The latest news stories across the state of Oregon from the digital home of the Oregon coastal cities, OregonBeachMagazine.com
Monday, May 24, 2021
Oregon Beach Weather
Today– Rain likely before 11am, then rain or drizzle between 11am and 2pm, then showers after 2pm. High near 55. South southwest wind 8 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Tuesday– A 40 percent chance of showers, mainly before 11am. Cloudy, then gradually becoming mostly sunny, with a high near 57. Calm wind becoming northwest 5 to 9 mph in the afternoon.
Wednesday– Partly sunny, with a high near 60. Calm wind becoming west northwest 5 to 8 mph in the afternoon.
Thursday– Rain likely before 11am, then showers likely after 11am. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 58. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Friday– A slight chance of showers before 11am. Partly sunny, with a high near 60.
Oregon reports 334 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 4 new deaths
There are four new COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 2,622 the Oregon Health Authority reported 334 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 bringing the state total to 198,689.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Benton (4), Clackamas (26), Columbia (2), Coos (3), Crook (5), Deschutes (43), Douglas (10), Jackson (7), Jefferson (7), Josephine (5), Klamath (7), Lane (28), Linn (21), Marion (51), Morrow (1), Multnomah (67), Polk (4), Tillamook (1), Wasco (1), Washington (35), and Yamhill (6).
Vaccinations in Oregon
Today, OHA reported that 29,464 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 17,564 doses were administered on May 22 and 11,900 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on May 22.
As of today,1,726,292 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. There are 2,164,594 who have had at least one dose.
The seven-day running average is now 31,010 doses per day.
Oregon has now administered a total of 3,765,116 million vaccine doses, which includes 2,092,218 first and second doses of Pfizer,1,538,260 first and second doses of Moderna 132,924 single doses of Johnson & Johnson (1,714 doses were administered but vaccine product information was not specified).
Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the state’s ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).
These data are preliminary and subject to change — OHA’s dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregon’s dashboard has been updated today.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 248, which is 10 fewer than yesterday. There are 71 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is three fewer than yesterday.
The total number of COVID-19 positive patient bed-days in the most recent seven days is 2,071, which is an 12.8% increase from the previous seven days. The peak daily number of beds occupied by COVID-19 positive patients in the most recent seven days is 342.
The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity. More information about hospital capacity can be found here.
Oregon officials will offer a series of prizes ranging from $10,000 to $1 million for people who have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, Governor Kate Brown announced on Friday.
The “Take Your Shot Oregon” campaign aims to encourage Oregonians age 12 and up to get vaccinated. For younger vaccine recipients, prizes will take the form of college scholarship funds. According to Governor Kate Brown’s office,
there will be one $1 million winner, five winners of a $100,000 Oregon College Savings Plan scholarship between the ages of 12 and 17, and thirty-six $10,000 winners — one selected from each county. The cash prizes will only be offered to adults 18 and up.
Oregonians who have received at least a first dose of the Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be automatically entered through the state’s vaccination database, and the drawing will include people registered through June 27. The Oregon Health Authority will choose winners with the help of the Oregon Lottery, officials said.
The drawing is set to take place on June 28, with names announced the following week.
MORE INFORMATION: https://www.oregon.gov/gov/Documents/Take%20Your%20Shot%20Oregon.pdf
LOCAL HEADLINES:
New Fish Traps Get Commercial Testing In The Columbia River
New fish traps could once again be a common sight on the Columbia River after the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recently approved an emerging commercial fishery. They were banned from the river in 1924.
“I do think this will open the fishery up to a whole new generation who hasn’t been participating in the existing fishery because it’s severely constrained by bycatch impacts,” said Wild Fish Conservancy biologist Adrian Tuohy, who has been researching the traps.
Retired local commercial fisherman and fishery consultant Robert Sudar said the traps likely are too inefficient to work as a business model, both due to the cost of building a trap and how many fish could be caught in them.
