From a concerned citizen, to environmental planner, to elected official, Jackie Dingfelder walks us through her multi-faceted perspective on Oregon's natural resources. As a former Oregon Legislator Jackie shares her “pracidemic” stance on natural resource use and abuse, and how precious commodities like water came to be so under valued. Jackie also touches on her belief that while Oregon’s leadership is not as enshrined as it used to be (with regards to climate change), and how Oregonians could reclaim our status as environmental leaders. Jackie also shares her sources of hope for Oregon: from the energy of young people, to local efforts, to collaboration amongst leaders. With these pieces in place, can we tackle the wicked problems of our time?
From a concerned citizen, to environmental planner, to elected official, Jackie Dingfelder walks us through her multi-faceted perspective on Oregon's natural resources. As a former Oregon Legislator Jackie shares her “pracidemic” stance on natural resource use and abuse, and how precious commodities like water came to be so under valued. Jackie also touches on her belief that while Oregon’s leadership is not as enshrined as it used to be (with regards to climate change), and how Oregonians could reclaim our status as environmental leaders. Jackie also shares her sources of hope for Oregon: from the energy of young people, to local efforts, to collaboration amongst leaders. With these pieces in place, can we tackle the wicked problems of our time?
GlobalPDX Podcast
Episode 8 Transcript
Wicked Challenges Need Collaborative Responses
Andrea Johnson
Hello and welcome to the GlobalPDX Podcast. As we have come to accept that the virtual working world is here to stay for quite a while, we're excited to continue this podcast and provide connection, content, and support Oregon’s Hub of Global Changemakers. My name is Andrea Johnson and I'm the chair of the GlobalPDX Advisory Board, and Executive Director at Green Empowerment. In today’s speaking change podcast we are joined by Jackie Dingfelder. Jackie is a policy consultant focused on local and global water issues, and an adjunct professor of public policy at the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State University. She serves on the board of Climate Solutions, as well as A Thousand Friends of Oregon. Jackie's full bio can be found on the GlobalPDX.org website. Jackie, thank you so much for joining us today.
Jackie Dingfelder
Thank you Andrea for having me on this wonderful podcast.
Andrea
So, our listeners may be familiar with your name, you were an elected official here in Oregon, but perhaps you could talk a little bit about your career before and since public service and what you're focused on now so that folks know why we're talking to you today.
Jackie
First of all and just want to remind folks that the Oregon legislature, and I'll talk a little bit about that (I served for just under fourteen years in the Oregon House and the Oregon Senate), is a citizen legislature. So the reason I bring that up is I've worked in the environmental field my entire career, and while I was serving in the Oregon legislature (from 2001 to the end of 2013) I was still working almost full-time. And a lot of folks forget that! Because they just think “Ok you go off to Salem, youre legislating your elected officials”, but in Oregon we still have a citizen legislature. So I have been involved working in the Environmental Policy/Environmental Planning arena since graduate school (since 1985), and continued that while I was in the Oregon legislature and still working on water issues today, in a different venue. As you mentioned, now I consider myself a “Pracidemic”. Not sure if listeners have heard of that term, but essentially it's a practitioner that also has an academic background. When I was 50 I decided to go back and get a PhD. I already had an undergraduate in geomorphology which is physical geography, with my masters in environmental planning (with a focus on water Resources management) but I really wanted to focus a little more on research, and I can talk a little bit more later. I'm really fortunate in that I've had a variety of experiences throughout my career and I’m happy to share some of that with listeners today.
Andrea
One of the things that I think is really interesting about your background is that a lot of the work you have done is focused in the pacific Northwest but you also had an opportunity to go abroad to New Zealand. So what parallels do you see between some of the Pacific Northwest conversations that we're having around water issues, and then Global water issues?
