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TUESDAY EDITION
December 14, 2021
A helping hand
UNION COUNTY
Researchers
consider
reasons for
decline of
mule deer
La Grande author
connects with
refugee in Rwanda
By KATY NESBITT
By DICK MASON
For EO Media Group
The Observer
STARKEY — A study
looking into predator-prey inter-
action at the Starkey Exper-
imental Forest and Range in
Union County revealed fasci-
nating insight into more than pre-
dation on deer and elk, such as
the dynamics between competing
carnivores.
To answer why mule deer are
declining at Starkey and across
Northeastern Oregon, researchers
are looking at possible contribu-
tors, including the role of pred-
ators. According to OSU asso-
ciate professor Taal Levi, who
served as an adviser to a 2016-
2020 study led by Joel Ruprecht,
an Oregon State University wild-
life science doctoral student, the
study included collaring a sam-
pling of carnivores, monitoring
deer and elk kill sites via game
cameras and analyzing scat to
determine what predators living
within the 40-square-mile exper-
imental forest and range were
eating.
The Starkey forest is encom-
passed within a fence that keeps
deer and elk confi ned to the area,
which allows unique types of
research.
“Getting at the answer is a
little bit challenging because mule
deer compete with elk and are
preyed on by multiple species,”
Levi said.
Of the bears, cougars, bobcats
and coyotes collared and moni-
tored, Levi said the most inter-
esting results occurred between
cougars and coyotes.
“We learned that while coy-
otes tend to avoid cougars, they
are strongly attracted to cougar
kill sites,” he said.
Analyzing their scat provided
further evidence that coyotes are
eating elk. Levi said coyotes don’t
typically kill elk past their young
calf stage, but video recordings
showed more that 90% of cougar
kills were scavenged by coyotes.
This method of eating out is
not without its challenges for the
opportunistic coyotes. Levi said
7% of the dead coyotes discov-
ered during the study were found
at cougar kill sites, and between
20% and 23% of the Starkey coy-
otes were killed by cougars.
L
A GRANDE — It is a mys-
tery for which an answer may
never emerge.
About two years ago a
biography by La Grande
author Terrie Biggs unexplainably
appeared in a refugee camp in Rwanda.
“I still have no idea how it got there,”
Biggs said.
The author, however, does know
that she will be forever thankful for the
book’s inexplicable presence
in the refugee camp. It trig-
gered a chain of events that
put her in a position to help
make a pivotal impact in the
life of Innocent Nshimiye,
24, a lifelong resident of
Biggs
the Kiziba Refugee Camp
near the city of Kigali in
Rwanda.
Biggs fi rst learned that her 2013 biog-
raphy of renowned stylistic dancer Bali
Ram, titled “Bali Ram: Rhythm of
Nature,’’ had appeared in the Kizba Ref-
ugee Camp when she received a Face-
book message from Nshimiye telling
her that a friend had a copy of the book.
Nshimiye had not read the book, but
said that he was inspired by what he had
heard of the story. The book told of Ram,
a poor boy in Nepal who grew up to gain
international recognition. That story
inspired Nshimiye to contact Biggs and
ask her to send a copy.
Biggs and Nshimiye began communi-
cating via email exchanges, which shed
more light on the African’s life story.
Biggs learned that books weren’t readily
available at his camp. There was only
a small library that books could not be
Innocent Nshimiye/Contributed Photo
Innocent Nshimiye is shown in Rwanda with a laptop computer that Terrie Biggs, of La Grande,
purchased for him. The laptop is making it possible for Nshimye, who has lived in a refugee camp his
entire life, to attend college online.
checked out from. She also discovered
that Nshimiye wanted to become a public
speaker, so she mailed him, in addition to
her Ram biography, two Dale Carnegie
books about public speaking, plus other
books meant to inspire him, including
one about the Dali Lama.
The books were mailed by Biggs to
Rwanda in December but they did not
arrive until April.
For Nshimiye, the wait was worth
it. He and his friends found the details
See, Helping/Page A5
Oregon’s population is booming, but not with kids
By FEDOR ZARKHIN
vices provided by young, work-
ing-aged people. With fewer chil-
dren today to grow into adults
by the time that happens, there
could be an imbalance.
Of 4.2 million Oregonians,
866,604 — or 20.5% — are
children. A decade ago, it was
22.6%.
“If these trends hold, Oregon
will be an older, grayer state,”
said University of Oregon eco-
nomics professor Tim Duy. “And
the economy will refl ect that.”
The Oregonian
SALEM — The past decade
brought many things to Oregon:
economic recovery from the
Great Recession, surging house-
hold incomes and some of the
nation’s biggest population gains.
What it did not deliver: more
children.
Even as Oregon added more
than 400,000 adults from 2010
to 2020, resulting in an overall
population spike of 10.6%, the
number of children remained vir-
tually unchanged.
In fact, Oregon reported only
151 more children age 17 or
younger last year than it did a
decade earlier, according to an
analysis by The Oregonian of
10-year Census data.
“It’s pretty interesting. Prob-
ably something that people don’t
expect,” said Charles Rynerson,
a Portland State University
researcher studying population
trends. “However, it was entirely
predictable.”
Oregon is one of 30 states
nationally that recorded no
growth, or even declines, in its
number of children over the past
decade, while other states —
including Washington — posted
See, Deer/Page A5
Declining births
The Associated Press, File
The neon White Stag sign along the river in Portland that formerly said “Made in
Oregon” now says “Portland, Oregon.”
gains in their respective kid
counts.
Oregon’s population is aging,
a slow-motion phenomenon that
could have major ramifi cations
for the economy and society at
large. Oregon’s youth population
grew by about 20,000 between
2000 and 2010, but the falloff has
been pronounced since around
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the Great Recession, as more
women choose to delay child-
birth, teen pregnancies fell and
some potential parents decide to
have fewer or no children at all.
What’s less predictable is
whether the trend will hold —
and what happens if it does. As
has long been known, as the baby
boomers age, they will need ser-
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While the downward trend
in births has been apparent for
some time, why it’s happening is
not so clear.
“That’s a less straightforward
question,” Rynerson said.
It’s among questions that
Alison Gemmill of Johns Hop-
kins Bloomberg School of Public
Health has dedicated her career
to — trying to fi gure out why
fewer women are having children
and whether they’ll have kids
later or never at all.
Since 2005, Oregon saw the
seventh largest drop in birth
rates of any state, federal data
show. And at the current average
See, Population/Page A5
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Issue 146
2 sections, 16 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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