For a century the water that emerged from the Klamath’s surrounding mountains and meadows had been held back by six dams which turned much of the river into algae clogged, fish-killing reservoirs, and the remaining river sections into spindly strands of their former selves.

All that changed quickly in 2024 when after years of negotiation, four of the six Klamath River dams — JC Boyle, Copco 1, Copco 2, and Iron Gate — were removed.

Our three day trip began after the last remaining dam. We ran only 36 miles of the 257 mile river, catching just a small part of its liberated waters, but in that span we descended more than 1000 feet. In comparison the 299 mile route from Lee’s Feery to Pierce Ferry in the Grand Canyon descends 2000 feet. Meaning runs in the newly un-dammed Klamath are long, steep and fast, the free river thundering watery ovations.

With us on this journey was my friend Rorie Lin Gotham, a woman who paved a path for women around the world to learn how to read and run water. She has been kayaking for more than 50 years and has a mind and heart as big and flowing as the rivers she’s known and loved.

On our last day, in the part of the canyon that had held two of the largest Klamath dams, we pulled over. Towering over us were was a maze of columnar basalt: some perpendicular to the river, some horizontal, some twisted and curled like ribbon. Few people have seen this part of the river. After it was dammed the water was diverted for power, and the canyon ran dry. Rorie now stood beside the churning waters and dipped in a container to hold a few cups of the newly freed water. When a group of women river runners heard Rorie was running the Klamath, they asked her to collect a small container of un-dammed Klamath water. Their goal is to pour the liberated water into the Colorado River — our nation’s most over allocated and dammed river. Rorie collected the water into a brightly colored bottle, and then we stood in a circle while she held it toward sky thanking the river and the people who worked to free it. Tears fell from many eyes.

A tribute. A wish. A prayer.

More than 50 percent of our body weight is water. Tides move through us. Waves and currents— elemental and essential. The same holds true for the earth. Ancient underground sources spring to the surface feeding the land’s arteries, veins, and organs — its wetlands, streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.

The reservoirs behind the dams may be fun for boating or for entertaining at one’s lakeside home, but they are clogs in the Earth’s veins, collecting silt and contaminants and more than anything else, wasting trillions of gallons of water under the evaporative sun. The effects on Lake Powell alone, even when even at its lowest level, sucks away up to 6% of the entire Colorado Rivers annual flow. Seeing how quickly the Klamath river and its surrounding riparian landscape is responding to its freedom — carving new channels, washing down the accumulated silt and debris, shoring up its banks with grass and willows, inviting in salmon, beavers, otters, deer, elk, bear and raptors of all kinds — gave me hope and laughter, and peace.

The river was dancing as we stood at its banks, dancing, clapping against rocks and singing a song as we all smiled knowing sooner or later there will be encores around the world as dams are removed or fail or simply collapse — whether we are here on this earth to hear that celebratory sound or not. 

A bill which allows for the purchase of Abiqua Falls from the Mount Angel Abbey as well as land from Weyerhaeuser Timber Corporation made it though two hearings and two votes today and will move to the House and Senate chambers with do pass recommendations.

This is good news for those concerned that the falls might end up blocked from public access were it to be purchased by a private landowner.

Sen. Fred Girod (R-Silverton) spearheaded the bill meeting with both the Abbey and Weyerhaeuser and getting bipartisan support for the purchase. He told the committee this afternoon that it was perhaps the most meaningful bill he has personally worked on and is pleased to be part of an effort to preserve such a special place.

This weekend, Oregon State Sen. Fred Girod (R-Silverton) working with House Majority Leader Ben Bowman (D-Tigard) have paved a way for the state to purchase Abiqua Falls from the Mount Angel Abbey as well as an adjoining 160 acres from Weyerhaeuser Timber Corporation. The lawmakers have bi-partisan support for a plan to create a small park up the Abiqua. “We want anyone to be able to appreciate that area,” Girod told me. “It’s too special to just let it go.”

