8 — THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 26, 2016
Local
Rail Fire raises frustrations MIP arrests
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PAGE 3
The next priority would
be to salvage whatever
possible in the area, and to
address issues with fences,
springs, etc. Another im-
portant priority is to help
to ensure there are tools
in place to help the forest
managers, he said. He
said he’ll continue to stress
these and other points.
Burnt River Irrigation
District Manager Wes Mor-
gan saw the Rail Fire area
from the air on Monday
with Incident Commander
Shawn Sheldon, and he
echoes Bennett’s thoughts
about where to place blame
for the delay in treatment.
“I know it sure wasn’t on
local personnel; (Whit-
man District Ranger) Jeff
Tomac has been been
more than trying to get
things done. The blame
goes way, way higher than
that, to people who don’t
even have a clue...From
his (Tomac’s) standpoint,
things have to be priori-
tized, and he was working
very hard to get this proj-
ect done...” As with some
other projects, Morgan
said, it just didn’t happen
soon enough.
Morgan said it’s frustrat-
ing to see local Forest Ser-
vice personnel unable to
fully do their jobs, because
of issues with the budget,
priorities, and policies and
regulations, which he said
Tomac and others have dis-
cussed, also voicing their
own frustration.
Speaking about the
effects of the fire, he said,
though it’s too early to
tell,“I think there’s go-
ing to be enough, hope-
fully, natural filtration, and
enough vegetation left, that
I think we will get some
filtering. I don’t know; it
will be interesting to see
how much it changes the
way that water comes out
of that South Fork, be-
cause, in the past, it’s been
pretty steady. We never
did have any big floods
come out of that South
Fork...Time will tell...”
Morgan said that the
BAER team (Burned Area
Emergency Response
team) a specially trained
group of hydrologists,
soil scientists, engineers,
biologists, vegetation
specialists, archaeologists
and others) is expected to
analyze the fire area within
a week, he believes, and
he predicts that there will
be some reseeding, as
well as vegetation treat-
ments, among other items.
He said he’ll be working
closely with the BAER
team.
“If this fire had just
stayed away another year,
I think there would have
been a difference, because
there were big plans...
Visiting with Jeff (Tomac),
I know he was really sad-
dened, that we had to wait
this long. We were very
optimistic that he had re-
ally been pushing hard, to
get some things done, and
we had a meeting with him
early this spring, about the
things they had planned
to do, and the things they
could get started right
away. This fire pretty
well wiped that out, pretty
disappointing, not only to
us, but to him, too, and the
people who had planned to
get in there, and mitigate
that issue,” he said.
Morgan said he under-
stands that local Forest
Service personnel have
to work around issues not
necessarily within their
control, and that they
ultimately have to “ride
for the brand,” as he put it,
that they have to answer to
upper management. “Jeff
is sincere about getting
things done; he’s not one
to sugar coat things, and
blow smoke...” he said.
Morgan had high praise
for the various rural fire
departments, and the For-
est Service and the Oregon
Department of Forestry
(ODF) fire suppression
teams, and he said, “I’ll
put these guys up against
anybody, and I’ll defend
them to the grave, when
I hear people say, ‘Well,
they just want these fires
to burn, so they can make
money...’ That’s the most
ridiculous thing I’ve ever
heard.”
Morgan said a major
concern is general is
beetle-infested ponderosa
pine, an issue the Irriga-
tion District has worked to
address, including some
logging activity within the
last year, in lower eleva-
tions, but some projects to
address issues with lodge
pole just haven’t been im-
plemented in time to avoid
wildfire. He noticed one
little patch of lodge pole
not yet burned in the Rail
Fire area, and he said that
Tomac commented about
the “treatment plan, shrink-
ing into one little dot, in
the northwest corner,” that
it was disappointing, and
that he wasn’t able to get
there quickly enough with
treatment, before the fire.
Burnt River Irrigation
District Chair Lynn Shum-
way said, “I was really, re-
ally pleased, and hopeful,
that the Forest Service was
going to get a chance to go
in there, and get a chance
to do the (thinning) work,
before this happened...”
He said he’d heard that the
fire behaved in a controlled
burn manner, through pre-
viously treated areas, and
“...if they had been able to
get the whole area treated
like they did that, it would
have been just fantastic.”
