Editor’s note: Today’s column is the first of several The Bulletin will be publishing by Scott Christiansen, an international agronomist living in Bend. He will touch on land, water, climate and lifestyle issues as they relate to Central Oregon. Future columns will run two Wednesdays a month.

When we were living in Amman, Jordan, in 2015, my older daughter, her husband and son decided to move to Bend. My wife and I were planning to retire in St. Augustine, Florida, but we thought it would be crazy to be 3,000 miles apart from our family in the U.S., so we also decided to move to Central Oregon.

We started to look closely at Bend using Street View on Google Maps. You can virtually drive down the street using this tool. It did not take long to find the Bill Healy Memorial Bridge (he started Mt. Bachelor) crossing the Deschutes River on the west edge of Farewell Bend Park.

I followed SW Reed Market Road heading west until I reached Mt. Washington Drive. NorthWest Crossing looked so new, and Compass Park was intriguing when viewed on a map. Nice!

Continuing, I reached the silver sculpture at the Shevlin Drive roundabout. I had to stop and marvel. A solar powered stainless-steel pillar called the “Milky Way” that glows at night with a transition through six sequential neon shades of color. I was already in love with Bend, but heading northwest on Shevlin Drive, what really stole my heart was a mile and a half farther up the road at Shevlin Park — Tumalo Creek.

A few months later, we came to buy some land to build a house as a landing pad for retirement in 2016. We took the same route I found using Google Maps on my computer, but this time behind the wheel of a rental car. When we got to Shevlin Park, we walked down to the wooden footbridge that crosses Tumalo Creek. That is when we witnessed the babbling rush of freezing cold water that I have grown so fond of watching and hearing over the past four years. Nowadays, every morning, I walk to Shevlin Park to visually absorb its beauty and take in the babbling of Tumalo Creek.

Saving Shevlin

Quoting with minor edits from The Bend Bulletin, Thursday, Jan. 7, 1943: The recent death of Charles Orewiler brings to mind that he had a large, though unintended, part in the creation of Shevlin Park. He had set up his sawmill on the flat on Tumalo Creek and had begun cutting in the canyon. The fact was observed by citizens who realized that greater values for the city could be gained by preservation of the canyon than by cutting its timber. The interest of T.A. McCann of the Shevlin-Hixon Company was secured; the company bought out Mr. Orewiler for $10,000 and added its land holdings to the Orewiler tract, and the land gifted to the city to create Shevlin Park. It has had little attention since. It is abused almost as much as it is used. It can be made into an even more beautiful and valuable city asset than it is now. Some day, we trust this will be brought about.

What is the value of this history? Over the past 77 years, the people of Bend did the right thing. Like so many other Bendites, I have come to appreciate the clean air, blue skies and crystal-clear water that is available to our community; the eagles, elk and salmon; the snow-capped mountains, lava flows, lakes and forests — that are all a part of our ecosystem east of the Cascades.

For close to two decades, my family and I lived overseas in developing countries. We witnessed degradation and pollution of water, land and air. These memories and their comparisons to our experience in Oregon led me to understand that climate change could abruptly degrade our quality of life.

Words of caution

Fire season is upon us again. Warmer temperatures and less rain inevitably lead to hot, dry summers like this one. Many places in Oregon have seen their air quality worsen significantly during summers because of wildfires just when we are heading outdoors to compensate for long, cold winters.

In one fell swoop, we might lose the blue skies and view of the mountains, combined with increased particulate matter from smoke that brings with it respiratory problems. Poorer people and those with underlying conditions are more affected, as we are seeing with COVID-19.

Taking our lead from the Shevlin Park history, we need to do what our forefathers did, through continuing education and communication to bring people together on contentious subjects like climate crisis, availability and distribution of water, renewable energy, protection of natural resources, and availability of jobs needed to make a decent living in the coming generation.

Scott Christiansen is an international agronomist with 35 years of experience. He worked for USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and the US Agency for International Development. He also spent almost 20-years working in the Middle East, living in Morocco, Syria, Egypt, and Jordan. During the past four years he worked as a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Cairo and Saudi Arabia. He also consulted for US consultancy companies in Syria and Lebanon.

“Like so many other Bendites, I have come to appreciate the clean air, blue skies and crystal-clear water that is available to our community”