A10
OREGON
East Oregonian
Tuesday, October 26, 2021
Air Force training could disrupt Owyhee’s ‘Big Quiet’
By JORDAN RANE
Columbia Insight
ONTARIO — One of the
country’s most sparsely popu-
lated and persistently defended
high desert wild lands soon may
be subject to frequent sonic
booms and shrieking fighter
jets.
The Mountain Home Air
Force Base in southwestern
Idaho is proposing expanded
military training allowances
across large portions of the
Owyhee Desert — a 9-million-
acre landscape of shrub steppe
and remote canyons spanning
three states cherished by tribes,
ranchers, sportsmen, paddlers,
hikers, conservationists, scien-
tists and stargazers.
The air base’s Proposal for
Airspace Optimization for
Readiness would increase the
frequency and low-fl ight inten-
sity of jet fighter exercises
across giant sections of south-
western Idaho, northern Nevada
and southeastern Oregon.
Current airspace restric-
tions in the latter two states
within the established USAF
training range are set above at
least 10,000 feet — or 30,000
feet when breaking the sound
barrier.
“In many cases that’s barely
noticeable — you might see
those planes before you hear
them — but it’s nothing like
what’s being proposed in the
current plan,” says Mark Salvo,
conservation director at Oregon
Natural Desert Association.
“We’re deeply concerned about
fi ghter jet noise and disturbance
to wild lands, wild waters, sensi-
tive wildlife and local commu-
nities, the risk of wildfi re from
the increased use of fl ammable
fl ares—and the fact that the Air
Force hasn’t explained why it
needs to conduct more and more
intense training across this huge
tri-state area.”
‘Gunfi ghters’ legacy
Mountain Home Air Force
Base is home to the 366th
Fighter Wing (nicknamed the
“Gunfi ghters”) and the F-15E
Strike Eagle, a dual-role fi ghter
designed to perform air-to-air
and air-to-ground missions.
An array of avionics and elec-
U.S. Air Force/Contributed Photo
The 366th Fighter Wing of the
U.S. Air Force fl ies out of Moun-
tain Home Air Force Base in
southwestern Idaho. The Air
Force seeks fewer restrictions
for the group, which would im-
pact the portion of the Owyhee
Desert in southeastern Oregon.
Jim Davis/Contributed Photo
The Mountain Home Air Force Base in southwestern Idaho is pro-
posing expanded military training allowances across large por-
tions of the Owyhee Desert — a 9-million-acre landscape of shrub
steppe and remote canyons spanning three states cherished by
tribes, ranchers, sportsmen, paddlers, hikers, conservationists,
scientists and stargazers.
tronics systems gives the F-15E
the capability to fi ght at low
altitude, day or night, in all
weather.
The 366th Fighter Wing’s
primary mission is to provide
combat airpower and support,
as well as quick response to the
military’s worldwide contin-
gency operations.
The base also is used for
training by the Singapore Air
Force, which has a detachment
of F-15SG fi ghters on long-term
assignment there.
This isn’t the fi rst time the
USAF has proposed expanding
training in the Owyhee Desert
from its Mountain Home Air
Force Base.
Seeking live bombing,
missile shooting and low-fl y-
ing exercises in the area in 1989,
the Air Force expected minimal
opposition in one of the coun-
try’s most remote and lightly
populated areas.
This turned out to be a
miscalculation.
Opposition from Idaho-
based groups led to nearly
a decade of litigation and a
compromise that ultimately
allowed restricted low-altitude
jet fi ghter training in Idaho’s
Owyhee County.
Public comment
deadline Oct. 25
In Oregon, the USAF’s
proposal could increase the
frequency of sonic boom-pro-
ducing training fl ights to nearly
19 per day — shattering the
area’s famed Canyonlands,
nicknamed “The Big Quiet,”
and distressing indigenous
wildlife.
ONDA has launched a new
online story map online story
map of the area.
Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden
and Jeff Merkley, Democrats,
have proposed protecting more
than a million acres of wilder-
ness in the Owyhee Canyon-
lands, and designating 33 miles
of Wild and Scenic Rivers
precisely where the military
has proposed more intensive
training.
The military’s plan also
would impact more than
500,000 combined acres of
Wilderness Study Areas and
Bureau of Land Management
lands, according to ONDA.
Much of the Oy whee
Desert’s sprawling shrub steppe
and canyons are on public land.
“The Air Force needs to
hear that there is strong, broad
support for conservation in
the Owyhee Canyonlands and
southeastern Oregon, and that
their proposal threatens to
undermine the qualities that
make this region so excep-
tional,” according to an ONDA
web posting.
The deadline for public
comment on the Air Force’s
proposal was extended to
Monday, Oct. 25. The Air Force
is required to provide a fi nal
environmental impact state-
ment by a date that remains
pending. A draft version of the
EIS can be found here.
You can submit a comment
directly to the USAF here
or copy an ONDA letter and
submit a comment at www.
mountainhomeafbairspaceeis.
com.
“Given the breadth and depth
of public comment provided
on the draft plan,” Salvo said,
“we suspect it will take many
months just to incorporate that
(public) input.”
Oregon wants
test-to-stay in
school policy
By ELIZABETH MILLER
Oregon Public Broadcasting
SALEM — Schools have opened, and stayed
open, this fall, even with COVID-19 still sicken-
ing people in Oregon communities. But COVID-
19 is aff ecting schools too, including students and
staff who don’t have the virus, as close contacts
and exposures to positive cases lead to quaran-
tines, which move people in and out of school.
Oregon Department of Education director Colt
Gill sees two solutions to that.
“One is more students getting vaccinated,” Gill
said.
Currently, students 12 and older are eligible
for the COVID-19 vaccine. Vaccine eligibility for
students ages 5-11 may be coming soon, but the
FDA has not been approved that yet.
Students who are vaccinated and asymptom-
atic can remain in school.
The other solution, Gill said, is something
called “test-to-stay.” This program means
students who test negative for COVID-19 can
stay in school. Oregon health offi cials said last
month they were considering it, but at an Oregon
state board of education meeting Thursday, Oct.
21, Gill said Oregon needs to make it happen —
starting with a more uniform quarantine policy
across counties.
“I’m working with the Oregon Health Author-
ity to try to streamline that, and to frankly move
to a test-to-stay policy, where students and staff
are regularly tested for COVID-19 if they become
a close contact and can stay in school if those tests
are negative,” Gill said.
“Test-to-stay” is diff erent from current testing
eff orts schools may be off ering. A large number
of schools off er diagnostic testing for students
and staffi ng who are showing COVID-19 symp-
toms. A smaller number of schools have signed
on to off er screening testing, which gives schools
a broader sense of the presence of COVID-19 by
testing students and staff who don’t have symp-
toms. That program is voluntary for schools and
families.
Test-to-stay faces capacity problem
But both ODE and OHA said there’s some-
thing holding Oregon back from “test-to-stay”
— a stockpile of rapid testing kits, which they say
Oregon doesn’t have.
“We are working hard to notify the federal
government that we need more access to those kits,
we know that they are working on access to those
kits, and as soon as they’re available in Oregon,
that’s what we will be moving towards,” Gill said.
Offi cials with the Oregon Health Authority
also say there’s a staffi ng issue with implement-
ing test-to-stay.