NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Page 2A
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
CREEK: Project will involve cutting trees across 17,000 acres
Continued from 1A
Strategy Team, a group of local Forest
Service employees that formed in 2013
to step up restoration, make landscapes
healthier and lower the risk of devas-
tating wildfires.
But the plan isn’t without controversy,
as stakeholders continue to wrestle with
the environmental and economic impacts
of such a large effort. The project garnered
input from Wallowa County, the Nez
Perce Tribe and the Wallowa-Whitman
Forest Collaborative, consisting of both
environmental and timber industry repre-
sentatives.
Montoya admits the parties did not
reach a perfect consensus, but said he is
pleased with the result.
“This project, safe to say, is a priority
not only for this forest, but for the
region,” Montoya said.
Initial assessment
The Lower Joseph Creek Restoration
Project began with a 2014 watershed
assessment by the Wallowa County
Natural Resources Advisory Committee,
which identified 20,000 acres of forest-
land at very high risk due to heavy fuel
loads and overstocking of trees that
could be commercially logged.
Another 21,370 acres were recom-
mended for thinning smaller trees, for a
combined estimated value of more than
$67 million.
The Blue Mountains Restoration
Strategy Team decided to take up Lower
Joseph Creek under the umbrella of
accelerated restoration, making forests
more resilient to things like fire and
disease while also protecting natural
resources and supporting the local
economy by boosting timber produc-
tion.
The project area is located on the
northern boundary of the Wallowa-
Whitman National Forest, and includes
portions of the Hells Canyon National
Recreation Area. Joseph Creek provides
critical habitat to Snake River steelhead,
which are listed as threatened under the
Endangered Species Act.
Ten different groups and individuals
filed objections with the Forest Service
after the agency released its draft deci-
sion for Lower Joseph Creek last year.
Montoya said they were able to work
through some of their disagreements
— such as roadless area conservation
and limiting the size of trees that can be
harvested — but not everything.
“My goal was to see if we could
move a little closer to meeting every-
one’s thoughts and concerns out there,”
Montoya said.
Changing conditions
Neil McCusker, who works with the
Blue Mountains Restoration Strategy
Team as a silviculturist, said the natural
condition of local forests has over time.
As fire suppression has improved,
McCusker said the forest is becoming
increasingly dense — as much as 10
to 20 times in some areas of the Lower
Joseph Creek watershed. Higher density
means more fuels for fires to become
large infernos, and has even changed the
composition of tree species, allowing
shade-tolerant firs to expand signifi-
cantly.
The Lower Joseph Creek Resto-
ration Project will involve cutting trees
across roughly 17,000 acres and using
prescribed fire on up to 90,000 acres to
bring the forest back in line with histor-
ical conditions, McCusker said.
“Really, the focus is on thinning all
age classes out on the landscape and
retaining old trees wherever they may
be,” he said.
The final project also calls for
improving or replacing six culverts to
boost fish passage, and closes 12 miles
of roads to address resource concerns
while opening 23 miles of roads to
provide public access.
Riparian areas
Paul Boehne, fisheries biologist for
the restoration team, said they primarily
looked at treatments around streams
that do not contain any fish populations.
These riparian areas are mostly located
at higher elevations, he said, and make
up 20-25 percent of any given watershed.
But even though the streams do not
host fish, Boehne said they serve an
important ecological function, providing
cold water and filtering sediment where
fish do swim.
“That’s the value of those large trees
standing in the riparian habitat conserva-
tion area,” he said. “We want to protect
those.”
Boehne said the Lower Joseph
Creek project will not touch old growth
trees in riparian zones, and foresters
will work to maintain a minimum level
of canopy to ensure the water doesn’t
get too warm, and snow doesn’t melt
too fast.
More controversially, the project
aims to treat 31 acres around Swamp
Creek, a tributary of Joseph Creek
that does support steelhead. Boehne,
however, argues the work is justified,
citing lodgepole pine trees that have
encroached in the area.
“They shouldn’t be there,” he said.
“It should be a wet meadow that stores
water like a sponge.”
Instead, Boehne said those trees are
sucking up water that would otherwise
filter back into the stream for fish. Ulti-
mately, Montoya agreed in his decision.
