The Observer., July 21, 2020, Page 5, Image 5

LOCAL
TUESDAY, JULY 21, 2020
THE OBSERVER — 5A
ELK
LUNCH
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
said Jim Akenson, senior
conservation director of
the Oregon Hunters Asso-
ciation. “It looked just like
Africa’s Serengeti except
instead of wildebeests you
had elk.”
The elk generally spend
the late summer on U.S.
Forest Service land and
fall and winter in the can-
yons and breaks. But in
spring and early summer,
they feast on tender, nutri-
tious prairie grasses that
ranchers intend to graze
with livestock. And the
elk were remaining longer
on prairie grassland.
Stronger, but not as agile as
mule deer, elk tend to run
through fences rather than
jumping over them. The
result is damaged fences
and stray cattle.
“With the increase in elk
numbers in the Chesnimnus
unit, an increasing number
of elk were utilizing the
private prairie ground year-
round,” said Shane Talley,
an ODFW assistant wild-
life biologist. “The elk had
found a safe area with good
habitat where they were not
being pressured by public
land users and public land
hunters. This caused an
increase in the amount of
damage experienced by the
landowners on the prairie.”
In recent years a number
of stakeholders — land-
owners, ranchers, con-
servationists, hunters, the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, the Oregon
Hunters Association, the
Nez Perce Tribe and the
U.S. Forest Service — have
worked together to better
manage the elk population.
The community effort was
coordinated by the ODFW’s
Pat Mathews, rancher Tom
Birkmaier and OSU Exten-
sion Agent John Williams.
Attempts at simply
hazing the elk off the land
were less than successful.
Calves born on the grass-
land were more likely to
consider the open prairie
landscape home and return
there as adults, according
to The Nature Conservan-
cy’s biologist Chad Dotson.
And the long-distance
views afforded by grass-
land kept the animals and
their young offspring safer
from predation by cougars,
bears, coyotes and wolves.
“If a calf is born in the
grasslands, chances are
that’s what it considers
years ago before being
restored with help from
Elgin School District
Superintendent Dianne
Greif.
“She pushed hard to get
it back,” Myers said.
Stella Mayfi eld stu-
dents, like all of those in
Oregon schools, have not
been allowed to go into
their schools since mid-
March due to the pan-
demic. The lunch pro-
gram, however, gets
students back to Stella
Mayfi eld even though
they cannot go inside.
“It is a good way for
them to stay in contact
with their school,” Spikes
said.
Greif credited Myers
and Marago with doing an
excellent job of making
children feel at home
when they come for their
lunches.
“They are spectacular.
They are so glad to see
them and so welcoming,”
Greif said. “It makes all
Photo by Ellen Morris Bishop/EO Media Group
An elk cow escorts three calves to fi nd a safe place to cross a fence on The Nature Con-
servancy’s Zumwalt Prairie Preserve.
home, that’s where it wants
to live when it grows up,”
Akenson said.
The tool used to change
this particular elk mindset
has been seven years of
Zumwalt hunts that focused
mainly on cow elk.
“Elk began to get the
message that they are not
welcome,” Akenson said.
“And so they more readily
moved into canyon breaks
of heavier timber. Ulti-
mately, they began to learn
that their real security is
the canyon breaks and
canyon country.”
Elk also began to more
toward the Nez Perce’s
Precious Lands area in
northern Joseph Creek, a
place they are welcome.
In addition, Forest Ser-
vice hazardous fuels reduc-
tion practices, such as
timber removal, thinning
and prescribed burning on
federal and private lands
have helped increase elk
habitat in the unit. The
presence of fresh-sprouting
spring forage on prescribed
burns at the northern
end of Zumwalt Prairie,
for example, has helped
entice elk off the grassland
and back into the woods,
according to Talley. This
is doubly helpful because
some of the older fi res
that opened up forest hab-
itat to more grazing and
browsing, including the
1988 Tepee Butte Fire, had
since closed in.
Reducing cow elk num-
bers also reduces the repro-
duction capacity of the
population.
