NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, March 14, 2019
Ban on clear-cutting proposed for Oregon watersheds
timber industry because
even if the most sweeping
restrictions are pared down,
it could still result in stricter
regulations on forestry
practices, such as aerial
spraying.
Supporters of the bill tes-
tified before the House Com-
mittee on Energy and the
Environment that the for-
estry practices in question
have increased chemicals,
sediments and temperatures
in waterways, endangering
rural communities.
While
many
larger
municipalities have bought
the forested watersheds
that provide their drink-
ing water, smaller and less
affluent communities are
often dependent on water-
ways that run through pri-
vate timberland, according
to proponents.
“Unfortunately,
most
Oregonians don’t enjoy such
protections for their drink-
ing water,” said Greg Haller,
executive director of the
Pacific Rivers environmen-
tal group.
Haller said the evidence
is “incontrovertible” that
existing protections under
the Oregon Forest Prac-
tices Act are insufficient to
ensure safe drinking water.
The current laws and regu-
lations have been influenced
by “Wall Street foresters”
who stand the most to lose
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
EO Media Group
A proposed ban on
clear-cutting,
pesti-
cide-spraying, road-build-
ing and fertilizing in Ore-
gon’s forested watersheds
is raising fears of severe
disruptions
to
timber
production.
Proponents of House Bill
2656 say the prohibitions are
needed to protect the qual-
ity of drinking water while
opponents worry they’d
effectively eliminate com-
mercial logging across mil-
lions of acres.
“This bill would crip-
ple our ability to cost-ef-
fectively and competitively
manage our forestland,” said
Doug Cooper, vice president
of resources for Hampton
Lumber.
More than half of the
company’s 89,000 for-
ested acres in Oregon are in
watersheds affected by the
bill, he said.
During a March 12 legis-
lative hearing, the bill’s chief
sponsor — Rep. Andrea
Salinas, D-Lake Oswego —
acknowledged that HB 2656
may seem “drastic” and
said she hoped the proposal
would start a conversation
about the “right solution” for
protecting watersheds.
The bill has alarmed the
EO Media Group file photo
Trees are harvested in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. A bill before Oregon lawmakers would
ban clear-cutting, road-building and use of pesticides and fertilizers in forested watersheds.
from HB 2656, he said.
Logging practices are
aggravating water supply
problems that will grow
more serious over time with
climate change, said John
Talberth, senior economist
with the Sustainable Energy
and Economy Network.
Streamflows in for-
ests planted roughly four
decades ago are 50 percent
lower than in forests with
trees between 150 to 500
years old, said Talberth.
Clear-cutting,
pesti-
cide-spraying and fertiliza-
tion are conducive to the
kind of toxic algal blooms
that occurred in the city of
Salem’s drinking water res-
ervoir last year, he said.
Risky activities should
be prohibited and regula-
tions should instead follow
“ecological forestry” prin-
ciples, Talberth said. “These
practices are win-win-win
solutions for landowners,
workers and communities.”
Opponents of the bill,
including many small for-
estland owners, say the
proposed restrictions are
not only uneconomical but
unnecessary. They point
BRIEFLY
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Chilly with some
sun
Partly sunny and
chilly
Chilly with some
sun
Partly sunny and
chilly
Mostly sunny
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
44° 25°
44° 27°
47° 29°
52° 32°
50° 31°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
47° 28°
47° 30°
49° 32°
57° 35°
54° 32°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
54/37
38/25
43/24
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
43/28
Lewiston
56/33
43/26
Astoria
52/35
Pullman
Yakima 41/23
55/31
41/28
Portland
Hermiston
56/36
The Dalles 47/28
Salem
Corvallis
56/33
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
44/24
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
56/34
46/25
47/26
Ontario
51/28
Caldwell
Burns
48°
30°
57°
34°
75° (2003) 13° (1941)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
57/32
0.00"
0.10"
0.41"
3.49"
1.83"
2.65"
WINDS (in mph)
49/25
42/23
Trace
0.39"
0.50"
5.24"
3.03"
3.01"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 41/20
56/35
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
44/25
46/30
42°
32°
54°
35°
74° (2015) 8° (1906)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
54/31
Aberdeen
40/22
38/26
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
54/40
to a finding by Oregon’s
Department of Environ-
mental Quality that water
quality conditions are most
commonly rated “excellent”
and “good” in Oregon’s for-
ests compared to other land
types.
The agency also deter-
mined Oregon’s forests con-
tained the smallest propor-
tion of “poor” and “very
poor” water quality sites
compared to cities, farm-
land and rangeland.
“Contemporary
prac-
tices protect our water,” said
Maryanne Reiter, a hydrolo-
gist with the Weyerhaeuser
timber company.
Federal studies have con-
firmed that rules against
pesticide drift prevent
unsafe herbicides in water-
ways while also indicat-
ing sediment levels remain
similar before and after log-
ging, she said. Sedimenta-
tion is more closely related
to an area’s geology, rainfall
and fire history than land
use practices, Reiter said.
“House Bill 2656 is an
unnecessary and extreme
solution in search of a prob-
lem,” said Mary Anne Coo-
per, vice president of pub-
lic policy for the Oregon
Farm Bureau. By eliminat-
ing the incentive to keep
lands in timber production,
the proposal would threaten
the conversion of forests to
other uses, she said.
