Lack of feeding ground starving elk, deer
By Chester Allen
Emorato Reportw
Hob Harrell say*
hi* electric fence
will shock a man
off his foot, hut it
can't stop 200 starv -
ing elk Each night, the elk knock
down the fence and shoulder
their way through Harrell's herd
of Hereford hulls to eat tin* only
food they can find for miles
around
"These elk ure so hungry, they
don’t ros|M*ct an electric (eiu e or
fear man." said Harrell, a Baker
Valley rancher. "Mv hulls eat on
one side of the trough, and the
elk ore oil the other."
A deadly combination of
record snowfall and ranchers'
takeover of vital winter range will
cause alwnit 9.000 elk and 75.(KM)
deer to die of starvation and dis
ease in Eastern Oregon this win
ter. said Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife biologists
Elk and deer in the mountains
are unable to scrape through the
deep snow to find grass and
brush to eat. whit h forces them
to migrate to lower elevations to
find food, said ODFW biologist
Jai k Kemp
"Historically, the elk and door
moved off the Elkhorn mountains
to winter range on the Grande
Roride Valley floor.“ said Kemp
But now all that winter range is
ranch land, and the animals have
no plan* to go "
Once they arrive on the ranch
land, the hungry animals break
into haystacks and invade feed
lots. eating expensive cattle feed
and angering ranchers. Kemp
said
ODFW traps animals eating
ranchers' feed stocks and moves
them to wildlife feeding areas,
where thev are fed alfalfa has
until the end of w inter
This winter ODFW has trapped
more than 2.7(H) elk and deer and
taken them to the Klkhorn
Wildlife Refuge, where they are
fed 3,500 pounds of hay .1 night.
Kemp said.
•'I've been here for 28 years,
and this is the most feeding we've
ever had to do." Kemp said
"Every district in Eastern Oregon
is fmxfinganimals, hut we re still
going to lose about 30 percent of
our deer and 20 jxment of our elk
to starvation "
Although some animals are
iHiing saved, ranchers and biol
ogists said the trapping and feed
in# program treats only the symp
toms. not the cause of the prob
lem
Ranchers in the Baker and
Grande Ronde valleys said
ODFW should allow hunters to
kill more deer and elk. reducing
the number of animals needing
to use winter range.
Ranchers should be given free
deer and elk hunting tags, w hich
they could use to sell hunters
guided deer and elk hunts on
their ranches, said Baker Valiev
rancher Bob Harrell
We food the animals all win
ter." Harrell said "We should
have the right to make a little
money from them and reduce the
overpopulation problem at the
same time."
ODFW wildlife biologists said
a severe shortage of door and elk
winter range, not overpopulation,
is causing the problem
Although deer and elk popu
lations sharply increased during
the past few mild winters. ODFW
surveys show the animals only
need more low-altitude winter
ing ground* to survive, said
ODFW biologist Dick Humphries.
"They're doing fine when we
have an easy winter.” Humphries
said "But when there's several
feet of snow on the ground in the
mountains, they need to get
down on the valley floors to find
food ”
Until more winter range is pro
vided. massive die-offs of deer
and elk will occur during years
of heavy snowfall. Humphries
said
"The young and old animals
die first." Humphries said
"What's scary this year is we re
losing some of the big prime hull
elk. which are the toughest ani
mals in Eastern Oregon
ODFW is exploring ways to
get more winter range for the
animals, but it will he a long,
expensive process, Humphries
said.
Meanwhile, like it or not.
ODFW and area ranchers will
continue to feed deer and elk
during hard winters
Rancher Bob Harrell said he
doesn't mind feeding some elk.
but with hay at $90 a ton. he’d
like ODFW' to pay some of his
costs.
“I don’t mind feeding them;
ranchers have to assume some
responsibility for their situa
tion," Harrell said. "But feeding
200 elk a day is pretty damn
expensive.”
House wants to end land development conflict
SAlJvM (AC) — Oregon Home Republicans
have givon early and forceful notice that (hey
wnnl the 1993 Legislature lo resolve a lin
gering controversy over rural land develop
ment.
