REGION
TUESDAY, MAY 3, 2022
THE OBSERVER — A3
Forestry collaboratives receive federal grants
Northern Blues Forest
Collaborative received
$3M for project
AT A GLANCE
Northern Blues Forest Restoration —
$3 million: A 10.4-million-acre project
to reduce wildfi re risk and prepare the
landscape to safely manage fi re.
Southern Blues Restoration Coali-
tion — $3 million: A project to restore
1 million acres that suff er from drasti-
cally changing wildfi re patterns, spe-
cies composition, and forest stand
densities that threaten to destroy key
habitat, old growth, important aquatic
resources and private property due to
uncharacteristic wildfi res and eff ects of
a changing climate.
Rogue Basin Landscape Restoration
Project — $3 million: A 4.6 million-acre
project intended to accelerate resto-
ration treatments to meet goals of wild-
fi re risk reduction, landscape resiliency,
improved wildlife habitat, watershed
protection, adaptation, and social and
economic resilience.
Lakeview Stewardship — $2 million:
An 859,000-acre project to create a
healthy, resilient and functional forest
landscape maintained with fi re to miti-
gate the threat of high-severity wildfi res.
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
WASHINGTON — Forest col-
laboratives in Central and Eastern
Oregon have received word they
will be getting upward of $11.6 mil-
lion in federal funding.
The collaboratives, which bring
together environmentalists, public
and private land managers, and
timber industry professionals, seek
to fi nd common ground on hot-
button forestry issues.
The projects were selected by
a federal advisory committee and
funded through the Collabora-
tive Forest Landscape Restoration
Program, which is intended to
encourage ecological and economic
sustainability and reduce the risk of
catastrophic wildfi res.
The Southern Blues Restoration
Coalition, a joint eff ort of Blue
Mountains Forest Partners and the
Harney County Restoration Col-
laborative, received $3 million.
Both groups are forestry collab-
oratives, groups of diverse stake-
holders formed to fi nd solutions to
stubborn forestry issues that satisfy
environmental concerns while pro-
viding jobs in the woods and gen-
erating a steady and predictable
timber supply to feed area lumber
mills.
Backed by the two collabora-
tives, the Southern Blues Resto-
ration Coalition has been supported
by CFLRP money since 2012. The
coalition was initially awarded
Blue Mountain Eagle, File
The Southern Blues Restoration Coalition, a joint eff ort of Blue Mountains Forest Partners and the Harney County Restoration
Collaborative, received $3 million. Both groups are forestry collaboratives, groups of diverse stakeholders formed to fi nd
solutions to stubborn forestry issues that satisfy environmental concerns while providing jobs in the woods and generating a
steady and predictable timber supply to feed area lumber mills.
$2.5 million per year and received
a bump to $4 million per year in
2016.
Malheur National Forest pro-
gram manager Roy Walker said a
big chunk of the money they will
receive would go toward prescribed
burning. Some of the funding, he
added, would go to pre-commercial
thinning throughout the Southern
Blues Coalition area.
Walker said the main goal is
to reduce wildfi re hazards on the
Malheur.
“(The funding) is really helping
us accelerate our restoration out
here in the (Malheur) National
Forest,” Walker said.
Northern Blues
collaborative
The Northern Blues Forest Col-
laborative received $3 million for
a 10.4 million-acre project in the
Wallowa-Whitman National Forest
to reduce wildfi re risk and prepare
California man goes to federal prison
for role in Eastern Oregon meth trade
East Oregonian
PORTLAND — A Cal-
ifornia man who was part
of a methamphetamine
traffi cking ring in Eastern
Oregon and beyond is going
to federal prison.
The federal court in Port-
land on Wednesday, April
27, sentenced Noel Lomas
Murillo, 34, to fi ve years
in prison and another three
years of supervised release.
According to the press
release from the U.S. Attor-
ney’s Offi ce of Oregon, the
Blue Mountain Enforce-
ment Narcotics Team,
Oregon State Police and the
FBI, Murillo in November
2017 began a drug traf-
fi cking organization led by
his brother, Abel Lomas
Murillo, 28, of Weston.
The investigation
revealed that, as early as July
2017, Noel Murillo trans-
ported drugs from Vacav-
ille, California, to Klamath
Falls where a courier would
deliver them to his brother.
Abel Murillo also made mul-
tiple trips to Medford to pick
up drugs and transport them
to Morrow and Umatilla
counties for distribution.
An OSP trooper in Jan-
uary 2018 stopped one of
Abel Murillo’s couriers,
Luis Alberto Navarro, 33, of
Boardman, in a vehicle near
Klamath Falls en route to
Umatilla County. A search of
the vehicle revealed 11 con-
cealed packages containing
more than 8 kilograms of
methamphetamine.
In early May 2018, as the
investigation continued, Abel
Murillo enlisted another
courier, Noel Ponce Vil-
legas, 28, also of Boardman,
to drive meth from Medford
to Boardman. Investigators
surveilled Abel Murillo as
he traveled from Umatilla
County to a storage locker in
Medford and loaded a trailer
pulled by his truck.
Abel Murillo paid Vil-
legas to drive his truck and
trailer while he followed him
to minimize his own risk. In
the early morning hours of
May 6, 2018, investigators
from BENT, state police and
FBI stopped Abel Murillo
and Villegas near mile
marker 102 on Interstate 84.
Investigators seized 42
packages of methamphet-
amine, 36 of which were
concealed in the false bottom
of a propane tank, according
to the press release.
The packages contained
approximately 17.6 kilo-
grams of methamphetamine.
Later the same day, inves-
tigators executed a search
warrant at Abel Murillo’s
residence, seizing 29 fi re-
arms and body armor. Pur-
suant to a separate search
warrant, law enforcement
seized another 10 pounds of
meth and fi ve fi rearms in a
Medford storage locker Abel
Murillo had visited earlier in
the weekend.
A federal grand jury in
Portland on Dec. 19, 2019,
returned a two-count super-
seding indictment charging
Noel Murillo with con-
spiring to possess with intent
to distribute methamphet-
amine and possessing with
intent to distribute meth-
amphetamine. He pleaded
guilty to the conspiracy
charge on Sept. 28, 2021.
Navarro in May 2018
pleaded guilty to possessing
with intent to distribute
methamphetamine. His sen-
tencing is May 23.
Abel Murillo in April
2019 pleaded guilty to con-
spiring to possess with intent
to distribute methamphet-
amine. He is serving almost
20 years in federal prison for
the crime.
Villegas in April 2019
pleaded guilty to pos-
sessing with intent to dis-
tribute methamphetamine.
His received a sentence in
December 2020 of time
served and three years’
supervised release.
the landscape to manage fi re safely.
Nils Christoff ersen, the
executive director of Wallowa
Resources, a member of the
Northern Blues Restoration Part-
nership, said there had been a sig-
nifi cant loss of capacity to manage
forests on both the public and pri-
vate sides since the 1990s. These
funds, he said, help off set that
disinvestment.
Most people, he said, concerned
about the landscapes and commu-
nities of Eastern Oregon have been
arguing for a long time that these
forests need additional money and
staff to respond to the challenges
they face.
Christoff ersen said the No. 1
thing in people’s minds is wildfi re.
But the funding, he said, is not lim-
ited to fi re prevention.
“We’re looking at how we can
improve the forest’s overall condi-
tion,” he said.
Christoff erson said that includes
making sure the watersheds are
operating correctly to ensure clean
water, maintaining and improving
wildlife habitat, and putting people
back to work in the woods and the
mills.
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