2A — THE OBSERVER
Daily
Planner
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, Oct. 27,
the 301st day of 2020. There
are 65 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT IN
HISTORY
On Oct. 27, 1904, the first
rapid transit subway was in-
augurated in New York City.
ON THIS DATE
In 1787, the first of the
Federalist Papers, a series of
essays calling for ratification
of the United States Consti-
tution, was published.
In 1858, the 26th president
of the United States, Theo-
dore Roosevelt, was born in
New York City.
In 1941, the Chicago
Daily Tribune dismissed
the possibility of war with
Japan, editorializing, “She
cannot attack us. That is a
military impossibility. Even
our base at Hawaii is beyond
the effective striking power
of her fleet.”
In 1954, U.S. Air Force
Col. Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
was promoted to brigadier
general, the first Black
officer to achieve that rank in
the USAF.
In 1962, during the Cuban
Missile Crisis, a U-2 aircraft
was shot down while flying
over Cuba, killing the pilot,
U.S. Air Force Maj. Rudolf
Anderson Jr.
In 1978, Egyptian Presi-
dent Anwar Sadat and Israeli
Prime Minister Menachem
Begin were named winners
of the Nobel Peace Prize
for their progress toward
achieving a Middle East
accord.
In 1995, a sniper killed
one soldier and wounded 18
others at Fort Bragg, North
Carolina.
In 1998, Hurricane Mitch
cut through the western
Caribbean, pummeling
coastal Honduras and Belize;
the storm caused several
thousand deaths in Central
America in the days that
followed.
In 2001, in Washington,
the search for deadly an-
thrax widened to thousands
of businesses and 30 mail
distribution centers.
In 2004, the Boston Red
Sox won their first World
Series since 1918, sweeping
the St. Louis Cardinals in
Game 4, 3-0.
In 2018, a gunman shot
and killed 11 congregants
and wounded six others at
Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life syna-
gogue in the deadliest attack
on Jews in U.S. history.
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Forest management is one tool to fight
climate change in Eastern Oregon
By Alex Castle
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — In
May, the Scripps Insti-
tution of Oceanography
and the National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric
Administration reported
carbon dioxide levels were
recorded at an average of
over 417 parts per million.
Those levels indicate
there’s more carbon dioxide
in our atmosphere than at
any other point in human
history, and may be the
highest they’ve been in
three million years.
During the Eastern
Oregon Climate Change
Coalition’s monthly virtual
meeting on Tuesday, Oct.
20, Richie Gardner of the
Umatilla National Forest
gave a presentation of how
these historic levels connect
to forest management and
what can be done to address
them.
The presence of carbon
dioxide in the atmosphere
isn’t inherently a problem,
Gardner said, but the rising
abundance of it is connected
to rising global tempera-
tures that have problematic
impacts on our climate.
“Those concentrations
of CO2 — as they increase
— that greenhouse effect
becomes a little hyperac-
tive and things get warmer,”
he said.
One of the results of
that change in climate has
been the increase in preva-
lence and severity of natural
disasters, such as wildfires,
hurricanes, tornadoes and
droughts.
According to the
National Oceanic and
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
La Grande School District’s
school resource officer pro-
gram is set for the 2020-21
school year.
The Union County
Board of Commissioners
voted Oct. 21 to approve a
one-year intergovernmental
agreement for the program,
which has been in place at
least five years. The vote
came a week after the La
Grande School Board also
approved the agreement.
The program provides
the La Grande School Dis-
trict with a deputy from
the Union County Sher-
iff’s Office. The deputy
works throughout the aca-
demic year, visiting schools
and meeting with stu-
dents, faculty and staff.
Union County Commis-
sioner Donna Beverage said
school resource officers
serve vital roles in schools.
“A school resource
officer builds relationships
with school kids and keeps
schools secure,” Beverage
said.
The school district first
Atmospheric Administra-
tion, 2020 already is the
sixth consecutive year in
which there’s been a $10
billion weather disaster in
the United States. Of the 16
such events this year as of
Oct. 7, 188 people have been
killed.
One tool for taking on
troubling carbon dioxide
levels is trees, and their
natural process of pho-
tosynthesis that captures
carbon in a process called
sequestration.
However, sequestration
can be foiled by the abun-
dance of carbon dioxide
as temperatures rise, for-
ests get dryer and wildfires
increase in frequency and
severity.
