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Thanks for signing up for the Pacific Northwest’s tastiest selection of news, culture, and thought-provoking writing. Each weekday, we hand-pick an assortment of stories relevant to life in the Cascadia region (encompassing Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and parts of Idaho and Northern California). Every day you’ll find a selection of links to news stories, essays, fiction, poetry, and art — spanning the wide diversity of cultures and people in Cascadia.
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Get Outside! Trail of Ten Falls
With all this spring rain, the waterfalls of Oregon are going gangbusters, so there’s no better time to go gawk at them! In his latest column for Cascadia Magazine, Craig Romano recommends The Trail of Ten Falls in Silver Falls State Park east of Salem, Oregon.
You’ll gaze at amazing cascades, including several 100 feet in height. For other suggestions of waterfall hikes, check out the Oregonian’s picks here. And if you’re thinking of heading out to Oregon’s most famous waterfall–Multnomah Falls in the Columbia Gorge–you’d better change plans: rockfall and dangerous conditions have closed the trails there indefinitely.
Alberta’s election results likely to inflame feud with BC
In elections yesterday, Alberta tossed out its left-center NDP government and replaced it with a solid majority for the Trump-inspired United Conservative Party, making Jason Kenney premier. Geoff Dembicki, writing for The Tyee, observes that the conflict between British Columbia and Alberta over the Trans Mountain pipeline will likely get much worse. The Vancouver Courier suggests that Kenney and the UCP will be a useful villain for BC premier John Horgan’s pipeline and climate action policies.
Cascadia is all for ditching time switch
NWNN reports that the Washington legislature has approved bills making Daylight Savings Time year round and avoiding the annual ritual of turning clocks forward and back one hour. Similar bills are moving forward in Oregon, and the BC government is also supportive. Trouble is, for the change to take place in the US, Congress would have to pass legislation and doesn’t seem especially motivated.
Saving Washington and Oregon’s forests by burning them
Wildfires are a natural and necessary part of forest ecology in Cascadia, and at NW Public Radio, Courtney Flatt talks with forest managers in Washington about how they select areas for prescribed burns, and manage them in spring and fall so they don’t burn out of control. Meanwhile, the ranching Hammond family of eastern Oregon, known for starting illegal wildland fires, has been pardoned by Trump and continues to fight federal grazing regulations, High Country News reports.
Why is the Spokane school district cutting libraries and staff?
The Spokesman-Review looks at potential cuts to teaching staff and all school librarians in Spokane’s school district, and finds that areas with lower income levels will be hit hardest. Shawn Vestal wonders how Washington bungled its response to court-ordered spending increases for education. In related news, the Salem Reporter has a fantastic, detailed 5-part report on the struggles low-income students in the Salem-Keizer school district face despite increased access to federal funding.
A Q&A with Vancouver photographer Jackie Dives
SAD Magazine, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, republishes a 2014 interview with Vancouver photographer Jackie Dives, who does amazing work (her photos of the Overdose Protection Society in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside accompanied a story on safe injection sites at Cascadia Magazine last year). Dives talks about photographing doulas and births, and her series “Comfort Food” featuring nudes and casseroles: “Nudity makes people more vulnerable. I think you get a more interesting facial expression on someone when they’re not wearing clothes. They’re feeling different things.”
Poetry by John Sibley Williams
At Zyzzyva, which is celebrating National Poetry Month by putting poems from its archive online, you can read Portland-based poet John Sibley Williams’ “Astray” a recollection of a decaying suburb from his childhood:
“A neighborhood gone missing. Only
the torn electrical tape that held it
together remains of the cul-de-sac
where most of us learned to drive in
circles”
Read the full poem here. And read two more of John’s poems–“Appalossa,” and “A Jar to Keep the Earth In“–at Cascadia Magazine.
Thanks for reading Cascadia Daily, your weekday dose of arts, poetry, news, and environmental reporting from across the Cascadia bioregion. Have a fun evening, and we’ll see you tomorrow. –Andrew Engelson