RARE Monday Mailing Year 27 | Issue 25 08 March 2021
1. State Parks: Preparing for Spring Break 2. Adapting Policy to Advancements in Autonomous Vehicle Technology 3. The Battle to Become Oregon’s Official State Vegetable 4. What Would Redefining Metro Counties Mean for Rural America? It’s Complicated 5. Volunteers, Donors Sustain Hunger-Relief Programs During Pandemic 6. Oregon’s Timber Industry Says It Can’t Afford New Taxes, Despite Record Profits (Kate Harbour) 7. Oregon Bill Would Hike Wine, Beer and Cider Taxes (Lorrie McKee) 8. Queer in the Country: Why Some LGBTQ Americans Prefer Rural Life to Urban ‘Gayborhoods’ 9. Bill to Permanently Ban Mining in Parts of Southwest Oregon Passes US House 10. With Higher Education Workers Soon Vaccine Eligible, Colleges Announce Opening Plans 11. PODCAST: Millions of U.S. Homes Face an Expensive Flooding Threat
Quote of the Week: “There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish. - Michelle Obama
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Oregon Fast Fact Known for her skill and courage, Hazel Ying Lee, born and educated in Oregon, was the first Chinese American woman to fly for the U.S. military. Learn more.
State Parks: Preparing for Spring Break
The Chief News The first signs of spring are here and Oregon State Parks staff are busy preparing campgrounds for a more “normal” 2021 Spring Break and summer camping season. “Our visitors and staff have weathered a rough 12 months,” Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) Director Lisa Sumption said. “None of us imagined this time last year that we would face a more than two-month shutdown of Oregon State Parks and then reopen under pandemic and safety precautions, followed by last September’s wildfires that damaged our local communities and several state parks. Sumption said February’s ice storm also brought down trees and limbs and damaged some facilities in northern Willamette Valley and Columbia River Gorge parks. RARE AmeriCorps Program Monday Mailing | Page 1 of 6
“Our park staff, operating with fewer employees because of a revenue shortfall that prevented us from hiring our usual seasonal staff, have rallied and are looking forward to the coming months,” Sumption said. “We’re very grateful to them, and to all state park visitors for their patience.” Read the full story.
2. Adapting Policy to Advancements in Autonomous Vehicle Technology Planetizen Testing of automated vehicles (AVs) has accelerated across the United States and has created a sense of urgency to create national standards—promoting safety, innovation, and public confidence—to match the pace of technological advancement. With a regulatory structure built entirely around human operation of vehicles—from driver’s education to traffic violation laws (including driving while intoxicated)—it’s hard to take humans out of the driving equation. In fact, the central role of human drivers can’t, and shouldn’t, change overnight. But safe and effective deployment of AVs will require a modernized framework. Creative, evidence-based policymaking offers a preemptive way to develop use cases for AVs. With the term “use cases,” we mean those ways that AVs can fill transportation gaps and enhance the current system. Identifying these use cases and helping manage evolving risks and new regulatory considerations can by enabled by testing partnerships between public and private entities. Read the full story.
3. The Battle to Become Oregon’s Official State Vegetable Oregon Public Broadcasting Mark Owens grew up in Gresham. His mom was a teacher. His dad was an engineer. It was not what you’d call a rural upbringing, so there was some surprise when he turned 21 and moved to Harney County to farm. While he no longer has to deal with big city traffic, both Owens and his workers spend plenty of time behind the wheel — of tractors. “We try to honestly maintain no more than 12 hours in a cab at one time,” Owens said. “Those 12 hours will sometimes go to 14 or 16.” Harney County has been good to Owens. It’s where he met his wife and where they had kids. He volunteered at the local school board and the planning committee. Then last year, he was appointed to fill an open seat in the Oregon House of Representatives.
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One of his first pieces of legislation was a bill to make the onion the state vegetable. Among other highlights, the bill notes that onions were as valuable as gold in the middle ages and as rare as gems. Read the full story.
4. What Would Redefining Metro Counties Mean for Rural America? It’s Complicated Daily Yonder A proposal to change how the federal government classifies metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties could have big implications for rural America. So big, in fact, that not even the Congressional Research Service – an agency with 600 staff and an annual budget of more than $100 million — can easily quantify the impact. In January the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a proposed change in how it defines metropolitan and nonmetropolitan counties. Federal agencies, researchers, and publications like the Daily Yonder frequently use the nonmetropolitan definition as a basis for determining which counties are rural. The proposed revision in the OMB system would move 255 counties from metropolitan to nonmetropolitan status, enlarging nonmetropolitan America by 18 million residents. The new definition would require counties to have a city of at least 100,000 residents to qualify as a core metropolitan county. The current threshold is 50,000 residents. Read the full story.
5. Volunteers, Donors Sustain Hunger-Relief Programs During Pandemic Tillamook County Pioneer Oregon Food Bank Tillamook County Services leaders say the county’s hunger-relief programs have continued to serve thousands of individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic much like they would in a typical year, despite some new safety rules and increased need. “Basically how we continued operations was continuing with the original distribution channels we’ve always had, instead of trying to develop one-off programs,” said Melissa “Mis” Carlson-Swanson, Tillamook branch manager for the Oregon Food Bank. “Our goal has been to have as few changes as possible.” The Tillamook branch of the statewide nonprofit supports an average of 30 programs throughout the county. That includes local food pantries, meal sites and site-specific meal programs, such as those offered at child care centers or schools.
