r/oregon

"When fires tore across Oregon this summer, private contract resources sat idle, because there weren’t enough qualified managers available to supervise them, the state senator Mike McLane said. He found out about the issue from constituents and then confirmed with the incident management team staff and the Oregon department of forestry."

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/19/us-firefighters-staffing-shortage

all photos were taken by yours truly

I’ve made close to 46k already this year, filed for unemployment when fired, and get this?

My employer stuff is still under review, but what does this mean?

From https://arstechnica.com/health/2026/08/us-vaccination-rates-fall-again-as-exemptions-continue-to-rise-cdc-data-shows/

>Nationally, only 92.4 percent of kindergartners were vaccinated with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine in the 2025–2026 school year, down from 92.5 percent last year. Coverage with the DTaP vaccine, which covers diphtheria, tetanus, and acellular pertussis (whooping cough), similarly fell from 92.1 percent to 92.0 percent.

>More than half of states saw decreases in coverage for MMR, DTaP, polio vaccine, and varicella/chickenpox vaccine. Only 10 states have MMR vaccination rates at or above the 95 percent threshold: West Virginia, Connecticut, Maine, New York, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts, California, and New Mexico.\

Oregon! Why are you missing from this list!??!

(Edit: added more context and information)

There's a stretch of the Little Deschutes River in Oregon that's going dry because no water is being released from the Gilchrist mill pond dam. This section is roughly 7.5 miles long and stretches from the Gilchrist mill pond dam to Crescent Creek.

Some sections of the river are completely dry, but in others there are small pools where surviving fish, frogs, mussels, and crayfish are taking refuge.

As for why there's no release - This is an unprecedented event, and it seems there's no protocol to handle it. Here's what I've heard - There was an official ask earlier this year to remove no water from the mill pond. I'm not sure who this ask came from or what the exact wording was; I'll assume OWRD (please comment if you know). I also assume that request was regarding water removal for irrigation or fire prevention, not for continued flow downstream. Regardless, it seems the dam owners are concerned they might be in violation of that request if they release water from the dam. Additionally, I've heard from OWRD that the dam operator has no legal requirement to release water from the dam. But - OWRD also expects that anything that flows into the mill pond will flow out. That's definitely not the case; there is 14.1CFS coming in, and nothing coming out.

It's pretty obvious to me what the right thing to do here is - release enough water to at least keep the river on life support for the time being. If that outflow lowers the mill pond to the extent wildlife is dying there too (which is unlikely), then we can re-evalulate. Worst case, the dam is blocked again and the mill pond will refill to it's existing levels within a week or so.

The more attention this gets, the sooner we'll get a decision. Comment, upvote, share, call OWRD and other government agencies (I have), or sign the petition below - any of those will show your support.

Petition: https://c.org/2vrXpM9Fpc

Thanks.

Some summer activities in Oregon on film. Can’t get enough of living here, truly, in my opinion, the best place too be.