NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Wednesday, July 24, 2019
Volunteer groups help to keep trails hazard free
from Dug Bar to the Chinese
Massacre Site on Deep Creek.
USFS Trail 1726 between two
of Wallowa County’s most
historic locations had in many
places become impassible. It
took nine volunteers and two
Forest Service employees
three days to hack their way
about 2 miles through what
seemed an infinity of bram-
bles. Now, trail users can ride
or walk from Dug Bar to Deep
Creek — a journey that for
years has been possible only
via boat.
In addition to reestablish-
ing the two historic trails,
WMHCTA have also begun
projects to renovate the Lick
Creek Guard Station and the
bridge over BC Creek on the
Chief Joseph Trail, both of
which are slated for comple-
tion in 2019.
This summer, WMHCTA
set its summer priorities on
clearing trails that lead from
the Minam River Trail into
the high Wallowas and also
connect the Minam and Lit-
tle Minam rivers with the
trails at Moss Springs Trail-
head east of Cove. With USFS
approval, they are basing their
work out of the historic Red’s
Horse Ranch on the Minam,
as well as camps near Splash
Dam Meadow and the conflu-
ence of the Minam and North
Minam, clearing another 30
miles of trails 1673 (Minam
River Trail), 1675 (North
Minam Trail), 1901 (Little
Minam River Trail) and 1928
(Rock Springs Trail).
Why devote all this time to
By ELLEN MORRIS
BISHOP AND SABRINA
THOMPSON
EO Media Group
WALLOWA — Forest
users have volunteers to thank
for easier trail access.
The next time you go for a
walk or ride in the woods —
specifically on a U.S. Forest
Service Trail in the Eagle Cap
Wilderness or Hells Canyon
— consider taking a moment
to appreciate the hardworking
volunteers from Wallowa and
Union counties who keep the
trails open.
The Wallowa Mountains
Hells Canyon Trails Associa-
tion and their partners expend
time and energy to make your
walk or horseback ride haz-
ard-free. Without their efforts,
and a supporting cast of
horses, mules, volunteer pilots
and other team members,
those trails would likely be
cluttered with brambles, fallen
logs and ankle-rolling rocks.
Wallowa Mountains Hells
Canyon Trails Association’s
members are dedicated to
keeping mountain and canyon
trails open and historic sites
accessible to hikers and horse-
men. Last year, their 73 mem-
bers cleared a total of 89 miles
of trails, including most of the
40-mile Minam River Trail,
removing 398 trees and brush
to make the trip easier for peo-
ple and stock.
They also cleared the his-
toric
blackberry-choked,
poison ivy-infested and
shrub-tangled ancient trail
EO Media Group Photo/Ellen M. Bishop
Jan Keil, of Imbler, works one end of the crosscut saw and
Miles McFall of Joseph guides the other, while Brent Lewis of
La Grande drives a wedge into the cut so the saw won’t bind.
clearing up trails in the forest?
“The main purpose is to
try to get the trails on Minam
safe,” Mary West said.
West and her husband,
Russ, of Imbler, packed into
Red’s Horse Ranch as part
of the multi-county Minam
team.
“They probably needed to
be done 10 or 15 years ago,”
she said of the trails. “And
anyone who has been up there
would agree.”
Former Union County
planner Hanley Jenkins
has been involved with the
WMHCTA, and like every-
one else on the team worked
hard to clear the trails.
“If you don’t maintain
(the trails) they get worse and
worse,” he said. “They become
impassable, which has hap-
pened. When it does, people
will go around, which causes
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
Mostly sunny and
not as warm
Pleasant with
plenty of sunshine
Partly sunny
Pleasant with
plenty of sunshine
Sunny and
beautiful
84° 53°
91° 58°
87° 53°
94° 58°
By JAMES ANDERSON
Associated Press
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
95° 61°
88° 58°
91° 58°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
100° 67°
92° 62°
OREGON FORECAST
94° 63°
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
70/53
76/47
85/52
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
84/58
Lewiston
78/53
87/51
Astoria
70/53
Pullman
Yakima 85/54
78/51
86/56
Portland
Hermiston
81/57
The Dalles 87/53
Salem
Corvallis
82/54
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
81/47
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
83/54
82/47
83/52
Ontario
92/57
Caldwell
Burns
96°
63°
90°
59°
108° (1959) 41° (1934)
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
81/54
0.00"
Trace
0.16"
4.55"
5.10"
5.86"
WINDS (in mph)
89/55
85/47
0.00"
0.03"
0.23"
9.60"
6.49"
7.81"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 77/44
81/54
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
84/53
86/57
93°
60°
90°
60°
111° (1928) 41° (1924)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
78/50
Aberdeen
78/54
82/56
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
78/57
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
92/59
Thu.
