Think Out Loud

Sudden oak death, a tree disease caused by a fungal-like pathogen, can lead to bleeding cankers, leaf blight and rapid dieoff in a number of plant and tree species. The disease was first detected in northern California in the mid-1990s, and has been slowly spreading in Southern Oregon since 2001. Newly infected trees were recently found in Humbug Mountain State Park near Port Orford, leading to renewed treatment efforts by state agencies.  Gabriela Ritokova is a forest pathologist with the Oregon Department of Forestry. She joins us with more details about the disease and efforts to contain it.

For more than a hundred years, all the members of Portland's city council have been elected city-wide. That's about to change after voters passed a major overhaul to the city charter last November. The volunteer Independent District Commission has released three maps depicting different options for how the districts could be drawn. We talk to Josh Laurente and DaWayne Judd, co-chairs of the Independent District Commission, about their proposed maps for how to divide the city into four districts.

Portland area counties are joining together to work on a regional heat map. The data will be collected by volunteers, and public health officials hope that the information can help better prepare the region for hotter summers.  In a typical year in Portland, no heat related deaths are reported. In 2021, after the record-breaking heat dome, at least 69 deaths resulted from extreme heat in the last week of June, according to Multnomah County. Summers in Oregon are heating up, and public health officials say that managing heat islands will be an important part of addressing rising temperatures. Kathleen Johnson is a senior program coordinator at Washington County Public Health. Morgan Zabow is a community heat and health information coordinator for NOAA. And J’reyesha Brannon is a volunteer with Multnomah County who will be collecting data for the heat map research. They join us to share more on the importance of exploring heat in and around Portland and the potential for collaboration among health officials and the general public.

The system for dispatching emergency services is itself in need of help. The Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications has been struggling for many years to get its hold times down. It has hired more dispatchers, and is now using a system of automatic call backs to numbers that hang up. It’s also implemented as an automated answering system for non-emergency calls. Given the challenges, it might come as a surprise to learn that the award for best dispatcher in North America is Portland’s own Stephen Zipprich. He joins us to talk about the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch award, his experience over the last decade of this work and what keeps him going. 

Measure 114, Oregon’s voter-passed law to regulate firearms, has yet to go into effect because of multiple court challenges. Measure 114 bans future purchases of magazines that can carry more than 10 rounds of ammunition. It also requires those wishing to buy a firearm to get a permit first. Permits will require applicants to complete a safety class and a federal background check.Last Friday, a federal judge ruled that the measure’s ban on the sale or manufacture of large-capacity magazines and its requirement for a permit to purchase a gun are constitutional. The ruling was appealed and may eventually be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Measure 114 also faces a challenge at the state level that will be heard in September. Norman Williams, law professor at Willamette University, explains where the legal challenges stand now.

Oregon archaeologists have found evidence of human occupation in the state that dates back more than 18,000 years. University of Oregon students and faculty working at the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter in Harney County found stone tools and fragments of camel and bison teeth beneath a 15,000-year-old layer of volcanic ash. Radiocarbon dating of the tooth enamel revealed that the fragments were 18,250 years old. Due to their position in the ash, the tools are thought to be even older — making them some of the oldest evidence of human civilization in North America.Joining us with more details about the discovery is Pat O’Grady, a staff archaeologist at the University of Oregon Museum of Cultural and Natural History.

The invasive vine mealybug was found in Southern Oregon in 2021 and since then, vineyards have been fighting to eradicate the insect.  The pest can cause significant damage to Oregon’s grape vines, affecting fruit quality and mold growth. State funding from SB 5506 will invest more than $400,000 to monitor, research and suppress the insect before it becomes widespread in the state. Brian Gruber is the president of the Oregon Winegrowers Association. Greg Jones is the vice chair on the Oregon Wine Board’s board of directors. And Vaughn Walton is a professor at Oregon State University's horticulture department . They join us now to share how this bug can potentially affect Oregon’s vineyards and the potential impact of the funding to address the threat it poses

With its bright orange bill, white face and curling, yellow plumes, the tufted puffin is arguably the most recognizable seabird in Oregon. But scientists are now getting a clearer picture of how climate change is affecting the survival of tufted puffins and other seabirds.  A new study from the University of Washington found that persistent heat waves in the marine environment linked to climate change are leading to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of seabirds several months later. The researchers also found that these mass die-offs of seabirds used to happen once a decade, but are now happening more frequently, including five consecutive years, from 2014 to 2019, when millions of seabirds washed up on beaches stretching from California to Alaska. Julia Parrish is a marine biologist at the University of Washington and a co-author of the study which was published earlier this month. She joins us to talk about the findings. 

Last weekend volunteers painted the old city hall building and a downtown restaurant in Sweet Home, Oregon. The small town pitched the idea to Miller Paint Company as a way to revitalize the downtown and convince drive-through tourists to stop and spend money. Like many small towns in Oregon, Sweet Home has been struggling to achieve economic viability after timber mills closed down and COVID hit. City manager Kelcey Young joins us to talk about why she thinks this new paint job could help.

Author Nicole Chung was born to Korean immigrants in Seattle and later adopted by a white couple in Southern Oregon. The 2018 memoir “All You Can Ever Know” follows Chung’s exploration of her identity as a transracial adoptee as she searches for her birth family. Her second memoir, released earlier this month, covers the untimely deaths of her adoptive parents — first her father from kidney disease, then her mother from cancer in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. “A Living Remedy” chronicles Chung’s grief and rage as she reckons with ways financial instability and inadequate health care access contributed to her parents’ deaths.