Jackie
Well there’s a lot of parallels, Andrea, and what we're seeing around the Pacific Northwest is not unlike what we are seeing around the world. And it's interesting because I think many of us, and I've lived in the Pacific Northwest now more than half my life. I grew up in the east coast, I've lived in different parts of the US, in the South, in Southern California, in the Midwest, different parts of the world. In the Pacific Northwest we have always thought of having abundant precipitation, and we have this variety of the microclimate, but climate change impacts are here in the Pacific Northwest, and unfortunately they are here to stay. Here in Oregon specifically (and this is similar to many places around the world) we are experiencing changes in the rates of precipitation, rising temperatures causing diminishing snowpack, increased drought and water shortages, rising ocean temperatures and acidification, and the result is we are experiencing changes in water supplies. Demand in waer quality, we have record-breaking wild fires. Declining mountain snowpack and increased drought and water shortages. And ocean acidification so these are issues that countries, communities across the world are facing. We are not unique. As a matter of fact it has been almost a year now since I was last in New Zealand doing some work for one of my clients (which is the nature conservancy in New Zealand) and the fires in Australia were raging. And I am sure many of you know, you probably saw it on tv or watched it on the news. And then here, 6 months later, a very similar situation in the west coast of the US. So we are experiencing very similar issues. and I want to point to two very important studies that I will encourage our podcast listeners to look at (if they havent already). We have 2 very important institutions here, and I am really proud to say tht I helped to create both of these: The Oregon Climate Change Research Institute (OCCRI). This is a network of dozens of professors and professionals at Portland State University. And also they work with pSU, UofO, and other universities/organizations, and according to OCCRI in their latest climate assessment, and that was issued in January 20-21 it's on their website...
Andrea
Hot off the presses!
Jackie
Hot off the presses! In 1955 part of Oregon has experienced a decrease in average snow pack, this is by the spring, by 70%.
Andrea
Wow, that is a big number!
Jackie
Yeah and snowpack is projected to decline even more as winter temperatures rise, resulting in greater precipitation rather than snow. So why is this important? You know Andrea, it affects everything that we do in the Pacific Northwest. It affects our electricity system, since 60% of Oregon's electricity is derived from hydropower. It creates a greater need for Reservoir and irrigation management, and it produces stress on our salmonet species, and then of course we are seeing greater acidification in our oceans, adversely affecting marine life. So just a reminder: for agriculture this is huge. Agriculture is our biggest water user in Oregon (85% of our water goes to agriculture) so we need to take a hard look at some of these practices. The second study I am going to point people to is the Global Warming Comission. This all come out of the package of legislation I worked in in 2007, we created the Global Warming Comission which meets on a quarterly basis regularly to assess how the state is doing in meeting our carbon reduction goals (unfortunately we are not doing very well). But the latest report (again hot off of the press) just came out and I highly encourage our listeners to read it. It has excellent information including the impacts of climate change on communities of color, and their disproportionate impacts on communities of color. So we need to step-up our game on environmental justice and responding to these disproportionate impacts. I will stop there because that is a lot of information I am throwing out all at once!
Andrea
There is a lot to unpack there. I think one thing I would love for you to elaborate on: when you were mentioning you know the wildfires in that parallel, are you seeing any successful, or kind of hopeful, examples of how integrated Water Resource Management thinking about climate resilience and Wildfire management, are we seeing examples that are positive and going to help us be resilient to these impacts of climate change (whether here, or globally)?
