The Columbia Press
September 23, 2022
3
Peace tree campaign ends with healthy growth
State unveils new Crater Lake plate
Oregon DMV began issu-
ing a new Crater Lake license
plate design for passenger
cars this month.
Residents can order them at
DMV offices or online at dm-
v2u.oregon.gov/eServices.
The Oregon Legislature
established the Crater Lake
plate in 2001.
Since its launch, Orego-
nians have ordered 400,000
sets, and there are about
250,000 currently valid on
vehicles today. The redesign
was released Sept. 9.
The plate’s surcharge of
$30 remains the same, due
only when first obtaining the
plates. The surcharge is in
addition to regular title and
registration fees, plate manu-
facturing or replacement fee.
The surcharge benefits the
nonprofit Crater Lake Na-
tional Trust.
Plates can be ordered when
applying for Oregon title and
registration when buying a
car, when renewing existing
registration, or to replace
current plates during the ve-
hicle’s registration period —
not at renewal.
Those who already have
Crater Lake plates can replace
them with the new design
without paying the $30 sur-
charge, however, there is an
additional fees for plate man-
ufacturing and replacement.
The Crater Lake plate is el-
igible for passenger vehicles
only.
A four-year campaign to
plant peace throughout Ore-
gon came to an end Wednes-
day with a celebration at the
Oregon Department of For-
estry’s headquarters in Salem.
Peace trees – saplings
grown from seeds of trees that
survived the atom bombing
of Hiroshima – were planted
in Seaside’s Cartwright Park,
Tillamook’s Carnahan Park
and in 33 other communities
across the state.
Wednesday was Interna-
tional Day of Peace as de-
clared by the United Nations
General Assembly back in
1981.
Representatives from 45
organizations that planted a
total of 51 peace trees were
invited to the ceremony.
Members of several Japa-
nese-American organizations
also attended.
Oregon State Forester Cal
Mukumoto, whose ancestry
is Japanese-American, wel-
comed guests and thanked
them for making Oregon
home to one of the densest
concentrations of Hiroshima
peace trees outside Japan.
Longtime Animal Control supervisor retires
Animal Control Su-
support to local law
pervisor Stephen Hil-
enforcement in cases
dreth has retired after
of abuse.
two decades serving
“I have always val-
Clatsop County.
ued Stephen’s willing-
Undersheriff
Paul
ness to accept calls or
Williams called Hil-
to respond to cases at
dreth a “champion
all hours of the day or
of Animal Control”
night to help his fellow
Hildreth
during his 18 years as
deputies with difficult
supervisor of the di-
calls,” Williams said.
vision, which operates the
Hildreth also received certi-
county animal shelter, issues fication for animals in disas-
licenses, responds to animal ters with the county Emergen-
abuse calls and cases of aban- cy Management Department.
doned and nuisance dogs, and
Hildreth developed strong
finds new homes for dogs, relationships in the region,
cats and other pets.
from the local Clatsop Animal
Hildreth earned certification Assistance organization to de-
in animal abuse investigation, partments in other states. The
which enabling him to offer relationships allowed him to
acquire significant volunteer
support and financial dona-
tions and helped with the
compassionate transfer of an-
imals.
He once drove more than 10
hours on his day off to reunite
two dogs with their family,
Williams said. “Stephen has
always been there for the ben-
efit of the dogs and cats en-
trusted to his care.”
Replacing Hildreth is Justin
Dersham, a longtime sheriff’s
deputy and detective.
Dersham has served 15 years
with the Sheriff’s Enforce-
ment Division, including as
deputy, forest and resident
deputy, detective, and search
and rescue coordinator.
State Forester Cal Mukumoto
Guest of honor was Hideko
Tamura-Snider, who lives in
Medford. She was 10 years
old and living in Hiroshima
when the city was flattened by
the first of two atomic bombs
by the United States dropped
on Japan in August 1945.
Buried in the ruins of her
grandmother’s home, Hideko
was able to free herself and
survived the firestorm that
later engulfed the city. Her
mother and other relatives
were killed.
Hideko moved to the Unit-
ed States, eventually settling
in Oregon where she wrote
two books about her experi-
ences. She founded the One
Sunny Day Initiative to pro-
mote peace and nuclear dis-
armament around the world.
At her urging, arborist
Mike Oxendine in Ashland
obtained seeds of survivor
trees from the Green Legacy
Hiroshima organization. Its
volunteers collect and send
the seeds around the world
as ambassadors of peace.
After Oxendine germinated
the seeds, Oregon Communi-
ty Trees and the Oregon De-
partment of Forestry collabo-
rated in finding homes for the
trees.
The 51st tree was planted in
Gresham on Sept. 19.
“These peace trees not only
convey a message of peace
from the residents of Hiro-
shima, they are symbols of
survival and resilience in the
face of unimaginable destruc-
tion,” Mukumoto said.
“Seeing them putting down
roots in the good soil of Ore-
gon and reaching for the sky
gives me hope that people in
our state – like the survivors
in Hiroshima – can not only
endure harsh times but can
share with others the hard-
won wisdom from having
persevered through them.”