NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Friday, January 24, 2020
Wallowa Lake’s east moraine protected from development
By CASSANDRA
PROFITA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
JOSEPH — A large por-
tion of the moraine that
frames Eastern Oregon’s
iconic Wallowa Lake has
been purchased and pro-
tected from development.
A public-private partner-
ship that includes Wallowa
County, two nonprofit organi-
zations and the Oregon Parks
and Recreation Department
spent more than a decade
arranging the purchase.
This week, the group
announced it finally raised
the $6.5 million needed to
buy 1,791 acres of the gla-
cier-formed rocky hill known
as a moraine.
After signing a purchase
agreement last year, they
were up against a Jan. 31
deadline to raise the money.
The landowner, the Ron-
ald C. Yanke Family Trust,
had considered a proposal
to develop the property with
three houses and a confer-
ence center. Now, it will be
owned by Wallowa County
and managed for forestry,
grazing, habitat and cultural
uses.
Kathleen Ackley, execu-
tive director of the Wallowa
Land Trust, one of the part-
ners that arranged the pur-
chase, said Wallowa Lake
is a textbook example of a
lake formed by the retreat
OPB Photo/Leon Werdinger
The 1,791 acres alongside Wallowa Lake, outlined in this photo in yellow, are now owned and managed by Wallowa County.
of glaciers.
“Even when you’re stand-
ing at the foot of the lake it
almost looks fake — like
it’s an artificially created
landscape. It’s so perfect,”
she said. “For many people,
it’s been the last remaining
unprotected iconic landscape
in the state of Oregon.”
Ackley said it’s rare to be
see most moraines because
they’ve been developed or
they’re so remote.
“But this particular land-
scape you can actually see,”
she said. “It’s just an emo-
tional impact when people
stand there and look at that
it’s an incredible, scenic,
beautiful view.”
The land is considered
sacred by the Nez Perce
Tribe, and it offers a valuable
habitat connection between
the Wallowa Valley floor, the
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Wallowa-Whitman National
Forest and the Eagle Cap
Wilderness Area.
“This is a major wild-
life habitat corridor,” Ackley
said. “That kind of connec-
tivity is absolutely crucial.”
Amy Singh, of the Ore-
gon Department of Forestry,
worked on two separate
applications for federal Forest
Legacy grant funds that pro-
vided $3.5 million toward the
Judge dismisses lawsuit over release
of Montwheeler from state hospital
By PAT CALDWELL
Malheur Enterprise
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PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
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Pullman
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Hermiston
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The Dalles 58/37
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PRECIPITATION
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Enterprise
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PRECIPITATION
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Lake
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Aberdeen
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7:26 a.m.
4:49 p.m.
7:35 a.m.
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First
Full
land acquisition — more than
half of the purchase price.
It was a huge sum rel-
ative to the Forest Legacy
grants Oregon has received
in the past. To date, the
state has secured $8.2 mil-
lion from the Forest Legacy
Fund to protect forestland
on four different properties.
The fund draws from off-
shore drilling fees collected
in the federal Land and Water
VALE — A Malheur
County woman and her chil-
dren will not receive com-
pensation from the state for
a deadly 2017 crash in the
wake of a decision last week
by Malheur County Circuit
Court Judge Erin Landis.
Landis dismissed a 2018
lawsuit filed by Vale resi-
dent Jessica Bates on behalf
of her five children that
asserted the state knew
Anthony Montwheeler was
dangerous and should not
have been released from the
Oregon State Hospital.
Montwheeler
remains
in jail pending criminal
charges that he kidnapped
and murdered an ex-wife in
January 2017 and then fled
police.
Prosecutors said the
police pursuit ended when
Montwheeler crashed into
an oncoming vehicle outside
of Ontario, killing David
Bates and injuring his wife,
Jessica. The suit was filed
to hold the state account-
able for its actions involving
Montwheeler, Jessica Bates
has said.
