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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 21, 2017)
WEEKEND EDITION BEAVER BELIEVERS LIFESTYLES/1C BULLDOGS DOMINATE SPORTS/1B BLUE MOUNTAIN FOLK MUSIC/3C OCTOBER 21-22, 2017 142nd Year, No. 5 CLEARING A PRESENT DANGER Landowners remove brush, fallen trees to help prevent forest fi res By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian The contrast is easy to see driving through Tom and Cindy Beechinor’s forest property up Govern- ment Mountain Road in northern Umatilla County. Fall colors decorated the soggy woods Wednesday, where the Beechinors showed their latest work to thin overly dense stands of trees. In one area, the forest fl oor is clean of clutter and open for larger trees to thrive. In other areas, the brush is almost too thick to walk and loaded with dead and down fuel. “If we don’t do some- thing in here, Mother Nature will,” Tom Beech- inor said, warning against the threat of wildfi res, disease and insect infesta- tions. This year marked another intense fi re season across the West, including Oregon, where large blazes swept over an estimated ECHO City issues apology for councilor’s anti-gay comments By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian crowded, you have all of these trees competing for a limited amount of moisture, and ultimately The city of Echo has issued an apology for statements made by city councilor Lou Nakapalau on Facebook calling a gay man an anti-gay slur and telling him that when he dies of AIDS he will spit on his grave. “The Echo City Council would like to extend its sincerest apology to those who were offended by comments made by a council member in a Facebook dialog reported by the East Oregonian,” the statement reads. “Comments of indi- vidual council members on their personal social media accounts do not have any endorsement or approval of the council as a whole nor do they represent city policy.” The statement goes on to say that the city does not endorse any statement that disparages someone because of their identity and has never taken an action or adopted a policy that was “in any sense prejudicial or biased toward a class or group of people.” City councilor Robert Harris proposed issuing the apology during Thursday’s council meeting — the fi rst since Nakapalau made the comments on Oct. 7. “I think that’s the absolute least we can do,” Harris said. His motion was met with several seconds of silence from the rest of the council, prompting an outcry from audience members as it looked like the motion might die from a lack of a second. Harris looked at councilor Jerry Gaunt, who told Harris he didn’t have to second it, but councilor Janie Enright said she had seconded the motion while people were talking. The council, including Nakapalau, then voted unanimously to approve the motion. Nakapalau did not offer any comment during the council meeting and has not returned requests for See FOREST/13A See APOLOGY/11A “We’re praying to God we never end up with a fi re up here. But you never know.” — Dale Freeman, president of the Langdon Lake Association 678,000 acres statewide. Some were sparked by lighting, such as the 191,121-acre Chetco Bar fi re near Brookings, while others were carelessly ignited by humans, such as the 48,831-acre Eagle Creek fi re in the Columbia River Gorge. So-called “megafi res” are burning bigger and hotter than before, according to researchers, due to changes in both the climate and landscape. Paul Hessburg, research landscape ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service, recently visited Pendleton to talk about the need for forest rehabilitation to boost fi re resiliency, especially in the wild- $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD Staff photo by E.J. Harris (TOP) A recently cleared area of Tom and Cindy Beechinor’s forest property in the North Folk Walla Walla River watershed east of Milton-Freewater. (BOTTOM) Densely packed trees with ladder fuel growing all of the way to the forest fl oor in a wooded area nearby. land-urban interface where development is adding a whole new set of chal- lenges for fi refi ghters. Tom and Cindy Beech- inor have heeded the call, spearheading projects on the family’s property where they run cattle and harvest some commercial logs for timber sales. By cutting smaller diameter trees — known as pre-com- mercial thinning — Tom Beechinor said it helps to ensure the overall health of the forest. “If the forest is too PENDLETON Drone range expands horizons with mission control By ANTONIO SIERRA East Oregonian The Pendleton Unmanned Aerial Systems Range Mission Control and Inno- vation Center was a literal toy factory on Friday. Range employees will contend that the drones they test on a regular basis are tools and not toys, but there’s no practical appli- cation for the dozens of small, gray robots the city was mass producing for a group of high school students coming in later that afternoon. Using 3-D printers, the range manufactured the robot toys, complete with cowboy hats, the range’s initials and an imprint on the left foot with the phrase “Maker Buck” and the range’s bucking Pegasus logo. Beyond making promotional material, the mission control and innovation center More online For video of reporter Antonio Sierra testing out virtual reality goggles visit eastoregonian.com is the latest addition to the test range, another feature range offi cials believe will continue to add to Pendleton’s competitive edge among drone manufacturers. Steve Chrisman, Pendleton’s airport manager and economic development director, said the center could eventually help unmanned fl ights surpass manned fl ights in terms of operations. The command center Located at the corner of Northwest 56th Street and Airport Road, the former See RANGE/11A Staff photo by E.J. Harris Range Manager Darryl Abling explains the capabilities of the mission control room at the Pendleton UAS Range Mission Control and Innovation Center in Pendleton.
