Think Out Loud Oregon Public Broadcasting

The city of Bend recently launched a program that offers rebates to homeowners who give up their grass lawns in favor of native plants and low-water landscaping. It’s part of the city’s efforts to reduce its water usage by 7.9 billion gallons by 2040. The program is so popular that it maxed out its funding in a matter of weeks and is no longer taking new applications.

Dan Denning is the water conservation program manager for the city of Bend. Rick Martinson is the founder and director of the High Desert Horticultural Center. They join us to talk about the new program and the increasing demand for more sustainable landscaping.

In 1915, U.S. Forest Service ranger Elijah “Lige” Coalman built a fire lookout cabin on the summit of Mt. Hood. The cabin served as a place to view incipient fires and a bit of a party spot, according to the new short documentary Cabin in the Sky: The Mount Hood Lookout. Filmmaker Ned Thanhauser joins us to share the history of the cabin, which lasted until 1940. 

The United Methodist Church recently wrapped up its general conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. At the gathering, delegates removed bans on gay clergy and officiating same sex marriages. The decision comes after decades of disagreement over those policies.In the Pacific Northwest, the Oregon-Idaho conference has already been a fully inclusive ministry.Meanwhile, over the last few years, more than 7,000 congregations nationwide left the United Methodist Church. Many held more conservative theological views and largely left over LGBTQ-related policies.Jan Nelson is a member of the Morningside United Methodist Church in Salem and attended the General Conference in Charlotte as a lay delegate. Reverend Ethan Gregory has been an associate pastor at First United Methodist Church in Portland and will soon head to Salem. They join us with details of what this historic change means.

Erika Hayasaki’s book “Somewhere Sisters: a story of adoption, identity, and the meaning of family” explores a very complicated multi-family, multinational story. At the heart of the book are sisters: identical twins born in Vietnam. One was adopted by a wealthy family in the U.S., one was raised in rural Vietnam. We spoke to Hayasaki in 2022 in front of an audience at the Portland Book Festival.

: In her novel "The Dreamers," Portland writer Karen Thompson Walker explores the terrifying possibility of a world altered by a highly contagious disease. The disease causes people to fall into a seemingly endless sleep. We'll talk to Thompson Walker about her book, "The Dreamers."

 

In a 5-3 vote, the Umatilla County Planning Commission has recommended changes on the number of livestock residents can have. Under the proposed rules, single family dwellings are now allowed to have four small livestock animals per acre of property. The commission in a 7-1 vote also decided not to recommend proposed changes that would limit the number of fowl on a property. Both recommendations will now go to the county’s board of commissioners who will vote on the proposed changes at a June 5 meeting. Berit Thorson is a reporter for the East Oregonian covering this issue. She joins us to share more on the proposals and the community feedback the changes have received so far.