NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, November 21, 2019
Fire camera keeps eye on Wallowa County
Howard Butte
sends high-tech
alerts when
smoke detected
By BILL BRADSHAW
EO Media Group
HOWARD BUTTE —
Fire detection has come a
long way in the 75 years since
Smokey the Bear was first cre-
ated to remind us, “Only you
can prevent forest fires.”
In fact, it now includes
technology almost unimag-
inable when Smokey was cre-
ated in 1944. The first Smokey
was an imaginary bear for
an ad campaign, but after an
orphaned bear cub was found
after a 1950 wildfire in New
Mexico, he was adopted by
the USDA Forest Service to
add life to the wildfire preven-
tion effort.
In his original day, fire
lookout towers and public
reports were the prime detec-
tion efforts. Today, alongside a
wooden lookout tower built in
1946 on 4,319-foot-tall How-
ard Butte, stands a 110-foot-
tall metal tower topped by a
360-degree, high-definition
camera. It gives a 20-mile
view to detect smoke visi-
ble from its perch in western
Wallowa County, according to
Matt Howard, unit forester for
the Wallowa Unit of the Ore-
EO Media Group Photo/Bill Bradshaw
Oregon Department of Forestry Photo
Matt Howard, unit forester for the Oregon Department of
Forestry’s Wallowa Unit, looks at a view transmitted from
the fire-detection camera on Howard Butte on a computer in
his office in Wallowa.
This close-up shows the high-definition, fire-detection cam-
era mounted on a 110-foot tower atop Howard Butte that re-
lays views showing smoke to the Central Oregon Interagency
Dispatch Center in Prineville.
in Prineville. Once notified of
an alert, the center views the
image sent by the camera, and
then contacts the appropriate
response units to check it out.
Howard said since the cam-
era was installed in July, there
have been several alerts but all
have proven to be legal burns.
Although the state-of-the-
art camera is the latest tech-
nology, it’s by no means a
“silver bullet” and they won’t
replace human eyes, he said.
“We just like having it in
our tool box of different tools”
for detecting fires, Howard
said.
That “tool box” includes
a partnership the ODF has
developed with the U.S. Forest
gon Department of Forestry.
The towers stand on 2
acres of land deeded to the
ODF by what was then the
Bowman-Hicks Lumber Co.
for the purpose of establishing
a lookout. Also there is com-
munications equipment serv-
ing the ODF, state and county
agencies powered by a line
from Pacific Power and Light,
Howard said.
The ACTi i96 PTZ cam-
era completes a full rotation
in about 15 minutes. If smoke
is detected, an alert is sent via
a microwave signal west to
Mount Emily and down to La
Grande, where the signal is
relayed to the Central Oregon
Interagency Dispatch Center
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Service, Wallowa County and
other state agencies.
Paul Karvoski, fire chief
for the county and the city
of Enterprise, works closely
with the ODF and hopes to see
additional cameras located in
the county.
“I can’t say enough about
it,” he said on the one on How-
ard Butte. “I’d like to get three
or four more in the county.”
In particular, he’d like to
see one established on Court-
ney Butte overlooking Troy,
which was nearly destroyed
by the Grizzly Fire in August
2015.
Nathan Goodrich, U.S.
Forest Service fire manage-
ment officer for the Wallowa
Anthropology meets sociology in
interdisciplinary tribal food systems
East Oregonian
Sunshine, but
chilly
Partly sunny and
chilly
41° 25°
46° 28°
Sun and areas of
high clouds
Intervals of clouds
and sunshine
Cooler; a stray
afternoon shower
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
52° 41°
47° 28°
53° 36°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
45° 24°
44° 26°
51° 40°
52° 32°
58° 38°
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
52/32
43/25
50/21
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
40/26
Lewiston
50/30
44/26
Astoria
55/35
Pullman
Yakima 48/23
50/27
42/26
Portland
Hermiston
54/31
The Dalles 45/24
Salem
Corvallis
51/27
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
43/20
PRECIPITATION
John Day
47/27
Eugene
Bend
51/31
44/23
Ontario
49/20
Caldwell
Burns
52°
41°
48°
32°
65° (1962) 6° (1929)
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
52/28
0.00"
0.01"
0.76"
4.95"
6.46"
8.04"
Today
Medford
SSE 3-6
NW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
49/18
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:02 a.m.
4:19 p.m.
12:42 a.m.
2:11 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
Nov 26
Dec 3
Dec 11
Dec 18
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 88° in Falfurrias, Texas Low 11° in Bodie State Park, Calif.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Winnipeg
20/15
Seattle
50/34
Montreal
36/32
Billings
35/26
Toronto
44/37
Minneapolis
38/19
New York
51/46
San Francisco
62/49
Denver
31/23
Kansas City
53/28
Detroit
Chicago 51/35
53/28
Los Angeles
66/52
Washington
54/49
Atlanta
66/50
El Paso
61/42
Company must pay for toxic
waste on Idaho tribal land
BOISE, Idaho — A U.S. appeals court has
ruled a Philadelphia-based agribusiness com-
pany that left millions of tons of toxic waste on
tribal land in Idaho must pay the tribes nearly
$20 million plus $1.5 million annually.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on
Friday upheld a lower court ruling against
FMC Corp. involving a now-shuttered Idaho
plant that turned phosphate into fertilizer.
