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East Oregonian
FORESTS: 678,000 acres burned in Oregon this summer
Continued from 1A
for other conservation and
restoration programs.
In a statement Wednesday,
Wyden said communities are
put in danger and fire preven-
tion work is left undone
because of the backward fire
budgeting system.
“It’s past time for
Congress to make it a top
priority to end fire borrowing,
stop the erosion of the Forest
Service becoming the ‘Fire
Service,’ and start treating
wildfires like the natural
disasters they are,” Wyden
said.
The Forest Service
has spent more than $2
billion so far on wildfires
nationwide in 2017, setting
a new record. Nearly 8
million acres of forest have
been consumed by fire this
summer, including 678,000
acres in Oregon.
The problem, Walden
said, is a lack of active
management in the forests,
which has resulted in a
buildup of overly dense and
dead tree stands ready to
burn.
“I don’t want to see
our forests continue to go
up (in flames) like they
are,” Walden said during a
meeting Thursday with the
East Oregonian editorial
board.
More than three-quar-
ters of the Umatilla and
Wallowa-Whitman national
forests are at moderate to
high risk for uncharacter-
istic fire, according to the
Northern Blue Mountains
Coalition, a group dedicated
to increasing forest thinning
and logging. Across the
country, 58 million acres of
national forests are at high
or very high risk of severe
wildfires — an area equal to
the size of Pennsylvania and
New York combined.
“We’ve got to deal with
these forests,” Walden said.
A version of the Resilient
Federal Forests Act has
passed the House each of
the last four years. It focuses
on measures to speed up the
pace of restoration, providing
categorical exclusions for
certain projects to expedite
environmental review.
Projects that would
qualify for categorical exclu-
sion include hazardous fuels
reduction, salvaging dead
trees, protecting watersheds
or improving wildlife habitat.
The bill caps project sizes at
10,000 acres, or 30,000 acres
if they are developed by a
multi-interest collaborative
group.
The bill also directs the
Secretary of Agriculture to
establish a pilot program to
resolve lawsuits filed against
forest management through
arbitration, rather than
heading to court, and would
prevent plaintiffs from
recovering their attorney
fees in such cases under the
Equal Access to Justice Act.
Opponents of the legisla-
tion, however, claim it would
severely undermine environ-
mental review and cater to
the interests of the timber
industry. Steve Pedery,
conservation director for
Oregon Wild, described the
bill as a wish list for timber
lobbyists.
“It’s really about maxi-
mizing the profits of logging
corporations over the health
of our public lands, and the
ability for Americans to
enjoy them,” Pedery said.
Specific
to
Eastern
Oregon, the Resilient Federal
Forests Act would allow
logging of trees more than
21 inches in diameter. Indi-
vidual forest management
plans would also no longer
be subject to the National
Environmental Protection
Act — the Blue Mountains
Forest Plan, which includes
the Umatilla, Wallowa-
Whitman and Malheur
forests, is 13 years overdue
for its latest revision.
Speaking Sept. 14 to
the House Energy and
Commerce
Committee,
Walden urged support for the
bill as a means to jump-start
forestry reform.
“Year after year, we
have catastrophic wildfires
on federal lands, some of
which have been set aside
and managed in a way that
they have no management,”
Walden said. “So if you
want to do something that
is extraordinarily important,
join us in reforming the way
we manage our precious
public lands and federal
forests to reduce the fuel
loads.”
As for fire borrowing, a
bipartisan group of senators
has introduced the Wildfire
Disaster Funding Act to
ensure the firefighting
budget does not eat into the
fire prevention budget, and
allow projects to proceed
with
greater
financial
resources.
In the same joint state-
ment with Wyden, Merkley
said it is time to reverse what
has become a vicious cycle.
“The way we fund
wildfire suppression today
is counterproductive and
crazy,” Merkley said. “As
this fire season has proven
all too vividly, robbing
from forest health and fire
prevention programs to pay
for suppression only creates
a vicious cycle of bigger and
bigger fires.
The bill would work
by capping the firefighting
budget at the most recent
10-year average, with any
additional
funding
for
fighting wildfires coming
from federal disaster relief
coffers. That would place
wildfires more in line with
other natural disasters, such
as the hurricanes that have
devastated parts of Texas and
Florida.
Supporters include other
Western lawmakers from
across the political aisle,
including Idaho Republicans
Mike Crapo and Jim Risch;
Colorado Republican Cory
Gardner and Democrat
Michael Bennet; California
Democrat Dianne Feinstein;
Washington
Democrat
Maria Cantwell; and Utah
Republican Orrin Hatch.
———
Contact George Plaven
at gplaven@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0825.
Friday, September 22, 2017
WALDEN: Working on
regulating self-driving cars
Continued from 1A
After North Korea’s nuclear
weapons, he said cyber
warfare was the biggest
threat to national security.