Oregon's reputation as a social innovator
is built in large pari on the land-use planning
law adopted 20 years ago. Using statewide
guidelines, counties and cities have drawn
up plans for orderly and efficient urban devel
opment.
Rules also protect agriculture and timber.
Oregon’s two biggest industries, by control
ling rural development But until recently,
development on the least productive farm
land and tiinlierland was bound by the same
rules controlling development of prune tracts
The Lind Conservation and Development
Commission adopted new rural develop
ment rules in December The rules loosen
restrictions on developing "small-scale
resource lands," property that until now had
been referred to as "secondary lands "
Restrictions on developing the best farmland
and limberland are tightened
The new rules have only increased dis
content. Opponents say the state retains too
much control over local land-use decisions
Advocates of state planning, led by 1000
Friends of Oregon, accuse the state commis
‘In our wildest dreams,
well never be Southern
California
Bob Repine,
Representative Grants Pass
sion of appeasing county planning directors
and developers
The legislature has tried to resolve the
dispute before, with no success But this ses
sion. Republicans from mostly rural back
grounds who control the House appear
determined to prevail They are set against
Senate Democrats from mostly urban dis
tricts who have long been champions of state
planning. Gov. Barbara Roberts. a Democrat
from Portland, savs she will veto any land
use planning reform that gives away too
much.
Reviews of the new rules had liareiy begun
when Rep. Ray Baum, a La Grande Republi
can who heads the House Natural Resources
Committee, issued the first threat. He said he
would block the budget of the Department of
Land Conservation and Development unless
satisfactory secondary lands rules were signed
into law by the governor
The department oversees implementation
of state planning guidelines. If the agency
does not get a budget, the state rules will
remain in place. But there will be no staff to
run the program
Holding the agency's budget hostage is not
a new tactic. But such a direct threat so ear
ly in the session is unusual.
Baum said urban dwellers who don’t own
significant property "are the ones who have
been calling the shots controlling how peo
ple in rural parts of the state (an manage their
property. To me, it's undemocratic."
Hep. Bob Repine, a Republican building
contractor from Grants Pass, said the agency
had kept too much control over local plan
ning for too long After 20 N ears of state land
use planning, he said, more trust should lie
placed in county commissioners to imple
ment the law Repine said state planners
should shift their focus, developing a vision
for how Oregon should look years into the
future.
"That's the part of the cycle that has not
been completed.” he said
But county commissioners cannot lie trust
ed to make the right decisions when their
friends and neighlwrs are the developers, said
Blair Batson of 1.000 Friends.
Law school
mentors will
call students
By Sarah Clark
Emerald Reporter
About 20 law students will
Ih» (ailing undergraduate stu
dents of color during March
and April to help those inter
ested in going to law school
do so. said Jane Gordon, law
school assistant dean.
The calls are part of a men
tor program the law school
has for sophomores, juniors
and seniors of color. Gordon
said. Depending on how
interested an undergraduate
is in law school, the law stu
dent making the call could
become the undergraduate's
mentor, she said.
The law students will tell
undergraduates how to apply
to law school, how to get
financial aid for law school
and other information they
may need to pursue a law
degree, said University law
student Shawn Burnett, one
of the mentor program's coor
dinators.
“Unless they happen to
have mentors they can go to,
a lot of students are lost,"
Gordon said.
Burnett said law school
intimidated her when she
was an undergraduate stu
dent. She said the purpose of
the calls is to make under
graduates more comfortable
with law school.
“It's important to de-mysti
fy law school to students of
color,” Burnett said.
Gordon said she'd like to
see more people of color
practicing law in Oregon.
Currently, about 5 percent of
Oregonians are people of col
or. but only 2.5 percent of
Oregon attorneys are people
of color. Gordon said.
But undergraduates inter
ested in studying law out-of
state < an also participate in
the mentor program. Burnett
said.
