Oregon Thanksgiving memories

My dad's "leaning outhouse of Pisa." I have to admit I worry a little bit about it falling over while I'm in it! Copyright © 2013 Wendee Nicole

Right now I'm on the MIT campus in a 3-day Knight Science Journalism Energy & Climate Boot Camp I was accepted into. There have been some fascinating lectures, not to mention fascinating journalists doing cool work. I'm in the process of planning travel to Uganda, and hopefully to the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis in Indiana which Elinor Ostrom and her husband founded, both as part of the Mongabay Special Reporting Initiative which I am now working on.

But first, I wanted to share my photos from Thanksgiving at my dad's in Oregon. But before THAT, I have to share my latest articles!

• Meeting the Needs of the People: Fish Consumption Rates in the Pacific Northwest. (or non-pdf version here. I'm proud of this piece, and it got a lot of positive attention.

  Native Americans have lived amidst the Pacific Northwest’s pristine rivers and estuaries for millennia, relying on bountiful catches of local fish and shellfish for their sustenance. Because Pacific Northwest tribal populations typically consume much more fish and shellfish than other people in the region,1 they are exposed to higher levels of toxic chemicals that bioaccumulate in aquatic life—polychlorinated biphenyls, metals, dioxins, and dozens of other toxics found in factory effluent, urban wastewater, and runoff from agriculture and cities.2,3 As a result, they—along with other groups that eat a lot of fish—face higher risks of developing cancer and other diseases attributable to these chemicals.

• PFOA and Cancer in a Highly Exposed Community: New Findings from the C8 Science Panel. PFOA is the stuff that lines Teflon pans, popcorn bags, and waterproof jackets. This is a news piece that followed another I did last year: Pregnancy-Induced Hypertension “Probably Linked” to PFOA Contamination
• I have a cool piece on a sustainable hog farm in North Carolina coming out in Discover Magazine's Notes from Earth department in April

And in no particular order…here are some images from my dad's place and my trip to Oregon. I didn't take any at Thanksgiving dinner - I was so busy eating the yummy food!

Before I went to dad's cabin for Thanksgiving, I spent a few days with my 7th grade BFF Kelli in Portland, and we went to her mom's cabin in Welches, OR and her family's restaurant, Skyway Bar & Grill - yum! I hadn't seen her mom since 7th grade!!
Kelli and I. She thinks she looks like a vampire here - haha!
Kelli and I at Skyway Bar & Grill. Her cousin gave us these cool tshirts from there!

During the trip, I got together with my two nieces, Kira (who was driving down to see my brother - her dad - with my mom and stepdad), and Mehz and her fiancé Jordan. Mehz is my brother's oldest daughter who was adopted through an open adoption 24 years ago.

Kira and I. She's growing up so fast!
Mehz and her fiance Jordan.
 
The frame of my dad's cabin

This ferny paradise looks so primeval! This is just down the driveway, before turning onto the rock road my dad's cabin is off of.

This was the forest of my youth. This fuzzy tree is just down the road from my dad's property. Love these huge mossy trees. My brother and I used to think we were so strong by pushing over old/dead still-standing trees. :)
 
A view of the cabin from the side. The front part is a greenhouse with plants.

The woodbox for the wood stove.
 
Ferns in the forest on my walk.

A view of the garden with the cabin in the distance

Another shot of the garden

Dad and Bev love to garden and I got to enjoy its bounty, both at Thanksgiving and in the stuff I got to take home.

Mint, sage, and a pumpkin from the garden.
Bev gave me homemade, canned salsa - with all the ingredients direct from the garden! It was sooooo delish. And the raspberry jam - Oh.My.God!!! Heaven!! I need to go back when the razzleberries are berrying in summer.
 
A mossy tree - maybe a huckleberry? Or maple.

I got to stop by the elementary school I attended in 3rd and 4th grade, Highland Park. What a trip!

I peaked inside a bit and took a photo before school folk came and chased me off because school was in session. I remember that my classrooms were upstairs.
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This is a view just outside the "mud room" and the main entrance.

A view right from the cabin of the sun through the trees.

When dad harvested some trees from this part of his property, he kept these three trees, which was where my brother and my tree house was located. They're bigger than they look in the picture.

Me, hugging a very large tree on my walk down the road.

Trees and sky...
 
Dad built what he and Bev affectionately call the "West Wing" about a decade ago. It wasn't there when I grew up. This is where I stay when I visit.

The road… I like to walk from the cabin a mile or so up the road to get some exercise.

This makes me sad… This was a tree stump on dad's property. In Oregon you have to replant when you log, but those trees are still very small and young. I somehow managed to not get any good pics of dad and Bev so I leave you with this awesome pic from their wedding rehearsal in 2009 - laughing as they often are!

Has it really been almost 2 months?