The prohibition against
pesticides would hinder the
fight against invasive spe-
cies in forests while also
banning the use of common
“bug spray” at camp sites,
Cooper said.
A lack of management
would leave forests more
vulnerable to wildfires,
which in recent years have
predominantly occurred on
federal lands with greatly
reduced timber harvest lev-
els, said Peter Sikora, CEO
of the Giustina Resources
timber company.
Today
Medford
61/33
Fri.
NE 3-6
ENE 4-8
Boardman
Pendleton
NE 4-8
N 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
47/26
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:11 a.m.
6:59 p.m.
11:47 a.m.
2:28 a.m.
First
Full
Last
New
Mar 14
Mar 20
Mar 27
Apr 5
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 98° in McAllen, Texas Low -12° in Daniel, Wyo.
Governor signs
funding package
to pay down
Medicaid debt
SALEM (AP) — Oregon
will pay off half of its Med-
icaid debt through new taxes
on health care providers.
Gov. Kate Brown on
Wednesday approved a six-
year tax on hospitals and
insurance plans to help
fund the state’s $950 mil-
lion Medicaid shortfall. The
move is expected to bring in
over $430 million.
The state has been strug-
gling to keep up with Med-
icaid funding after a drop in
federal contributions. The
governor hopes to make
up the rest of the money
through a tax on tobacco
and e-cigarettes. She’s also
exploring a tax on employ-
ers who don’t provide work-
ers affordable health care
coverage.
Legislative budget lead-
ers say that without new
revenue, Oregon will have
to fill the rest of the approx-
imate $450 million fund-
ing gap through its general
fund.
Proud Boy pleads
not guilty to
Portland assault
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
PORTLAND (AP) —
A member of the right-
wing Proud Boys group has
pleaded not guilty to fel-
ony third-degree assault and
misdemeanor fourth-degree
assault in connection with
the June attack of a man in
Oregon.
Donovon Lyle Flippo of
Vancouver,
Washington,
entered the pleas Wednes-
day in Multnomah County
Circuit Court, The Orego-
nian/OregonLive reported.
Flippo, 23, was arrested
on a warrant Tuesday, a day
after Portland Mayor Ted
Wheeler complained that
law enforcement was basi-
cally ignoring violent pro-
tests in the city and failing
to arrest violent activists.
Proud Boys members
have been violent at protests
in the past. Protests occur
often in Portland and police
have at times struggled to
contain clashes.
Multnomah County Cir-
cuit Judge Karin Immergut
ordered Flippo on Wednes-
day to have no contact with
the man who was attacked
or the co-defendant, Tusitala
“Tiny” Toese, while the case
is pending.
Toese, another Proud
Boy member, hasn’t been
arrested. He and Flippo
appear together in many
social media posts and often
attend right-wing demon-
strations in Portland.
Flippo and Toese were
indicted last month after a
35-year-old man said Flippo
and another man shouted
homophobic slurs at him
before punching him in the
face.
The man said he was
waiting at a stoplight on June
8 when he saw Toese, Flippo
and a third man in a truck.
The man said the men in the
truck were yelling things
about Trump, and shouting,
“Build the wall!” He said he
motioned at them with his
hand or arm, trying to dis-
miss them. As he crossed
the street, he said they yelled
homophobic slurs at him so
he shouted an expletive back
at Toese, calling him by his
nickname “Tiny.”
When the man got to the
other corner, he said he saw
Toese and Flippo get out of
the truck and rush toward
him. The man said he had a
minor concussion and went
to the hospital, where he got
stitches for a split lip.
Flippo said he didn’t
know the man, according to
court records.
Another Vancouver man
posted 10 percent of Flip-
po’s $7,500 bail and he was
released from custody Tues-
day night, court and jail
records show.
Report reveals
Oregon rape kit
backlog testing
success
PORTLAND (AP) — A
new report says the elimi-
nation of Oregon’s backlog
of untested rape kits has led
to hundreds of new DNA
profiles being added to a
national database and mul-
tiple cases have been pros-
ecuted. The report from the
Manhattan District Attor-
ney’s office was released on
Tuesday.
Oregon was one of 20
states to benefit from a $38
million grant program cre-
ated in 2015 to process thou-
sands of untested rape kits
across the country.
KOIN reports the Mult-
nomah County District
Attorney’s Office and its
law enforcement partners
around Oregon worked to
test 2,913 sexual assault kits
under the grant program.
Through that testing,
officials were able to enter
882 DNA profiles into the
FBI’s national database.
More than half of those pro-
files matched those already
in the database.
So far, those DNA
matches have led to six con-
victions across Oregon.
Multnomah County Dis-
trict Attorney Rod Under-
hill joined Manhattan’s
district attorney at a news
conference on Tuesday in
New York and later spoke at
a panel on legislative reform
about how challenging it can
be to eliminate untested rape
kit backlogs. He explained
that getting funding to pri-
oritize the testing rape kits
required many conversa-
tions with legislators.
“We’re very proud of
where we’ve come from and
where we are now,” Under-
hill said.
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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showers t-storms
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rain
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