They might be really effective at a stream where you’re focusing on a particular run, or at the mouth of the Cowlitz perhaps,” he said. “It could work really well there, but not necessarily as a commercial venture.”
The research project started in 2016, after the Wild Fish Conservancy decided to act to accelerate the testing on alternative gear to gillnets. The work is peer-reviewed and published in scientific journals and can be found on their website.
Tuohy said in 2009, the state created policies to encourage development of alternative gear, but even after more policies were approved in later years, there was not much movement toward achieving those goals.
“We’re a science-based nonprofit dedicated to wild fish recovery, so we support the development of alternative gear,” he said. “Just seeing that the state hadn’t achieved its objectives we decided to pursue — with a commercial fisher in Cathlamet — the fish trap idea because it was originally an indigenous means of passively catching fish and it supports low-impact sorting of your catch.”
In 2016, the researchers set out to build a trap like the ones that were once popular along the river 80 years ago. They conducted a feasibility study to ask “can we catch fish and release them lively and in good condition?”
The traps, also known as pound nets, passively funnel returning adult fish into a maze of walls and compartments until they reach the final compartment, where they can swim around freely. Fish are brought up from the final containment area with a net and pulley system.
The historic traps design used 40 untreated 14-inch diameter wood pilings driven 3 to 5 meters apart in the river with netting strung between them.
Tuohy said the first test showed promise, but the old style of trap needed to be modified so the fish stay in the water the whole time, reducing the stress on them and further reducing fish mortality.
In 2017, the researchers marked the fish they caught to see if they survived all the way to the spawning grounds upriver.
“This passive trapping process proved very effective,” he said. “We saw no detectable impact to Coho salmon and sockeye salmon.”
Following those two tests, the state authorized a commercial trap test fishery in the fall of 2018 to test the economic viability of the gear within the lower Columbia River fishery, allowing WDFW to sell the hatchery salmon the trap caught.
In 2019, the feasibility of the gear under seasonal river conditions and a modified passive trap design that used a net pen system was tested, and this year, the group is moving to a new location in the Clifton Channel, Oregon and building a trap that should work on both tides, instead of just one, Tuohy said.
“If that works out I do think that really should open the door to sustainable fishing opportunities in the summer and fall fisheries,” Tuohy said. “The whole goal here is to benefit wild salmon recovery by reducing bycatch impacts and the detrimental effects of hatcheries.”
Since 2016, the research has cost about $1.1 million, including the cost of building the traps and staff time, according to the Wild Fish Conservancy website. Funding came from WDFW, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Wild Salmon Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
While the nets in the Columbia near Nassau Point in Cathlamet and now in the Clifton Channel in Oregon have caused some confusion and worry among community members, Tuohy said he wants to make sure people know fish traps are about “adding to sustainable fishing opportunities” and not forcing anyone to change.
The 2016-2017 experimental trap cost about $100,000 to construct, including pile driving, net construction and installation of the winch, according to the Wild Fish Conservancy’s research papers.
Tuohy acknowledged the high starting investment for a trap is an obstacle, especially to fishermen who already own gillnetting gear. He said he hoped the government would consider a subsidy program to get it started, and said Wild Fish Conservancy would be willing to help get people over the hurdles.
“We see the potential benefit for wild fish recovery, and we want to do everything we can to help fishermen who reach out and want to do something like this,” Tuohy said. “We want to help when it comes to permitting, raising funds. We’re here to help and move forward beyond the research.”
In a recent study, Jack Tipping said the average age Chinook salmon are returning to rivers to spawn has declined since the 1970s, which could mean less reproductively fit fish and certainly means smaller fish.
According to the Wild Fish Conservancy’s research, the test fishery netted just under $25,000 in sales of hatchery-origin fish in 2018. For the conventional gillnet fishery, total revenue generated from the harvest and sale of hatchery and wild-origin salmon was about $304,502, with an average of 72 vessels fishing, the paper said.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife approved an emerging commercial fishery in late April, which will allow Columbia River commercial license holders to apply for a permit to use beach seines, purse seines and fish traps on the river either this year or next year.
