JOSEPH GIRLS CLAIM DISTRICT TITLE
JOSEPH BOYS TAKE DISTRICT SECOND PLACE
PAGE A11
PAGE A12
Enterprise, Oregon
Wallowa.com
134th Year, No. 46
Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Chamber honors distinguished residents
200 attend 40th
annual awards
banquet in
Enterprise
By Bill Bradshaw
Wallowa County Chieftain
About
200
people
showed up Sunday, Feb.
23, to applaud the recipients
of nine awards bestowed
on members of the Wal-
lowa County community
at the 40th annual Wallowa
County Chamber of Com-
merce Awards Banquet
at the Cloverleaf Hall in
Enterprise.
Kellee Sheehy served as
master of ceremonies for
the gathering, explaining
the Wizard of Oz theme of
“there’s no place like home”
as particularly appropriate to
the county.
“We have everything
we’ve always wanted here,”
she said. “You don’t have
to go somewhere … where
there’s a Wal-Mart.”
Among
the
awards
bestowed was the new
Leader in Health Care
award. The award was new
this year, and honored three
physicians for their roles in
instigating, developing, pro-
viding high-quality health
care in the county.
“Today, we have 18 phy-
sicians in the county,” pre-
senter Mike Hayward said.
“That’s largely because
these physicians worked
with OHSU to develop an
intern program here years
ago. There is no other rural
community in Oregon with
a better health care system,
and these doctors were the
founders of that excellence.”
The recipients and their
years of service were Dr.
Lowell Euhus, 1972 to
2005; Dr. Scott Siebe, 1981
to 2013; and Dr. R. Devee
Boyd, 1989 to 2017.
Boyd also was the recip-
ient of the 2019 President’s
Award, sponsored by the
chamber. In presenting the
award, outgoing Chamber
President Jessie Cunning-
ham had numerous personal
stories of Boyd’s effect on
her life. Her doctor from
the age of 5, she recalled
him also serving as her bas-
ketball coach and that she
needed his annual OK on
physicals each year to play.
Cunningham went on to
receive the Past President’s
Award, sponsored by Com-
munity Bank.
Elwayne
Henderson,
of Henderson Logging in
Wallowa, was named 2019
Business Leader of the
See Banquet, Page A7
Bill Bradshaw
Dr. Devee Boyd, now retired, receives the President’s Award
for a lifetime of service in Wallowa County at the 40th annual
Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce Awards Banquet
Sunday, Feb. 23 at the Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise. Jessie
Cunningham, right, presented the award after telling her
personal stories of his eff ect on her life as a basketball coach,
adviser in her love life, adviser in parenting and as a spiritual
adviser, as well as his help as her lifelong physician.
NO CAP & TRADE BILL
Republicans exit
Oregon’s Senate
By Claire Withycombe,
Jake Thomas and
Sam Stites
Oregon Capital Bureau
SALEM — The Ore-
gon Senate, and effectively,
the legislature, came to an
abrupt stop Monday when
11 Senate Republicans
disappeared.
For the second time in
less than a year, they left the
Capitol to protest a bill to cut
the state’s greenhouse gas
emissions. Their departure
prevents the Senate from
taking votes.
‘DEMOCRATS
REFUSED TO WORK
WITH REPUBLICANS
AND DENIED EVERY
AMENDMENT THAT
WAS PRESENTED.
PAY ATTENTION
OREGON – THIS IS A
TRUE EXAMPLE OF
PARTISAN POLITICS.’
Senate Republican Leader
Herman Baertschiger
Jr., R-Grants Pass
The senators’ departure
— or, as Gov. Kate Brown
put it, a “taxpayer-funded
vacation” — was long antic-
ipated around the Capitol,
ever since lawmakers con-
vened in early February for a
35-day session that must by
law fi nish on March 8.
The walkout throws into
doubt the last two weeks of
this year’s session. It could
derail, or at least postpone,
proposals to ease the state’s
homelessness crisis, boost
funding for state troopers
and tighten the state’s gun
laws.