“I felt, based on specialists, that
we needed to do a little bit of work in
Swamp Creek,” Montoya said.
Stakeholder concern
Several environmental groups have
expressed concerns with the plan, though
they are continuing to review the details
of the final proposal before determining
the next steps.
Rob Klavins, Eastern Oregon field
coordinator for Oregon Wild, said the
organization has spent hundreds of
hours over several years to find common
ground on the project. The Forest
Service, he said, continues to use resto-
ration to treat symptoms in the forest,
rather than addressing the underlying
management issues.
“Given the politics and special inter-
ests behind it, it’s been clear for some
time that come hell or high water, this
project was going to go forward, push
boundaries and test the limits of public
trust,” Klavins said.
Brian Kelly, restoration director for
the Hells Canyon Preservation Council,
said the organization remains concerned
about logging in remote forests.
“Joseph Canyon is a magnificent
place,” Kelly said. “Hells Canyon Pres-
ervation Council has worked incredibly
hard through the Wallowa-Whitman
Forest Collaborative to find solutions
for this project. We are extremely disap-
pointed that those efforts apparently did
not succeed.”
Darren Williams, a staff attorney for
the Nez Perce Tribe, said they are still
reviewing the final decision and were
not ready to comment. Susan Roberts,
Wallowa County Commission chair-
woman, could not be reached Tuesday
for comment.
Lindsay Warness, forest policy analyst
for Boise Cascade, said the company
was disappointed that the Forest Service
removed an amendment that would have
allowed the company to cut 21-inch trees
under certain circumstances, but overall
feels it is a good project.
“We’re happy to see it finally come
out,” Warness said. “It’s been under
consideration for a very long time.”
Boise Cascade will bid on timber
sales, the first of which is expected to be
prepared by the end of 2018, according
to Montoya. In all, the Lower Joseph
Creek Restoration Project is expected
to make up to 7.5 million board feet
available for harvest and support 50
jobs.
Of Boise Cascade’s five Eastern
Oregon plants, only the plywood facility
in Elgin is operating at full capacity. As
it stands, Warness said the company
imports wood from up to 250 miles
away. The Umatilla and Wallowa-
Whitman forests would need to triple its
allowable harvest for Boise Cascade to
maintain current mill infrastructure, she
added.
“We need a sustainable supply of
material from these national forests,”
she said. “We need to have more of these
projects going at the same time across
the northern Blue Mountains.”
Moving forward, the Blue Mountains
Restoration Strategy Team is now
working toward an even bigger project
that wold target 1.2 million acres on
the Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman and
Ochoco national forests. If approved,
the proposal would be 13 times as big as
Lower Joseph Creek, spanning 13 coun-
ties in Eastern Oregon and Washington.
———
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East Oregonian, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801.
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — The costs
of administering Oregon’s
recreational marijuana tax
have escalated since initial
estimates in 2015, and may
be poised to increase again.
In part, that’s because it’s
not yet clear just how much
it will cost to build a secure,
five-station payment area in
the Oregon Department of
Revenue.
The project, department
officials say, is intended
to accommodate the cash
tax payments characteristic
of the marijuana industry,
which due to federal law is
largely excluded from main-
stream banking services.
Many retailers make their
monthly payments in cash
and in person, and right now
they use another area of the
revenue building that was
renovated for temporary
cash handling.
The tax has proven a
considerable windfall for the
state, bringing in more than
$60 million in revenue in
2016. But it has also created
complications for the state’s
tax-collecting agency.
Administering the tax,
the department says, requires
special equipment and staff
to count money and guard
against funny business — all
of which costs money.
In early 2016, for
example, the department
estimated that it would cost
$5,699 to buy air purifiers
to mitigate the odor of
marijuana that officials say
emanates from some cash
payments.
The costs to the depart-
ment of administering the
tax is paid for by marijuana
tax revenues.
