OREGON
TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Climate change results in projected shifts for hardiness zones
By KYM POKORNY
For The Observer
CORVALLIS — You
visit the nursery, pick out a
primo plant, come home, put
it in the ground and wait for
it to become a beautiful tree,
shrub or perennial. Then
spring arrives and it’s dead or
fl oundering.
What happened?
In some cases, cold tem-
peratures are the culprit. It’s
a matter of right plant, right
place, said Nicole Sanchez,
Oregon State University
Extension horticulturist. Plants
survive to a certain low tem-
perature, a characteristic they
developed through evolution
in their native habitat. You
need to know about hardi-
ness zones to be assured your
plants will avoid cold-related
death. Plants bought at nurs-
eries should have the hardi-
ness zone on the label.
The zones are determined
by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, working with
Oregon State University’s
PRISM Climate Group, and
based on a 30-year period of
averaged minimum low tem-
peratures. The latest hardiness
map came out in 2012 and is
from data collected during the
years 1976-2005. Zones are
ranked from 1 (-60 degrees)
Oregon State University/Contributed Photo
This Oregon zone hardiness map for plants was created at Oregon State University and came out in 2012.
Shifts in zones due to climate change continue across the states.
to 13 (70 degrees), though
the extremes are rare. To fi nd
yours, go to www.planthardi-
ness.ars.usda.gov and put in
your ZIP code.
Oregon’s hardiness zones
range from 6a (-20 to -15) to
8b (15 to 20), with pockets
of 5b (-15 to -10) in Eastern
Oregon. The map doesn’t
refl ect the coldest it has ever
been or ever will be at a spe-
cifi c location, but simply the
average lowest winter tem-
perature for the location over a
specifi ed time.
But with climate change,
the zones are shifting, San-
chez said. For instance, the
2012 map zones changed in
many areas by 5 degrees — or
a half-zone warmer — than
the previous map. Already,
there’s talk of the Portland
area moving from zone 8b to
9a, which has a low of 20-25
degrees.
“We won’t know the spe-
cifi cs about zones changing
until we have another 30
years of data to go on, but that
doesn’t mean we wait until
2035,” Sanchez said. “They
may use an earlier time period.
Then we can look and see if
there are long-term changes
that would be refl ected in new
zones for particular areas. So,
we wait and see.
“I always hear people
say, ‘This is the warmest
spring ever’ or ‘I’ve never
seen a summer so hot.’ Usu-
ally, they’re wrong. Weather
is a short-term phenomenon
and climate is a long-term
pattern.”
The map is a guide, not
an absolute document. There
can be winters when lows dip
below your zone minimum,
she said. Nature can throw a
curve ball; nothing is guar-
anteed. For now, gardeners
should base their plant choices
on the current map.
What happens in your
garden could very well be
diff erent than your neighbor
because of what are called
microclimates. A microcli-
mate can have an eff ect sim-
ilar to moving to a colder
or warmer zone. They can
be infl uenced by structures
like the orientation of your
house to the sun. South will
be warmer than north, west
warmer than east.
Other microclimates may
be related to slope: cold air
pools at the bottom and the
high points are cold, too,
because of wind and expo-
sure. So, the middle of a slope
is the sweet spot for borderline
hardy plants. Microclimates
can be created with rock walls
and mulches, buildings and
fences, and windbreaks cre-
ated with plants.
“I’m in zone 6,” Sanchez
said. “If I wanted to plant
dahlias, which are zone 7
plants, I’d plant them on the
south side with a gravel mulch
that would store heat.”
Zones are essential when
choosing a plant. To be suc-
cessful, plants must fi t into
your zone, which helps with
selection. If you have fi ve
plants you like and only two
are in your zone, it narrows
down your selection. You
can push the envelope; just
be prepared to lose plants
periodically.
“Some gardeners get a kick
out of out of growing some-
thing that allegedly won’t
grow in their zone,” San-
chez said. “Sometimes a plant
will survive for several years
because the weather doesn’t
get down to the minimum of
your zone. But, then a really
cold winter comes along and
zaps them. Be careful with
woody plants like shrubs and
trees. They are investments.
You can pay $350 for a tree or
$15 for a fl at of impatiens.”
Oregon Health Authority recruits teens to spend $1M in federal recovery funds
By LYNNE TERRY
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — The Oregon
Health Authority is recruiting
teenagers for an advisory
council that will decide
how to spend $1 million in
COVID-recovery funds.
The agency wants the
money to help alleviate some
of the impacts of the pan-
demic on young people, who
suff ered socially, intellectu-
ally and emotionally from
switching to online learning
and curtailing their social
interactions and activities.
The health authority said
young people are the best
ones to decide how those
funds should be spent.
“I think young people
are really suff ering, and it’s
important that we as adults
understand what they want
and what recovery looks like
to them,” Lev Schneidman,
the agency’s recovery school
health program coordinator,
said in a statement. “We can
make all these decisions about
how the money is spent, but
ultimately we have to ask,
‘Do the young people want
it?’ We are of the belief that
MORE INFORMATION
Interested teens can go online
to apply. Besides contact infor-
mation, the form asks for state-
ments about the “lived experi-
ences, identities, perspectives,
skills and/or knowledge” the
applicant would bring to the
council, how COVID has aff ected
youth and how the council could
help stem health inequities.
people should have a say (in)
what their health and wellness
looks like, but we often forget
young people in that.”
The agency is seeking 20
teenagers between 15 and 19
to apply by March 31. They
have to agree to dedicate fi ve
hours a month to the council,
including attending a two-
hour monthly meeting and
two four-hour retreats.
