A16
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, June 1, 2022
Don’t call them ‘Asian hornets’
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
SALEM — Asian giant
hornets, popularly called “mur-
der hornets,” should be com-
monly known as “northern
giant hornets,” according to
the Entomological Society of
America’s committee on nam-
ing insects.
Washington State Depart-
ment of Agriculture entomolo-
gist Chris Looney proposed the
name. The recommendation by
the names committee must still
be approved by the society’s
governing board.
The society’s “Better Com-
mon Names Project” has been
targeting what the society calls
“problematic names (that) per-
petuate harm against people of
various ethnicities and races.”
Last year, the society
renamed the “gypsy moth” to
“spongy moth,” the first name
change approved by the gov-
WSDA
An Asian giant hornet held captive by the Washington State De-
partment of Agriculture.
erning board.
Looney said Wednesday
that he wanted to keep the pub-
lic from confusing Asian giant
hornets with a different species
commonly known in Europe as
“Asian hornets,” another large
and destructive pest.
“That was my main motiva-
tion,” he said.
Asian giant hornets, sci-
entifically known as Vespa
mandarinia, have been found
in Washington and British
Columbia.
Asian hornets, Vespa velun-
tina, are spreading in Europe,
but have never been docu-
mented in North America. The
similar names, however, have
already apparently caused a
mix-up.
A Washington resident in
2020 reported an Asian giant
hornet sighting to a United
Kingdom agency’s web-
site. The misdirected report
delayed finding an Asian giant
nest in Whatcom County, the
agriculture department said.
The confusion spans the
Atlantic. Residents of Switzer-
land, Spain and the UK have
contacted Looney to report
sightings of Asian hornets.
If Asian hornets were intro-
duced into the U.S., the prob-
lem would increase, giv-
ing entomologists trying to
contain the invasive species
another problem to manage,
Looney said.
The society committee, at
Looney’s suggestion, is pro-
posing to call Vespa veluntina
the “yellow-legged hornet” for
its conspicuous yellow legs.
There’s a third hornet in the
name game, Vespa soror. One
specimen was found in Brit-
ish Columbia in 2019. It has no
common name in English.
The entomological soci-
ety’s committee on names
has recommended naming it
the “southern giant hornet.”
It’s range in Asia overlaps
with Asian giant hornets, but
extends farther south.
The society is circulating
all three names to its members
for comment.
Entomologists
disdain
the term “murder hornets,” a
headline-grabbing term that
reflects the species’ painful
sting and knack for decapitat-
ing bees.
The society’s guidelines
on naming insects include
avoiding terms that “unnec-
essarily incite offense, fear
or promote negative emo-
tional reactions.”
Archaeologists monitor demo
By JUSTIN DAVIS
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Gleason Pool will soon transi-
tion from a demolition site to an archaeological site.
Archaeologists from Southern Oregon Univer-
sity have been monitoring the demolition to safe-
guard any artifacts and other objects that may be of
historical value that might be uncovered during the
demolition process.
Work to demolish Gleason Pool began on Mon-
day, May 23, after some delays associated with the
coordination of demolition crews and archaeolo-
gists so both could be on site at the same time. Dem-
olition of the pool buildings was completed on Fri-
day, May 27.
Chelsea Rose, a Southern Oregon University his-
torical archaeologist and director of the SOU Lab-
oratory of Anthropology, said there are a number of
reasons an archaeologist would be monitoring the
demolition of a facility such as Gleason Pool.
“We don’t know what’s under that pool, and
we don’t know how they prepared the land before
they built it,” she said. “There has been some debate
about the mound that the pool is on. Our research
indicates that it was a natural rise and they dug into
it, so one of our main motivations being out here
this week is to see what that ground surface under-
neath looks like.”
Rose said nobody is expecting to find treasure
under Gleason Pool, but there are other things that
would interest archaeologists.
“If there is a board or something that we can
link to a building, that is treasure to us,” she said.
“We want to try to tie the footprint of these histori-
cal structures to this landscape so we can learn about
how the flow of this community was and what life
was like.”
Rose said that information will be shared with
the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department,
which purchased the pool property and neighbor-
ing Gleason Park for an expansion of the Kam Wah
Chung State Heritage Site. A stone and wood struc-
ture on the site, dating from the Civil Ware era,
served as the hub of a thriving Chinese community
for many years.