The following article appeared in the Oregonian yesterday, Sunday 3/1/26. It tells a story of why it is important to save places like Abiqua Falls.

It took my husband and I three years to find Abiqua Falls, the spectacular double waterfall east of Silverton that was recently put up for sale. Since 1908, the Mount Angel Abbey has owned the 40-acre parcel containing the falls. Though the abbey didn’t stop people from visiting, it also wasn’t telling people how to find it. Back in 1990, all Chuck and I had to go on were rumors, unlabeled maps and a gusto for discovery.

Then late in the afternoon of a cold New Years Eve we found it, and the memory of that experience — following a fallow path to a cliff overlooking a thundering falls plunging over a hundred feet into a turquoise pool surrounded by columnar basalt walls stained red by lichen and moss — still fills me with awe.

The falls sat in the midst of an old growth forest. Spotted owls nested there; ospreys and eagles fished. Bears lived up there. Cougars. Perhaps even Sasquatch. Perhaps… When you stand in a place few know about and even fewer visit, anything can be possible. But then the impossible happened.

In 1994, the Oregon Department of Forestry announced it was putting all that old growth up for sale. The news rocketed through Silverton. Meetings were held, an advocacy group created, films made, research done, a lawsuit filed. And while we preserved some of the trees above the falls, the timber sale moved forward.

Shortly after the cutting began, the Statesman Journal published a front-page article with a picture of me sitting in the middle of a seven-foot diameter stump looking rain-sodden and sad. A week later, I received an invitation to talk about the falls and the trees from an inmate in the Oregon State Penitentiary’s Lifers’ Club. My brother asked me why a group of men who’d never live to see the place would be interested. I promised I’d ask.

The prison cafeteria held about 40 inmates, all of them dressed in prison blues, all polite, all serving life. I described the falls and our fight for it, and then asked why they cared. They were silent at first, then one man stood and talked about riding horses on the reservation and what that land meant to him. Then another spoke of planting tomatoes with his grandma and what that time digging in that dirt meant to him. Then several men mentioned hunting and fishing and logging and sitting in forests or by rivers and the quiet of the place. It’s peace. “It’s as if those places have arms and they’re still holding us,” one man said into his folded hands.

After learning about the Falls being put up for sale, I headed up into the foothills. I hadn’t been to the area in more than 10 years. Abiqua Falls had become an Instagram sweetheart and I wanted nothing to do with that. Still, I had to go before someone bought it up and fenced it off. So I hiked up into the forest, lowered myself down a rope to the creek then made my way upstream. You can’t see the falls until you’re basically right on it. I skirted around a rock wall and there she was, doing what she’s done every second of every day for millions of years.

At first, I thought I had the place to myself, but then a man approached me with a smile and an offer of coffee. Elias had driven from Newport. He’d read about the sale and wanted to film the falls for his YouTube channel “A Puerto Rican in Oregon.” Great, I thought. More people.

He gestured toward the falls. “When I was little, my grandpa, he used to tell me how we’re all part of everything — the mountains, the air, the water. I didn’t understand what he meant.” Sunlight was hitting the top of the falls and the few trees that we’d been able to save thirty years earlier. “Now I understand,” Elias smiled.” It’s all about being connected. That’s why I film these places. It gives people something to connect to, even if they can’t ever get out here to see it themselves.”

The 2 million dollar bonding measure that will create the Abiqua Falls park is part of a 500 million dollar general obligation bond bill that includes funding for upgrades to MODA and money affordable rentals housing.

Hearings on the bill will begin on Tuesday. Session ends on Sunday, March 8.

(This article first appeared in The Oregonian, 3/1/26)

Earlier this week an attempt by some Republican lawmakers to walk off the House floor before a vote on a controversial “Mask Bill” was stopped when Rep. Paul Evans (D-Dallas) asked for a “Call of the House,” triggering a roll-call and the Sergeant at Arms barring the door from anyone attempting to leave. Evans said there had been rumors that Republicans were going to try to deprive the body of the quorum needed for a vote; indeed he had watched people begin to pack up before the bill was read.