WDFW Director Kelly Susewind said the emerging commercial fishery designation is just the first step of “a much longer process toward potential wider adoption of these alternative gears.” Without the designation, the traps can only be used as scientific collection devices or in a test fishery, which limits managers’ ability to evaluate whether they are commercially viable.
“This designation does not restrict any existing commercial gears, nor does it mean these alternative gears will suddenly dominate the non-treaty commercial fishing landscape on the Columbia River,” Susewind said in a press release.
WDFW will collect more data and fishery managers will prepare a report to the Washington Legislature and, if warranted, request changes to existing statutes that prohibit the use of these gear types in the river.
Tuohy said there’s a big culinary market for fish that can be certified sustainable, and the fish traps produce high quality product because there’s “little to no scale loss or bruising.”
He said while “nobody is forcing fishermen to change” to traps, he thinks the method could add value to the market and is “just another tool in the toolbox.”
“It might be the tool for you,” Tuohy said. “It might be that no matter what you just want to gillnet, and that’s fine.”
The method will spread beyond the Columbia, Tuohy believes, to national and international waters as fisheries continue to change and fishermen adapt.
“Once we wrap up this further research and have a working model in the Columbia running commercially, I think it will be jewel of a fishery that will inspire change elsewhere,” he said.
Coos County Sheriff’s Office Looking For Arson Suspect
The Coos County Sheriff’s Office is looking for a potential arson suspect.
Do you recognize the subject?
You can see what appears to be a man in a hooded sweatshirt walking away from the camera. He’s holding something in his right hand.
It’s suspected an arsonist was involved in starting a house fire in the Barview District of Charleston, as investigators smelled the odor of fire accelerants around the home.
If you can identify the suspect in the video we just showed, you’re asked to call the Coos County Sheriff’s Office: (541) 396-7800
3.1 Magnitude Earthquake Recorded off Oregon Coast Over the Weekend
An earthquake struck off the Oregon coast Saturday morning. The U.S. Geological Survey recorded a 3.1 magnitude quake roughly 238 miles west of Coos Bay, Oregon at 10:06 a.m. It happened at a depth of 10 miles (16.3 km).
AROUND the STATE of OREGON
Missing Douglas County Man Found Alive
After 17 nights in the wilderness, 69 year-old Harry Burleigh has been found alive and rescued by Search and Rescue crews who never gave up.
On Sunday, May 23, 2021, Douglas County Search and Rescue conducted another mission in the area of Calf Creek after Burleigh’s fishing gear was found last weekend. Additional SAR resources were called in from Jackson County, Lake County and Siskiyou County (CA) for Sunday’s efforts.
At approximately, 3:00 p.m., a team of searchers from Jackson County SAR located a shelter southwest of the original shelter found last weekend. The search crews called out to Mr. Burleigh who responded back. He was found to be walking and complaining of minor pain, but was in stable condition. A Brim Aviation helicopter was utilized to hoist Burleigh from his location and transport him to a waiting Lifeflight helicopter. Lifeflight later transported him to an out of area hospital for evaluation.
The Brim Aviation helicopter was utilized to extract the remaining Jackson County SAR team from their position. The other search crews were able to self-extricate.
“This was the outcome we all have been looking for in this case. It is because of our determined Search and Rescue Teams and the partnerships we have with other SAR teams from around the state, that Mr. Burleigh has been re-united with his family this evening,” Sgt. Brad O’Dell said. “The Sheriff’s Office wants to thank everyone who was involved in this mission.”