One of the things Rose expects to find is struc-
tural remains of buildings.
“I’m talking about an alignment of stones or a
piece of wood or some nails, and we’ve already
seen some nails. All of that helps us figure out where
exactly these buildings were so we can rebuild this
community virtually. And it also tells us how these
buildings were constructed.”
Rose said all of these finds mean nothing if you
don’t know how to interpret them.
Katie Johnson is the other archaeologist on site.
She stressed that treasure hunting or going to the
Gleason Pool demolition site to conduct your own
archaeological research is illegal, both on the state
and federal level.
“We’re here to document the artifacts,” John-
son said. “All of the artifacts will return here and be
held here in the county and the (Kam Wah Chung)
museum.”
Both Rose and Johnson will be back in John
Day in July to conduct a formal archaeological
survey of the Gleason Pool demolition site. Part
of that work will involve an archaeological dig
that will be open for the public to participate in.
Details regarding the date and time of the public
dig will be relayed by the Eagle in the near future.
Justin Davis/Blue Mountain Eagle
Gleason Pool, which opened in 1958, has been closed for the past two years.
Pool
Continued from Page A1
“A lot can happen in 36
months,” Green said. “I wouldn’t
have any problem at all with tell-
ing the council to accept the grant
funding. We’ve got 36 months to
decide what to do with it, if any-
thing, or just simply return it.
That’s why we aren’t in a hurry
to develop a contingency. At this
point, if the vote fails there isn’t
Voters
Continued from Page A1
5th District. Hoyle will face Alex Skarlatos of
Roseburg, a Republican who lost to DeFazio in
2020.
Uncounted ballots in Clackamas County
will determine the fate of Jamie McLeod-Skin-
ner of Terrebonne, who currently is leading sev-
en-term incumbent Kurt Schrader in the Demo-
cratic primary in the 5th District.
Republicans nominated Lori Chavez-
DeRemer, a former mayor of Happy Valley.
If Schrader loses, it will be the first time
since 1980 — when Ron Wyden unseated Dem-
ocrat Bob Duncan — that an Oregon incumbent
lost in the primary.
For the position Hoyle is vacating, Chris-
tina Stephenson of Portland is likely to face
Cheri Helt of Bend in the fall. Stephenson, a
civil rights lawyer, won 47%, and Helt, a for-
mer Republican state representative, 19%, in a
seven-candidate field.
Oregon ranks high
According to an index by the Rutgers center,
Oregon ranks third among the states, based on
women’s shares of congressional delegations,
statewide executive offices including governor
and state legislatures.
Oregon is topped only by Nevada and Col-
orado — neither of which has had a woman
as governor — and is one of six states in the
going to be a pool opening in
2023.”
A final count of the pool bond
is being held up by 16 ballots cast
by voters from within the pool tax
district that are being challenged.
The ballots are unopened and were
top 10; the others are in the Northeast. Women
could vote in several states, including Oregon,
before the 20th Amendment in 1920 extended
that right to women in the rest of the nation.
In the May 17 primary, women won both
major-party nominations for five Senate seats,
and a woman was nominated by one party for
five more seats. (Sixteen seats are up, but one is
for a two-year term.) In the 60-member House,
women won both major-party nominations for
nine seats and a woman was nominated by one
party for 25 seats.
A new index by the Rutgers center, com-
piled in March, put Oregon fourth (at 41.4%) in
the share of women holding office in cities with
10,000 or more people. It trails only Hawaii,
Alaska and Colorado, although Hawaii has just
one city and Alaska six with more than 10,000;
Oregon has 57.
Barriers remain
Jessica Mole Heilman is the director of the
Center for Women’s Leadership at Portland
State University. She’s been director since
2020, and said women have progressed in pol-
itics in the decades since Roberts and others
led the way.
“We are beginning to see parts of the future
that the movement leaders of generations past
dreamed about,” Mole Heilman said in an
email. “As firsts paved the way, today’s emer-
gent (women and gender-expansive) leaders
are demanding representational leadership
that can speak to their lived experience.”
But Mole Heilman said recent develop-
challenged because signatures on
the ballot envelopes didn’t match
signatures that are on file for those
voters. Grant County Clerk Brenda
Percy said that a final tally of the
vote can be expected on Tuesday,
June 7.
ments — particularly the draft U.S. Supreme
Court opinion that may overturn its 1973 deci-
sion supporting abortion as a federal consti-
tutional right — have brought on new chal-
lenges to women.
