VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, July 23, 2022
East Oregonian
A5
A solid foundation to move forward with forest plan revision
SUSAN
ROBERTS
OTHER VIEWS
he Blues Intergovernmental
Council supports the U.S. Forest
Service’s moves to reinitiate forest
plan revision for the Malheur, Umatilla
and Wallowa-Whitman national forests.
The work completed by the BIC during
the past two years has established key
foundations that will be crucial compo-
nents of an improved forest plan revi-
sion process by reflecting local values,
incorporating input and providing robust
opportunities for meaningful engage-
ment.
On March 14, 2019, the Forest
Service’s deputy chief issued instruc-
tion to the Forest Service Pacific North-
west Regional Forester to withdraw the
Blue Mountains Revised Land Manage-
ment Plans, Final Environmental Impact
Statement and draft Record of Decision.
This decision came after nearly 15 years
of a highly contentious public planning
process in which numerous commu-
nity members and leaders felt frustrated,
misunderstood and ignored. The objec-
tion process yielded more than 350 objec-
tions to the forest plans, which made
clear that the public did not see how input
provided had been incorporated nor did
the plans fully account for the unique
social and economic needs of the affected
communities.
Following the withdrawal of the
Blue Mountains Forest Plan, leadership
from the Pacific Northwest Regional
Office and the Malheur, Umatilla and
Wallowa-Whitman national forests met
with the Eastern Oregon Counties Asso-
ciation in April 2019 to coordinate, better
understand concerns and identify oppor-
tunities to approach forest planning and
management in a new way. The partic-
T
EO Media Group, File
The U.S. Forest Service’s move to reinitiate forest plan revision for the Malheur, Umatilla
and Wallowa-Whitman national forests has the support of the Blues Intergovernmental
Council.
ipants recognized the need to explore
unique approaches and work together at a
larger scale, which included other govern-
ment entities within and surrounding the
Blue Mountains geographic area.
The various government entities offi-
cially formed the Blues Intergovernmen-
tal Council in November 2019 to serve as
an overarching entity and develop joint
recommendations on the most conten-
tious issues identified in the Blue Moun-
tains Forest Plan revision process. The
BIC members include leaders from all 14
local counties as well as federal, state and
tribal government entities. The diverse
membership of the BIC ensures numer-
ous perspectives and interests are repre-
sented.
Since the BIC formed, members have
worked together to develop desired condi-
tions for Forest Service consideration on
several key and previously polarizing
issues in the withdrawn Blue Mountains
Forest Plan, including riparian livestock
grazing, fisheries, hydrology, forest
health and access. The BIC also commis-
sioned and oversaw the completion of a
socioeconomic analysis that will offer
data to help consider impacts of forest
management decisions on local commu-
nities.
The BIC-endorsed desired conditions
serve as recommendations to the Forest
Service to inform the forest plan revision
process (with a minority report included
for the access issue). The collective work
over the past two years has fostered trust
and strengthened relationships between
the key intergovernmental groups within
the BIC and the Forest Service.
The BIC members and leadership
from the Blue Mountains national forests
feel this unique approach will provide a
crucial foundation for success in accom-
plishing a revision of the Blue Mountains
Forest Plan in a timely manner. By build-
ing off the past plan revision analysis, the
BIC’s endorsed desired conditions prod-
ucts and connections that each member
has with various community perspec-
tives, we have an exceptional opportu-
nity to develop updated forest plans for
these national forests that provide for the
sustainable needs of the landscape and the
needs of current and future generations.
Building off these accomplishments,
the BIC believes the Forest Service
should move forward with the plan revi-
sion process under the 2012 Planning
Rule, with the goal of working together
to develop sustainable forest plans that
reflect local values, incorporate input and
provide robust opportunities for mean-
ingful engagement. We support the Forest
Service’s plan to establish a local team
and would urge this be done as quickly as
possible to maintain the forward momen-
tum the BIC has achieved in these last
two years. By working together through
this intergovernmental forum, the BIC
can serve as a bridge between the Forest
Service and communities surrounding the
Blue Mountains to help repair and build
trust, provide clarity about the planning
process and plan components, comple-
ment Forest Service public outreach
efforts and bring continual feedback to
the Forest Service regarding ways to
improve the process or products.
While there will still be passion
around important issues, we feel that
through the joint efforts between the
BIC and the Forest Service we have built
important relationships and developed
key recommendations that address much
of the previous controversy. This has built
a solid foundation to move forward now
with forest plan revision.
Vast progress has been made in the
Blue Mountains. We look forward to
working together with the Forest Service
to steward these national forest lands
in a way that provides for sustainable
land management while considering the
communities’ economic and social-cul-
tural health.
———
Susan Roberts is a Wallowa County
commissioner and a co-convener of the
Blues Intergovernmental Council.
JIM
CRITCHLEY
OTHER VIEWS
Stay
safe this
wildfire
season
T
he front page of the East Orego-
nian on July 14 had a photo of a
fire in Hermiston. A few hours
before that photo was taken, a fire that
started in a field extended to a barn.