Brown told reporters that
the walkout jeopardizes leg-
islative work that could pro-
vide relief to the fl ood-rav-
aged Umatilla basin as well
as money for community
corrections.
The question, now, is
what happens next. If Sen-
ate President Peter Court-
ney, D-Salem, asks her to,
Brown can call on the Ore-
gon State Police to bring the
wayward legislators back.
But that’s an option Court-
ney has shown no appetite
for.
The governor could later
call a special session, which
would have no mandatory
end date, unlike the current
session. But if there is a spe-
cifi c game plan, Brown was
not telling.
“I think we want to let the
next couple weeks play out,”
said Nik Blosser, Brown’s
chief of staff. “And then
we’ll see.”
Republicans have been
grousing over Senate Bill
1530, which aims to cap and
shrink the state’s greenhouse
gas emissions by creating a
market for emissions allow-
ances, which are essentially
permits for companies to
pollute. The idea is to nudge
the economy away from fos-
sil fuels and toward renew-
able sources of energy.
In a rare move Monday
morning, Courtney took a
seat on the legislature’s bud-
get committee and voted to
advance it.
Senate
Republican
Leader Herman Baertsch-
iger, Jr., pointed at Court-
ney’s maneuver as the trig-
ger for the boycott Monday.
“Senator
Courtney’s
actions leave no other option
for Senate Republicans but
to boycott and deny quorum
because cap and trade is on
the way to the Senate fl oor,”
said the Grants Pass Repub-
lican in a statement. “Dem-
ocrats refused to work with
Republicans and denied
every amendment that was
presented. Pay attention
Oregon – this is a true exam-
ple of partisan politics.”
Republicans are also
upset
that
Democrats
blocked their request to refer
the proposal to voters, some-
thing that Democrats behind
the bill refuse to do.
Democrats, meanwhile,
counter that they have made
a slew of changes to the plan
since last year. For instance,
See Exit, Page A7
USFS LOGGING
NOT JUST FOR FAIR WEATHER
Ellen Morris Bishop
A late-winter/early spring load of logs heads for the mill along Ore. Highway 82.
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County
Chieftain
I
t’s easy to think of
logging as mostly a
fair-weather prac-
tice relegated to
the more balmy
weather. But winter
logging can offer a
better option for protec-
tion of ground-cover and
reduced soil compaction,
among other benefi ts.
Clint Foster, the U.S.
Forest Service silvicul-
turist for the Eagle Cap
Ranger District, noted
one logging project on
U.S. Forest Service
land currently under-
way is the Cold Canal
sale, on the Sheep Ridge
Divide off of the USFS
39 road. Integrated Bio-
mass Resources of Wal-
lowa purchased the 877-
acre sale that includes 2.7
mbf. Mbf is 1,000 times a
1-foot length of a board,
Ellen Morris Bishop
Winter snow cover helps protect ground cover, and
cold temperatures and frozen ground minimize soil
compaction from logging activities.
1 foot wide and 1 inch
thick.
Foster said that ground
conditions are the main
reason that a few proj-
ects are stipulated for
wintertime.
“Usually when we do
wintertime logging, it’s
to protect soil resources,”
he said. “If, during the
planning or the NEPA
(National Environmen-
tal Policy Act) phase of a
project, if it’s determined
that the detrimental soil
conditions are expected
to be greater than 20%,
then winter logging is
one mitigation factor we
use.”
He added that three
or four units of the Cold
Canal sale required win-
ter logging because of
impacted soils.
Foster also mentioned
botanical resources as a
reason for required win-
ter logging. For exam-
ple, he mentioned that the
275-acre Lostine Corri-
dor Public Safety Proj-
ect, which will allow for
about 4.6 mbf of tim-
ber removal has a certain
amount of wintertime
logging because of the
presence of the Moon-
wort plant.
Although they are not
federally listed species,
the plant is on the Region
6 sensitive species list,
and identifi ed as an out-
standing
remarkable
botanical value in the
1993 Lostine Wild and
Scenic River Plan. Also,
logging in the popular
tourist area is restricted
See Logging, Page A7