If undergraduates express
interest in other graduate
degrees, such as business, the
law students will give their
names to those departments.
Continued (rom Page 1
department are complete until
the reporter talks to Birr
At the time Hall selected Birr,
lire departments around the
nation were getting Iwd press for
not hiring enough minorities
The Eugene fire department's
relationship with the local
media was suffering from a dif
ferent problem. The department
was in the news a lot and the
higher-ranking officers didn't
work well with the media. Hirr
said.
‘‘It was a hands-off relation
ship.-' he said. "The media was
told to stay across the street at
fire scenes, and few people
would talk to them."
Hall drafted Hirr in on effort to
improve the department's rela
tionship with the media. Birr
was made the department's part
time information officer in addi
tion to his other firefighting
responsibilities.
However. Birr, now the pri
mary spokesman for the Eugono
Department of Public Safety, is
not tin* average public relations
man. He said most of the people
in his field have some public
relations education.
Despite his lai:k of experience.
Birr said he was glad to become
the fire department's informa
tion officer in 1979.
The public did not see fire
fighting as Birr saw it in Report
from Engine Co So. 82. He said
people didn't understand even
basic firefighting procedures
"We would cut holes in the
roofs of buildings, and people
would think it was destructive."
he said. "They didn't under
stand we had to ventilate the
building to put the fire out."
Birr said when buildings are
not ventilated, the heat and
smoke from a fire will build at
the highest point until the fire
bursts out of control. If there is
ventilation, the temperature and
smoke are released, and the fire
is manageable.
After becoming part-time
information officer in 1979. Birr
juggled his time between fight
ing fires and dealing with the
media. He was interviewed by
the local media at the firehouse
and wrote press releases at an
old. heat-up metal desk at the
fire station.
The city manager noticed
Birr's work and wanted him as
the public information director
for the city of Eugene. So in
1984. Birr made the switch to
politics.
It didn't take Birr long to show
he had a knack for politics. After
a short time on the job. Birr had
to diffuse a public relations
nightmare
Birr was waiting outside the
Valley River Inn for a bus full of
representatives from Kakegawa.
)apan, a sister city of Eugene.
When he entered the hotel lobby
to make sure everything was
ready. Birr looked up and saw a
huge banner that read, "Wel
come Pearl Harbor Survivors."
Apparently the hotel had
scheduled the group from
Kakegawa and a group of Pearl
Harbor survivors for the same
night Birr quickly got the hotel
staff to take the banner down
before the japanese delegation
arrived. Once the travel-weary
group from japan arrived, they
went to bed and the banner was
put back up. Neither group
found out aliout the presence of
the other.
After working for the city man
ager. Birr was offered his current
position in 1986 when Eugene
merged its police and fire depart
ments. tie said he took the job
because. like his two previous
public relations positions, it was
something new, and he wanted
to see if he could do it
Now. after seven years on the
job. Birr believes he made the
right decision.
"The positive feedback I got
gives me the sense that I'm in
the right piece,"he said.
Many of the people who have
worked with Birr, now 39. agree
he is in the right place.
lanelle Hartman, a Register
Guard reporter, said Birr is good
at his job because he has the
firefighter s mentality to help
and serve the public. She said
Birr's personality and willing
ness to help relaxes tension
between the media and the
office of public safety.
At a recent police news con
ference. Birr's skills wore appar
ent. Before the cameras rolled,
he worked the room. He knew
everyone's first name and greet
ed them with a smile and a press
release.
As people waited for the news
conference to begin. Birr light
ened the mood by joking with
the officers and members of the
medio. The two groups, usually
known as adversaries, seemed to
lie eased by his present*.
Once things got started, Birr
sat quietly in the corner os the
event he had orchestrated ran
smoothly. The police had re
opened an investigation of a 15
year-old homicide, and they
were hoping media coverage
would jog the community's
memory and produce some new
leads.
When the news conference
ended, both the police and the
media were happy. The police
got their information out. and
the media got an interesting sto
ry.
Tim Birr has done his job — a
job he never planned on having.