A request for proposals
from contractors to renovate
the Department of Reve-
nue’s building in Salem
closes March 22, the second
bid for the project. An initial
bid was put out earlier this
year, but the bids received
didn’t meet the department’s
Single copy price:
$1 Tuesday through Friday, $1.50 Saturday
Corrections
Classified & Legal Advertising
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COMMERCIAL PRINTING
Production Manager: Mike Jensen
541-215-0824 • mjensen@eastoregonian.com
Copyright © 2017, EO Media Group
REGIONAL CITIES
Forecast
TODAY
THURSDAY
Rather cloudy with
a shower
Partly sunny
55° 35°
55° 40°
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
Mostly cloudy with
a shower
Variable clouds, a
shower or two
SUNDAY
Rain and drizzle in
the p.m.
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
52° 40°
57° 36°
57° 42°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
60° 39°
61° 35°
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
LOW
49°
56°
78° (1915)
37°
36°
19° (1913)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Trace
1.18"
0.92"
5.10"
3.84"
3.43"
HERMISTON
through 3 p.m. yesterday
TEMPERATURE
HIGH
Yesterday
Normals
Records
LOW
50°
59°
78° (1934)
38°
35°
20° (1944)
PRECIPITATION
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
0.13"
0.75"
0.64"
4.21"
2.70"
2.88"
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
New
First
Mar 27
Apr 3
Full
Apr 10
61° 36°
59° 41°
Seattle
53/40
ALMANAC
Yesterday
Normals
Records
58° 41°
6:54 a.m.
7:10 p.m.
3:47 a.m.
1:30 p.m.
Last
Apr 19
Today
Spokane
Wenatchee
52/32
50/33
Tacoma
Moses
54/37
Lake
Pullman
Aberdeen Olympia
Yakima 59/33
52/34
49/40
51/37
60/30
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
53/41
56/38 Lewiston
62/34
Astoria
56/36
51/40
Portland
Enterprise
Hermiston
54/39
Pendleton 53/29
The Dalles 61/35
55/35
59/35
La Grande
Salem
55/32
53/38
Albany
Corvallis 54/36
54/36
John Day
53/36
Ontario
Eugene
Bend
61/37
53/36
51/28
Caldwell
Burns
61/38
50/25
Astoria
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Burns
Enterprise
Eugene
Heppner
Hermiston
John Day
Klamath Falls
La Grande
Meacham
Medford
Newport
North Bend
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Redmond
Salem
Spokane
Ukiah
Vancouver
Walla Walla
Yakima
Hi
51
55
51
52
50
53
53
56
61
53
50
55
52
55
50
52
61
61
55
54
53
53
52
50
53
56
60
Lo
40
28
28
40
25
29
36
32
35
36
26
32
30
37
40
41
37
33
35
39
25
38
32
29
38
38
30
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pc
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sn
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sh
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sh
pc
pc
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Thu.
Hi
53
54
55
53
49
51
58
56
60
57
54
54
52
60
53
57
59
59
55
58
58
58
47
52
57
57
58
Lo
44
36
38
47
32
34
46
37
39
39
39
38
37
44
46
48
36
40
40
45
38
46
35
36
45
43
41
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
r
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WORLD CITIES
Today
Beijing
Hong Kong
Jerusalem
London
Mexico City
Moscow
Paris
Rome
Seoul
Sydney
Tokyo
Hi
61
73
60
48
79
48
53
63
55
84
57
Lo
44
69
49
40
46
37
41
52
35
66
42
W
c
sh
c
sh
pc
r
sh
pc
pc
t
s
Thu.
Hi
49
77
61
52
80
49
53
64
57
72
55
Lo
36
68
47
44
50
32
42
48
34
65
41
W
c
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c
sh
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c
WINDS
Medford
55/37
(in mph)
Klamath Falls
50/26
Boardman
Pendleton
REGIONAL FORECAST
Coastal Oregon: Mainly cloudy today with a
couple of showers; breezy across the north.
Eastern Washington: Cloudy most of the
time today; brief showers.
Eastern and Central Oregon: Mostly cloudy
today with a shower; however, dry in the
south. Partly cloudy tonight.
Western Washington: Mostly cloudy today
and tonight with a couple of showers. Oc-
casional rain tomorrow.
Cascades: Considerable cloudiness today
with a shower.
Northern California: A little rain today;
however, a bit of snow in the interior
mountains.
