Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Thursday, August 2, 2018
OUTDOORS: Created a detailed inventory of all trees in Pendleton
Continued from 1A
come families.
Crawford said there are
OYCC crews in every Ore-
gon county, and their tasks
vary depending on the needs
of the area.
“I know crews that do
trail maintenance, inva-
sive species removal,” she
said. “It’s generally strictly
conservation.”
All the groups focus on
several components: envi-
ronmental
stewardship,
workforce
development,
education and teamwork.
Pendleton crew leader
Summer Szumski said
watching the students prob-
lem-solve has been one
of the best parts of the
program.
“It’s been interesting
to see how they work as
a team,” she said. At the
beginning of the summer,
some of the kids didn’t
know each other and tended
to work by themselves.
“As they’ve gone on and
we’ve encountered techni-
cal problems ... I’ve watched
their relationships and com-
munication develop,” she
said. “They utilize each oth-
er’s strengths.”
The students who were
hired went through a group
interview process where
they spent a full day learn-
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Emily Robles and Brenda Flores paint the lettering on a
sign while working Wednesday at the Boardman Marina.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Julian Jimenez and Nahomy Claustro clean painting utensils on Wednesday at the
Boardman Marina.
ing about the program, as
well as honing their profes-
sional skills and doing prac-
tice interviews with their
peers.
Once they’re out on the
job, tasks can vary. The
Boardman crew spent a
lot of time beautifying the
property around the Board-
man Recreation Center.
It’s taught some of the
students new skills.
“I’d never done irrigation
or landscaping before,” said
Emily Robles, an incom-
ing senior at Riverside High
School. “I’d never planted
a tree. It’s all a learning
experience.”
On Wednesday, Robles
and her teammates painted
signs in Boardman Marina
and RV park, and then
moved on to pulling
weeds.
In Pendleton, students
helped the Pendleton Parks
department carry out one
of their long-term goals —
having a detailed inventory
for all public trees in the
city. The teens have spent
the past several weeks track-
ing the trees in city parks,
neighborhoods and public
streets.
“To do an urban for-
est master plan, we need to
know what resources we’re
working with,” said Pend-
leton Parks director Liam
Hughes.
Maureen Davies, A Pend-
leton High School grad and
incoming college freshman,
originally found out about
the job through her biology
teacher.
“Since I’m moving away,
I thought it was one last
thing I could do for the com-
munity,” she said.
Davies and her team-
mates are recording species,
size and any issues with the
trees such as disease or vul-
nerability, as well as taking
photos of each tree.
The students have been
working on the project on
their own, and had to do a
lot of on-the-job learning.
The first couple of days,
Davies said, Dave Powell,
who sits on the Pendleton
Tree Commission, came
and helped them identify
trees.
The teens are also
repainting Kiwanis cabins
which are used for Outdoor
School.
Davies, who is interested
in working in the medical
field, said she was happy for
the chance to do something
different in the summer. She
said she has grown up work-
ing on farms and in agricul-
tural jobs, but this job cov-
ered new ground.
“I enjoy the people I
work with,” she said. “I
know a lot more about trees
now.”
–——
Contact
Jayati
Ramakrishnan at 541-564-
4534 or jramakrishnan@
eastoregonian.com.
WILDFIRE: About
100 homes evacuated
during fire’s height
Continued from 1A
released from the scene.
Although access to the
south fork of the Walla Walla
River remained closed, Hol-
comb said no structures were
being threatened by the fire
and residents were allowed
to take alternate routes to
return home.
According to Holcomb,
the sheriff’s office evacu-
ated about 100 homes due to
the fire. As of 3:45 p.m., the
Oregon Department of For-
estry estimated the fire to
span 200-300 acres.
Along with the Mil-
ton-Freewater crew, per-
sonnel from East Umatilla
County Rural Fire Protec-
tion, the Bureau of Indian
Affairs and the Oregon
Department of Forestry
are on scene. Two helicop-
ters could be seen dump-
ing water on the fire from
above and responders later
reported a third helicopter
joined them.
Cindy Brumbach was
among a group of residents
who were watching the fire
burn through a draw from a
safe distance.
Brumbach said she
received a call at her Lefore
Road home from authorities
asking everyone who lived
from 81000 Walla Walla
Road to Harris Park to leave
their homes.
While Brumbach’s home
was far enough from the fire
that her home wasn’t in dan-
ger, and the message sim-
ply told those who didn’t
live in the evacuation to stay
prepared.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
A Milton-Freewater Rural Fire vehicle drives down Lincton Mountian Road while responding to a wildfire in the
South Fork Walla Walla River Valley on Wednesday in Pendleton.
FIREFIGHTERS: Paying attention while driving is a huge help
Continued from 1A
water and meals at the fire
camp that the Department of
Forestry has budgeted for.
Shaw said while firefight-
ers “love to feel that they’re
valued,” it tends to make
more sense to check in with
smaller rural fire depart-
ments — which often run on
volunteers — with more lim-
ited budgets to ask if there
is anything they need help
with, rather than dropping
off donations unannounced
at government-run fire
camps. One year, for exam-
ple, a community ended up
dropping off “crates and
crates of socks” to a fire
camp even though firefight-
ers were well-stocked with
socks already.
Danny Palomino of
Hermiston is trying to go the
rural support route by start-
ing a Facebook page called
“Watch my 6 I got yours”
this week. He said he hopes
to serve as a focal point for
people to drop off dona-
tions they want to give, and
then he can contact agen-
cies in Umatilla and Mor-
row counties and see if they
are running low on any of
those supplies, instead of a
stream of community mem-
bers dropping by fire sta-
tions unannounced.