The Mask Bill, HB 4138-A, would require all law enforcement officers operating within Oregon, whether local, state or federal, not wear masks while on duty and must wear clearly visible identification. The bill has exemptions allowing masks when conducting undercover work, SWAT activities, or working with hazardous devices or materials.

After two hours of debate HB 4138-A passed on a party line vote and was sent to the Senate Rules committee where after a hearing and in a worksession on Friday the committee moved it forward with a “do pass” recommendation.

According to the bill’s proponents, 15 states have passed or plan to introduce similar anti-masking legislation, including in Republican strongholds such as Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee. These efforts are a reaction to masked ICE agents being filmed breaking into cars and homes and shooting unarmed citizens. A recent PBS poll indicates that two-thirds of those asked think ICE activities and their methods have gone too far.

Rep. Willy Chotzen (D-SE Portland), a sponsor of the bill, told House members that when officers conceal their identity or fail to display who they work for, confusion and fear increases, “and that uncertainty is undermining safety and trust in our communities.” Chotzen said the bill is a result of months of work between law enforcement, community leaders, public agencies, universities, community advocates and others. “We need to be able to assure the public that law enforcement is acting within the scope of the law.”

Republican Senator Bruce Star (R-Polk and Yamhill Counties), told the Senate Rules Committee that he’s disappointed the mask bill does not have the support of his Republican colleagues. “We need to do all we can to build trust in our law enforcement, and I believe this helps do that.”

Critics of the bill say masks protect ICE agents and their families from being “doxxed”(exposed on line), but former ICE agents say it is unprecedented for ICE to wear masks and that by wearing masks they immediately escalate situations by creating fear and more defensive behavior.

House Republicans had also accused supporters of wasting tax dollars by passing something that will likely end up in court for violating the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution. The clause stipulates that in a conflict between state and federal laws, federal statues are supreme.

Legal scholars have indicated that state restrictions on masks are likely not in violation of federal laws, because to date there is no federal law requiring ICE to disguise their identity.

The Senate Bill is expected to reach the floor for a vote early next week.

First Amendment Troop “The ResistDance”

I think I have watched the above film perhaps twenty times in the last two days. A 90 second dance depicting the murders of Nicole Renee Good and Alex Pretti. It is staged in front of the Lincoln Memorial, and it cuts to the heart of the grief I feel not just for the loss of those two young people, but for the violation of our Constitution, and to truth and justice.

Which is why this week, the third of a five week session, I watched with great interest as Oregon lawmakers worked with haste to move several bills aimed at what House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene, called the “gross and chaotic overreach” of President Trump’s federal deportation policies.

In response to this overreach a slate of at least 13 bills have been introduced. Here are a few that appear to have a good chance of passing before the end of session.

On Tuesday this week, HB 4079 passed the House Floor with a 35-22 vote. The measure mandates school districts and institutes of higher learning create policies that will help students and teachers feel safer from deportation activities within the school or campus than they do today. When President Trump came into office last year he repealed Department of Homeland Security rules preventing ICE and other federal agents from entering “sensitive areas” such as schools, churches and hospitals.

Since then, “When rumors of nearby ICE activity surface,” Representative Paul Evans (D-Dallas), testified before the House chamber, “students leave school and are often too scared to return.” Evans teaches at Chemeketa Community College where just over one-third of students identify as Hispanic or Latinx. HB 4079 would require that school districts and institutes of higher education designate staff to determine if officers or agents have warrants to enter school property and then would notify students and parents of ICE’s presence.

Another bill that moved forward this week is HB 4091 which prohibits out-of-state militia or national guard from being deployed in Oregon without Governor approval. It also directs the Oregon National Guard to focus its role on helping the state during emergencies as stipulated in federal law.

Representative Shannon Isadore (D-Portland), a Marine Corps veteran, told the House Rules Committee that the bill “Draws an important line that many of us in uniform are well aware of and that is that the National Guard is a military force, not a substitute for civilian law or immigration enforcement.”

