ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
PHIL WRIGHT
News Editor
JADE McDOWELL
Hermiston Editor
THurSDAy, JuLy 1, 2021
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Should
grocery
stores be
free to sell
liquor?
I
f you are a newcomer to Oregon and
yearn for booze, you learn quickly that
you can only buy hard liquor in state
liquor stores.
If you are a newcomer to Oregon, you also
learn quickly that Oregonians can’t pump
their own gas in many parts of the state. (It’s
a wonder the state lets people plug in their
own electric cars!)
Surveys from the Oregon Values and
Beliefs Center seem to indicate Oregonians
are ready for change — where they can buy
liquor and in pumping gas. Polls done in
January showed more than 50% of Orego-
nians support both policy changes.
The restrictions on pumping your own
gas already have begun eroding. It’s OK to
pump your own in much of Eastern Oregon.
Oregonians could do it this week because of
the heat — until Tuesday evening, June 29.
We think Oregonians can handle it full time.
If you don’t want to pump your own gas,
we understand. In other states, full-service
stations often cater to that desire.
A permanent shift in the rules for booze
may soon be coming to a ballot near you.
Two possible ballot measures led in part by
Lauren Johnson of Newport Market in Bend
aim for change. In one, grocers could sell
local spirits. In the second, hard liquor just
would be for sale at the grocer. It’s not clear
if the Northwest Grocery Association, which
is backing both efforts, will actually focus on
one or the other for the 2022 ballot.
A private system with state oversight
works OK for pot sales. Grocery stores
manage to sell beer and wine just fine. We
are sure they could do the same with hard
liquor.
There are many questions, though. What
happens to the people who have invested in
state-controlled liquor stores? Their busi-
ness model would be in big trouble. And will
small producers of craft liquors be better off
in this new system or worse?
The bigger worry for some is what
happens if it becomes more convenient to
get hard liquor. Would problems with addic-
tion and substance abuse rise? Maybe. But
if people want booze now, they will manage
to get it. And we don’t see a tidal wave of
people in states with more freedom to buy
liquor calling to add more restrictions to
where liquor can be sold.
There’s going to be interest in figuring
out what it might do to prices, as well. But
until we know for certain what will be on the
ballot, it’s hard to know what it might do. It’s
also hard to know if this just will be another
in a series of similar measures that never
became law.
Managing natural resources is not for the weak
BILL
ANEY
THIS LAND IS OUR LAND
T
hroughout my Forest Service
career, my coworkers and I took
very seriously the responsibil-
ity of managing the public’s natural
resources. Caring for our forests and
grasslands, water, and wildlife popu-
lations is a sacred trust that the Ameri-
can people place in the hands of public
employees.
With this honor comes challenges.
Every action a public resource manager
takes is open for critique in the public
forum. It is often said, tongue-in-cheek,
that the only problem with a democracy
is that everyone gets a vote. The public
can weigh in on every action affect-
ing public resources, using an agency
review and comment process, the news
media, the courts, or social media.
Sometimes the comments are deceit-
ful, mean-spirited and self-serving, but
public employees by the nature of their
employment have limited ability to
respond.
I was reminded of this recently when
reading about the controversy directed
at the Oregon Department of Transpor-
tation while it removes trees killed or
heavily damaged by fires last summer in
Western Oregon. Three state agencies
teamed up to remove trees along state
highways to prevent them from falling
on the roadways. Large trees falling on
high-speed highways can spell disaster,
and the public has a right to expect that
highways are safe to travel.
The problem is, it can take several
years for trees heavily damaged by fire
to die and fall, but danger tree removal
needs to happen now. It is not cost effec-
tive to return year after year to remove
EDITORIALS
Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East
Oregonian editorial board. Other columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express the
opinions of the authors and not necessarily
that of the East Oregonian.
YOUR VIEWS
LETTERS
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters
of 400 words or less on public issues and public
policies for publication in the newspaper and on
our website. The newspaper reserves the right
to withhold letters that address concerns about
individual services and products or letters that
infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters
must be signed by the author and include the
city of residence and a daytime phone number.
The phone number will not be published.
Unsigned letters will not be published.
As the state drops COVID-19 restric-
tions, we are all thinking about getting
back to normal. So what is normal? It will
be different for each of us.
