Cheers: To trees. The National Arbor Day Foundation has named Vancouver a Tree City USA for the 36th consecutive year. “This continued acknowledgment shows our commitment to ongoing community programs for planting and properly caring for trees,” one local official said. Trees are essential to combating climate change, improving the community’s aesthetics and enhancing the quality of life for residents.
Meanwhile, the state Department of Natural Resources is developing a plan to preserve the Washougal Oaks Natural Area, an 813-acre preserve dedicated in 2002. “It’s important to protect our natural heritage so our kids and grandkids can know what an oak forest or old-growth forest looks like,” one state official said. Southwest Washington can take pride in its ongoing contributions to The Evergreen State.
Jeers: To the Vancouver Outdoor Expo. The event, March 28-30 at the Clark County Event Center at the Fairgrounds in Ridgefield, did not live up to expectations. According to texts shared with The Columbian, organizers told vendors that they expected to sell as many as 65,000 tickets for the expo; instead, vendors say that no more than 2,000 customers attended.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office has launched an investigation as a potential “theft-by-deception” case. Much information remains to be sorted out, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the event was a disaster for vendors from around the world who paid for the space to display their products and services. “They feel like they were lied to. They feel like they were cheated on this for sure,” a sergeant in the sheriff’s office said.
Cheers … and concerns: To the local job market. “Clark County’s job market has seen slow but steady growth over the last year,” said Emily Robertson, regional labor economist for the state employment department. The latest numbers show that 3,700 more people were working in Clark County in February when compared with a year ago — a 2 percent increase. The construction and professional services sectors have led the increase.
Local employment, however, was down in February compared with the previous month. With the national economy beginning to teeter, the hope is that Clark County is well-positioned for economic stability.
Jeers: To increasing homelessness. According to Seattle nonprofit Building Changes, the number of homeless students in Clark County and across the state has increased. A new report claims that Washington had a record high of 42,436 homeless students during the 2022-23 school year, with more than half being students of color. In Clark County, there were 1,968 homeless students.
Homelessness is an issue for people of all ages in Washington, but it is particularly disconcerting when students are involved. “If we don’t intervene now, students experiencing homelessness may never be able to bridge the education gap,” the report states. That is just one viewpoint from an advocacy group, but the situation can lead to increased societal costs down the road.
Cheers: To Virginia Warren. Known as the unofficial historian of Camas, Warren is preparing for her 100th birthday next week. Having spent nearly all those years in her hometown, she is an expert on the city that was incorporated in 1906 and had 1,843 residents in 1920.
In 2019, Warren donated three volumes of her scrapbook collection to the Camas Public Library, preserving decades worth of news articles and photographs for future generations. “I love Camas,” she recently told The Columbian. “This is my home.”
