Saturday, March 13, 2021
thE OBSErVEr — 5A
ELK
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herds has been to cut the number
of tags for rifle hunts, which are
controlled hunts with limited
tags awarded through the lottery
system.
“Currently the controlled
rifle season is the one place we
have the ability to adjust hunter
harvest, and they have taken
almost all the tag reductions in
the last 25 years,” said Jeremy
Thompson, district wildlife biol-
ogist for ODFW’s Mid-Columbia
area who is managing the review
of elk archery hunts. “The ulti-
mate goal of this proposal is to be
able to make management actions
equitable for all users.”
In choosing which units to
propose the change from a gen-
eral to a controlled archery
season, ODFW officials consid-
ered the elk populations in those
units, as well as hunter den-
sity and hunter displacement,
which are based on a 2020 public
survey of hunters.
Units where the bull ratio —
the number of bulls per cows —
have not met the state’s goals in
three out of five years are pro-
The Nature Conservancy/Contributed Photo
A herd of elk cross the Zumwalt Prairie in Wallowa County. The Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife is proposing significant changes to
elk-hunting rules for archers in Northeastern Oregon.
posed to change from general to
controlled archery hunts in 2022.
“We have tried to craft a solu-
tion that addresses the problems
we are seeing in some units,
while continuing to retain as
much general season opportunity
as possible,” Thompson said.
ODFW is proposing to change
from a general to a controlled elk
archery hunt in some other units
because although those units are
meeting bull ratio goals, the bull
elk harvest is near what biolo-
gists consider the unit’s capacity.
In some units, archery hunters
have been taking as many or more
branch-antlered bulls than rifle
hunters have, according to ODFW.
Two Baker County archery
PROJECT
VIRUS
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and safe,” said Wildman, who works for the La
Grande-based engineer firm Anderson Perry &
Associates Inc.
Replacing the eight aging pumps not only
will reduce the potential for overflows but also
reduce annual pump repair costs, which have
been rising dramatically. The sanitation dis-
trict’s annual maintenance expenses, of which
pump restoration is a major part, have jumped
$35,000 a year each of the past five years,
Wildman said.
The area served by the sanitation district
includes all of Island City and a number of par-
cels of land zoned for commercial and indus-
trial use in the vicinity of the city.
Ten miles of pipe are in the Island City Area
Sanitation District’s system, portions of which
are in need of major repair work. Wildman said
inspections using small remote control vehicles
have detected 20 sites for repairs.
The $2.26 million project also will pay for
the purchase of a system that will be easier to
maintain. The system now requires operators
to step down into the vicinity of the waste-
water to make adjustments on electronic con-
trol panels. Wildman said the upgraded system
will have its control panels above ground to
allow for adjustments to be easily and safely
made.
The sanitation district will pay for the
upgrade with a $1.96 million loan from the
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality
and with $300,000 from the district’s reserve
fund. The interest rate for the DEQ loan
will be 1%, and the city will pay it off over a
30-year period. Wildman said $500,000 of the
loan is potentially forgivable if the district fol-
lows proper criteria.
Regardless of the size of the debt, the dis-
trict will have to raise its rates to have enough
revenue to pay back the loan.
Island City’s rates, which are now $40 a
month, will have to increase to $45-$50 a
month, Wildman said. This will leave the dis-
trict’s rates below the state average of $51 a
month. The state average Wildman cited is
based upon a 2020 League of Oregon Cities
report.
Wildman said the district has not raised
sewer rates since 2006. He said the average
rate of inflation since then has been about 2% a
year, meaning if the rate kept up with inflation,
the cost now would be about $54 a month.
Howton said the district’s sewer rate
increase will likely be made in one step.
Those receiving sewer service, she said, will
be notified several months before the increase
takes effect.
Additional information about the project is
available at Island City Hall, 10605 Island Ave.
The office is open from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Monday through Thursday, and 9 a.m. to
1:30 p.m. Friday.
bumping the total there to 687.
