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Monday Mailing

Year 22 • Issue 6 19 October 2015 1. Sen. Wyden Issues Ideas to Improve Outdoor Recreation; Sec. Jewell Listens 2. How ‘Dry’ Are Food Deserts?

3. This is How Rising Seas Will Reshape The Face of The United States 4. Call for Proposals: 2016-2017 Travel Oregon Forever Fund Projects 5. Thin Ice – Exploring Mount Hood’s Glacier Caves 6. Report: Housing Policy Levers to Promote Economic Mobility 7. Updated Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass Map 8. Oregon Vineyards Draw Out-of-State Buyers 9. A Mesmerizing Interactive History of the High-Rise 10. Farm Commons Tutorials 11. Report: The Great American Adaptation Road Trip - Lessons Learned About How Hometowns Across The United States Are Building Their Resilience to Climate Change 1. Sen. Wyden Issues Ideas to Improve Outdoor Recreation; Sec. Jewell Listens Oregon's outdoor recreation community spoke and Sen. Ron Wyden listened.

Wyden and Rep. Earl Blumenauer hosted a discussion in Portland on ways to improve the American outdoor recreation experience in late June. Then, Wyden left on a tour of the 7 Wonders of Oregon, each a recreation gem, the first week of July.

Quote of the Week: “If we are to succeed in saving the planet, the battle will be won or lost at the local level.” ~Governor Tom McCall

Oregon Fast Fact: Oregon has more than 7,000 bridges, including 53 covered bridges.

The two returned to Portland on Tuesday, bringing along Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, to speak again with local recreation and land preservation proponents in Northwest Portland at Chris King Precision Components, a maker of high-end bicycle parts.

The discussion covered other issues, but in the background was a draft plan for what could become Wyden's outdoor recreation bill. The fourpage draft, released for discussion, is a list of ideas and includes an online public comment form.

To access the full story, click here.

2. How ‘Dry’ Are Food Deserts?

A new study of the food-buying habits of Americans who live in “food deserts” finds little evidence to support the assumption that getting healthier food on the shelves in low-income communities will lead to residents eating a healthier diet.

Researchers using commercially available consumer data found that people’s food-purchase decisions didn’t improve significantly when they shopped at stores that had healthier food on the shelves.

“Living in [an area with low incomes and limited access to healthy foods] has only a modest negative effect on the healthfulness of food Page 1 of 4

purchases – a difference too small to explain much of the national disparities in diet quality and obesity,” wrote the economists who conducted the study, Ilya Rahkovsky and Samantha Snyder with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.

To access the full story, click here.

3. This is How Rising Seas Will Reshape The Face of The United States In a new study, a team of scientists who specialize in studying rising seas bring the implications of their research right to the U.S.’s doorstep — calculating just how many American cities and municipalities are at risk of being flooded in the future, as well as how many may already be committed to that fate.

The striking result is that millions of Americans may already live on land destined to be someday — albeit perhaps in a very distant future — reclaimed by the sea. But the number for whom this is true will rise dramatically if carbon dioxide emissions continue unchecked — or, if recent concerns about the destabilization of the ice sheet of West Antarctica turn out to be well founded.

“Future emissions will determine which areas we can continue to occupy or may have to abandon,” note the report’s researchers, led by Benjamin Strauss of Climate Central in Princeton, N.J. The work appeared Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and was co-authored by Scott Kulp of Climate Central and Anders Levermann of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

To access the full story, click here.

4. Call for Proposals: 2016-2017 Travel Oregon Forever Fund Projects We are very pleased to announce the call for proposals for the 2016-2017 Travel Oregon Forever Fund beneficiaries.

We are requesting that those interested in submitting an application do so by COMPLETING THIS ONLINE FORM by Friday, November 6th. Applications will be shortlisted in November and one project from each of Oregon's seven tourism regions will be selected before the end of the year.

Selected projects will be responsible for working with our team to enlist new businesses to support the Fund and can anticipate receiving approximately $10,000 at the end of the 2 year project beneficiary cycle.

You can review a list of previous projects supported by the Fund on Travel Oregon's website.

If you are not interested in completing an application we kindly ask that you forward this message throughout your network and invite those local leaders across Oregon that are supporting our state's tourism industry to apply.

