Monday Mailing - January 25, 2021

RARE Monday Mailing Year 27 | Issue 19 25 January 2021 1.

Quote of the Week:

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“Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it.”

- Rene Descartes

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Bicycling for Recreation Contributed $1.5 Billion to Oregon Economy in 2019 (Katie McFall) How a Group of Kansas Researchers’ Plan to Make U.S.’s Rural Communities More Viable Advancing Antiracism in Community Development (Erica Mooney, Year 26) Nonprofit Establishes Wildfire Tree Replanting Fund With 1 Million Tree Goal (Bree Cubrilovic) Gray Whale Population Drops by Quarter Off U.S. West Coast (Katie McFall) Perspective: What You Should Know About Age Demographics and Oregon Oregon Farms to Put Electric Tractors to Work in Real World Workers Reflect on Oregon’s First and Last Coal Plant RESOURCE: Creative Placemaking: Public Resources Guide RESOURCE: The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable Rural Economic Development Toolkit

Bicycling for Recreation Contributed $1.5 Billion to Oregon Economy in 2019 BikePortland An in-depth analysis of spending in Oregon found that cycling is one of the most economically valuable forms of outdoor recreation in the state.

Oregon Fast Fact Oregon’s native huckleberry is closely related to the blueberry and can be found in coastal bogs, forest understories, and open slopes and meadows throughout Oregon.

More info.

The Outdoor Recreation Economic Impact Study released last week by Travel Oregon (in partnership with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, Oregon Office of Outdoor Recreation, Oregon Fish and Wildlife and Earth Economics) found that in 2019 outdoor recreation supported more than 224,000 jobs statewide and generated $9.3 billion in wages and compensation. The study also found that in 2019, outdoor recreation in Oregon supported $15.6 billion in spending, which includes everything from trip-related spending (money spent on recreational trips), to expenditures on equipmentrelated spending (outdoor recreation gear, apparel, equipment, and repair).

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The study was done to give local leaders more information about the value of outdoor recreation and help them tailor projects, policies, and programs to encourage more of it.

The State of Oregon sees outdoor recreation as a valuable asset — for both tourists and locals — that can boost economies in cities large and small.

Read the full story.

2. How a Group of Kansas Researchers’ Plan to Make U.S.’s Rural Communities More Viable

The Wichita Eagle A group of Kansas researchers believe they have a solution that will help rural communities thrive, simply by helping them optimize how they use their community’s already abundant wind energy opportunities.

The projects will create “cheaper energy” that can be used to treat water and maintain agricultural systems, while building on the region’s current use of wind energy.

Rural revitalization has long been a political talking point, as politicians on both sides of the aisle have developed plans to assist rural communities that are struggling with shrinking populations, wavering economies and limited access to healthcare and other 21st century necessities like high-speed internet.

Read the full story.

3. Advancing Antiracism in Community Development Shelterforce Community organizing and community development share deep roots. Grassroots movements that opposed urban renewal fought to flip the false narratives of “urban decay” and “blight” that led to the destruction of communities of color, and in doing so, fought for the right to control the destinies of those neighborhoods through community-led development with an asset-based lens. Decades later, the proliferation of community development organizations has created an entire industry focused on complex finance tools and the mobilization and attraction of private capital.

Over time, the professionalization of the community development field has led to the slow but accelerating divergence of organizing and development. This division becomes even clearer if we focus on the bottom line of each group: community development works to shift resources into disinvested communities, whereas community organizers seek to shift power into them.

Read the full story.

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4. Nonprofit Establishes Wildfire Tree Replanting Fund with 1 Million Tree Goal Argus Observer Oregon Parks Forever, a statewide nonprofit, on Tuesday announced the establishment of a Wildfire Tree Replanting Fund. The goal of the fund is to plant at least 1 million trees. For each dollar donated, a tree will be planted.

Since the 1990’s, Oregon has seen significant increases in the number of acres burned statewide. 2020 saw the second largest number of acres burned since 1990. During the summer of 2020, more than one million acres of trees on Oregon lands were burned. This was more than twice the average annual amount of damage that Oregon experienced between 2010 and 2019.

