Wednesday, June 28, 2017
OFF PAGE ONE
ECOSYSTEM: Gathering attendees BRIDGE: Will take estimated $102K
to bring the four trusses to Main Street
refused to sign special use permit
Page 10A
East Oregonian
Continued from 1A
they said. “With the area they
chose folks are going to be
drawn to the sensitive areas
and damage will occur.”
Halemeier and Fertig said
a wide variety of problems
could occur:
• Heritage resources are at
risk from digging for latrines
and compost pits.
• Birds may abandon
nests with young. Big game
animals are at risk from
increased traffic and are being
displaced to less populated
areas. Small mammals’
habitat is being disturbed.
• The introduction and
spread of invasive weeds may
impact plants. Foot traffic
on sensitive meadows also
damages the ability of plants
to occupy the site.
• Range resources are
impacted by the reduction of
the pasture’s forage
• Redband trout offspring
are emerging from eggs in
the gravel of Flagtail Creek,
and increased sediment in the
water churned up by an abun-
dance of people in the stream
could diminish their ability to
take oxygen from the water.
It could also blanket the eggs
in the gravel, causing death.
Waste and biological hazards
buried at the site could also
leach into the water over time.
The Forest Service recom-
mends one latrine for every
100 people, or 100 latrines for
10,000 attendees. Halemeier
and Fertig said that could
cause problems long after the
attendees leave.
“The site will never be
back to normal,” they said
of the latrines. “That amount
of waste would have never
been on the site. Bacteria and
potential leached effects will
be long-term due to our soil
types in the area.”
This type of event would
typically require an environ-
mental assessment or impact
statement, as required for any
ground disturbing activity
on a national forest, which
would take one to three
years to complete due to the
“scale of potential impacts
and resource values in the
area,” they said. Because the
gathering is not following
the legal process, the Forest
Service is responding outside
of the normal process on
short notice to protect the
resources, more like a natural
disaster.
Gathering
attendees
refused to sign a special use
permit, required for groups
of 75 or more to address
resource and other concerns.
The Forest Service issued
a design criteria document
listing rules to mitigate
damage to the resources,
which attendees also refused
to sign.
Nehl, the agency adminis-
trator, said although the event
is unauthorized the Forest
Service must weigh public
safety and the safety of its
officers when determining
whether to take action on a
noncompliant group. He said
20,000 attendees against a
small number of officers were
“not good odds.”
Nationally, the Forest
Service budgets $500,000
each year to respond to the
Rainbow Gathering, which
has been held annually on
national forest land since
1972. The group has claimed
its gatherings are protected by
the First Amendment.
“It’s frustrating for us
too that these folks are not
complying,” Nehl said. “We
understand we expect other
forest users to comply with
our rules. We want to be able
to look them in the eye and
say you were held to the same
standards.”
POLICE: About 30 officers are
working 24 hours a day on three shifts
Continued from 1A
Service expects, then the
number of arrests would come
close to 60. By comparison,
the Pendleton Police Depart-
ment made 83 arrests in 2015
and 90 arrests in 2016 during
the Pendleton Round-Up,
which draws as many as
50,000 people.
Ebert said the Forest
Service is booking suspects
arrested on the Malheur
National Forest at the Grant
County Jail in Canyon City.
According to the Grant
County Sheriff’s Office
website, the jail holds 41
“hard beds” and up to seven
temporary beds.
The sheriff’s office did not
return calls Tuesday to discuss
potential impacts at the jail.
Incident command
In order to handle the
massive influx of visitors to
the area, the Forest Service
has assembled a unified
command post stationed at
the Malheur National Forest
headquarters in John Day. The
team is headed up by two inci-
dent commanders: Ebert, who
oversees logistics, finance and
impacts on natural resources;
and Dan Smith, who oversees
the law enforcement team.
About 30 officers are
working 24 hours a day on
three shifts to patrol Flagtail
Meadow during the Rainbow
Gathering. The team’s top
priority is the health and
safety of participants, who
began arriving last week.
The officers’ second role is
to enforce rules intended to
protect the environment.
The Rainbow gathering is
not authorized by the Forest
Service. Members previously
declined to sign the paper-
work for a special use permit,
which is normally required
for gatherings of 75 or more
people.
“The Rainbow gatherers
feel they are not a group,”
Ebert said. “They claim to
have no leaders. Therefore,
they are leaderless and
nobody can sign a permit.”
Instead, the Forest Service
has written and distributed
a set of “Resource Design
Criteria” for the gathering,
setting guidelines for every-
thing from natural resource
protection and fire safety
to parking and sanitation.
The 14-page document is
also posted on the Malheur
National Forest website.
“We do continue to enforce
the (criteria),” Ebert said. “We
are having a presence out
there.”
Incident
command
enforces regular Forest
Service
regulations
—
including seasonal campfire
restrictions on national forests
— as well as the policies
outlined specifically for the
gathering. Some of the criteria
include:
• No camping within 200
feet of streams.
• No public nudity within
300 feet adjacent to County
Road 63.
• Dogs must be on leashes
at all times.
• Areas identified as envi-
ronmentally sensitive will be
flagged and off limits for use.
The Forest service also
met with multiple cooperating
agencies during a meeting
June 20 in John Day, including
the Grant County Sheriff’s
Office, state police, staff
from Blue Mountain Hospital
and even the Grant County
Chamber of Commerce.
That meeting helped estab-
lish vital cooperation between
agencies, Ebert said, and
three daily law enforcement
briefings keep everyone on
the same page.