Much of what is being done
is classified, Walden said, but
he could say that as chairman
of the Committee on Energy
and Commerce, after “every
one of the briefings I go to, I
feel a little bit better.”
Cybersecurity in the
private sector is more diffi-
cult for Congress to deal
with. Walden said Equifax
CEO Richard Smith has
been asked to testify in front
of the Committee on Energy
and Commerce about the
massive security breach the
company recently expe-
rienced, which may have
exposed the social security
numbers of more than 143
million people. He said it
was frustrating to read in
the media that the company
had used “admin” as both the
username and password for
one database.
“I can’t fix stupid,” he
said. “I can punish it, but I
can’t fix it.”
During lunch with the
Rotary Club Walden also
gave a rundown of some
of the issues he has been
working on. The Committee
on Energy and Commerce
is working with the Food
and Drug Administration
on a regulatory overhaul
that will allow new drugs to
reach the market faster. The
committee re-authorized and
re-wrote the “Brownfield
sites” program that assists
communities in cleaning
up industrial lands that are
contaminated but below the
level of a Superfund site.
They approved safe drinking
water legislation that appro-
priates $8 billion over 5 years
to combat lead contamination
through means like replacing
old drinking fountains at
schools.
They also sent legislation
to the House floor that would
take nuclear waste stored in
“oddball” locations around
the country and seal it up in
Nevada’s Yucca Mountain
Nuclear Waste Repository.
“It’s secure in theory, but
it ought to be permanently
secure in Yucca Mountain,”
Walden said.
He said he has also been
working with companies in
Silicon Valley and Detroit
to find a way forward on
regulating self-driving cars.
Walden said cars have always
been regulated “bumper to
bumper” at the federal level,
so that cars purchased in one
state can be legally driven in
any other, and he believes
self-driving
technology
should be handled the same
way.
“The car of the future will
be a computer with doors
and wheels,” he said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
CLARK: Met his wife while serving in the Peace Corps in the ’60s
Continued from 1A
the International Veterinary
Medical Congress Prize. The
organization praised Clark for
his work developing guide-
lines for livestock disease
control and cross-boundary
trade of live animals. Nine
countries around the Horn of
Africa have so far adopted
the guidelines.
“Dr. Clark has been
absolutely
instrumental
in improving the safety of
animals and humans in devel-
oping African countries,”
said Dr. Tom Meyer, AVMA
president. “For decades, he
has worked alongside local
communities and U.S. and
foreign government agencies
to initiate programs that are
both practical and easy to
implement.”
While Clark searches for
simplicity, getting to this goal
takes plenty of effort and
experimentation.
In designing a safer
strategy for chicken slaughter,
for instance, Clark and his
fellow researchers did lots of
testing, first with plastic bags.
The struggling chickens tore
them with their feet, so the
testers opted for a sturdy pot
called a halla. With USAID
funding, the researchers
conducted focus groups
with women, incorporating
their feedback. The women
assisted in designing a poster
that showed the process with
pictures.
In the summer of 2015,
Clark helped train 900
veterinarians and thousands
of home health workers to do
home visits armed with flyers
and rubber chickens used for
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Veterinarian Arthur Clack points out the ridges on an elephant’s tooth at his home
in Pendleton.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Arthur Clack holds a rhinoceros femur next to his own
leg as a comparison.
role playing.
In the end a new protocol
only works if it gets used by
those for whom it’s intended.
Women in the focus groups
were asked, “Is this some-
thing you will use?”
“The women said, ‘Of
course, we’ll use it — we’ve
seen our friends die,’” Clark
said.
One beautiful thing about
such a simple fix, he said —
“it’s a minor variation from
what they already did.”
Clark endorses a slow and
easy approach when tackling
animal disease problems in
foreign cultures.
“Americans are drawn
to be productive. We go
crashing into situations with
the presumption we know
best, but we don’t. The first
thing to do is stop, listen
and learn,” he said. “We’re
dealing with people and their
livelihoods. We cannot afford
to make mistakes that we
walk away from while they
starve.”
Clark’s combination of
brains and empathy make
him effective.
“Dr. Clark’s approach is
at once collaborative, deeply
respectful and profoundly
attuned to the unique needs
of the populations he serves,”
Meyer said.
Clark, who served as
Oregon State Veterinarian
until 2004, regularly takes
his expertise to East Africa
to prevent and mitigate large-
scale animal disease.
Clark’s love affair with
GRADUATION: Nookie’s hires extra staff for weekend
Continued from 1A
expensive or unfeasible because of
a lack of infrastructure.
Some local proprietors said
their businesses would suffer if the
ceremony leaves town.
“A lot of people come into town
to support the kids,” said Nakul
Butta, owner of Hermiston’s
Rodeway Inn. “If it’s in Tri-Cities,
then that year we’re not going to
have the local economy booming.”