Over the course of the search for Mr. Burleigh, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue Team was assisted by the following entities:
- Jackson County SAR
- Josephine County SAR
- Modoc County SAR (CA)
- Del Norte County SAR (CA)
- Siskiyou County SAR (CA)
- Curry County SAR
- Klamath County SAR
- Lake County SAR
- Lane County SAR
- US Coast Guard
- Oregon State SAR Coordinator
- Brim Aviation
- Lifeflight
- United States Forest Service
- Wolf Creek Job Corp. Hotshots
- Bay Cities Ambulance
Rescue crews would like to remind everyone of the 10 essentials for survival, which include:
- Navigation (map, compass, GPS, personal locator beacon, etc)
- Headlamp/flashlight
- Sunglasses and sunscreen
- First-aid supplies
- Fire (the means to start and sustain a fire)
- Knife
- Shelter (tent, garbage sack, tarp, etc)
- Extra clothing
- Extra food
- Extra water
For more information visit www.dcso.com/sar or www.hikesafe.com — Douglas Co. Sheriff’s Office
Report Finds Little Sign Of Recovery In State’s Manufacturing Sector
It is easy to see that Oregon hotels are reopening, restaurants are serving up meals again and workers are beginning to return to the office as vaccines proliferate and the COVID-19 pandemic begins to fade. The state’s factories, though, may have suffered permanent damage.
Overall, Oregon has recovered 59% of jobs lost during the pandemic, and the state’s jobless rate has receded from 13.2% in April 2020 – the highest point on record — to 6.0% last month. That progress reflects the easing of health restrictions and billions of dollars in federal money that helped prop up the private sector during the pandemic.
The manufacturing sector isn’t showing a similar bounce. Oregon has recouped just a fifth of the factory jobs it lost a year ago, and recent numbers point in the wrong direction.
As Oregon Employment Department economist David Cooke noted earlier this month, the number of hours Oregon manufacturing workers spend on the job had been in decline even ahead of the pandemic. Before anyone ever uttered the words “COVID-19,” economists were warning the state faced a “manufacturing recession” as former President Donald Trump’s trade war disrupted global supply chains and economies slowed in Europe and China.
And while Oregon never shut down private factories with coronavirus health directives, some of the markets those factories serve were severely affected by the pandemic.
Metal components manufacturer Precision Castparts laid off 40% of its workers worldwide last year as demand for airplanes dried up and Boeing shut down production of its troubled 737 MAX. Railcar maker Gunderson cut jobs the month before the pandemic hit, then more in the ensuing months. Steelmaker Evraz cut its Portland workforce by about half.
Even as many other sectors have expanded this spring, Oregon’s manufacturing sector shed 700 more workers in April, according to the latest state data.
Factory workers average about 38 hours a week on the job – an hour fewer than before the pandemic. Economists look to those hourly figures as a key indicator of the manufacturing sector’s health.
A shortage of computer chips has hobbled manufacturing across the country, holding up everything from gadgets to automobiles while factories wait for key components to become available. And factories in Oregon and across the country are facing a tight labor market as businesses rush to reopen and rehire.
Oregon remains among the most manufacturing-dependent states in the nation. And the state’s factory jobs pay relatively well, with average earnings of around $75,000 annually, compared to $59,000 across all industries.
Manufacturing is a notoriously cyclical industry, with big swings amid changing economic conditions. But Oregon factories have been in steady decline for decades, and recent recessions have produced only partial recoveries – and lasting damage.
Oregon To Reinstate Work Search Rules For People On Unemployment
Work search requirements will resume in stages for more than 100,000 Oregon workers who receive unemployment benefits, now that the economic downturn triggered by the coronavirus pandemic is easing.
But unlike more than 20 states — all of them with Republican governors — Oregon has no plans to stop supplemental federal unemployment benefits before their scheduled end on Sept. 4.
“The pandemic-related federal programs have created a lifeline for people whose livelihoods were affected by COVID-19,” said David Gerstenfeld, acting director of the Oregon Employment Department, in a weekly conference call with reporters.
“We do not want those who need those benefits to lose access to them before the programs end. While we are watching current economic conditions, we do not have any plans to end the federal benefit plans early.”
The supplemental federal benefit amounts to $300 per week. It is in addition to regular benefits drawn from the state unemployment trust fund, which comes from employer contributions, and special federal benefit programs created during the pandemic.