Jackie
We are seeing some at the local level. For listeners I will just mention that when I went back and got my PHD, I have always been interested in looking at integrated water management. And the reason is, water has traditionally been syloed by water quantity, water quality, water distribution, agricultural, Municipal, for salmon, and natural purposes, Wild and Scenic Rivers act. So we tend to look at water in a very disparate way. What I wanted to do is look at where integrated water management, which is looking at water wholistically in an integrated fashion, has worked. So I looked at two examples. One in the country of New Zealand, and I was really fortunate in 2016 I got to spend most of the year there as a Fulbright Fellow studying Integrated Water Management. And then in comparison I wanted to look at how the State of Oregon has been responding to developing an integrated approach. And just for a little bit of background for listeners: when served in the Oregon Legislature I chaired both in the House (for 8 years) and in the Senate (for six years) I chaired the Natural Resources committees (they were called “Environment and Energy” in the House and in the Senate it was “The Natural Resources Committee”. So I delt with all of the issues around natural resources in Oregon. And of course it’s very broad, from forest management, to agricultural, to wild life, to water, to land use. But one of the things that I learned (somewhat shocking to me and to my colleagues at the time) is that Oregon (back in the early 2000s) was one of only two states in the West that did not have an integrated water plan. It was Oregon and Alaska, interestingly enough. We tended to manage water in sylos.
Andrea
That’s pretty interesting because I think Oregon is seen as a leader in environmental issues. I think a lot of us who live here feel that way. So to hear that there was that gap in that plan is insightful.
Jackie
I'm not going to go into the minutia of this, but Oregon has a very unique natural resource management system in that we have fourteen separate agencies that have oversight for Natural Resources in Oregon. And 10 of those 14 have some purview over water. And almost all of them have separate boards and commissions, separate statutes, separate missions. And so it wasn't surprising to me because, you know, it's sort of like herding cats! Trying to get different agencies of stakeholders together to come up with a common values about how we manage our water. But we were able to do it, and I worked with Republicans (this was all bipartisan, which I just will mention to listeners) at the time I’d say almost all of the legislation I worked on was on a bipartisan fashion back then. And unfortunately my co-sponsor, who has since passed away from Pendleton. But he (representative Bob Jensen and I) worked together for years on water issues. And you know we didnt agree on everything, but we agreed that we needed to manage our resources more wisely because of climate change. So the Integrated Water Resources Management Plan that first came out took a wholistic look at water managemen in Oregon. It has since been updated, again for I would encourage folks to take a look at that, but it has a lot of really good information in there that can help the State respond and deal with the climate change challenges that we are talking about.
Unfortunately, many of those priorities have yet to be funded for reasons we all know: there's lots of other priorities, there's lots of challenges, funding education, of course the pandemic. But the framework is there. I highly encourage folks if you are interested to look at the Integrated Water Management Strategy. Regarding successful attempts: we have seen it at the local and regional scale. I want to put in a plug for what’s called “watershed councils”. I will say that Governow John Kitzhaber (who was governor at the time) created this whole network of watershed counclis. The idea behind it was collaborative management resources at the local level. I will say that one of the things that has intrigued me, and I have worked on at the latter part of my career, is looking at “how can we successfully manage these resources in a collaborative bases”. And I just contributed to my firat book, I authored a book chapter. Its part of a handbook on collaborative public management where we look at some case studies. So one of them was a region in New Zealand, another is looking at some of the regions we have here in Oregon and I will say that people together on the ground,who work day-by-day (whether its in forestry or agriculture, or ranching, urban) that's when you can really solve problem. At the federal level, at the State level, there is just a lot of finger pointing. And I really think that is the key to success: is when you get stakeholders, interested folks, around the table to work day in, day out, on how you solve these problems. That’s when you actually see some constructive advances in how we can work together to deal with these climate change impacts. We have seen that in areas around the State, in the Willamette, in the Rogue Valley is an area where we have a strong regional working group, the John de folks are working together. So that's happening. We are still waiting to see the recommendations that come out of these regional “place-based working groups”. But the whole idea behind that is ehen you get people together, face to face, working on these issues, (of course that had to be suspended during COVID) thats where you can see some real progress being made.
Andrea
I'm in the Hood River Valley and I know that our Council has been having meetings remotely, and it’s allowing folks to attend that maybe otherwise, because of your work schedule or family schedule would have been hard to get to an in-person meeting. But I do see some opportunities for kind of citizen engagement locally here. And I think that resonates with a lot of the GlobalPDX listeners who I think have similar values to what you're saying about working with communities to solve problems and getting stakeholders really engaged. I see a lot of parallels between the GlobalPDX members and how you are talking about work being successful here in Oregon. So hopefully that is inspiring for people.
