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Monday Mailing

Year 21 • Issue 37 08 June 2015 1. Low Water Statewide Will Restrict Boating, Fishing, Recreation.

2. A Map of What Every State Would Be If It Were a County 3. Scientists Worry About Tsunami Preparedness Along Oregon, Washington Coasts 4. World’s Tallest Wood Building Proposed In Paris Could Store 3,700 Metric Tons Of Carbon 5. Study: Organic Farming Is More Profitable Than Conventional 6. Download a Free Guide on Engaging Small Businesses in Disaster Preparedness 7. What is Crop Mob? 8. Oregon Counties With The Most Poverty 9. Special Report: The War on Big Food 10. Report: Attracting Infill Development in Distressed Communities: 30 Strategies 11. Monsanto GMOs Defeated by Oregon Organic Farmers as Federal Judge Upholds Seed Ban 1. Low Water Statewide Will Restrict Boating, Fishing, Recreation.

It's only May and already the Clackamas River is too low for jet sleds.

Power boaters move rocks in diminished rapids to allow passage into the few holes open to them.

Quote of the Week: “Walk with the dreamers, the believers, the courageous, the cheerful, the planners, the doers, the successful people with their heads in the clouds and their feet on the ground.

Let their spirit ignite a fire within you, to leave this world better than when you found it. ~Wilfred Peterson Oregon Fast Fact: The Oregon Trail is the longest of the overland routes used in the westward expansion of the United States.

Salmon and summer steelhead get a free pass upriver as driftboats stay home.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is scrambling to reschedule trout stocking as normally cool water warms dangerously.

Blue algae health warnings, usually a sign of summer, are issued midspring; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers posts warning signs; dog owners are cautioned against allowing animals to play in stagnating ponds To access the full story, click here.

2. A Map of What Every State Would Be If It Were a County The American economy is really big. That’s the takeaway of this fascinating map of the United States from Mark Perry, an economist who runs the Carpe Diem blog at the American Enterprise Institute.

The map, which has been around for a while, has a lot of explanatory power when it comes to America's position in the global economy. For each state, Perry finds a country that had a roughly similarly sized economy in 2013.

To access the full story, click here.

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3. Scientists Worry About Tsunami Preparedness Along Oregon, Washington Coasts Researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey, University of Colorado Boulder, and California State University, Sacramento, say many coastal areas along the Pacific Northwest are still insufficiently prepared for the big tsunami that geologists consider inevitable. In the study, they said tens of thousands of people in California, Oregon and Washington coastal areas may not have time to evacuate because they live in low-lying areas. (Above: Arch Cape, near Cannon Beach).

“All coastal communities in the U.S. Pacific Northwest are vulnerable to varying degrees to tsunami hazards from a Cascadia subduction zone earthquake,” said Dr. Nathan Wood, lead author of the study and scientist with the USGS. “Having a better sense of how a community is specifically vulnerable provides officials with the ability to develop outreach, preparedness, and evacuation plans that are tailored to local conditions and needs.”

To access the full story, click here.

4. World’s Tallest Wood Building Proposed In Paris Could Store 3,700 Metric Tons Of Carbon Michael Green Architecture (MGA) just unveiled a proposal for a carbon neutral wooden skyscraper in Paris that, if constructed, will be the world’s tallest wood building. Created in collaboration with DVVD and real estate developer REI France, the wooden skyscraper—dubbed the Baobab—was designed as part of the city’s Réinventer Paris, a competition seeking innovative and environmentally friendly urban projects. The designers estimate the 35-story wood high-rise could sequester 3,700 metric tons of carbon—an amount equivalent to keeping 2,207 cars off the road for a year.

MGA is no stranger to tall wood architecture; the Vancouver-based architecture firm designed North America’s tallest wood building and has even published a study, The Case for Tall Wood Buildings, that explains the many sustainable benefits of timber buildings. This study and Principal Michael Green’s 2013 TED talk on the subject have helped spur the popularity of wooden buildings worldwide.

To access the full story, click here.

5. Study: Organic Farming Is More Profitable Than Conventional After years of steady growth in demand, organic food now accounts for 5 percent of US food sales. Yet organically managed land makes up just 1 percent of US farmland. Why hasn't the craze for organics moved from the supermarket to the countryside? The problem isn't a lack of profitability, a new paper (abstract; press release) from Washington State University researchers David Crowdera and John Reganold finds.

The authors crunched data from 44 studies involving 55 crops grown on five continents over 40 years and found that organic farming is somewhere between 22 percent and 35 percent more profitable for farmers than conventional. The reason: the higher price farmers get when they sell certified-organic crops. This "premium," as it's known, stands at around 30 percent, and stayed roughly equal over the four-decade period, the authors report.

To access the full story, click here.

6.

Download a Free Guide on Engaging Small Businesses in Disaster Preparedness The International Economic Development Council (IEDC) released a user-friendly guide for business support organizations with practical tips on engaging small businesses in disaster preparedness. The intended audience for this resource includes local chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, small business development centers, SCORE offices, community colleges, business schools, community development financial institutions, local banks, and nonprofits that serve small

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businesses. Developed with input from continuity professionals, the information from this guide can be referenced when creating workshops or writing articles for company newsletters and e-blasts.

Highlights from the guide include:    

Why community and business organizations should engage small businesses in continuity exercises; The top ten ways to engage small businesses in preparedness activities; A case study on ‘A Day without Business’ Workshop in Tulsa, OK; Resources for Crisis preparedness.

