KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Get
involved,
run for
city office
S
o far it doesn’t look like there will be
any competitive races for the Pendle-
ton City Council and while there are
several individuals seeking reelection at least
one position — an at-large seat — has no
candidates.
That should change and soon.
Now, incumbents Carole Innes, of Ward 1,
and Linda Neuman, of Ward 3, have filed for
reelection along with Councilor McKennon
McDonald, from Ward 2. Steve Campbell,
who was appointed as an at-large councilor,
has not filed but said he will.
He could face opposition from Addison
Schulberg, manager of the Great Pacific
Wine & Coffee Co., who has filed to run as
an at-large candidate. Or Schulberg could
run for the other at-large post. Councilor Jake
Cambier now holds that, but he is not seeking
reelection.
The lack of opponents to any of the coun-
cilors is a statement but what that statement
implies is hard to know. Do voters believe
the current councilors are doing fine so there
is no need to get involved? Is it a lack of
concern? A disconnection from democracy?
Hard to tell. Yet there are many good
reasons for an individual to decide to run for
a council seat.
No. 1, for anyone who wants to get
involved in their community, running for
a local office is the best way to do it. Local
lawmakers have a lot of power — they can
raise taxes, make investments with taxpayer
dollars, and guide a city into the future with
thoughtful planning.
No. 2, there is always more than one
way to fashion policy. New ideas from new
people help a council or elected board diver-
sify its outlook.
No. 3, Democracy needs good leaders.
Now, especially, our form of government
needs more buy-in from just about every
voter. We need more diversity and more
women to run for office.
By running for office, a local resident
can bring a new perspective and capture the
opportunity to advocate for their cause in a
way that will invite valuable input.
Running for office may seem like a diffi-
cult endeavor but if you are considering it
there is a good chance there are a fair number
of people who share your outlook and would
be supportive.
In the end, your voice needs to be heard
and the best way to do that is to run for office.
Even if you lose, you’ll make a statement
regarding civic duty and be able to perhaps
move the political needle — so to speak — a
little.
So interested individuals should consider
it carefully and then get involved and run for
office.
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.
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Unsigned letters will not be published.
SEND LETTERS TO:
editor@eastoregonian.com,
or via mail to Andrew Cutler,
211 S.E. Byers Ave., Pendleton, OR 97801
Managing irrigation good for business, salmon
TONY
MALMBERG
OTHER VIEWS
D
roughts are becoming more
frequent and intense. It can feel
like climate change is stalking
farmers and ranchers. The good news?
Irrigators can play a unique role in help-
ing ourselves through these trying condi-
tions.
I’ve lived on ranchlands in Nebras-
ka’s Sandhills, Wyoming and now the
grasslands of Northeastern Oregon. My
wife and I have run a direct-to-consumer,
grassfed beef and lamb business for more
than two decades. Our successes have
come when pursuing regenerative agri-
culture, which means adding more life.
When biodiversity thrives, there’s a good
chance our revenue will do the same.
This is increasingly urgent for other
reasons as well. Salmon in parts of the
region are perilously close to extinction.
Our livelihoods, regional prosperity and
the future of salmon are all linked. It may
come as a surprise, but the irrigator vs.
salmon debate is not a zero-sum game.
We can coexist, prosperously.
Regenerative management practices
— such as minimizing overgrazing,
scheduling irrigation and ensuring plant
recovery — can increase soil organic
matter — SOM — and retain water in
our soil mantle.
Better irrigation and grazing practices
during the good moisture years make us
more resilient during dry years. It’s also
good for salmon habitat, which benefits
the whole region.
On the flip-side, over-irrigation,
hot-season irrigation and down-cut rivers
make us more susceptible to drought.
Over-irrigation suffocates our soil
through compaction. Compaction creates
a barrier, preventing roots from accessing
deeper moisture, minerals and nutrients.
By monitoring available water content,
we can avoid this.
Irrigation saturates the soil. If one
were to make a ball of the soil and
squeeze, water would ooze out, indi-
cating there is more than 50% available
water content, or AWC. As days go by,
the surface dries. If we can’t form a ball,
that tells us the soil is drier than 50%
AWC. On our ranch, we generally don’t
want to irrigate until the available water
content of 50% drops to at least 8 inches.
This allows the roots of grasses to follow
water down and build regenerative soils
for better water retention and less expo-
sure to drought.
In the hot season irrigation, we
shouldn’t lose sight of the geography we
work within — and use it to our advan-
tage. High mountain meadows in most of
the western United States are composed
of cool season plants. These plants
evolved to shut down, or senesce, when
temperatures reach 70 degrees.
In Northeastern Oregon, this happens
around mid-July. Continued irriga-
tion may keep cool season plants green,
but they will not produce significant
biomass. By keeping this potential irri-
gation water in stream during the hot
season, we can keep rivers alive, grow
riparian vegetation and cool rivers for
salmon — a win-win.
By contrast, down-cut rivers are a
lose-lose. They drain the productive flood
plain, dry up meadows and destroy crit-
ical salmon habitat. We should instead
be slowing the flow of water on the
uplands with SOM, saturating the flood
plain for continued cold river recharge in
the summer and keeping rivers flowing
during the hot season.