There are no other
requirements or qualifi ca-
tions needed to land a spot on
the Youth Advisory Council.
“We want a diverse group
of young people from all
around the state who are
excited to engage in this pro-
cess with us,” said Erica
Heartquist, a spokesperson
for the agency.
This is the agency’s latest
committee to include people
with experience in the sub-
ject. Past results have been
mixed. A year ago, the
agency convened a com-
mittee that aimed to reduce
inequities. The Oregon Vac-
cine Advisory Committee
included advocates for racial
and ethnic minorities. Its task
was to set priority groups
for the COVID-19 vaccine
rollout. After three meetings,
the agency’s public health
director, Rachael Banks,
rejected their recommen-
dations and said they could
not, by law, prioritize groups
based on race and ethnicity.
The state also has an over-
sight committee that is in
charge of spending millions of
dollars related to drug addic-
tion following the passage in
2020 of Measure 110, which
decriminalized drug posses-
sion. The measure specifi ed
that the oversight committee
needed to include members
with experience with addic-
tion. Critics say the com-
mittee is struggling because it
lacks agency leadership.
For the youth council,
the agency has not publicly
Oregon has most polluted water in U.S.
By ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Oregon has
more than 120,000 miles of
polluted or “impaired” rivers
and streams — the most
nationwide, according to a
new analysis.
The report, released last
week by the Environmental
Integrity Project, a nonprofi t
headquartered in Wash-
ington, D.C, said that 80%
of those waterways threaten
aquatic life, making Oregon
the worst nationwide in that
category. California and
Utah ranked second and
third in that order.
Oregon has more than
310,000 miles of rivers and
streams, according to the
Oregon Department of Envi-
ronmental Quality, nearly
two-thirds of which are
intermittent, forming only
seasonally.
The report also looked
at lakes. In Oregon, 95% of
them are too polluted to be
used for drinking water, the
report said. Again, that’s the
highest percentage in the
country, followed by Georgia
and Kansas in that order.
Pollution in Oregon
waterways is most pro-
nounced in the western half
of the state and the north-
east corner of the state,
according to maps from the
state Environmental Quality
Department.
Nationwide, about half of
the rivers, streams and lakes
are considered “impaired,”
the report said. A water-
body is considered impaired
if it is too polluted to meet
water quality standards
for drinking, safe fi sh con-
sumption or recreation or
too warm or polluted to sup-
port aquatic life. Examples
include excessive bacteria
that make waters unsafe for
swimming, or low oxygen
levels caused by algal
blooms that endanger fi sh.
The rankings were based
on the latest water quality
reports — for 2018-2020 —
submitted to the Environ-
mental Protection Agency.
States submit the reports
every two years, a require-
ment under the Clean Water
Act of 1972. The act, 50
years old this year, estab-
lished sweeping industrial
standards and regulations
for discharging pollutants
into the nation’s waters. It
excluded discharge or pollu-
tion from agriculture.
The analysis did not look
at the severity of pollution
of waterways in Oregon or
elsewhere.
The report said that
warming in Oregon waters
caused by climate change
has made many rivers and
streams uninhabitable for
certain fi sh populations.
Some bodies of water
have a single issue that
makes them uninhabitable
for fi sh or unsafe for recre-
ation, while others have 10
or more. Upper Klamath
Lake and several tributaries
to the Columbia and Willa-
mette rivers had six or more
issues causing problems for
recreation and aquatic life
or making them unsafe to
drink or to eat the fi sh.
Oregon’s next water
quality study to be sent to
the EPA will be done by
mid-May, according to the
state Environmental Quality
Department.
specifi ed who will choose
the fi nal council members
or what qualifi cations they
will look for. Heartquist said
the agency is “assembling a
group of OHA staff from dif-
ferent departments to help
select the candidates and then
we will conduct interviews
with the help of some more
staff members.”
Besides the teens, the
council will include three
adults, including at least one
facilitator and staff from
the agency’s Public Health
Division.
“We are contracting
with very skilled facilitators
who have extensive experi-
ence with policy work who
will guide the process,”
Heartquist said.
The group will have wide
leeway in how they spend the
money in schools. It must be
used for wages or personnel
support, including training,
certifi cation and licen-
sure. In terms of guidelines,
Heartquist said the agency’s
Find us online:
lagrandeobserver.com
priorities include:
• Enhancing culturally
and linguistically specifi c
services in schools.
• Developing youth
leadership.
• Mental health and
behavioral health care.
• Providing livable wages
to unlicensed staff .
The council will defi ne
values for recovery, discuss
youth needs and health ineq-
uities and talk about com-
munity engagement. Mem-
bers will be paid $45 an
hour for the time they spend
on council activities, or get
credit for community service,
if they prefer.
Mobile
Mobile Service
Service
Outstanding
Computer Repair
Fast &
& Reliable
Reliable
Fast
Open
for
all 24/7
your
Call or Text
Call or Text 24/7
Dale Bogardus 541-297-5831
Dale Bogardus 541-297-5831
Stay up-to-date
Microsoft’
If your with
computer
is s most
advanced
operating
system to date,
in despair
call Outstanding
Windows
11
Computer
Repair!
Desktops and laptops in stock
www.outstandingcomputerrepair.com
Or upgrade yours today for the best security!
Refurbished Desktop & Laptops For Sale
House calls (let me come to you!)
Drop Offs & Remote Services are Available
All credit cards accepted
Charles & Eileen
Stewart
10304 A 1st St.
Island City, OR
cstewartpc@gmail.com
541.910.5435
Pay cash or
Rent to own
Authorized Dealer