[All-Gorge] 🧭 "One of the Two Purposes," Debates Inside the Gorge Commission - August '26

The federal signature the Columbia River Gorge Commission has waited on since January finally landed, and it arrived as a footnote in a scheduling discussion. Post-fire rebuilding rules take effect around October 1, which matters to every household still rebuilding after the Rowena and Burdoin fires. We also get into a vineyard warning about prescribed fire, and a real argument inside the Commission about whether it has been doing half its job.

In This Episode

• The Secretary of Agriculture's concurrence, and the three things that change for people rebuilding
• Why no appeals hearing is scheduled, and why nobody can tell you what appeals are coming
• Prescribed fire, smoke taint, and roughly 110 Gorge vineyards
• "One of the two purposes of the Act": Commissioner Fowler on what the Commission has not been doing
• The Commission starts approving AI-written meeting summaries as its public record
• A first-ever annual report, a trial newsletter, and a 40th birthday planned on a flat budget

Resources & Links

• Read the full written Dispatch at skamaniadispatch.com
• Gorge Commission meetings, agendas and recordings: gorgecommission.org
• The Commission's index of decided appeals: gorgecommission.org/appeals
• Our January explainer on what the disaster-recovery amendment actually changed: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/gorge-commission-passes-disaster-recovery-amendment-what-changed-what-didnt-and-what-comes-next-1-13-26/
• Our July edition, where the Commission adopted these rules: https://skamania-dispatch.ghost.io/turning-40-on-a-tight-budget-gorge-commission-6-18-7-14/
• Next Commission meeting: Tuesday, September 8, 8:30 a.m., by Zoom. The registration link lives inside the posted agenda.

