Rivers and Roads: a 1,300-Mile Visit Across Central and Eastern Oregon
We continue On the Road in Oregon, a blog series that takes you on a journey through the heart of Oregon's diverse communities. In this series, we're exploring the work of the Oregon Department of Energy's Community Navigator Program as its staff fosters connections and collaboration across the state. This story is courtesy of Sara Lark Millies-Lucke, ODOE’s Resource Assistance for Rural Environments (RARE) Program Member.
Not a bad view from the car!
As a RARE AmeriCorps member serving as a Rural Resilience Analyst with the Oregon Department of Energy, I have spent my service time reviewing Oregon’s Community Renewable Energy Grant Program and the Grid Resilience Grant program. I went from data analysis to scheduling in-person interviews with various organizations in Southern Oregon, the Willamette Valley, and on the coast. My map was starting to look complete to the west, but it was clear that Eastern Oregon deserved its own in-person visit. If I wanted to experience rural Oregon, it was time to pack my bags and head out East.
I left at sunrise one morning, met up with ODOE Community Navigator Sarah Moehrke in Roseburg, and began our five-day road trip in Eastern Oregon. Our first stop was at the High Desert Partnership in Hines, Oregon. We met with the folks working in a collective with the Bureau of Land Management, including private landowners and the biomass district heating system. The collective is working to clean up forests for fire management and provide heating to critical infrastructure, including the local school and courthouse. While most Community Renewable Energy Grant Program awardees install solar systems, it was great to learn more about the innovative and creative solutions with other renewable energies that organizations are using to address several issues at once while keeping their communities safe and public buildings open. In Hines, it’s biomass energy.
We stayed in Ontario for the night and then met with Oregon Trail Electric Co-op in La Grande the next morning for an interview on the federal Grid Resilience Grant program. We learned how they are installing new technology sensors to increase fire security and control of their grid system. After a great discussion, we once again hit the road to interview Wallowa Resources in Enterprise, Oregon to learn about commercial efficiency upgrades that are necessary in the varied climate that the Wallowa Mountains provide.
A view of the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Pendleton.
Our third day opened with a tour of the Wastewater Treatment Plant for the City of Pendleton, where we were able to experience the full processing of the city’s waste system and learn about the energy efficiency and creative solutions the City has installed and are planning to implement at the facility, saving the city money and increasing the longevity and responsiveness of public services. It was one of our favorite stops on our five-day fieldtrip. We concluded our day after sitting down with the Confederated Tribes of Umatilla Indian Reservation’s energy and natural resources team, learning how the Community Renewable Energy Grant Program allowed the Tribe to fund projects outlined in their long-term Strategic Energy Plan
Our fourth day started with a great breakfast at a local diner in the City of Echo before interviewing the City Administrator at City Hall. The City of Echo has a population of just 622, but they have big dreams for economic and resilient development. They are interested in using ODOE’s grant program as a way to build resilience for their community while also providing a space for visitors to charge their electric vehicles.
Our navigation system then took us on a service road detour, winding between steep drop offs and blooming wildflowers for 30 miles to reach Monument, Oregon and sit down with Lisa Atkin, General Manager of the Columbia Power Co-Op. As Oregon’s smallest cooperative-owned utility — and the most remote — with a service territory spanning over frontier landscape in rural Eastern Oregon, Columbia Power Co-Op is using its Grid Resilience Program funds to improve grid system management, allowing them to narrow the search of areas that need repair. With a comparatively small line worker crew, this upgrade allows the co-op to save labor hours and minimize outage timelines for customers. All of these necessary upgrades hit close to home when hearing harrowing stories from Lisa and her crew working overtime to help keep the power on during the historic 2024 wildfire season.
As we headed back home, we were able to meet with the City of Madras to learn about essential services provided by cities before a brief meeting with the Deschutes Public Library, which is constructing a new central library that will have Solar courtesy of ODOE’s Community Renewable Energy Grant Program.
It was a great five-day, 1,300-mile visit that had us traveling on winding roads dotted with moss-covered rocky cliffs and crystal blue rivers, dry deserts, tumbleweeds, open plains, snow-covered mountains, and wildflower blooming hills. Despite the diversity of environment and unique stories of interviewees, clear themes from our conversations emerged on how the Oregon Department of Energy can grow its work with rural communities throughout Oregon. I am excited to share my findings publicly in July at the end of my RARE AmeriCorps service.