Oregon Beach News, Monday 10/31 – The Witches of Depoe Bay 13th Annual Food Drive to Support the Depoe Bay Food Pantry Today! ODFW Issues Warning Of Sea Lion Disease Outbreak Along Oregon Coast

The latest news stories across the state of Oregon from the digital home of the Oregon coastal cities, OregonBeachMagazine.com

Monday, October 31, 2022 

Oregon Beach Weather

ODFW Issues Warning Of Sea Lion Disease Outbreak Along Oregon Coast

There is an increase in the number of stranded California sea lions along the entire Oregon coast due to leptospirosis, a naturally-occurring bacteria that can also sicken dogs, people, other wildlife, and livestock.

A release from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said dogs are most at risk of getting the disease while the risk to people is small.

Dog and horse owners should discuss the merits of vaccination for leptospirosis with their veterinarian. ODFW and Oregon Parks and Recreation urge beachgoers to leash their dogs and keep at least 150 feet away from live or dead sea lions.

The disease can spread when an animal or person is in contact with urine or other bodily fluids of an infected or dead sea lion.

Leptospirosis outbreaks occur sporadically in marine mammals. Outbreaks can result in increased strandings and mortalities among sea lions. The Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network has documented over 150 sick or dead sea lions along the Oregon coast since the current outbreak began in late July of this year. Necropsies on seven sea lions confirmed all tested positive for leptospirosis.

Sick or injured seals, sea lions, whales or dolphins can be reported to the Oregon State Police at 800-452-7888.

The Witches of Depoe Bay 13th Annual Food Drive to Support the Depoe Bay Food Pantry Today!

Join the effort from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 31, rain or shine. The Witches will be collecting cash, checks, and nonperishable food items at these locations:

Chester’s Market Parking Lot, 3950 US-101 Depoe BayIn Front of the Whale Fountain on US-101, Depoe BayIn Front of Re/Max Integrity, 110 N. HWY 101 Depoe Bay

Witches and Warlocks will be stationed in these three areas to collect donations.

Donated nonperishable foods include:

TunaTop ramenChiliCanned vegetables and fruitSpaghetti and spaghetti sauceCanned meatsSpamDry potato flakesMacaroni and cheesePasta and pasta sauceCerealSoupBaby foodJam or jelly

All proceeds will go directly to the Depoe Bay Food Pantry.

In 2021, the Whiches of Depoe Bay Food Drive collected 1,769 pounds of food and $6,025.

To donate food, checks or cash before or after the event, email Sandy De Muri at msdemuri@att.net to arrange pick up. For more information contact: Sandy De Muri, msdemuri@att.net, 510-508-3890. — https://www.cityofdepoebay.org/community/page/witches-depoe-bay-food-drive-monday-october-31st-200-500pm

BLM Lifts Fire Restrictions On Southern Oregon Coast

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Coos Bay District has lifted the fire restrictions on public lands administered by the BLM on the southern Oregon coast. The end of the fire restrictions is effective Friday, Oct. 28 at 12:01 a.m. in Douglas, Coos, and Curry Counties.

Despite the end of fire restrictions, practicing fire safety on public lands is always important. Visitors should use caution when operating motor vehicles on roads or trails with vegetation or high grasses, and ensure that campfires are completely extinguished before leaving a camping area.

Contact the Bureau of Land Management’s Coos Bay District Office with questions at (541) 756-0100.

Long Covid in Oregon

Long Covid, which the Mayo Clinic classifies as suffering from new, returning or ongoing symptoms, can include fatigue, chest pain, joint pain, dizziness, headaches, digestive issues, blood clots and brain fog, which makes it difficult to concentrate.

About 2.5 million people in Oregon are in the workforce, according the the 2020 U.S. Census. Here’s the percentage who’ve experienced long Covid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention :

Early to mid-June: 12% or about 300,000 people

Late June to early July: 13% or about 325,000 people

Late July to early August: 16% or about 400,000 people

Mid- to late September: 11% or about 275,000 people

The September rate was the third lowest in the country. Only Connecticut and Vermont had lower rates cases, with Vermont on the bottom, according to the CDC .