WSW 7-14
W 7-14
WSW 3-6
NNW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
87/48
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
5:29 a.m.
8:34 p.m.
12:04 a.m.
1:07 p.m.
Last
New
First
Full
July 24
July 31
Aug 7
Aug 15
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 112° in Thermal, Calif. Low 37° in Leadville, Colo.
were up to the task. On Satur-
day, they cleared 62 trees from
the Minam River Trail 1673.
This week, teams brandishing
crosscut saws, axes and prun-
ing tools are working to clear
the trails to specs.
“We expect to have more
than 24 volunteers on the proj-
ects this week,” Akenson said.
Support for the effort
comes from a slim Forest Ser-
vice cost-share budget that
provides per diem for food and
mileage for the distance from
the nearest Forest Service sta-
tion or office to the trailhead.
Other funds come from the
Wallowa County transient
lodging tax, which provides
some equipment, and a Cycle
Oregon grant supports vol-
unteers’ food and travel. But
those funds don’t stretch very
far.
“Our organization pro-
vides the Forest Service with
about four times the value of
the funds they give us. We
keep track of the time, travel,
materials — of everything
we do,” said Holly Akenson,
who estimated the total value
of services of volunteers prob-
ably exceeds $100,000 each
year.
But for many backcountry
hikers, riders and hunters, the
work done by these volunteers
from Union and Wallowa
counties is truly invaluable.
“(The forest is) truly a
unique place,” said volun-
teer Jan Keil. “Just being
here is inspiring. But keep-
ing these historic trails open
is really special.”
In some states, GOP sees the
recall as its way back to power
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
more resource damage.”
As
Holly
Akenson,
WMHCTA board member
and treasurer, pointed out,
many of those involved with
the association are active users
of the trails and realize noth-
ing will change unless they do
the work.
“We all agree we want
to see (the trails) in usable
shape,” the Enterprise resident
said.
Akenson noted that easy-
to-use trails are important for
emergencies, allowing access
in case someone is hurt or lost.
Plus, trails are a big part of our
tourism.
“People assume the trails
are cleared, but those who are
local know that isn’t true,” she
said.
Veteran pilots Bill Ables
and Doug Fremont flew in
supplies and some volunteers
to Red’s Horse Ranch to help
the effort. Packer Steve Mor-
ris, of Wallowa Mountain
Packers, volunteered his time
and stock to scout the trail to
the North Minam, and then
bring in supplies and volun-
teers for this rougher portion
of the project. And a num-
ber of volunteers, including
WMHCTA Board Chair Jim
Akenson of Enterprise, the
Wests, and Brent Lewis of
La Grande, hitched up their
own pack strings, saddled
their mules and rode into their
assigned trail to help.
These trails are all within
the Eagle Cap Wilderness,
where motorized equipment is
not allowed.
“We’re using all hand
tools,” Jim Akenson said.
“Crosscut saws, handsaws,
Pulaskis, axes, shovels, in
compliance with the wilder-
ness policy.”
For many, the chance to use
hand tools takes them back to
a slower time, when hard work
was the essence of being in the
woods.
Access is by foot — two
feet or four feet. Trails must be
cleared to U.S. Forest Service
standards — 4 feet on both
sides of the trail centerline.
Overhanging branches that
might interfere with a rider
must be removed. Smaller
trees that lean into the trail are
cut. Especially where forest
health problems have created
many dead trees, meeting this
requirement is labor intensive.
But the volunteers based at
Red’s and on the North Fork
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
DENVER — Republi-
cans frustrated by losing
their grip on political power
in some Western states have
begun deploying a new
weapon: the recall.
