4A
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2019
The Observer
OUR VIEW
Hass is
right on
records
The Oregon Legislature created the offi ce of Public
Records Advocate and the Public Records Advisory
Council in 2017. Now, in the wake of the resignation
of the fi rst advocate, Ginger McCall, state Sen. Mark
Hass, D-Beaverton, hopes to persuade lawmakers to
give the council the right to appoint McCall’s succes-
sor.
Gov. Kate Brown agrees.
There’s a problem, however.
State Sen. Chuck Riley, D-Hillsboro, who chairs the
Senate Business and General Government Commit-
tee that would sponsor the bill, has reservations that
could tank the effort. That would be unfortunate.
Riley’s opposition is not new. He had problems
with House Bill 2353, which his committee handled
this year. It gives the attorney general and district
attorneys the right to penalize public agencies that
fail to respond or take too long to respond to public
records requests. Despite that, he did vote for the
measure.
Still, Riley believes, according to an article in the
Beaverton Valley Times, that calling the person who
heads the advisory council the public records “advo-
cate” is wrong. He sees the job as one of moderating
between the public and state agencies, not advocat-
ing on behalf of records seekers.
The original law does, in fact, talk about the need
for the advocate to provide education and training
for government agencies so that their employees
understand the public records law and make it work.
Once that was done, the theory went, the number
of disputes would decline and those that remained
could be settled with the help of the public records
moderator.
But Brown and Hass understand how diffi cult
and expensive agencies can make it for those who
seek public records. The power, in other words, lies
with agencies. Hass and Brown know that a council-
appointed advocate is needed to bring some balance
to the equation.
CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
President Donald Trump: The White House, 1600
Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500; 202-456-1414; fax
202-456-2461; to send comments, go to www.whitehouse.gov/
contact.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. offi ce: 313 Hart Senate Offi ce
Building, Washington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-3753. Fax: 202-
228-3997. Website: merkley.senate.gov/. Email: merkley.senate.gov/
contact/. Portland offi ce: One World Trade Center, 121 S.W. Salmon
St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-326-3386; fax 503-326-2900.
Pendleton offi ce: 310 S.E. Second St. Suite 105, Pendleton 97801;
541-278-1129; email elizabeth_scheeler@merkley.senate.gov.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. offi ce: 221 Dirksen Senate
Offi ce Building, Washington, D.C. 20510-3703; phone: 202-
224-5244; fax 202-228-2717. Website: wyden.senate.gov.
Email: wyden.senate.gov/contact/. La Grande offi ce: 105 Fir
St., No. 210, La Grande, OR 97850; 541-962-7691; fax, 541-
963-0885; email kathleen_cathey@wyden.senate.gov.
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (2nd District): D.C. offi ce: 2185
Rayburn House Offi ce Building, Washington, D.C. 20515-0001,
202-225-6730; fax 202-225-5774. Website: walden.house.gov/.
Email: walden.house.gov/e-mail-greg. La Grande offi ce: 1211
Washington Ave., La Grande, OR 97850; 541-624-2400, email
jorden.noyes@mail.house.gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 900 Court St. N.E., Salem, OR
97301; 503-378-4582.
MY VOICE
Proactively managing forests today is
better than letting them burn tomorrow
I
n his recent My Voice (“Science:
Reducing fuel load in forests has little
effect on wildfi res,” The Observer, Oct.
7), George Wuerthner cited weather
as a reason not to manage forests to
reduce wildfi re risks. His opinion piece
misses a key point. Fire needs fuel
to burn. We can’t control wind and
weather, but we can control the fuel
that has been steadily accumulating in
the forests. Ultimately forest manage-
ment is a choice, and I think the Forest
Service has chosen wisely in seeking to
reduce wildfi re risks and public safety
hazards along the Lostine corridor.
The conditions within the corridor
have been well documented in The
Observer and other Eastern Oregon
newspapers. Land managers, public
safety offi cials and local residents
have long been concerned about the
potential for wildfi re in the area and
the hazards posed by dead and dying
trees along roadways and camp-
grounds. The need for action is long
past due.
The Lostine Corridor Public Safety
Project has public support and is based
in science. Yet activist groups have used
the courts to stall and delay the project,
though so far their legal attacks on the
project have been unsuccessful.
The project area is within the wild-
land urban interface area and is identi-
fi ed as a priority treatment area in the
Wallowa County’s Community Wildfi re
Protection Plan. It utilizes a number
of forest management tools including
thinning, removal of hazardous trees
and fuels, as well as creations of small
openings in lodgepole stands to open
the canopy and promote variability in
stand structure and composition.
Opponents of the project have
painted a picture of unfettered
logging. But to put the project into
perspective, Dr. James Johnston of
About the author
Nick Smith is the executive
of Healthy Forests, Healthy
Communities, a non-
profi t, non-partisan
coalition that
advocates for active
management of
federal forest lands.
My Voice columns should be
500-700 words. Submissions
should include a portrait-type
photograph of the author. Authors
also should include their full name,
age, occupation and relevant
organizational memberships.
We edit submissions for brevity,
grammar, taste and legal reasons.
We reject those published
elsewhere.
Send columns to La Grande
Observer, 1406 Fifth St., La Grande
97850, fax them to 541-963-
7804 or email them to news@
lagrandeobserver.com.
Oregon State University has noted
the agency planned to treat only a
small portion within the corridor,
which itself is a small percentage of
the landscape that should be treated
to address uncharacteristic insect,
disease and fi re conditions in this for-
est. Within the 2,110 acres of national
forest system lands, only 450 acres
are being treated with thinning. The
project will produce a relatively small
amount of wood fi ber to support jobs
in nearby rural communities.
The Forest Service determined the
Lostine River drainage is in a poor
state of health, posing high risks to
those who use and enjoy the corridor.
Dr. Johnston adds that the very high
fuel loadings pose a signifi cant risk to
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A division of
old-growth forest structure in the area,
and all available evidence suggests
thinning and prescribed fi re will reduce
fi re severity and protect old-growth.
The Lostine Corridor Public Safety
Project is an example of what public
land managers should be doing to pro-
tect Oregon’s communities and natural
landscapes. However, the current treat-
ments being implemented in Eastern
Oregon are just a fraction of what is
needed.
In many pine forests east of the
Cascades, forests have become un-
naturally dense and overcrowded and
in some cases have been overtaken by
tree species that are less resilient to
wildfi re. Exacerbating the situation are
the impacts of drought and warmer
temperatures that promote tree stress
and widespread beetle and disease
epidemics.
Forest management can help eastside
forests better adapt to these changing
conditions, and wood fi ber from restora-
tion efforts can be utilized to support the
regional economy and sustain our forest
products infrastructure that is threat-
ened by a lack of available log supplies. If
Mr. Wuerthner doesn’t believe thinning
activities can reduce the intensity of wild-
fi res and protect nearby communities, he
should ask the residents of Sisters who
were spared the devastating impacts of
the 2017 Milli Fire thanks to a thinning
project.
After two consecutive and disastrous
wildfi re seasons, our land managers
and fi refi ghters got a much-needed
break thanks to cooler weather. Just
because we experienced a mild wildfi re
season doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be
managing our forests. Though we have
no control over next year’s weather,
proactively managing our forests today
is a better alternative to letting them
burn tomorrow.
541-963-3161
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THE OBSERVER
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