“It’s been pretty horrible
with all of these fires lately,
and I know people want to
help but they feel helpless,”
he said.
He said he traveled to
the Eagle Creek fire in the
Columbia Gorge last sum-
mer to drop off Gold Bond,
baby wipes and “pocket
snacks” but had a lot of dif-
ficulty getting through to
deliver them, which is why
he thought coordinating
with local fire departments
was a better route.
Umatilla County Fire
District 1 operations chief
Jim Forquer said the district
has had to turn down some
offers of support lately, but
he hoped people under-
stood it was because the dis-
trict was incredibly busy and
not because they weren’t
grateful.
“We’re really apprecia-
tive of our relationship with
the community,” he said. “It
doesn’t go unnoticed.”
Forquer said the public
can be a huge help to fire-
fighters by paying atten-
tion while driving and get-
ting out of the way quickly
when a truck or ambulance
comes through with lights
and sirens.
He said the very biggest
thing people can do to sup-
port the fire district was to
stay safe — including pre-
cautions such as wearing life
jackets and staying hydrated
— and do everything in their
power to prevent fires.
“We’ve had several fires
where folks weren’t follow-
ing the burn ban, and that
creates an additional work
load,” he said.
Vehicle maintenance can
be an important component
of that. Over the weekend
the district put out a series of
seven small spot fires along
Diagonal Road that Forquer
said was caused by an
improperly maintained cata-
lytic converter on a vehicle
throwing out small pieces of
hot material. Other times a
chain dragging has sparked
the grass near a road.
“It’s been a really busy
fire season already, and I
think we might be heading
into worse,” he said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell
at jmcdowell@eastorego-
nian.com or 541-564-4536.
take a hit because people are
trying to find out what’s legit
and what’s not,” she said
Wednesday.
doubled from the same
quarter a year ago, and was
slightly larger than the first
quarter. But Tesla’s cash
burn in the second quar-
ter slowed from about $1.1
billion.
On the call, Musk also
said he expects the company
to avoid returning to the
markets for capital and to be
“essentially self-funding on
a go-forward basis.” Tesla
would use money generated
from sales to fund big proj-
ects such as an estimated $2
billion new factory in China
and another plant in Europe,
he said.
The company also said
that Model 3 gross profit
margins turned slightly pos-
itive during the quarter as it
worked out expensive kinks
in its manufacturing system.
NATION BRIEFLY
Court strikes down
Trump push to cut
‘sanctuary city’
funds
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)
— A divided U.S. appeals
court on Wednesday struck
down a key part of President
Donald Trump’s contentious
effort to crack down on cities
and states that limit cooper-
ation with immigration offi-
cials, saying an executive
order threatening to cut fund-
ing for “sanctuary cities” was
unconstitutional.
In a 2-1 decision, the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
agreed with a lower court
that the order exceeded the
president’s authority. Con-
gress alone controls spend-
ing under the U.S. Constitu-
tion, and presidents do not
have the power to withhold
funding it approves to pursue
their policy goals, the court
majority said.
“By its plain terms, the
executive order directs the
agencies of the executive
branch to withhold funds
appropriated by Congress in
order to further the adminis-
tration’s policy objective of
punishing cities and coun-
ties that adopt so-called
‘sanctuary’ policies,” wrote
Chief Judge Sidney Thomas,
joined by Judge Ronald
Gould, who both were nom-
inated by Democratic Presi-
dent Bill Clinton.
The court, however, also
said the lower-court judge
went too far when he blocked
enforcement of Trump’s
order nationwide after a law-
suit by two California coun-
ties — San Francisco and
Santa Clara.
Thomas said there wasn’t
enough evidence to support
a nationwide ban, limited
the injunction to California
and sent the case back to the
lower court for more argu-
ments on whether a wider
ban was warranted.
Facebook page’s
removal angers
Washington
protest organizers
SILVER SPRING, Md.
(AP) — Facebook stunned
and angered organizers of a
protest against white suprem-
acists when it disabled their
Washington event’s page
this week, saying it and oth-
ers had been created by “bad
actors” misusing the social
media platform.
The company said the
page — one of 32 pages or
accounts it removed Tues-
day from Facebook and Ins-
tagram — violated its ban
on “coordinated inauthentic
behavior” and may be linked
to an account created by
Russia’s Internet Research
Agency, a so-called troll
farm that has sown discord
in the U.S.
But the organizers of next
weekend’s protest in Wash-
ington say Facebook has
unfairly and recklessly tar-
nished their work by sug-
gesting their event could be
linked to a Russian cam-
paign to interfere in U.S.
politics.
April Goggans, an orga-
nizer of Black Lives Mat-
ter DC, said protest organiz-
ers began planning the event
before the Facebook page’s
creation. Organizers have set
up a new page, but Goggans
fears Facebook’s crackdown
left many people with the
false impression that a Rus-
sian bot is behind their event.
“Our participation may
Tesla burns $739.5
million in cash on
way to record loss
(AP) — Electric car
maker Tesla Inc. burned
through $739.5 million in
cash last quarter, paving the
way to a company record
$717.5 million net loss as
it cranked out more electric
cars.
But CEO Elon Musk
pledged to post net profits in
future quarters, and on a con-
ference call, he apologized
to two analysts he cut off on
the company’s first-quarter
call. Telsa’s shares jumped
9.3 percent to $328.85 in
after-hours trading.
The net loss more than