NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
Bear injures Sumpter man
A2
about 11 p.m. on Thanks-
giving, and Beckner said a
relative drove him to Saint
Alphonsus Medical Center
in Baker City, where he
was treated in the emer-
gency department and
released.
Beckner, who has lived
in Sumpter for about a
year and a half, said he’s
convinced the bear felt
cornered when it initially
tried to flee and ran into a
shed near his front door.
“It didn’t want to fight me
— it just wanted to leave,”
Beckner said. “It tried to
defend itself, and once it
realized it could get away
it did.”
Brian Ratliff, district
wildlife biologist at the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife office in Baker
City, said he interviewed
Beckner about the episode.
Based on Beck ner’s
description, and in particu-
lar that the bear fled as soon
as it no longer was confined,
Ratliff said he hasn’t set up
any traps in Sumpter to try
to capture the bear.
Ratliff said he would have
taken a different approach if
it looked as though the bear
had intentionally attacked
Beckner.
“It’s unfortunate that it
happened but the bear didn’t
seek (Becker) out and attack
ODFW does not
have plans to trap
and kill this bear
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
SUMPTER — Noah
Beckner barely had time
to recognize the animal as
a black bear before it was
swatting a claw-tipped paw
at his head.
He ducked just in time.
The paw, as Beckner puts
it, “nicked” his face.
Beckner, 19, who lives in
Sumpter, said the encoun-
ter with the bear in his front
yard, late on Thanksgiving,
Thursday, Nov. 25, left him
with scratches on his cheek
and above one eye, among
other injuries.
During a phone interview
on Monday morning, Nov.
29, Beckner said the knuckle
of the middle finger on his
right hand, the one he used
to punch the bear in the eye,
was still sore.
So was his shoulder,
where the bear briefly bit
him.
Beckner said he was
wearing multiple layers of
clothing, and the bear’s teeth
didn’t penetrate his skin.
‘It didn’t want
to fight me’
The incident happened
“IT DIDN’T WANT TO FIGHT ME
— IT JUST WANTED TO LEAVE. IT
TRIED TO DEFEND ITSELF, AND
ONCE IT REALIZED IT COULD
GET AWAY IT DID.”
— Noah Beckner, who was attacked by a black bear
outside his Sumpter home on Thanksgiving night
him, and it didn’t come
back,” Ratliff said. “It was
trying to get away.”
Ratliff said he planned
to notify the Sumpter City
Council about the incident,
and to remind city offi-
cials about the need to urge
residents to not keep food
sources, including coolers
or refrigerators, as well as
trash, outdoors in places
easily accessible to bears.
Ratliff said he will
continue to monitor the situ-
ation in Sumpter.
“My biggest concern is
that this bear is going to
choose not to den up,” he
said.
Ratliff said Beckner
described the bear as very
skinny — Becker said in the
phone interview he could
see the animal’s ribs —
which suggests the bear isn’t
in condition to hibernate.
Bears not uncommon
in Sumpter
The historic gold mining
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
| Go to AccuWeather.com
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
town, population 200, is
in the midst of a ponder-
osa pine forest about 27
miles west of Baker City.
During the late summer
and fall of 2017, a Sumpter
resident shot and injured
a bear on his front porch.
The same bear later entered
a home in Sawmill Gulch
near Sumpter through an
unlatched door.
That bear was one of the
three ODFW employees
trapped and killed during
that time.
Ratliff said he’s had only
a couple reports of bears in
Sumpter this year.
A late-night surprise
Beckner said he’s seen
bears several times in
Sumpter, including near his
home on Ibex Street, up the
hill and about three blocks
east of Mill Street, the
town’s main thoroughfare.
“Bears are constantly
walking through Sumpter,
every night,” he said.
Partly sunny and
warm
60° 50°
65° 47°
Cooler with
variable cloudiness
Cooler with high
clouds
Mainly cloudy, a
shower possible
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
55° 33°
48° 34°
45° 33°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
62° 49°
68° 51°
60° 34°
52° 35°
46° 33°
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
53/51
51/47
57/44
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
58/51
Lewiston
57/47
63/57
Astoria
56/48
Pullman
Yakima 58/50
54/47
55/49
Portland
Hermiston
59/46
The Dalles 62/49
Salem
Corvallis
58/43
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
50/42
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
60/45
63/47
55/42
Ontario
47/33
Caldwell
Burns
64°
51°
45°
30°
67° (1973) 8° (1985)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
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Albany
59/42
Today
Wed.
SW 7-14
SW 6-12
SW 6-12
SW 4-8
Medford
Boardman
Pendleton
56/40
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
55/29
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
0.01"
1.15"
1.02"
5.07"
3.94"
7.49"
SALEM — An Octo-
ber report by the Oregon
Employment Department
found the share of aging
workers age 55 and older has
tripled across the state over
the past three decades —
while the total number of jobs
grew only about 50%.
According to the report,
these aging workers held
slightly more than 10% of
jobs in the state in 1992,
but by 2019, that number
increased to 24%. The report
cited that the large Baby
Boomer generation, now 55
and over, are more likely to
continue in the labor force at
that age than previous gener-
ations.
