NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
LA GRANDE
Forest collaboratives receive grants
Judge denies lower bail
for teen facing sex crimes
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
WA SH I NGT ON —
Five forest collaboratives in
Central and Eastern Oregon
have received word they will
be receiving upward of $11.6
million in federal funding.
The collaboratives, which
bring together environmen-
talists, timber industry profes-
sionals and public and private
land managers, seek to find
common ground on hot-but-
ton forestry issues.
The projects were selected
by a federal advisory commit-
tee and funded through the
Collaborative Forest Land-
scape Restoration Program,
which is intended to encour-
age ecological and economic
sustainability and reduce the
risk of catastrophic wildfires.
The Southern Blues Resto-
ration Coalition, a joint effort
of Blue Mountains Forest
Partners and the Harney
County Restoration Collab-
orative, received $3 million.
Both groups 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
Powers said it would be
best not to lower the bail
considering the serious
nature of the charges and
the possibility Rogers, if
convicted of just a few of
the most serious charges he
faces, will face extensive
prison time.
Rogers next appears in
court May 23 for a plea hear-
ing.
La Grande police on
April 22 arrested Rogers
after the court issued a secret
indictment warrant two days
earlier. He has has been in
the Union County Jail since.
In all, Rogers faces the
following charges: three
counts of first-degree rape;
five counts of second-de-
gree rape; two counts of
strangulation; three counts
of first-degree sex abuse; five
counts of second-degree sex
abuse; two counts of first-de-
gree sodomy; four counts of
luring a minor; four counts
of using a child in a display
of sexually explicit conduct;
and two counts of attempted
third-degree sodomy.
The state alleges Rogers
committed the crimes
between July 1 and Nov. 18,
2021, according to Union
County Circuit Court
documents. The victim
was a juvenile.
The Observer
LA GRANDE — A
La Grande teen who faces
nearly 30 counts of sex
crimes was arraigned
Monday, April 25, in Union
County Circuit Court.
Circuit Judge Thomas
Powers denied a request to
reduce the $300,000 bail set
for Joel Phoenix Rogers, 19,
arrested on charges of 28
counts of sex crimes and two
counts of strangulation.
Powers said he set bail
at $300,000 based on the
criminal classification of
the charges Rogers faces and
their felony scale.
“I did not pull the number
out of thin air,” the judge said
during the hearing.
Rogers’ attorney, Jared
Boyd, asked the court to
reduce the bail. He said
there is no way Rogers
could afford the minimum
of $30,000 he would need to
make the 10% level needed
for his release. People who
are jailed after being arrested
in Oregon can be released if
they pay 10% of the bail set
for them.
Boyd added Rogers previ-
ously has had no real crimi-
nal history and he has not had
any contact with the victim in
this case since Nov. 18, 2021.
Forecast for Pendleton Area
| Go to AccuWeather.com
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
Mostly cloudy,
showers around
Cool with some
sun
Cool with
occasional rain
Mostly cloudy with
a shower
Strong winds
subsiding; showers
57° 40°
60° 45°
63° 43°
66° 49°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
59° 39°
51° 39°
61° 48°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
67° 46°
58° 46°
66° 49°
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
53/43
54/36
61/34
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
57/41
Lewiston
56/43
64/44
Astoria
52/42
Pullman
Yakima 63/38
54/40
60/43
Portland
Hermiston
55/46
The Dalles 63/43
Salem
Corvallis
53/41
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
50/38
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
53/43
52/30
47/32
Ontario
57/39
Caldwell
Burns
61°
42°
71°
41°
88° (1947) 28° (1970)
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
55/43
0.00"
1.44"
0.71"
3.39"
1.81"
3.48"
WINDS (in mph)
56/38
48/26
Trace
1.27"
1.15"
4.87"
3.55"
5.22"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 48/32
54/44
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
57/40
61/43
56°
41°
67°
42°
95° (1926) 29° (1935)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
54/40
Aberdeen
56/37
59/40
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
54/43
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
56/39
Thursday, April 28, 2022
Fri.
WSW 6-12
W 7-14
Blue Mountain Eagle, File
Strawberry Mountain stands near Prairie City in Eastern Oregon. Five forest collaboratives in
Central and Eastern Oregon are receiving upward of $11.6 million in federal funding for work
on hot-button forestry issues.
been supported by CFLRP
money since 2012. The coali-
tion was initially awarded $2.5
million per year and received
a bump to $4 million per year
in 2016.
Malheur National Forest
program manager Roy Walker
said a big chunk of the money
they will receive would go
toward prescribed burn-
ing. Some of the funding, he
added, would go to pre-com-
mercial thinning throughout
the Southern Blues Coalition
area.
Walker said the main goal
is to reduce wildfire hazards
on the Malheur.
“(The funding) is really
helping us accelerate our resto-
ration out here in the (Malheur)
National Forest,” Walker said.
