REGION
Tuesday, May 21, 2019
East Oregonian
McKay Dam eases outflows
Bureau of
Reclamation
continues to
monitor weather
patterns
By ANTONIO SIERRA
East Oregonian
Although water release
briefly surged at McKay
Dam over the weekend,
there wasn’t a repeat of the
widespread flooding that
plagued the McKay Creek
neighborhood in April.
The U.S. Bureau of Rec-
lamation announced on
Friday that it was going to
increase releases from the
McKay dam to 1,200 cubic
feet per second in antici-
pation of significant rain-
fall over the weekend. In
comparison, the flow out
of the dam peaked at 2,800
cfs during last month’s
flooding.
But by noon on Satur-
day, the bureau reduced
flow to 500 cfs and reduced
it further on Sunday morn-
ing to 100 cfs.
Although the city of
Pendleton warned resi-
dents that they could expe-
rience some flooding in
their basements or yards,
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
Water jets from the outlet of the McKay Reservoir on Monday outside of Pendleton. The
Bureau of Reclamation announced it will be further reducing the outflow from the dam to
100 cubic feet per second.
Donna Biggerstaff, a dep-
uty city recorder and a pub-
lic information officer for
the McKay floods, said
she received no reports of
flooding.
While a press release
from the federal agency
states that the bureau
will continue to monitor
weather patterns in con-
junction with the National
Weather Service, the heavy
rainfall that was antici-
pated over the weekend
never materialized.
“With the continued
downgrade in the amount
of forecasted rainfall, and
the normal storage space
available, we will begin
refilling the reservoir with
the incoming rainfall,” said
Umatilla Field Office man-
ager Sean Kimbrel.
Marilyn Lohmann, a
hydrologist for the weather
service, said Monday that
further flooding was pre-
vented when heavy rain-
storms formed north and
east of the basin that feeds
into the McKay Reservoir
instead of over it.
Weather service records
show that Pendleton accu-
mulated about 0.7 inches
of rain from last Thursday
through Sunday.
Wolf plan vote set for early June
State wolf
biologists
brief ODFW
commission
By KATY NESBITT
For the East Oregonian
SALEM — The much
anticipated vote by the Ore-
gon Department of Fish
and Wildlife Commission-
ers on proposed updates to
Oregon’s wolf plan is set
for June 7 in Salem.
State wolf biologists
briefed the commissioners
Friday and took questions
during a phone conference
at the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife head-
quarters. The review began
in January 2016 but public
and stakeholder concerns
over a draft released in
April 2017 forced depart-
ment staff hold facilitated
meetings to try and find
better consensus on con-
tentious issues.
Kevin Blakely, ODFW
deputy division admin-
istrator, said the com-
missioners offered some
ideas of what they wanted
included in the staff’s for-
mal presentation ahead of
the commissioners’ vote.
“They asked us to come
to the June 7 meeting and
present the plan addressing
a couple things to tee up
the discussion, but are not
looking to edit or re-do the
review,” Blakely said.
One topic Blakley said
staff is going to talk more
about during its presenta-
tion is a proposed change to
how many confirmed live-
stock losses equates into
killing wolves. Right now,
he said, Oregon Adminis-
trative Rule requires two
confirmed livestock losses
before the department will
accept a request to kill
wolves.
In a draft of the review,
Blakely said three losses
in 12 months would be the
new trigger before staff
would consider killing a
wolf, but he said no one
liked that proposal. The
current draft proposes two
livestock losses in nine
months as the minimum.
Blakely pointed out that
this trigger point is not
mandatory, it only starts
ODFW photo
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Special elections for local
school board and other tax-
ing districts will end Tues-
day at 8 p.m.
The Umatilla County
Elections Division will be
accepting ballots at its office
in Room 18 at the Umatilla
County Courthouse in Pend-
leton from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Until 8 p.m., ballots can
also be turned in at drop-
boxes in the courthouse
parking lot and at Hermis-
ton City Hall, the Nixyaawii
Governance Center on the
Umatilla Indian Reserva-
tion, Umatilla City Hall,
Milton-Freewater City Hall,
Stanfield City Hall, Echo
City Hall, Pilot Rock City
Hall, and Athena City Hall.
In Morrow County,
dropboxes will be open
until 8 p.m. at the Morrow
County Boardman Annex,
the North Morrow County
Annex in Irrigon, the Bar-
tholomew Building park-
ing lot in Heppner, the inter-
section of Spring Street and
Third Street in Ione, and
the Morrow County Pub-
lic Works Department in
Lexington.