Butta said his business does see
an uptick around graduation.
Shelley Bowden, the assistant
manager at Shari’s, said she
thought the move would have a
major impact on local businesses.
“We definitely see a spike in
business, usually about a week
before,” she said.
Monica Todd, the manager
at Nookie’s Restaurant, said the
move would decrease sales for that
weekend.
“It’s a big push for us,” she said.
“It would probably take about 30
percent of our revenue each day.”
Todd said typically, graduates
get a free dessert that weekend, and
they see an increase in pre-order
and to-go sales. She said some of
that will likely still go on if people
come back from Tri-Cities to
celebrate in Hermiston.
Todd said while graduation
isn’t the busiest weekend of the
year for Nookie’s, she has to hire
extra staff for that time.
“It’s one of our more prominent
weekends,” she said.
She said they understand
finances have to be considered,
and the district has to do what’s
best for them.
“We’ve just been waiting for
the decision so we can adjust,” she
said.
Jaishree Narain, manager and
owner of Best Western Hermiston
Inn, said even though graduation
is only one day, missing those
sales would affect her business.
“Our hotel is fully booked, and
our restaurant (Denny’s) is very
busy too,” she said of graduation
weekend. “It will affect us. We
want local businesses to stay
local.”
Narain said she had hoped
to see graduation move to the
EOTEC grounds.
Hermiston School District
employees said it was important
for business owners and families
to note that the board of directors
had not yet made a decision about
the graduation venue.
“The possible economic impact
on the community has been a
point of conversation in this
discussion,” said Communications
Officer Maria Duron in an email
to the EO. “That being said, with
a tentative start time of 7 p.m.,
there would be time for dinner in
Hermiston prior to attending the
event. I would also fully expect
that local hotels, restaurants, etc.
would be positively impacted by
graduation parties that could take
place in Hermiston throughout the
weekend.”
Duron said it was likely that
out-of-town guests would likely
stay in Hermiston, to be close to
the family members they were
here to celebrate.
–——
Contact Jayati Ramakrishnan at
541-564-4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com
that part of the world began
in the 1960s. He met his
wife, Barbara, in what is
now Tanzania where both
served in the Peace Corps.
They married in 1968 in a
ceremony that included a
wedding ring made from the
cross-section of a wildebeest
tail. The couple, which raised
five children, remained in the
country seven years before
returning to Oregon for
Clark’s 22-year career with
the Oregon Department of
Agriculture. In “retirement”
he contracts with agencies
such as USAID to work in
Africa, Egypt and several
Middle Eastern countries to
do livestock disease control
work.
Artifacts
from
his
adventures dot his Pendleton
home — a hedgehog hide,
an elephant-hair bracelet,
spitting cobra and puff adder
fangs, aardvark claws, a stag
beetle shell and elephant
bones he gathered from the
terrain. He uses one of them,
a scapula, as a marker at the
top of his driveway.
“Turn at the elephant
scapula,” he tells people in
giving directions to his home.
People should call first,
though,
because
Clark
might be off on his next
mission. Soon he will head to
Bangladesh on another avian
influenza-related project.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or 941-966-0810.
Excitement bubbles up at BYU
as caffeinated soda now on sale
PROVO, Utah (AP) — Mormon
church-owned Brigham Young
University ended a six-decade ban
Thursday on the sale of caffeinated
soft drinks on campus, surprising
students by posting a picture of a
can of Coca-Cola on Twitter and
just two words: “It’s happening.”
The move sparked social media
celebrations from current and former
students, with many recalling how
they had hauled their own 2-liter
bottles of caffeinated sodas in their
backpacks to keep awake for long
study sessions.
The university never banned
having caffeinated drinks on
campus, but held firm to the ban
on sales even when The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
in 2012 clarified that church health
practices do not prevent members
from drinking caffeinated soft
drinks.
The ban has been in place since
the mid-1950s. But officials with the
school of 33,000 students in Provo,
Utah, said Thursday that increasing
demand prompted the change.
Students were abuzz about a
change that meant they’ll no longer
have to make off-campus runs to
load up on their favorite caffeinated
sodas to jolt their sleep-deprived
brains.
“It’s about time,” said Sara
McLaws, a junior advertising and
graphic design major from Park
City, Utah. “BYU is a great school
but it’s behind in some ways.
Just the small change of allowing
caffeinated beverages — because
it’s not against our religion — it’s
high time.”
As cafeteria workers stocked
refrigerators in the student center
food court with caffeinated Diet
Coke, Coca-Cola and Mr. Pibb,
students joked about it being the
“best day ever.
“I absolutely love it. It’s been
a big game changer, even just day
one,” said Mckay Murphy, a junior
statistics major from Springville,
Utah. “I’m a really big fan of
caffeine and just soda in general so
it’s nice to have it on campus with
easy access.”