Page 4A
East Oregonian
Thursday, August 16, 2018
CHRISTOPHER RUSH
Publisher
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Forest plan offers hope,
but much is uncertain
T
he U.S. Forest Service is taking
comment from individuals and
groups with legal standing to
file objections on its final draft of the
much-anticipated Blue Mountains
Forest Plan Revision.
The plans, which were last updated
in 1990, will guide land management
activities — including timber harvest,
livestock grazing and recreation —
over 5.5 million acres in the Umatilla,
Wallowa-Whitman and Malheur
national forests in Eastern Oregon for
the next 10-15 years.
The Forest Service has been working
to replace the 1990 management
plan since 2003. Four years ago it
released a draft Environmental Impact
Statement for a proposed replacement.
Near universal backlash from timber,
grazing, recreation and environmental
interests prompted three years of
“re-engagement” with the public.
The Forest Service says its
preferred revision calls for more active
management to improve forest health
and reduce the risk of the large and
dangerous wildfires plaguing the West.
To that end, the plan calls for
doubling the annual timber harvest
across all three forests from a recent
average of 101 million board-feet to
205 million board-feet. It could also
add as many as 51,600 animal unit
months, or AUMs, associated with
vacant allotments for livestock grazing
across the three forests.
Stakeholder response to the revisions
have been tepid at best.
Doubling the timber harvest would
be a boon to loggers and the economies
of communities that once depended on
the paychecks from lumber mills.
But timber interests say the proposed
revision doesn’t offer any guarantees
the Forest Service will be able to meet
those targets each year. It’s impossible
to maintain mills and other industry
infrastructure without that certainty.
Livestock producers would like to be
able to graze more cattle and sheep in
the forests.
There have been many changes to
the management of the forests in the
last 28 years that have caused the active
number of AUMs to decline from what
was provided in the 1990 plan.
The 1990 plan called for 524,000
AUMs for grazing, but only 242,800
are currently available. The revised
EO file photo
The management plan for the Umatilla, Wallowa-Whitman and Malheur national
forests in Eastern Oregon will cover an area about the size of New Jersey and
come under intense scrutiny from all sides.
plan calls for up to 294,400.
Ranchers are skeptical they’ll
actually get to graze on those additional
AUMs.
Environmental groups, on the other
hand, say the plan places too much
emphasis on resource extraction, and
does not do enough to protect old-
growth trees and wildlife.
We think more logging and more
grazing is a good idea. The fuel load in
the forests needs to be reduced. Rural
communities in Eastern Oregon could
use the 1,200 extra jobs and additional
$60 million in income the plan could
generate.
Those with standing have until the
end of the month to comment. The
Forest Service then has 90 days to
make further revisions.
Whatever plan is eventually adopted,
the operational details will be as
much a product of litigation as careful
consideration.
Because in the end, it’s the federal
judiciary, not the Forest Service, that
writes the working forest management
plan.
OTHER VIEWS
With Mueller, like Starr,
beware wishful thinking
I
OTHER VIEWS
Not the enemy
e’ve been complacent.
We thought everybody knew
how important a free press was
to our world and that all this talk about us
being the enemy of the people would be
dismissed for the silliness it is.
But the reckless attacks have continued,
instigated and encouraged by our
president.
When the leader of the free world
works to erode the public’s trust in
the media, the potential for damage is
enormous, both here and abroad. We
once set an example of free and open
government for the world to follow. Now
those who seek to suppress the free flow of
information are doing so with impunity.
The time has come for us to stand up to
the bullying. The role journalism plays in
our free society is too crucial to allow this
degradation to continue.
We aren’t the enemy of the people. We
are the people. We aren’t fake news. We
are your news and we struggle night and
day to get the facts right.
On cold January nights, we’re the
people’s eyes and ears at city council and
school board meetings. We tell the stories
of our communities, from the fun of a
county fair to the despair a family faces
when a loved one is killed.
We are always by your side. We shop
the same stores, attend the same churches
and hike the same trails. We struggle
with daycare and worry about paying for
retirement.
In our work as journalists, our first
loyalty is to you. Our work is guided by a
W
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the
East Oregonian editorial board. Other
columns, letters and cartoons on this page
express the opinions of the authors and
not necessarily that of the East Oregonian.
set of principles that demand objectivity,
independence, open-mindedness and the
pursuit of the truth. We make mistakes, we
know. There’s nothing we hate more than
errors but we acknowledge them, correct
them and learn from them.
Our work is a labor of love because
we love our country and believe we are
playing a vital role in our democracy. Self-
governance demands that our citizens need
to be well-informed and that’s what we’re
here to do. We go beyond the government
issued press release or briefing and ask
tough questions. We hold people in power
accountable for their actions. Some think
we’re rude to question and challenge. We
know it’s our obligation.