Jackie
I really believe part of it is just sitting around a table (or Zoom chat room) and really listening to each other. I feel like we've lost the art of listening. For those who… the past four years have been really challenging. We have heard a lot of yelling, a lot os accusations, and I really feel that thats one of the top values of these collaborative working groups: you have the chance to listen and understand where each other is coming from. Let me just put this out here: 85% or our water use comes from agriculture but we all eat food. We all use the benefits of these products. So we have to be supportive of collaborative ways that we can help farmers make sure that they are sustainably watering into the future. Its got to be balanced with the needs of the environment. Finger pointing never has solved problems in thenatural resource arena. Part of it stems from having the right data. Sitting down working through identifying what the problems are, and working through those solutions collaboratively.
Andrea
So you did just mention the last four years and obviously you've also mentioned previous experience with bipartisan conversations and solutions. So right now in this moment what's making you feel hopeful or motivated that we can continue with some progress given the political climate?
Jackie
What makes me feel hopeful is young people, and the younger generation. As you mentioned I am an adjunct professor at Portland State University in the Hatfield School of Government and just recently finished teaching a course in public policy and advocacy. Now this is the first time I've ever taught a class virtually, I have to say I was not trained in teaching online so I was really hesitant about how this was going to go. I have to say first of all I was so impressed by the students and the cohort. Every week (it was a 10 week class) it really made me feel hopeful because of the questions that the students asked, their willingness to really dig in and understand. And also they are trying to figure out how they can add value in a world that has been somewhat paralyzed by the partisanship and the vitriol. And so the fact that they are figuring out how to work together and get beyond this, is what makes me hopeful. I also believe that they really understand, you know, that we're all in this together and the finger-pointing isn’t gonna solve the problems. So that’s what gives me hope. I'm seeing Innovation, I'm seeing a willingness to work together, I'm seeing new ways of approaching Wicked problems (as we call them: problems that have been around for a long time) and so that's what gives me hope today.
Andrea
So do you consider me or you obviously have this both local and Global Perspective and I think some of us still believe that Oregon is definitely a leader in energy and environmental policy, is that true? If not true, how do we regain that position of leadership? What's your perspective on that?
Jackie
Oregon is still a leader on some issues but we're certainly falling behind on others. Let me give you an example: I think that it was unfortunate that during the last session there was a very innovative cap-and-invest bill that unfortunately didnt even get to a vote because the party who opposed it walked out and left the capitol. And didn't even want to have a discussion and debate on it, which was very disappointing. In my time you could debate, you vote “No”, and you agree to disagree and you move on. So I was really disappointed that that did not occur. Governor Brown put forward a very comprehensive executive order that will accomplish some of the things that were In the package, however we have got to make sure we allocate the resources and prioritize implementing that executive order. I would say we have the potential to be a leader again if we make sure that we are on track with those.
The other is: there is a lot of work to be done on how we can be more innovative around water. And again I am coming back to water because we tend to think about climate change, and we tend to think about energy, but climate change has so many impacts. I mentioned about agriculture. We have, in Oregon, as most Western States are reliant upon, western water law. Which is not conducive of being creative and innovative in solving climate issues. So I think that is one of the biggest wicked challenges we have: how do we work to come up with a more creative response in our water administrative laws to deal with climate change? There are ways we can do it. We can measure and manage water in a more effective way and there hasn't been the political will to do that. This sounds really simple but we can look at the types of crops we are growing and say, “is this the highest and best use of this water?”. So we have to take a hard look at agriculture practices, we have to look at increasing efficiencies (which I know irrigation districts are doing around the state). We have to have greater planning efforts. We need teeth to support the governor's office executive order and work that she's doing. We have to look at how we are using water across infrastructure, Waste Water, Irrigation Systems, promoting conservation and re-use. And then last but not least, I know this might sound controversial, but we have to revisit how we price water. Because the reality is water is free. We pay for the delivery, we pay for the infrastructure. It's not a very efficient way to manage a resource. So if we really wanted to figure out how to manage our water systems more efficiently we would look at a market pricing mechanism, which exists, but again politically it is very challenging. You have heard about water markets, if we had a arket for water I have no doubt that would manage our water more efficiently.