Snoqualmie Pass, WA (taken through the window of a charter bus...). Copyright (c) 2013 Wendee Nicole

Wow. I guess I'm slacking on the blog posts. I have been writing like a madwoman, with a tiny bit of travel thrown in. Here are links to my latest articles...

• Game On! Businesses have used behavioral science to influence consumers for decades. Can it be used to save the planet? Ensia Magazine (formerly Momentum) Spring 2013. [This one came out of attending the SXSW-Eco Conference in Austin last year! It is about the emerging trend of "gamification" and how it's being used to help spur conservation action.]
• Think for Yourself: Critical thinking skills are more important than ever in today's information environment. Ensia magazine online. Mar 7, 2013. [This idea arose from the Science Denial conference I attended at University of Wisconsin-Madison last March, which also led to the article in Environmental Health Perspectives, Flavors of Uncertainty: The Difference Between Denial and Debate?]
• An Obesogen Over Time: Transgenerational Impact of Tributyltin. Environmental Health Perspectives, March 2013. [This is a "Science Selection" piece, or summary of a peer-reviewed article in EHP. The research relates to the feature I did on Obesogens for EHP for their Feb 2012 issue.]
• Road Traffic Noise and Diabetes: Long-Term Exposure May Increase Disease Risk. Environmental Health Perspectives, Feb 2013. [Another "Science Selection" piece]

I traveled to the Pacific Northwest a couple weeks ago to attend the Wild Mountain Memoir Retreat held at the gorgeous Sleeping Lady Mountain Resort in the Cascades (WA State), with Cheryl Strayed as the keynote. It was 3 days, and I met some amazing women (only a handful of men attended) and had a breakthrough about my book structure, which was worth the cost of the retreat! Theo Nestor is a great teacher! I'll try to post some photos soon but just want to give a quick update.

I'll be traveling to Costa Rica soon, and soon after that to receive my..... drum roll please... Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) for best magazine article in the science/technology/business category! I was and am over the moon! It was for the article, Did Tap Water Kill Lou Gehrig? for Miller-McCune magazine (now Pacific Standard), a piece that I really am proud of. That's enough for now... hope to update again before another 2 months pass!

Poverty isn't what you think

My dad's log cabin. Copyright (c) 2012 Wendee Nicole

"If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from your poor brother, but you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart, saying, 'The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand,' and your eye be evil against your poor brother and you give him nothing, and he cry out to the Lord against you, and it become sin among you. You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all your works and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, “You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.” Deuteronomy 15: 7-11

During election season, there was a lot of stereotyping of Democrats as people who - in the hilarious sardonic humor of The Daily Show's Jon Stewart - are "thing stuff takers." He was making fun of how Bill O'Reilly had posited, post-election, that Obama won because people on the left wanted things, and stuff. It was a thinly veiled insult of people of color, morphing them with people of poverty without really saying that. It's a sentiment echoed by the likes of Mitt Romney a couple days later, when he came out of hiding, and said Obama won the election because of the "gifts" he gave to specific interest groups. During all the immediate post-election Facebook rambling, a friend of mine posted something that led me to post the following, which I'll post below almost verbatim.

But poverty isn't always what you think it is. I am someone who has directly benefitted from the use of food stamps and welfare. Let me tell you the story of my childhood. I am the first in my extended family to ever go to college. EVER. Neither my parents or grandparents had more than a high school education. My dad didn't graduate from h.s. (but got a GED), yet he is the most intelligent, articulate, and intellectual man I know. After his divorce from my mom he moved to Oregon and built a very simple log cabin on 24 acres, grew his food, totally back to the land. It was an awesome pioneer way to live, and to grow up that way was extremely influential to who I became as an adult.

Dad had a biz making log cabins for others and at one point his partner took off with the businesses money, leaving him a heavy burden financially. So during a period of my youth we had food stamps and at one point he was on welfare. He overcame that, and went on to work for many years for the Oregon food bank, doing social work and giving back. He was and is an incredibly hard working man - both when he was on welfare and after - and at his retirement last year was granted the very award that he established for those at the Oregon Food Bank who had a lifetime of service. (I am getting tears in my eyes writing this - I love and am so proud of my dad!). I also, as mentioned in my recent blog post "freelancing does not suck" that I had applied for food stamps during ~09 when times were incredibly hard for me, and I thought I might have to sell my house.

I'm a single mom and I work incredibly hard, and I sure as hell was not getting an "entitlement" or a handout. I never ended up getting on food stamps - long story - but I would have gladly taken them, and I have no qualms or shame about it. It's damn hard to be a single mom and support oneself, even when you get some child support (I got - and still get - a fraction of what I'm legally entitled to). Anyway... social welfare is there to help people when times get tough. I hope that you never have to know what it is to be poor and genuinely need help. There are people who really do need help, and who use it and get off of it, and are not just "lazy" as the Right often characterizes people on welfare. My dear precious daughter, a brilliant young woman who is a National Merit Scholar Semifinalist and in the Top 10 of a class of more than 700, and an amazing human being is a product of welfare. As am I - I earned a M.S. and am a PhD candidate (on leave of absence...) and have built an incredibly successful freelance writing career. So there you go. That's what welfare gets you.