Today
Thursday
WSW 7-14
WSW 6-12
SSW 4-8
WNW 4-8
UV INDEX TODAY
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
0
2
3
3
2
criteria, a spokeswoman
said.
Because the project was
still out for bid Tuesday, it
was not known what the
final costs will be, according
to department officials.
In October 2015, the
department estimated the
five-station payment area
would
cost
anywhere
between $480,000 and $1.07
million to build, state records
show. In 2016, department
officials said they expected
the project would land some-
where in the middle of that
range, at about $787,000.
The administrator for the
department’s administrative
division, Shawn Waite, told
lawmakers during budget
hearings last week that
the cost of construction of
the payment center was
expected to exceed initial
estimates in 2015 due to
construction
inflationary
costs, but could not provide
an estimate of the increase
as the project was still out
for bid.
The bulk of the work is
expected to be finished in
October, and complete in
November, according to the
request for bid proposals;
department officials initially
expected it would be
complete by June 30, Waite
said.
Waite said the depart-
ment initially struggled
with the complexity of
the construction project
and the building’s existing
architecture. But Waite also
told lawmakers she believed
the department hired a
private third party to provide
counsel on the project,
and that the Department of
Revenue worked with the
Department of Adminis-
trative Services’ building
management officials.
A
Department
of
Revenue spokeswoman said
the October date has been
the expected completion
date for a year and a half,
and that it took longer than
expected for the department
to decide on a location.
The East Oregonian works hard to be accurate and
sincerely regrets any errors. If you notice a mistake in
the paper, please call 541-966-0818.
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Subscriber services:
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— Founded Oct. 16, 1875 —
Costs of administering
pot taxes escalating
0
8 a.m. 10 a.m. Noon 2 p.m. 4 p.m. 6 p.m.
0-2, Low
3-5, Moderate 6-7, High;
8-10, Very High;
11+, Extreme
The higher the AccuWeather.com UV Index™ num-
ber, the greater the need for eye and skin protection.
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2017
-10s
-0s
showers t-storms
0s
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
40s
snow
ice
50s
60s
cold front
70s
80s
90s
100s
warm front stationary front
110s
high
low
National Summary: Arctic air will blast the Northeast today. Showers will dampen a large
part of the Plains as rain and mountain snow push inland along the Pacific coast. Showers
will dot the Intermountain West.
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 95° in San Angelo, Texas
Low 5° in Rugby, N.D.
NATIONAL CITIES
Today
Albuquerque
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Baltimore
Billings
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Charleston, SC
Charleston, WV
Chicago
Cleveland
Dallas
Denver
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Fargo
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Hi
81
71
41
45
66
71
61
34
71
46
39
33
82
75
38
90
15
38
85
84
44
81
55
73
57
65
Lo
53
46
23
22
40
51
38
16
44
23
28
22
63
47
21
58
-10
31
72
63
28
57
43
53
46
51
W
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c
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Thur.
Hi
67
58
42
47
55
68
57
37
61
60
49
47
85
75
43
79
15
45
84
83
54
68
75
71
77
67
Lo
41
49
25
30
35
55
39
25
46
41
43
39
63
35
36
52
-13
29
72
67
49
54
58
51
60
54
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Today
Louisville
Memphis
Miami
Milwaukee
Minneapolis
Nashville
New Orleans
New York City
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Portland, ME
Providence
Raleigh
Rapid City
Reno
Sacramento
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Diego
San Francisco
Seattle
Tucson
Washington, DC
Wichita
Hi
51
62
83
36
41
59
81
36
70
52
38
84
30
37
61
69
56
62
53
64
64
61
53
87
49
58
Lo
33
49
63
27
31
41
61
22
56
41
23
58
8
16
30
39
32
42
38
44
56
50
40
57
27
48
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c
Thur.
Hi
61
75
80
46
45
67
80
43
81
67
45
70
32
39
55
56
60
65
61
54
64
63
56
67
48
79
Lo
54
62
67
38
36
54
66
33
58
53
31
53
18
24
32
36
37
47
58
37
54
52
44
46
36
58
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow flurries, sn-snow, i-ice.
W
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