22
Wednesday, June 13, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
So long Rowdy...
TREES: Advocates
want to leave boles
along roadway
Continued from page 1
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
Legendary bullfighter Rowdy Barry marked his final turn at
Sisters Rodeo in fine style.
CAT: Stunt campaign
will raise animal
welfare funds
Continued from page 21
Kansas Secretary of State
Kris Kobach — who’s also
running for governor — drew
the line at a dog on the ballot.
Leonard, too, won’t
be able to run for office,
Bend City Recorder Robyn
Christie said. The city
requires that candidates for
City Council seats be reg-
istered Oregon voters who
have lived in Bend for the
past year, and only humans
who are at least 18 years old
can register to vote.
Leonard will demand to
see the laws preventing him
from running to make sure
they weren’t adapted after
his campaign started (they’ve
been in the city’s charter,
a governing document that
functions as the city’s con-
stitution, since at least 1995),
according to Dubief and
Breidenstein. If he can’t run
officially, he plans to orga-
nize a write-in campaign.
The cat kicked his cam-
paign off with a fundraising
brunch with about 30 attend-
ees. He plans to have at least
one more fundraiser before
November, with proceeds
from the fundraisers and
sales of Leonard merchandise
donated to animal-themed
organizations, including the
Bend Spay & Neuter Project
and the Humane Society.
Leonard and his campaign
managers are also prepared
for negative campaigning,
Dubief said. He has a birth
certificate and siblings —
Sheldon, Raj and Penny —
who can vouch for his Bend
residency, and he’s prepared
to dispute any allegations of
biting. Other past comments
about dogs could come back
to bite him as well.
“He has said some nega-
tive things about dogs,”
Dubief said. “He has denied
it, so there’s potential scandal
there.”
No matter how the cam-
paign ends, Leonard has
already vowed not to con-
cede the mayoral race.
“I imagine he’ll demand
a recount no matter how
many votes they say he got,”
Breidenstein said.
Perspective where trees are
growing.
ODOT spokesman Peter
Murphy said that the agency
will comply with the public
records request from Central
Oregon Land Watch.
“We’ll provide the docu-
ments they’re asking for,” he
said.
It is, however, unclear
that there is specific docu-
mentation regarding how
and why the decision to use
Perspective was made.
“ T h e r e ’s n o w r i t t e n
record,” Murphy told The
Nugget. “That’s part of the
problem; we don’t have that
as far as I can find.”
Many of the people
involved in the project have
retired from either ODOT or
the Forest Service, Murphy
noted. The agencies were to
meet on Monday to get new
players fully up to speed on
the issue, he reported.
While Central Oregon
Land Watch is interested in
finding out more about how
the debacle along the high-
way happened, and want to
see an investigation, Dewey
said that the primary inter-
est is in mitigating the situa-
tion and ensuring that some-
thing like it doesn’t happen
again.
“Essentially, we’re try-
ing to make the best of a bad
situation,” he said.
Last month, the Sisters
Ranger District sought pub-
lic comment on plans to cut
down and remove dead and
dying trees that pose a hazard
to public safety along 11.5
miles of Highway 20 begin-
ning at the City of Sisters
and travelling northwest and
a one-mile section southeast
of Sisters.
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Central Oregon Land
Watch is suggesting that,
rather than cutting down
and removing trees, they
be topped and left partially
standing in order to preserve
the “corridor” feel of the
highway.
“Our primary suggestion
is, at least leave the boles of
the trees,” Dewey said. “The
snags are attractive in them-
selves, as well as providing
wildlife habitat.”
Dewey said that leaving
the boles would also honor a
compromise that was struck
back in 2006, when ODOT
sought to widen the high-
way for passing lanes west of
Sisters. Considerable public
pressure was brought to bear
to preserve the tree-lined
corridor leading into Central
Oregon, and ODOT ulti-
mately decided to build only
a westbound passing lane,
although ODOT officials said
then that they would eventu-
ally build the eastbound lane
as well.
ODOT’s Murphy told The
Nugget last week that he has
heard “not one word” about
any plans to widen the high-
way further.
Sisters District Ranger
Ian Reid told The Nugget
that the Forest Service has
not determined how the
dead trees will be handled
yet. The agency is wrapping
up its post-Milli Fire work
and will soon turn its focus
to the highway corridor, he
said.
Reid said that Central
Oregon Land Watch’s letter
detailing its suggestions has
been received along with
other public comment, which
the agency solicited last
month. That commentary
will be weighed in deciding
how to proceed.
“I did read Paul’s letter,
and I appreciate their con-
cerns,” Reid said.
Asked about the viability
of topping the trees, Reid told
The Nugget that he has heard
a rough estimate of $500 per
tree for topping. Depending
on how many trees were
handled in that manner, the
cost could run into the hun-
dreds of thousands of dollars.
Reid noted that whatever
the agency ultimately deter-
mines to do, they’ll have to
be able to afford to do the
project.
In addition to mitigation,
Dewey’s letter suggests that
“the Forest Service should
change its policies so that
all future proposed applica-
tions of pesticides on Forest
Service lands at least in
scenic corridors and in the
Metolius Conservation Area
go through a NEPA (National
Environmental Policy Act)
process and are not categori-
cally exempted from NEPA.
If the application of the
harmful herbicide that led to
the need for the current proj-
ect had undergone full public
review, interested members
of the public would likely
have noticed the warning
on the herbicide label that
indicated that harm to pon-
derosa pine trees is likely to
occur.”
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