A14
STATE/LOCAL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, June 2, 2021
Merkley to push for more aggressive forest management
have encroached over the
past century or so in places
that historically were dom-
inated by ponderosa pines
and tamaracks, in part due to
the exclusion of fi re, which
historically killed most of
the fi rs when they were rel-
atively small.
Ponderosa pines and
tamaracks, which gener-
ally grow in widely spaced
stands rather than in thickets,
are much more resistant to
wildfi res than the grand and
white fi rs that have become
much more prevalent over
the past several decades.
Although Merkley pro-
motes the additional $40
million for collaborative
projects, his ultimate goal is
much more ambitious.
He said he believes the
federal government needs
to spend at least $1 billion
more each year on forest res-
toration work nationwide.
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
WASHINGTON — U.S.
Sen. Jeff Merkley said last
week that he will lobby
the Biden administration
to spend at least $1 billion
more per year for logging,
prescribed burning and other
work designed to make fed-
eral forests in Oregon and
elsewhere less vulnerable
to wildfi res during a future
when climate change is
likely to heighten that threat.
“Forests are the heart of
Oregon’s identity,” Merkley,
a Democrat, said during an
online press conference on
Thursday, May 27. “We have
got to do a lot to restore our
forests, to make much more
substantial investments in
forest management.”
Merkley said he hopes
to push his campaign for
more aggressive forest man-
agement from his position
as chairman of the Senate
Interior, Environment and
Related Agencies Subcom-
mittee, which he has held
since February 2021.
Merkley convened an
appropriations hearing on
May 26 where he advocated
for the federal government
to boost spending on forest
management.
Vicki Christiansen, chief
of the U.S. Forest Service,
the federal agency that man-
ages much of the public
forests in Northeast Ore-
gon, testifi ed before the
subcommittee.
Merkley said one of his
chief goals is to double fed-
eral spending, from $40
million to $80 million, for
“collaborative” projects on
national forests.
Wallowa County Chieftain, File
U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley speaks at a Lostine town hall in February 2020. The Oregon Democrat
said last week that he will lobby the Biden administration to spend at least $1 billion more
per year for logging, prescribed burning and other work designed to make federal forests
in Oregon and elsewhere less vulnerable to wildfi res during a future when climate change is
likely to heighten that threat.
Those are projects that
Merkley said are designed
to bring together traditional
“rivals,” such as environ-
mental groups and timber
industry representatives, to
work together to promote
work that both support.
Merkley said that in the
2018 federal farm bill he
included authorization to
double spending on forest
collaboratives — which he
described as the “antidote to
the timber wars.”
But the next step —
indeed, the vital step — is to
actually include that money
in the Forest Service’s
budget.
During the May 26 hear-
ing before the subcommittee,
Merkley urged Christiansen
to include that money in the
agency’s budget request for
the fi scal year that starts Oct.
1, 2021.
“This is an amazing
opportunity,” Merkley said.
Backlog of projects
Two collaboratives are
underway in the Blue Moun-
tains, one in the southern
part of the range, the other
in the northern section, on
the Wallowa-Whitman and
Umatilla national forests.
Last year, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture
allocated $2.7 for the lat-
ter collaborative during the
current fi scal year, which
started Oct. 1, 2020.
Forest Service offi -
cials have said that the $2.7
million will help the two
national forests start chip-
ping away at a backlog of
projects that are ready as
soon as money is available.
Although the details of
the work vary depending on
the area of the Blue Moun-
tains involved, the general
concept is to cut some of
the trees, primarily small-
er-diameter ones, that are
growing in higher densi-
ties than was historically the
case in the northern Blues,
Steve Hawkins deputy fi re
staff offi cer for the Wal-
lowa-Whitman, said in a
2020 interview.
Those smaller trees, most
notably grand and white fi rs,
‘We have to do more’
One way to make that
money available, Merkley
said, is by ensuring that the
federal government does not
return to the practice known
as “fi re borrowing.”
That term refers to the
federal government transfer-
ring money from Forest Ser-
vice and other agency bud-
gets to cover fi refi ghting
costs, leaving less money for
projects designed to reduce
the size of wildfi res and thus
the cost to fi ght them.
Fire borrowing was nec-
essary in several years over
the past decade as millions
of acres burned annually
across the West.