This issue came to a head when in October last year, President Trump deployed 200 Oregon National guards to protect the Portland ICE facility from what he described in the media as a “war zone.” His deployment was enjoined by US District Court Judge Karin Immergut (a Trump appointee). In her 106 page opinion she concluded that “even giving great deference to the President’s determination, the President did not have a lawful basis to federalize the National Guard.” And in another win for the courts, the federal government earlier this month backed off its attempt to appeal.

Another bill I followed was, HB 4114, It would allow individuals to sue law enforcement should they force entry into a home showing no proper warrant or cause. Opponents of the bill used hypothetical analogies to argue that the measure could impact public safety, should say, a police officer hear a something dubious in a house and enter without a warrant. “You might have some rich bullies suing the police!” Representative Kevin Mannix argued on the house floor. His musing, however, did not carry the weight of the real stories of warrantless and often violent entrees that are occurring in Oregon and throughout the country by ICE. The bill passed the House and has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Lastly, there is the mask issue. Many states are passing laws requiring officers to be stripped of their masks and wear identification including name and badge number. The Oregon resolution would apply to all local, state and federal law enforcement, including ICE and it’s expected to move out of committee for a vote. If adopted by both chambers, SJR 203 would move on for voter approval in November. In a floor speech on the bill, Rep Ricki Ruiz (D-Portland) told lawmakers the measure is about accountability. “If they are doing their job legally and ethically, they should not be afraid to show their face. Not doing so is immoral, it is dangerous and it is wrong.”

Representative Darin Harbick, R- East Lane County told committee members that what he finds immoral are ICE agents being doxed (having their names and private information published) for doing their jobs. “These are people who have family, they have kids who go to school right here with yours.” The resolution passed out of the Judiciary Committee but has not yet been scheduled for another vote.

I will keep you posted on any movement on these and other bills. Next week I plan to focus on the push to build AI data centers in Oregon and what that could mean for our economy and our environment.

I was in Mexico when I learned that the foundation that is part of the Benedictine Abbey in Mt. Angel, Oregon had put a 40 acre parcel of wooded canyon land in the northern Cascade foothills for sale. The Abbey has a lot of land up in those steep hills, all of it managed for timber except this particular parcel - a section of land that holds Abiqua Falls.

Until the dawn of social media very few people knew about the falls. I was one of those few, and my experience with the place and its surrounding land effected my life in some significant ways including my being invited to talk with the “Lifers” club at the Oregon State Penitentiary about the land and its falls — a place that if their sentences panned out, they would never have the opportunity to see. That talk in turn opened up a world to me that led my life toward many unanticipated directions.

How are the two related? I’ll be writing about that for The Oregonian soon, but will share now what I have learned about what some state lawmakers are doing to try to put the land and its falls into public hands.

On Wednesday, I visited with State Senator Fred Girod, a Republican representing my district which includes the parcel containing Abiqua Creek and its now famous falls. It has been a long time since I’ve interviewed anyone at the Capitol, but I guess being a journalist is like riding a bike, because as soon as I entered the Senator Girod’s office my mind clicked into gear. Pad open, pen out, questions rolling.

The Senator was ashamed to say he’d never seen the falls in person. That’s understandable, I told him. The place is not easy to find and quite difficult to hike down to. Even still, he’s seen the pictures and heard the stories and felt strongly that a place like that needed to belong to the people of Oregon, “Not some dot com billionaire that will lock it up for his own private retreat. I won’t stand for that,” he said. And as a co-chair of the Capitol Construction Sub-Committee of the budget writing Ways and Means committee, Senator Girod, who is known for his bi-partisan approach on many issues, has both the ways and the means to try to make sure the land goes to all Oregonians, not just a special few.

The Capitol Construction Committee is in charge of bonds — recommending what projects get state backing and what do not. And he and his co-chair on the committee — Lake Oswego Democrat, Senate President Rob Wagner as well as the Houses Majority Leader, Democrat Ben Bowman have forged an alliance on the falls, and are determined that after the dust settles on the Abbey’s sale, it will be owned by the people of Oregon.

