult to keep up all the information available about the transformations that occur there. So what’s really going on in the Arctic? This Web site—a companion to the National Academies Arctic Matters booklet—will give you all the info you need. From topics such as sea and land ice melt, sea level rise, and weather patterns to information about fisheries, ecosystems, and tourism, you’ll be in the know thanks to varied and interactive resources.

ICLR Quick Response Grant Program Canadians, have we got great news for you! The Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction has created a Quick Response Program that will help Canadian researchers quickly enter the field to collect perishable data after a disaster. The program is similar to the Natural Hazards Center Quick Response Grant Program—but geared towards our Northern colleagues. If you’re based in Canada, you’ll want to check out their Web site for more information about preferred topics and evaluation criteria.

Optimizing the Nations Investment in Academic Research This National Academies report takes a hard look at the current climate in national research funding and finds that increasing regulatory requirements are standing in the way of investigations. The report offers recommendations for relieving these burdens and strengthening the partnerships between government-funded academic research. It also calls on universities to more to demand higher standards of institutional and individual behavior.

Disaster Visualization Map If you want to get a visual on how disasters have affected your area of the United States in the past thirty years or so, this map will be invaluable. Sorted by disaster types that include flooding, drought, fire, ice storms, hurricanes, and much more, you’ll be able to see how disasters have increased (or not) over the years and exactly how many have struck each county. Built using data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, this map is a great source for wrapping your head around disaster over time and location.

8. The Real Estate Crisis in North Dakota's Man Camps Chain saws and staple guns echo across a $40 million residential complex under construction in Williston, North Dakota, a few miles from almost-empty camps once filled with oil workers.

After struggling to house thousands of migrant roughnecks during the boom, the state faces a new real-estate crisis: The frenzied drilling that made it No. 1 in personal-income growth and job creation for five consecutive years hasn’t lasted long enough to support the oil-fueled building explosion.

CNBC has the story here, and the answer is: We don't know. Reporters get the Fed release early, but they get it in a secure room and aren't permitted to communicate with the outside world until

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precisely 2 p.m. Still, maybe someone figured out a way to game the embargo. It would certainly be worth a ton of money.

Civic leaders and developers say many new units were already in the pipeline, and they anticipate another influx of workers when oil prices rise again. But for now, hundreds of dwellings approved during the heady days are rising, skeletons of wood and cement surrounded by rolling grasslands, with too few residents who can afford them.

“We are overbuilt,” said Dan Kalil, a commissioner in Williams County in the heart of the Bakken, a 360-million-year-old shale bed, during a break from cutting flax on his farm. “I am concerned about having hundreds of $200-a-month apartments in the future.”

To access the full story, click here.

9. Come Drought or High Water This summer, as drought plagued California and Houston flooded, the issue of water became frontpage news across the United States. Whether cities face scarcity or abundance—forced to conserve water or plan for torrential rain—new tools are emerging that leverage the Internet of Things to effectively manage water. Using sensors and analytics, these resources are helping officials, citizens, and businesses accurately predict everything from crop yields to rainwater runoff in order to increase efficiency, enhance conservation, and reduce pollution throughout the water system.

Smart irrigation in the face of drought The drought in California comes at a great cost. In 2014, the state lost $2.2 billion, including three percent of agricultural revenue, due to water shortages—and the drought has only worsened since.

The agriculture industry consumes approximately 80 percent of California’s water. As shortages loom, farmers are worrying about business, and broader concern is building about how we will feed a growing global population on dwindling resources.

To access the full story, click here.

10. County Boast Oregon’s Top Enterprise Zone ONTARIO — Malheur County has a new distinction: It has the most active enterprise zone in the state.

That was some of the information shared by Greg Smith, county economic development director, at the economic development roundtable held Wednesday at Treasure Valley Community College.

Representatives from public and private entities shared news of economic interest at the meeting.

Smith said the news about Malheur County’s enterprise zone came from Business Oregon, which administers the program. The enterprise zone gives businesses property tax abatement on new construction and purchase of new equipment The county is well on its way to another distinction, Smith added.

“Malheur County is becoming the solar capital of the state,” he said, adding that solar development is contributing to activity in the Malheur County Enterprise Zone.

To access the full story, click here.

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11. Stop Googling. Let’s Talk.

COLLEGE students tell me they know how to look someone in the eye and type on their phones at the same time, their split attention undetected. They say it’s a skill they mastered in middle school when they wanted to text in class without getting caught. Now they use it when they want to be both with their friends and, as some put it, “elsewhere.”

These days, we feel less of a need to hide the fact that we are dividing our attention. In a 2015 study by the Pew Research Center, 89 percent of cellphone owners said they had used their phones during the last social gathering they attended. But they weren’t happy about it; 82 percent of adults felt that the way they used their phones in social settings hurt the conversation.

I’ve been studying the psychology of online connectivity for more than 30 years. For the past five, I’ve had a special focus: What has happened to face-to-face conversation in a world where so many people say they would rather text than talk? I’ve looked at families, friendships and romance. I’ve studied schools, universities and workplaces. When college students explain to me how dividing their attention plays out in the dining hall, some refer to a “rule of three.” In a conversation among five or six people at dinner, you have to check that three people are paying attention — heads up — before you give yourself permission to look down at your phone. So conversation proceeds, but with different people having their heads up at different times. The effect is what you would expect: Conversation is kept relatively light, on topics where people feel they can drop in and out.

To access the full story, click here.

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