“By removing cow elk
we can reduce the popula-
tion growth rate and even-
tually the total population,”
Talley said.
And so the ODFW
opened multiple antlerless
elk seasons beginning in
August and ending in Jan-
uary. Many private land-
owners on the prairie also
opened their land to tag
holders.
The reduction in elk
on private lands has been
signifi cant.
Birkmaier said before
efforts began to move elk
from private to public
lands, “80% of the elk
in the Chesnimnus unit
resided on private lands on
the Zumwalt Prairie that
amounted to only about
15% of the total unit area.
That’s an amazing sta-
tistic that even the ranchers
found hard to believe.”
The rancher estimated
elk populations have
dropped from about 4,500
animals to about 2,600
today. But Birkmaier sees
factors beyond hunting as
contributing to the decline.
“Hunting is maybe 50%
of the cause,” he said. “The
other part is that we’ve
had two hard, polar-vortex
winters, with snow on the
ground into March and
April.”
That made it hard for
calves and yearlings to sur-
vive, reducing elk popu-
lations on the prairie. But
Birkmaier harbors some
concern the bounteous crop
of elk calves this spring
might reverse the down-
ward population trend.
“There are just a lot of
calves out there,” he said.
“Lots and lots of calves.”
Other Zumwalt ranchers
agree elk numbers are
down, and elk damage has
been reduced.
“In the past couple of
years, the number of elk
that have been on our land
has been down some,”
said Lew Bloodsworth, a
longtime Zumwalt Prairie
rancher whose land is adja-
cent to The Nature Conser-
vancy. “Not as many get
onto our land in spring and
eat up all the best forage
before the cattle get onto
the range.”
In fact, elk numbers on
the Zumwalt Prairie and the
Chesnimnus unit now are
below the target number.
“We observed a more
rapid decline in the popula-
tion than we expected over
the last three years,” Talley
said. “This resulted in an
emergency tag reduction
for the 2020 Zumwalt hunts
and changes to the tag
numbers and season struc-
ture for 2021.”
The tag reduction for
the 2020 season is down
to 61 tags from 110 tags in
each of the seven Zumwalt
archery and rifl e seasons.
So, 343 fewer antlerless
(cow) tags, or a 40% reduc-
tion overall in cow tags.
“This is a little less than
18% reduction in total elk
tags for the entire unit,”
Talley said.
The ODFW aims to
slow the rate of popula-
tion decline with the goal
of a stable and healthy
elk population at man-
ageable levels for hunters,
the public and private
landowners.
“Both sides — the
ranchers and the hunters —
think elk are important,”
Dotson, the TNC biologist,
said. “No one wants to see
the numbers too high or too
low.”
COVID-19 death linked to Ontario senior
facility that was taking precautions
By Aidan McGloin
Malheur Enterprise via AP
StoryShare
ONTARIO — The
Brookdale Ontario senior
living facility has had one
CCOVID-19 death, the
Oregon Health Authority
announced Wednesday,
July 15. The facility also
has six more cases than
last week, for a total of 32
with positive tests.
A state record from July
1 said the facility had 41
residents.
The facility was
restricting visitors,
requiring masks and
hiring extra staff by April
30, according to a state
inspection report obtained
through a public records
request from the Oregoin
Department of Human
Services. The assisted
living center used a hospi-
tal-grade disinfectant on
counters, drawers, door-
knobs and handrails, and
had enough gloves, face
masks and other equip-
ment. The inspector found
no reasons for follow-up
in any of their 35 catego-
ries of precautions.
Heather Luther,
Ontario Brookdale execu-
tive director, directed the
Malheur Enterprise to the
facility’s corporate parent,
Brookdale Senior Living
Inc. A company spokes-
person, Heather Hunter,
declined to answer two
sets of specifi c questions
about circumstances at its
Ontario operation.
Brookdale Senior
Living is a publicly traded
national chain based in
Tennessee, which oper-
ated and owned 763 senior
living facilities across 45
states in 2019. One of their
other Oregon locations,
in Clackamas County,
has nine COVID-19 cases
with no deaths, the Health
Authority reported.