Some states will start opting out of the federal benefits as soon as June 12.
At the onset of the pandemic, when they received an avalanche of claims, Oregon and other states did suspend legal requirements for people to search for work, be available for work and register with state workforce agencies as conditions for receiving benefits.
The pandemic emergency declared by Gov. Kate Brown almost 15 months ago, renewed every 60 days, is scheduled to expire June 28. Although Republican minorities want the Oregon Legislature to repeal her orders now — Democratic majorities have declined so far to take any steps to do so — Brown has said “I fully intend to reopen our economy” by the next deadline.
As her benchmark for dropping most pandemic restrictions, Brown has set 70% of Oregon’s population age 16 and older getting at least one vaccination. She says she thinks that goal is achievable by June.
Oregon’s statewide vaccination rate against COVID-19 for eligible people was 62.7% as of Thursday, May 20. But the rate varies from a low of 32.5% in Lake County to a high of 67.6% in Benton County. Multnomah and Washington counties have met or exceeded 65%; Clackamas County trails at 58.5%.
Gerstenfeld said in advance of any potential action, people receiving unemployment benefits will be notified about registering with the agency’s iMatchSkills system for jobs and meeting either face to face or virtually with staff from WorkSource Oregon. The latter is a partnership of public and private agencies serving individuals and businesses.
“These requirements are starting back up again, and people will need to meet those requirements by designated dates to be eligible to continue receiving benefits,” he said.
“This will be a new experience for some people currently receiving unemployment benefits. We want to make sure everyone receiving benefits understands what the requirements are and knows what to do to continue receiving benefits. As the pandemic begins to fade and the economy changes, we are still focused on how we can help fuel economic recovery and help Oregonians overcome challenges related to employment.”
Gerstenfeld has said supplemental federal benefits are not a factor in deterring people from returning to work.
Among factors that the agency will consider in reemployment, he said, are a lack of child care available for workers, lingering fear of COVID infection via jobs that require close contact with the public, and inadequate skills required for people to take new jobs.
Gerstenfeld did not specify what will happen with self-employed and gig workers who receive federal benefits known as Pandemic Unemployment Assistance. Many were not covered by unemployment benefits until Congress approved the new program as part of the CARES Act in March 2020.
Although Oregon has regained about 60% of the jobs lost since the low point of the pandemic in April 2020 — and the state’s latest economic forecast projects far more in tax collections and a $1.4 billion rebate to taxpayers next year — state economist Mark McMullen also says Oregon will return to prepandemic employment levels by the fourth quarter of 2022.
According to the most recent report by the Employment Department, permanent job losses now account for the largest group of unemployed workers. The number of workers without jobs for at least one year, the long-term unemployed, is at its highest point in nine years.
Oregon job growth in April was around 2,200, down from the average of 14,000 over the preceding three months. The unemployment rate jumped from a modern low of 3.5% in March 2020 to a record high of 13.2% (adjusted) in April 2020, but has since declined to 6%, where it has hovered for a few months.
“But we are seeing record job openings just one year after the huge job losses in spring 2020,” Gerstenfeld said. “We are back to being in a tight labor market much faster than we were coming out of the Great Recession.”
Oregon Board of Forestry hosts a special virtual public meeting on May 27
The Oregon Board of Forestry will hold a special meeting on May 27, 2021 to deliberate on the appointment of an acting state forester. The meeting will be held virtually and will be live streamed on the Oregon Department of Forestry’s YouTube channel. The agenda for this meeting is available at https://www.oregon.gov/ODF/Board/Pages/BOFMeetings.aspx.
There will not be an opportunity for public comment during the meeting; however written testimony can be emailed to oardofForestry@oregon.gov” target=”_blank”>BoardofForestry@oregon.gov before or after the meeting.
Accommodations for people with disabilities, and special materials, services, or assistance can be arranged by calling ODF’s Public Affairs Office at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting at 503-945-7200. Oregon Dept. of Forestry