Once reserved for tar-
geting corrupt or inept
elected officials, the recall
has become part of the tool-
kit for Republicans seeking
a do-over of election results.
One GOP strategist in Colo-
rado has put a name to it —
“recall season.”
To be sure, Democrats
also have used recalls, most
notably in Wisconsin, where
they tried unsuccessfully to
oust then-Republican Gov.
Scott Walker in 2012 over his
actions to weaken public sec-
tor unions.
But Republicans have
been mounting recall efforts
against Democratic state
lawmakers and governors at
an unprecedented rate over
the past two years in a hand-
ful of Western states, at the
same time their political for-
tunes in those states have
been declining.
In 2018, they recalled a
freshman state senator in
California as a way to tem-
porarily undo a Democratic
supermajority.
The same year in Nevada,
two Democratic lawmakers
and an allied independent
fended off recall attempts.
In Oregon, Republicans
are pursuing a recall of Dem-
ocratic Gov. Kate Brown,
who was re-elected last
year, after GOP lawmakers
walked out of the Senate to
try to block votes on climate
change and education bills.
Colorado, where Demo-
crats control both houses of
the legislature and the gov-
ernor’s office, is seeing its
highest level of recall activity
since 2013, when two Dem-
ocratic lawmakers lost their
seats for supporting gun con-
trol legislation and a third
facing recall resigned.
Recall campaigns are
targeting Democratic Gov.
Jared Polis, two Democratic
state House members and
two Democrats in the state
Senate. Recall committees
have been formed for other
lawmakers, and the GOP’s
top-ranking officials have
encouraged the efforts.
U.S. Rep. Ken Buck,
newly elected as chairman
of the Colorado Republi-
can Party, told supporters
earlier this year, “We need
to teach them how to spell
R-E-C-A-L-L.”
Colorado recall propo-
nents accused their targets
of overreach on issues of
gun control, climate change,
taxes, sex education and the
electoral college — issues
that many of the Democrats
ran on during their success-
ful campaigns.
Karen Kateline, a talk
show host working on the
Polis effort, insists that she
and other Republicans aren’t
abusing the original miscon-
duct intent for recalls.
“Nobody is putting the
brakes on these people,” she
said of Democrats.
“It’s our constitutional
right to recall,” insisted
Nancy Pallozzi, a Republi-
can from the Denver suburb
of Lakewood, who is leading
an effort against state Sen.
Brittany Pettersen. “We can’t
wait for new (GOP) candi-
dates to be vetted for the next
election. Three more years
for the governor? And three
more years for Brittany? No.”
Democrats see the recalls
as a blatant attempt to undo
the results of the most recent
elections, which produced a
Democratic wave in several
Western states.
Matt Harringer, spokes-
man for the Democratic Leg-
islative Campaign Commit-
tee, has a simple label for the
Republicans pursuing the
recall attempts — “sore los-
ers.” The committee, which
gets involved in state legis-
lative races, has dedicated
$135,000 to help fight the
Colorado recall attempts.
“Republicans are defi-
nitely on the decline in the
West, and Colorado is the
leader of that,” Harringer
said. “We don’t think there’s
a huge appetite to recall leg-
islators who are doing what
they said they would do.”
Nevertheless, Republi-
cans see it as a worthy strat-
egy. The Colorado Republi-
can Party started months ago
offering training sessions for
what GOP consultant Ben
Engen calls “recall season.”
Proponents can use the
process to time an election
and shape the electorate on
their own terms, when most
voters aren’t paying atten-
tion, said Engen, a Den-
ver-based consultant who
conducted some of those
sessions.
For example, a petition
drive can be timed to pro-
duce a special recall elec-
tion during the winter hol-
idays — taking advantage
of lower turnout by unaffili-
ated voters who have helped
turn Colorado, once a swing
state, into Democratic-lean-
ing territory, Engen said in
an interview.
“There’s a drop-off in
turnout from presidential to
midterm elections, and the
same thing between mid-
terms and off-year elec-
tions,” Engen said. “Initia-
tors of a recall can use the
timing to maximize that
enthusiasm gap.”
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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