Andrea
Are there examples of water markets globally, or locally?
Jackie
Yes there are. Locally the Tualitin Basin used a water market for water quality. But there are examples, groups and NGOS, that are working on this. And it’s been used more successfully around water than water quantity. But it's happening with water quality as well. An example is in Southern California municipalities are paying Farmers to upgrade their irrigation systems so they can irrigate more efficiently and then use that water, buy the water, for municipal purposes. The other is: just being more creative. We know that theres parts of the world that are having o treat their waste water and storm water for drinking water. And I know our listeners will go, “no way!”, that is happening in Southern California. Of course we havent gotten to that position yet in the Pacific Northwest, and hopefully we won'thave to if we figure out a way to be more efficient with our water resources. And then finally around recycling: I worked on Expansion of the Bottle Bill, we need to be more efficient in the way that we deal with packaging. And I do know that there's legislation around the nation. I serve on a board for National Caucus for Environmental Legislators. We work with legislative leaders around the country to promote innovative environmental legislation. And reducing packaging is one of the top issues. And I have to tell you it makes me laugh because I think I worked on a bill, maybe 20 years ago, to look at a packaging tax. Listeners probably go, “What?!”. But think about it: what would be one of the most effective ways to reduce packaging, is if manufacturers had to pay for the packaging! Which they do not pay for the proper disposal of packaging. And I have to tell you during the pandemic, when we are seeing a lot more packaging, a lot more waste, I mean this is yet another issue where Oregon can step up and lead in that arena.
Andrea
That’s great. You have such an amazing perspective, having actually done the work as an elected official, but also having the kind of academic and more, kind of, policy perspective on these issues as well. So I think one of the questions, you kind of mentioned it earlier, is overlaying racial or climate justice with these issues. Is that something you have been considering in terms of different groups that are disproportionately impacted and how they are part of the solutions?
Jackie
Absolutely and I will say that I'm really proud that I co-sponsored (back then I was in the House) Senator Avel Gordly the bill that hel[ped create the environmental taskforce. That taskforce has done an amazing amount of work including recommendations for how our natural resource agencies can address Enviornmental Justice issues. Unfortunately like many things, this has (I don’t want to say “fallen by the wayside” but,) it hasnt been as much of a priority as I think it should. Because almost every one of those agencies has been required to create these plans to address environmental justice issues and I don't know who's tracking that, are those being funded, do we have metrics to measure the effectiveness of these plans? I am much more familiar with the State and local level, when I worked, I worked as an adviser senior policy advisor to then-mayor Charlie Hales, working on environmental sustainability issues, certainly a priority for the city. And I think the city has done a better job at rewally integrating that into their bureaus missions. Elected officials need to hold agencies accountable, that's part of what elected officials jobs are: to provide that oversight and make sure that that happens. And so we have a long way to go in this country, many many decades, hundreds of years of degradation that has disproportionately impacted communities of color so we need to make sure that that is top priority when we're looking at any policies moving forward.
Andrea
You've also brought up the resourcing. So it's an idea or concept of policy might be well designed and well-thought-out, but if we don't put the resources behind those the impact can be quite limited. And I think that's just something you know you probably don't have a singular solution for but we're definitely seeing that at a global level, a national level, and in this local level. How do we actually fund the solutions that we need and some of that’s political willpower I'm assuming but any ideas on that?
