Friday, January 1, 2021
CapitalPress.com 9
Rising: Farmworkers say it’s going to be a long, cold winter
Continued from Page 1
HELP & RESOURCES
ture Southern Oregon’s agri-
cultural economy.
Our Family Farms: Donate to
the farmworker fire housing
fund.
Path of destruction
Along South Pacific High-
way in Phoenix, both sides of
the road are blackened: skel-
etons of buildings, twisted
chairs, entire RV parks
flattened.
In nearby Talent, too,
whole neighborhoods are
soot. There are mangled
trampoline frames, signs
warning of toxins in the
ashes, doll heads among
other children’s playthings in
a burned-out room.
This is the work of the
human-caused Almeda Fire,
technically called an “urban
conflagration,” fueled by 40
mph winds that left a path of
destruction from Ashland to
Medford.
Jackson County records
estimate 2,659 structures
were destroyed, 2,482 of
which were residential. The
total market value of dam-
aged property, according
to the latest assessor’s esti-
mates, was more than $265
million.
Dee Anne Everson, CEO
and executive director of the
local United Way, a chari-
table organization, said 18
mobile home parks were
destroyed in addition to two
low-income apartment com-
plexes, one senior assisted
living complex, two residen-
tial motels and two entire
subdivisions and part of
another.
“The applications we got
for help were heartbreaking,”
said Everson. “One of my
applications said, ‘It wasn’t
much, but it was mine.’”
Infrastructure, including
power lines, is also gone,
along with six public build-
ings, including a fire station
and an educational building
that served migrants.
The South Obenchain
Fire, which burned near
Butte Falls and Shady Cove,
blackened more land —
32,671 acres — but burned
only about 90 structures.
If you have an RV or trailer
you are not using and would
like to donate (for a tax de-
ductible donation) to house
agricultural workers, please
email contact@OurFamily-
Farms.org or call 541-690-
8053.
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
In Phoenix, Ore., not only homes but also businesses burned.
Farms confirm that the
losses to farmworkers were
great.
The Almeda Fire burned
the homes of 30 employ-
ees at Naumes Inc., a Med-
ford-based orchard company.
At Harry & David, one of the
area’s largest farm employ-
ers, 102 employees lost
homes.
Employers helping
employees
Farmworkers say they
are grateful for support from
their employers during and
after the disaster.
According to spokes-
woman Kathleen Waugh,
Harry & David created gift
baskets for fire victims,
helped employees find hous-
ing, fed them in the com-
pany cafeteria and provided
transportation.
Naumes Inc. set up an
emergency relief fund and
contributed $35,000 to their
employees’ needs.
Fry Family Farm, an
organic farm with production
sites in Medford, Phoenix,
Talent and Ashland, helped
its employees with grant
applications and other needs.
“Four families (at Fry
Family Farm) lost their
houses and the farm did so
much to help them out,” said
Elise Higley, board member
of Our Family Farms, a Jack-
son County nonprofit that has
raised more than $250,000 to
help farmworkers.
FEMA aid
Farmworkers suffer
The Federal Emergency
Management Agency, or
FEMA, has not yet dis-
closed demographic data on
fire victims. Officials say
that data is likely inaccurate
anyway. Many Latino fam-
ilies did not apply to FEMA
for help because they are
undocumented.
U.S. Census data show
Jackson County’s Latino
population has been grow-
ing. They were 6.7% of the
population in 2000, 10.7% in
2010 and an estimated 13.5%
in 2019.
Anecdotally, officials say
that in the neighborhoods
that burned, the percentage
of Latino families appeared
to be much higher.
One resident whose
mobile home burned in south
Talent estimated at least half
of her neighbors in the park
were Latino, the majority of
whom worked in agriculture.
FEMA has also helped
victims. The agency recently
installed temporary housing
units for 325 Southern Ore-
gon families and has given
many victims a maximum
of $35,000 in aid per house-
hold. Undocumented work-
ers are ineligible for these
federal benefits, but a fam-
ily may receive aid if at least
one person in the household
has qualifying immigration
status.
Amber Fry said she
wishes there were more local
organizations like Our Fam-
ily Farms because many
farmworkers don’t feel safe
approaching
government
agencies.
Paul Corah, a public infor-
mation officer for FEMA,
said he has never heard of a
case of FEMA turning over
an undocumented family to
another agency.
“It doesn’t mean we can’t,
but since I’ve been here, we
Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press
Amber Fry, of Fry Family Farm, said her farm business
experienced some crop and infrastructure damage
during the fires, but the greatest loss by far to South-
ern Oregon’s agricultural community was farmworkers’
homes.
never have. That’s not our
goal,” he said.
Corah, who grew up in
Oregon, called this disaster
“very close to my heart.”
Public generosity
Further help came from
the public.
