OFF PAGE ONE
Tuesday, April 27, 2021
East Oregonian
A9
Fires: Low elevation areas saw less precipitation than higher
Continued from Page A1
is predicted for late April and
early May.
“The question is for the
rest of this spring, will there
be enough precipitation to
hamper the drought outlook
we are seeing in the area?”
he said.
The Umatilla County
Board of Commissioners
voted unanimously earlier
this month to declare a
drought disaster and asked
Gov. Kate Brown and U.S.
Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsack to do the same. Baker
and Union counties have
already declared a drought.
One bit of good news is
two sources of increased
funding for the state’s fi re
suppression eff orts. Hessel
said short-term funding
through the Oregon Legis-
lature’s emergency board
gave the department money
to bring on some seasonal
employees early this year and
stage a pair of single engine
air tankers in The Dalles,
within “striking distance” of
Northeast Oregon.
A larger funding pack-
age, waiting approval by the
full Legislature, is Senate
Bill 762, which includes
recommendations from the
governor’s wildfi re council.
If approved, $150 million
will be distributed among
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Smoke clogs the air as a result of a 7-acre grass fi re on East Punkin Center Road outside of
Hermiston on June 24, 2020.
several state agencies for fi re
suppression, mitigation on
private and public land, and
to look at land use zoning and
smoke impacts.
Hessel said ODF’s fund-
ing is split between the state’s
general fund and landown-
ers who pay an assessment
on their acres for fi re protec-
tion. This year, the north-
east district will support 20
engines and a hand crew
in Wallowa, Baker, Union
and Umatilla counties, two
single engine air tankers and
a Type-2 helicopter stationed
in Pendleton, and a detection
plane based in La Grande.
The Umatilla National
Forest fi re staff is anticipat-
ing an above average fire
year, as well.
“The good snowpack at
higher elevations are some-
thing we appreciate, but the
presence or lack of precipi-
tation in June can also set
the stage for what type of
fi re season comes at us here
in Northeast Oregon and
Southeast Washington,” said
Darcy Weseman, a public
Demand: Vaccine clinic April 30 Shoes:
Continued from Page A1
Continued from Page A1
Fiumara said from the
information he has been
given, it appears the CTUIR
has administered about 5,000
doses of the two-dose Pfi zer
vaccine so far, and yet only
2,819 Pfi zer doses given to
Umatilla County residents
are listed on OHA’s website,
suggesting that some data
from CTUIR clinics has yet
to make its way to the state.
Fiumara also noted, however,
that the CTUIR opened up its
latest clinic to all of its ceded
territories across 11 coun-
ties, meaning not everyone
vaccinated by the Tribes is a
Umatilla County resident.
“We think our rate is
higher, but we don’t know
how much higher,” he said.
What public health offi -
cials do know is that the
county’s vaccination rate so
far is nowhere near the point
needed to stop transmission
of COVID-19 in the county,
as evidenced by Umatilla
County’s rising cases and
hospitalizations. Umatilla
County (population 81,160)
was placed on a two-week
warning period after passing
the 100 cases per 100,000
people over a 14-day period
mark that would put it back
into high risk. OHA reported
114 cases total for Umatilla
County over the past two
weeks, all but guaranteeing
the county will return to high
risk in another week.
As Umatilla County
Public Health and area hospi-
tals, medical clinics and
pharmacies work to increase
the local vaccination rate, the
county did get some good
the hospital, who engaged
with the accountant’s story.
“That someone might not
believe them or that some-
one might say, ‘Oh, but you
know, he supports you.’
It’s just sad that they have
to weigh the positives and
negatives. That should be
something that’s not OK.”
The accountant’s story is
not unlike the many stories
she hears through her job at
the hospital, Reker said.
“These are choices faced
by real people in really
horrible situations,” said
Kathryn Chaney, the exec-
utive director of Domestic
Violence Services. “The
outcome isn’t always great.
That’s why programs like
ours exist — to help people
from those circumstances.”
For both participants and
event organizers, one word
became central to each
conversation — empathy.
“So often when you have
a good friend or family
member that keeps going
back to an abusive relation-
ship, you get frustrated or
angry or you just don’t get
it,” said Chaney, who has
worked in services regard-
ing domestic violence and
sexual assault for nearly
30 years in multiple states.