Shumway thought the
Forest Service had a good
plan for treatment, but
there are so many ob-
stacles, like environmental
challenges. “Their hands
are tied, and they can’t just
go in, and do what needs to
be done...There has been a
lot of frustration...We, as a
District, want very much to
be involved in the reha-
bilitation, getting involved
with the Forest Service, as
much as we can...” He said
that, in the Ironside Moun-
tain area, he noted great
success with the growth
of winter wheat, which he
hopes to see planted in the
Rail Fire area, along with
native grasses, to help ad-
dress erosion issues.
He said he liked the
Forest Service’s thinning
plan, to treat 30,000 acres,
but the fire, unfortunately,
happened before that plan
could be implemented.
“We need to be able to
speed these things (proj-
ects) up, to get them on the
fast track. We need to be
able to get them done in a
timely fashion. It’s frus-
trating,” he said. Remov-
ing the thousands of acres
of dead and dying, beetle-
killed lodge pole would
have been advantageous
before the fire, he said.
Shumway’s concerned,
as well as others in the
area, about the effects of
the fire, on the watershed,
including uncertainty about
this next winter’s snow
pack melting too soon,
affecting next year’s irriga-
tion supply, which he sus-
pects could happen. This
could be partly caused by
the black surface, heated
by the sun, resulting in the
early melting, he said.
“It’s really frustrating to
see how the environmental
policies of the environmen-
tal groups have kept the
Forest Service from getting
in, and doing what needs to
be done...I know there are
people in the Forest Ser-
vice who know what needs
to be done, but, their hands
are tied...I don’t blame
the local people for all the
delays; I don’t think that’s
the problem,” he said.
“When you get in a
drought situation, like
we’ve been in, for the last
three or four years, beetle
activity increases. When
the pine gets stressed, it’s
more vulnerable to beetle
attack. They’re not grow-
ing, and they don’t have
enough moisture to pitch
the beetles out, and the
beetles just kill the tree,”
he said.
Shumway spoke about
private ground in Bridge-
port, where he manages
forest land, but he said the
process there that involved
thinning in the last couple
of years to address beetle
kill issues was easier to
implement, because of the
lack of obstacles, such as
lawsuits from environmen-
talists. “If we need to do
some more, we’ll do that,”
he said, speaking about the
ongoing management of
the private land.
“Anything we can do
to improve the policies,”
regarding the management
of public lands, would be
beneficial, Shumway said.
Oregon Ag Director resigns
Katy Coba, a fifth gen-
eration wheat farmer from
Pendleton, Oregon has
resigned as the Director of
Agriculture for Governor
Kate Brown after thirteen
and a half years in this
position. She has served
for Governor's Kulongoski,
Kitzhaber and Brown
during her reign. Coba has
accepted a position with
Governor Brown pending
Oregon Senate confirma-
tion in September as the
Chief Operating Officer
and Director of the Depart-
ment of Administrative
Services.
Katy Coba is the longest
service agricultural direc-
tor in the United States
who started working in
state government in 1985.
Prior to accepting the
Oregon Department of Ag-
ricultural Director position,
Coba was a Special As-
sistant to the position. She
also served in Governor
Kitzhaber's first admin-
istration as Chief Policy
Advisor, Economic Devel-
opment and International
Trade Policy Advisor,
and Director of Executive
Appointments as listed by
a press release from the
Governor's office.
"I had the pleasure of
serving on the Board of
Agriculture for four years
under Katy Coba," Jerome
Rosa, the Executive Direc-
tor for the Oregon Cattle-
men's Association stated.
"Katy had great mar-
keting abilities, organiz-
ing many trade missions
benefiting commodities in
Oregon. She was always
accessible with an open
door policy that we greatly
appreciated," Rosa added.
Lisa Charpilloz Hanson,
the Department of Agricul-
ture's Deputy Director, will
serve as the interim direc-
tor starting October 1st
according to a news release
by the Capital Press.
Katy Coba will be sorely
missed, said a press release
from the Oregon Cattle-
men's Association, which
also said she will be very
successful in her new posi-
tion.
Military installs million-dollar-
solar array near Pendleton
U.S. Senator Ron
Wyden and Oregon Sena-
tor Bill Hansell joined the
Oregon Military Depart-
ment in officially dedicat-
ing the new 150-kilowatt
solar panel array at the
Oregon Army National
Guard's Army Aviation
Support Facility (AASF
#2) at the airport in Pend-
leton, Oregon, August 4.
The Oregon Military
Department partnered with
Energy Trust of Oregon,
the federal government
and Pacific Power to bring
the project to completion,
working toward the larger
goal of making the Oregon
National Guard net zero by
2020.
