VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Quick takes
Umatilla river walk turns 30
Pendleton is so fortunate to have the
Umatilla running through its heart. Thank
you Amy Aldrich Bedford for holding to
the passion of your dream to see the River
Parkway become a reality.
— Travel Pendleton
I’d expect no less of E.B. Aldrich’s
daughter! Great story.
— Brigit Farley
This is a wonderful asset to Pendleton.
Thank you Amy Bedford and her champions
for the insight to something which can make
our town something more special.
— Janice Harper
Gas tax fails in Pendleton
I believe the voters were penny wise and
pound foolish, in this case.
— Micah Engum
With gas prices at what they are now,
who would have even noticed 5 cents?
Also, you do understand a good portion of
the money that would have been generated,
would have came from nonresidents?
— J.j. Bell-Bronson
We were given an opportunity to have
a large percentage of the roads paid for by
the thousands of people driving down the
freeway, but since the people are so upset
about the senseless spending by the city we
will have to ¿nd a way for the people of
Pendleton to pay for it 100 percent.
— Harold Hess
One of the great lessons of the Twitter age is
that much can be summed up in just a few words.
Here are some of this week’s takes. Tweet yours
@Tim_Trainor or email editor@eastoregonian.
com, and keep them to 140 characters.
T
he Owyhee River is an anglers’
paradise. Around every bend, there
are opportunities to wet a line and
catch a brown trout so big that you’ll start
to believe all the ¿shing stories you’ve ever
been told.
The roughly 14 miles of water below
the dam that forms Lake Owyhee is
a renowned blueribbon ¿shery, with
brown trout, rainbow trout, crappie,
and largemouth and smallmouth bass.
Upstream, tributaries feature natives like
redband trout.
Those ¿sh are
economic powerhouses.
As the largest intact,
unprotected expanse
left in the lower 48, the
Owyhee Canyonlands
offer outstanding
recreation, including
hiking, ¿shing, rafting,
camping and hunting.
People come to the
Owyhee from all over,
and that’s a boon for
local businesses.
As such, more than
100 businesses have
joined the growing
coalition working for
permanent protection of
the Owyhee Canyonlands.
I joined numerous Oregonians who
came together in Adrian recently to discuss
the Owyhee Canyonlands Protection
Proposal. The proposal supports ranchers
and allows grazing of cattle to continue,
while also protecting the Owyhee’s
outstanding recreation and conservation
values.
I was glad that the Bureau of Land
Management district manager attended on
behalf of the agency and the Department
of the Interior. The BLM listened intently
to the public comment, and I appreciate
their genuine consideration of all points
presented. The common theme that I heard
during the testimony is that the Owyhee is
a special place that deserves to be cared for,
for current and future generations.
The Owyhee Canyonlands include
critical wildlife habitat for over 200
species, including California bighorn
sheep, mule deer, pronghorn antelope,
chukar and the greater sage-grouse.
+unting and ¿shing access in the Owyhee
would be preserved under the proposal.
Page 5A
Planning can reduce wild¿re threat and cost
By KATHERINE H. DANIELS
Department of Land
Conservation and Development
he 2015 ¿re season
was worse than any on
record and summertime
temperatures are steadily
escalating. Increasing the
average summer temperature
by just one degree Fahrenheit
results in an increase of 420
wild¿res in the state annually,
according to estimates by the
Oregon Department of Forestry.
Research and news articles
have focused on the need for
forest fuels reduction, creating
defensible space around rural
dwellings, and improving
¿re¿ghting methods. However,
effective land use planning has
perhaps the greatest potential
for reducing wild¿re threat.
The USDA Forest Service
de¿nes transition areas just
outside communities as the
“Wildland-Urban Interface.”
Since 1960, the population in
these areas has jumped from 25
million to 140 million people.
Today, about 60 percent of all
new homes across the nation
are being constructed in the
Wildland-Urban Interface,
despite one historic wild¿re
season after another. The result
is skyrocketing ¿re¿ghting
costs that are ultimately borne
by the public.