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hey there, and welcome back to Open Gorge. I'm glad you're here. Today we're covering the Columbia River Gorge Commission Committee meetings for August, including the Executive Committee, Communications Committee, and Economic Vitality Committee. First, let's start with the biggest update. If you or someone you know is still rebuilding after the Ruena or Burdoin fires, this episode starts with news you can actually use, and it almost slipped by. On August 19th, the Gorge Commission's Executive Committee was working through a scheduling question, which items go on the September agenda. It was pretty routine stuff, but then the Commission's lawyer, Jeffrey Litwak, mentioned something in passing. The U.S. Secretary of Agriculture had signed off on these updates, and here's why that matters. Back in January, the Commission voted to change how rebuilding works in the National Scenic Area after the Rowena and Burdoin fires. In July, they wrote those changes into their land use ordinance, but a vote isn't a rule yet. Federal sign-off was the last gate, and it was just cleared. So, Litwax said, the new rules take effect around October 1st. If you're affected by this fire, what changes for you? Three things. If you're homeburned, you now have 10 years to start rebuilding your replacement. It used to be just two. If you're replacing what you had, there's a faster review path with room for a modest increase in footprint. And you can live in an RV on your own property while you rebuild and store what you salvage without filing a full application. Staff prepare the site plan, you sign it, and the letter is the decision. There's one honest caveat. That October 1st date came from a lawyer speaking on a recording, and we didn't get it in the written file of notice yet, so we are going to treat it as close but not certain and update when we get that information. Moving over to the rest of August. There was no full commission meeting this past month. The commission meets every other month now to save some money. But all three committees met. Economic vitality on the 5th, communications on the 13th, and executive on the 19th. And that last one? A genuinely interesting argument broke out. Staff have been touring county planning departments getting ready for the next rewrite of the Gorge Management Plan for 2030. Multnomah, Hood River, and Wasco counties are done. Scamania and Clark Counties come next. Alex Johnson, who chairs the executive committee, asked a simple question. Is it only the planning departments? Yes, he was told. And Johnson pushed back. He said the enthusiasm he hears for the Commission's work sits mostly outside land use. It's forest fire resiliency, fisheries, recreation, rural economics. Can a commissioners see all of that? And the permit counters usually don't. Then Commissioner Valerie Fowler took it even further. She said that focusing on land use means focusing on one of the two purposes of the Scenic Act. She wants the economic purpose in the room from the very beginning. And then she said this quote, you all know my view that we have not, as a commission, focused on the economic purpose as much as I believe the framers intended us to, unquote. That's Commissioner saying that her own agency has been doing half its job. Executive Director Christina Wolanowski pushed back. She said county commissions and city councils are all in the outreach plan just later in the sequence, and she didn't want the public thinking that the commission ignores the economy. Commissioner Nathan Reynolds found the line that settled it for now. He said the planning department meetings aren't the star of the next plan at all. Quote, I feel like we're closing out the last one, unquote. So here's the result. On September 8th, commissioners will spend time saying out loud what their own priorities are for the management plan. No staff paper behind it. Johnson was blunt. He doesn't want staff work. He wants commissioners speaking honestly. I know we're all really looking forward to that. Now, let's talk about smoke. Commissioner Fowler used the presence of the incoming Forest Service supervisor to raise something that wasn't on the agenda at all. Prescribed fire. She called it a hot topic, pun intended. So here's the tension. People in the gorge broadly support prescribed burning. The problem is timing. By Fowler's count, there are about 110 vineyards in the area, plus what she described as tens of millions of grapes and other fruit on vines and trees. Smoke taint has come up repeatedly in recent years. That's when fruit is usually damaged by the taste or the smell of smoke that coats the outside and sometimes works its way into the fruit. This can affect all the products that the fruit is meant to be used for later. And she raised a specific example. The Top of the World Fire back in October 2024. That was a Forest Service prescribed burn between Binchon and Lyle that escaped in the wind. Columbia Gorge News reported that it had grown about 240 acres just two days in. Fowler lives right next to that property, and her complaint wasn't about the fire. It was about notice. She said most locals found out about the burn's planning and timing from signs posted on State Route 14 and old Highway 8. Afterwards, the forest supervisor at the time promised to hold real conversations with the community, not just send out communications. So Fowler asked for this fall's burn plans. She asked for meeting dates set far enough ahead that farmers, who are very busy people, can actually put them on a calendar. Marin Palmer, the acting supervisor, agreed to communicate early and often. That's a promise worth checking in on this fall. Moving over to the Communications Committee, the Commission started approving AI-generated meeting summaries as its official record. On August 13th, two of the four members approved the June summary. It was produced by running the meeting notes through AI. Staff noted the obvious problem with good humor, the AI can't spell her name. And that's an issue that we've actually documented several times even with this podcast. Usually when we produce transcripts for each of the meetings that we follow, we have to go back through with a custom-built spell checker just to make sure that all of our names, mine included, are spelled correctly. So the committee did state a protocol out loud. AI drafts, humans verify. I think that sounds pretty reasonable. One member says it does a great job, and you have to check it. Another said you can't count on it being 100%. So, as we can see, it's always good to have a human in the loop. The executive director has started using AI for full commission minutes too, and plans to extend it to the committees. Here's why we're telling you, for a meeting with no minutes and no posted transcript, the summary is a public record of what your government did. The verification step is the entire safeguard. And this newsroom built its own archive from those same recordings, so we're not neutral about it. We have a lot of steps that we try to work in, and we'll do our best to share those tips with the commission, as I think they're good practices, but they also teach us a lot about how these tools work, what they're best for, what they're maybe not best for, and especially how we can all start producing better public record and better recordings from now on. Also from that meeting, the commission is building its first ever public annual report. Eight pages, ready for January's legislative sessions. A commissioner volunteered to draft a trial newsletter, and the mailing list already exists, about 600 people. Finally, the birthday. November 17th marks 40 years since the Scenic Area Act passed. The Commission wants its November meeting held in person to mark it. But we'll look at the history. For the 25th anniversary, there's a big community-led event up at Scamania Lodge with a lot of legislators. For the 30th in 2016, there was a reception after the Commission meeting, with appetizers that the executive director remembers being paid for privately. The 40th is tracking closer to the 30th, and the reason is money, which raises a question you might have. Can you attend? Yes, the meeting is public, and Commissioner Reynolds wants it promoted that way. The reception afterward is meant to be open too. But Litwak pointed out a rule. Public money can feed commissioners and staff at a public meeting, but it cannot feed the public at a celebration. So the food needs a private sponsor. Before you go, here's what's next. September 8th, the Commission meets by Zoom at 8 30 in the morning. There'll be no appeals hearing that day, and on September 10th, the Communications Committee will meet again. Around October 1st, those rebuilding rules will take effect, and November, there'll be an in-per-city meeting with the venue still not decided yet. You'll find all these details with the links in the sources, as always, in the written edition at SchemaniaDispatch.com. You've been listening to a production of opengorge.org, home of the Schemania Dispatch and the Click of Tattler. We believe that informed communities are stronger communities. To support our work and stay up to date on everything happening in the gorge, head over to schemania dispatch.com to sign up for our newsletters. You can also find us on Facebook at facebook.comslash opengorge. Join the conversation and share your thoughts on today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll talk to you next time.