KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
THURSDAY, MAY 19, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Wildfire
mayhem
only takes
one spark
ay is Wildfire Aware-
ness month, and while
the weather the past few
weeks delivered wet and cold condi-
tions it is wise for residents to
remember the hot and dry days of
summer are just around the corner.
Warnings about fire danger are
now nearly routine because of the
dangerous, overgrown state of our
forests. The climate isn’t help-
ing much either. Add drought to the
bigger picture and a recipe for poten-
tial disaster is mixed and ready.
Yet the climate can’t take all the
blame for dangerous wild and forest
fires. Blazes accidentally — or other-
wise — ignited by humans contin-
ues to be a growing problem.
That means those of us who
want to take advantage of the great
vistas and mountains that are near
to our communities need to be
aware about the danger from fire.
Fires start with a spark, and that
means campers, hikers and anyone
else trudging throughout the great
expanse of wilderness around us should
take heed to minimize the potential
for an inadvertent miscue with fire.
Sparks from equipment — espe-
cially motorized equipment — such
as cars, trucks and all-terrain vehicles
can seem easy to dismiss, but just one
can create mayhem in terms of fire.
Sparks also are generated by
such things as electricity, chain-
saws or even target shooting.
Last year, more than 1,000 fires
scorched huge swaths of land in
Oregon, and while many were sparked
by Mother Nature — such as from light-
ning strikes — the source of other fires
could be traced back to human error.
Now, with rainy, cold weather,
the threat of wildfire seems like a
distant concern. Yet, the weather
will shift — as it always does — and
the local climate will be warm and
dry. Once we enter into the summer
months the threat of wildfire is a real
one, and all of us should be mind-
ful a major blaze can erupt quickly.
We should all expect to enjoy
our great outdoor recreation spots
this summer. But with our privi-
lege to tromp around the area’s forest
comes the responsibility to be care-
ful and to always use caution.
M
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.
LETTERS
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of 400 words or less on public issues and public
policies for publication in the newspaper and on
our website. The newspaper reserves the right
to withhold letters that address concerns about
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The phone number will not be published.
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
Severe storms happen here, too
MARC
AUSTIN
EYE TO THE SKY
any might think severe
weather only strikes the
Great Plains and southeast-
ern Unites States, but make no mistake,
severe storms and tornadoes can strike
anywhere in the country.
In fact, every state, including Alaska
and Hawaii, have recorded at least one
tornado. The Inland Northwest is no
different, and while we don’t see the
same frequency of these hazards as
locations east of the Rockies, we do get
our fair share.
On May 30, 2020, a significant
severe thunderstorm event brought
several intense thunderstorms to parts
of central and northeast Oregon and
far southeast Washington. Rotating
thunderstorms, known as supercells,
dropped large hail to the size of golf-
balls and larger to the west of Bend,
and caused extensive wind damage in
Culver, where winds were estimated at
80-100 mph.
More recently, on May 6 this year, a
M
storm produced two separate tornadoes
between Weston and Tollgate in the
Blue Mountains. These tornadoes were
given an intensity rating of EF-1, with
wind speeds up to 104 mph. The torna-
does caused minor structural damage to
a few buildings and wiped out numerous
trees.
Umatilla County has historically
seen few tornadoes, with only seven
documented going back to 1950, includ-
ing the two on May 6. While these are
the only known documented tornadoes,
it’s likely there have been others that
were never witnessed or reported.
Much of National Weather Service
Pendleton’s county warning area resides
in rural areas with sparse populations.
The combination of a low frequency
of severe weather, and few people to
witness and report it, likely means it
happens more often than we think.
Digging into the severe weather
archives, both Washington and Oregon
see an average of two tornadoes per
year. These largely occur west of the
Cascades, where ingredients for severe
weather come together a bit more often
— moisture being the key ingredient.