“We are seeing a growing attack on women
and gender-expansive people’s basic human
rights with an uncertain future — reproduc-
tive justice, continued erasure and silencing
of women and gender-expansive voices and
experiences — disproportionately impact-
ing women and gender-expansive people of
color,” she said.
Dittmar and former Gov. Barbara Roberts
say some older barriers remain, even though
the number of women elected continues to
grow.
“Fundraising is something women always
say is harder for them,” Dittmar said. “There
is some evidence to prove that is the case. It is
harder for women to get to the same amounts.”
In the May 17 primary, Kotek and Dra-
zan led in fundraising for governor, but
McLeod-Skinner and Salinas trailed their
male opponents.
Roberts said female candidates still get
asked about balancing family and public
responsibilities. She said men are not asked.
“Some people assume that a female is the
caregiver in all cases and cannot imagine that
a mother, which is a full-time job, can hold
statewide office,” she said. “Is it a challenge?
You bet it is. But we know how to do it. It’s not
unusual in this culture or in other cultures that
women are the bread winners.”
Society guidelines also
discourage names based on
race, ethnicity or cultures.
As an alternative to Asian
giant hornet, Looney origi-
nally offered “giant hornet”
and “northern giant hornet.”
In comments to the commit-
tee, Looney said a new name
that was too different would
be confusing and invite pub-
lic ridicule.
The society’s naming
committee discussed both
and decided that “northern
giant hornet” made clearer
which species was being
referred to.
Looney made the point in
his submission to the com-
mon name committee that all
hornets are from Asia.
“As such, ‘Asian’ does
not communicate anything
unique or helpful about the
insect’s biology, appear-
ance, or behavior,” he
wrote.
Limbo
Continued from Page A1
district to move forward with
the construction of an aquatic
center that would be located at
the Seventh Street Sports Com-
plex in John Day.
The increased tax would
be in effect for the life of the
bond, which is expected to be
20 years.
The district includes the cit-
ies of John Day and Canyon
City as well as some unincor-
porated areas around both com-
munities. The boundary extends
close to Mount Vernon in the
west, nearly to Magone Lake in
the north, close to Keeney Fork
Road in the East and as far south
as Starr Ridge. Voters who live
within the parks and rec dis-
trict were the only individu-
als eligible to vote on the bond
measure.
Plans call for a six-lane,
25-yard outdoor pool to replace
64-year-old Gleason Pool. The
design could be altered to
enclose the building at a later
date.
Gleason Pool has been
closed for two years, and work-
ers began demolishing it on
Monday, May 23.
The $4 million bond would
be combined with a $2 mil-
lion state grant to go toward
the pool’s estimated $6 mil-
lion construction cost. The city
has also applied for an addi-
tional $750,000 in grant fund-
ing to go toward construction of
a warm-water exercise pool at
the aquatic center.
An
intergovernmen-
tal agreement between John
Day and the parks and recre-
ation district leaves the dis-
trict responsible for operating
and maintaining the aquatic
center while the city would
be responsible for covering
utility costs incurred by the
center.
The Parks and Recreation
District Board voted 4-0 on Feb.
22 to put the bond on the ballot.
The vote was held during a joint
meeting with John Day’s city
council. The council approved
its own companion resolution
by a vote of 6-0 during the Feb.
22 session.
Palmer
Continued from Page A1
Some, he said, are prepared and ready to
go, and it took him aback to realize how seri-
ous they were.
The issues, Palmer said, ran the gamut
from opposition to the “defund the police”
movement to dissatisfaction with the home-
lessness problem in Portland.
“They’re done,” Palmer said. “They’re fed
up.”
What now?
Palmer opted not to file for re-election as
Grant County commissioner when he decided
to take a run for the Senate. Instead, he threw
his support behind John Day resident John
Rowell, who won the three-way race with
more than 53% of the vote. Now, Palmer told
the Eagle, that he has every intention of fin-
ishing out the rest of his term, which expires
at the end of the year.
As far as his political future going forward,
he said he is unsure he has one at this point.
He said he was preparing to submit a
resume to Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical
Christian humanitarian organization that pro-
vides aid to people in physical need in crisis
zones such as Ukraine, Haiti and Uganda. In
addition, Palmer said he would like to do mis-
sion work and provide medical help with his
nursing degree.