After the fi rst case, the
Ontario facility began iso-
lating residents with pos-
itive COVID-19 results,
according to a July 1 state
review. Each resident had
a private apartment and
bedroom, unless they were
shared with a couple.
According to the
review, employees with
symptoms of the virus
were turned away, and
staff checked residents
for symptoms twice a
day. Residents routinely
left the facility, but the
reason for their trips was
redacted in the report.
Residents did leave the
facility for reasons such
as medical appointments,
Hunter said. Staff placed
furniture in the common
room 6 feet apart, can-
celed all activities and
delivered meals from the
kitchen to each resident’s
room.
Some of the residents
would be transferred to a
Portland-area COVID-19
treatment facility, the
report said.
The July 1 report found
several concerns: the
break room was not large
for social distancing, staff
needed a face shield dis-
infection area, the desig-
nated personal protective
equipment area needed to
have instructions posted,
and more.
On July 6, a new
report found the break
room issue was resolved,
the equipment area had
instructions and other
fi xes were in place. They
were in the process of
starting to monitor their
hand hygiene and cleaning
practices.
The facility still wasn’t
monitoring symptomatic
residents three times a
day, the July 6 report said,
not had it designated a
place to disinfect, dry and
store face shields.
By July 6, all
COVID-19-positive resi-
dents were sent to one unit
of the facility, with all but
one entrance closed and
sealed with a plastic bar-
rier, tape and zipper. Nurses
assigned to work with those
patients didn’t go to the
other side of the facility. The
facility followed CDC infec-
tion control practices, the
report said. Some residents
who contracted COVID-19
were receiving treatment
from facilities in Tigard and
Boise, the report said.
FAMILY
OWNED
Staff photo by Dick Mason
Anji Schmittle and her children, Thorin (red shirt) and
Morgin (green shirt), last week examine the lunches
they received at Stella Mayfi eld School, Elgin. The sum-
mer lunch program provides lunches free to all youths
age 18 and younger.
CASES
Continued from Page 1A
symptoms of COVID-19.
Oregon also reported
262 Oregonians have died
from the virus.
Oregon’s 261st
COVID-19 death is
a 76-year-old man in
Marion County who tested
positive on June 22 and
died on July 17, at Legacy
Good Samaritan Medical
Center. And the state’s
262nd COVID-19 death
is a 92-year-old man in
Marion County who tested
positive on July 8 and died
on July 18, in his resi-
dence. The Oregon Health
COVID-19 CASE
TOTALS FOR
NORTHEAST
OREGON
COUNTIES
Umatilla County
— 1,381
Union County — 383
Morrow County — 195
Wallowa County — 18
Baker County — 13
Grant County — 1
Authority reported both
had underlying medical
conditions.
The total number of
deaths from the virus in
Union County remains at
two.
NEW CASES BY COUNTY
The Oregon Health Authority on Monday reported
277 new cases of COVID-19 statewide, increasing the
state’s total to 14,847. Here are where the news cases
occurred by county:
Clackamas (11), Clatsop (2), Columbia (1), Crook
(1), Deschutes (19), Douglas (2), Harney (1), Hood
River (2), Jackson (5), Jefferson (7), Josephine (2),
Klamath (5), Lake (1), Lane (4), Lincoln (2), Malheur
(10), Marion (30), Morrow (1), Multnomah (85), Polk
(1), Umatilla (41), Washington (38), Yamhill (6).
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the difference.”
Myers said the meal
program is giving Stella
Mayfi eld students a
chance to place a name
and face with a familiar
voice. She explained that
while doing playground
duty during the school
year she calls students in,
in booming fashion.
“Everybody here
knows my voice,” Myers
said.
She said on a number
of occasions, children get-
ting lunches told her they
recognized her voice.
Children picking up
their lunches sometimes
receive a bonus when
they see their classmates,
some of whom they may
not have seen in recent
months.
“They are excited to
see each other,” Myers
said.
Spikes said he is glad
the lunch program is
making it possible for
children to see each other
more often.
“Not being together
is tough on kids,” Spikes
said.
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