The project also benefits
the state of Oregon as it
works toward comply-
ing with Executive Order
13693, which sets multiple
clean energy milestones
including the state have
30 percent of its electric-
ity produced by renewable
sources.
Senator Ron Wyden, in
his remarks stated that the
project was a success on a
number of levels.
"I know we are calling
this Net Zero, but I call
it a net win for the state
of Oregon," Wyden said,
remarking how it not only
helps with energy security
goals but the panels being
built in Oregon means
more jobs for fellow Or-
egonians.
The array consists of
475 315-watt panels. To
date the solar panels have
already created 166,644
KWh of power equaling
13,496 gallons of gasoline,
119 tons of C02, 2,999
trees saved or 951 60 watt
light bulbs.
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Those arrests to date during 2016 include:
• 16 year old male in a vehicle on Windmill Lane
• 15 year old male in a vehicle on Windmill Lane
• 16 year old male in Central Park
• 18 year old male in Central Park
• 13 year old male in Central Park
• 15 year old female at the High School
• 15 year old female at the High School
• 16 year old female at the High School
• 15 year old male at the High School
• 10 year old female at South Baker
Five arrests in an entire year has been a fair average in
the past. Five of those arrests this year occurred just last
week.
“Our state has failed our youth, our very future, by
legalizing marijuana and making it more available. We
have fought for years the battle against alcohol consump-
tion by minors and now we have to add marijuana use to
that war. My hope is that Baker City will continue to pre-
vent dispensaries from operating in the city and at least
keep that next level of availability out of our community
and away from our youth,” Lohner concluded.
Woodrats
Submitted Photo.
Patty Trost of Unity was pleased to finally trap this
destructive rat inside her chicken coop.
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At the Devils Canyon Ranch, the woodrats chewed
up the wiring inside two of the owners’ ATVs and one
trailer in spite of a number of cats and two dogs on patrol
against them.
Employees at Clark Auto Electric in Baker City say
they regularly repair woodrat damage to vehicle wiring.
There’s even a report from one ATVing family who
parked their brand new truck in a Forest Service-managed
recreation area only to return to a truck that wouldn’t start
and $3,000 in truck and trailer repairs.
Biologist Brian Ratliff of ODFW says that while pre-
venting the damage on public lands is pretty much impos-
sible, traps can be very effective against the woodrat on
private property.
Ratliff said, “These are probably the type known as the
Bushy Tailed Woodrat.” He said a Desert Woodrat or two
wouldn’t be outside the realm of possibility. “You can use
regular traps, or live traps, or have cats.”
The packrat’s distinctive odor often gives away their
nesting places.
As for poison? “I don’t recommend it,” said Ratliff. He
explained that the woodrat, which is often called a pack-
rat in this area for good reason, will carry away poison,
so the only type that is effective must be either nailed or
screwed down. “But it’s not species-specific,” he said. “If
a cat or a dog or a coyote or a bird gets into this, it will
kill them. If they eat the dead rat, it could kill them.”
Headed across the bottom of Baker County to the west
in Unity, Patty Trost agrees with Ratliff’s assessment
of traps. She is using a trap with a layer of chicken feed
inside a pipe to clear out her rat issue. “The rodents are
worse here than I’ve ever seen. We have had more ground
squirrels, mice, gophers, moles— and now packrats,” she
said.
On her bait-buying trip to the feed store in John Day,
Trost said employees there called the woodrat problem
“horrible” this year.
Trost’s mother, Doris Jenson, is now battling that prob-
lem in Unity as well.
Back more north in the County, one Keating resident
said his dog was up to a rat kill-count of eight on his
property.
Then, about 10 miles outside of Baker City on Pine
Creek, Jim and Peggie Longwell are using peanut butter
inside an oversided trap to exterminate the rodents on
their place. “We know for sure where there is one, there
are more,” Peggie said.
The Longwells say the rats consumed a full-sized wool
blanket from inside their garage, in addition to making a
nest inside the wiring in their pickup truck.
Bushy Tailed Woodrats grow between 11 and 18 inches
in length as adults—albeit half of that length is pure tail.
Mails are considerably larger than females, but both gen-
ders weigh in usually between one and two pounds.
Ratliff says the local woodrat population, like that of
most rodents, can cycle from year to year depending upon
food and water supply, and the severity of the previous
winter.
Woodrats are primarily nocturnal and remain active
throughout the year.