OPB’s First Look: Sleuthing Central Oregon’s apple trees

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Good morning, Northwest.

In Central Oregon, two cider makers have launched a nonprofit called Heritage Apple Corp, turning their passion for apples into a broader mission to restore and preserve orchards on remote public lands.

OPB’s Jen Baires reports that while the organization’s core team consists of just six members, it regularly attracts many more volunteers for community events such as orchard pruning days.

In other news, the Portland Fire drew an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 20,000 fans to the Moda Center on Saturday night in an opening game against the Chicago Sky.

Despite the Fire’s loss, the game marked the largest attendance ever for a WNBA expansion team’s home opener, complete with pyrotechnics, enthusiastic fans and a performance by singer Ashanti to celebrate the team’s debut in Rose City.

Here’s your First Look at Monday’s news.

— Chrissy Booker

Top Story

For Central Oregon apple tree detectives, juicy cases hide in plain sight

On a crisp spring morning, Peter LoVerso and CJ Johnson went deep in the Crooked River National Grassland near Madras.

They were doing some detective work, searching for a handful of tagged apple trees in an orchard more than a century old.

As leaders of a nonprofit called Heritage Apple Corp they work to revive and protect orchards on remote public land. Trees get pruned and catalogued as they and other volunteers look for long-forgotten varieties. More than half of the 17,000 kinds of apples in the country have vanished over the years.

“You see these old orchards and they are screaming for attention,” Johnson said. (Jen Baires)

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3 Things to Know

1. A Eugene police officer has resigned, and the city’s independent police auditor has vowed an investigation, after police bodycam footage emerged online Saturday that contained profane and racist language. (Brian Bull, KLCC)
2. The Portland Fire fell to the Chicago Sky 98- 83 Saturday in front of the largest crowd ever to attend a home opener for a WNBA expansion team. (Kyra Buckley)
3. The conservative-backed group Let’s Go Washington announced Friday it will begin gathering signatures to put a repeal of the so-called “millionaires tax” on ballots this November. The move comes just days after the state Supreme Court dismissed the group’s lawsuit challenging the tax. (Sarah Mizes-Tan, KUOW)

The Evergreen

Before astronauts went to the moon, they went to Oregon’s Moon Country

From 1964 to 1971, dozens of Apollo astronauts trained on Oregon lava fields, which scientists thought might be similar to the surface of the moon. The region became known as “Moon Country.”

Now that Artemis II has sent humans back to the moon for the first time in over half a century, we’re reflecting on the role Oregon has played in lunar exploration. (Jenn Chávez and Kami Horton)

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Northwest Headlines

• AI fabrications in legal filings grow in Oregon, US (Riley Martinez)

• Oregon parent group advocates for limited screens in childhood (Malya Fass)

• Oregon’s only Republican congressman faces two challengers in the primary (Jane Vaughan, JPR)

• A crowning idea: UO holds gatherings to honor trees before they’re removed (Karen Richards, KLCC)

Think Out Loud

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation.

Noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app.

Today’s planned topics:

Topics subject to change.

• The May primary ballot measure in Lane County would give legal rights to watersheds

• Oregon Historical Society exhibit celebrates 100 years of Highway 101

One More Look

Her name means ‘hero’: How Portland pilot Hazel Ying Lee fought for America — only to be forgotten

Up on a hill in Portland’s River View Cemetery, with a clear view of Mount Hood, lies Hazel Ying Lee’s grave.

The long flat tombstone is made of polished red-and-black granite, outlined with crumbling concrete.

Under her name is a special engraving: A diamond flanked by two wings. It’s the symbol of the WASP, or Women’s Air Force Service Pilots.

Lee was the first ever Chinese American woman to fly for the United States military. She was the 38th and last WASP to die in service to her country.

But when her family picked out a spot for her to be buried, “[The cemetery] said no,” remembered Frances Tong, Lee’s younger sister, “Because we were Asian, and that area was not allotted for the Chinese.”

Through tears, Tong recounted the injustice and the way her elder sister, Florence Lee, fought back.

“Florence is a very mild person. But this time she really gave it to them,” said Tong.

This story was first published on March 28, 2025. (Emily Hamilton)

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