This comes at a time when the budgets of public land managers are already stressed due to ongoing funding challenges and the COVID pandemic.

Read the full story.

5. Gray Whale Population Drops by Quarter Off U.S. West Coast Oregon Public Broadcasting Researchers say the population of gray whales off the West Coast of the United States has fallen by nearly one-quarter since 2016, resembling a similar die-off two decades ago.

In a paper released Tuesday, NOAA Fisheries reported that surveys counted about 6,000 fewer migrating whales last winter, 21,000 as compared with 27,000 in 2016.

The agency declared an “unusual mortality event” in 2019 as dozens of gray whales washed up on Pacific Ocean beaches. Scientists aren’t sure what has been causing the die-off. But they believe that it is within the range of previous population fluctuations and that the number of whales may have exceeded what the environment can support.

Read the full story.

6. Perspective: What You Should Know About Age Demographics and Oregon KATU Some say age is just a number, but it’s a high one in Oregon.

Oregon’s population is relatively old. The median age of an Oregonian is 39.3 years old compared to 38.5 years for the nation, and we rank 11th among all states in terms of the share of population ages 65+ (18%).

How age is distributed across the state, however, will likely surprise many who hold stereotypes about urban and rural communities. The perception is often that young people leave rural communities for urban areas, resulting in young and youthful cities and old and aging small towns. There is certainly some truth to this. For example, Multnomah and RARE AmeriCorps Program Monday Mailing | Page 3 of 5

Washington counties have the smallest percentages of people ages 65+ (13%) while Wheeler County has the highest percentage (36%). However, Oregon’s rural counties are quite varied.

Read the full story.

7. Oregon Farms to Put Electric Tractors to Work in Real World Government Technology Electric tractors are on their way to work in rural Oregon. They are part of a project to expand electrification in the transportation sector, a demonstration to prove out operational and other savings the electric machines can offer.

The electrification of the transportation sector is not going to look the same in rural communities as it has in the urban counterparts, said Bridget Callahan, project manager for Sustainable Northwest, a partner in the project.

“We’re starting to think, how can we ensure there is a meaningful transition in rural communities that really meets their own needs. And we quickly looked at the agricultural sector as a pretty overlooked opportunity,” she added.

Read the full story.

8. Workers Reflect on Oregon’s First and Last Coal Plant High Country News To reach the top of the coal-fired power plant outside Boardman, Oregon, one must first ascend 19 floors in an elevator, then climb a couple of sets of stairs, all the while passing a labyrinth of heavy metal machines and metal catwalks. These various — and, to the untrained eye, mysterious — machines work together to spin a turbine that converts heat into electricity. From the roof, the plant’s smokestack rises even higher above a barren coal yard that was once filled with piles of coal from the Powder River Basin of Wyoming. After four decades as one of Oregon’s top power producers — and the state’s number-one pointsource of carbon dioxide emissions — the Boardman plant closed in October 2020. But glimpses of the present and future of energy production are visible next door and on the horizon.

Read the full story.

9. RESOURCE – Creative Placemaking: Public Resources Guide National Assembly of State Arts Agencies Public funding streams are intended to be available broadly, yet knowing what they are or how to tap into them can pose challenges. Federal opportunities are especially difficult to navigate for several reasons. Eligibility requirements can be strict, application documents are often long and complex, the universe of grants is vast while opportunities themselves RARE AmeriCorps Program Monday Mailing | Page 4 of 5

are highly specific, and the administering agencies may not always understand how creative placemaking strategies can advance the outcomes of their programs. We hope this guide will be a starting place not only for practitioners seeking opportunities, but for the intermediaries and public and private grant makers that provide technical assistance to stakeholders seeking such resources.

Access the guide.

10. RESOURCE – The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable Rural Economic Development Toolkit Outdoor Recreation Roundtable Outdoor recreation offers opportunities for sustainable economic and community development across the United States. Through interviews with over 60 practitioners including elected officials, land managers, economic development specialists and business leaders - the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable has developed this toolkit to help your community build an outdoor recreation economy of its own. Remember, this work takes strong relationships, dedication and patience to take off.

Access the toolkit.

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