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Tuesday, December 28, 2021
East Oregonian
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Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
National Park Service Director Chuck Sams waves to supporters Friday, Dec. 24, 2021, at the Annual Christmas Celebration Pow Wow at the longhouse in Mission. Sams received backing
from members of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation during the process of becoming the director.
Sams:
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Sams said he was grateful for the
tribes’ support and started listing
mentors such as Antone Minthorn,
Les Minthor n and Frenchy
Halfmoon who not only encouraged
him to get an education and work
his way through tribal government,
but to look beyond it.
“I recognize I didn’t get to where
I am on my own,” he said. “I stand
on the shoulders of ancestors who
came before me.”
While Sams’ confirmation won
many plaudits around the country,
expectations also are high.
Many national parks intersect
with land where American Indians
were removed or excluded to estab-
lish the parks, and tribal leaders told
High Country News they hope to
work with Sams’ administration to
secure access to those lands.
Sams said the Biden administra-
tion already has put in work in that
effort, with the president signing an
executive order meant to strengthen
nation-to-nation relationships
between the federal government
and tribal nations. Sams added he
and Haaland are open to continuing
discussions with tribes on co-man-
agement agreements.
“Many of these lands are not just
(connected to) one particular tribe:
There are a number of tribes who
have usual and accustomed rights
and privileges to the landscape,”
he said. “So you have to go into
these consultations with that under-
standing, figuring out how tribes
can bring traditional ecological
knowledge to the table and be able
to implement that. The administra-
tion has been very clear that they
want to use that.”
One of the few areas where Sams
faced public scrutiny from sena-
tors during his confirmation hear-
ing was the issue of the backlog in
deferred maintenance built up at the
423 of national parks, monuments
and sites, with senators asking
Sams what he would do about the
park infrastructure in their home
state.
Sams will have an extra $6.5
billion to use toward park main-
tenance created through the Great
American Outdoors Act passed
by Congress in 2020 in addition to
additional funds expected through
the recently passed infrastructure
bill.
“The staff at National Park
Service have worked very hard to
look at how we even calculate the
number of projects we have to do,
including the cost,” he said. There-
fore we’re able to really look at
it strategically and (ensure) that
money is distributed across the 50
states and U.S. territories so that we
can tackle this issue.”
Another issue Sams inherits is
reports of harassment and discrimi-
nation within the service’s rank and
file. A 2017 survey revealed 40% of
park service staff reported experi-
encing harassment during the past
year, according to High Country
News. The service commissioned
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian
National Park Service Director Chuck Sams addresses guests and participants Friday, Dec. 24, 2021, at the An-
nual Christmas Celebration Pow Wow at the longhouse in Mission. The tribes held a celebration to honor Sams
at the event.
a follow-up report to investigate
the issue further, called “NPS
Voices Report.” But in a Novem-
ber letter to Sams, a group called
Public Employees for Environmen-
tal Responsibility accused the park
service of burying the report and
encouraged Sams to take action and
remove toxic employees from the
service.
Sams said the park service has
been doing work in the past three
years to address the issues raised
in the report, but he promised to do
more.
“I want to be very clear: I hear
what the field is saying,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to going
out in the field this next year. The
National Park Service staff are
working hard to set up a number of
opportunities for me to get to both
large and small parks so that I can
hear directly from the staff, and the
rangers themselves, about what’s
going on and see what we can do
to strengthen that. Morale is an
extremely important issue.”
On Christmas Eve, Sams cele-
brated his accomplishment with his
tribes. In the days that follow, the
country will expect him to make
good on that accomplishment.
Omicron:
Stats:
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The school instituted a vacci-
nation mandate in October that
requires all of EOU’s on-cam-
pus staff and students to be fully
vaccinated for COVID-19 or to
have an approved religious, phil-
osophical or medical exemption.
Seydel said on-campus vacci-
nation rates for employees and
students is between 75-80%. The
school has spent the holiday break
reminding students and staff to be
safe if they were traveling.