The Oregon Department
of Forestry estimates that the
average cost of $319 to protect
an additional home in an
T
already developed area jumps to
a whopping $31,545 to protect
an additional home in a more
rural area.
Dwellings in remote and
rural areas put ¿re¿ghters
at added risk. Historically
trained in basic wildland ¿re
behavior and safety, using
¿reline construction and tools,
¿re¿ghters today must have
numerous specialized skills
geared toward protecting
homes — establishing ¿re
perimeters, conducting burnouts
around homes and dealing with
the dangers of propane tanks,
gas and electrical lines. When
the focus has
shifted from
¿ghting ¿re to
saving homes,
forests are left
to burn.
Oregon’s
statewide land
use planning
program
discourages
the kind of
development
that imperils
¿re¿ghters
and homes
in this way.
Implemented by communities
statewide, it has signi¿cantly
reduced the number of
dwellings built in our Wildland-
Urban Interface since the
mid-1980s, when compared to
other states.
While over the course of
a decade Oregon lost almost
Protecting Owyhee Canyonlands would
boost ¿shing, recreation economy
By BOB REES
Association of Northwest Steelheaders
East Oregonian
Activities like rafting, hiking and camping
would also continue. Major legal roads
and routes would remain open to safeguard
these time-tested traditions. Wildlife
management can continue unimpeded.
Grazing would be grandfathered in.
Mining, oil and gas interests are all outside
of the canyonlands and not affected.
As a professional ¿shing guide and
sixth-generation Oregonian whose
grandfather fed his family on trout, the
redband trout habitat is of particular interest
to me. These are warm-water adapted
desert redbands, an important genetic strain
whose habitat is worth protecting. They
are one of a number of unique wildlife
populations in the
Owyhee Canyonlands
that draw anglers and
their wallets to the
region.
The Owyhee
Canyonlands
Protection Proposal is a
win-win-win for wildlife,
people, and businesses in
Malheur County.
The research backs
it up, too. According to
Headwaters Economics,
Malheur County has 4.6
million acres of public
lands, almost four-¿fths
of its land base.
Nearly two million
of these acres possess unique natural and
recreational values that are not formally
protected. Economists compared Malheur
County with similar counties around the
West that had more formal protections for
their public lands, and the data show that
the other counties with permanent federal
land protections on average grow faster,
sustain agricultural employment better,
have less economic hardship, and bene¿t
from greater travel and tourism business
activity. So, in other counties, wildlands
protections have helped not only the
tourism sector of the economy; they even
boost the agricultural sector.
Protecting lands for wildlife and
recreation helps the long-term economy
and quality of life of local communities.
But what’s also so valuable about the
Owyhee proposal, is that current uses of the
land will be able to continue. Anglers and
ranchers and hunters can all be out there
together, enjoying Oregon’s bounty.
Ŷ
Bob Rees is executive director of the
Association of Northwest Steelheaders.
The Owyhee
Canyonlands
Protection
Proposal is a
win-win-win for
wildlife, people
and businesses
in Malheur
County.
Be heard! Comment online at eastoregonian.com
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson
Flames pour from a structure fully engulfed in fire in a
wildfire Aug. 21 in Tonasket, Wash.
Increasing the
average summer
temperature by
just one degree
results in an
increase of 420
Oregon wildfires
annually.
three times
as much
acreage to
wild¿re
as did
Washington,
the number
of dwellings
destroyed
was
signi¿cantly
greater in
Washington,
according
to the
Geographic
Area Coordination Centers and
the National Interagency Fire
Center. In the 2014 and 2015
seasons alone, seven times more
dwellings were destroyed in
Washington than in Oregon.
The presence of dwellings in
wildland areas further increases
the risk of wild¿re. In the 2015
¿re season four times as many
acres burned in Washington
as in Oregon where wildland
dwellings resulted in ¿res with
“human causes.”
Over nine percent of
Oregon’s homes are currently
at high or extreme risk for
wild¿re, according to 2015
data from Verisk Insurance
Solutions. Current limits
on dwellings and other
development on forest land
is paying off for Oregon by
minimizing wild¿re risk to
new development, reducing
¿re¿ghting costs, and
protecting human lives.