FMC for about 50 years, until 2001, oper-
ated the fertilizer plant that produced 22 mil-
lion tons of waste stored on the Shoshone-Ban-
nock Tribes Fort Hall Indian Reservation.
The company contended it wasn’t obli-
gated to pay the $1.5 million annual permit fee
to the tribes for storing the waste after closing
the plant.
The tribes say the money will be used for
monitoring and cleanup at the site.
Portland must stop charging
excessive public record fees
Houston
79/68
Chihuahua
75/40
PORTLAND — A Multnomah County
Miami
Monterrey
79/68
84/63
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
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ice
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cold front
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Indians, effective food sys-
tem planning incorporates
heritage, culture, territory,
and community needs,” Jer-
ofke said.
The three undergradu-
ates managed focus groups
and general discussions,
collecting 800 minutes of
qualitative research from 25
interviewees.
“This was a great oppor-
tunity to collaborate with
a colleague and find ways
to incorporate students,”
Puentes said.
Puentes and Jerofke got
involved because they share
a background in food sys-
tems, but approach the topic
from different academic
points of view.
“It turned out to be a
good pairing because we
look at society and cultures
in slightly different ways,”
Jerofke said.
judge has ruled Portland must stop charging
excessive fees for routine email and doc-
ument searches to fulfill public records
requests.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported
Circuit Court Judge Shelley D. Russell
ruled Monday the city’s current system
for determining records search costs is
unreasonable.
Russell’s order stems from a September
2018 lawsuit filed by attorney and activist
Alan Kessler.
He claimed the city overcharged him by
requiring him to pay $311.67 for metadata
from emails between a member of Port-
land’s Historic Landmarks Commission
and employees at the Bureau of Develop-
ment Services.
A trial held Nov. 4-5 resulted in Rus-
sell’s ruling and her injunction against
future high search charges. The city gave
Kessler a $52 refund in acknowledgment
it had overcharged him by overstating an
employee’s hourly pay.
Portland City Attorney Tracy Reeve said
the city was evaluating the decision and
determining next steps.
— Associated Press
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52 weeks
26 weeks
13 weeks
Tribe selected Jerofke and
Puentes’ proposal. In Feb-
ruary 2019, three students
joined the two faculty mem-
bers and drove about seven
hours from La Grande to
Usk, Washington.
“One of the biggest
problems for the tribe are
food deserts,” Jerofke said.
“There are not a lot of food
options. There is a small
convenience store and mem-
bers have to drive at least an
hour to get food and other
resources that they cannot
get off of the land.”
Together, students and
faculty worked to iden-
tify regional and commu-
nity needs regarding access
to healthful and first foods,
Puentes said. The data they
collected led to a proposal
for grant funding to pre-
serve tribal traditions.
“For the Kalispel Tribe of
BRIEFLY
Fri.
SE 3-6
W 3-6
Boardman
Pendleton
57/29
LA GRANDE — Basic
groceries are at least an hour
away from home for Kalis-
pel Tribe members in North-
eastern Washington.
The
tribe
invited
researchers to submit appli-
cations about how they
would identify policy solu-
tions. Eastern Oregon Uni-
versity anthropology profes-
sor Linda Jerofke had been
in touch with tribal mem-
bers, and reached out to
sociology professor Jennifer
Puentes about tackling the
problem with an interdisci-
plinary study.
“Linda approached me
about a collaboration on this
project given our mutual
interests and research on
food systems,” Puentes said.
Out of all of the sub-
missions, the Kalispel
WINDS (in mph)
47/21
46/10
0.00"
0.23"
0.92"
11.54"
8.25"
10.91"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 42/20
52/30
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
41/25
50/25
43°
34°
47°
32°
69° (1958) 9° (1977)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
48/25
Aberdeen
43/25
43/25
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
50/34
Valley Ranger District of the
Wallowa-Whitman National
Forest based in Joseph, said
there are no such cameras in
his area. Although there are
lookout towers, they are lack-
ing in basic infrastructure
required for a camera, such
as power lines, cables, hard-
ware and line-of-sight connec-
tions to which the microwave
dishes can transmit.
“We’ve been looking at
those (cameras) for some
time now, but they’re pretty
spendy to get into,” he said.
“They’ve shown to be pretty
successful.”
But Goodrich is relatively
satisfied with his lookout tow-
ers that are manned during the
peak fire season from June to
October.
“They’re invaluable,” he
said. “You can’t talk to a cam-
era and get more information.”
Goodrich said he’d like
to see a camera on Mount
Ireland on the Grant-Baker
County line “if we come into
a little extra money.”
For now, Howard Butte
has Northeast Oregon’s only
fire detection camera. How-
ard said another is planned
in Umatilla County, likely by
next spring. Another is being
considered for Baker County.
He said such cameras are used
in other areas of the state and
other states, though he didn’t
have statistics on those.
But the cameras don’t
come cheap. The one on How-
ard Butte, since there already
was a communications tower
there, cost about $60,000,
Howard said. To erect one
where there is no tower, the
price increases by another
$50,000 to $75,000.
Howard said his unit has
an annual budget of about
$900,000, about half of which
comes from a landowner
assessment and half from the
state’s general fund. Oregon
even has an insurance pol-
icy with Lloyds of London to
cover fire-suppression costs
— the only state in the Union
with such a policy. Howard
said he believes that’s because
Lloyds determined Oregon a
“good risk.”
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