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I've read that the traditional wine grape growing regions of OR, such as Yamhill county, will get too warm to support high quality vineyards as global warming hits the Pacific Northwest. I've also read that certains areas of the North Coast will become ideal areas for vineyards. How accurate are these predictions?

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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Hawaii law requires employers to provide health insurance to all employees who work more than 19 hours per week. Wal-Mart restricts its Hawaii employees to 19 hours per week or less.

Wal-Mart's business model is in part a response to our public policy. If they don't bring living wage jobs to the area, it's because they don't have to.

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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Lights on -- cockroaches run...  It's an old saying in Hawaii.

I fear that the loss of local investigative reporting is equvalent to turning the lights out on those who wield power over others. The metaphorical cockroaches will show no restraints -- be it in corporate governance, political governance, policing or other areas that impact our lives.

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
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Hawaii has been dealing with the hidden homeless problem since the early 1980s. Families and individuals in Hawaii face low wages and a high cost of living, leading to a scarcity of jobs that pay a living wage. To survive there, multiple families will pool their resources and share a rental home. It is not uncommon to find three families with children living in a three bedroom, two bathroom rental home. These families are not on public assistance, and all the adults in the family work. But that's what families in Hawaii do to survive. Hawaii has even gone so far as to create an "Ohana" zoning variance which allows for multiple extended families to live on a property zoned for single family use.

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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I think there are conflicting public priorities:


1) threatening individiuals with prosection for the political statements they make, even if false, has the effect of chilling public discussion in a democracry.

2) perjury IS NOT prosecuted in Portland; I can't speak for the rest of this state. My direct courtroom experience in Portland is that individuals will readily perjure themselves because they know they will not be prosecuted. I was the target of an individual who made false statements to police and on court documents, relating to the safety and custody of my son. I successfully defended myself, but was unable to secure a criminal prosecution of this individual. Neither the police department nor the DA would accept a perjury complaint.

If we don't pursue a policy to protect the integrity of the justice system, why should we pursue one that chills political discourse?

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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The year 2000 Census form allowed you to check multiple race/ethnic identifiers. It did not have a "multi-ethnic" checkbox. There is wisdom in that approach.

One of the troubling aspects of the interview is the students' lack of ethnic/cultural identification. In the earlier parts of the 20th century, there was a government-sponsored initiative to destroy Native cultures -- specifically Native Hawaiian and Native American cultures -- by assimilating them into the dominant white culture. Native American children were forcibly taken from their parents and placed in white boarding schools, to be raised in the white culture. The speaking of the Hawaiian language in Hawaii was outlawed. Assimilation of non-whites into the mainstream white culture appears to have been largely successful in overwhelmingly white Portland, as evinced by multi-racial/ethnic students who no longer identify with their culture of origin.

Hawaii, in contrast to Portland, is a pluralistic society, where only 1/5th of the population is white, cultural identity is very important, and individuals celebrate their cultural differences. No one identifies himself or herself as "Asian". Each is Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Chinese-Vietnamese, etc. But not Asian. And Hawaiians are Hawaiian. Or Hawaiian-Chinese. Or hapa-haole (Hawaian-white). But there is no "multi-ethnic" identity or culture.

posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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I own and manage a 55 acre forest in Tillamook County. The proposal to increase the state's timber harvest by 30 million board feet in this economy makes no sense at all. From an economic standpoint, it makes far more sense to let the trees grow until log prices return to their pre-economic downturn levels, then keep harvests within the 150 million board feet/year limit that ODF recommends.

Here's the business analysis for timber sales: It costs about $0.25/board foot to harvest timber and deliver the timber to the saw mill. That number can go up or down, depending on fuel prices, distance to the mill, and competition between loggers. However, that number is pretty stable over time. What isn't stable is log prices.

A saw mill might pay, in today's market, an average of $0.26/board foot for hemlock and spruce. Douglas fir might sell for $0.30/board foot. That means that essentially no revenue is generated from the harvest of spruce and hemlock; harvesting douglas fir yields $0.05/board foot. Harvesting 300 million board feet of douglas fir, as suggested by the proposed rule change, might yield $15 million in today's market. Not much revenue for a whole lot of trees being cut down. Of course, dumping 300 million board feet of timber into a depressed market will push prices even lower, cutting timber revenues.

However, if we look at log prices from three years ago, before the economic downturn, hemlock and spruce sold for $0.43/board foot, and douglas fir sold for $0.65/board foot. Net revenue was $0.40/board foot for douglas fir, 8 times what it is today!

Historical log prices can be found at:

http://oregon.gov/ODF/STATE_FORESTS/TIMBER_SALES/logpage.shtml

We can expect log prices to return to previous values at some time in the future.

Here's what we could do: wait to harvest timber until market prices return to their pre-downturn levels, then harvest 150 (not 300) million board feet. At net revenue of $0.40/board foot, we realize $60 million in revenue. That's four times the revenue for half as many trees cut down.

-- Doc Martin

posted 3 years, 11 months ago
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