A tip of the hat to Arbor Day activities, including communities’ spring cleanup events coming up soon and a giveaway of 1,500 trees in Hermiston sponsored by the city and the Rotary Club on Saturday, April 3.

After a year of spending more time in our homes than usual, this spring seems like a particularly great time to get outdoors and spend some time cleaning out old junk and planting new trees. Spending more time outdoors this spring and summer will be good for everyone’s health in a multitude of ways, from getting needed Vitamin D from the sunshine to decreasing the risk of COVID-19 transmission. So let’s make our outdoor spaces the nicest they can be.

A kick in the pants to ongoing troubles with Boardman’s Lost Valley Farms.

The mega-dairy’s last owner was given the boot after erratic behavior and legal trouble that included allegations related to drugs, bribery and patronizing prostitutes. The farm went through bankruptcy, and racked up environmental violations that drew hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. Now the new owner, Cody Easterday of Easterday Farms, has pled guilty to defrauding Tyson Foods and another company out of more than $244 million by charging them for the care and feeding of cattle that didn’t exist, allegedly to cover more than $200 million in commodity futures contracts trading losses.

The dairy has potential, but it needs competent, ethical leadership committed to environmentally and financially sound practices. We’re still waiting for that to happen.

A kick in the pants to conditions that seem to have started fire season early in Oregon this year, with wildfires already forcing evacuations in Central Oregon this week before March was even over.

A fire sparked up along the Oxbow Trail in Hermiston last week that was almost certainly human-caused, and a firefighter on scene said the department had already seen some fires from burn piles that got away from people.

Please, consider now the start of the summer fire season by being extra careful to follow all burn rules, never leave fires unattended, clear flammable brush away from buildings, use fireworks with caution, keep branches trimmed away from power lines and properly dispose of cigarette butts.