OREGON
TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Judge warns against retaliation at Two Rivers prison
By CONRAD WILSON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
UMATILLA — A fed-
eral judge is warning prison
staff at Oregon’s Two
Rivers Correctional Institu-
tion in Umatilla not to retal-
iate against an adult in their
custody who sued correc-
tions offi cials because they
wouldn’t follow masking
rules.
Following hearings in
federal court, U.S. Mag-
istrate Judge Stacie Beck-
erman issued a new written
order Wednesday, March
30, that told employees
at the prison not to take
actions against Aaron
Hanna.
In October, Hanna asked
the court to force prison
offi cials and correctional
offi cers at Two Rivers to
comply with the Oregon
Department of Corrections’
policy on wearing masks.
That policy requires cor-
rectional offi cers and staff
to wear masks anytime they
are in the facility, even as
most statewide mandates
for mask wearing were
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A federal judge on Wednesday, March 30, 2022, warned prison staff at Oregon’s Two Rivers Correctional Institution in Umatilla not to retaliate
against an adult in their custody who sued corrections offi cials because they wouldn’t follow masking rules.
lifted in March.
On March 21, Beck-
erman issued an order that
required prison staff follow
their own rules and wear
masks inside the prison.
“It didn’t take long for
that to really kind of sour
things over at TRCI,”
said Juan Chavez, Han-
na’s attorney. He said the
guards and leaders at the
Two Rivers prison “took
the judge’s conclusions that
they need to enforce their
masking orders and ampli-
fi ed that against AIC’s
(adult in custody) by several
magnitudes.”
That was not Becker-
man’s intent, a point she
clarifi ed this week, stating
the injunction applied only
to staff and not to the pris-
on’s policy for adults in
custody.
Inmates were forced to
wear masks while chewing
food and only allowed to
slip their masks down to
take bites, Chavez said.
They had to wear masks
outside in the yard and
while taking showers.
“They ratcheted up
mask enforcement against
AICs, which made AICs not
happy,” Chavez said. “Staff
were telling people, ‘Well,
don’t be angry with us, be
angry with Hanna.’”
That put Hanna in a vul-
nerable position.
Chavez said the impli-
cation from Two Rivers
was clear: “Come against
us, come get accountability
against us, we’re going to
make you feel the pain even
worse.”
Beckerman said any vio-
lation of her injunction, or
retaliation against Hanna,
could result in civil or crim-
inal contempt proceedings.
A spokesperson for the
Oregon Department of
Corrections said the agency
“cannot comment on the
specifi cs of this case, but
the DOC makes every
eff ort to comply with court
orders and will continue to
do so.”
A hearing is set for May
10 to discuss the retaliation
Hanna faced at Two Rivers.
Program will pay cash for information on poaching of wild animals
New fund provides
reward for tips on
nongame animal
poaching
MORE INFORMATION
To report poaching or illegal animal theft, call the Turn in Poachers (TIP) line at
800-452-7888 or *OSP (*677) from a mobile phone, or email: TIP@osp.oregon.gov.
By ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — A new fund will
reward tipsters for information on
poached or stolen nongame ani-
mals, such as raptors, which can’t
be hunted.
Up until now, callers to the
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s Turn in Poachers line,
or TIP line, could receive a cash
award only if they called with
information on a game species,
such as deer, elk and bear, hunted
outside of state regulations. Those
awards are paid for by the Oregon
Hunters Association.
Now, callers with information
on the illegal killing of imperiled,
threatened or endangered nongame
animals will also be rewarded.
Those with information that
leads to an arrest or citation for the
poaching of eagles, hawks, owls or
other raptors, for example, could
receive $500. For tips on animals
considered threatened or endan-
gered by the state or federal Endan-
gered Species Act, the reward is
$1,000. These include animals such
as wolverines and sea otters. Tips
that lead to citations and arrests in
the illegal trade of imperiled frogs,
turtles and reptiles, often sold ille-
gally online or in wet markets, also
will be rewarded.
The new rewards are paid for
by the Oregon Wildlife Coalition,
a group of eight conservation orga-
nizations that work together closely
on policy and advocacy.