“That’s natural. But we
developed this program
to help people understand
what these kind of circum-
stances are and what the
choices are. This kind of
activity gives people insight
to those diffi cult choices.”
Jeanne Bedolla, a project
coordinator with Domestic
Violence Services, said the
event shows the vulnerable
Seat:
Continued from Page A1
probably from Republicans
more than anyone else, to
recognize that there are a lot
of Republicans in the state
of Oregon (who) have been
underrepresented in the U.S.
House,” Southwell said.
The 2nd Congressional
District is the lone district
held by a Republican and is
the largest in Oregon, cover-
ing roughly two-thirds of the
state. The historically conser-
vative region has not had a
Democratic House represen-
tative in four decades.
Some local offi cials say
they are worried that the
addition of a congressional
seat and the redistricting that
follows the once-a-decade
census could lead to more
competitive districts that hurt
Republican chances of repre-
senting the region.
George Murdock, the
commissioner of Umatilla
County in the northeast-
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
Susan Hilliard, left, receives her second dose of the Moderna
COVID-19 vaccine during a drive-thru clinic operated by the
Umatilla County Public Health Department in Pendleton on
March 26, 2021.
news over the weekend —
Oregon counties were once
again cleared to begin admin-
istering the Johnson & John-
son version of the vaccine.
The vaccine was paused
temporarily in the United
States after six women out
of nearly 7 million people
vaccinated experienced
dangerous blood clots. Since
then, panels of experts at the
state and federal level has
determined the benefi ts of
continuing with the vaccine
far outweigh the risks.
Fiumara pointed out that
many over-the-counter medi-
cations sold in grocery stores
have higher risks of serious
side eff ects.
“It’s still, relatively speak-
ing, a very safe vaccine,” he
said.
Before the pause, he said,
the county heard from many
Umatilla County workers,
particularly in agriculture
and food processing, that
they would only take the
Johnson & Johnson vaccine,
because it only requires one
dose. The county has about
800 doses of the vaccine on
hand now, and Fiumara said
it remains to be seen whether
the demand has changed at
all.
During the county’s
Friday, April 30, clinic at
2260 S.W. Court Ave. in
Pendleton, Umatilla County
Public Health will have all
three vaccine options —
Pfi zer, Moderna and John-
son & Johnson — available
for anyone ages 16 and up (the
Pfi zer shot is the only version
available to people ages 16
and 17).
“We’re hoping that will
generate some additional
demand, but we’re very
nervous that the pause (on
Johnson & Johnson) may
have impacted the way
people see the vaccine,” he
said.
ern part of the state, said
his “greatest concern is that
our district could be gerry-
mandered in order to further
diminish representation
for a portion of Oregon that
refl ects ideology, values and
interests much diff erent than
the remainder of Oregon.”
Political gerrymandering,
the drawing of legislative
and congressional districts
in a way that helps the major-
ity party maintain its hold on
power, may be more diffi cult
for Democrats after a deal
they struck with minority
Republicans.
Democrats agreed to give
up their advantage in redraw-
ing the state’s political bound-
aries for the next 10 years in
exchange for a commitment
from Republicans to stop
blocking bills in the Oregon
Legislature with delay tactics.
With the agreement,
Democrats and Republicans
each will have three members
on the state’s redistricting
committee. A party-line
vote will be insuffi cient to
pass new maps, which essen-
tially grants Republicans veto
power to block any map of
legislative or congressional
districts from passing.
If lawmakers don’t reach
agreement on U.S. congres-
sional district boundaries, it
would be settled by a panel
of fi ve judges, one from each
of the state’s current congres-
sional districts. The Oregon
Secretary of State would
decide the new boundaries
of state legislative districts if
the Legislature fails to do so.
As with other states,
redistricting in Oregon will
be aff ected by the delay in
community-level census
data, which will not be
distributed to states until
August or later.
July 1 is the state’s dead-
line to draw new districts.
That prompted state legis-
lative leaders to fi le a peti-
tion with the state Supreme
Court asking for an extension
to the statutory July 1 dead-
line. After the court agreed,
the Legislature now has until
Sept. 27 to complete the
redistricting process.
aff airs offi cer for the Umatilla
National Forest.
Fire suppression staff-
ing will be similar to last
year, Weseman said, with 10
engines and six hand crews,
along with several staff ed fi re
lookouts.
