KATHRYN B. BROWN
Owner
ANDREW CUTLER
Publisher/Editor
ERICK PETERSON
Hermiston Editor/Senior Reporter
ThuRSDAY, JulY 7, 2022
A4
Founded October 16, 1875
OUR VIEW
Change
of heart
about VA
plan is
good news
G
ood news from Congress is often
hard to come by, but the recent
announcement from U.S. Sen.
Ron Wyden’s office that a plan to modify
the Jonathan M. Wainwright Memorial
VA Medical Center in Walla Walla into
an outpatient clinic is no longer an option
was a bright spot among the usual fare of
depressing information that leaks from the
nation’s capital.
Wyden said in a press release last week
he “welcomed the news” that a group
of bipartisan senators will block the
plan originally configured by the veter-
ans Asset and Infrastructure Review
Commission. That plan would have shut
down the 31-bed residential rehabilitation
and treatment program and moved it to
Spokane.
Wyden, in a recent town hall meeting,
reported he’d heard from veterans about
how the plan to turn the facility into an
outpatient clinic would make a negative
impact.
All the gratitude for the decision can’t
rest with Wyden, of course, as a number of
other prominent senators also chimed in to
stop the plan from becoming a reality. Yet,
Wyden’s influence surely was a factor, and
we thank the senator for that assistance.
The fact is the concept was bankrupt
from the very beginning. Why the federal
government would want to shortchange
our veterans on any issue is not only a
mystery but grossly unfair. Surely money
had a lot to do with the decision. It is no
secret the costs of the Veterans Affairs
continue to climb at an unprecedented
rate. Taxpayers are ultimately billed for
those costs, just like taxpayers end up
footing the bill for any conflict the nation
finds itself in.
Caring for our veterans is one of those
unseen and often not talked about aspects
of our foreign policy. When the call erupts
across the nation to let slip the dogs of
war, the upfront costs are always high.
Yet when a conflict is over, those costs
continue as the men and women who
shouldered the burden need long-term,
costly care.
We owe our veterans a great deal,
including excellent health care. The fact
the plan to turn the Walla Walla clinic into
an outpatient center has been abandoned
is good news.
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
The East Oregonian welcomes original letters
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
individual services and products or letters that
infringe on the rights of private citizens. Letters
must be signed by the author and include the
city of residence and a daytime phone number.
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
Yellowstone fires and floods
and reframing catastrophes
BILL
ANEY
THIS LAND IS OUR LAND
he photos and videos of the rivers
flooding on the north end of
Yellowstone National Park last
month gave a dramatic testimony to the
power of nature.
The northern and northeastern entry
points into the park are now closed,
probably for years, and the damage has
been labeled devastating, catastrophic,
unprecedented, extreme — pick your
apocalyptic adjective. The flood was
caused by a very warm and wet rain-
storm on top of the above normal late
May snowpack, and this rain on snow
event brought the creeks and rivers to
flood levels not seen in over 90 years.
Major access roads and bridges were
washed away, and it is difficult to imag-
ine rebuilding roads in some of these
narrow canyons. The Park Service is
not willing to estimate the cost of such
a project, and it will be years before
access is restored.
Some of the words we use to
describe this flooding are reminis-
cent of the ways we describe wildfires
during fire season every year. In 1988,
known as the year of the Yellowstone
Fires, national evening news reports
often started with a glum-faced news
anchor describing the day’s devastation
of one of our national treasures.
During the first week of Septem-
T
ber 1988, Roger O’Neil of NBC News
led the newscast with, “This is what’s
left of Yellowstone tonight,” while Dan
Rather of CBS and Tom Brokaw of
NBC told the country that “Part of our
national heritage is under threat and on
fire” and “Our oldest national park is
under siege.”
The networks eventually changed
their storyline to cover the amazing
resilience of nature and the regrowth
and recovery of Yellowstone as summer
turned to winter and black landscapes
turned to white and then green. Old
Faithful continued to erupt on schedule,
and anyone who has visits the park now
likely will have a hard time seeing any
trace of the 1988 fires.