Merkley
said
that
although Congress ended
fi re borrowing in 2018, the
changes made then will
expire at the end of the cur-
rent fi scal year — Sept.
30, 2021 — unless it’s
reauthorized.
“We cannot go back to
the fi re borrowing of the
past,” Merkley said.
During the press con-
ference, Merkley recalled
driving the length of West-
ern Oregon in September
2020 following the fi res that
burned more than 1 million
acres, destroyed towns such
as Detroit, east of Salem,
and killed 11 people.
“It was unforgettable to
me,” Merkley said of the
experience of driving for
hours and never escaping the
cloying smoke that persisted
in much of Oregon for more
than a week. “I’ve never
seen anything like this.”
Merkley also talked
about the 2020 fi res during
Wednesday’s
appropria-
tions hearing before his
committee.
“Whether they have lost a
loved one, business, or home
to a wildfi re, had to pack
their most valuable belong-
ings and anxiously awaited
go orders, or were trapped
inside by a thick blanket of
hazardous smoke, nearly
every family in the West
has been impacted by wild-
fi res in one way or another,”
he said. “It’s impossible to
thrive if your community
is being ravaged by these
blazes. That’s why any plan
to boost America’s infra-
structure, create jobs, and
protect lives and our econ-
omy must include responsi-
ble forest management strat-
egies that can help us stay
ahead of wildfi re risks. Any-
thing less will be a grave mis-
take that will leave commu-
nities scrambling in the face
of an emergency, threaten
American lives and live-
lihoods, and require more
taxpayer-funded recovery
projects.”
Merkley said the threat of
severe fi re seasons is likely
to increase due to climate
change.
“Fire seasons are getting
longer, forests and getting
drier,” he said. “We have to
do more on the forest man-
agement end.”
Joseph City Council diffi culties still unresolved
Another executive
session to be held
Contact Jennifer Cooney • jcooney@wallowa.com • 541-805-9630
By BILL BRADSHAW
Wallowa County Chieftain
209 NW First St., Enterprise OR • 541-426-4567 • wallowa.com
JOSEPH — No names
were named regarding accu-
sations of harassment during
the Joseph City Council’s
most recent emergency
meeting and executive ses-
sion, Thursday, May 27, and
another executive session
was scheduled for Thursday,
June 3.
Interim city Administra-
tor Brock Eckstein had said
May 20 he expected to be
able to identify those respon-
sible and conclude investi-
gations into allegations of
harassment of city employ-
ees, but was unable to Thurs-
day because of procedural
Baum
Eckstein
problems. He requested the
added executive session to
allow for proper procedures
to be followed in the com-
plaints of harassment aired
by city offi cials, employees
or staff members, as speci-
fi ed under Oregon law that
allows for such sessions.
During the executive ses-
sion, Eckstein and the coun-
cil received advice from city
Attorney Wyatt Baum, which
led to a request during open
session for the next execu-
tive session.
Mayor Pro-tem Kathy
Bingham — who was fi ll-
ing in for the absent Mayor
Belinda Buswell — said the
executive session will take
place at 6:30 p.m. June 3 fol-
lowing a budget hearing and
preceding the regular June
council meeting.
Also during the open por-
tion of Thursday’s meeting,
Eckstein presented a letter
to the council submitted by
local merchant Robert Lamb.
After getting the council’s
assent, Eckstein read it into
the record.
Lamb’s letter stated, in
part, “I specifi cally would
like to praise the work by
city Parks Director Dennis
Welch. Please listen carefully
to all comments related to the
subject at this meeting.”
Welch went on leave
March 22, saying he’d been
subject to stress and “gas-
lighting” resulting from
harassment he’d experi-
enced. He returned to work
May 16 after meeting with
Eckstein.
In another matter that
was discussed during the
executive session, the coun-
cil during the open ses-
sion directed Eckstein and
Baum to negotiate a separa-
tion agreement with the prior
Administrator/Recorder
Larry Braden.
Braden resigned April
16 citing “harassment by
members of the current City
Council.” He has declined
to specify the nature of the
harassment or by whom he
alleges it occurred. After
meeting with Eckstein on
May 20, Eckstein said Bra-
den didn’t want to be more
specifi c than he was in his
resignation letter.
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