The Oregon Health
Authority also reported state-
wide there were 402 new cases
of COVID-19 bringing the
state total to 159,037.
More than 19% of Union
County’s 26,841 residents have
received at least one vaccina-
tion, according to the OHA,
with 2,202 residents fully vac-
cinated and 2,390 more in
progress. Wallowa County’s
vaccination rate is nearing
22%, with 1,566 vaccinated
(631 in progress, 935 fully vac-
cinated) out of a population of
7,151.
Statewide, about 19.2%
of the population has been at
least partially vaccinated.
Meeting president’s goal
Oregon would need up to
double the doses of COVID-19
vaccine it now receives to ful-
fill President Joe Biden’s sev-
en-week sprint to allow all
adults to be offered inocula-
tion, Oregon health officials
said Friday.
Gov. Kate Brown and top
state medical experts held a
press call Friday to say they
hoped to meet Biden’s time-
line, but would move cau-
tiously. Brown said she wel-
comed Biden’s “audacious
announcement.”
“I will do everything I can
to make it happen,” she said.
Oregon’s staggered priority
groups wouldn’t match Biden’s
deadline until July 1.
States have the central
authority over public health,
and Brown said the present
plan would stay in place until
there was a guaranteed supply
before she would unleash addi-
tional demand onto the already
strained system.
Oregon officials were
only recently told they would
receive 200,000 doses per
month, up from the previous
120,000 doses. But Oregon
Health Authority Director Pat
Allen said meeting Biden’s
schedule could take as much as
doubling the doses.
“It would need to be an
increase on that kind of order
hunters, Bob Reedy and Keith
Jensen, said they have concerns
about the potential effects of
ODFW’s proposed changes.
Reedy, who lives in Baker
City and also owns an archery
shop, disputes ODFW’s conten-
tion that switching from a general
to a controlled season for elk is
necessary to deal with declining
elk populations and bull ratios.
“I think a lot of this us about
the state mismanaging the ani-
mals,” Reedy said.
He contends the state could
either temporarily ban hunters
from killing bulls, whether they
use bows or rifles, or change
the bag limit to prohibit hunters
from shooting spike bulls. By
restricting hunters to harvesting
only mature, branch-antlered
bulls, Reedy said the state could
boost bull ratios in units where
they’re below state objectives.
“If they want better bull
ratios, stop shooting so many
bulls,” he said.
Jensen, who also owns an
archery shop, in Bowen Valley
just south of Baker City, said he
concedes ODFW’s point that for
the past few decades rifle hunters,
not archers, have borne the brunt
of cuts in elk tag numbers.
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for local vaccination clinic
information.
of magnitude,” Allen said.
“Maybe 300,000.”
Part of the math problem
has to do with the vaccines
themselves. Until recently,
Oregon was only receiving
the Pfizer and Modern vac-
cines, each of which requires
two shots given about a month
apart.
The state has received the
initial shipments of a new vac-
cine from Johnson & Johnson
that requires a single shot.
Brown and Allen both said
their caution came from not
wanting to set off the kind of
policy whiplash that hit Orego-
nians in mid-January.
When the Trump Adminis-
tration announced the imme-
diate release of a large stock-
pile of additional doses,
Brown dropped her carefully
crafted priority tier policy.
She announced everyone in
Oregon age 65 and over would
be eligible for shots.
Trump officials said within
48 hours that there was no
stockpile of new doses.
The governor had to reverse
herself and put eligibility
restrictions back in place.
Biden in a national address
Thursday said he wanted the
vaccination program to be
far enough along to allow for
small celebrations of July 4.
“If we all do our part, this
country will be vaccinated
soon, our economy will be
on the mend, our kids will
be back in school, and we’ll
have proven once again that
this country can do anything,”
Biden said.
Though Oregon officials
have a much higher level of
confidence in Biden’s stream-
lined transport system and
increased manufacturing of
vaccine, Allen said supply
needed to be on the way first.