During my career as a fire manager,
ecologist and fire analyst, I tried to use
my words carefully when it came to
describing wildfire effects and caution
others to do the same. Despite what
you might read, wildland fires do not
consume or destroy acres of land; the
land is still there after the fire passes
even though the vegetation is often
changed dramatically. The word cata-
strophic evokes strong emotion with-
out adding much to the description of
fire effects and should probably only be
used in a true tragedy, such as the loss
of homes or lives.
In both flood and fire, we should
remember that nature is doing what
nature does. When humans build access
roads in canyon bottoms next to rivers,
we should expect them to be washed
away occasionally, as rivers naturally
flood and change course. When we
build homes, lodges and park visitor
centers in the forest, we should expect
some of these will burn each year.
Summers in the west are hot and dry
with occasional lightning, so fires are
inevitable.
Fire managers, insurance compa-
nies, road engineers and savvy land use
planners understand this. Bob Barbee,
superintendent of Yellowstone National
Park in 1988, told the nation that the
fires simply were a force of nature and
to fight them that summer was about
as useful as trying to fight a hurricane
or tornado. The best we could hope
for was to protect those things we care
about, including park buildings and
other infrastructure, and wait for the
weather to change.
As we enter the (thankfully) delayed
fire season in 2022 in the Blues, listen
for the words used to describe fire on
the landscape. For most fires, the words
devastation or catastrophic are so value
laden as to be useless. No single acre of
land has ever been lost to or consumed
by a wildfire, although the landscape
may look quite different without the
same vegetation. This is what nature
does and has always done, and the
streams, forests and wildlife tend to
recover from fires (and floods) quite
well.
Keeping that perspective helps us to
see natural events in a much different
light.
———
Bill Aney is a forester and wildlife biol-
ogist living in Pendleton and loving the
Blue Mountains.
Boardman that is known to have high
nitrate levels for decades. This is also an
older development that would not meet
today’s standards. It is 1-acre lots with
individual septic systems and shared
wells. What are the chances that they
may have failed septic systems that are
contributing to their own problem?
The high nitrate issue has been
around for decades. I can remember my
friend Carol Michaels decades ago when
she worked for Oregon State univer-
sity Extension Service encouraging
people in the area to check their wells
for nitrates, and passing out literature at
public events, such as the Irrigon Water-
melon Festival and Morrow County
Fair. State law that has been around for
decades requires a test of the domestic
well in any real estate transaction and
the results be given to the buyer. This is
not a new problem.
Jim was quoted as saying that before
he and Commissioner Melissa lind-
say were elected, that the relationship
between the Port of Morrow and county
government was like the tail wagging
the dog. During my 12-year tenure as a
county commissioner we had quarterly
meetings with the Port of Morrow, city of
Boardman and Morrow County. We met
in the same room and tried to work on
mutual problems for the public good. We
didn’t always agree on the solutions, but
were always civil to each other. Not the
screaming and yelling and finger point-
ing that Commissioner Jim Doherty likes
to do. The emergency meeting that was
called to declare the emergency barely
met the public notice requirements. None
of the regional partners, including the
cities of Boardman and Irrigon, were
notified. One can only wonder if that was
done to exclude the public from partici-
pating. There was no reason for the fear
mongering that has taken place. There
was no reason to cast a shadow of doubt
on city water, which is continually tested.
Jim Doherty needs to be part of a solu-
tion and not just a finger pointer. If he
wants to point the finger at the problem,
he only needs to look in the mirror.
John Wenholz
Irrigon
YOUR VIEWS
Jim Doherty needs
to be part of a solution
I’ve read the recent articles on the
Port of Morrow being fined by Oregon
Department of Environmental Quality
for over application of nitrogen. I’ve also
read Morrow County Commissioner
Jim Doherty’s spin on blaming the high
nitrates in the area solely on the Port of
Morrow. Attached from one of those
articles is a pie chart where the DEQ
estimates where the nitrates come from.
The Port of Morrow along with food
processing in umatilla County accounts
for 4.6%. The Port of Morrow handles
the discharge water from food proces-
sors in Morrow County. This is the only
group that is regulated by DEQ, and
they are only a small portion of a bigger
problem. Jim Doherty is a cattleman,
and if I add the 8.1% from pastures with
the confined animal feeding opera-
tions of 12.9%, I get 22% attributed to
Jim Doherty’s industry. Onsite, which
is septic tanks and drain fields, is 3.9%.
Jim has been targeting an area in rural