The latest news stories across the state of Oregon from the digital home of the Oregon coastal cities, OregonBeachMagazine.com
Monday, June 13, 2022
Oregon Beach Weather
Another Woman Murdered in Coos County
A makeshift memorial is growing Sunday for 34-year-old Amber Townsend of Coos Bay.
Townsend was murdered Saturday morning while walking along Cape Arago Highway towards Charleston, authorities said. Coos County District Attorney Paul Frasier said Townsend was shot multiple times.
There are no suspects or persons of interest at this time. This is the second murder in the past week in Coos County.
Authorities are looking for anyone with footage or information. They are especially interested in those who were driving along Cape Arago Highway between the Sunset Market and the American market between 8:15 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. Saturday.
Those with information can call the Coos County Sheriff’s Office at (541) 396-7800.
LAST WEEK: Police Make Arrest In Coos Bay Homicide
Coos Bay Police Department reports that Johnny Ray Bohannon, 47, of North Bend, has been arrested in connection with a homicide in Coos Bay. He is charged with second degree murder, and is scheduled to appear in court on June 10.
On Wednesday night at 8:10 p.m., police said they received a 911 call from a person saying he had found a deceased woman in a house located in the 1700 block of Idaho Avenue in Coos Bay.
Police said they identified the deceased woman as Rebecca Reeves, 47, and believe her death was caused by homicidal violence.
The Coos County Major Crimes Team was activated and members from the Coos County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon State Police, North Bend Police, Bandon Police, Coquille Police, Coos Bay Police, Coos County Medical Examiner’s Office, and the District Attorney’s Office arrived to assist in the investigation.
Any individuals who may have information are asked to either call the Coos Bay Police Department at 541-269-8911 or call Coos Stop Crime at 541-267-6666.
Oregon Coast Fishing Industry Supporters Expected To Turn Out In Force Wednesday In Newport For Wind Farm Hearing
Federal energy representatives will be ready for the meeting Wednesday in Newport intended to gather public comments about plans to build towering wind-energy farms off the Oregon coast.
The four-hour meeting will begin at 8 a.m. at the Best Western Agate Beach hotel in Newport. It is sponsored by the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative and the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is spearheading the wind-farm leasing process.
A growing number of cities, ports, tribes and other interests have already passed resolutions asking that the Biden Administration’s fast-tracked process be slowed to provide more time to study the proposal’s economic and environmental impacts.
Those resolutions came in response to the announcement in March that BOEM has identified three areas in waters off the southern Oregon coast where the first leases are expected to be approved.
and fishermen have worked out protocols for fishing near the company’s five turbines.
Those so-called “call” areas total nearly 2,200 square miles of ocean from Coos Bay south to Brookings and represent the spots where analyses show some of the steadiest and strongest winds on the planet.
The Biden administration is hoping to create 30 gigawatts of electricity-generating capacity through offshore wind by 2030. It’s already approved large projects off the coasts of Massachusetts and New York.
And while the first leases to private power developers could be auctioned off as early as next year those involved in the process caution that years of site assessments and surveys, along with technical assessments and permitting, mean the first turbines – which are likely to be situated at least 20 miles from land – won’t start turning for about a decade or so.
But with a federal process in place that could auction off the first leases as early as next year, groups up and down the coast are asking for additional time to consider total potential impacts of the plan.
“After the announcement of the current proposed call areas, we immediately began hearing from constituents within our coastal legislative districts with concerns,” seven Oregon legislators whose districts span the coast wrote in a recent letter to BOEM.
The legislative Coastal Caucus added in its letter, “While wind energy fits in the state’s goal of moving toward a more renewable future for Oregon, steps must be taken to ensure that existing ocean users and our coastal communities are prioritized.”
The Port of Toledo and the Newport City Council recently passed similar resolutions addressing the project’s speedy timeframe. The Port of Toledo and the Toledo City Council are expected to follow suit soon.
“We are not saying no to wind forever,” said Heather Mann, executive director of the Newport-based Midwater Trawlers Cooperative. “But we are saying that this isn’t the way to move forward.”
All comments made at Wednesday’s meeting will be transcribed and included in the federal register’s official record. The meeting comes less than two weeks before the June 28 deadline to weigh in on Oregon’s proposed call areas.
After fits and starts over the last 10 years, offshore wind farm development has moved into high gear along the East Coast. The first commercial scale project near Block Island in Rhode Island waters has been operational since 2016 with five turbines. Projects nearing the construction phase offshore of Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York are poised to put 15 to 30 turbines each in waters around 20 miles offshore.
In October, the Biden administration announced plans to develop large-scale wind farms along nearly the entire coastline of the United States, the first long-term strategy from the government to produce electricity from offshore turbines.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the agency will begin to identify, demarcate and hope to eventually lease federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf of Maine and off the coasts of the Mid-Atlantic States, North Carolina and South Carolina, California and Oregon, to wind power developers by 2025.
The announcement came months after the federal government approved the nation’s first major commercial offshore wind farm off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts and began reviewing a dozen other potential offshore wind projects along the East Coast. On the West Coast, the administration has approved opening up two areas off the shores of central and northern California for commercial wind power development.
The CDC‘s COVID-19 Community Levels tool, updated every week, uses multiple factors to rate the level of COVID-19 spread in your county and can help you make decisions about how to approach activities such as grocery shopping, masking, travel and more.Three Oregon counties are at “high” community level, as of June 9.To learn more how to use regional CDC and OHA data to help make decisions about masking and taking other precautions, visit http://ow.ly/2Nsk50JvbQz.