Ŷ
Katherine H. Daniels is the
farm and forest lands specialist
for the Department of Land
Conservation and Development.
She can be reached at 503-373-
0050
Obama should not name
Owyhee a national monument
W
e’ve seen
public. The Obama
this movie
administration needs
before. A
to come clean about
lame duck president
what is has planned
uses the Antiquities
for these millions
Act to declare huge
of acres of land in
swaths of public
Eastern Oregon.
lands off limits
Those of us
so he can have
familiar with Eastern
Greg
an environmental
Walden Oregon know that
legacy. Right up
the Owyhee River
Comment
until the night before
canyon in Malheur
he declared the
County is home to
Grand Staircase Escalante
some of the most beautiful
a national monument, the
landscapes in the country.
Clinton White House told
We also know that these
the Utah congressional
lands are an important part
delegation no such plans
of the economic base for
were in the works. And in
Malheur County, which
his ¿nal month in of¿ce,
generates more than
President Clinton declared
$370 million annually
seven national monuments.
in agriculture business
I fear the Obama
according to Oregon State
administration — urged on
University, of which $134
by outside interests groups
million comes from cattle.
and wealthy corporations
The Bureau of Land
seeking a marketing niche
Management and other
— is up to the same “dark-
federal agencies manage
of-night” declaration on the
4.5 million acres, or 73
Owyhee River canyon in
percent of the land in the
Eastern Oregon.
county, making public
Last Thursday night, in
lands grazing an integral
Adrian (population 177),
part of most local family
more than 500 people turned ranch operations, many of
out to a public meeting
whom have cared for this
organized by state Rep.
high desert country since
Cliff Bentz to voice their
the 1860s. For generations,
deep concerns about this
these local families have
possibility. Extra chairs had
been good stewards
to be brought in to the local
of the lands. They’ve
gymnasium, and people
worked cooperatively and
were still standing in the
collaboratively with federal
aisles.
agencies to manage these
One person who wasn’t
lands with an eye towards
there? Secretary of the
the long-term viability of
Interior Sally Jewell.
the range and their family’s
Although I called on her
livelihood.
or a senior representative
Much like thinning an
to attend the meeting, no
overstocked forest, grazing
senior members of the
helps reduce the amount
administration attended.
of fuel available to large
If they had, they would
rangeland ¿res that threaten
have heard a message
watersheds and sage grouse
loud and clear: Residents
habitat in the arid climates of
of Eastern Oregon don’t
southeastern Oregon.
want another “Washington,
When ¿res do start, the
D.C. knows best” federal
volunteers in the Rural
designation that would
Fire Protection Association
further destroy our way of
are positioned to respond
life.
promptly and are highly
Yet, despite this public
effective, thanks to their
outcry, I believe the
intimate knowledge of local
administration is playing
terrain and weather.
hide the ball from the
Over the years, these
ranchers have developed
springs and other water
sources that have supported
their cattle, but also
countless numbers of
wildlife that share the range.
The latter bene¿t has been
particularly valuable during
recent droughts.
In towns like Adrian and
Jordan Valley, ranching is
the base of the community.
Whether through hiring
employees, or buying
needed supplies for the
ranch or their family, they
are injecting money into the
local community.
A monument designation
larger than the states
of Rhode Island and
Connecticut would greatly
restrict or eliminate grazing
and other productive uses
of the land. It will shake
the foundation of these
communities and cause
harmful economic impacts
to the county and the
surrounding region.
I’ve worked with my
colleagues in the House
to include language in
the funding bill for the
Department of Interior
prohibiting the creation of
this national monument.
Our farmers, ranchers and
rural communities are most
affected by the decisions
made on public lands. I will
continue to work to return
the focus on locally driven
management efforts, and
stop these unilateral actions
that lock up our public lands
and negatively impact our
communities.
The Obama
administration has done
enough damage to the West
through their overzealous
regulations. We don’t need
a presidential declaration
locking up more of our
public lands and choking our
local ranch economy.
Ŷ
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden
represents Oregon’s Second
Congressional District,
which covers 20 counties
in southern, central and
Eastern Oregon.