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NORTHWEST East Oregonian A2 Thursday, October 28, 2021 Seeding the future Forestry partners look to extend federal funding for Malheur restoration dent the funding will come through. “The proposed appropri- ations are $80 (million) to $100 million that are float- ing around in Washington,” Trulock said. That figure would more than double what the Southern Blues initiative has received in the past, he said. The Southern Blues Resto- ration Coalition is a joint effort of Blue Mountains Forest Partners and the Harney County Restoration Collab- orative. Both are forestry collaboratives, groups of diverse stakeholders formed to find solutions to stubborn forestry issues that satisfy environmental concerns while providing jobs in the woods and generating a steady and predictable timber supply to feed area lumber mills. Backed by the two collab- oratives, the Southern Blues Restoration Coalition has been supported by CFLRP money since 2012. The coalition was initially awarded $2.5 million per year and received a bump to $4 million per year in 2016. According to the coali- tion’s application for a federal funding extension, it currently oversees nearly 900,000 acres on the Malheur and proposes to treat an additional 210,000 acres. By STEVEN MITCHELL Blue Mountain Eagle JOHN DAY — A coali- tion of environmentalists, public land managers and timber industry profes- sionals who found common g rou nd on hot-but ton forestry issues a decade ago have applied for a 10-year extension of their federal funding at $4 million per year to continue doing restoration projects on the Malheur National Forest. According to Craig Trulock, Malheur National Forest supervisor, U.S. Agri- culture Secretary Tom Vilsack has not yet approved a list of prioritized projects to be funded under the Collab- orative Federal Landscape Restoration Program, which is intended to encourage ecolog- ical and economic sustain- ability and reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires. Money for CFLRP projects — including ongoing work on the Malheur by the Southern Blues Restoration Coalition — is supposed to be included in the infrastructure bill work- ing its way through Congress. Despite the uncertainty surrounding that measure, Trulock said he is confi- Blue Mountain Eagle, File The Southern Blues Restoration Coalition, a joint effort of the Blue Mountains Forest Part- ners and the Harney County Restoration Collaborative, has applied for 10 years of additional funding to continue restoration projects on the Malheur National Forest. Restoration Coalition’s work has received praise at the national level, but its most dramatic success story might be Malheur Lumber, Grant County’s lone sawmill and largest private employer. In 2012, the same year Southern Blues was formed, Malheur Lumber announced plans to close down, citing an inconsistent and unreliable timber supply. But the coali- tion was able to help broker a deal that kept the mill running. Working with the coalition, the U.S. Forest Service was able to accelerate timber sales and increase the pace of resto- ration work on the Malheur by entering into a 10-year stew- ardship contract with Iron Triangle, a John Day-based logging company. Stewardship contracts typically involve a mix of A record of success The Southern Blues Forecast for Pendleton Area TODAY FRIDAY | Go to AccuWeather.com SATURDAY Warmer with clouds and sun Periods of rain; cooler 76° 55° 57° 36° SUNDAY Partly sunny MONDAY Cool with abundant sunshine A shower possible PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 51° 34° 49° 40° 50° 33° HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST 77° 57° 64° 39° 57° 34° 52° 42° 55° 35° 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 60/45 62/51 66/50 Longview Kennewick Walla Walla 71/55 Lewiston 64/50 77/59 Astoria 62/48 Pullman Yakima 69/54 61/47 69/55 Portland Hermiston 66/51 The Dalles 77/57 Salem Corvallis 66/51 Yesterday Normals Records La Grande 65/52 PRECIPITATION John Day Eugene Bend 68/54 70/52 67/51 Ontario 68/45 Caldwell Burns 61° 51° 61° 36° 77° (1935) 19° (2002) 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 67/50 Trace 0.92" 0.68" 3.59" 2.29" 6.35" Today Medford 71/52 SUN AND MOON Klamath Falls Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021 WSW 6-12 WSW 8-16 Sunrise today Sunset tonight Moonrise today Moonset today 7:29 a.m. 5:48 p.m. 11:45 p.m. 2:49 p.m. Last New First Full Oct 28 Nov 4 Nov 11 Nov 19 NATIONAL EXTREMES Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states) High 97° in McAllen, Texas Low 11° in Bodie State Park, Calif. NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY ing an area with commercially marketable trees, marking the boundaries of the proposed timber sale and estimating the amount of merchantable wood in the sale area, Walker said. Then the agency eval- uates the fair market value of the timber and opens up a bidding process to companies that can meet bonding and other requirements. According to Walker, the Forest Service also can award service contracts for projects that do not include removing marketable timber. He said this could consist of pre-com- mercial thinning, trail main- tenance or stream restoration. As the Forest Service expanded its forest resto- ration, fuels reduction and thinning activities, Walker said, it melded forest manage- ment work, which often lacks What’s next? The Iron Triangle contract expires in 2023, and it’s not clear at this point what will happen then. Trulock said he’ll be discussing that topic next month at the November meet- ing of Blue Mountains Forest Partners. While long-term stewardship contracts have certain advantages, he pointed out, there are lots of other approaches that can work as well. His talk to the Blue Moun- tains collaborative, Trulock said, will focus on the “suite of tools in the toolkit.” Rescuers find