“We know the previous
administration made previous
announcements it was unable
to fill,” Allen said.
Oregon is limiting shots to
But Jensen said he’s worried
ODFW’s proposed “piecemeal”
approach — moving to controlled
archery seasons in some units but
continuing with a general season
in others — would push many
hunters to units with a general
season, leading to overcrowding.
Both Jensen and Reedy
also said they believe ODFW
is failing to acknowledge that
predation, by bears, cougars
and wolves, is contributing to
declining elk numbers in some
units.
ODFW is asking hunters to
submit comments on the pro-
posed changes, which the Fish
and Wildlife Commission is
scheduled to discuss during its
June 18 meeting.
The commission will make a
decision on archery seasons for
2022 during its September 2021
meeting.
More information is avail-
able online at myodfw.com/arti-
cles/big-game-hunting-season-
review.
Comments should be emailed
to odfw.wildlifeinfo@state.or.us
no later than April 15. There will
be additional opportunities to
comment before and during the
commission’s June 18 meeting.
health workers, residents of
nursing homes, educators and
daycare workers, and most
recently, all residents age 65
and older as of March 1.
The next eligible group can
seek shots March 29. It’s a long
list that includes adults age 45
and older with specific med-
ical issues, agricultural and
other food processing workers,
homeless people, residents of
low-income housing, those dis-
placed by last year’s wildfires
and wildland firefighters.
Pregnant women age 16 and
over were recently added to the
group.
OHA has not been able to
give estimates on how many
people will become eligible on
March 29.
May 1 — the date that
Biden wants eligibility to be
offered to all adults nationwide
— is currently listed as adding
front-line workers (those who
deal daily with the public),
those living in multigenera-
tional households, and those
age 16-44 with certain medical
conditions.
Brown’s plan calls for
everyone age 45 and older to
be eligible June 1. On July 1,
all adults would be able to seek
shots.
Dr. Dean Sidelinger, the
state’s top infectious expert,
said officials were looking
at studies from around the
country about school reopen-
ings. Some indicate Ore-
gon’s mandate for students to
be spaced 6 feet apart when
they return to the classroom
could be cut to 3 feet. No
policy change is in the pipe-
line, despite requests to Brown
from school districts.
Allen said the vaccination
effort involving seniors was
going well statewide, though
he noted some counties were
ahead of the goal to have 75%
of eligible seniors inoculated,
while other counties lagged
behind.
Brown praised the support
of Oregon’s congressional del-
egation for Biden’s $1.9 tril-
lion stimulus legislation, which
includes $1,400 direct pay-
ments to Americans, aid for
COVID-19 distribution, unem-
ployment aid, and funds to
buttress state and local budgets
strained by the pandemic.
Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario
joined all House Republicans
in opposing the bill, saying
it was too expensive and
included too much non-pan-
demic related spending. The
rest of Oregon’s congressional
delegation — all Democrats —
supported the bill.
Risk levels improve
New COVID-19 risk levels
for Oregon’s 36 counties
showed continued improve-
ment in the latest two-
week report, signaling more
areas will be able expand
business and dining occu-
pancy starting Friday, while
allowing for more activities.
“We are largely seeing case
rates decline across the state,
with the most counties in the
Lower Risk level since the
framework was introduced
in November,” Brown said in
officially announcing the new
levels on Tuesday, March 9.
They went into effect Friday.
In all, 13 counties low-
ered their risk level ratings,
while three showed worsening
trends to move up a level.
Only Coos and Douglas coun-
ties remain on the extreme
risk level, which once con-
tained well over half of Ore-
gon’s counties.
Union County remained
in the moderate risk group,
along with Baker County.
Statewide, Oregon
reported 4,615 cases between
Feb. 26 and March 6. The
statewide average was 108.9
cases per 100,000 residents
and the positive test rate
dropped to 3.2, indicating that
numbers statewide should
continue to drop.
— EO Media Group staff
contributed to this article.
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