People have been criticizing the press
for generations. We are not perfect. But
we’re striving every day to be a better
version of ourselves than we were the day
before.
That’s why we welcome criticism. But
unwarranted attacks that undermine your
trust in us cannot stand. The problem has
become so serious that newspapers across
the nation are speaking out against these
attacks in one voice today on their editorial
pages.
As women’s rights pioneer and
investigative journalist Ida B. Wells wrote
in 1892: “The people must know before
they can act and there is no educator to
compare with the press.”
A version of this editorial was circu-
lated by the Boston Globe, and Newspapers
across the country are printing a version of
it in their Thursday, August 16 editions.
n Washington in the 1990s, it
London loosely connected to the
was a sure bet that whenever
Manafort case. One is a California
conservative journalists
man charged in relation to the
and activists got together, the
Russian troll farm. And the great
conversation turned to the Clintons,
majority of those charged, 29, are
Russians or Russian companies out
Kenneth Starr and the Whitewater
of Mueller’s reach.
investigation. There was a good
The special counsel has bagged
bit of what one editor memorably
Byron
a few big names: Manafort; Rick
called “hush-hush and heavy
York
Gates, Manafort’s right-hand man
breathing” when insiders discussed
Comment
who has pleaded guilty to many
momentous developments
of the same crimes Manafort is on
that were surely on the way.
Somebody knew somebody who had heard trial for; Michael Flynn, Trump’s former
national security adviser, who has pleaded
from somebody close to Starr that big
guilty to lying to the FBI; and George
indictments were imminent — just around
Papadopoulos, a short-lived campaign
the corner.
adviser who has also pleaded guilty to
The big indictments were just around
lying to the FBI.
the corner in 1995, in 1996, in 1997. They
So far, Mueller has five guilty pleas,
didn’t come. Then, in 1998, the Lewinsky
one trial under way, and 29 cases that are
scandal seemed to fall into the laps of anti-
Clinton types. But even as the scandal rolled probably never going to go anywhere.
People cheering Mueller on — the “It’s
toward impeachment, some on the right
Mueller Time!” crowd — often say that’s
still looked for indictments in the matters
quite an achievement.
that had raised Republican hopes over the
Starr accomplished a lot, too. While
years: Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate, the
best remembered for pursuing the
Rose Law Firm billing records, the death of
Lewinsky affair, Starr got 15 convictions
Vincent Foster and more.
over the course of his investigation,
But 1998 passed, and then 1999,
including Jim and Susan McDougal,
and then 2000 without the anticipated
President Clinton’s business partners in
indictments. Bill and Hillary Clinton left
office bruised by impeachment but without the Whitewater venture; Webster Hubbell,
the criminal charges their adversaries once the Clintons’ close friend and top Justice
Department official; and Jim Guy Tucker,
believed were coming.
Now, it is not unusual to encounter anti- the sitting governor of the president’s
home state of Arkansas.
Trumpers who believe big indictments
Now Mueller is conducting his first
from Trump-Russia special counsel
trial, and he might well win a conviction.
Robert Mueller are just around the corner.
If that happens, look for the special
Recently, I had a long conversation with
counsel’s cheerleaders to declare that this
a smart and deeply engaged follower of
is just the beginning.
Trump-Russia events who was convinced
Maybe it will be. Or maybe it won’t.
that Paul Manafort, the former Trump
With the Lewinsky matter, Starr went
campaign chairman currently on trial for
on to write a report that served as the basis
tax evasion and bank fraud, and awaiting
for impeaching Clinton. That is why Starr
trial for failing to register as a foreign
is remembered today. For his part, Mueller
agent, would be indicted yet again —
is undoubtedly working on a Trump-
and this would be the big one, on charges
Russia report now, and it, too, could lead
that would finally include conspiring with
to impeachment, depending on which
Russia to fix the 2016 election.
party controls the House after November.
One doesn’t have to wander around the
Perhaps there will be more indictments
anti-Trump web to see similar sentiments,
from Mueller. Perhaps, say, Roger Stone
not just about Manafort but about other
will be charged for something related to
top figures in the Trump circle. The
his business affairs, or there will be other
indictments are on the way.
charges against other people unrelated to
Mueller has indeed indicted a lot of
collusion. In the end, though, it’s likely the
people. But to this point, no one around
report will be what Mueller is remembered
President Trump has been charged with
for, while those big new indictments
colluding, or conspiring, with Russia to
remain just around the corner.
influence the 2016 election.
■
Mueller has charged 32 people and
Byron York is chief political correspondent
three companies. Four individuals are
for The Washington Examiner.
former Trump aides. One is a lawyer in
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the
newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual
services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters must be signed by the author and include the
city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published.
Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.