One of the ways to improve our
understanding of tornado and severe
thunderstorm frequency is to train
people how to safely observe and
report severe weather to the NWS. This
enables us to get a better grasp of how
common large hail, damaging winds
and tornadoes really are in the Inland
Northwest. The other major benefit of
the spotter training program is that it
helps NWS forecasters do a better job
when it comes to warning the public
about hazardous weather.
The combination of complex terrain
and limited radar data in some areas,
make ground-truth observations critical
when severe weather is occurring. The
best way to become a storm spotter is to
sit in on one of our live or virtual spotter
training sessions, or take a series of self-
guided online training sessions at your
convenience.
We’re always looking for more storm
spotters to engage with us and provide
critical weather information! If you’re
interested, visit weather.gov/pdt/spotter-
training.
———
Marc Austin is a warning coordination
meteorologist for the National Weather
Service in Pendleton. Austin leads outreach
and weather preparedness programs, and
engages the media, emergency manage-
ment and public safety communities in
building a weather ready nation.
side of Oregon should tell me how to live
and think.
Guess I am too independent for others
to tell me how to live in my locale. Let
us be free to think and do as we choose
instead of telling us we are not intelli-
gent enough to take care of ourselves.
Let us be free Americans wanting to
chose our own way instead of being the
sheep that just follows. If you don’t like
the way we think, then give us native
Oregonians your approval to join a
different government without leaving
our homes.
Let us decide if we will be the loser.
Let us pick our definition of benefit.
John Isley
Enterprise
cut through that area, disturbing river
banks, so far isolated, where wildlife
has, for all time, been allowed to live
peacefully.
Much of that isolated terrain is still
unaccessible to construction and human
traffic. A portion just south of the bridge
on Highland Avenue in Hermiston even
had a 5-acre island; an area where white-
tail deer give birth each spring, in the
same hidey-holes, below cliffs of rocks,
above a set of rapids. A great blue heron
rookery is nearby. Canada geese nest on
the canal banks, great horned owls nest
in the cottonwoods.
There are foxes, coyotes, opossums,
wild turkeys, yellow-bellied marmots,
raccoons, beavers, river otters, untold
species of wildlife, both resident and
migrant, animal and avian, who depend
upon this breeding ground and have for
centuries. So close to our civilized yards
and streets.
Think about disturbing that Eden.
Where does it end? When do we just
back off? Please think twice about
continuing plans for the walk.
Janet Boyd
Hermiston
YOUR VIEWS
Let us be free to think and
do as we choose
I just love it when some political
writer insinuates they can read my mind
and tell me how to think. The people that
want to share our politics with Idaho are
a disgruntled few, so that leaves nearly
half the county voters as ...?
Why must we be put in a labeled
bucket just because we do not support
your particular values or party? At
least some of us are not so interested in
having the Oregon leadership telling us
to spend our taxes on illegal immigrants
and people who simply will not take a
job even when many are available.
We want justice that is fair to all and
equally enforced. Many of us would
be willing to pay more in taxes to have
more rights and freedom than we pres-
ently have. We do not believe in govern-
ment that extends a declared emergency
to indefinitely extend its control over our
lives. Many of its rules are proving it did
not follow the science and were of ques-
tionable value. I do not believe the mass
of people living and polluting the west
Think twice about
riverwalk to Echo
Oh, please. Do we, as humans, have
to constantly move into human uninhab-
ited areas as if it all belongs solely to us?
The river bank is rife with wild
species through a short section toward
the new industrial location. The
proposed riverwalk to Echo would
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT
Joe Biden
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
GOVERNOR
Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-7691
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-1129
REPRESENTATIVES
Bobby Levy, District 58
900 Court St. NE, H-376
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1458
Rep.BobbyLevy@state.or.us
Greg Smith, District 57
900 Court St. NE, H-482
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1457
Rep.GregSmith@state.or.us
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Cliff Bentz
2185 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
Medford office: 541-776-4646
SENATOR
Bill Hansell, District 29
900 Court St. NE, S-415
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1729
Sen.BillHansell@state.or.us