NORTHWEST
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
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BOISE, Idaho (AP) —
U.S. Interior Secretary Sally
Jewell has released the initial
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ing strategy to protect a wide
swath of intermountain West
sagebrush country that sup
ports cattle ranching and is
home to a struggling bird
species.
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leased Tuesday calls for pri
oritizing and protecting areas
most at risk by using veteran
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ations made up of ranchers
who can respond quickly.
The previous strategy didn’t
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tect the habitat.
The plan heading into the
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calls for accelerating efforts
to restore burned rangelands
by developing a strategy for
storing and distributing lo
cally adapted seeds to try to
keep invasive species such as
cheatgrass from returning.
“Cheatgrass and other in
vasive species have contrib
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one of the greatest threats to
the Great Basin — not only
to sagebrush habitat, but to
wildlife, ranching and oth
er economic activities that
depend on a healthy land
scape,” Jewell said in a state
ment.
“As we head into the
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recommended in this report
will help ensure that our pre
paredness, response and re
covery strategies better align
with the threats facing the
West.”
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al Interagency Fire Center,
which assigns resources
throughout the nation during
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adopting new strategies. One
of them is a plan to preposi
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“That’s the key thing that
we will be doing different
ly,” said Randy Eardley, a
Fire Center spokesman. Pre
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only responded — some
AP Photo/Mike Meadows,File
In this 2010 file photo, a horse grazes while a wildfire burns in the distance near
Lebac, Calif. On Tuesday, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell released the initial
plan for a new wildfire-fighting strategy to protect a wide swath of intermountain
West sagebrush country.
times from great distances
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and spread. “If we have more
crews available in the area,
then yes, it could be very ef
fective,” he said.
The plan requires mak
ing a priority the protection
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where sage grouse live.
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how some aspects of the plan
will be put in place, Eardley
said.
In the last decade, range
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ly destructive in the Great
Basin region of Idaho, Utah,
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nia. Jewell in October toured
southern Idaho and saw
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January she issued an order
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while also protecting habitat
for greater sage grouse.
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is under consideration for
federal protections, and just
the potential listing by the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser
vice has already put on hold
development of wind farms
and oil and gas drilling plans
in some areas. Experts say an
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could damage Western states’
economies.
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once numbered in the mil
lions, but current estimates
put the population between
200,000 and 500,000.
The plan released Tuesday
stems in part from a confer
ence last fall in Boise that
brought together scientists
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collaborative ways to protect
Great Basin rangelands from
the plague of increasingly in
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John Freemuth, a Boise
State University professor
and public lands expert who
took part in that conference,
on Tuesday analyzed the re
sulting plan.
“This is a reordering be
cause of the possible sage
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body wants a listing because
so much key habitat burns
that (a listing) just gets out
of everyone’s control.”
Besides sage grouse hab
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have destroyed rangeland
that ranchers rely on to graze
cattle.
darned expensive — some
where between $100 and
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you.”
Digital textbooks saved
BMCC students more than
$100,000 in since fall term
began, said the school’s
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structors connect with re
sources.
“It’s the way of the fu
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Oregon’s community col
leges are increasingly offer
ing open education resources,
or OERs, an acronym that
rolls easily from the lips of
BMCC Director of Library
and Media Services Jacque
lyn Ray. Ray believes ex
pensive traditional textbooks
may be pricing students out
of education.
“Some students have said
they’ve had to choose be
tween textbooks and food,”
she said.
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organize this week’s confer
ence on OERs at BMCC’s
Pendleton campus. Attendees
will include curious educa
tors, administrators, students
and members of the pub
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Green, Director of Global
Learning at Creative Com
mons, believes students will
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textbooks.
“You’ll see very few $200
calculus textbooks being
assigned three years from
now,” Green said. “Students
won’t put up with it.”
The lack of affordability is
hurting learning, he said.
“The average cost of the
top 50 textbooks sold in
U.S. college bookstores is
$175.46,” Green said. “The
average amount of savings
for students when a course
moves to open textbooks is
$128.” The difference is be
cause students often choose
to print some material.
The cost is driving a stam
pede to OERs. Textbooks
could soon become old
school.
That doesn’t mean text
book writers are working
for free. In fact, Green said,
they are getting a better deal
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al, industry and government
grants.
