Event Details

When: December 8, 2021 at 7 p.m.

Where: Click here to watch the recorded lecture.

Cost: Free, suggested donation of $10.

Lecture Description

Debris flows are rapidly moving, water-saturated masses of rock and sediment that occur naturally on volcanoes like Mount Adams and Mount Hood. Small, storm-triggered debris flows occur routinely and commonly go unnoticed, but larger storm-triggered debris flows can wreak havoc on anything in their paths before depositing thick layers of rock, sand, and mud on valley floors. In November 2006, Mounts Adams and Hood experienced such debris flows. Far larger debris flows, the result of volcanic eruptions or large landslides, have occurred prehistorically on Mount Adams and Hood and have inundated the landscape along the entire lengths of the White Salmon and Hood Rivers. Join Richard Iverson, scientist emeritus at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory, for a look at how scientists assess the what, where, how, and why of big debris flows and find out why it’s still so challenging to foretell when the next one will occur.

Richard (Dick) Iverson spent 34 years as a research scientist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Washington, and he remains affiliated with the observatory as a scientist emeritus. His work there has focused mostly on the dynamics of landslides and debris flows, with particular emphasis on evaluating hazards downstream from Cascades volcanoes. Iverson grew up in Iowa, received his Ph.D. from Stanford University, and moved from Vancouver to Hood River in 2018.

Event Details

When: January 12, 2022 at 7 p.m.

Where: Click here to watch the recorded lecture.

Cost: Free, suggested donation of $10.

Additional Resources: 

• Plants that attract native pollinators year round  
• Oregon Bee Project – Bee Atlas 
• What you can do in our backyard to help save the bees!

Lecture Description:

The Columbia River Gorge is buzzing with spectacular wildlife that most people swat away. But did you know there are over 500 species of bees in Oregon and Washington? Each one is unique and interacts with the natural world in its own way, but bees and other pollinators are more than beautiful and interesting. These pollinators sustain our food and ecosystems – and ultimately, all of us. Join Frances Ambrose Fischer to learn about our native bees, programs that study and protect them like the Oregon Bee Project, and what role you might play in their health and survival.

Frances Ambrose Fischer works for Friends of the Columbia Gorge as the Land Trust Coordinator and is the local organizer of the Oregon Bee Atlas. Frances studied ecology and entomology at Montana State University and researched plant pollinator interactions and climate change. Frances lives in Hood River on a pear orchard with her husband Ben.

Event Details

When: February 9, 2022 at 7 p.m.

Where:  Click here to watch the recorded lecture.

Cost: Free, suggested donation of $10.

Lecture Description:

In the 1980s, a new idea was gaining momentum in the Gorge. It came in response to a familiar challenge – how do we keep people healthy? Does it start and stop at the doctor’s office? How might other factors, like housing or even transportation affect someone’s health? And what role might local leaders play in supporting the health of their community? Maria Antonia “Toña” Sanchez was one of the first in the nation to work as a “Promotor(a) de Salud” – now known as a Community Health Worker. By the time Joel Pelayo applied for the job in 1992, the number had grown to 10 in the Gorge. Today, we have more than 100 trained Community Health Workers, many of whom are state certified, and who serve people from a variety of different backgrounds. Across the country, others are adopting Community Health Worker models much like the one developed in the Gorge. Join Toña and Joel as they share some of their experiences from 30 years as Community Health Workers and find out how they use culture, personal connections, and even music to help people thrive.

Maria Antonia “Toña” Sanchez was one of the first in the nation to work as a “Promotora de Salud” (now known as Community Health Worker), a role she began almost 30 years ago. She has served as the Women’s Health CHW for One Community Health’s (local FQHC) conducting outreach, education and assisting with screening access for Latinas. Toña is an experienced bi-cultural and bi-lingual trainer and has facilitated the CHW “We Are Health” series, one of Oregon Health Authority’s adopted CHW Curricula used to certify CHWs. She is known for her outstanding listening skills and is considered a “healer” among Latino community members. She is a highly respected member of the Latino community and is affectionately known as “Doña Toña”. She has a positive impact on the lives of those she supports and her input has helped form policy and improved outreach services for Latino immigrants at local, state and national level.

Joel Pelayo has worked to provide community health promotion and outreach to the Latino population for decades. He currently serves as Co-Chair for the Columbia Gorge Health Council’s Community Advisory Council (part of our local Coordinated Care Organization). Joel is a registered counselor in the state of Washington, providing treatment for domestic violence offenders. He currently serves as a Lead Community Health Worker (LCHW) for Nuestra Comunidad Sana/Health Promotion Services for The Next Door. As a LCHW, Joel has provided outreach to thousands of Latinos from the Mid-Columbia on diabetes, obesity, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS, oral health and many other health concerns. “Don Joel” instills a sense of empowerment, peace and compassion with his co-workers and community members.

Event Details

When: March 9, 2022 at 7 p.m. (doors at 6:30 p.m.)

Where: Click here to watch the recorded lecture.

