Opinion
A4
Thursday, December 16, 2021
OUR VIEW
Why the
delay in
paid leave?
W
e have written before about how unfortu-
nate it was that late in the 2021 legislative
session a bill popped up to delay Oregon’s
paid family medical leave program.
It was created by the Legislature in 2019. Fami-
lies would be able to get paid time off — not only for
births and deaths — but to care for others when they
need it. Some employers already off er that. The bill
was a way of guaranteeing it to more people by Jan-
uary 2023. Gov. Kate Brown thanked state Sen. Tim
Knopp, R-Bend, for his leadership in helping to get
the bill passed.
But why was implementation delayed?
The state’s Employment Department said it
couldn’t get it ready by the beginning of 2023. It was
pushed back to September. That means, as The Ore-
gonian pointed out, “tens of thousands of Oregonians
stand to go without approximately $453 million in
paid leave benefi ts they could have accessed in the
fi rst eight months of 2023.”
“This is an aggressive timeline in the best of times
and as you know, the past year hasn’t been the best
of times,” the program’s acting director, Gerhard
Taeubel, told lawmakers in February.
Brown declined an interview with The Oregonian
to explain her staff ’s oversight of launching the pro-
gram. Despite indicators the launch was off track,
her offi ce didn’t ensure the launch stayed on track
and neither did legislators. A local legislator did try.
Former state Rep. Cheri Helt, R-Bend, did attempt in
2020 to shift the program’s oversight to the Oregon
Bureau of Labor and Industries, in the hope it had the
capacity to keep it on track. She also proposed setting
up a legislative committee to monitor the program.
Those good ideas went nowhere.
An exodus of employees from the paid leave pro-
gram, allegations of discrimination in its ranks and
an ensuing investigation could further complicate
the rollout at a time when the pandemic has laid bare
the massive need for parental and medical paid leave.
Last April, an unidentifi ed member of an advisory
group to the paid leave program warned that delays in
launching the program could adversely aff ect commu-
nities of color and lower income workers most in need
of the benefi ts, according to meeting notes.
If the state’s current plans succeed, it will have
taken Oregon 50 months from when lawmakers
passed the paid family and medical leave legislation
to begin paying benefi ts to Oregonians.
Maybe with the pandemic and the disruptions
it caused there was little hope the program would
launch on time. But legislators and Gov. Brown don’t
appear to have done enough to try. The Oregonian’s
article on this topic is worth reading if you have
access: tinyurl.com/noORleave.
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the
opinion of The Observer editorial
board. Other columns, letters and
cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of The Observer.
LETTERS
• The Observer welcomes letters
to the editor. We edit letters for
brevity, grammar, taste and legal
reasons. We will not publish con-
sumer complaints against busi-
nesses, personal attacks against
private individuals or comments
that can incite violence. We also
discourage thank-you letters.
• Letters should be no longer than
350 words and must be signed and
carry the author’s name, address
and phone number (for verifi -
cation only). We will not publish
anonymous letters.
• Letter writers are limited to one
letter every two weeks.
• Longer community comment
columns, such as Other Views,
must be no more than 700 words.
Writers must provide a recent
headshot and a one-sentence
biography. Like letters to the
editor, columns must refrain from
complaints against businesses or
personal attacks against private
individuals. Submissions must
carry the author’s name, address
and phone number.
• Submission does not guarantee
publication, which is at the discre-
tion of the editor.
SEND LETTERS TO:
letters@lagrandeobserver.com
or via mail to Editor, 911 Jeff erson
Ave., La Grande, OR 97850
Cheatgrass will take over Owyhee
NORM
CIMON
OTHER VIEWS
have a lot of respect for Joel
Hasse, but he needs a clearer
understanding of what the dry
Owyhee uplands — and the rest of
the interior Northwest — are facing.
The idea that keeping develop-
ment from the sagebrush lands has
caused introduced species to spread
is upside down. It’s actually the only
thing that might keep them intact.
After 50,000 years drying out, we
now have the same climate as Cen-
tral Asia. That was made clear to
me many years ago when the PNW
lab in La Grande hosted the then
leader of the Russian Forestry Ser-
vice, Alexander Isaev (he joked that
he’d gotten the job because he had
complained so often to Gorbachev).
Waking up that morning and looking
out his window, he thought he was
back at his fi rst posting in the Rus-
sian steppes. That’s how similar
those two ecosystems look.
There is, however, a crucial
diff erence.