But like anything political, there are hurdles to be overcome. One is the timeline. Lawmakers are in the third week of their “short session” meaning they have until March 8th to get their work done. Another is to find the right state agency to manage the land. State Parks seems like a natural fit, but State Parks is expected to run a deficit this year. Taking on a site that will need structural improvements — signs, roads, adequate parking, toilets and the people to take care of all that — may be too much of an ask right now. The Department of Forestry is another option, but the agency has been in the logging business so long folks might not be convinced that one day they find site turned into nothing but stumps. And of course there is the third hurdle: convincing people that buying a waterfall would be worth their tax dollars.

What the hit to the budget would be is still uncertain. Senator Gerard hopes to get a firm number sometime next week, but so far the Mt Angel Foundation which holds the property has not been forthcoming. It appears there may be a bidding war. On the other hand, the Foundation and the Abbey have said they would like to see the land and its falls be “conserved.”

I guess then the questions are, for who and for what purpose? Lawmakers at the Capitol say for the people, and for the purpose of being able see and feel the awe it inspires.

For now, here is a film of hike to the falls on Thursday afternoon, 2/12/26.

I’ve decided retirement is not for me. Not now. There’s just too much going on in the world for me to simply rest.

In 2004 I left my job as a broadcast journalist for public radio at the Oregon State Capitol to be a full time mom and part time author. Since then, my son has grown and gone off to the other side of the country and I lost interest in trying to please a book industry and my occasional essays that felt unseen and unheard and therefore of little value but the value any writer gets from pouring heart and soul onto a page so that it can look back at you and say, yes, you still have a heart and soul. And eyes that see. And ears that hear.

Then last month I went back to the capitol building for the dedication of its new press offices, and I thought — why not? Why not come back and start listening to the stories that are all around this building. If there was one thing I learned from my time here from 1995 to 2004 it was that every person who is in the state capitol, or standing on its steps with a sign, or mowing its lawn, has a story. And those stories are what keeps people afloat during hard times, learning from one another, taking time to see who people are and what they are doing with their lives, how they are surviving, or at least trying to survive. Story is the hot current that runs though a community enlivening us with sympathy and, if done well, empathy.

Take the Janitor James Beard. I met him the other day. An older gentleman who yes, knew he had the same name as the famous chef James Beard, and yes he’s been asked plenty of times if he can cook, and yes, his answer is he certainly can. And back when he was working as a logger his dad, also a logger, said if he put down his chain saw and stop working in “the industry” he would cover the costs of his son going to culinary school to become what he really wanted to be — a chef.

“And you know what I told him?” James Beard, now in his sixties or seventies and bent over his waxer like it was walker, asked me.

I shook my head no, but it was pretty clear what he’d told his dad.

“I said no. I looked at him and just said no. I bet you can’t guess how many times I’ve regretted that decision. No one gets out of those forests without carrying some kind of ache.” I nodded. And he told me to come find him if I ever need anything.

And I will. I’ll hunt down James Beard if I need something, because this is where I am now. An office in the state capitol building, I have a monitor that scans the hearing rooms. A pen. Some paper. I plan to get my mics out too. Talk to people. They may be lawmakers. They may be mucky-mucks from the agencies. They may be lobbyists or activists or just ordinary people who come in to tell lawmakers why they need to care.

They may be someone trying to save their family from a medical debt, or a mayor trying to save his town from losing their water, some lobbyist trying to secure a tax break for some data center no one will ever really be employed at, or someone trying to get us to care about some species of animal that may be on the brink of losing its place in this world. It may be people who have nothing, or people who have so much they have no idea what nothing looks like.

I don’t know. I only just got here.

But here is my goal. To tell you what I learn while I’m here in hopes that this can be a place where you can learn about the people that are trying to make this world a little better or, if they’re not, why not…. I’m sure I’ll be telling those stories too.

I hope you will join me.

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