One Community Health (OCH), with locations in The Dalles and Hood River, is now participating in the federal COVID-19 Test to Treat (T2T) program.At this time, the two OCH sites are open only to current OCH patients and individuals from underserved communities. In the coming months, OCH plans to expand its T2T access to the entire Columbia Gorge community.The OCH sites are located in:◌ The Dalles – 1040 Webber Street◌ Hood River – 849 Pacific AvenueOregon now has 13 T2T sites. Appointments are required.To find an Oregon T2T site: http://ow.ly/iWk350JvfkzFor more information about COVID-19 treatments: http://ow.ly/o2qj50Jvfok
Oregon’s Drought Improves Slightly As Rain Continues
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, between May 31 and June 7, the area over central Oregon listed with the worst level of drought, shrunk in half. That’s thanks to all the new rainfall.
On Friday alone, almost an inch and a half of water came down over PDX.
“It doesn’t mean that the drought is over – or is improving much,” said Larry O’Neill, Oregon state climatologist. “But it does mean that it is currently not as bad as maybe it was last year.”
In 2021, 100% of Oregon was under some level of drought and Portland just recorded the driest April on record. While we’re in better shape right now, the benefits won’t last long.
“The little bit of rain that we did receive will evaporate and things will dry out,” O’Neill said. “And it will happen quick. By the time we get into July, we will probably be talking a little bit more about how dry things are getting, unfortunately.”
However, this extra burst of late-spring rain could possibly save us from re-living last year’s heat dome.
“The soils and the trees and everything will have a lot of moisture in it,” O’Neill said. “So, the evaporation for it, as we get into early summer will help moderate temperatures a little bit.”
For now, we’ll continue to settle into La Nina’s cooler effects before the seasons change, and according to the state climatologist, we might not wait long.
“Storm track will shift, and it will just abruptly end up in summer,” O’Neill said. “Our seasonal predictions suggest that we will have above-normal temperatures, so when summer does come – it will be like a switch, I think. We aren’t going to ease into it. I think that by the 4th of July especially.”
Across the Northwest and northern Intermountain West, unsettled weather will persist as excessive runoff and occasionally heavy rainfall may result in flooding. MORE INFO: https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?OR
Morrow County Declares Emergency Over Water Contamination
Officials in Oregon’s Morrow County along the Columbia River have declared a local state of emergency after private well testing showed high levels of nitrate contamination.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reports during a Thursday special meeting, Morrow County commissioners voted 3-0 in favor of the measure, which will allow the county to take immediate action to protect drinking water.
The county is distributing bottled water and will set up water distribution trailers in the small city of Boardman.
Earlier this year, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality fined the Port of Morrow $1.3 million for overapplying tons of nitrogen-rich wastewater onto agricultural fields.
The Port says it’s looking at pollution reduction measures.
North Entrance Road at Crater Lake National Park is Open
After delays caused by late-season heavy snow, the North Entrance Road at Crater Lake National Park is open.
Opening the North Entrance is significant because it allows park visitors to either enter the park from the north or from the South Entrance near Mazama Village off Highway 62. The North Entrance provides connections with Highway 97 north towards Bend and with Highway 138, which connects with Diamond Lake
and Roseburg.
Earlier this year it appeared the North Entrance would open much earlier than usual because of unusually low snowfall. Those hopes were squashed when heavy snow followed – more than 9 feet in a week and then nearly another foot over the Memorial Day Weekend.
Until opening the North Entrance, visitors could only enter the park by the South Entrance and, once at Rim Village, could drive only a mile on West Rim Drive to Discovery Point. West Rim Drive connects Rim Village with the North Entrance Junction.
East Rim Drive and Pinnacles Road will open in sections as the roads are cleared of snow and necessary road repairs are completed. The entire 33-mile-long Rim Road around the lake will likely not be open until sometime in July, depending on possible snow and the clearing of rock slides. Road crews are currently clearing snow to Cleetwood Cove, where a 1.1-mile-long trail provides the only access to the lake.
ODFW To Conduct Elk Habitat Enhancement This Summer in Elkhorn Wildlife Area
ODFW will begin forest management activities on the North Powder tract of Elkhorn Wildlife Area this summer to enhance habitat for elk, deer, and other wildlife species.
Public access to all portions of the wildlife area will remain open during the project, including the Anthony Creek campground. Operations will occur Monday through Friday and continue throughout the field season. Completion is expected by Dec. 31, 2022.
Visitors should be aware of increased vehicle activity, tree falling and log truck traffic and are advised to use extra caution when recreating around active project units.
Work being done at Elkhorn is part of the East Face Project, a joint collaborative with the U.S. Forest Service, Natural Resource Conservation Service and Oregon Department of Forestry. The project was identified as an opportunity to address forest health, protect state, private and federal forest lands from potential catastrophic fire while enhancing habitat for elk and other wildlife.
Located about 9 miles west of North Powder, project work is focused within the Rogers Creek watershed and north of the wildlife area headquarters. As part of the project, ODFW will treat approximately 414 acres of ponderosa pine and mixed-conifer forest habitat through mechanical thinning, fuels reduction and selective tree harvest.
Operations will provide increased forage production for deer and elk, create snags and cavity habitat while also protecting Oregon Conservation Strategy habitats such as aspen woodlands and ponderosa pine forest.
ODFW’s wildlife area staff are responsible for the management, operation, and maintenance of the property. Elkhorn Wildlife Area is part of a working landscape where livestock grazing and timber harvest assist with habitat management goals. Questions about the project can be directed to the wildlife area manager as listed above.
For more information about the Elkhorn Wildlife Area, visit:
https://myodfw.com/elkhorn-wildlife-area-visitors-guide
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Have-You-Seen-Me-Southern-Oregons-Missing-People-161249961222839/posts/