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About The Baker County press. (Baker City, Ore.) 2014-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 2017)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 2017 THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 5 Local OR46 CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 She said, “It’s often that you have a failure from a GPS collar, either from a battery, or technical fail- ure... There’s an awful lot of technology in those GPS collars, and they’re quite as expensive, as well. “The price of the VHF collar is much, much less, and there are less things to go wrong...As we have more and more packs in Oregon, we need to not have to collar them so often...” ODFW has used wolf radio-collar products from three suppliers, Vectron- ics, Lotek, and Telonics, and Brown said that a VHF collar costs around $400, and a GPS collar costs from around $700 to $3,500. She added that each pack scenario presents a dif- ferent collaring decision, and, “The Minam Pack has never depredated, they’ve never had an investiga- tion on them, and they’re mostly in the wilderness, so, they’re a good option for a pack to have a VHF collar...” She said that she’d like to see a GPS collar placed on one of the wolves in the pack, but she noted the difficulty in capturing one of them. Troy Woydziak, co- owner and co-operator of Baker Aircraft, with his wife, Gen, flies for ODFW on a regular basis, to conduct animal number surveys, including wolves (Brown said the wolf count is normally completed during the winter), and he assisted Brown in locat- ing OR46, so she could tranquilize him, and place the VHF collar. “Normally, they’ll put a GPS collar on...” Woyd- ziak said, and, like Brown, he noted the historical is- sues with the GPS collars, but he also said that a GPS collar could be placed at a later date. The GPS collars ODFW uses log location data, which can be used to produce range maps for the wolf packs, and to notify livestock producers of wolf presence, but the VHF collars, while cheaper and less prone to failure, don’t provide that same capabil- ity, Brown said. Woydziak said, “If that wolf decides he’s going to take off, and head to southern Oregon or Cali- fornia unless you have an airplane following him ev- ery couple of days, you’re going to lose track of him. “We can only pick him up from maybe fifteen, twenty miles away, up in the airplane or helicopter, with those (VHF) collars... “If he takes off, and just heads out, and goes several miles a day, it doesn’t take too many days, before he’s going to be out of range, and you’re not going to know where to go... “He could go back to Idaho, he could go to Washington...” Woydziak said that, fly- ing the three-passenger, yellow and blue Robinson R-44 Raven II, with the tail number N1795J, he honed in on the largest and dark- est wolf in the group that he and Brown saw, which is usually the alpha male, though, in this case, that isn’t confirmed yet. ODFW staff will present the 2016 Wolf Annual Re- port and an updated draft of the Wolf Conservation and Management Plan to the Oregon Fish and Wild- life Commission, during the Commission’s Friday, April 21, 2017 meeting, in Klamath Falls, according to ODFW. Sumpter poker run, outhouse races provide fun—in the rain BY MEGHAN ANDERSCH Meghan@TheBakerCountyPress.com The Sumpter Valley Blue Mountain Snowmo- bile Club’s annual Poker Run/Outhouse Races this Saturday saw leaden skies that brought snow in the morning and rain by the afternoon. Despite the sog factor, enthusiastic participants turned out to purchase Master Poker Cards at the Sumpter Community Center Friday night and throughout the day on Saturday. Members of the Snow- mobile Club and Sumpter Valley Community Volun- teers manned seven check stations in town and one at Blue Springs Snow Park. Sumpter check stations included the Sumpter Mu- seum and Public Library, Elkhorn Saloon, Depot Inn Motel, Soda Moun- tain Pet Supplies, Rustic Realty, Stage Stop Gas Sta- tion, and the Community Center. Participants drew a chip at each of seven stations for each Master Card, with the best five cards drawn per hand counting. The deadline to turn in poker cards was Saturday at 2 p.m. Barbara Malone, Snow- mobile Club treasurer, confirmed that 168 players participated with a total of 302 Master Cards sold. In addition to poker cards, the Snowmobile Club sold 2,942 raffle tickets. Malone said that it is expected that profits from the event will be sufficient to allow the club to accom- plish its goal of support- ing “charities and/or civic projects.” Cash and raffle prizes were awarded at the Sumpter groomer shed in the evening. The top five poker hands belonged to Team Green- field with five 10s, Kelly Green with four sevens and a