“It’s recognized when you
bring in 20,000 people, you’re
going to impact a commu-
nity,” he said.
Mobile court
Police aren’t just enforcing
rules and cracking down,
Ebert said. They are also
helping people with minor
scrapes and bumps, although
Rainbow participants prefer
to get medical treatment on
site from their own.
For more serious medical
issues and emergencies, Ebert
said Blue Mountain Hospital
in John Day stands ready.
When citations are handed
down, the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the District of
Oregon has set up a tempo-
rary mobile court near Flag-
tail Meadow where offenders
can go to have their cases
heard quickly.
Kevin Sonoff, spokesman
for the district office in Port-
land, said offenders will be
brought in to the mobile court
first to meet with a federal
prosecutor and speak over
satellite phone with a magis-
trate judge. The judge will
advise them of their rights,
and give them the option to
negotiate a settlement with
the prosecutor or meet with
the judge in person.
A hearing date is already
scheduled for July 6, when
the magistrate judge will head
down to Grant County Court-
house. The proceedings will be
handled essentially the same as
a bench trial, Sonoff said.
“The goal is to get these
citations handled as quickly
and efficiently as possible
before these folks head
home,” Sonoff said.
Last year’s Rainbow Gath-
ering at the Green Mountain
National Forest in Vermont
saw a total of 174 violations
handed down. Arrest figures
were not immediately avail-
able.
Those who are arrested and
charged with a misdemeanor
or felony will be prosecuted
as they normally would in
district court, Sonoff said.
July 7th-9th
Continued from 1A
sible for reassembling and
installing the trusses on
Main Street.
The Pendleton Enhance-
ment Project is currently
planning to install four
trusses on the east side
of the 500 block Main
Street — one facing Frazer
Avenue, two bracketing the
railroad tracks and another
facing Goodwin Avenue.
The association must
clean any lead paint off
the trusses before they’re
installed and negotiate with
Union Pacific Railroad for
use of the right-of-ways.
If the association can’t
relocate the trusses by the
end of 2022, the nonprofit
needs to contact the Oregon
State Historic Preserva-
tion Office to extend the
timeline or renegotiate the
trusses’ use.
The group received
an estimate that it would
take $102,000 to bring the
trusses to Main Street, a
figure that drew the skepti-
cism of City Councilor Neil
Brown.
Brown
said
lead
abatement can be a costly
process and the trusses
could become a liability
if they contaminate the
storage site.
“I’m afraid of the wheel
turning and not stopping
down the road,” he said.
Wood said the Pendleton
Enhancement Project is
now raising $120,000 for
the trusses and fencing
along the railroad tracks.
The group has already
secured $20,000 from
Umatilla County, $20,000
from the city’s urban
renewal
district
and
$10,000 from the Wildhorse
Foundation. And if they can
raise another $20,000 they
are in line for a $50,000
matching grant from Jill
and Mike Thorne.
If
the
Pendleton
Enhancement Project has
the funding and contractors
lined up by the time the
bridge is being disassem-
bled, Wood said there’s a
chance they could skip the
storage yard altogether and
directly transport the trusses
from Southeast Eighth
Street to Main Street.
The
trusses
could
become available as soon
as next summer when
construction is set to start
on the bridge replacement.
The other part of the
project is installing fencing
along the railroad tracks,
a cost that will be split
between the Pendleton
Enhancement Project and
Union Pacific. Wood said
the fences will be installed
in the fall.
The group has been
involved with the 500 block
of Main Street before,
having worked with Union
Pacific to demolish the
old Webb’s Cold Storage
building.
Wood also previewed
some of the other plans
coming down the Pendleton
Enhancement
Project’s
pike.
In the short term, Wood
will return to the council in
August with more complete
renderings of the repur-
posed trusses.
In the meantime, the
group is also looking ahead
to its next phase — turning
the Fraternal Order of
Eagles parking lot into a
public plaza.
Wood said the Pendleton
Enhancement Project is
working with students
from the Pacific Northwest
College of Art to create
conceptual drawings of
the plaza and he intends
to request money from the
council when they begin
fundraising for it.
With the agreement
approved, the city has
cleared one of the last
procedural hurdles before
sending the project to bid.
Bid selection is expected
by the fall and bridge
construction by 2019.
At the end of the meeting,
Mayor John Turner said the
council’s next meeting will
be canceled because of the
Fourth of July holiday. The
council will meet next at a
workshop on July 11 and a
full meeting July 18.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.
FIRE: Grass was about three feet tall before it burned
Continued from 1A
Fire Marshal Tom Bohm
said the department is still
investigating who may
be responsible for using
the fireworks. But he said
the person could be held
liable for the damage. If
the person responsible is a
minor, he said their parents
could be held liable for the
damages, as well as for the
cost of the department’s
response.
At
Monday’s
city
council meeting, city coun-
cilor Rod Hardin noted
his home was one of those
evacuated during the fire,
and said the grass in the
field was about three feet
tall before it burned.
He asked what the city
could do to mitigate the fire
danger in the future.
“If we could get it
mowed, that would make
everyone feel better,”
Hardin said.
Mayor David Drot-
zmann, whose business
Lifetime Vision Source has
also been threatened in the
past by fire in the Oxbow
Trail area, agreed.
City Manager Byron
Smith said the land belongs
to the Bureau of Reclama-
tion, not the city, but said
he would ask parks and
recreation director Larry
Fetter to work with the
bureau on coming up with
a strategy for reducing fire
danger, such as mowing or
bringing in goats or other
livestock.
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