C6
OUTSIDE
East Oregonian
Saturday, January 12, 2019
ATV use on local state highways supported
By RICHARD HANNERS
EO Media Group
An effort is underway
in Grant County to get
approval for use of ATVs on
state highways.
Senate Bill 344, intro-
duced by Sen. Ted Ferrioli
in 2017 and passed unan-
imously in the House and
29-1 in the Senate, allows
the Oregon Transporta-
tion Commission to desig-
nate specific routes on state
highways where ATVs could
travel.
ATVs are currently
allowed to cross state high-
ways at an intersection or at
a place more than 100 feet
from any highway inter-
section. The goal of SB344
was to allow ATV riders to
leave a trail at a highway
and then travel on the high-
way a short distance to the
start of another trail. Drafted
by a work group made up
of ATV users, vehicle deal-
Contributed photo
A group of ATV riders make their way through a wooded area
of the Morrow-Grant County OHV Park.
ers and the state Parks and
Recreation and Transporta-
tion departments, the legis-
lation allows a road author-
ity to authorize ATV use
within highway rights of
way in counties with less
than 20,000 people.
While many rural Oregon
cities and counties adopted
ordinances to allow ATV use
on city and county roads,
state highways typically
serve as the main access
road in rural communities.
The legislation estab-
lished a seven-member
All-Terrain Vehicle Access
Routes Advisory Commit-
tee to review applications
for routes. Six members are
appointed by the state parks
and recreation director, and
one is appointed by state
transportation director.
The John Day City Coun-
cil gave its consensus sup-
port Dec. 11 to forming a
working group with other
nearby communities to
identify proposed routes in
Grant County and to con-
sider a joint application for
designation.
John Day City Manager
Nick Green described a pre-
sentation by Ian Caldwell,
an OPRD grants and com-
munity programs represen-
tative for central and East-
ern Oregon, at the Nov.
21 meeting of the South
East Area Commission on
Transportation.
The purpose of the legis-
lation is to promote tourism
and local recreational uses
by connecting towns with
trails. Those goals align
with the city’s overall eco-
nomic development plans,
Green said.
The Transportation Com-
mission will consider road
speeds, road width and traf-
fic volume when reviewing
applications. They will also
consider whether to allow
ATVs on the paved road-
way, the shoulder or the
highway rights-of-way in a
designated route.
City Councilor Gregg
Haberly said he’s been
working on the legislation
for about eight years. He
noted that adjacent states
have more lenient regula-
tions for ATV use on state
highways, and it’s already
allowed in Oregon for agri-
cultural uses.
“As long as they let bicy-
cles, motorcycles and smart
cars on highways, then they
should allow ATVs too,” he
said.
Changing
the
rules
for ATVs will help the
depressed economy in Grant
County, Haberly said. His
proposal is to allow ATVs
to travel on state highways
from John Day to Prairie
City, Long Creek, Monu-
ment and Seneca.
The state advisory com-
mittee will conduct field
reviews of routes proposed
for designation and con-
sult with the county courts
or commissions, the sher-
iff’s offices, the land man-
agement agencies that
provide ATV riding oppor-
tunities and city represen-
tatives where routes would
exist.
Caldwell said that Uma-
tilla, Baker and Lake coun-
ties have approved similar
ordinances to Grant Coun-
ty’s for ATV use.
Richard Hanners is a
reporter for the Blue Moun-
tain Eagle. He can be con-
tacted at rick@bmeagle.
com or 541-575-0710.
Moose enters
hospital looking
for some snacks
By RACHEL D’ORO
Associated Press
AP Photo/Adam Kealoha Causey
In this Dec. 31, 2018, photo, clouds cast shadows in the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Comanche County, Okla. The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service is directing dozens of wildlife refuges including this one to make sure hunters and others have access
despite the government shutdown.
U.S. orders refuges to staff
for hunters despite shutdown
Tualatin River, Billy
Frank Jr. Nisqually
among refuges to be
kept open
By ELLEN
KNICKMEYER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice is directing dozens of
wildlife refuges to return
staffers to work to make
sure hunters and others have
access despite the govern-
ment shutdown, according
to an email obtained by The
Associated Press.
The partial restaffing of
38 wildlife refuges is anger-
ing wildlife groups, who
accuse the Trump admin-
istration of trying to mini-
mize the public impact of
the more than two-week-
old shutdown to limit the
political blowback for Pres-
ident Donald Trump. Trump
and Democrats in Congress
are locked in a dispute over
Trump’s demand for billions
of dollars for a wall on the
southern U.S. border.
In an email sent Tuesday
afternoon, Margaret Ever-
son, principal deputy direc-
tor of the Fish and Wildlife
Service, cites “opportuni-
ties, including hunting” that
are being lost in the
shutdown.
Everson advises in the
email that 38 wildlife ref-
uges around the country will
bring back some furloughed
staff using carryover funds.
“While many of our ref-
uges have remained acces-
sible, but not staffed, the
extended lapse in federal
appropriations is impacting
both our ability to serve the
public and to protect natu-
ral resources under our care
in some places,” Everson
wrote.
“For the next 30 days,
using previously appropri-
ated funds, we will bring
back a limited number of
employees to resume work
on high priority projects and
activities that support the
Service’s mission and meet
the public’s desire for access
to Refuge lands,” Everson
said in the email.
An email sent to a Fish
and Wildlife Service spokes-
woman seeking comment
elicited an automatic email
saying she would respond to
requests after the shutdown
ends.
The shutdown has forced
federal agencies to stop issu-
ing paychecks for hundreds
of thousands of government
employees.