That faraway part of the world
has had 6-12 million un-glaciated
years for the vegetation to evolve, so
the plant communities from Eurasia
are ultra-competitive in the interior
Northwest. They can quickly replace
the native bunchgrass, and that’s
what they do after a range fi re or if
the grass and sagebrush have been
degraded or eliminated.
How did those alien plants get
I
here? When the settlers fi rst came
to this part of the world: those who
knew what they were looking at
soon realized that wheat would be
a well-adapted crop and a money-
maker. So it was that they imported
the type that grew from eastern
Europe into the Asiatic dry-lands.
That decision also planted the seeds
of drastic change for the sagebrush
ecosystem. Those wheat crops often
included a grass that couldn’t be har-
vested. It left the farmers feeling
cheated.
That’s where cheatgrass —
Bromus tectorum — got its common
name. It’s an annual and the fi rst
plant to bloom in the spring, taking
up all the moisture and drying out
the soil for the native vegetation.
While it’s just one of many such
invaders, it’s considered “the most
signifi cant plant invasion in North
America.”
Look around and you’ll fi nd it
all over Union County. Here’s an
overview:
Bromus tectorum is an alien grass
that dominates disturbed ground
in shrub-steppe ecosystems of the
western United States and Canada.
Cheatgrass reproduces only from
seeds, germinates in the fall or
winter, expands its roots over winter,
and rapidly exploits the available
water and nutrients in early spring.
Cheatgrass is common in recently
burned rangeland and wildlands,
winter crops, waste areas, aban-
doned fi elds, eroded areas and over-
grazed grasslands. Although cheat-
grass readily invades perennial
forage crops and rangeland under
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
STAFF
SUBSCRIBEAND SAVE
NEWSSTAND PRICE: $1.50
You can save up to 55% off the single-copy
price with home delivery.
Call 800-781-3214 to subscribe.
Subscription rates:
Monthly Autopay ...............................$10.75
13 weeks.................................................$37.00
26 weeks.................................................$71.00
52 weeks ..............................................$135.00
poor management, it also invades
communities in the absence of
disturbance.
In undisturbed sites, cheatgrass
will most commonly spread along
soil cracks and work its way outward
into the natural community. Cheat-
grass can persist in unpredictable
environments because seed germina-
tion is staggered from August until
May.
That list of adaptions is breath-
taking. One example: On Idaho 51,
which slopes down to the Snake
River south of Mountain Home,
everything you see in all directions
is cheatgrass. That’s not because
the area is protected — it’s because
the native plants were eliminated
or burned out and downy brome,
another name for it, moved in.
As mentioned above, if cheat-
grass is anywhere nearby, it can also
invade undisturbed areas. Given this
reality, the scientifi c community has
even recommended triage: identify
those areas that can’t be salvaged,
try to eliminate it from the areas
where it has just arrived, and protect
the places that haven’t been invaded.
There is no way around this. Our
genetic resources are at serious risk
unless we act to keep cheatgrass as
far away from undisturbed areas as
possible.
I’ll leave it to you to fi gure out
what that means for the Owyhee
country.
———
Norm Cimon, of La Grande, is a
member of Oregon Rural Action, a
nonprofi t, but his column represents
his personal opinion.
Anindependent newspaper foundedin1896
www.lagrandeobserver.com
Periodicals postage paid at Pendleton, Oregon 97801
Published Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
(except postal holidays) by EO Media Group,
911 Jefferson Ave., La Grande, OR 97850
(USPS 299-260)
The Observer retains ownership and copyright
protection of all staff-prepared news copy, advertising
copy, photos and news or ad illustrations. They may
not be reproduced without explicit prior approval.
COPYRIGHT © 2021
Phone:
541-963-3161
Regional publisher. ...................... Karrine Brogoitti
Home delivery advisor ............... Amanda Fredrick
Interim editor ....................................Andrew Cutler
Advertising representative ..................... Kelli Craft
News clerk ........................................Lisa Lester Kelly
Advertising representative .................... Amy Horn
Reporter....................................................Dick Mason
National accounts coordinator ...... Devi Mathson
Reporter............................................Davis Carbaugh
Graphic design .................................. Dorothy Kautz
Multimedia journalist.........................Alex Wittwer
Page design .........................................Andy Nicolais
Toll free (Oregon):
1-800-781-3214
Email:
news@lagrandeobserver.com
POSTMASTER
Send address changes to:
The Observer,
911 Jefferson Ave.,
La Grande, OR 97850
A division of