As of December, local
charitable organizations have
received millions of dol-
lars in donations from all
50 states and several foreign
countries.
“It speaks to the under-
standing of how badly torn
the fabric of our commu-
nity is,” said Everson of the
United Way.
One fire victim, Everson
said, received a grant from
United Way, then turned
around and immediately gave
$100 of it back to help others.
“It takes your breath
away,” she said.
But locals say the needs
are still significant.
“Everybody has short-
term situations. But the long-
term solutions (are) the tough
thing,” said Mike Naumes,
who operates the orchard
company.
Housing crisis
Southern Oregon was
already facing a housing cri-
sis before the fires.
In Jackson County, the
housing shortage was acute.
Jackson Care Connect, a
coordinated care organiza-
tion, estimated the vacancy
rate was 1.5% before the
fires. According to Oregon
Housing and Community
Services, one-third of resi-
dents were already “severely
rent burdened,” meaning rent
took more than 50% of their
monthly income.
Many people who lost
homes, experts say, won’t be
able to stay in Southern Ore-
gon without affordable hous-
ing options.
Housing authorities told
the Capital Press that many
people previously paid $350
to $650 in monthly rent. Now,
there are “bidding wars”
across Southern Oregon, with
most rents starting at $1,600 a
month.
People with smaller house-
holds and no pets are likelier
to win those rentals, officials
say. That puts at a disadvan-
tage Latino families, who
often have larger, multigener-
ational households.
To secure housing, some
people have had to give up
pets; others won’t let go. One
family of farmworkers that
talked to the Capital Press
kept their dog in their car
for months while waiting for
housing.
Insurance
Officials say of those who
owned their houses or mobile
homes, most were uninsured
or underinsured.
Jocksana Corona, 36, who
lost her home in Talent and is
sleeping with her family on
cots at the Medford Girl Scout
Center, said she was among
the minority with insurance.
She and her husband pur-
chased their home in 2003,
which at the time required
insurance coverage. Although
they had the freedom to
drop the policy later, it never
occurred to them to do so.
“I feel that we are the
exception. By the grace of
God, we never changed that
policy,” she said.
Corona worked in agricul-
tural labor and similar jobs
fertilizers and can be harmful if con-
sumed, especially by infants.
Of the 100 wells sampled, only
one had nitrate levels slightly above
the safe drinking water threshold of
10 milligrams per liter. Twenty per-
cent of wells, however, did have
“elevated levels” of nitrates above 3
milligrams per liter, hence the need
for continued monitoring, Hax-
ton-Evans said.
“This shows it is common to
have nitrates leaching in through
soils,” she said.
Some 37% of wells had some
level of coliform bacteria, including
three wells with E. coli. Haxton-Ev-
ans said the findings reinforce public
health recommendations that well
owners test for bacteria annually.
DEQ also found 20 pesticide-re-
lated chemicals in wells, represent-
ing 12 parent pesticides. The most
common was desethylatrazine, a
breakdown product of atrazine,
which is used primarily on crops
and turf grass.
None of the pesticides exceeded
EPA health standards.
Lead was found in trace amounts
in 69 wells, three of which exceeded
the EPA’s safe drinking water level
To donate money to help
farm employees at Harry &
David, call 541-864-5098. The
company is matching dona-
tions dollar for dollar.
Free crisis counseling is avail-
able to both children and
adults, in English and Span-
ish, through the National
Disaster Distress Helpline. Call
1-800-958-5990 (press 2 for
Spanish) or text “TalkWithUs”
to 66746 (for Spanish, text
“Hablanos”) to connect with
a trained crisis counselor.
If you are a licensed mental
health professional, call Karyn
Wheeler at 503-528-6122 to
volunteer to help families
recovering from the fires.
Anyone can volunteer to help
run waiting rooms.
Check out Rogue Valley Re-
builds for post-fire resources.
The cleanup process is still in
the toxic debris phase requir-
ing trained professionals, but
when all toxins have been
Donate money to United
Way of Jackson County to
help Southern Oregon’s fire
victims.
before recently completing
a college degree and starting
work as a drug and alcohol
counselor. It is because of her
new income combined with
the insurance payout that her
family can buy a house.
But a friend of Corona, a
single mother hit hard finan-
cially by the pandemic, can-
celed her home insurance in
August, just one month before
the fire took everything.
Rebuilding
Officials say rebuilding
Southern Oregon won’t be
easy.
The Housing Authority of
Jackson County reports most
mobile homes in the area
were built 40 to 50 years ago.
Some mobile home parks
cannot be rebuilt with the
same density under new zon-
ing and building codes; others
can’t be rebuilt at all because
they were on newly desig-
nated floodplains.