man snowbound in Wallowas By JAYSON JACOBY Baker City Herald BAKER CITY — Crews from Baker and Union coun- ties rescued a Baker County man in the snowbound Wallowa Mountains north of Halfway Monday, Oct. 25, the day after he was stranded by a blizzard while packing in supplies with horses for an elk-hunting trip. Robert Derald Borders, 67, who lives near Baker City, did not need medical treatment, Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash said. Borders, who had four horses, was able to use his satellite device, which works even when cell service is limited or nonexistent, as is the case in that remote part of the county, to send a text message to a friend late Oct. 24, McClay said. The friend then called the Baker County Dispatch Center around noon Oct. 24. The text message also included Borders’ precise location, which aided rescu- ers, McClay said. Around 2:30 p.m. Oct. 25, McClay said rescu- ers reached Borders, who had sent text messages to rescuers with his satellite device while they were en route. Although Borders’ use of the device was a help to rescuers, the weather on Sunday was a major hindrance. A group of Baker County Search and Rescue team members started travel- ing to the location, which is in the Eagle Cap Wilder- ness several miles north of Cornucopia, in the Soldier Lake and Sugarloaf Moun- tain area. McClay said rain was falling, snow was on the ground and powerful winds were toppling trees as rescu- ers traveled higher into the mountains. They eventually had to retreat late Oct. 24, McClay said. On Oct. 25, Baker County crews were joined by search and rescue members from Union County to resume the effort, McClay said. The Union County team members arrived at the Baker County Sheriff’s Office around 5 a.m., travel- ing from there to the moun- tains. McClay said Borders apparently had left from the Cornucopia trailhead on Oct. 23. The weather deteriorated on Oct. 24, and accord- ing to the text message the man sent to his friend, he was unable to get back to the trailhead and he needed help. The first rifle elk season started Wednesday, Oct. 27. IN BRIEF Fri. SW 6-12 SSW 7-14 Boardman Pendleton 65/39 Funding streams Forest Service program manager Roy Walker pointed out that stewardship contract- ing and CFLRP are different funding mechanisms. He also said stewardship contracts are fundamentally different from traditional timber sales contracts. The Forest Service awards timber contracts by identify- WINDS (in mph) 68/47 65/36 0.01" 0.84" 0.95" 5.84" 9.83" 10.16" through 3 p.m. yest. HIGH LOW TEMP. Pendleton 63/46 67/51 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 76/55 67/55 57° 48° 59° 38° 77° (1906) 13° (1911) PRECIPITATION Moses Lake 63/47 Aberdeen 61/51 57/47 Tacoma Yesterday Normals Records Spokane Wenatchee 61/49 timber sales and restoration work while supporting local jobs in the timber industry. According to the coali- tion’s funding application, the long-term contract with Iron Triangle has enabled the logging company to add approximately 50 employees while creating a predictable supply of restoration byprod- ucts to Malheur Lumber, thus allowing the mill to keep its doors open. commercial value, with timber sales. Stewardship brings the two together, allowing the Forest Service to award the commer- cial value that loggers ordi- narily would bid on to finance restoration work on national forest land. Webb said roughly 70 or 80% of the commercial timber harvested each year on the Malheur National Forest is through the 10-year steward- ship contract. Another 30%, Webb said, comes from traditional timber sales or other contract mecha- nisms that anyone can bid on. In a traditional timber sale, Webb noted, the highest bidder gets the timber, logs it and pays the Forest Service, which then hands the money to Washington, D.C. One benefit of a stewardship contract, he said, is that the money stays in the county. Oregon Forestry declares end to 2021 wildfire season SALEM — The Oregon Department of Forestry announced fire season has come to an end on the 16 million acres it protects. The last three districts — Klamath-Lake, Northeast Oregon and the Walker Range Forest Patrol Association — ended their fire seasons Friday, Oct. 22, at 12:01 a.m. The 2021 wildfire seasons in ODF’s districts and forest protective associations lasted an average of 131 days, tying it with 2018 for fifth longest average fire season since 2000. The longest fire season average was 147 days back in 2002. The shortest was 99 days in 2019. Statewide more than 800,000 acres burned in wildfires this year — fewer than in 2020 but above the 10-year average. River cruise ship beaches in Columbia Park near blue bridge in Kennewick KENNEWICK — In an unusual sight, a Columbia River cruise ship was beached near the blue bridge in Kennewick on Friday, Oct. 22. Crew members of the American Song cruise ship called Kennewick firefighters a little after 6:30 p.m. about a passenger with a serious medical problem, according to Fire Chief Chad Michael. The cruise ship captain nudged the five- deck ship up against the Columbia Park shoreline, just west of the bridge, Kennewick firefighters said on Facebook. Firefighters were able to walk onboard using a gangplank through a hatch that opened at the ship’s bow. A cruise line nurse helped the patient get to the Kennewick medics, who look the person to a Tri-Cities hospital. The firefighters credited both the people onboard for noticing the medical emergency, and the captain for getting the ship close enough to shore to easily get the patient. The American Song ship is part of the Columbia and Snake Rivers Cruise for USA River Cruises. The ship travels between Port- land and Clarkston, stopping in Richland and offering tours in Pendleton. — EO Media Group and Tri-City Herald Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. 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