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In total, the food bank serves over 3,000 people “either once or multiple times a year,” Carlson-Swanson said. Need for services has increased roughly 40% since the pandemic began, she added. Read the full story.
6. Oregon’s Timber Industry Says It Can’t Afford New Taxes, Despite Record Profits Oregon Public Broadcasting Thirty years after Oregon lawmakers began giving the state’s timber industry tax cuts that cost rural counties an estimated $3 billion, industry lobbyists warned them not to follow through on efforts to reinstate the tax this year. Legislators are considering whether to add to taxes paid by the logging industry after an investigation published last year by Oregon Public Broadcasting, The Oregonian/OregonLive and ProPublica found that timber companies, increasingly dominated by Wall Street real estate trusts and investment funds, benefited from the tax cuts at the expense of rural counties struggling to provide basic government services. During hearings last week, a parade of industry lobbyists and supporters said now would be the worst possible time to reinstate the tax. What they didn’t tell lawmakers: Lumber prices are at record highs. The huge demand for lumber and the accompanying high prices have helped to boost stock prices and profits for some of Oregon’s biggest timber companies. Read the full story.
7. Oregon Bill Would Hike Wine, Beer and Cider Taxes Capital Press Oregon legislators on Feb. 23 introduced House Bill 3296, dubbed the Addiction Crisis Recovery Act, which would increase the state's beer tax by 2,800% and wine tax by 1,700%. Based on industry estimates, HB 3296 would increase the cost of every bottle of wine sold in Oregon by more than $2. The tax would be even higher on ciders and beers. The bill's supporters say it will reduce underage and binge drinking by raising the wholesale price of alcohol, and the money raised from taxes will be invested in treatment and recovery programs and infrastructure for people with alcohol addiction. Opponents, including beer, wine and cider business leaders, say the proposed tax could devastate their industries at a time when they're already struggling during the pandemic. Read the full story.
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8. Queer in the Country: Why Some LGBTQ Americans Prefer Rural Life to Urban ‘Gayborhoods’ Daily Yonder Pop portrayals of LGBTQ Americans tend to feature urban gay life, from Ru Paul’s “Drag Race” and “Queer Eye” and “Pose.” But not all gay people live in cities. Demographers estimate that 15% to 20% of the United States’ total LGBTQ population – between 2.9 million and 3.8 million people – live in rural areas. These millions of understudied LGBTQ residents of rural America are the subject of my latest academic research project. Since 2015 I have conducted interviews with 40 rural LGBTQ people and analyzed various survey data sets to understand the rural gay experience. My study results, now under peer review for publication in an academic journal, found that many LGBTQ people in rural areas view their sexual identity substantially differently from their urban counterparts – and question the merits of urban gay life. Read the full story.
9. Bill to Permanently Ban Mining in Parts of Southwest Oregon Passes US House Oregon Public Broadcasting Just before he left office, former president Barack Obama ordered a temporary ban on mining near the headwaters of several rivers that flow through Southwest Oregon and Northern California. Now, the House has approved a bill to make that ban permanent. Ann Vileisis is president of the Kalmiopsis Audubon Society, an environmental group in Curry County. She says these protections are important for the communities surrounding the rivers. “Several communities rely on the rivers for drinking water, but also for recreation like fishing and the recreation economy and tourism economy that we all care about,” says Vileisis. “And just our way of life. So the idea of allowing strip mining to get a toehold in our region just makes no sense to me.” Read the full story.
10. With Higher Education Workers Soon Vaccine Eligible, Colleges Announce Opening Plans The Statesman Journal Higher education workers will be included in the next phase of Oregon's COVID-19 vaccine priority list, making them and many other front-line workers eligible no later than May 1. RARE AmeriCorps Program Monday Mailing | Page 5 of 6
Gov. Kate Brown announced new groups in the state's Phase 1b vaccine rollout in late February. The announcement prompted institutions like the University of Oregon and Oregon State University to plan for in-person classes come fall and start preparing to host mass vaccination clinics. Read the full story.
11. PODCAST – Millions of U.S. Homes Face an Expensive Flooding Threat NPR Short Wave Sea level rise and heavier rainstorms driven by global warming are sending more water into residential neighborhoods from the Gulf Coast to New England to Appalachia to the Pacific Northwest. New data make it clear that many households and communities cannot afford the mounting costs. The cost of flood damage to homes nationwide will increase by more than 50 percent in the next 30 years, according to data released by the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit research organization that studies flood risk and housing. The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to start raising rates for homeowners who are currently underpaying for flood insurance later in 2021. Poorer people stand to lose the most to flooding as the climate changes. Research has found that disasters can erode family stability and exacerbate mental and physical ailments when people don't have the money they need to repair their homes. Listen to the full story.
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