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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 20, 2018)
Saturday, October 20, 2018 OFF PAGE ONE FIRES: 2018 had 3,689 fewer fires than average, but roughly 2 million more acres Page 12A East Oregonian Good Samaritan Law, which shields people from lawsuit if they give aid to others as long as the aid holds to CPR training or the like. Forest management Continued from 1A days starting Oct. 1. About 85 miles south in Madras, Craig Nich- ols, livestock and natural resources manager for the R2 Ranch, faces his own challenges following the fires of 2018. The ranch lost its entire 12,000-acre pub- lic grazing allotment to the Boxcar Fire in June. About 200 head of cattle were to be turned out on it with their calves for the winter. “We won’t be able to graze (that land) for at least one year, and probably two,” Nichols said. Bigger, hotter It is no secret wildfires are getting bigger and hotter across the West. So far in 2018, 49,658 fires have burned more than 8.1 million acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. The 10-year average from 2008 to 2017 is 53,347 fires totaling a little more than 6 million acres — meaning 2018 had 3,689 fewer fires than average, but roughly 2 million more acres burned. Research shows fire sea- sons also start earlier and last longer. A study pub- lished in 2016 by the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at the University of Cali- fornia-Merced calculated Northwest fire seasons are now 93 days longer than they were three decades ago. Meanwhile, firefight- ing costs for the U.S. Forest Service and Department of the Interior have skyrock- eted, topping $2 billion in three of the last four years, including a record $3.1 bil- lion this year. Kathie Dello, associ- ate director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute, said worsen- ing drought conditions are in part to blame for the increasing severity of forest and rangeland fires. “We’ve seen some really tough summers as a result of snow drought,” Dello said. “We really do rely on that natural reservoir of our George Plaven/Capital Press A vacant guest house burned down to its foundation in the Substation Fire on Gordon Ridge, where farmers Marty and Molly Belshe grow wheat. Courtesy Molly Belshe Marty Belshe, a wheat farmer in Sherman County, uses a tractor and disc plow to create a defensible space around one of his fields in anticipation of the Substa- tion Fire that burned 78,425 acres in July. snowpack, and we’ve built systems around that being there.” According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, all of Oregon is in some level of drought, including 33 per- cent in “extreme drought.” In Washington, 92 percent of the state is in drought, along with 90 percent of Idaho and 85 percent of California. Any relief from Mother Nature may be slow to come. The National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center is call- ing for an increased likeli- hood of more warm and dry weather over the next three months, possibly setting the stage for another torrid year in 2019. “This is going to keep happening,” Dello said. “We’re stacking the deck with more of these low snowpack years.” ‘The new normal’ Barbara and Bill Ham- mel, who live on Fifteen Mile Road in The Dalles, said the Substation Fire came about 50 feet from their backyard. The cou- ple lost 8,860 acres of cat- tle pasture and 83 percent of their wheat acres to the Substation and Long Hol- low fires, which started just 20 days apart from one another. “We had to start feeding almost two and a half tons of hay a day to the cattle at all the ranches,” Barbara Hammel said. “That makes cutting the remainder of the grain a little slow when you have to take almost half a day to do the feeding, and then get on the combine to cut wheat.” Saudis confirm Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside consulate DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia acknowledged early Saturday that Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in a fight, and said 18 Saudis were being held as suspects. The overnight announce- ments in Saudi state media came more than two weeks after Khashoggi entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for paperwork required to marry his Turkish fiancee, and never came out. Saudi Arabia had rejected as base- less reports that Khashoggi was killed and dismembered inside the consulate, but had been facing growing pres- sure to explain what hap- pened to him. The overnight announce- ment in Saudi State media also said a royal court adviser close to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was fired along with three lead- ers in the kingdom’s intel- ligence services and other officials. Saudi King Salman also had a plan to restructure the kingdom’s intelligence services. The statement contradicts reports by pro-government media in Turkey, which have published surveillance video and other material suggest- ing Khashoggi was killed by an assassination squad with ties to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. On Wednesday, the Turk- ish pro-government newspa- per Yeni Safak, citing what it described as an audio record- ing of Khashoggi’s slaying, said the squad immediately accosted the journalist after he entered the consulate, cutting off his fingers and later decapitating him. “Preliminary investiga- tions carried out by the Pub- lic Prosecution Office into the disappearance of Saudi citizen Jamal bin Ahmad Khashoggi revealed that the discussions that took place between him and the per- sons who met him during his presence at the Saudi Con- sulate in Istanbul (led) to a brawl and a fist fight with the citizen, Jamal Khashoggi, which