Sixteen million people of working age in the U.S. suffer with long Covid and of those, from 2 to 4 million people were unemployed in June and July, according to an August 2022 Brookings Institution report, which analyzes Census Bureau survey information. It’s one of numerous papers, surveys, and studies attempting to assess the effect of long Covid on workers, businesses and the overall economy.

The unemployment of so many Americans with long Covid, a lack of a social safety net for many of them, and a labor market that is beginning to turn in favor of employers could collide to create wider economic problems, some economic experts say.

The cost in lost wages has already been great. The Brookings Institution report puts the amount between $170 billion to $230 billion a year. And a National Bureau of Economic Research paper ✎ EditSignpublished in September found that workers with Covid-19 absences could see their earnings fall by about $9,000 in the 14 months afterward.

Andrew Goodman-Bacon, a senior research economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said it’s unclear how the spending habits of people with long Covid will be affected by their illness.

“Some households will certainly have to cut back,” he said. “But some subset of those households will also have ways to sort of insure themselves or be insured by these public programs. … What is aggregate spending going to look like if we enter a recession with a large group of workers with a health condition, a newly acquired health condition hard to predict? It will pull a lot of these levers in the economy, some of which will make consumption patterns change more and some of which might kind of push the other direction.”

Goodman-Bacon added, “The health of the workforce really does matter and it’s mattered for a long time … We’re all really trying to understand the same questions of just how much and right now we don’t know.”

And there are some signs that the labor market may indeed be cooling down. The U.S. unemployment rate was 3.5% in September, the same as in September 2019 before the pandemic. Companies throughout the U.S. are having less trouble hiring staff, according to The New York Times’ reporting, and the rate of people leaving their jobs sunk to 4.1% in July 2022 from 5.9% in July 2021, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York SCE labor market survey.

If employers become unwilling to keep on people with long Covid or if those workers are forced to quit for health reasons, many parts of the social safety net, including the unemployment system, are not set up well to help them, researchers say.

Andrew Stettner, director of workforce policy and senior fellow at the Century Foundation, said, there are a few states with laws that allow people to collect state unemployment benefits if they cannot work because of their own illness, but “that’s definitely not the majority.”

The Biden administration has taken some action to ensure that people with long Covid have safeguards against discrimination, including guidance on treating long Covid as a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy also has a website that links to resources for employers on workplace accommodations for people with long Covid.

But Goodman-Bacon pointed out that as more people return to work, employers may be more likely to keep only the accommodations they find useful and cost-saving, such as allowing remote work which has been shown to increase productivity .

It may also be difficult for people to receive workers compensation when they get long Covid. Tom Wiese, vice president of claims at the MEMIC Group, said that claims of work-related long Covid are challenging to investigate.

“Even if the medical causation and/or origin of the symptoms/disease diagnosis can somehow be linked to Covid, there still remains the workers compensation causality from a legal principle perspective. Did that causation arise out of and occur within the scope of their employment?” he said.

For instance, a woman who had Covid-19 lost a workers comp case in Virginia in 2021 even though she worked in a nursing home when she became sick. Her weekly trips to the grocery store hurt her claim, according to the Virginia Mercury.

There were a couple of times I had to commute and that was really, really hard and exhausting just physically.

Advocates and researchers have proposed a number of policies to provide economic stability to long Covid sufferers, a number which the Brookings report says could increase by 10% each year — and lead to half trillion dollars in lost wages in 10 years — if people don’t begin to recover at greater rates.

In addition to better treatment options, the Brookings report recommends :

• Expanding paid sick leave, which could reduce the spread of Covid;
• Improve accommodations offered to workers such as flexibility on deadlines, longer and more frequent breaks, flexible hours and remote work;
• Provide greater and and more timely access to Social Security Disability Insurance.

Bach and Stettner say Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics need more questions on long Covid and employment on their surveys to better guide policymakers.

The Patient-Led Research Collaborative, which is a group of long Covid patients and researchers, say that there should be a federal advisory committee on long Covid at HHS, that Congress should appropriate funds for states to fund or open clinics treating people with long COVID, pass universal healthcare, and expand access to disability benefits, among other policies.