Jackie
I would say most of its political will power. I mean the United States is the wealthiest country in the world. It's about distribution, and it’s about prioritization. So if we truly prioritized these issues we would find a way to fund it. But of course, as you mentioned, politically it’s a challenge. Natural resources agencies in Oregon, and I'm just going to focus on Oregon for now, less than 2% of our entire general fund budget goes to fund all those natural resource agencies I talked about. Less than 2% of our general fund. So part of it is looking at how we can come up with more creative funding mechanisms, I have suggested and have bills in. Let me give you an example: we have over 85,000 water rights in the state of Oregon that have been issued to water rights holders. I am sure most of your listeners arent water rights attorneys but basically the state of Oregon is responsible for managing water resources. The water is owned by people of Oregon and we Grant a right to individuals. and that right is in perpetuity, unless they misuse it. They have to submit an application and pay an application fee and that's it. So I had suggested that water right holders in Oregon pay a mere hundred dollars a year for the water right, and that would have generated millions of dollars, millions of dollars, to ensure the proper management of our water resources. For instance you probably heard that we are having real ground water challenges in Eastern Oregon. We dont have the resources to do proper groundwater studies and so even just funding the necessary data gathering and management would help immensely in how we manage our water resources in the state. So there are creative ways. Markets to generate funds as well. I'm not an economics expert/professor and Portland State actually has some great folks that can provide more information on markets, but there certainly are here examples out there and unfortunately, again, we are not on the cutting edge here in Oregon.
Andrea
It's really interesting I think especially when you say just $100 a year... I understand that there's a perspective that you don't want to allow any progress on charging for water rights because any movement might open the door for more changes but, I think we say $100 a year that doesn't sound that insulting to the agricultural community (in isolation) right?
Jackie
The reality is that water right holders have paid nothing for many many years so certainly they're not jumping up and down and saying “yes, we’re happy to pay!”. I'm sure there's some that are, but I could not get the bill through, it has been tried many times after me and me that was sort of a no-brainer of how we can generate some additional funding. So that's just an example there's lots of other ways we under value our resources. We under value our resources immensely. What is the price of water, right? It's Priceless! Because if we did not have water resources in a state, we would be hugely dependent. I'm here in Central Oregon, live part-time in Central Oregon, and we are facing yet another drought year for the irrigation districts here. So anyway we have huge challenges that are not going away any time soon.
Andrea
And unfortunately they are not unique to Oregon because they are definitely Global issues that are increasing as climate impacts increase. So one last question: you've been able to kind of merge your career and your time as an elected official and it seems to really shape how you think about things. Can you tell us a little bit about how that experience shapes what your focus on now?
Jackie
Yeah, this is a great question and I will say that one of the things about public service, and I just wanted encourage listeners: anybody can serve the public. I am not a career politician. My background is environmental policy and planning. The reason I stepped up to run for office is because I saw a lack of environmental leadership at the time in Oregon. This is in the late 90s early 2000s, and I felt like I could make a difference. So I was just a citizen that stepped up. I didn't have a political science background, actually (this is a funny little joke that I tell my students) I didn’t even take a political science class until I was in the PHD program (my students always get a chuckle out of that). My background came from policy/science and that is a unique perspective that I brought to the legislature. And I also knew that I wasn't my goal wasn't being there forever. My goal was to be there in a time where I felt like I could make a difference on issues that I was passionate about and I felt like it was able to do that, and then it's time to pass the batton to the next generation. So one of the things for me one of the true values that I tool away from serving was: it open my eyes to so many issues that I hadn't been involved with because we all have our career path and that tends to be somewhat narrow (unless you're a policy generalist and working on a broad range of issues). But we tend to be specialist and work on issues around energy, or water, or housing, whatever. So I felt so fortunate because it was like going back to graduate school and learning about a whole range of issues that I really hadnt had a whole lot of experience with. An example is the justice system. I sat for almost a decade on the judiciary committee and I knew very little about our criminal justice system in Oregon. Most people (unless you are a lawyer, or a judge, or you are somehow involved with the courts or you have personal experience with the criminal justice system) don't have day-to-day interactions. So I feel really fortunate and I learned a lot about a very important part of our whole system. When you look at a big chunk of our budget in Oregon going to fund our public safety and our criminal justice system.
