Tuesday Mailing - January 19, 2021

Monday Tuesday Mailing Year 27 | Issue 18 19 January 2021 1.

Quote of the Week:

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“Never underestimate the valuable and important difference you make in every life you touch, for the impact you make today has a powerful rippling effect on every tomorrow.”

- Leon Brown

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Oregon Fast Fact The Columbia River is the fourth-largest river in the U.S. and until 1957 and the installation of The Dalles Dam, it was a wild, frothy, dangerous place.

Learn more.

Bill Would Add Climate Change, Environmental Justice to Start Land-Use Goals (Katie McFall) Historic Preservation and Restoration Program Creates Futures While Preserving the Past Bureau of Land Management Seeks Proposals for Secure Rural Schools Funding Ending the Pandemic Means Getting Vaccinated. But Many Oregonians Will Be Hard to Convince.

Questions Loom Over the Future of Natural Gas in Oregon Oregon State Lawmakers Delay Gathering for 2021 Legislative Session, Brace for Armed Protests (Katie McFall) Coastal Landslides vs. Our Roads: Who Wins?

Four Lessons for Cities to Help Advance Equitable Transportation During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond COVID-19 Hurting Salmon Market, Creating Risky Conditions for Tribal Fishers (Eva Kahn) New Grant Will Create an Institute for Racial and Climate Justice (Aliza McHugh) PODCAST: Mega Trends Influencing the Future of America’s Rural Communities

Bill Would Add Climate Change, Environmental Justice to Start Land-Use Goals Oregon Public Broadcasting One of the bills Oregon lawmakers will consider in their upcoming session calls for updating state land-use planning goals to address climate change and environmental justice.

House Bill 2488 would require the state to add new goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and include disadvantaged communities in land development decisions.

It would create an environmental justice advisory committee within the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development and require the state to create a map of the communities facing the highest environmental health risks.

Read the full story.

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2. Historic Preservation and Restoration Program Creates Futures While Preserving the Past

Restore Oregon One is restoring historic wood windows in Portland. Another is working for an Architectural Conservation company in Philadelphia. One is working for FEMA in New York, and yet another has started a restoration company in Astoria, OR. What do they all have in common? They are graduates of the Clatsop Community College Historic Preservation and Restoration program. The program teaches students historic preservation theory and trains them in hands-on building skills using both traditional and modern materials and techniques. Through the program students develop lifelong skills and appreciation for historic preservation to build their future on.

Sarah Sargent, from Bend, Oregon, is a graduate of the program who now works for FEMA in New York City as a full-time Historic Preservation Specialist. She has recently gotten her Master’s degree in Historic Preservation from Columbia University, but counts her time at Clatsop as some of her most fulfilling. “I can honestly say that I consider attending the Historic Preservation and Restoration Program at CCC to be one of the best decisions of my life! It cemented my desire to become a preservation professional, and gave be a broad background that was incredibly useful in establishing my future career,� she stated.

Read the full story.

3. Bureau of Land Management Seeks Proposals for Secure Rural Schools Funding The World Newspaper More than $3.1 million is available for natural resource projects across western Oregon, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking proposals that provide community-based solutions to pressing public lands challenges, such as wildland fire prevention, trash cleanup, watershed restoration, road maintenance or control of noxious weeds.

Funding for selected projects will be provided through the BLM Secure Rural Schools Title II Program. The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act funds a variety of activities, including support for county projects, funds for roads and schools, and protection of natural resources. Under Title II, $3.1 million is currently available to build relationships between the BLM and State and local governments, private and nonprofit entities, and landowners for protection, restoration, and enhancement of fish and wildlife habitat, and other resource objectives on Federal land and on non-Federal land where projects would benefit the resources on Federal land.

Read the full story.

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4. Ending the Pandemic Means Getting Vaccinated. But Many Oregonians Will Be Hard to Convince.

Willamette Week As Oregonians wait to get a COVID-19 vaccination, many overlook that we are all waiting on our fellow Oregonians to get vaccinated as well.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, recently estimated that as many as 85% of Americans need to get the vaccine to bring the pandemic under control. Without that kind of vaccination rate, the virus can still spread rapidly, and even people who've been vaccinated aren't fully guaranteed they're safe.

The challenge: In Oregon, the percentage of people who say they won't get the vaccine is too large.

Read the full story.

5. Questions Loom Over the Future of Natural Gas in Oregon Oregon Public Broadcasting Dan Serres with the environmental group Columbia Riverkeeper drove to Hermiston on his birthday last month to investigate — and try to stop — a controversial natural gas plant project that has yet to be built.

He stood on his car alongside the highway to take photos without trespassing at the proposed development site for the Perennial Wind Chaser plant.

“I’m looking at an illegal road that was built in violation of the Clean Water Act,” he said.