Vaccines are great and I was eager to
get mine. The science strongly supports
the effectiveness of vaccines, but a vacci-
nated person can still be infected and
spread the disease without even knowing
it. Those of us with compromised immune
systems are still at varying degrees of risk.
Others may not be able to be vaccinated
due to medical reasons.
This county has had a disturbingly
low rate of vaccinations for a variety of
reasons, and our case numbers continue to
be in the top per capita in the state.
SEND LETTERS TO:
editor@eastoregonian.com,
or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
COVID-19 vaccination
doesn’t mean danger is over
trees as they die. Forest managers use
predictive models to help determine the
likelihood that an individual tree has
sustained enough damage to kill it, and
while these models have been verified
with research, they still are models and
as such are not perfect. If a model is
98% accurate in predicting which trees
will die and eventually fall, this still
means that on average two out of 100
predictions will be wrong. ODOT esti-
mates that 140,000 fire-damaged trees
will be removed from the sides of the
west Cascade highways this spring and
summer; if 2% of these trees would have
survived had they not been cut down,
this is 2,800 trees. No wonder it is easy
for critics to point out examples of trees
that they believe shouldn’t have been
cut.
As a result, ODOT has had to defend
its work in the media and in legislative
hearings this year, and the foresters they
hired have had their motives, credentials
and expertise challenged publicly. Such
is the world of public resource manage-
ment.
Another example is the use of what
could be called ballot box biology to
make decisions about wildlife manage-
ment. In the North American conser-
vation model, state wildlife agencies
manage most wildlife populations,
taking their direction from wild-
life commissions. The agencies have
professional, educated, trained biolo-
gists to collect information and make
recommendations to the state wildlife
commission, which in turn takes public
testimony alongside the professional
recommendations and makes decisions
about management of these populations.
Where it goes awry is when legisla-
tures or the public initiative process is
used to dictate how wildlife is managed
without full understanding of the under-
lying biology. Several tools that wildlife
agencies have used to manage wildlife
We have consistently been in the high-
risk category. The new variants are highly
transmissible and COVID will not go
away soon.
So for me, the new normal will be
continuing to wear a mask and keep-
ing my distance out of self-protection
and respect for others. I applaud those
businesses and organizations who will
continue to take precautions to help
protect their patrons and our communities.
We are so prone these days to being
rugged individuals and in it for our
personal rights. This is one reason we
remain in our current high-risk state. I
only hope we continue to respect others
and retain our sense of community as we
return to our individual sense of normalcy.
Jeff Blackwood
Pendleton
populations are off the table in Oregon
due to successful ballot initiatives;
the use of leghold traps for furbearers
and the sport hunting of cougars and
bears with dogs, for example. Citizens
of Colorado recently passed a ballot
measure directing the state wildlife
agency to develop a plan to reintroduce
wolves into the state even though wolf
populations in neighboring states were
inevitably going to expand into Colo-
rado without any help.
The problem with ballot box biol-
ogy is, quite simply, the majority rules.
What would happen, for example, if the
citizens of the state were presented with
a ballot measure to ban all hunting? We
might be surprised at how much support
such a measure would receive from
non-hunters and animal welfare groups,
and if it were to pass the consequences
would affect not only hunters but also
farmers and ranchers, foresters and all
sorts of non-game wildlife species.
Again, such is the world of public
resource management, something that
anyone choosing to enter this profession
needs to understand.
I am not suggesting the public
shouldn’t have a say in the way public
resources are managed. Gifford Pinchot,
the father of American forestry, coun-
seled public land foresters to remem-
ber who they work for and that public
support of management of public
resources is absolutely required. What
I am suggesting is this public involve-
ment be done with civility and humility,
recognizing that professionally trained
foresters, biologists and other special-
ists are working hard to do a quality job,
and nearly always do it very well under
sometimes very trying circumstances.
Hug a forester today.
———
Bill Aney is a forester and wildlife biol-
ogist living in Pendleton and loving the
Blue Mountains.
Dream Team coverage
deserves kudos
This is a very belated letter writ-
ten to express my appreciation for
the wonderful job Jade McDow-
ell did covering the Dream Team
last spring. She was so kind and
supportive and did a great job inter-
acting with our special athletes.
I was saddened to read that she
is leaving our area and wish her the
best of luck in her new endeavors!
I also want to commend Ben
Lonergan for taking pictures of
the Dream Team athletes that truly
captured their joy and enthusiasm
for the sport.
Kristi Smalley
Hermiston