Lisa McCorkell, a long Covid patient and the cofounder of and researcher for the Patient-Led Research Collaborative, said that although the Biden administration guidance is helpful, there’s a lot of people with long Covid who will still encounter discrimination at work.

“We’re still seeing a lot of people not get the accommodations that they need,” she said.

It can be difficult for some long Covid patients to access the health care they need to establish that they are covered and some employers still don’t believe they need to offer accommodations such as breaks or starting work later in the day, McCorkell said.

She said that although she’s seen people forced out of the workforce due to a lack of accommodations from employers, not many people have the resources to fight that termination, and it’s also hard to take on legal issues when you’re sick.

Stettner said that it’s important employers adjust and provide accommodations for workers with long Covid, because the workforce is changing in the long term.

“We had a very large generation of workers born in the ’40s and ’50s and those workers are reaching retirement age,” he said. “We really don’t have enough workers to grow the economy and we need to be able to accommodate those who are able to work, even if they’re not able to work full time, 12 months a year. We have to do better at that. It’s an economic necessity for us to do that as a society.”

Customers invited to weigh in on Pacific Power’s 2023 rate request
Public forum set up as two separate webcasts Nov. 7 to provide additional access to customers

PORTLAND, Ore.—Oct. 31, 2022–Pacific Power and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) would like to hear from you. You are invited to participate in a Public Participation Hearing (PPH), about Pacific Power’s general rate case application. 

This public forum is part of a formal proceeding that will be documented and placed into the record so the CPUC can make a decision regarding Pacific Power’s request. Customers can make comments to the CPUC Administrative Law Judge overseeing this application.

As part of the CPUC’s ongoing efforts to protect customers and community members and to provide the greatest access, these hearings will be held remotely. The Public Participation Hearing can be accessed on the internet, or listened to over your phone, with the information below. Providing your feedback on Pacific Power’s request will help the CPUC in the decision making process.

DATE & TIME	DETAILS
November 7, 20221:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.	Webcast:  adminmonitor.com/ca/cpucPhone number: 800-857-1917Passcode: 1767567#

Please note: If you need a language interpreter, please contact the CPUC’s Public Advisor’s Office using the contact information below at least five business days before the Public Forum. 

Background — On May 5, 2022, Pacific Power filed its General Rate Case Application (A.22-05-006) with the CPUC. The application is requesting a total of $27.9 million. This rate increase is driven by current economic trends and wildfire mitigation efforts including: Investments in and maintenance of Pacific Power’s system infrastructure such as poles, wires, and other equipment needed to deliver electricity to customers.

• Enhanced vegetation management including annual inspections, pole clearing, and increasing trimming clearances in high fire threat areas.
• Implementation of the resilience improvement plans approved by regulators to maintain safety and reliability in the face of increasingly extreme weather events. These investments include, but are not limited to, installation of covered overhead wire, expanded network of weather stations, meteorology and emergency management staff and system protective devices to localize and minimize safety power shut-offs.

How could this affect my monthly electric rates?

If Pacific Power’s rate request is approved by the CPUC, the average residential monthly bill using 850 kilowatt hour per month would increase by approximately $33.37 or 25.8% per month. These rates would not be effective until sometime in 2023, based on the timing of a final CPUC decision.

About Pacific Power

Pacific Power provides safe and reliable electric service to more than 764,000 customers in Oregon, Washington and California. The company supplies customers with electricity from a diverse portfolio of generating plants including hydroelectric, thermal, wind, geothermal and solar resources. Pacific Power is part of PacifiCorp, one of the lowest-cost electricity producers in the United States, with 2 million customers in six western states. For more information, visit www.pacificpower.net.

New Timber Harvest Rules Aim To Protect Fish While Providing Long Term Economic Benefits

The Oregon Board of Forestry approved more than 100 changes to the Forest Practices Act at a special board meeting Oct. 26.  The rule changes are a result of the mediated and groundbreaking Private Forest Accord (PFA) that brought together representatives from conservation groups and the timber industry.  The changes will impact timber harvest activities on more than 10 million acres of private and non-federal forests in the state.