Most races will go uncon-
tested, but there are a few
that are competitive, includ-
ing a race for an open seat
on the Port of Morrow Com-
mission. Stanfield voters
will also decide on whether
to approve an $18 million
capital improvement bond.
Riverside High
to host “Decision
Day” ceremony
“Decision Day” ceremo-
nies have long been a tradi-
tion for high school athletes
signing with a college sports
program, but its starting to
spread for all high school
students who commit to a
post-high school path.
Riverside High School
in Boardman is the lat-
est school to join the trend,
hosting a Decision Day
assembly Tuesday.
Whether it’s commit-
ting to a college, technical
school, or a career path, stu-
dents will get a chance to
be honored by their teach-
ers and peers. The Tues-
day assembly will be at
Riverside High School at
210 Boardman Ave. NE at
9:30 a.m.
Hermiston offers
kindergarten
registration help
After switching to online
kindergarten
registration
this year, Hermiston School
District is offering assis-
tance to families without
internet access. The district
will provide use of com-
puters and assistance from
bilingual staff on Thurs-
day, May 30 from noon
to 7:30 p.m. at the district
offices, 305 S.W. 11th St.
Parents should bring
their child’s birth certifi-
cate or other record of their
birth, immunization records
and proof of address such as
a utility bill in their name.
Students must turn 5 by
Sept. 1 to be eligible for the
2018-2019 school year.
Those who wish to regis-
ter from home can do so at
www.hermiston.k12.or.us/
apps/pages/registration.
Hermiston
students earn
Whitman College
degrees
WALLA WALLA —
Athen Reid and Grant Tay-
nor of Hermiston received
their bachelor’s degree from
Whitman College during its
Sunday, May 19, 2019 com-
mencement exercises.
Reid received a Bache-
lor of Arts degree in psy-
chology. Traynor graduated
magna cum laude with a
degree in biology and envi-
ronmental studies.
AVAILABLE ONLINE
All information regarding the June 7 Oregon Fish and
Wildlife Commission meeting will be available on the
ODFW website at www.dfw.state.or.us by May 28.
the conversation about
eliminating wolves.
“That limit starts a
potential process,” Blakely
said. “There is value in
that the department cer-
tainly has made different
decisions depending on
circumstances.”
During the call com-
missioner Holly Akenson
said data revealed that in
the past the department did
not move to lethal control
at the bare minimum loss.
“From what I know of
those actions, many were
denied,” Akenson said.
“The new rule would mean
we may or can go to lethal
control — it does show this
is not an automatic that
we are killing wolves with
two depredations in nine
months.”
Commissioner Bruce
Buckmaster agreed with
Akenson and said the com-
mission was looking at a
new iteration of the plan.
“It makes sense that the
plan reflect our practice
rather than put in some-
thing we know we won’t
follow,” Buckmaster said.
The other hot topic sur-
rounding the plan review is
hunting wolves. During the
May 17 conference call,
Blakely said staff decided
proposing wolf hunting at
this time is not appropri-
ate. Wolf hunts would be
considered if and when
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LOCAL BRIEFING
State wolf biologists briefed Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife commissioners Friday and took questions
during a phone conference at ODFW headquarters.
wolves were determined
to be a major cause of the
decline in deer and elk
populations.
Wolf hunting has been
part of the management
strategy since the Oregon
wolf plan was first approved
in 2005, but under strict
measures. Doug Cottam,
ODFW wildlife division
administrator, said using
lethal control to help ungu-
late populations should be
directly attributed to loss
wolf predation.
“If we were to propose
wolf hunting in the future,
we need to consider how
likely or defensible is that
statement,” Cottam said.
Blakely said as with the
most recent adoption of the
cougar plan, the depart-
ment manages other pred-
ators for ungulate popula-
tions, as well.
Commission chairman
Michael Finley cautioned
department staff members
when considering wolf
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hunts in future reviews.
“Don’t get pushed into
shooting wolves for a few
more hunting licenses,” he
said.
ODFW Director Curt
Melcher said as the num-
ber of wolves increases,
the public may need to help
manage populations.
“We don’t have an
unlimited staff,” Melcher
said.
“At some point in the
future we will need to
enlist the help of the public.
It’s a long standing model.”
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