Opinion
A4
Thursday, October 7, 2021
OUR VIEWS
New way
to draw
districts
W
as anybody really surprised that
Oregon legislators couldn’t agree on
redistricting? We weren’t, and we’re
guessing you weren’t either.
It’s too political. There’s too much at stake
— control of the Legislature and the majority of
Oregon’s seats in Congress. Democrats have that
clinched for now and perhaps for the future.
Does Oregon need a new way of redistricting?
It’s long been suggested that a nonpartisan com-
mission draw the lines rather than the almost cer-
tainly partisan process of the Legislature. There’s
been eff orts to get it on the ballot before. And on
Tuesday, Oct. 5, as The Oregonian reported, it
was announced there would be a new eff ort to get
the idea of an independent redistricting commis-
sion on the ballot in 2022.
“The promise of fair representation should
not be a pawn in a partisan political game,” said
Norman Turrill, chair of the People Not Poli-
ticians campaign and former president of the
League of Women Voters of Oregon.
Would an independent redistricting commis-
sion solve the problem?
Maybe. We’d like to see the idea on the ballot.
Could the districts be compact, relatively equal
in population, not divide communities and protect
minority representation?
Could a group of people, not politicians, look
past their political leanings and try to make it as
fair as possible?
The new process would likely also be imper-
fect. It certainly feels better than asking politi-
cians to draw their own districts.
Evidence is
Oregon’s
elections are
sound
O
ver and over again these days election
integrity comes up. People question if
voter fraud swings elections.
It’s good to ask. But there’s a lot of information
that indicates Oregon’s elections are sound.
Remember former Oregon Secretary of State
Dennis Richardson? He was a Republican. He
looked into it. He was not the kind of guy to hide
problems. When he was a legislator, he warned
early on about problems with Cover Oregon, the
state health care marketplace that fl oundered.
When he was secretary of state, he issued the
scathing audit that revealed the many problems
with how Oregon takes care of foster children.
But when he looked at the integrity of Oregon’s
election system, he came away impressed.
Look at the information that is available. The
Legislative Fiscal Offi ce did a comprehensive
review. There is good information available on
the secretary of state’s website: sos.oregon.gov/
elections/Pages/security.aspx.
It’s good to continue to ask if Oregon elections
are secure and if enough is being done to ensure
their integrity. But the answers are reassuring.
Keeping elk on public land
BILL
ANEY
THIS LAND IS OUR LAND
W
here are all the elk?
It’s a common question
heard every fall around
campfi res and wood cook stoves in
the Blue Mountains. Hunters share
any number of theories about why
they can’t fi nd elk: too many pred-
ators, too many hunters, too many
motor vehicles, not enough (or too
much) logging, too much cattle
grazing, bad herd management —
the list is long and imaginative.
The Blue Mountains have the
potential for some of the world’s best
quality habitat for Rocky Moun-
tain elk. There are about 55,000 elk
in the Blue Mountains, and in most
areas the herds are near the states’
management objectives. So why
do some hunters have a hard time
fi nding elk? As is often the case,
it’s not about numbers, it’s about
distribution.
Elk like to be where they can
fi nd good habitat without being dis-
turbed. Traditionally elk would
spend the spring, summer and fall
in the Blue Mountains where they
found cooler temperatures and
shade, plentiful water and lush
forage. With the arrival of winter
snow, they migrated to lower eleva-
tions, only to repeat the cycle in the
spring and follow the green-up into
the hills.
But some elk in the Blues have
changed their habits to avoid
public land, spending more time
on lower elevation private lands
where hunters and motorized vehi-
cles don’t disturb them. By the time
elk rifl e season rolls around, the elk
have been pushed around for sev-
eral months by bowhunters and deer
hunters, and in increasing numbers
they have moved off public lands
to get the security they crave, well
before the winter snow.
Private landowners greet this
development in a variety of ways.
Some are pleased just to see elk on
their land. Some want elk so that
their family and friends can hunt,
and some are fi nding ways to mone-
tize this public resource by charging
for hunting and/or access on their
property. And some landowners
want no elk on their land because elk
eat the same feed as domestic live-
stock and have a habit of destroying
fences.
I maintain that we need a way
to hold more elk on public lands
through the fall. This is good for
public land hunters, obviously, but
it also would reduce confl icts with
agricultural interests. I also confess
that I don’t like the idea of private
landowners selling the rights to hunt
native wildlife when those animals
should be on public lands.
How do we keep them there? The
science is known — and it’s local.
Projects completed on the La Grande
Ranger District have demonstrated
how managing vegetation and
reducing disturbance from motor
vehicles can turn around this prob-
lematic migration pattern. Forest
thinning and prescribed burning
creates quality feeding areas that
are especially attractive to elk in
the late summer and fall when they
are trying to put on the calories for
winter.
But quality feed is useless to elk
if they are constantly disturbed by
motor vehicles. With over 4,500
miles of roads on the Umatilla
National Forest, elk often abandon
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areas used by cars, pickups, ATVs,
motorcycles and the like. Fortu-
nately, the Umatilla National Forest
has a travel management plan that
identifi es only a subset of these
roads as open to motor vehicles, with
the remainder closed for all or part
of the year.
This is a good thing for elk as it
improves habitat security and can
ultimately increase public land elk
hunting opportunities when elk
relearn to stay on public lands later
in the fall.
However, this requires that we all
know what roads are open to traffi c
and which are closed, and follow
the plan. A new cooperative venture
between the Forest Service, Oregon
Department of Fish and Wildlife,
and Oregon State University Exten-
sion Service should help. The eff ort
will be highlighted in the 2022 big
game hunting season synopsis, as
well as on signboards at National
Forest entry points and in printed
brochures and downloadable digital
maps.
In the meantime, elk hunters need
to learn which roads are closed to
motor vehicles in their hunting area
and commit to driving only on open
roads.
The Forest Service Motor Vehicle
Use Maps are available for free
download on their website and paper
copies in the forest offi ces.
We also need to be supportive
of forest thinning and prescribed
burning projects, recognizing that
the high quality habitat that results
will attract and hold more elk and
improve the odds for public land
hunters.
———
Bill Aney is a forester and wild-
life biologist living in Pendleton and
loving the Blue Mountains.
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