The Northern Blues Forest
Collaborative received $3
million for a 10.4 million-acre
project in the Wallowa-Whit-
man National Forest to reduce
wildfire risk and prepare the
landscape to manage fire
safely.
Nils Christoffersen, the
executive director of Wallowa
Resources, a member of the
Northern Blues Restoration
Partnership, said there had
been a significant loss of
capacity to manage forests
on both the public and private
sides since the 1990s. These
funds, he said, help offset that
disinvestment.
Most people, he said,
concerned about the land-
scapes and communities of
Eastern Oregon have been
arguing for a long time that
these forests need additional
money and staff to respond to
the challenges they face.
Christoffersen said the
No. 1 thing in people’s minds
is wildfire. But the funding,
he said, is not limited to fire
prevention.
“We’re looking at how we
can improve the forest’s over-
all condition,” he said.
Christofferson said that
includes making sure the
watersheds are operating
correctly to ensure clean water,
maintaining and improving
wildlife habitat, and putting
people back to work in the
woods and the mills.
Girl Scouts in Baker City give
$500 each to two organizations
By IAN CRAWFORD
Baker City Herald
BAKER CITY — During
the past year, members of Girl
Scout Troop No. 50042 in
Baker City conducted cookie
sales and other fundraisers for
their annual donation drive.
On April 14, den mother
Linda Snyder oversaw a cere-
mony during which head
Scouts Becky Snyder and
Penelope Simmons presented
$500 donations to two local
groups.
The donation meeting
started with the Pledge of Alle-
giance, followed by the Girl
Scout’s Oath, with as many as
10 attending in the basement
of the Baker Elks Lodge. The
space is also shared by the
local Boy Scouts.
The first recipient is the
Rachel Center, a nonprofit
volunteer program in Baker
City that offers pre and post
natal support to teenage moth-
ers, including testing, ultra-
sounds, parental education
classes and material needs for
infants up to three years.
Rachel Center Direc-
tor Vera Grove accepted the
award.
The other $500 donation
went to Best Friends of Baker,
Inc. operated by Carmen Ott
and Jane Barrett, both former
Girl Scouts.
Best Friends is a nonprofit
that accepts strays and surren-
ders of dogs and cats, offer-
ing spay and neuter services
and rehoming. Prior to Best
Friends’ creation in 1986,
uncollared and unclaimed
dogs caught in Baker City
would be euthanized within
24 hours.
Becky and Penelope are
working toward earning the
top awards in the Girl Scouts
program.
In pursuit of the Silver
Award, Becky conducted a
dog food drive and is donat-
WSW 7-14
W 6-12
ing 50 hours of service to the
community.
“Did you see the barrels
set outside the grocery stores?
That was all Becky,” said
Linda, who is Becky’s mom.
Penelope, who is seek-
ing the Gold Award, must
fulfill 80 hours of community
service and create a perma-
nent public feature. She aims
to have a splash pad, with an
interactive play fountain, built
at a Baker City park.
“I’ll have to make a
proposal to the city, and it will
require funding,” Penelope
said.
With the Baker City
troop’s membership drop-
ping substantially during the
pandemic, Linda Snyder hopes
to boost the numbers. Girls
interested in getting involved
with the Girl Scouts can learn
more at GirlScouts.org.
“Before COVID, we had 22
Scouts,” Linda said. “Today
we only have five.”
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
48/24
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
5:48 a.m.
7:58 p.m.
5:11 a.m.
5:54 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
Apr 30
May 8
May 15
May 22
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 95° in El Centro, Calif. Low 6° in Ely, Minn.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Medical supply donations pour
from Grant County to Ukraine
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — The Grant
County Road Department,
Blue Mountain Hospital
District and Juniper Ridge
Acute Care Center collected
outdated medical supplies
and first aid kits to send to
Ukraine last week.
Mindy Stinnett, the
John Day hospital’s trauma
program manager, said the
effort started when Ryan
Palmer from the road depart-
ment called the hospital to
see about donating expired
first aid kits.
Stinnett said that trig-
gered her to look into a place
to donate medical supplies.
Sure enough, she found
herself in a meeting where
she heard about a program
through St. Charles Medi-
cal Center in Bend. She said
the hospital donated through
St. Charles to the Humana
Medical Relief Fund out of
Wisconsin.
Stinnett said the whole
team at the hospital was
supportive when the email
went out to the different
departments urging them to
gather up medical supplies.
She said the hospital’s
outpatient coordinator,
Meganne Mortensen, stepped
up to drive the supplies to
Bend without hesitation.
Stinnett said the hospital
could have sent the supplies
to St. Charles through the
mail, but when that was
mentioned to Mortensen she
said she wanted to do her
part by driving the supplies
to Bend herself.
The hospital’s chief finan-
cial officer, Eric Pryce, was
supportive as well. Stinnett
said Pryce agreed to pay
for Mortensen to drive the
supplies to Bend.
“We got huge support
from everyone,” Stinnett
said. “It was really neat to
see that everybody was really
wanting to figure out a way to
get involved in the process of
the donation.”
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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