Send Andrew Grossmann an email at andrewg@sustainabletravel.org with any questions you have about this process.

5. Thin Ice – Exploring Mount Hood’s Glacier Caves On the slopes of Mount Hood, six explorers set off in a line up the Sandy Glacier. Eddy Cartaya pulls ahead of the group, a stony expression on his face.

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He’s wearing a white helmet with his name and “Cave Rescue” printed on it. Cartaya is worried because the sun is starting to rise and hit the ice.

His climbing partner Brent McGregor follows at a more reasonable pace. The bearded 60-year-old takes in the morning and smiles.

“One of the best sounds in alpine mountaineering is the sound of crampons and ice axes on good firm snow,” he says.

To access the full story, click here.

6. Report: Housing Policy Levers to Promote Economic Mobility Federal, state, and local policies that provide access to safe, affordable housing can play an essential role in improving the economic well-being of low-income households, a report from the Urban Institute and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation finds.

To access the full report, click here.

7. Updated Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass Map The map below shows USDA and other federal investments in local and regional food systems since 2009, along with data such as farmers markets, food hubs, and meat processors. Explore the map to see what's happening in your own community or learn how others are using federal support to build local food systems. Let us know what you think: send an email to knowyourfarmer@usda.gov.

To access the map, click here.

8. Oregon Vineyards Draw Out-of-State Buyers From a single-wide trailer to a 3,000-square-foot contemporary home overlooking more than 60 acres of vineyards, Jim Bernau and his Oregon winery have come a long way over three decades.

Mr. Bernau, owner of one of the state’s top-producing wineries, Willamette Valley Vineyards , spent about $750,000 in 2013 to build a custom home in the Salem Hills area of Oregon. The home has walls of glass, an enormous master suite and two guest suites.

“Our dreams have gotten bigger,” says Mr. Bernau, 62, who shares the home with his fiancée, Jan Green. In the past month they have raised more than $4 million in private funding and plan to open two new wineries.

Since starting out in 1983, Mr. Bernau has witnessed the explosive growth of winemaking in the state.

Oregon ranks No. 3 among U.S. wineries, behind California and Washington, according to the National Association of American Wineries, a trade group.

To access the full story, click here.

9. A Mesmerizing Interactive History of the High-Rise Told over four parts meant to evoke chapters in a storybook using films, photos, archive materials, text, and miniature games, this "Op-Doc" is a short masterclass in the 2,500-year global history of vertical living.

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"A Short History of the Highrise" tells the technical, social, and cultural history of vertical living in a spellbinding series of short films with rhyming narration, intricate animation, and interactive materials. It starts with Roman experiments in apartment living for the working poor made of mud and timber, and continues through the cliff dwellings of Arizona, stacked circular buildings of rural China, and Yemen's medieval "Manhattan of the Desert". An in-depth examination of the modern era of high-rise construction begins with the "game changing" invention of the elevator.

To access the series, click here.

10. Farm Commons Tutorials Farm Commons delivers fast-paced tutorials that help farmers move forward on the legal issues that affect their farm operation. Their tutorials are engaging and practical- this isn’t just theoretical learning!

To access a list of tutorials, click here.

11. Report: The Great American Adaptation Road Trip - Lessons Learned About How Hometowns Across The United States Are Building Their Resilience to Climate Change Authors Allie Goldstein and Kirsten Howard took to the roads to experience adaptation first hand across the country. They met with farmers in Georgia, planners on Cape Cod, utility executives in Denver, volunteers in New Orleans, and a host of other Americans struggling to cope with the effects of climate change. And they came back with vivid and compelling tales of ingenuity, resilience, and daunting challenges as people face the changes climate change is bringing to our land, communities, wildlife, and people. They found some surprises along the way. For instance, out of the tragedy and destruction from Superstorm Sandy has come at least one unanticipated benefit—a boom on solar power that’s cutting carbon emissions.

We both had a chance to suggest communities or individuals to visit, and wished we could join them given our own work at Georgetown and University of Michigan on adaptation. Fortunately, through their blogs, updates, and media coverage and now through this report, we can all travel with them vicariously, sharing in their discoveries and experiences as they speak with individuals on the front lines of a changing climate. This report brings to life what it really means to prepare for, survive, and thrive in a “new normal.”

To access the full report, click here.

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