THE OBSERVER
ELGIN/IMBLER SOFTBALL PROGRAM RETURNS TO THE FIELD FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2017
| SPORTS, — A8 A1
SATURDAY, APRIL 2, 2022
INSIDE
April 2, 2022
WEEKEND EDITION
$1.50
EOU
program
ready to
Ignite
College of Education
partners with Ignite!
Reading to foster
effective literacy tutors
By DAVIS CARBAUGH
The Observer
LA GRANDE — Local college
students are honing their teaching
skills while combating child lit-
eracy defi ciencies.
Eastern Oregon University’s
College of Education recently
teamed up with Ignite! Reading, a
program that utilizes one-on-one,
hands-on tutoring to increase
reading profi ciency
among grade school
students. The part-
nership with Eastern
is the fi rst of its
kind, preparing
EOU grads to enter
Sliwerski
the workforce as
teachers who are
effi cient in teaching
students how to
read.
“We are cre-
ating an innova-
tive methodology
Fritz
for ensuring that all
kids in our country
learn to read on time, which is
the end of fi rst grade,” Ignite!
Reading CEO Jessica Sliwerski
said.
Ignite! Reading is an intuitive,
one-on-one reading program that
seeks to improve reading ability
among grade school students in
the United States. The web of
tutors currently stretches across
schools in six states, leaning on
the “science of reading” to target
specifi c areas of reading ineffi -
ciency to help bridge the gap for
struggling grade schoolers.
The program came about
during the COVID-19 pandemic
and began operation in Cali-
fornia during the summer of 2021
when Sliwerski put her learning
methods into place to target
reading ineffi ciency in grade
school students. The program is
not a response to COVID-19, but
rather leans on the versatility of
virtual learning to provide stu-
dents with 15 minutes of high-
dosage reading instruction per
day.
At Eastern, students in the
college of education will gain
See, Ignite/Page A6
Union County Search and Rescue/Contributed Photo, File
The Wallowa Mountains stand covered in snow in October 2021. A faster than normal snowmelt in early 2022 has dramatically lowered the snow equivalent
levels in Eastern Oregon, signalling increased water scarcity for the late-spring and summer months.
‘It’s hard to stop’
Snowpack melting faster than expected in Eastern Oregon
By ALEX WITTWER • EO Media Group
L
A GRANDE — Eastern
Oregon’s snowpack
is melting faster than
expected, worsening an ongoing
drought and pointing to a very dry
year if conditions continue.
Scott Oviatt, a hydrologist and
snow survey supervisor for the Natural
Resources Conservation Service Oregon,
a member of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, said snow started melting
almost two weeks earlier than usual, and
many sites across the state hadn’t even
reached their peak available snowpack
levels before melt off began in the lower
elevations.
“Once the snowpack starts melting out,
it’s hard to stop,” he said.
The information comes weeks after
many Eastern Oregon snowpack levels
were reported to be in good shape. The
dramatic decline in snowpack levels cou-
pled with the ongoing drought has caused
concern among experts who are watching
the snow water equivalent levels closely.
“The fact that we didn’t reach a peak
value and the fact that we’re melting out
early is a concern because we are losing
the available water content in the snow
pack (earlier) than we normally plan on,”
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald, File
Cold temperatures helped preserve the snowpack along the Powder River just below Mason Dam on
Friday, Jan. 28, 2022. However, a faster than usual melt has experts concerned about ongoing drought
conditions this summer.
Oviatt said. “Depending on location and
elevation, we’re about two or three weeks
early, and we didn’t achieve our peak, and
now we’re at 70% for the Grande Ronde/
Powder area and we’re dropping rapidly.”
Those who rely on water irrigation
channels should be especially concerned
about the rapidly melting snow. While
Wolves at the door |
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — A judge’s deci-
sion to restore federal protections
for gray wolves last month has
put Grant County at ground zero
for relisting the predators under
the Endangered Species Act.
The decision drew a dividing
line between wolf populations
that can continue to be managed
by state agencies and those that
will once again be governed by
more restrictive federal rules.
In most of Oregon, the
dividing line is Highway 395,
which runs right through the
middle of Grant County.
While the ruling does not
change anything for wolves in the
easternmost part of the state, it
does cover wolves in the western
two-thirds of Oregon and puts
them back on the federal endan-
gered species list.
Before last month’s ruling,
wolves in Western Oregon had
been under the fi rst phase of the
state wolf plan, which allowed for
killing wolves in defense of live-
stock and guard animals in lim-
ited circumstances.
Specifi cally, wolves could be
killed if caught chasing or biting
livestock or in situations where
the state could confi rm that a
pack had depredated four times
in six months.
Even then, before ranchers
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INDEX
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Crossword ....B2
Dear Abby ....B6
TUESDAY
Horoscope ....B2
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Opinion .........A4
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Sudoku ..........B5
snowmelt is generally expected to hit its
zero point sometime in mid to late spring,
having the water runoff begin and end
earlier means that resources will become
scarce as summer drags on — and a heat
wave event can further impact water
See, Melt/Page A6
Federal judge has redrawn map for managing
wolves in the West, Grant County is at ground zero
could use deadly force in a wolf
attack, they had to have been
using nonlethal deterrents such
as electric fencing or hazing and
had to show those methods had
not worked to stop the attacks.
Those options are now off the
table, with federal protections
back in place on Oregon’s west
side.
Meanwhile, ranchers east of
Highway 395, where wolves are
under state management, can
still shoot wolves caught biting,
chasing or killing livestock or
working dogs.
In many cases, ranchers are
likely to have one herd of cattle
on both sides of the highway.
And with areas of known wolf
Full forecast on the back of B section
Tonight
Sunday
32 LOW
60/37
Cold
Milder
OSP PLANS TO INVESTIGATE SITE OF 1970S MURDER
activity in both the East and West
Murderers Creek Wildlife Units
on either side of the road, Grant
County fi nds itself at the center
of the long-running culture
war fl ashpoint around wolves
returning to the West.
Roy Vardanega, a third-gen-
eration Oregon rancher, became
Grant County’s fi rst confi rmed
victim of wolf depredation last
May, when fi ve cattle on his Fox
Valley ranch were attacked and
killed — although only one of the
deaths was determined by inves-
tigators to be a defi nite wolf kill.
He said the liberal elites who
supported restoring the federal
See, Wolves/Page A7
CONTACT US
541-963-3161
Issue 40
2 sections, 14 pages
La Grande, Oregon
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observer.com.
More contact info
on Page A4.
Online at lagrandeobserver.com