The wet spring and buildup of
grasses means we have a lot of fuel
for fires, so as we move into the hot
season and the winds begin to blow,
we will be facing a very dangerous
season.
During this season, you can help
your firefighters by keeping up with
your property maintenance and being
aware of how fire travels. When the
wind is calm, fire travels by directly
coming in contact with more flamma-
ble material. When the wind is blow-
ing, fire travels by direct contact and
burning embers.
To limit fire travel by direct contact
we should:
• Move any flammable material
away from buildings. This includes
mulch, flammable plants, firewood
piles and anything else that can burn.
• Keep lawns mowed and plants
watered. “Lean and green” should be
motto during this season.
• Trim trees and bushes to limit the
chances of fire traveling into the tree.
• Look to replace plants close to
buildings with less flammable plants.
• Keep at least 30 feet of defensible
space (lean and green) around struc-
tures
To limit fire travel by burning
embers we should:
• Clean roofs and gutters of dead
leaves and debris that could catch fire.
• Cover exterior attic vents with
metal mesh wire no larger than 1/8th
inch.
• Remove anything flammable
stored underneath decks and porches.
Together we can make our commu-
nity safer. If everyone does a little,
no one needs to be overwhelmed by
doing a lot. Whether you live in the
urban area or the rural, a little effort
today may save a lot of work later.
You can reach us at 541-276-1442
and schedule a meeting if you desire
more info. Stay safe.
———
Jim Critchley is the chief of the Pend-
leton Fire Department.
A closer look at Initiative Petition 17
ANDREW
CLARK
A SLICE OF LIFE
ell, it looks like we are going to
have gun control on the ballot
in November as Initiative Peti-
tion 17 — and I say, “good for us.”
It has been well thought out. It does
not ban assault weapons or take away the
right to own guns, but it does ban high-ca-
pacity magazines, which are at the heart
of mass slaughter. (Note — the magazine
is the place where the cartridges are held
before being detonated in the firing cham-
ber.)
Let’s take a closer look at how this
could make a difference.
First, by not banning assault weapons
it dodges the divisive issue of the Second
Amendment to “keep and bear arms.” It
also eliminates the problem of defining
an “assault weapon” and the potential
for manufacturers to simply make small
modifications of the weapon so the defini-
tion does not fit it anymore, which defeats
the ban.
Second, the normal magazine capac-
ity of most hunting rifles is five rounds
— there are no high-capacity magazines
for standard hunting rifles — and what is
now called an “assault weapon” could be
limited to five rounds, too. The design of
the rifle would change so that no external
magazine could be used — just the five
W
cartridges inside the weapon itself like
hunting rifles. Thereby, an assault rifle
is simply the way the weapon looks but
not how it functions. The assault weapon
is the same as a standard hunting rifle
except that it looks different, which is a
very important factor for many owners of
these weapons, and the Second Amend-
ment is not violated.
Third, by disallowing high-capacity
magazines, the assault weapon becomes
no different from a normal hunting rifle.
Five cartridges only — no more 50 shot
magazines when the trigger is simply
pulled 50 times in 50 seconds for mass
slaughter of human targets. If someone
claims they “need” high-capacity maga-
zines for hunting, the response is that they
instead need instruction on how to hunt.
In “hunting,” you do not simply spray the
woods with 50 shots in case there might
be a deer somewhere out there.
Fourth, for making this law work well,
there should be a buy-back program for
current assault weapons that can use
high-capacity magazines and for the
magazines themselves. Give the people
who have them a chance to voluntarily
comply with the law and the cash to buy
the new five-cartridge capacity assault
rifle.
Fifth, the law. The statute — not the
administrative rules — must have real
teeth, and here are some suggestions.
1. Possession of an assault weapon that
can use a high-capacity magazine, as is
now the case, is an automatic five years
in prison, no questions asked. There
was a chance to return it in the buy-back
program. 2. Possession of a high-capac-
ity magazine is an automatic one year in
prison for each cartridge capacity — 10
cartridges equal 10 years in prison. Fifty
cartridges equal 50 years in prison, which
could be a life sentence. Note that these
ideas are for possession, not necessarily
use. The goal is prevention of possible
usage. This may be harsh, but isn’t the
slaughter of a classroom of school kids in
Uvalde rather harsh too?
Am I anti-gun? No, I grew up with
guns and hunted deer and squirrels in
Michigan — but I did not hunt people.
We sighted-in our rifles very carefully
and my dad had a rule — one shot only,
to the head, so there is no suffering by the
animal.
The Supreme Court recently banned
abortion because it was not mentioned in
the Constitution, which was written in the
time of muskets. Assault weapons are not
mentioned in the Constitution either and
it is reasonable to assume that what was
being dealt with was the right to keep and
bear muskets.
So perhaps we should, in Oregon,
begin a new industry manufacturing
muskets and then as an alternative to the
buy-back program, trade them for the
assault weapons. I’m sure the current
Supreme Court, in all their ignorant
wisdom, would then jump at the chance
to be right in line with when the Constitu-
tion was composed.
———
Dr. Andrew Clark is a livestock veteri-
narian with both domestic and international
work experience who lives in Pendleton.