So that’s the avantage. I learned about issues that I had never worked on! Healthcare, the education system. So as a legislator you have to be a generalist, you have to know and understand you are voting on laws that will affect people's lives. And so that weighed very heavy on me because really as a policy-maker you know you were deciding everyday winners and losers every day to some extent. Hopefully you are raising all boats, but essentially you are making decisions on laws affect people's lives every day. So I thought about that very seriously as an elected official I also valued the relationships that I built because we tend to, especially now during covid-19, and on social media with people that tend to have similar views or yhink like us. in the Oregon legislature everyday I was working with people mainly in rural communities because the natural resource committees tend to be dominated by folks from rural communities because those are the top issues for rural communities. When youre looking at forestry, agriculture and wildlife management of Water Resources management, and land-use, I would say that most of my rural colleagues, these were higher priorities for them. And so my committee's tended to be populated with people from rural areas. At the time, we were allowed to hold hearings around the state which I hope that the legislative leaders reinstate that, because it's very hard for people to get to Salem, unless you live in Salem. But most citizens are not going to drive to Salem, so I held natural resource hearing's around the state so I made sure that citizens in rural communities had access to decision-makers. I also spent a lot of time going out in the field and doing field work which I have done traditionally working in the watershed restoration field, I have spent time in rural communities throughout the entire West. Worked with agricultural, forestry interests, ranching, you name it, a wide variety of stakeholder groups. So I feel like the fact that I was able to work daily with folks who dont think like me, which really shaped how I view issues. I would say that is the most important aspect of being a legislator is the ability to listen and understand different viewpoints and then come up with solutions working together. And I just hope that that may be post-covid we are able to get back to some of those stronger working relationships across the aisle.
Andrea
I think that this has been such an amazing conversation and it's really cool to hear about your personal experience, your career interests and passions, and how you wove that into public service, and now you know as a professor how you're sharing that with the next generation. Is there anything that you want to leave with our listeners as we close out this conversation today?
Jackie
Yes a couple of issues/messages: 1) don't give up hope because I hear a lot of angst about the future which is easy for many of us to feel hopeless. When we feel like this cpontinual stresses of climate change, and increased disparity between incomes, the fact that we have growing partisanship. But I will say what gives me hope, Andrea, is what’s happening at a local level. The work of Green Empowerment, the work of local watershed groups, the work that folks are doing in their own communities. That is really where solution lie because neighbor to neighbor, working together, and having those conversations. It’s been really hard during COVID. I think about that alot. We miss those interactions at the store, with your neighbors, working on volunteer projects, going and clearing out blackberries, working on habitat restoration projects. I’m hoping we can get back to those local, on the ground projects working together is key. Because that's where people who may not agree on a lot of issues can come together. Put their differences aside and agree, “Yep, we're going to work together on restoring this stream, working at the food bank, making sure that our neighborhoods are cleaned up.” It’s the Grassroots, bottom-up efforts that are really going to make a difference. It's not what's coming out of Washington, it's not what's coming out of Salem. It's what leaders and our local neighborhood groups are doing to make change. So that’s what gives me hope, I’m hopeful that we will be able to get back to that in a few months, once we are (fingers crossed) on the other side of this pandemic. But I would say that the work is very similar to the work that you do at Green Empowerment, so I’m really hopeful moving forward that we will be able to get back to a bipartisan and collaborative working relationship with our fellow citizens.
Andrea
Awesome, well thank you so much for joining us today on this podcast and thank you for being a global change maker. GlobalPDX is dedicated to keeping you connected and engaged. For resources from this podcast and more check out our website. If you aren't already a GlobalPDX member please consider joining our community and feel free to email Communications@GlobalPDX.org with any questions. Stay tuned for new episodes of our podcast, and please share with fellow changemakers.