According to Danielle Moser,
wildlife program coordinator at
Oregon Wild, part of the wild-
life coalition, poaching in Oregon
“remains a signifi cant problem,
especially for those species which
are imperiled or low in population
numbers.”
Moser pointed to the recent poi-
soning of eight wolves and the
poaching of two more in North-
eastern Oregon.
“For a species with a low pop-
ulation, 10 instances of poaching
can be a signifi cant setback for the
species’ population,” Moser wrote
in an email. There are about 170
wolves in Oregon.
The reward for information on
the killing of those wolves is now
up to nearly $48,000.
“Thrill kills” of game ani-
mals in the state continue to be an
issue, according to the state Fish
and Wildlife Department and the
Oregon Hunters Association. In
2020, the association distributed
more than $20,000 for informa-
tion on the illegal killing of game
species.
Yvonne Shaw, manager of the
department’s Stop Poaching cam-
paign, said in a statement that non-
game animals are also victims of
senseless attacks.
“Raptors, which eat incredible
numbers of mice, voles and other
crop pests, have been targeted,”
Shaw wrote. “We lose many
incredible birds every year from
thrill killers.”
Fire-detecting cameras to be installed across Oregon, atop peaks and cell towers
Upgrades to cost state about $4.5 million
By ALEX BAUMHARDT
Oregon Capital Chronicle
SALEM — Oregon
will soon have nearly 60
cameras across the state
perched on cellphone
towers, old fi re towers and
mountaintops, watching for
potential forest fi res across
the state.
The cameras, part of the
ALERTWildfi re network,
help fi re departments and
state agencies spot wild-
fi res early, predict their
movements and slow their
spread. They also allow
Oregonians the opportunity
to make evacuation deci-
sions early, based on their
proximity to fi res.
Currently, the network is
made up of two dozen cam-
eras, which will more than
double with new state money.
Legislators in February
appropriated $4.5 million
to the Oregon Hazards Lab
at the University of Oregon
to add at least 29 cameras
across the state over the next
year. Most of the two dozen
currently operating are in
Southeastern and Western
Oregon. New cameras will
be concentrated in the Rogue
Valley and in the Bend, Rich-
mond and La Pine areas.
The video streams are
accessible online 24 hours a
day, seven days a week, to
the public and to emergency
response agencies and fi re-
fi ghters, who can also use
a time lapse feature to go
back and trace the origins
of a fi re. Additionally, artifi -
cial intelligence software in
the system can detect smoke
and alert fi re agencies and
emergency responders.
Such a forest surveil-
lance system was fi rst
implemented around Lake
Tahoe in 2014 by the Uni-
versity of Nevada Reno and
has expanded to Oregon,
California, Washington,
and Idaho in partnership
with state and federal agen-
cies and public universities.
The Oregon expansion is
being spearheaded by Doug
Toomey, a geophysicist and
director of the Oregon Haz-
ards Lab, where scientists
study natural disasters in
the Pacifi c Northwest, and
search for ways to use tech-
nology to monitor and miti-
gate them.
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comparison to other states
that are part of the ALERT-
Wildfi re collaborative. In
California, the network has
more than 1,000 cameras
positioned around the state
including dozens near its
border with Oregon.
“It is a great start to have
this money but we have a
long way to go,” Toomey
said.
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Toomey said the Hazards
Lab can program cameras
to gray out homes or busi-
nesses upon request for pri-
vacy reasons. Toomey said
for the most part, people
living within view of the
fi re cameras have seen the
benefi ts outweigh their
concerns.
The number of cameras
in Oregon are still small in
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Toomey hopes the cam-
eras will be useful to people
living in areas prone to
wildfi re.
“You don’t have to sit
and wait to see if your home
is being evacuated. You can
see what things look like in
real time,” he said.
In California, the system
has allowed fi re agencies
to respond more strategi-
cally to fi res when they
begin to move. During the
Lilac Fire in San Diego
County in 2017, several fi re
departments collaborated
to double the size of their
initial response within the
fi rst 10 minutes of fl ames
spreading. They could see
the size of the fi re from the
elevated cameras rather
than waiting to assess on
the ground, according to a
CBS news report.
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