Government
services largely have been
limited to the most press-
ing, such as Transportation
Security
Administration
workers providing security
at airports without pay.
Unlike as in some past
shutdowns, the Interior
Department — which over-
sees both wildlife refuges
and national parks — ini-
tially had directed national
parks to stay open but with
little staffing, leading to
pile-ups of uncollected gar-
bage and human waste in
parks. The National Park
Service over the weekend
said some parks could start
using visitor fees to staff
during the shutdown.
The Interior Depart-
ment’s shutdown plan also
says a small majority of
agency staffers in charge of
permitting and overseeing
oil and gas development in
federal waters will be kept
at work no matter how long
the shutdown lasts, “as they
are essential for life and
safety.”
The Trump administra-
tion has emphasized public
use on public lands in gen-
eral, especially by hunters
and oil and gas developers.
This has angered environ-
mental groups, which say
the government is putting
wildlife and habitat at risk.
On Wednesday, the
National Wildlife Federa-
tion, National Wildlife Ref-
uge Association, the Coa-
lition to Protect America’s
National Parks, the Trust for
Public Lands and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service
Retirees Association urged
the Trump administration to
keep national parks, wild-
life refuges and other pub-
lic lands closed to the public
during the shutdown.
“It is simply impossi-
ble to steward these shared
American treasures prop-
erly, leaving thousands of
lands and waters accessible
to the public with no staff
on site, even for an emer-
gency,” the groups wrote in
a letter.
Desiree
Soren-
son-Groves of the National
Wildlife Refuge Association
criticized the partial restaff-
ing of some wildlife refuges.
“If it wasn’t essential to
have these refuges open for
the past three weeks, how
is it essential now?” she
asked. The bottom line was
the Trump administration
was trying to “make this
less painful to the American
public,” she said.
According to the email,
the wildlife refuges being
restaffed include Oklaho-
ma’s Wichita Mountains,
scene of an annual winter
elk hunt.
Rod Smith, a biologist
with Oklahoma’s Depart-
ment of Wildlife Conserva-
tion, works with the federal
government to coordinate
the annual elk hunts in the
Wichita refuge, 59,000
acres of craggy mountains
jutting from the surrounding
prairie.
Smith said Wednesday
he and others are awaiting
word on whether the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife’s directive
on carryover money means a
hunt can happen next week.
If applicants who won the
roughly 300 permits granted
this year don’t get to hunt
by the end of January, they
may have to wait until next
winter.
“We’ve had to have
patience. Wait and see is
always hard,” Smith said.
“Then, just logistically it
makes it difficult. And it
will make it more difficult
next year when we’re carry-
ing people over.”
Other refuges identified
in Everson’s letter are Mid-
way Atoll and Kilauea Point
in Hawaii, Tualatin River in
Oregon, Billy Frank Jr. Nis-
qually in Washington state,
the Sacramento, Kern, Sutter
and five others in California,
the Lower Rio Grande Val-
ley refuge and four others in
Texas, the Rocky Mountain
Arsenal refuge in Colorado,
Utah’s Bear River refuge,
and the Bosque del Apache
and Valle de Oro refuges in
New Mexico.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
— A moose wandered
into a hospital building in
Alaska’s largest city and
chowed down on some
plants in the lobby as
workers watched the mas-
sive animal in awe.
When a patient men-
tioned that security staffers
were monitoring a moose
that got inside the Anchor-
age building Monday,
Stephanie Hupton dashed
out and started recording.
“Didn’t think we’d have
a pet moose,” said Hup-
ton, who works in billing
at a physical therapy office
inside a building attached
to
Alaska
Regional
Hospital.
The footage shows the
moose browsing around
some greenery near an
entrance before it stands
gazing at the camera’s
direction. It briefly lin-
gers before sauntering out
through an open door.
Hupton said she never
felt threatened by the
mellow creature. It was
an experience she never
expected when she moved
to Anchorage three years
ago from Carroll, Iowa.
“It’s definitely different
than small-town Iowa,”
she said.
The moose got inside
through doors that were
stuck open because of
extreme cold in Anchor-
age, where temperatures
hovered around zero Mon-
day, hospital spokes-
woman Kjerstin Lastufka
said.
The plants in the warm
lobby were likely invit-
ing to the animal, who ate
some of them before leav-
ing after about 10 minutes,
Lastufka said.
The moose caused no
injuries or any big prob-
lems, other than the
snacking.
“It was a pretty calm
visit,” Lastufka said.
Alaska Regional Hospital via AP
This Jan. 7, 2019, photo provided by Anchorage Regional
Hospital shows a moose that had wandered into its
therapy facility in Anchorage, Alaska, through doors that
were stuck open because of extreme cold temperatures.
Oklahoma game warden
catches poacher via dating app
CHECOTAH,
Okla.
(AP) — An Oklahoma
woman looking for love
got more than she bar-
gained for when she unwit-
tingly shared her exhil-
aration about illegally
shooting a “bigo buck” on
a dating app with a state
game warden.
Oklahoma Game War-
den Cannon Harrison says
he uncovered the poach-
ing in a conversation on
Bumble with a McIntosh
County woman. She talked
about using a spotlight to
shoot the deer at night, out-
side the rifle season. The
woman only harvested the
head and back-strap meat
— and she sent Harrison
pictures as proof.
The woman has pleaded
guilty to charges of
improper possession of an
illegally taken animal and
taking game out-of-season.
She and an accomplice
face $2,400 fines.
The incident was posted
to the Oklahoma Game
Wardens Facebook page
on Sunday night.