Elwha dam removal!

Sun star! The sun through the trees on a trail to a viewpoint over the former Elwha dam site. Copyright (c) 2012 Wendee Holtcamp

Last week was PERFECTION in every way, and this week Murphy has gone crazy!!! I have to make this short, because I have to post and caption all these images for my editors, file my story on the Elwha dam (link to come soon, I hope), and then pick my son up from his day camp job and then we are headed to the Central Oregon Coast for the weekend. A much needed break from a hell week in which my poor sweet cat is dying back home, 3,000-miles away and I can't do a damn thing other than rely on my friends and my daughter (I LOVE YOU GUYS!!) to take care of her. She is not doing well and very well may not make it. To make it worse, I feel terrible as I probably killed her myself from bringing in my beloved stray Pippin...

At any rate, that on top of PMS, communication breakdowns, and every technical difficulty with phones, GPS, internet and technology in general under the sun you can imagine... but LAST week was so perfect and fun in every way! The short version is, we arrived in Oregon, spent a couple days with my dad and Bev, I dropped Sam off at his overnight camp and then I headed to Washington. I first visited friends in Seattle, and got an awesome tour of the city with Laura (I will post pics on my next blog, promise!). The highlight was seeing the very first Starbucks, ever! And then I headed to Olympic National Park where I camped in my friend Terri Hansen's RV at Salt Creek campground, soaked in the Sol Duc hot springs, and got to interview several biologists and go see the former Elwha dam site and the Glines Canyon dam which is partly out and coming completely out soon. I'm writing an article for Nature and just got another assignment today. It was just an awesome time there, with lots of laughter, total peace of mind, new friends, and just a really great time. I am posting images from the Elwha trip and will post more in a couple few days! Here's a link to the blog post from my visit two years ago when the dams were still up.

UPDATE: Here's a link to the finished article at Nature News online: Fish return to undammed river.

First we went to the site of the upstream Glines Canyon dam, which is partly but not totally removed. This is a view showing Lake Mills, which is slowly being drained and will be gone eventually once the dam comes out completely. It's scheduled for demolition of the remaining parts beginning again on July 2nd. They are in a "fish window" now where there's no blasting or dam removal activities that could affect water quality since fish are spawning.

Another view of Lake Mills. Not sure what this structure is - I'll find out. Oh ok it is the "intake tower."

Another view of the Glines Canyon dam, partly removed.

When you look over the edge from the platform, the water makes a rainbow!

I laid down and shot this over the edge. What a high! Love it. You can see the rainbow at the top of the canyon wall on the top part of the image.

Next we went to the lower (downstream) Elwha dam, which is now completely gone! Lake Aldwell used to be here, but is fully drained, and they are grading the riverbanks and have begun replanting native vegetation.

Another shot of the tractors and backhoes or whatever they are called grading the banks post-removal.

This is the Elwha river near the former Elwha dam site.

A pile of contaminated soil at the dam site, waiting to be removed and shipped off. I'm writing an article about this but the dam itself and its structures had some contaminants.

Then I took a short trail to an overlook where you can see a bigger view of the former Elwha dam site. Pretty cool! Barb Maynes, the Public Information Officer for National Park Service/Olympic NP on the project said it's interesting to stand there and listen to the various conversations about the dam.

This is the view from the end of the trail of the Elwha dam site activity.

Another view.

A fern on the trail.

A view through the woods of the former Elhwa dam.

The next day, I went out in the field with several scientists to take turbidity data in a tributary (actually, it was technically a floodplain channel) of the Elwha. We met at the tribe hatchery building, and this is a shot of a snow-capped mountain in the distance on the Lower Elwha Klallam reservation.

Another view of the mountains in the distance, from a road in the reservation.

In the channel, this is Chris Curran with US Geological Survey, Matt Beirne a biologist with the Elwha tribe, John McMillan a fisheries biologist with NOAA and Jeff Duda with USGS. The USGS guys were teaching the others some techniques to monitor turbidity, and calibrating for some sampling error or somesuch. (Earlier, I mis-identified Chris C as Chris Magirl - sorry! They both were out with us that day)

I believe this is USGS hydrologist Jeff Duda walking in the tributary.

Me in my waders. Sexy huh? Just kidding! LOL. I don't like this photo of me, but whatevs.

Matt, Chris C and John in the channel.

NOAA biologist George Pess in the channel with some turbidity equipment.

This is a view from the campground Terri and I stayed at - gorgeous isn't it?