“The hum here in the background is the Hermiston Generating Plant which is next door, and it’s currently one of the top polluters in the state for carbon pollution.”

For Serres, building a new natural gas plant is the opposite of what Oregon should be doing to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.

Read the full story.

6. Oregon State Lawmakers Delay Gathering for 2021 Legislative Session, Brace for Armed Protests Oregon Public Broadcasting Oregon state lawmakers are preparing for the possibility of another armed protest at the Capitol in Salem and will delay gathering in-person on the first day of the 2021 legislative session.

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Earlier this week, the FBI informed state legislators across the country to brace for large protests being planned in state capitals in the run-up to the inauguration of Presidentelect Joe Biden.

Oregon state lawmakers said they were canceling the in-person gathering out of an abundance of caution and after heeding advice from the Oregon State Police.

“All the decisions are based pretty much initially on the State Police. They’re the ones directing much of what we do,” Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, told the Statesman Journal, which first reported the news. “There’s concern that they don’t quite know what the level or the intensity of demonstrations might be because of what’s happened before to the Oregon Capitol.”

Read the full story.

7. Coastal Landslides vs. Our Roads: Who Wins?

Oregon Department of Transportation Landslides are a way of life in Oregon. Unfortunately, the chances of them occurring have risen after the devastating wildfires we experienced this year.

Aside from disasters, however, landslides are always front and center for some people.

Curran Mohney is one of those folks. He’s a senior engineering geologist in ODOT’s Statewide Project Delivery group, where he analyzes thousands – or more – pieces of data regularly to try to get a handle on the complex situation.

“Primarily what I want to know is how much time we have left for our highways in certain areas,” he explained. “What’s the life span of our highways on the coast and in our stressed areas? How fast are landslides accelerating, especially with climate change drivers? How long until we lose that battle?”

Because, Mohney said, Mother Nature will ultimately win.

Read the full story.

8. Four Lessons for Cities to Help Advance Equitable Transportation During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond Urban Institute Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, access to dependable, affordable public transportation is more important than ever. Many essential workers rely on public transportation to commute to jobs providing critical services, like health care. But they and many others don’t have equal access to affordable transportation. Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC); people with disabilities; the elderly; and people with irregular work schedules RARE AmeriCorps Program Monday Mailing | Page 4 of 6

often face significant barriers to finding safe and affordable means of transportation to work, and they did long before the pandemic began.

The Urban Institute explored this issue during a recent webinar, when we showcased our new transportation equity data tool and hosted a panel discussion with city and community leaders nationwide. Speakers discussed barriers to transportation equity and solutions cities can use to increase equity in the wake of COVID-19. Four lessons emerged from the conversation.

Read the full story.

9. COVID-19 Hurting Salmon Market, Creating Risky Conditions for Tribal Fishers Underscore The Brigham Fish Market was bustling on a Monday afternoon in November. Two women shared a meal over beers at an outdoor table overlooking the Columbia River in Cascade Locks. In front of the entrance to the market, a couple dined at a streetside table behind a fish-patterned metal railing. Inside, an older couple pointed out a fresh Chinook salmon fillet in the glass-fronted display, and several people waited for takeout orders in an attractive space decorated with Native American art, blanket samples, and historical fishing photos.

In the kitchen, Terrie Brigham, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation who manages the market, was preparing a smoked-salmon quesadilla and Cajun-seasoned halibut and chips. Brigham’s sister owns the business, which specializes in fresh and smoked fish from the Columbia River, mostly caught by family members.

Brigham says she is “one of the lucky ones.” The market has stayed open throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by relying on takeout orders, outdoor seating, and federal relief funding that helped keep employees on the payroll. A second location, called Brigham Fish ’n Chips and located in the new food court of the Wildhorse Casino & Resort outside Pendleton, opened in late September.

Read the full story.

10. New Grant Will Create an Institute for Racial and Climate Justice Around the O The University of Oregon has received a $4.52 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support a new initiative envisioning a transformative research platform for racial and climate justice. It is the largest humanities award in UO history.

The Pacific Northwest Just Futures Institute for Racial and Climate Justice will be a multidisciplinary collaboration between leaders from the UO’s College of Arts and Sciences and College of Design, alongside other partners across campus and institutions in the RARE AmeriCorps Program Monday Mailing | Page 5 of 6

region, including the University of Idaho and Whitman College. With capacity made possible by the Mellon funding, the institute will tackle the intertwined issues of racial and climate justice and work toward a more just future for the region.

Read the full story.

11. PODCAST – Mega Trends Influencing the Future of America’s Rural Communities Pathways to Rural Prosperity Don Macke and Shelley Paasch talk about some of the top trends that smart community leaders can explore as potential development opportunities.

What are "mega trends" and why should rural communities pay attention to them?

Understanding these trends can help communities not only survive, but prosper!

Listen to the full story.

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