king, Ryan Felin with four sevens and a queen, Marcus Boier with four sixes, and Doug Leather- man with four fives. In total, $3,100 was paid out to 24 winners. Lori-Jean Pruitt and Jane Leatherman were in charge of the afternoon’s outhouse IRS scam strikes The Baker County Sheriff’s Office would like to warn residents about a fraud/money scheme that is surfacing in the area. There has been a report of a citizen being contacted by phone and told they owe money to the IRS. Caller ID shows the suspect originates out of Texas and provides a US Treasury number and Employee Code to the potential victim. The threat of an arrest warrant issued by the Baker County Sheriff’s Office is also used to try and scare the potential victim into action. The suspect was able to mask our Sheriff’s Office busi- ness line (541-523-6415) and uses the name of “Deputy Mark Anderson” in an attempt to seem more legitimate. The Baker County Sheriff’s Office does not issue IRS Warrants and will not be collecting fees for the IRS. This is a scam. If you are a recipient of this type of call, please do not hesitate to notify local law enforcement. In this case, the potential victim became aware that it was a scam when the caller requested payment using “iTunes.” Warrant scam also strikes The Baker County Sheriff’s Office would like to warn residents about the most recent fraud/money scheme that is occurring in Baker County. There has been a report of a citizen being contacted by phone and told that there is a warrant for their arrest. The suspect then gives them the phone number to the Baker County Consolidated Dispatch Center (541- 523-6415) to confirm that the warrant is valid. Please be advised that this is a scam. If you are a recipient of this type of call, please do not hesitate to notify local law enforcement. ‘Good Food, Bad Food’ coming to the library Meghan Andersch / The Baker County Press Lila Young manning the Community Center check station. Oregon boasts a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy that includes both industrial agriculture and small-scale efforts such as community supported agri- culture memberships, farmers’ markets, and community gardens. These smaller, community-based efforts are on the rise as means to nurture community and create local and autonomous food systems. Are these choices as consequential as consumers would like them to be? Does voting with your dollars signifi- cantly shape our agricultural systems? This is the focus of Good Food, Bad Food: Agriculture, Ethics, and Personal Choice, a free conversation with Kristy Athens on Saturday, March 11, 2017 at 1:00pm at Baker County Public Library, 2400 Resort Street, Baker City, Oregon. This program is hosted by Baker County Library District and sponsored by Oregon Humanities. Athens is the author of Get Your Pitchfork On! : The Real Dirt on Country Living. Her food systems work includes presenting at conferences at Chatham and Yale universities, a TEDx Talk, and a chapter in the anthol- ogy Food Justice in US and Global Contexts. She lives in Wallowa County, where she works at the NE Oregon Economic Development District as outreach specialist and serves on the board of the Wallowa County Farmers’ Market. Theater auditions February 27 Meghan Andersch / The Baker County Press Some local kids test drive the outhouses for fun. races, with Kurt Clarke assisting with officiating. Clarke’s ultralight twenty- four pound outhouse on snowboards was used for the official race, with John Young’s “Old Yeller” model also available to run on the track. Neil Bork’s stoutly-built outhouse was used as a “race office” to keep rain off the entry forms. This year’s event fea- tured kids’ races, with the steady drizzle by that time perhaps discouraging any adult participants. After a timed round, the kids proceeded for the next half hour or so to joyfully haul the outhouses up and down the course, even persuading several of the grown-up onlookers to help them for a run or two. Eastern Oregon Regional Theatre is proud to announce the auditions for their next production “Spitfire Grill” the musical. Director Leanne Hinkle is looking for four women and three men to perform in this production which opens April 2017. Auditions will be Monday, February 27th and Tuesday, February 28th at 6 p.m. at the Ironate Theatre located in the Basche Sage Mall in Baker City, Oregon. “The Spitfire Grill” musical has had more than 500 productions. Based on the award-winning film by Lee David Zlot- off, the musical depicts the journey of a young woman just released from prison who decides to start her life anew in a rural Wisconsin town. She precipitates a journey within the town itself toward its own tenuous reawakening. The folk and bluegrass tinged score is unlike that for any other musical.