“The rules we adopted are just one of a great many changes coming from the Private Forest Accord that will advance how Oregon protects its natural resources and responds to the climate change crisis, while also providing some stability for the communities and economies that rely on the forest products industry,” said Jim Kelly, Chair of the Oregon Board of Forestry. “This agreement captures the spirit of cooperation and negotiation we have in this state, where we move past our differences to find solutions.”

The goal of the PFA and the Forest Practices Act rule changes is to provide long-term certainty to industry while providing enhanced protection to critical aquatic species.

“The timber industry is vital to many rural Oregon communities,” said Kelly.  “This agreement balances these critical social and economic components with the need to better protect critical forest habitat, which is also incredibly beneficial for Oregonians,” said Kelly.

The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) worked closely with the PFA authors to write the new rules that cover several key areas including:

• New and wider stream buffers to protect stream habitat that supports salmon, steelhead, bull trout, and amphibians.
• New design standards and requirements to inventory, maintain and manage forest roads, with an emphasis on replacing culverts on fish-bearing streams.
• Steep slopes will have more trees retained to improve slope stability and reduce sediment that can impact fish habitat.
• Enhanced monitoring to better evaluate rule compliance.
• A new adaptive management program to advise the Board of Forestry on future rule adjustments.

In addition to rule changes, recent legislation also funded the creation of a small forestland owner assistance office, establishment of tax credits to small landowners, started the development of a habitat conservation plan✎ EditSign for aquatic species and made investments in training and outreach.

For more information on the Forest Practices Act and Private Forest Accord visit ODF’s PFA website.

With the end of fire season, dispose of yard debris responsibly

The Oregon Department of Forestry and other fire prevention experts urge the public to exercise caution when disposing of yard debris this fall. 

With the end of fire season, many Oregonians have debris piles ready to be disposed of that cured over the summer. Preferable options for removal, aside from burning, include composting or recycling. Check with your local disposal company for recycling options. 

If burning now is the only option to dispose of yard debris, fire prevention specialists ask people to follow safe burning practices. The following tips can help stop run-away burn piles:

• Call before you burn –  Burning regulations vary by location depending on the weather and fuel conditions. If you are planning to burn, check with your local Oregon Department of Forestry district, fire protective association, fire department, or air protection authority to learn about current burning restrictions or regulations, and if you need a permit.
• Know the weather – Burn early in the day and never burn on dry or windy days, because fires can spread out of control more easily.
• Clear a 10-foot fuel-free buffer around the pile – Scrape a ten-foot trail down to mineral soil around the perimeter of the pile to keep the fire contained in one place. Make sure there are no tree branches or power lines above
• Keep burn piles small – Large burn piles can cast hot embers long distances. Keep piles small, maximum of four feet by four feet. Add debris to the pile in small amounts as the pile burns.
• Always have water and fire tools nearby – When burning, have a charged water hose, and shovel on hand to put out the fire. Keep the area around the pile damp during the burning process. When finished, drown the pile with water, stir the coals, and drown again, repeating until the fire is out cold.
• Stay with the fire until it is out cold – State laws requires monitoring of debris burn piles from start to finish until it is out cold. This law is intended to ensure sparks or embers that jump from the fire can be put out quickly.
• Recheck burn piles. They can retain heat for several weeks and restart when the weather warms up and winds blow.
• Never use gasoline or other flammable or combustible liquids to start or speed up your fire.
• Burn only yard debris – State laws prohibit burning materials or trash that create dense smoke or noxious odors.
• Costs of run-away debris burns– State law requires the proper clearing, building, attending and extinguishing of open fires all year. If your debris burn spreads out of control, you may have to pay for suppression costs, as well as the damage to your neighbors’ properties. This can be extremely expensive.

More tips on wildfire prevention, including campfire safety, motorized equipment use, and fire-resistant landscaping can be found on the Keep Oregon Green website. Find public use restrictions for Oregon Department of Forestry protected lands before your burn.

Voting in Oregon feels GOOD

It’s time to get #VoteReady: Just grab your ballot and a blue or black pen! You don’t even need a stamp It’s not a test: you can vote on every candidate and measure, or leave some blank How you vote is private. Make a plan to vote! http://OregonVotes.gov#TrustedInfo2022