“When we start up again, all
unvaccinated students, if they
can’t, don’t have proof, then
they’ll get tested,” he said. “And
then we’ll continue monitor-
ing them and our employees. If
they’re vaccinated we already
have their proof. And then if
they’re unvaccinated, then we’d
have them continue to do their
weekly or daily health checks.”
Given Umatilla County’s shared
border with Washington, Shafer said it
was logical that many county residents
would seek vaccinations north of the
state border. Milton-Freewater residents
or veterans who get their medical care
through the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs could go to Walla Walla to get the
shot. Hermiston and Umatilla residents
could get the shot in Tri-Cities by trav-
eling 40 minutes or less.
Shafer said the county grew espe-
cially frustrated when state officials
would use Umatilla County as an exam-
ple of a county that needed to do better in
vaccinating its population during press
conferences. Shafer said the state was
aware the county was missing out-of-
state data from its count.
Lundgren said the potential statisti-
cal boost from out-of-state vaccinations
should give residents more confidence
that their neighbors are vaccinated.
She added the updated number will not
include minors. Children as young as 5
years old are eligible for the vaccine.
Despite the anticipated update to
Umatilla County’s COVID-19 statistics
than previously understood, the county
is not out of the woods quite yet. The
county still is short of OHA’s 80% goal
and the omicron variant is starting to
sweep the country. Although Umatilla
County’s daily case count remains low
compared to the delta variant wave over
the summer, Shafer said the public health
department is working hard to encour-
age residents to get the booster shot to
further protect themselves from the
latest variant.
Omicron’s rise
The rapid rise of the omicron
variant has stirred considerable
panic since news about the highly
transmissible strain caught inter-
national attention in late Novem-
ber. The Oregonian reported on
Dec. 23 the state’s COVID-19
omicron hospitalization peak
won’t be nearly as bad as forecast-
ers predicted earlier this month,
but still could overwhelm the
health care system within weeks
with about as many people need-
ing hospital beds as did during
the delta wave. Oregon Health
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group, File
An Eastern Oregon University student walks across the campus Oct. 28, 2021. While the University of Or-
egon announced it would require students, faculty and staff to receive booster shots due to the omicron
variant, Eastern Oregon University continues to weigh that option.
& Science University revised its
omicron surge projections, down
from about 2,400 people hospi-
talized at the peak of the upcom-
ing surge to about 1,200, provided
Oregonians take steps to prevent
the spread of infections.
The peak, which is expected
to hit in early February, could
exceed 1,700 if Oregonians’
behavior doesn’t change, though it
always has in the past when infec-
tions have started to climb, OHSU
data analyst Peter Graven told The
Oregonian.
But while the downward revi-
sion could be heartening, the
predicted wave of hospitaliza-
tions still could rival or exceed
Oregon’s peak in early September.
“The risk of overwhelming
hospital systems is real,” Graven
told The Oregonian. “We’re
seeing a dire situation.”
Changing on-campus
activities
As the omicron surge unfolds
nationwide, Seydel said East-
ern Oregon does not anticipate a
change in on-campus activities.
“Eastern put protocols in place
and worked to have students in
class on campus, even at limited
capacity,” he said. “That really
worked well for our students, and
we want to keep doing that.”
Seydel said the school has been
successful in keeping case counts
low this fall, an indication that
EOU’s protocol is working and
that students making sure they’re
monitoring themselves.
“If they’re not feeling good,
they’re getting over to our Student
Health Center and getting tested,”
he said.
Seydel said Eastern Oregon
will continue to hold vaccine
clinics during the winter term to
further encourage the extra shot.
During two recent clinics held
on campus, approximately 80
booster shots were given, accord-
ing to Seydel.
“We’ve had four clinics
already, and we’re planning to
hold another one in January. And
at the last one, we had just a lot
of booster shots, which again is
another really good indicator,”
he said. “We had a lot of students
and employees going in to get
their booster.”