Cost: $10 for live lecture, free for livestream

Lecture Description:

An extraordinary time in Oregon history occurred in central Oregon, when a religious sect from India set up an experiment on a cattle ranch outside Madras. In the 1980s, the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh presided over a sect that professed self-sufficiency and love that morphed into a tightly-controlled organization that engaged in assassination attempts and plots, orchestrated the largest illegal wiretapping operation in U.S. history, and poisoned hundreds of innocent diners as a way to suppress voter turnout. Les Zaitz was an investigative reporter at the time and he co-wrote a 20-part series about the Rajneeshees that was published in the Oregonian. More recently, he was included in the Netflix film Wild Wild Country, which looks at some of the history behind Rajneeshpuram in Oregon. Les is now the editor and CEO of the Salem Reporter, but continues to speak on the topic of the Rajneeshees and what lessons can be learned today from this long-ago event.

Les Zaitz is a two-time Pulitzer finalist who started his professional journalism career right out of high school. He was hired in 1973 as a general assignment reporter for the Salem Statesman Journal and continued writing as a staff reporter and correspondent while attending the University of Oregon, working for the Springfield News, the Oregon Journal, UPI, and the New York Times. He is a five-time solo winner of Oregon’s Bruce Baer Award, the state’s top honor for investigative reporting and in 2016, Zaitz was awarded the highest honor for career achievement from the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. In 2018 he co-founded a digital news service based in Oregon’s capitol, the Salem Reporter, where he is now CEO and editor. Born and raised in Oregon, Zaitz lives on a remote ranch in Grant County, where he and his wife, Scotta Callister, run a small horse/cow operation.

Want to read more? Check out Les’s 20 part series he wrote for The Oregonian.

Event Details

When: April 13, 2022 at 7 p.m. (doors at 6:30 p.m.)

Where: Click here to watch the recorded lecture.

Cost: $10 for live lecture, free for livestream

Additional Resources: Panelist Susan Jane Brown is featured in the Timber Wars podcast and in this Oregon Field Guide episode!

Lecture Description:

Economics or environmentalism? Trees or timber? Spotted owls or mill towns? 30 years ago our public forests became a battleground – where do we stand today and can these public lands overcome their divided history?

One of the most diverse forest landscapes in the Pacific Northwest is encompassed within the Columbia River Gorge. Temperate rainforests in the west transition to arid pine-oak woodlands in the east. These varied forests are all part of a complex ecosystem with an increasingly complex set of challenges. From Spotted Owls and Timber Wars to an unprecedented risk of wildfire – forests have played an undeniable and often contentious role throughout the west.

So how did we get here and what might the future hold for our public forestland in the Gorge? Join us for this special Sense of Place Conversation featuring Jay McLaughlin, Susan Jane Brown, Les Perkins, Erin Black, and moderated by Sense of Place host/curator, Sarah Fox.

Susan Jane Brown is a staff attorney with the Western Environmental Law Center (WELC). Her primary focus of litigation is federal public lands forest management, but her practice includes cases involving the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, National Forest Management Act, and other land management statutes. She is a former Co-Chair of the National Advisory Committee for Implementation of the National Forest System Land Management Planning Rule and is also heavily engaged in collaborative forest restoration in the Upper John Day Basin in eastern Oregon.

Jay McLaughlin is the founding executive director of Mt. Adams Resource Stewards, a community-based forestry organization focused on land stewardship and sustainable forestry in the Mt. Adams region of southern Washington. Much of this work strives to connect local people to efforts to manage our working forest landscape in a way that promotes the well-being of both our rural communities and the forests that contribute so much to quality of life in the region. Prior to that, Jay was a forester for the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the Yakama Reservation, a high school teacher and volunteer with the Peace Corps in Panama. Jay has a master in forestry from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies and a BA in Biology from Whitman College. He lives with his family in Glenwood, Washington.

Les Perkins grew up in the Hood River Valley and graduated from Hood River Valley High School then went on to earn a BS in Biology from Lewis and Clark College. Les has owned his own business and worked for a local laboratory as a microbiologist, helped start Farmers Conservation Alliance, a local non-profit organization focusing on energy and water issues, and has been the manager at Farmers Irrigation District since 2015. Les has been a Hood River County Commissioner since 2001 where he focuses on forestry, energy and water issues. Les has been particularly focused on Hood River County’s forestry operations and the intersection with recreation, a local resource economy, and funding of local government services.

Erin Black works on the Gifford Pinchot National Forest where she serves as district ranger for the Mt. Adams Ranger District in Trout Lake, WA. Erin started with the Forest Service in 2002 and has spent her career in various ecosystem planning and management positions on the Mt. Hood National Forest, the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and the PNW Regional Office. Erin is a native of the Pacific Northwest (with most of her adult life in the Gorge) and appreciates the tension that exists around land management. A good day is when she can get two people who disagree to see the others’ perspective. She is the mom of two school-aged children, who create their own healthy conflict on occasion.

*additional speakers may be added.