Drawing on data from
1990 to 2011, Gardner said
that 57% of carbon released
from forests in the Pacific
Northwest was a result of
fires. Another 36% was
from harvests and 7% from
insect disturbances.
A 2011 estimate from
the National Research
Council indicated that an
increase of 1.8 degrees in
temperature could con-
tribute to two or three more
fires per year in some parts
of the Umatilla National
Forest, and at least six more
Umatilla National Forest/ Contributed Photo, File
The Wildcat project area in the Umatilla National Forest spans 10,280 acres. The area
was subject to thinning and prescriptive burning as a means of reducing the spread of
wildfires.
fires per year in other parts.
Gardner pointed to a
few steps that can be taken
to address these risks —
reduce forest loss, conserve
and manage older forests,
restore forests when they’ve
been converted to other uses
or been damaged by fires
and use more wood prod-
ucts over steel and concrete.
One way to reduce forest
loss, he said, was by thin-
ning out shorter trees that
can help carry a wildfire
from the forest floor into its
canopy.
“You see a very large
carbon benefit with
those trees still alive
after you have a thinned
forest that can withstand
fires,” Gardner said. “An
unthinned forest experi-
encing the same fire condi-
tions, your carbon goes up
with the smoke.”
Gardner also highlighted
strategies, such as deploying
burns that leave biomass
residue that can hold carbon
for significantly longer
periods of time, encour-
aging the investment in bio-
mass plants and considering
changes in climate, while
planning for the planting of
future forests.
That includes planning
for reforestation using new
tree species, Gardner said.
In the Blue Mountains, for
example, gambel oak and
pinyon pine are two tree
species expected to emerge
in the future.
Above all else, Gardner
emphasized the need to
have these discussions
and begin planning for the
future of forest management
now with the knowledge of
what’s to come from climate
change.
“What we have to do is
expect these hotter tempera-
tures, expect bigger insect
outbreaks, expect bigger
fires because it’s not playing
it safe, it’s just being real,”
Gardner said. “It’s what
we’re experiencing.”
———
The article is part of
Climate Changed, the
EO Media Group’s series
that explores how climate
change is affecting life
across Oregon.
Eastern Oregon Film Festival makes virtual format work
By Sabrina Thompson
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
2020 Eastern Oregon Film
Festival was a success, fes-
tival Director Christopher
Jennings declared, even
as the event was all online
due to the coronavirus
pandemic.
“Going into the festival
this year there were a lot of
unknowns,” Jennings said.
“Our hopes were to do our
best to share our region,
audience and spirit with vis-
iting filmmakers.”
Transforming the tra-
ditional weekend full of
live screenings and ses-
sions with directors to a
digital format wasn’t easy,
according to Jennings, and
there were a couple of tech-
nical hurdles to overcome
Union County OKs
SRO contract of
almost $40,000
By Dick Mason
TuESday, OcTOBER 27, 2020
LOCAL/REGION
had an SRO about 15 years
ago, who at that time was
an officer from the La
Grande Police Department.
The school district later
discontinued the program
because of financial con-
straints before reinstating it
in 2015.
The new contract calls
for the school district to
pay the sheriff’s office
$39,657 for the September
to December period in two
payments of $19,828.50, but
the sheriff’s office will pro-
rate the amount for the Jan-
uary to June period based
on the salary and benefits of
the deputy.
Deputy Cody Bowen
will be the SRO for Sep-
tember to December.
Bowen has been the school
district’s primary SRO
since 2015. However,
Bowen is a candidate for
Union County sheriff in the
Nov. 3 election and might
not continue as school
resource officer.
The school districts of
Cove, North Powder and
Union also have school
resource officers through
the sheriff’s office.
during last weekend’s vir-
tual event. One of the film
selections had a file corrup-
tion that was unable to be
resolved before the festival
started, and festival staff
addressed smaller technical
glitches.
“Working hard to main-
tain the unique energy of
EOFF, our creative team
pushed through tech-
nical challenges to pro-
vide Zoom Q&As via lives-
tream through the Eventive
platform. Three-camera
live video from hq’s stage
allowed for the director’s
message, a fun set for Zoom
and a great delivery for live
music,” Jennings said.
Virtual programing from
the festival is likely to con-
tinue as the event team pre-
pares for next season. Even-
tive will be the festival’s
ticketing and event manage-
ment tool moving forward,
Jennings said.
