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FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2022
VOL. 131, NO. 32 Serving the Lower Columbia Region since 1891
Clatskanie students dig in to connect to community their participation in the class. These include:
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• Preparing a growing space by removing dryer felt and raised beds and covering it with bark chips and compost. • Growing and selling produce, on consignment, at the Farmer’s Market. • Selling native plants and hanging flower baskets via a Mother’s Day sale. • Growing herbs from cuttings. • Growing and harvesting sunflower seeds and having each student prepare them in a taste test challenge. • Maintains an active beehive which produces honey.
here is an innovative program at Clatskanie Middle/ High School (CMHS) that the students say they love, although it involves no texting or connecting to Instagram. Instead, they are connecting hands-on to their environment at the Clatskanie Community Garden next to Cope’s Park. Taught by James Byrne, this sought-after agriculture class emphasizes sustainable decision making. The connection “By having their hands in the dirt and spending time manipulating their local habitat in the agricultural realm, they will feel empowered to manipulate it for the better,” Byrne said. Integrating the connection to the land through their actions will enable them to see the value and importance of the resources involved and in turn care about them, according to Byrne. “When they care, they can make choices about resource utilization with an eye towards sustainability and environmental improvement,” he said. In addition to connecting students to the agricultural environment, the class is designed to connect each student to their local community. The students grow food, so far lettuce and tomatoes, that will directly go into the school lunches at CMHS. This shows the direct impact they can have in feeding themselves and their peers. They also grow, harvest and sell food through the local Farmers Market which connects students to the larger community by showing them that their efforts
Courtesy photo from James Byrne
The students give a smile as they work in the community garden.
have value, and their products are desired. CMHS student Chloe May said the agriculture class has been quite valuable to her. “It has meant so much to me,” she said. “This is probably something I wouldn’t know anything about if I wasn’t in this class. I have started sharing some of the knowledge I have learned with other people who are interested and using this knowledge in my own garden.” Byrne stresses the importance of the Farmer’s Market connection. “This connection is so good because it lets people see the great things that the students are doing and it shows the students that there are avenues to be involved in through agriculture,” said Byrne.
Agriculture is something everyone should know. It is what keeps society together and is important for life. ~ CMHS Student Ben Hadley
Students are also being taught the value of resources. “We can’t move our society away from a disposable mindset towards a sustainable one unless students have an understanding of the value of things,” said Byrne. In Byrne’s class students learn the value of agriculture from start to finish. Such
important lessons include the cost of seeds, the germination rate, the cost of soil, how to make their own soil, how much is fertilizer and what should the final cost be for the completed produce. They then formulate how long the process took and determine their success in terms of sustainability. “When students put all these facts together and see that they can make a profit and do so in a way that our value output is greater than our value input, then they will have a real connection to sustainability,” Byrne said. Many successes The students said they have realized many successes so far through
“We are currently growing peas, cucumbers, lettuces, radishes spinach and kale,” Byrne said. “We also experimented with Hugelkultur.” Hugelkultur is a mound bed or a mound culture composed of decaying wood debris and other compostable biomass plant materials and later planted as a raised bed. Another exciting venture for the class, Byrne said is experimenting with aquaponics. Aquaponics, according to the Aquaponics Source Guide, is putting fish to work. The work that these fish do, eating and producing waste, is the perfect fertilizer for growing plants. The pond that Byrne created is a sight to behold. Made of logs and stone, it serves as a complement to an out-of-use greenhouse that Byrne acquired and transplanted to the CMHS property. “The agriculture program has been really inspirational for me,” student Taylor Crawford said. “I always have a sense of community
See CMHS Page A4
Clatskanie, Rainier to receive affordable housing funds STAFF REPORT Country Media, Inc.
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ommunity and Shelter Assistance (CASA) in Oregon will receive $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to provide ongoing management of long-term affordable housing in communities all over the state, including Clatskanie and Rainier. Oregon U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced funding Wednesday, Dec. 14. “As we enter the coldest months of the year, I’m gratified to see federal dollars go to keeping roofs overhead for Oregonians in communities throughout the state,” Wyden said. “While building more long-term affordable housing remains an ongoing challenge, CASA is providing crucial services to maintain and expand the longterm affordable housing we already have. I will continue to fight so that in the wealthiest, strongest
nation on earth, all Oregon families have a warm, safe, affordable and stable place to call home.” “Everyone should be able to afford a safe place to call home, and as we are faced with a housing affordability crisis, it is crucial that we support efforts expanding access to housing options,” Merkley said. “This funding, going to CASA of Oregon to support housing cooperatives across the state, will ensure Oregonians have greater access to affordable and reliable housing options.” CASA, located in Sherwood, will use the Rural Development grant dollars from USDA along with $96,500 it raised to provide assistance to the following communities as they develop longterm, affordable housing options. • Clatskanie • Rainier • Warrenton • Gold Beach • Leaburg • Boardman
• McMinnville • Idleyld • Dexter • Cottage Grove • Redmond • Winston • Estacada • Madras • Welches • Newport CASA provides ongoing technical assistance to housing cooperatives to ensure long term viability as affordable housing options. “We are grateful for these much-needed resources that will allow us to find long-term solutions to the housing crisis that too many Oregonians—especially those living in rural areas face,” CASA’s Manufactured Housing and Cooperative Development Center Director Rose Ojeda said. “We look forward to working with our local partners to develop programs tailored to their unique needs that create more sustainable, healthy, and just communities.”
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Clatskanie and Rainier will receive a share of the $200,000 in federal affordable housing funds.
Ballot Measure 114 permit-to-purchase still paused STAFF REPORT Country Media, Inc.
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Gun sales have skyrocketed over the past several weeks following passage of Ballot 114.
arney County Judge Raschio has extended the temporary restraining order on the permit-to-purchase portion of Ballot Measure 114. More legal arguments were expected in the case. Raschio had not issued a ruling as of Dec. 15 on the measure’s ban on the sale and transfer of high-capacity magazines. According to the Associated Press, prior to the Tuesday, Dec. 13 hearing before Raschio, the state had agreed to delay the permit-topurchase portion of the law until Feb. 8 because of a lack of certified law enforcement to oversee the inperson gun handling training class that would be required. Last week, the Oregon Supreme Court rejected a request from Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum to “immediately” review the temporary restraining order by Raschio, which prevents enforcement of Measure 114. As the court cases into Ballot Measure 114 began, gun shops across the state saw heighten sales. “This makes the pandemic look
like a walk in the park,” Lincoln City Electronics Superstore Store operator Bruce Polvi said. “It is crazier than we have ever seen it.” Polvi said public concern over Ballot Measure 114 is driving the sales. Firearm permit approval requests through the state system have also skyrocketed since the measure passed, according to Polvi, who said people aren’t just purchasing one firearm. “Usually people were purchasing one firearm, but now we are seeing people buy 12 to 24 firearms at a time,” he said. “A lot of them are thinking that this is shutting it off and so it is a panic situation.” Pulvi said he is hearing from other gun and sporting good stores from around the state. “We’ve been contacted by multiple gun and sporting good stores that are closing, or that have closed, and they are trying to get rid of their inventory, so that are asking us to buy their inventory because they didn’t what to get stuck with merchandise they couldn’t sell,” Polvi said. Follow developments at thechiefnews.com and in the Friday print editions of The Chief.