“It’s important to consider
the implications for busi-
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:14 a.m.
4:13 p.m.
2:26 a.m.
2:18 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
Dec 3
Dec 10
Dec 18
Dec 26
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 88° in Chino, Calif. Low 2° in Eagle River, Wis.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Although the bear was
emaciated, Beckner, who
has competed in wrestling
and grappled with oppo-
nents up to 250 pounds, said
he’s “never felt a human so
strong as that.”
He said he understands
that leaving food or trash
in accessible places can
entice bears, and he strives
to avoid such situations on
his property. Beckner said
he thinks he was simply
unlucky, and the incident
didn’t make him more fear-
ful of bears.
“If it had not been for the
fact that it got cornered it
wouldn’t have attacked me,”
he said.
nesses’ future ability to
find enough workers,” Gail
Krumenauer, state employ-
ment economist and author
of the report, told the Busi-
ness Tribune. “We’re already
in a situation, with an unem-
ployment rate at 4.4%, that
is really low by historical
standards. Employers are
currently having widespread
difficulty finding all the
workers that they’d like to
hire or need to hire.”
Many of these aging
workers do plan to retire
within the next decade —
retiring their skillsets and
knowledge, as well — and
business owners will need to
replace them somehow.
“Even though we should
see some of that current
(hiring) difficulty get allevi-
ated in the coming months,
in the longer-term with more
workers hoping to retire
in the coming years, that’s
going to create a differ-
ent but ongoing source of
difficulty for them to have
enough available workforce,”
Krumenauer said.
The report found this
aging workforce trend can
be expected to accelerate in
the near future. It also found
the pace of retirements will
quicken in industries that
have higher shares of aged
workers. In Oregon, the
healthcare industry has the
most aged workers, the report
found — and rural counties
have even more aged work-
ers.
However, employers in
Portland metro counties will
find larger groups of young
workers to recruit from when
replacing retirees in general,
the report said.
IN BRIEF
WINDS (in mph)
44/30
53/30
0.11"
1.35"
1.36"
7.38"
12.25"
11.68"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 51/39
59/46
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
60/50
61/47
60°
47°
44°
30°
72° (1892) -13° (1896)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
55/49
Aberdeen
50/46
52/44
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
55/51
Noah Beckner/Contributed Photo
Noah
Beckner suffered
wounds to his face when he
was attacked by a black bear
outside his Sumpter home
on Thanksgiving night.
Thursday, Nov. 25, 2021.
Oregon’s aging workforce trend
expected to accelerate, report finds
By JULES ROGERS
Oregon Capital Bureau
Considerable
cloudiness
But Beckner had no
reason to think about bears
when he walked out his
front door in the last hour
of Thanksgiving.
He didn’t hear anything
— he was just going
outside. The bear was
about five to 6 feet away.
“I’ve seen a fair amount
of bears, and I recognized
it immediately,” Beckner
said.
The bear turned and ran,
but a shed just outside the
front door blocked its route.
Then it spun and ran toward
Beckner.
“It slashed at my face, but
I moved out of the way and
it just nicked me,” he said.
The bear then stood on its
hind legs.
Beckner, who is about
5-foot-9, said the bear was
slightly taller than he is. He
said he “wrestled for a little
bit” with the bear, during
which the bear briefly bit
his shoulder.
Beckner said he then
punched the bear.
He said the bear backed
up slightly and, once it real-
ized its path was not blocked
by the shed, it ran down the
hill.
“I never saw it again after
that,” he said.
Beckner estimated the
incident lasted 45 seconds
or so.
Tuesday, November 30, 2021
Turkey Trot draws a crowd
BAKER CITY — Seasonably chilly
temperatures just above freezing didn’t
dissuade more than 300 people from gather-
ing in downtown Baker City on Thanksgiving
morning, Thursday, Nov. 25, to raise money
and food to help local residents.
And run or walk 3.1 miles before they sat
down to their own holiday feasts.
The 14th-annual Turkey Trot raised more
than $5,000 and 1,600 pounds of food for the
Northeast Oregon Compassion Center.
“There were at least 300 people that regis-
tered,” said Brian Vegter, who with his wife,
Corrine, organizes the annual fundraiser. “It
was fun to have it back in person again.”
Last year, due to the pandemic, competi-
tors completed the course on their own sched-
ule.
On the women’s side, winners were
Kirsten Holden, Hailey Keller and Isabelle
Gee.
Due to a clock problem, the runners’ times
weren’t available.
Samantha O’Conner/Baker City Herald
Walkers and runners gathered on Main
Street in downtown Baker City on Thursday
morning, Nov. 25, 2021, for the annual Tur-
key Trot fundraiser for the Northeast Oregon
Compassion Center.
In the men’s category, Justin Ash crossed
the finish line first in a time of 17:25. He was
followed by Quentin Jensen and Thaddeus
Pepera.
— EO Media Group
CORRECTION
In a Page A3 story about the Pendleton Round-Up court, published Saturday, Nov.
27, the headline attributed the court to the wrong year. The Round-Up announced its
2022 court.
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