“This will allow EOFF
to program virtually
throughout the year, build
an audience and attract vis-
itors to EOFF 2021, while
tracking all of our successes
in one digital hub,” Jen-
nings said. “As EOFF was
able to reach a new level of
audience participation this
year, we can continue to
serve an international audi-
ence throughout the year
via online streaming and
attract more visitors to our
physical events, the Liberty
Theatre and the Grande
Ronde Valley in the future.”
Jennings said the only
thing missing from the
2020 festival was the
in-person interaction with
festival-goers.
For the last 11 years,
he said, the film fes-
tival has thrived because
of the local and regional
festival attendees. How-
ever, through digital pro-
graming, the festival was
able to reach a larger audi-
ence. The festival streamed
more than 3,000 events over
the weekend and sold more
than 1,300 tickets, with 250
unique ticket holders from
all over the world.
“We missed being able
to share our valley with
visiting filmmakers. We
missed getting sweaty and
vulnerable with fellow
humans through lively
music, dance and spirits,”
Jennings said. “There is
a big loss suffered to the
spirit of our festival, and
for all cultural, in-person
events across the globe, so
being able to connect in
some way was a blessing.”
Still, Jennings also said,
the shift to a virtual format
allowed the EOFF team
to reach new heights with
technical achievements and
creativity.
“The creative team,
as with filmmaking, is
the core of telling a good
story,” he continued.
“Whether it is a short or
feature film, or the story of
a grassroots rural film fes-
tival working hard to break
barriers and build a space
to support filmmakers,
audiences and creatives in
La Grande, Eastern Oregon
and, now, all over the
world.”
La Grande Veterans Day Parade canceled
By Dick Mason
The Observer
LA GRANDE — The
annual Nov. 11 La Grande
Veterans Day Parade has
been canceled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
John Craig, commander
of American Legion Post
43, which hosts the parade,
said the Oregon Health
Authority’s COVID-19
restrictions again large
gatherings necessitated the
cancellation.
“We are hopeful that we
will be able to start it up
again in 2021,” Craig said.
The parade has been
conducted annually in La
Grande since 1919.
La Grande Unit 43
Auxiliary has traditionally
The Observer, File
The annual Veterans Day Parade in La Grande has been
canceled this year. American Legion Post 43, which or-
ganizes the Adams Avenue parade, hopes the public
health situation will allow the parade to go on in 2021.
served spaghetti dinners at
the American Legion Hall
after the parade. Craig said
that again will be the case
this year, only the meals
will be in to-go boxes,
which the Auxiliary will
distribute in the parking
lot of the American Legion
Hall, 301 Fir St.
The auxiliary will pre-
pare 100 meals, and they
will be available on Vet-
erans Day 11:30 a.m.
to 1:30 p.m. or until the
meals are gone. The
lunches also include garlic
bread and homemade
cookies. They will be free
to all veterans and mem-
bers of the auxiliary who
are current on their dues.
Everyone else will be
charged $5 per meal, said
Maggie LaMont, president
of the La Grande Unit 43
Auxiliary.
People picking up
meals will be directed to
enter the American Legion
Hall parking lot from Fir
Street and exit via Jef-
ferson Avenue.
$6,150 reward offered in wolf killing
By Jayson Jacoby
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY —
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
announced a reward of
$6,150 is being offered for
information leading to an
arrest in the fatal shooting
of a gray wolf in eastern
Baker County in late
September.
The wolf, the breeding
male from the Cornucopia
pack, was found dead off
the 125 spur road about 1
mile east of Eagle Forks
campground.
The wolf was killed
on or around Sept. 24,
according to Oregon State
Police.
Oregon Wild and the
Center for Biological
Diversity each contrib-
uted $2,500 to the reward
fund. NE Oregon Eco-
systems added $850, and
the Turn in Poachers pro-
gram, which involves
the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife,
Oregon State Police and
the Oregon Hunters Asso-
ciation, is offering $300
or five hunter preference
points.
The breeding male and
female from the Cornu-
copia pack raised three
pups in the spring of 2019
and denned again in 2020,
although ODFW doesn’t
yet know how many pups
were born this year, said
Brian Ratliff, district biol-
ogist at the agency’s Baker
City office.
The killing of the male
could jeopardize the future
of the Cornucopia pack,
Ratliff said.