Winter 2015-16
I’ve lived in the Gorge long enough to remember when there was not a thing on the horizon east of The Dalles except wheat fields and clouds. The high desert unfolded endlessly upon itself in all directions, ad infinitum. Today, the landscape is entirely different, planted with hundreds of wind towers reaching for the sky, marching along ridgelines and across the flatlands on both sides of the Columbia River. The white towers, blades churning as they harness the wind’s power, have come to define the eastern Gorge.
According to writer Peggy Dills Kelter, there are some 2,000 wind towers in Sherman, Morrow, Gilliam and Klickitat counties, with more in the works. Dills Kelter and photographer Renata Kosina (who is also our talented creative director) spent a day with a group of students from the Renewable Energy Technology training program at Columbia Gorge Community College—along with their instructor, Jim Pytel—as they got some hands-on training on towers near Roosevelt, Wash. The story, which begins on page 40, offers interesting insight into the program and its students, as well as some wonderful images of the wind towers from many perspectives.
You don’t have to have lived in the Gorge—or Oregon—long to know that recently the state became the fourth one in the country to legalize recreational marijuana use (joining our neighbors across the river in Washington, as well as Colorado and Alaska). Starting Oct. 1, Oregon’s medical marijuana dispensaries were allowed to begin selling pot to recreational users—people age 21 and over who do not have medical cards. As writer Ben Mitchell outlines in his story beginning on page 14, Hood River’s four dispensaries (count ‘em, four, which ranks the city high on the list of marijuana dispensaries per capita in the state) began doing a brisk business immediately. The story will continue to evolve, no doubt, as Oregon implements its full recreational marijuana system in 2016, which will separate the medical and recreational industries and place taxes on recreational sales.
This issue is chock full of other interesting stories, including a feature on Radio Tierra, the Gorge’s homegrown community radio station (page 46); a story on hiking Dog Mountain in the winter (page 50); and a profile of artisan Kelly Phipps and her gorgeous metal work (page 54). Plus, there’s lots more. Happy trails this winter—preferably of the fresh tracks sort.
—Janet Cook, editor