led to his death, may his soul rest in peace,” the Saudi prosecutors’ statement read. The Saudi statements did not identify the 18 Saudis being held by authorities. MCKAY CREEK ESTATES Are you worried about falling? McKay Creek Estates 1601 Southgate Pl. • Pendleton, OR 97801 www.PrestigeCare.com emergency grazing, though he stressed the importance of timely rains to establish a cover crop on bare acres. Marty Belshe, who farms north of Padget, said he is still not sure whether he will plant a cover crop on his burned fields. The Belshes consider themselves lucky. Yes, they did lose roughly a third of their crop, but they know it could have been worse. One farmer, 64-year-old John Ruby of neighboring Wasco County, died in the Sub- station Fire trying to dig a firebreak. It is common practice for farmers to look out for each other, drop what they are doing and pull together when a fire erupts, Belshe said, though he added that wheat is not worth anyone’s life. “We all need to keep a little perspective on what we are doing when we’re out there fighting fire,” he said. That has become a politi- cal issue for a pair of Oregon state senators. Bill Hansell, Republican from Athena, and Elizabeth Steiner Hay- ward, Democrat from Port- land, are teaming up on legislation to hold farmers harmless while fighting fires. Hansell said Wasco County farmers told him they were concerned the state could crack down on them for helping each other fight fires. Steiner Hay- ward said they would model the proposal on Oregon’s WE HEAR YOU! Phonak Virto™ B Phonak Virto B are the world’s fi rst hearing aids with Biometric Calibration and are precisely calibrated to your individual ear anatomy for better hearing performance. The smallest Phonak custom hearing aid is now even more discreet. Made from medical grade titanium, it is durable and light weight. LOCAL, INDEPENDENT AUDIOLOGIST Working within the community of Pendleton, our clinic provides a variety of hearing healthcare services including hearing assessments and rehabilitation, education, and counseling. If you knew that there are several simple steps you can take to reduce your risk of falling, would you do it? You can make a difference. Stay independent longer by fall proofing your home and by getting your glasses and feet checked. Most importantly you can energize your body with exercise. By improving your strength, flexibility and balance you can significantly reduce your risk of a potentially serious fall. Call (541) 704-7146 today to schedule your FREE FALL REDUCTION EVALUATION. Grass Valley wheat farmer Darren Padget spent a blustery morning seed- ing 700 acres in his GPS- guided tractor, pulling a 56-foot no-till drill to pen- etrate the stubble. Padget, a member of the Oregon Wheat Commission and secretary-treasurer of the U.S. Wheat Associates, lost just a sliver of crop- land he mowed down with a disc plow to buffer his farm from the Jack Knife Fire in June. Like a lot of farmers in the area, he spent many days assisting firefight- ers and working to protect neighbors’ property. The Substation Fire, driven by furious winds, was unlike anything he had ever seen before. “I’ve never seen such widespread devastation,” Padget said. “I guess that’s the difference this year.” Summer is always hot and windy, Padget said, but farmers have been espe- cially overwhelmed this year. The Substation Fire started near The Dalles before it made a 25-mile run southeast to Grass Val- ley in just one day, putting firefighters on their heels. “You didn’t know where to go. It was moving so quick and so fast,” Padget said. “We had about two days with nobody harvest- ing. It’s the only time I’ve ever seen the entire county shut down.” Padget praised the USDA for acting quickly to approve cover crops and Northwest lawmakers, meanwhile, are taking aim at forest management poli- cies they say will help reduce the size and severity of future wildfires. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden sent a letter in July to Sens. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., urging them to include pro- visions passed by the House in the 2018 Farm Bill. The proposals would make it eas- ier for the Forest Service and BLM to cut down dead trees and replant forests after a fire, while encouraging collabora- tive forest projects. “The provisions in the House-passed Farm Bill would bring needed change to the way we manage our for- ests to address the root cause of these fires,” Walden said. “We can reduce red tape and streamline management prac- tices to get more work done in the woods.” Congress missed its Sept. 30 deadline for passing the 2018 Farm Bill, though House Committee Chairman Michael Conaway, R-Texas, has made a commitment to passing the legislation before the end of the year. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., also introduced the Wildfire Resilient Communities Act on Sept. 26, which would direct $1 billion toward for- est fuels reduction and cre- ate a county stewardship fund to help pay for collaborative work with federal agencies. Dylan Kruse, director of government affairs at Sus- tainable Northwest, a Port- land-based nonprofit, said the need to invest in federal forests has never been more urgent. “We can’t afford to keep playing catchup,” Kruse said. “This bill takes immediate action to address the massive management backlog on our forests, and expands biparti- san programs to prepare for the future.” SERVICE YOU CAN RELY ON! You can trust Renata to provide a complete hearing evaluation and a professional diagnosis of your specifi c hearing loss. Call for an appointment with Renata today and start hearing what you’ve been missing. STEP INTO SAVINGS! 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