Oregon's Critical (Dying) Counties (Portland: fit in, sale, how much)

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by pnwmdk

Oh, yes, they DO! And the worse it gets, the happier they get. The animosity coming from the west side toward the east side is very real. They want us troublesome rurals driven away so they're free to do what they like.

There is no animosity. The fact that you THINK there is is part of the problem.

The average Portlander thinks of "Eastern Oregon" as that place to go Skiing around Bend, or a place to pass through to get to Utah. And yes, I know Bend is not in Eastern Oregon. The average Portlander does not even realize there are Eastern Oregon residents.

So, you, Eastern Oregon Residents, need to get more verbal and recognizable. Oregon politics is about compromise and getting things done for the betterment of everyone, so start participating on a more personal level. Setup signature gathering drives in Portland and have press conferences. Get initiatives on the ballot even if they are modifications to existing rules. Get on the local news stations and talk about your issues. Get your Congress People to hold town hall meetings in Portland and attend them yourselves.

[rdickers]

Originally Posted by Larry Caldwell

Unfortunately, the State of Oregon does not have the authority to regulate federal lands. While state and private timber in Oregon leans heavily on forestry best management practices, federal lands do not.

You may think your area is immune to this destructive non-management, but that juniper you are looking at is a slow motion ecological disaster. Juniper is a water thief that will exterminate all other plant life, and by extension, all wildlife where it grows. In dry areas, if land reaches a 60% juniper cover, it will probably never recover naturally. If you see a stand of juniper, either you are looking at an absentee landlord who doesn't give a rat's ass about the land, or the land owner is just a worthless bum. Chances are the absentee landlord is the US Congress, since the BLM owns most of Eastern Oregon.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/cat...b152/tb152.pdf

I see across some of Eastern Oregon that Juniper has been cut and left to rot. Other areas need the same treatment. It seems to me a good place to use prison labor. While at it, they could also attack the noxious plants problem.

[rdickers]

Originally Posted by hamellr

There is no animosity. The fact that you THINK there is is part of the problem.

The average Portlander thinks of "Eastern Oregon" as that place to go Skiing around Bend, or a place to pass through to get to Utah. And yes, I know Bend is not in Eastern Oregon. The average Portlander does not even realize there are Eastern Oregon residents.

So, you, Eastern Oregon Residents, need to get more verbal and recognizable. Oregon politics is about compromise and getting things done for the betterment of everyone, so start participating on a more personal level. Setup signature gathering drives in Portland and have press conferences. Get initiatives on the ballot even if they are modifications to existing rules. Get on the local news stations and talk about your issues. Get your Congress People to hold town hall meetings in Portland and attend them yourselves.

I could fill pages with indignities from people in Foggy Bottom land, including from our present governor, but would rather keep the discussion civil. Cliff Bentz, District 60 Representative covers Baker, Grant, Harney, Malheur and part of Lake County to get 63,400 constituents. Area-wise, that is about a fifth of the state. He does about as good as job as anyone person could do given travel times and the push and pulls of his job and personal career, as few could live on a Representative's salary alone. More than once groups of us hicks have traveled to Salem or other communities to represent our views, and I can tell you that we were always well received but cannot recall that we ever had any real impact on the final outcome of anything we needed. The agenda is driven from the west and special interests with clout. Many come with your attitude that you care more about what happens to Oregon and elswhere than we do. There is an arrogance and snobbery that is palpable when you get a taste of it from over here. Like Obama's war on coal that will eventually drive 70,000 people out of work, it is okay because he cares more, therefore he is a better person than all those people whose lives have been destroyed. Such was the case with the timber; and such is the case for expansion of urban growth boundaries that restrict growth in rural Oregon, and such is the case for almost all of the rules that take 5 plus years to get permission to do anything new and productive outside of Salem. The people are simply too exhausted and the outcomes too questionable to gamble on. Most move on; many on the Foggy Bottom side of state do not say, I'm sorry; instead, they cheer, they saved Mother Earth from another scratch.

[tablemtn]

These are long-term national trends. If you look at a map of Idaho - one of the fastest-growing states in the nation from 2000 to 2010 - it still lost population in eight of its counties, all of them largely rural:


US Census map

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by hamellr

The average Portlander thinks of "Eastern Oregon" as that place to go Skiing around Bend, or a place to pass through to get to Utah. And yes, I know Bend is not in Eastern Oregon. The average Portlander does not even realize there are Eastern Oregon residents.

To be honest the average Portlander barely knows what's going on in most of neighboring Clackamas County or Columbia County, let alone somewhere like Burns or Fossil. When I moved to Portland after living in the Rogue Valley down south for five years, I realized that explaining where I had lived would draw a blank slate with a surprising amount of people. And to be fair, people living in the rest of the state don't know as much about Portland as they like to think they do.

In general most people really just know a lot about their own little corner of the state. It's the same story across any state with some geographic size. Witness little Siskiyou County attempts to secede into the State of Jefferson from California--truth is the rest of California barely knows Yreka exists, let alone the name of the county they're in.

[rdickers]

Originally Posted by tablemtn

These are long-term national trends. If you look at a map of Idaho - one of the fastest-growing states in the nation from 2000 to 2010 - it still lost population in eight of its counties, all of them largely rural:


US Census map

So, what has this got to do with the situation we are writing about? Many of the problems in Eastern Oregon originate in Salem, not Boise.

[Deezus]

Originally Posted by rdickers

So, what has this got to do with the situation we are writing about? Many of the problems in Eastern Oregon originate in Salem, not Boise.

I think they were just pointing out that in our neighboring state of Idaho(and with a much more conservative government), many of the most remote and rural(and least populated) counties lost population just as in Oregon.

[Great Depression Survivor]

News from Oregon Jive 9-23-2013

[rdickers]

Originally Posted by Great Depression Survivor

News from Oregon Jive 9-23-2013

So Harney, Lake and Grant Counties are now Central Oregon? How is that possible when Deschutes is often considered Eastern Oregon?

[pnwmdk]

Originally Posted by Deezus

I think they were just pointing out that in our neighboring state of Idaho(and with a much more conservative government), many of the most remote and rural(and least populated) counties lost population just as in Oregon.

The reasons for the depopulation in Idaho counties are also true in Oregon. Except Oregon has a hostile capital that is just as bad or worse in its hostility as the feds - who are to blame for Idaho's.