The health and wealth of our region
is connected to the salmon runs that
define our rivers and streams. The loss of
salmon imperils tribes, fishermen, main
street businesses and Northwesterners’
very identity, from the Pacific coast to the
Rocky Mountains.
Fortunately, a solution is within reach.
Last year, Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho,
presented a plan to remove the lower
Snake River dams to advance salmon
recovery — and replace the services
the dams provide, like irrigation. It’s
a far-reaching and visionary proposal
with investments to ensure all commu-
nities remain whole, to transform and
strengthen our region.
His proposal includes mechanisms
to ensure ranchers and farmers have the
water they need to do the work we’re all
proud of. And with regenerative manage-
ment, we can increase our production as
we heal the landscape. We now know that
our sector can actually build biodiver-
sity, increase SOM, reconnect rivers to
floodplains, address climate change and
insulate ranchers from drought.
When we have regenerative soil and
functional rivers, we better our own live-
lihoods — and the sustainable existence
of salmon as well.
———
Tony Malmberg has been a rancher and
practitioner of holistic management for
more than 30 years. He’s received numer-
ous awards for his work, including the
National Environment Stewardship Award
from the National Cattlemen’s Associa-
tion. He and his wife, Andrea, ranch in
Union County.
Finally, Fowler shares the story of a
local coach who was hospitalized and
subsequently required to tote around an
oxygen tank as a result of his bout with
COVID-19. He said he “had the shots,
but it didn’t make a difference.” We’ll
never know for sure if there was a differ-
ence, but a vaccinated 65-year-old asth-
matic surviving a battle with COVID-19
is actually supported by the data. Unvac-
cinated 65-plus-year-olds are 68 times
more likely to die from COVID-19 than
their fully-vaccinated counterparts. So,
perhaps the reason he was hospitalized
and lived was a direct result of his vacci-
nation status.
Perhaps.
Again, maybe I’m losing my sense
of humor, but I don’t get the joke. I don’t
understand how, after two years of
watching people die and having access
to all of the “research” one could possi-
bly care to access, anyone could have
still been uncertain about the serious-
ness of COVID-19. I’m glad Fowler
and coach Clair Costello are OK. I just
wish we weren’t still trying to convince
people that COVID-19 isn’t a joke.
John Taber
Pendleton
If we knew that deferred maintenance on
our city-owned facilities was a thing of
the past. If our children were no longer
standing in the wind and rain wait-
ing for a school bus while transients sit
sheltered from the wind and rain in a
covered bus stop waiting for a free bus.
If city employees, with the exception of
the police and fire chiefs, were no longer
provided with city-owned vehicles to
drive to and from work at our expense. If
we knew the street sweeper was coming
through our neighborhoods once a week
just like the garbage truck (the downtown
merchants already get that service twice
a week). If our general fund was receiv-
ing even a small amount of that revenue
the city claims the airport is generating
from the millions of our tax dollars that’s
been invested. If the city could possibly
redesign our city hall parking lot so that
during snow removal the curbing isn’t
destroyed each year.
If, well there are a whole host of other
high priority projects that would bene-
fit residents directly, and if they were no
longer an issue, perhaps carports could
be constructed in city hall’s back parking
lot where those vans and buses are stored,
not a bus barn and not at the airport, one
of the most ridiculous locations in the city.
They might just as well build it in Herm-
iston.
City hall claims you should support
this project because it’ll be paid for with
free money, a grant, a grant funded by,
yup you guessed it, our taxes.
Free? Hardly.
Rick Rohde
Pendleton
YOUR VIEWS
No joke? No kidding.
In response to Annie Fowler’s recent
offering (“Being sick with COVID-19 is
no joke,” Feb. 9, 2022) about her battle
with COVID-19, I’m left nearly speech-
less. Which part of COVID-19 did she
find to be a “joke” prior to her stint in the
hospital? Was it the 910,000 American
deaths that she found amusing? Was it
the toll taken on children, families, busi-
nesses, or the economy?
Maybe I’m losing my sense of humor.
I take umbrage at the fact that Fowler
needed a trip to the hospital to recog-
nize it’s no joke. She regales us with the
tale of her personal doctor giving her
the “blessing” to forgo vaccination, due
to concerns about blood clots. It doesn’t
take much looking to find that the prev-
alence of blood clots due to receiving
the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is 57
cases out of 16.9 million recipients (as
of December), or that no correlation
between clots and the Moderna or Pfizer
vaccines has been established. It’s also
easy to find a study that estimates that
a person is as much as 10 times more
likely to develop blood clots in the brain
as a result of contracting COVID-19
than they are from receiving a vaccine.
She states the doctor in the hospi-
tal told her they had “seen several
vaccinated people come through with
COVID-19.” While the anecdote is nice,
it doesn’t stack up all that well with the
data, which shows that unvaccinated
adults are 16 times more likely to be
hospitalized with COVID-19 than their
fully vaccinated counterparts.
If only — it’s time city know
about residents’ priorities
It’s time to let your ward representa-
tives on the Pendleton City Council and
the mayor know about our priorities.
If residents were no longer required to
dodge potholes to avoid tire damage and
alignment issues on their daily commutes.