“One constant that we
deal with every season is that
our workforce is often asked
to fulfi ll resource requests
for fires in other parts of
the nation, through engines,
hand crews and incident
management team support,”
she said.
These requests are fi lled
based on local fi re danger,
and forest staff has histori-
cally been a large contributor
to these sort of eff orts, Wese-
man said, as fi re resources
often see multiple assign-
ments across the Western
United States.
Higher elevation snow-
pack is still holding up
well in the Blue Mountains
and the Wallowas where
mid- and late-winter snow-
storms pushed the snow-
pack well past the 100%
mark. However, many of the
lower elevation areas of the
Umatilla and Wallowa-Whit-
man national forests did not
get the snow, nor have those
areas received any spring
rain, according to Nathan
Goodrich, a deputy fi re staff
offi cer for the Wallowa-Whit-
man National Forest. He
said conditions aren’t good
from a rancher’s standpoint,
because there is little grass
for livestock, but good for
fire suppression, because
there will be fewer fi ne fuels
to start fi res, like cheatgrass.
“Because they had diff er-
ent storm patterns the desert
could be active in May and
June,” he said.
The dry conditions have
one other positive for land
managers — opportunity to
meet spring prescribed burn-
ing targets. Steve Hawkins,
a fuels program manager
for the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest, said some
aspects of the forest are fairly
dry, especially large fuels
like downed logs.
The south end of the forest
is dry and 2,000 acres have
been burned on the forest
already, Hawkins said,
including 1,500 just this past
week ahead of rain and snow-
storms predicted over the
past weekend.
“Near Baker City we’ve
been way down on precipita-
tion for the last two months,
but one event can change
things,” he said.
No prescribed burning
has begun on the Umatilla
National Forest yet, Wese-
man said, outside of pile
burning on the North Fork
John Day Ranger District.
MORE INFORMATION
Proceeds from the seventh annual “In Her Shoes” experi-
ential walk outside of Good Shepherd Hospital in Herm-
iston went to Domestic Violence Services’ shelters in
Pendleton and Hermiston, as well as its advocacy centers
in Boardman, Heppner and Milton-Freewater.
The nonprofi t organization also off ers safety planning,
peer groups, parenting classes and other support ser-
vices and operates a 24-hour crisis line (800-833-1161).
For more information, call 541-276-3322, 541-567-0424
or visit www.domesticviolenceservices-or.org.
situations victims experi-
ence after suff ering from
abuse. She saw this fi rst-
hand when she helped her
sister move back home to
Oregon from Denver, Colo-
rado, when her marriage
turned abusive.
“ T hey’r e ba sica l ly
groomed at that point to
think they’re not worthy or
that they can’t do better,”
she said. “This (event)
kind of shows people what
limited resources people
have. You can say, ‘Just go
here or go here.’ But those
people either don’t know
about it, or they don’t have
the family or friends for
support depending on what
their situation is. Some-
times it gets them into the
world of drugs, and that’s a
whole other story. It’s just
a vicious cycle, unfortu-
nately.”
B e d ol l a s a i d t h e
nonprofi t is now looking to
set up programs in middle
and high schools to raise
awareness about the vari-
ous forms of abuse, includ-
ing dating and cyber abuse.
Reker said events like
“In Her Shoes’’ are import-
ant ways to show the barri-
ers victims face to get help.
“There’s just not aware-
ness of what sorts of
services are available, what
people have to go through
to be able to get help, all
the barriers there are —
police, court, Child Protec-
tive Services,” she said. “If
you don’t have an advocate
in that process, it’s almost
impossible. So these are just
really important awareness
events.”
Caitlin Cozad, the
marketing and communica-
tions director at the hospi-
tal who attended the event,
agreed with Reker, adding
that the event illustrates
how common various forms
of abuse are.
“A lot of times, people
see physical abuse because
they can actually see it,” she
said. “But there’s emotional
abuse, there’s verbal abuse,
which are intangible. And
there needs to be more
resources out there for
families who are victims of
domestic violence — physi-
cal, verbal, emotional.”
Reker said she believes
that engaging with the
scenarios in the event can
decrease stigmas surround-
ing victims.
“It’s not as black and
white as, ‘This person’s
beating you, so leave the
relationship,’” she said.
“There’s so many factors.
It’s not that simple. And
unfortunately, in our area,
there’s not that many places
that people can go.”