Think Out Loud

Oregon recently launched a pilot program to provide liability coverage for prescribed burns that don’t go as intended. The program covers up to $1 million in damages per burn. It’s being managed in tandem with the state’s certified burn manager program, which provides training on how to safely and effectively use prescribed fire on a variety of landscapes. Taken together, the two programs are meant to make it easier and less risky for businesses and contractors to conduct prescribed burns in the state.

Amanda Rau is the statewide prescribed fire coordinator for the Oregon Department of Forestry. She joins us to talk more about the programs and how she hopes they’ll increase the use of prescribed fire in Oregon.

Newport is the first city on the Oregon Coast to adopt a new estuary management plan in more than 40 years. The city jointly manages the Yaquina Bay Estuary with Lincoln County and the city of Toledo. The three entities use the plan to determine what kind of development can happen in what parts of the estuary. 

The updated version requires developers to perform climate vulnerability assessments for all projects in the estuary. It also includes a commitment from Newport city leaders to revisit the plan and update it periodically as the estuary faces new climate impacts, such as rising sea levels and warming ocean temperatures. 

Annie Merrill is the estuaries and ocean manager for the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition. She joins us to talk more about estuaries and the risks they face in a changing climate.

Misinformation around election season has been spreading, including false claims that  Donald Trump is not appearing as a candidate on Oregon’s Voter Pamphlet to some Pennsylvania ballots being destroyed.

Stephen Prochaska is a doctoral student at the University of Washington Information School and a graduate research assistant at the Center for an Informed Public. He joins us to share more on the strategy behind the spread of misinformation and what to expect before, and after, Election Day. 

Astoria’s Billie McBride was crowned Miss Trans Oregon earlier this year. That means she’ll be vying for the Miss Trans USA title at the national pageant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from Nov. 7-10. A former business owner and an avid figure skater, McBride now spends her time advocating against anti-trans legislation. She joins us in the studio to talk more about her life and how she hopes the pageant will amplify her activism.

This week, a coalition of over 100 elected officials, arts organizations, labor unions and chambers of commerce signed a letter urging calm and “thoughtful civic engagement” on election day, and to preserve the “hard-won but still fragile progress” in Downtown Portland. 

Amid rising concerns about possible civil unrest next week, Portland Police Chief Bob Day said there would be increased police presence, with officers canceling days off and working 12-hour shifts. A special unit of officers under the recently reconstituted Rapid Response Team will also be deployed for crowd control. Portland Police Chief Bob Day joins us to share more details about the agency’s preparedness for election day, what lessons it learned from its response to the 2020 racial justice protests and an update on what the police know about the suspected arsonist who placed incendiary devices into ballot boxes in Portland and Vancouver recently. 

Derek Greenwood is an adjunct faculty member at Columbia Gorge Community College and a certified drug and alcohol counselor. As someone with lived experience, he credits having a safe space he could go to socialize when he was recovering from drug addiction as a young adult. But finding safe, sober spaces to form those connections with other people in recovery can be a challenge, especially in rural communities. 

That challenge motivated Greenwood and others to launch an effort to help people recovering from drugs and alcohol in the Columbia Gorge. As first reported in the Oregon Capital Chronicle, the Gorge Recovery Center received a $2 million grant this summer from the state’s opioid settlement funds. The center, which does not yet have a physical location, is expected to open sometime next year. It will offer an array of services seven days a week, from peer support mentors to recreational opportunities and classes on parenting, financial literacy and other life skills. Joining us to talk about their plans and the challenges of navigating recovery in a rural community are Gorge Recovery Center board president Derek Greenwood and fellow board member Katrina Mace, who also works as a drug and alcohol counselor at Mid-Columbia Center for Living

The weeklong Bureau of Land Management’s annual Bat Beauty Contest closes, appropriately enough, on Halloween this year. Voting has taken place on the BLM’s Facebook and Instagram accounts. The competition features photos of bats taken primarily by government biologists who survey and work with bats on public lands in 12 western states, including Oregon. There are 15 species of bats native to Oregon, including eight whose numbers are declining or at-risk, according to the state’s wildlife agency. 

Bats from Oregon have won the contest for two years in a row. Last year’s winner was a Townsend’s big-eared bat photographed by Emma Busk, a wildlife technician in the Ashland field office in the Medford district of the Bureau of Land Management. Busk entered photos of two bats in this year’s competition, including a bat named Hoary Potter and the Guano of Fire which made it to the final round of judging. She joins us to talk about Oregon bats and the vital roles they play in our ecosystems. 

Menopause can present a wide range of symptoms, from hot flashes and sleep disturbances to brain fog and loss of bone density. Though several safe and effective therapies are available, many patients still aren’t receiving the help they need. A new study from Oregon Health & Science University found that more than 60% of respondents with moderate to severe menopause symptoms weren’t receiving any treatment. The primary reason they reported not engaging in treatment was that their clinician hadn’t recommended it to them.

Maria Rodriguez is a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at OHSU and the director of the university’s Center for Reproductive Health Equity. Sara Cichowski is the university’s vice chair of gynecology and an assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology. They both join us to talk more about the barriers to accessing menopause care in Oregon.

For researchers, endangered and threatened birds like the Northern Spotted Owl and the Marbled Murrelet can be incredibly hard to find and study in the wild. Now new research shows that  artificial intelligence may be able to help. As first reported in Hakai Magazine, researchers have been training AI to correctly identify elusive species of birds in the wild through sound. Matthew Betts is a professor and chairs the Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society at Oregon State University. He coauthored the study and joins us to share more about the development of this AI and its implications for future research.   

Research into domestic violence has found that when a professional football team has an unexpected loss in its hometown, intimate partner violence can increase by 10%. A new analysis from researchers at the University of Oregon found that this effect is amplified in states with legalized sports betting. Sports gambling is currently legal in 38 states, including Oregon and Washington. Thirty states – including Oregon – also allow mobile sports betting, which researchers found further increased the chance of a spike in intimate partner violence.
 
Kyutaro Matsuzawa and Emily Arnesen are both economics PhD candidates at UO. They join us with more details on their analysis.