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Wednesday, February 5, 2020 A9 The Dalles Chronicle TheDallesChronicle.com Understanding Columbia Gorge Master Naturalist field course apps open Feb. 1 Leap Year: Feb. 29 is ‘leap day’ This is a close repeat (how about an “encore”?) of a column written in 2016. In 2020 we have an extra day, as we have every four years. 2020 is a “leap year” and we’ll have an extra “leap day,” Feb. 29. Ah, but we don’t always have a leap year every 4 years! Are you aware that 1900 was not a leap year? A bit about the interesting history of our calendars: As most of us are aware, we have leap years because the Earth does not orbit around the Sun in precisely 365 days. Instead, it orbits in 365.2426 days. That’s pretty close to 365 and a quarter days, so adding a day every four years keeps us in step with the seasons. That ensures us that the dog days of summer are in August, Thanksgiving comes in November, and Christmas is in December. Can you imag- ine singing, “I’m dreaming of a white Fourth of July?” It was not always this way. Calendars were once based on the phases of the Moon. The Moon’s orbital period also does not fit evenly with 365 days, so the calendar was periodically adjusted by the Romans, who added a few days every couple of years. It was not only confusing, but corruptible. Pontiffs—reli- gious figures who got to call the shots on this—some- times added days to keep their political allies in office by lengthening their terms, or refused to add days to kick out their enemies more quickly. And we thought our political system had problems! That was corrected by the “Julian” calendar, a reform promoted by Julius Caesar. That calendar established 12 months, with a day thrown in every four years to keep the seasons in line. That’s where we are today, you might say. Not quite. Tossing in a leap year every four years helps a lot, but remember that number—365.2426? Notice that it’s not quite 365 and a quarter. It’s about 11 minutes short of a quarter day. Given enough years, that begins to add up. We gained about three days every four centuries, and after a few centuries it began to impact how the seasons align with the months. By the 1500s, the first day of spring was no longer March 21, but rather occurred on March 11. Since the first day of spring is tied to Easter, that didn’t settle well with the Catholic Church. Pope Gregory XIII introduced a revised calen- dar, the Gregorian calendar, which we still use today. Because we were gaining about three days every four centuries, that calendar takes away three leap years every four centuries. See if you can follow this: every year that is exactly divisible by 100 is not a leap year, unless it is divisible by 400. Confused? Relax. You probably won’t have to worry about it in our lifetimes. It only involves years such as 1900 (divisible by 100, but not 400 and thus not a leap year), 2000 (divisible by 100 and also 400, so it is a leap year), and 2100 (like 1900, not a leap year). It cleverly removes three leap years every four centuries. Gregory had another problem though. On Feb. 24, 1582, he signed the decree In the Sky Jim White establishing his calendar. But by then we had already gotten out of sync by 10 days, with the first day of spring occurring in March 11 instead of 21. His solu- tion? Simple, just drop those days! The big switch came in October, 1582. We had October 1, 2, 3, 4, …..then 15. October 5-14 didn’t happen. If you have ever download- ed the planetarium program Stellarium (www.stellarium. com), check it out—those dates are not there! The change was not immediately picked up in the non-catholic world, but others eventually changed for the convenience of international trade. The British Empire (including us) changed in 1752. Greece was the last to accept the change, in 1923. So enjoy your extra day on Saturday, Feb. 29, now that you have a better under- standing of where it came from. Maybe you have a friend born on that day, who laments not having a birthday every year. Tell your friend that it could be worse—imagine the poor kids born on October 10, 1581. When did they get to celebrate their first birthdays? Oregon State University Extension in Hood River and Wasco counties is again offering the Master Naturalist Eco Region Course. The goal of the course “is to train pas- sionate volunteers for Gorge-based organizations that offer environmental education, stewardship or community science projects,” said an OSU press release. The application process opens on Feb. 1. An information night has been scheduled for Monday, Feb. 3 from 6-7 p.m. at the Hood River Extension Conference Room, 2990 Experiment Station Drive. All are wel- come to attend. About the program Students will travel from the east to the west end of the Gorge, learning from local educators about the flora and fauna as well as the geological and human forces that have shaped it. Students will also practice the skills of a naturalist, including obser- vation and interpretation. The course includes seven sessions: April 5 and 19, May 17 and 31, July 26, Aug. 30 and Sept. 27. Sessions are all day and occur on Sundays. Continuing education credit is available for teachers. Applications are due March 1. For more information or to apply, visit oregonmaster- naturalist.org/Ecoregion_ courses or contact Ann Harris at 541-386-3343 or ann.harris@oregonstate. edu. Master Naturalist field course will be offered by OSU Extension again this year in an effort to train volunteers for environmental education, stewardship and community science projects around the Gorge. PERS reforms face delay, tight timelines Claire Withycombe ■ By Oregon Capital Bureau changed Oregon’s costly pen- sion system, which is about $27 billion in debt. Legislative SALEM—Public workers budget analysts expected who expected to contribute the changes to save public more to their savings in July employers $1.2 to $1.8 billion in pension costs every two to make up for cuts to re- tirement benefits will have years, starting in 2021. The Oregon Public to wait until September. Employee Retirement The agency that pays System, known as PERS, out billions in retirement is a hybrid. There’s a basic benefits to Oregon public pension and a 401(k)-style workers is delaying a new program designed to allow savings account on top. One revision re-routed a employees to try to counter- balance recent benefit cuts slice of employees’ salary that previously went to the by the Legislature. savings account to help pay Last year, lawmakers for the pension instead. Employees will contribute the same amount of money to their retirement, but a greater portion will go to fund pensions. As a result, employees say they will end up with less money when they retire. “If they’re going to delay the implementation of the part that would allow members to spend their own money to keep their retirement whole,” says Joe Baessler, associate director of AFSCME Council 75, a union representing mostly public workers, “They probably should also suspend the di- version, at least until they can figure all this stuff out.” The delay in the savings account’s start is one signal that the reforms in Senate Bill 1049 appear to be stretching the agency’s abilities. State workers have spent 17,200 hours over six months, through December, put- ting the changes into place, according to PERS records. More than 150 employ- ees have been involved in helping to make the changes, according to PERS. 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