A2 THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JUNE 3, 2021
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GENERAL
INFORMATION
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
DESCHUTES COUNTY
129 new cases
COVID-19 data for Wednesday, June 2:
Deschutes County cases: 9,689 (13 new cases)
Deschutes County deaths: 79 (zero new deaths)
Crook County cases: 1,209 (5 new cases)
Crook County deaths: 22 (zero new deaths)
Je˜ erson County cases: 2,326 (13 new cases)
Je˜ erson County deaths: 38 (zero new deaths)
Oregon cases: 201,996 (356 new cases)
Oregon deaths: 2,676 (2 new deaths)
COVID-19 patients hospitalized at
St. Charles Bend on Wednesday: 35 (9 in ICU)
110
103 new cases
7-day
average
120
(April 23)
100
90
74 new cases
80
(April 10)
48
new
cases
50
new
cases
(May 25)
70
60
50
(Nov. 14)
(July 16)
40
*State data
unavailable
for Jan. 31
31 new cases
(Oct. 31)
16 new cases
30
(Sept. 19)
9 new cases
EMAIL
(May 8)
(Feb. 17)
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
bulletin@bendbulletin.com
(Jan. 1)
(Nov. 27)
130
115 new
cases
47 new cases
28 new cases
ONLINE
(April 29)
108 new cases
90
new
cases
BULLETIN
GRAPHIC
125 new cases
(Dec. 4)
Vaccines are available.
Find a list of vaccination
sites and other information
about the COVID-19
vaccines online:
centraloregoncovidvaccine.com
If you have questions, call
541-382-4321.
541-382-1811
www.bendbulletin.com
SOURCES: OREGON HEALTH AUTHORITY,
DESCHUTES COUNTY HEALTH SERVICES
New COVID-19 cases per day
20
(May 20)
1st case
10
(March 11)
March 2020
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December January 2021 February
March
April
May
June
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This beach grass
doesn’t belong here
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B
Hybrid vegetation could mean trouble for the Northwest coast
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Beach grass grows in the
sand near Sunset Beach
in Clatsop County.
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Lottery results can now be found on
the second page of Sports.
Associated Press
S
cientists at Oregon State Uni-
versity have confirmed that
two widespread, invasive beach
grasses are now genetically mixing,
which could present additional chal-
lenges to communities and Pacific
Northwest dune restoration.
Before the introduction of Eu-
ropean and American beach grass,
there was far more open sand on the
Oregon and Washington coasts, ac-
cording to an Oregon Public Broad-
casting report. Where it as present,
native vegetation promoted lower
dunes that tended to shift and morph.
“The non-native grasses out-com-
pete some of the native non-grass —
like the herbs and the forbs (flower-
ing herbaceous plants) that were part
of our system 150 years ago. There
are efforts to try to restore dunes back
to that native state,” said OSU coastal
ecologist Sally Hacker.
On the other hand, it’s often better
for communities and infrastructure if
those dunes don’t move and instead
provide a steady buffer against winter
storms and surges.
That’s why European beach grass
was brought in at the turn of the 20th
century. Decades later, American
beach grass was introduced in Wash-
ington, and eventually became the
dominant beach grass in that state.
Now, where the ranges of the Eu-
ropean and American beach grasses
overlap in northern Oregon and
southern Washington, scientists have
found clusters of beach grass that
don’t look like either.
“We found this other kind of
strange grass that had intermediate
characteristics of the two species. We
didn’t know, really, what was going
on,” Hacker said.
The researchers thought the new
grass just might be a slightly differ-
ent version, or variant, of one of the
grasses. But they realized that the
physical characteristics were too dis-
tinct.
OSU graduate student Rebecca
Mostow began studying the new
grass, documenting the physical traits
and conducting a genetic analysis
that confirmed the new grass is a hy-
bridized cross between European and
American beach grass.
The results were published in the
journal Ecosphere.
The height of beach grass mat-
ters because taller grass creates taller
dunes. Different dune formations of-
fer differing levels of protection for
coastal communities.
“And so now we have this new type
of grass growing on the dunes and we
don’t totally know what kind of dune
it will build. But because it grows
taller than the parent species, we have
this guess that maybe it’ll change the
dune shape,” Mostow said.
It’s also unknown how the hybrid
will impact dune ecosystems and ef-
forts underway to protect them from
invading grasses. This is a significant
focus of the conservation and resto-
ration work underway at the Oregon
Dunes National Recreation Area on
the central Oregon coast.
“We’re expecting some differ-
ences in sand capture… and so that
may affect the speed with which the
grasses move,” said Siuslaw National
Forest restoration botanist Armand
Rebischke, who works at the Oregon
Dunes to remove encroaching vege-
tation. “But… it’s not an immediate
concern.”
Migrant communities distrust Oregon’s drinking water, report finds
BY DIANNE LUGO
Salem Statesman Journal
A report from the Oregon
Water Futures Project reveals
widespread distrust in drink-
ing water among communities
of color and a sharp disconnect
between communities and pol-
icymakers when it comes to
water policy.
Oregon Water Futures Proj-
ect staff began interviewing
members of native, Latinx,
Black and migrant commu-
nities across the state in 2020,
attempting to understand their
water resource priorities. Part-
nering with Pineros y Campes-
inos Unidos del Noroeste, Eu-
valcree, Unite Oregon, Verde,
NAACP Eugene-Springfield,
and the Chinook Indian Na-
tion, 104 people across eight
counties were able to partici-
pate.
According to the report, cli-
mate change, aging infrastruc-
ture and a lack of investment
in clean water has stressed the
state’s water systems, dispro-
portionately risking the health,
safety and economy of Ore-
gon’s rural and low-income
communities of color.
“There are serious infor-
mation gaps about water bills,
water quality and emergency
preparedness that must be ad-
dressed,” said Alaí Reyes-San-
tos during a media overview
about the report.
Reyes-Santos is one of the
lead authors of the report and
a professor at the University of
Oregon.
The University of Oregon
is one of the institutions that
comprises the Oregon Water
Futures Project, which hopes
to “elevate water priorities”
and “impact how the future of
water in Oregon is imagined.”
Others involved in the collab-
oration include the Coalition
of Communities of Color, Or-
egon Environmental Council
and Willamette Partnership.
Those interviewed shared
stories of inability to afford
their water bills, buying bot-
tled water because they don’t
trust their tap water, rationing
bottles to afford the added ex-
pense and boiling their water
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first or using other culturally
specific practices to purify
water. Water filters, they said,
did little to assuage their fears
about bad water quality.
“The experience of severe
water scarcity in Mexico and
Guatemala shapes water per-
spectives today,” said Dolores
Martinez, community engage-
ment director at Euvalcree.
Euvalcree, a nonprofit led by
Latinos in Umatilla and Mal-
heur counties, helped conduct
35 phone interviews.
The majority of the partic-
ipants immigrated to the U.S.
from Mexico and Guatemala
and many of them did not have
potable running water in their
country of origin.
“They learned how to source
and clean water before using
it to drink and cook. Some
people still use this practice at
home in Oregon because of a
lack of trust in drinking water
sources,” Martinez said.
Umatilla and Malheur coun-
ties were identified in a 2019
study among 16 counties in
the Northwest with the high-
est rate of drinking water vio-
lations. Those violations were
higher in low-income and
communities of color.
Communities relying on
well water are also increasingly
concerned with poor regula-
tion of domestic wells. Across
different regions, participants
thought there was not enough
routine testing and they shared
experiences with pollution of
well water.