Think Out Loud

Oregon’s spring ocean salmon season was supposed to open in mid-March, but the National Marine Fisheries Service closed both the recreational and commercial seasons through mid-May in much of the state. Marine agencies expect extremely low returns of California Chinook salmon in the Klamath and Sacramento rivers, meaning the fall-run season could be further restricted. The Pacific Marine Fisheries Council is considering three alternatives for the season, all of which would cancel commercial and recreational Chinook fishing south of Cape Falcon through Sept. 1.

Though the closure is meant to protect future salmon populations, it could mean the loss of a year’s income for fishers along the coast. Barry McCovey, fisheries department director for the Yurok Tribe, and Brett Montague, a commercial salmon troller based in Newport join us to talk about the impacts of the closure.

States all over the country are hoping to lure federal money, and semiconductor companies, after Congress recently passed the CHIPS bill. In Oregon, lawmakers are considering a major overhaul of longstanding land-use laws to do just that. Duncan Wyse, president of the Oregon Business Council, and Sam Diaz, executive director of 1,000 Friends of Oregon, join us to discuss the changes the Legislature is considering.

Kristen Grainger, along with Bre Gregg, Beth Wood and others, continue their series of live concerts celebrating women this weekend. The first stops on the “She’s Speaking” tour were in Lincoln City and Salem. She and seven other women will play in Portland and Ilwaco, Washington this Saturday and Sunday. The idea is to put on a series of great concerts and bring attention to the gap in representation and opportunities for women in the male-dominated music industry. Grainger joins us to tell us more about the artists involved in “She’s Speaking” and play some of her own music in the studio.

Students from North Portland’s Jefferson High School made history earlier this month. Two members of the Jefferson Dancers won awards for choreography at the National High School Dance Festival. It was the first time any school won top honors for two different pieces. We’ll talk with one of the young choreographers, John Kearney, and the group’s artistic director, Steve Gonzales.

More than 1,200 acres of land about seven miles from downtown Eugene will now be managed by the McKenzie River Trust. The Willamette Confluence Preserve includes wetlands, a floodplain forest and is home to more than 30 native fish species and other wildlife. Joe Moll is the executive director of the trust. He joins us with how the organization plans to preserve the area moving forward.

Space exploration and the potential habitability of other planets are on the cutting edge of scientific research. But University of Oregon archaeology professor Scott Fitzpatrick says humans made similar advances thousands of years ago when they traveled vast distances to populate remote islands.

Fitzpatrick compares early island exploration to space travel in a recent chapter he contributed to a new book. He joins us to talk about the parallels between the two and how looking to the past could make future space travel more successful.

Last week a federal judge ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service can no longer continue to issue permits for the incidental take of humpback whales when they get tangled in sablefish pot gear off the West coast. The lawsuit was filed by the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. Kristen Monsell, the oceans legal director at the center, joins us to discuss what the ruling means.

SheJumps is a nonprofit that offers programs in Oregon, Washington and 14 other states designed to reduce barriers for and boost the participation of women and girls in outdoor recreation activities. Since 2018, it has offered the Snowpack Avalanche Scholarship Program, a free, two-day course which teaches valuable safety skills in backcountry skiing. Unlike its traditional, downhill counterpart, backcountry skiing typically takes place on ungroomed and unpatrolled terrain where avalanche risk abounds and equipment like shovels and rescue beacons can help save lives. Columbia Gorge News previously wrote about the organization's most recent course which was held last month at Mount Hood and awarded to 12 people, half of them women of color. Joining us to talk about the scholarship program and the impact it’s having to make snow sports more inclusive are Robyn Gelfand, the national program director at SheJumps, and Vivian Tang, a West Linn-based recipient of the 2022-2023 SheJumps Snowpack Avalanche Scholarship.

The sunflower sea star is one of the world’s largest sea stars, growing more than three feet across with two dozen limbs and a territory that once stretched from Baja California, Mexico to the Alaskan Aleutian Islands. But more than 90 percent of these marine invertebrates have been wiped out, and can now mainly be found in the cooler coastal waters of Washington State and British Columbia. Since 2013, sea stars along the West Coast have been decimated by a mysterious wasting disease that may be linked to climate change, and results in loss of limbs, melting tissues and death, often in just a few days.

On Thursday, the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed listing the sunflower sea star as threatened under the Endangered Species Act to aid in its recovery. While there is no cure for sea star wasting syndrome, staff at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport spent two years developing a treatment that has helped save stressed, injured and sick sea stars, including those afflicted with the disease. Evonne Mochon Collura, a sea jelly specialist and assistant curator of fish and invertebrates at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, joins us to share details of the treatment program.

This past weekend marked the 60th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that requires the state to provide and pay for an attorney if it charges a person with a crime. The promise of Gideon v. Wainwright is particularly poignant in the midst of a nationwide public defender shortage. In Oregon, both prosecutors and public defenders say the situation here is nothing short of a crisis. An American Bar Association report called it unconstitutional.

Democratic leadership in the Oregon legislature has acknowledged the crisis and said addressing it is a priority. But with the 2023 session fully under way, public defenders say they don’t see meaningful action so far. Meanwhile, attorneys in Marion county filed a recent motion that many hope will quickly make its way to the state supreme court. It asks for public defenders to be withdrawn from certain cases, for a stop to appointing lawyers to some new cases and a dismissal of remaining charges for anyone left without court-appointed counsel.

Federal Public Defender Lisa Hay, and Carl MacPherson, the executive director of Metropolitan Public Defender join us to discuss the challenges Oregon faces and possible ways forward.