“Native Americans used fire for forest management for thousands of years. After 150 years of fire suppression forestry, the data we’ve collected showed three times the amount of trees there should be in some places.” — Chris Chambers, Ashland Fire & Rescue Wildfire Division chief
A FEMA grant program that could have contributed $50 million to the city of Ashland’s water treatment plant project has become another federal funding source cut by the Trump administration. The city is still working with the Environmental Protection Agency on WIFIA loan funding for the project.
President Donald Trump’s executive orders shrinking the federal workforce make a notable exception for public safety staff, including those who fight wildland fires. But ongoing cuts, funding freezes and hiring pauses have weakened the nation’s already strained firefighting force by hitting support staff who play crucial roles in preventing and battling blazes.
Peace activists will be outside Ashland and Medford post offices from 10 to 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 15, income tax filing deadline day, distributing leaflets showing that as much as 50 percent of each income tax dollar this year will go to fund present and past military expenses.
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has taken aim at programs that combat climate change and programs that his administration says promote diversity, equity and inclusion and other social justice programs.
The Oregon Department of Education will not end diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives to fit the Trump administration’s interpretation of federal civil rights law, Gov. Tina Kotek and the state’s education director announced Thursday.
A new community center and “climate resilience hub” in Chiloquin should be months underway right now. Instead, city officials are wondering if they’ll ever see the $16 million they were promised in December from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to build it.
Southern Oregon Head Start, regional lawmakers and community advocates breathed a collective sigh of relief Wednesday at the announcement that funding for more than 900 preschoolers and several hundred Head Start employees in Jackson and Josephine counties had been restored after concerns the program could lose half — or even all — of its funding.
UPDATE: Federal funding for Southern Oregon Head Start has been restored, according to an email sent by Katherine Clayton, executive director of SOHS on Wednesday afternoon, reversing an announcement made Tuesday that the Ashland branch of Southern Oregon Head Start would shut its doors on Friday, April 11.
The Ashland Community Food Bank operates on local grants and donations, not federal funds, but that doesn’t make it immune to the ripple effects of ongoing federal cuts, its executive director told Ashland.news in an interview. The Trump administration halted $500 million in food aid nationally at the end of March, translating to roughly 100 truckloads of food for the Oregon Food Bank, as reported by the Oregonian.
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Ask Strider: A worried older brother asks our advice columnist’s advice. And a dog’s guardian wants to know if there is any hope getting their hat-hating dog to calm down. As always, Strider tries to give words that help!
After a successful production of “The Vagina Monologues” and raising more than $2,000 for Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon, Ashland actor and director Lia Dugal intends for “The Climate Monologues” to premiere in Oregon in late 2025 or early 2026 at the Bellview Grange in Ashland.
It’s complicated.
Herbert Rothschild: Whether visualization and intention by themselves can effect broad social change is impossible to determine, but the question merits sustained consideration.
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