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You might have missed some of our regional partners’ news briefs and stories.
Measuring snowpack is a combo of cutting-edge tech and people power
People in central Oregon closely monitor how much snow is building up high in the Cascades west of Bend. Farmers in the area need a lot of snow to stay in business, and small amounts of snow can cut down on the number of acres planted or even shut down farms. Snowpack is also important for ecosystem health, outdoor recreation, etc.
A large network of remote snow telemetry stations has been in place since the 1970s and is used to measure snowpack amounts. Most of them collect data automatically, but some still need snow researchers to visit them in person. (Michael Kohn/Bend Bulletin)
Federal grants help ranchers in Southern Oregon raise more yaks and bison.
One business in the Rogue Valley raises yaks, and the other raises bison. Both use the U.S. Department of Agriculture grant money to grow their business. Firebird Farms, which is near Ashland, and Wild Oasis Bison Ranch, which started near Butte Falls, were two of the 11 Oregon farms that got grants from $2.1 million that were given out in October.
Every year, the USDA grants small farms and agricultural producers nationwide to help them find ways to make more money from their operations. This is often called “added value.” (Rogue Valley Times, Morgan Rothborne)
If you want to check more recent updates. Click the given links below-
- Emergency Alert: Massive Landslide Puts I-84 Drivers in Danger Near Oregon Highway Ontario
- Oregon Spring Bear Hunters Must Claim Tags by March 31st
Court upholds $16M verdict in Camas asbestos case
The Washington Court of Appeals recently upheld a $16.67 million jury verdict for Sherrie Holdsworth, whose husband Kevan died of mesothelioma in 2021. Kevan had worked at a Camas paper mill. His family said Kevan Holdsworth’s cancer was caused by the asbestos in the “dryer felts” that Scapa Waycross Inc. sold to paper mills.
From 1964 to 2001, he worked at the Camas mill. After he died in 2021, a King County Superior Court jury ruled in favor of Sherrie Holdsworth after a four-week trial, giving her one of Washington’s largest asbestos verdicts. (The Columbian/Sarah Wolf)
6,800 gallons of sewage spilled into the Willamette near Salem
For four days, about 6,800 gallons of raw sewage flowed into the Willamette River, Salem said on Thursday. Officials from the city said they heard about the overflow at 9:30 a.m.
Wednesday near the tide gate at Church and Union Street. Officials say that a buildup of solids in the sewer line caused by low flow in the line caused the tide gate to open just enough for a steady stream of sewage to flow out into the river. Four days passed before sewage overflow into the river was noticed during a regular check of the flow monitoring equipment at the tide gate. (Salem Statesman Journal/Whitney Woodworth)
Free ‘trolleys’ return to Independence and Monmouth after a century’s absence
In 1988, Paul Evans was elected to Monmouth’s city council for the first time. At the time, he was only 18, so he went to coffee shops and barber shops around town to listen to what the older people talked about. A trolley that ran between the city and nearby Independence until 1918 was often talked about.
Evans said that people talked about how much they missed having a trolley. After decades of dreaming and years of planning, the MI Trolley, which is made up of buses that look like trolley cars and are decorated to look like them, will start a free two-year pilot service between the cities in Polk County on Sunday. (Bill Poehler/Salem Statesman Journal)