To access your free copy, click here.

7. What is Crop Mob? Crop mob is primarily a group of young, landless, and wannabe farmers who come together to build and empower communities by working side by side. Crop mob is also a group of experienced farmers and gardeners willing to share their knowledge with their peers and the next generation of agrarians. The membership is dynamic, changing and growing with each new mob event.

Crop mob began in the Triangle region of North Carolina in October of 2008. A group of 19 farmers, farm apprentices and members of the larger agricultural community came together at Piedmont Biofarm in Pittsboro, NC to harvest sweet potatoes. In what has become a tradition, the crop mob returns to Piedmont Biofarm every October for the sweet potato harvest. Each year the number of participants grows as does the volume of the harvest. Since that first mob in 2008, more than 50 crop mob groups have started up around the United States, each with its own unique constituency and additions to the model. Much of the rapid growth is attributed to a single New York Times article.

In the past farming was much more labor intensive. Activities like planting, harvesting, processing, and barnraising often required the collective effort of entire communities. This interdependence fostered strong connections within those communities. As farming became more mechanized and reliant on petroleum based inputs, it became a more independent and solitary career. Today, in the industrial farming system, a few people may manage hundreds or even thousands of acres.

For more information about crop mobs, click here.

8. Oregon Counties With The Most Poverty In the U.S., 48 million Americans live below the poverty line. Some states have tried to combat this problem by pushing to increase the minimum wage. Across Oregon 1 in 6 people are living in poverty, but certain parts of Oregon are more affected than others.

Malheur County is more poverty-stricken than any other party of Oregon, with 25% of the population living below the poverty line (as of 2010). Malheur is followed closely by Sherman County at 22.4% and Benton County at 21.6%.

In Multnomah County, 17.1% of the population is living below the poverty line, but it's surrounding counties- Washington, Clackamas and Hood River- have the fewest people living below the poverty line in the state.

To access the full story, click here.

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9. Special Report: The War on Big Food Major packaged-food companies lost $4 billion in market share alone last year, as shoppers swerved to fresh and organic alternatives. Can the supermarket giants win you back?

Try this simple test. Say the following out loud: Artificial colors and flavors. Pesticides. Preservatives.

High-fructose corn syrup. Growth hormones. Antibiotics. Gluten. Genetically modified organisms.

If any one of these terms raised a hair on the back of your neck, left a sour taste in your mouth, or made your lips purse with disdain, you are part of Big Food’s multibillion-dollar problem. In fact, you may even belong to a growing consumer class that has some of the world’s biggest and best-known companies scrambling to change their businesses.

Lest you think this is hyperbole, consider the commentary in February at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York conference, the packaged-goods industry’s premier annual gathering.

To access the full story, click here.

10. Report: Attracting Infill Development in Distressed Communities: 30 Strategies Many communities across the country have been revitalizing their older neighborhoods, traditional downtowns, and central business districts. However, economically distressed communities have been less able to attract this kind of infill development and attain the accompanying economic, environmental, health, and quality of life benefits.

EPA’s new report, Attracting Infill Development in Distressed Communities: 30 Strategies, can help these communities determine their readiness to pursue infill development and identify strategies to better position themselves to attract infill development.   

It presents strategies and case studies to establish priorities, policies, and partnerships and change public perceptions, which can help make infill development more feasible.

It discusses innovative strategies to help finance infill development and replace aging infrastructure.

It includes comprehensive self-assessment questions communities can answer to determine if they are ready to pursue infill development and if particular strategies are appropriate for their context.

Many of the strategies in this publication stem from work in Fresno, California, that was part of the Strong Cities, Strong Communities (SC2) initiative, which provides intensive technical assistance and capacity building to economically distressed cities. EPA and the state of California partnered with the city to convene a task force of experts in development finance, law, public policy, planning, and business to identify strategies to promote infill that were feasible in Fresno’s challenging economic and fiscal environment. EPA developed this publication based in part on the task force’s work.

To download Attracting Infill Development in Distressed Communities: 30 Strategies, go to www2.epa.gov/smartgrowth/attracting-infill-development-distressed-communities.

To learn more about EPA’s work on smart growth and infill development, go to www2.epa.gov/smartgrowth/smart-growth-brownfields-and-infill-development.

EPA's Smart Growth Listserv is maintained by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Sustainable Communities. To contact us, please e-mail smartgrowth@epa.gov. Learn more about smart growth at www.epa.gov/smartgrowth

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11. Monsanto GMOs Defeated by Oregon Organic Farmers as Federal Judge Upholds Seed Ban A coalition of Oregon organic farmers has beaten Monsanto—the corporate agriculture giant—in a landmark federal lawsuit that will make national waves by the way that their rural county banned the use of genetically modified seeds.

On Friday, Mark D. Clarke, a federal magistrate judge, dismissed a legal challenge brought by commercial farmers who use Monsanto's genetically modified alfalfa seeds. The non-organic farms sought to overturn a 2014 ordinance passed by Jackson County voters that banned the use of such seed stock, claiming that the anti-GMO ordinance violated their right to farm.

However Judge Clarke concluded that exactly the opposite was the case. He held that the county's noGMO seed ordinance could take effect next week, citing earlier state legislation that protected commercial farms—in this case organic farmers—from harm from other commercial enterprises, such as the commercial farms whose GMO-laced alfalfa pollen gets carried by the wind and can't be stopped from tainting organic crops.

To access the full story, click here.

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