“They get paid better than
the existing structure where
they get a small advance
from a publishing company
and royalties of 10 percent of
sales,” he said.
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¿OLDWHGZLWK5LFH8QLYHUVLW\
is one source of OERs. The
Applied Math and Science
Education Repository, the
Institute for Mathematics and
Education, GeoGebra and
Creative Commons are others
on a long list. The list of fac
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course offerings is growing.
It’s the publishers that are
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movement.
“The bottom’s going to
drop off the gravy train,” Ray
said.
BMCC Associated Stu
dent Government President
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source textbooks bode well
for him and his fellow stu
dents. With rising tuition and
cost of living increases, lower
textbook prices are some
thing of an equalizer. When
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cially, a few hundred dollars
is a hardship. Sometimes
groups of students buy one
and share. Lange described
the experience of a friend
who couldn’t afford a $200
textbook.
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ed up dropping out.”
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tain his excitement about the
movement toward OERs at
BMCC. While the percent
age of instructors who use
them is still low, that number
is growing.
“The whole science de
partment is moving that di
rection,” he said. “In Biology
101, it took a $200 textbook
down to $32.”
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at BMCC about two years
ago, but now many science,
business, math and human
ities courses assign digital
resources.
Green believes education,
really the world as a whole,
has gone digital. And the im
plications are stunning.
While building and main
taining educational material
can be expensive, he said “it’s
the same cost to share with
one or one billion. Through
the Internet, you can move
digital works around the
world at the speed of light.
The owner keeps the intellec
tual property and the world
can use it for free.”
*UHHQZLOOVSHDNIURP
p.m. Wednesday in Science
and Technology 200 on the
BMCC campus. The confer
ence continues Thursday and
Friday. The public is wel
come.
For more information
about the conference, visit
http://goo.gl/forms/M0O
VDF5SqG,
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or call 541-966-0810.
Your
Community
College,
Our
Community’s
Future
Join us for the Pendleton Chamber
Luncheon at
Blue Mountain Community College!
March 18, 12 pm
BMCC Student Union, Pioneer Hall
• Learn about BMCC’s successful
agriculture program
• Panel of Industry Experts
• Tour our agriculture facility and
farm on campus
$13 for Chamber Members
if paid by March 13,
$16 after March 13
$16 for non-Chamber Members.
Call the Chamber at 541-276-7411
to purchase tickets.
Page 7A
Bill would make it easier
to expunge pot convictions
By HILLARY BORRUD
Capital Bureau
BOOKS: ‘It’s the way of the future’
Continued from 1A
East Oregonian
SALEM — As Oregon
prepares for legal recreation
al pot, state lawmakers are
looking to make it easier for
people convicted of marijua
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criminal records expunged.
A bill to help people con
victed prior to a 2013 reclassi
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passed the state Senate with
broad support on Tuesday.
Three Republicans — Sen.
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River and Sen. Doug Whit
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the only senators to vote “no”
on the bill. It will next head to
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signed to committee.
Senate Bill 364 would re
quire judges to consider the
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marijuana crimes in Oregon
when a person seeks to have
those crimes expunged from
his or her record. Currently,
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to offenses committed since
that law took effect July 1,
2013.
For example, the law low
ered possession of 4 ounces
or more of marijuana from a
Class B felony to a Class C
felony.
The bill now in the Leg
islature would also reinstate
a provision that had been re
moved from state law, which
would allow judges to reclas
sify convictions of Class B
felony marijuana possession
as misdemeanors.
Sen. Floyd Prozanski,
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said his intention was to ex
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law to people with previous
convictions.
Prozanski said people con
victed of marijuana crimes
want to take advantage of
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cause of when they were
convicted of it, the way the
new language came out they
wouldn’t be able to take ad
vantage of it. ... This was just
a corrective measure.”
Separately, some district
attorneys in Oregon decided
last fall to dismiss pending
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offenses that will no longer
be illegal under Measure 91.
Voters passed the measure on
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al marijuana for adults 21 and
over starting July 1. Cannabis
retailers will begin to sell mar
ijuana products sometime in
2016, after the Oregon Liquor
Control Commission begins
to accept applications for busi
ness licenses Jan. 4, 2016.
- C ONCLUDED