Montwheeler was dis-
charged from the state’s con-
trol after state doctors con-
cluded he was not mentally
ill and that he had claimed to
fake an illness to avoid state
prison.
In court filings, the state
said its agencies can’t be
held legally responsible for
what happened in January
2017. The state asserts that
the state Psychiatric Secu-
rity Review Board — the
agency with jurisdiction
over Montwheeler because
of an earlier insanity finding
— had “absolute immunity”
from being held liable for its
decision to set Montwheeler
free.
The state also said the
Oregon State Hospital and
the Oregon Health Author-
ity, which oversees the hos-
pital, can’t be held liable for
a decision made by the state
board and that the hospital
followed legal orders to free
Montwheeler.
Nampa, Idaho, lawyers
BRIEFLY
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 82° in McAllen, Texas Low -7° in Berlin, N.H.
Jan 24
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NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Man who helped kidnap
storage warehouse manager
gets 5 years
PORTLAND — One of two men who
kidnapped a Public Storage warehouse
manager at gunpoint, mistakenly think-
ing the manager had stolen their nearly
500 pounds of marijuana, was sentenced
Wednesday to five years in federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones
issued the sentence for Trent Lamar
Knight, 31, after he pleaded guilty in May
to distributing marijuana and using a fire-
arm in the course of drug trafficking, The
Oregonian/OregonLive reported.
The judge decided to issue a shorter
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Bruce Skaug and Kevin
Dinius, who represented
Bates, pushed back in their
own legal filings and said
the state “unleashed” Mont-
wheeler knowing he would
probably commit “acts of
violence if released,” and
that his release caused injury
and David Bates’ death.
Landis ruled that Bates’
attorneys failed to make the
case that the state’s release
of Montwheeler resulted in
the crash.
He also ruled Jessica
Bates didn’t make a case
that the release of Mont-
wheeler created a danger
because Montwheeler was
no longer under the jurisdic-
tion of the Psychiatric Secu-
rity Review Board after he
was released.
The dismissal of the
Bates lawsuit comes after
a state judge in Portland
dropped a similar case
against the state last fall.
That lawsuit was filed by the
family of Annita Harmon,
the ex-wife Montwheeler is
accused of murdering out-
side an Ontario gas station.
Last
NATIONAL EXTREMES
-10s
Conservation Fund.
“This property kind of
exemplifies everything For-
est Legacy looks to protect,”
Singh said, noting the fund
aims to preserve a working
forest landscape with public
access. “It’s unique and dif-
ferent in terms of the iconic,
scenic landscape, geologic
and cultural history of the
property.”
The grant funding comes
with some strings attached,
requiring forested areas on
the property remain 75% for-
ested with a sustainable tim-
ber management plan that the
Oregon Department of For-
estry will help develop.
More than $1.1 million of
the purchase was funded by
individual donors. Oregon
Parks and Recreation con-
tributed $1 million, and the
Nez Perce Tribe provided
$300,000.
“This purchase is a dream
come true, closing out any and
all fears of potential develop-
ment on the East Moraine,”
Nez Perce Tribe Executive
Director Rebecca Miles said.
“This is a historical feat for
the permanent protection of
such sacred lands. The pro-
tections of this property will
ensure our ancestors and our
way of life are forever pro-
tected and continue on.”
The public will be invited
to comment on a manage-
ment plan for the property
later this year.
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sentence than he gave Knight’s co-defen-
dant, Jody Tremayne Wafer, earlier this
month, noting that Wafer was the ring-
leader. Wafer was sentenced to seven years
in prison.
Knight and Wafer, both of Houston,
were led to believe that their marijuana
had been stolen when it actually had been
seized in a secret raid by federal agents.
Both forced the warehouse manager into
an empty unit, bound his wrists and held
him at gunpoint on Dec. 2, 2017, demand-
ing to know what happened to the drugs,
according to court testimony and records.
Knight told the judge he thinks daily
about what he did to the storage manager
and apologized.
— Associated Press
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