The cost of building mate-
rials is also up due to high
demand from communities
along the West Coast trying
to rebuild after the fires that
stretched from Southern Cali-
fornia to Washington state.
And before construction
can move forward, there is
still massive cleanup work
to do. Walk through Talent or
Phoenix and you’ll see work
crews still removing toxic
chemicals such as motor oil,
paint and asbestos from the
ruins.
Oregon lawmakers on
Dec. 22 voted to appropri-
ate $100 million from the
state’s General Fund to the
Emergency Board for the
state’s wildfire recovery, pre-
vention and preparedness
activities. It’s a start, South-
ern Oregon officials say. But
they have estimated clean-
ing up hazardous debris from
the Almeda Fire alone could
cost upward of $170 mil-
lion. According to John Vial,
director of Jackson County
Emergency Operations Cen-
ter, phase two of the cleanup
will likely cost around $48
million.
“This is nowhere near
done,” said Everson of United
Way.
DEQ: Agency also found 20 pesticide-related chemicals in wells
Continued from Page 1
removed, consider volunteer-
ing to help with cleanup.
For the first time under the
Statewide Groundwater Monitor-
ing Program, DEQ did test for per-
chlorate in the Walla Walla Basin.
Perchlorate is a compound found
naturally in arid environments, as
well as in some nitrate fertilizers.
Seven wells did contain per-
chlorate, at a maximum concen-
tration of 1.64 micrograms per
liter. That is below the safe drink-
ing water threshold of 7 micro-
grams per liter for children,
according to the Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry.
Haxton-Evans said she is not
certain how the data may impact
farms and ranches, though it is
useful for them to know which
chemicals are in the groundwater,
and understand levels may change
over time.
“We don’t really investigate
sources of contamination,” she
said. “That’s outside the scope of
DEQ this study and report.”
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality sampled 100 res-
DEQ has published similar
idential and agricultural wells around Milton-Freewater in northeast reports on groundwater quality in
Oregon as part of a groundwater quality study in 2016. The results the North Coast and Mid-Rogue
were published Dec. 22, identifying 41 chemicals in the water.
Basin watersheds. Haxton-Evans
said a report on Harney County
of 0.015 milligrams per liter. Hax- those well owners. The study did groundwater in southeast Ore-
ton-Evans said the Oregon Health not detect any amount of arsenic in gon should be completed in early
Authority has already contacted groundwater.
2021.
Agriculture interrupted
The fires are more than a
human tragedy; they are also
a major economic disruption.
At Rogue Valley Interna-
tional Airport in Medford,
visitors are greeted by a series
of 26 vibrant panels, each
3-by-5-feet, depicting local
farms and farmworkers by
artist Betty LaDuke.
These panels, locals say,
capture the agricultural heart-
beat of Southern Oregon.
Now, some locals fear an
exodus of farmworkers.
“I think the concern has
been that some communi-
ties just lost a lot of peo-
ple, so there’s no reason to
be here anymore. So every-
body’s scared it could rip
apart the ag economy,” said
Mike Naumes of the orchard
company.
According to the United
Way, many fire victims are
homeless; thousands are
doubled up with family and
friends. At the latest count,
550 are living in hotel rooms,
but others have already left.
Charitable organizations
have already given millions
of dollars to fire victims who
left the state. Some had rela-
tives or friends in other areas.
Others suffer from post trau-
matic stress disorder after
escaping the flames and never
want to come back.
Rogue Valley officials
have drawn parallels to what
happened after the 2018
Camp Fire that devastated
Paradise, Calif. Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s office reports Par-
adise has lost 90% of its pop-
ulation since the fire. The
Almeda Fire displaced about
a quarter as many people, so
farmers don’t predict a migra-
tion as extreme. But they’re
still concerned.
Joan Thorndike, a grower
at Le Mera Gardens, South-
ern Oregon’s largest certified
organic flower farm, said she
is worried about an impend-
ing labor shortage come
spring.
“A very huge number of
fire victims were agricultural
workers. That has a tremen-
dous, immediate impact of
whether we’ll be a farming
valley anymore,” she said.
Labels: Federal
rule pre-empts
state laws
Continued from Page 1
alleging meat packers were
enriching themselves at the
expense of ranchers and
consumers with misleading
labels.
The
judge
ruled
the labels were USDA
approved and that the Fed-
eral Meat Inspection Act
gave the agency sole con-
trol over labeling meat.
The federal rule pre-empts
state laws, according to the
judge.
The state agriculture
department said the ruling
likely would apply to post-
ing signs in grocery stores
to mark off beef raised in
the U.S.
Tyson Foods, Cargill
Meat Solutions Corp., JBS
USA Food Company and
National Beef Packing
Company were the defen-
dants. The rancher and con-
sumer who filed the suits
have appealed to the 10th
Circuit Court of Appeals.