A16
LOCAL/STATE
Wallowa County Chieftain
Railroad company
fi nishes river work
OUT OF THE PAST
Compiled by Cheryl Jenkins
100 YEARS AGO
May 4, 1922
The railroad company has
fi nished its work on the chan-
nel of the river between Enter-
prise and Lostine. The stream
was restored to its old channel
in one place and a new chan-
nel was created in another,
to protect the railroad grade
from washing in high water.
Nina Warnock took her
class of girls in the Methodist
Sunday school on a picnic last
Saturday, at the river west of
town. W. P. Warnock went as
chauff eur, and found room for
a dozen small girls in his car.
A road grader has been
grading and smoothing the
dirt streets around town. In
a few years these streets will
be graveled and curbing will
be put in. Improvements are
being made this spring on
many parkings and lawns.
Every parking graded and
seeded and planted to trees
marks a forward step in the
town.
75 YEARS AGO
May 8, 1947
The grand jury has
indicted Albert Matti, driver
of the car in which George
Zacharias was recently killed,
with a charge of negligent
homicide.
Extensive improvements
are planned at the Edelweiss
hall at Wallowa Lake. The
upstairs will be made into
several apartments for year-
round occupancy, and several
cabins will be erected.
At the special meeting of
the membership of the Wal-
lowa County Grain grow-
ers, capitalization of the orga-
nization was increased to
$150,000 of common stock
and $100,000 of preferred
stock.
50 YEARS AGO
May 4, 1972
Top individual honors at
the Wallowa FFA Father-
Son Awards Banquet went
to: Steve Woodward, John
Reish, Brian Temple and
Tom Makin.
The
men’s
Thurs-
day night bowling league
closed out the season with
their annual awards ban-
quet. Those receiving tro-
phies were: Wes Conrad for
high game of 245; Alfred
Zollman and Larry Jones
for high series awards for a
608 series; Fred Carlson’s
high average of 171; and
Terry Hulse, most improved
bowler.
Betty Jennings Ward, for-
merly of Joseph was killed
and Allyn Fisher of Wal-
lowa was seriously injured
when the cars they were
driving crashed head-on at
the top of Asotin hill about
fi ve miles south of Asotin.
25 YEARS AGO
May 1, 1997
The annual Joseph
Junior Rodeo featured
action from 148 young
cowboys and cowgirls
from eastern Oregon coun-
ties. Zack McVay of Enter-
prise and Ethan Lowe of
Imnaha tied as all-around
pee wee boy.
The EHS golf team,
coached by Dick Quinn,
claimed its sixth consecu-
tive Oregon Class 2A cham-
pionship in the tournament
at Pumpkin Ridge Country
Club near Beaverton.
Record-breaking perfor-
mances by Shannon Ables
of Enterprise highlighted
the Jo-Hi Invitational track
meet held Saturday. Ables
dominated sprint events,
setting new meet records
in the 100 and 200 meter
runs.
Six women have formed
a fi ber arts cooperative,
The UnCommon Thread,
located on Main Street
across from the courthouse.
They are: Yasha Hollady,
Loring Lamb, Julie Lamb,
Sheri Adams, Sally Brandt
and Marya Nowakowski.
Oregon Court of Appeals overturns
$1 billion timber verdict against state
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — The Ore-
gon Court of Appeals on
Wednesday, April 27, struck
down a $1 billion jury ver-
dict that was intended to
compensate 14 county gov-
ernments for insuffi cient
logging on state forestlands.
A law that requires Ore-
gon to manage the forest-
land for the “greatest per-
manent value” does not
create an “immutable prom-
ise” to maximize revenue
for the counties, the appeals
court ruled.
The appellate court said
that “historically, ‘value’
has myriad defi nitions,
some of which could relate
to revenue production and
others that do not relate to
revenue production.”
The statute also directs
that forests be managed for
the “greatest permanent
value” to the state, rather
than to the counties, which
means the text falls short of
the “clear and unmistakable
intent” of making a contrac-
tual promise, the ruling said.
For that reason, a state
judge in Linn County
wrongly refused to dis-
miss the class action law-
suit against the state govern-
ment, the ruling said.
John DiLorenzo, attor-
ney for the counties, vowed
to challenge the ruling
before the Oregon Supreme
Court because it “does not
align with the law or the evi-
dence we presented at trial.”
The ruling doesn’t take
into account the economic
and social damage that rural
communities have suff ered
after the state government
changed its logging pol-
icies without input from
the counties, he said in an
email.
Oregon’s leaders have
decided the timber econ-
omy is inconsistent with
their “urban values,” but
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The Oregon Court of Appeals has overturned a $1 billion jury verdict against the state
government that sought to compensate counties for insuffi cient logging on state forests.
the resulting problems
must be addressed to bridge
the urban-rural divide,
DiLorenzo said.
“The lack of productive
employment in these com-
munities has led to sub-
stance abuse, violence, lack
of educational opportunity
and general hopelessness
and despair,” he said.
After a monthlong trial in
2019, a jury determined the
state of Oregon violated a
contract requiring it to max-
imize revenue from forest-
lands donated by the coun-
ties in the 1930s and ‘40s.
State forests must be
managed for the “greatest
permanent value” by law,
but the 14 counties claimed
the Oregon Department
of Forestry impermissibly
expanded that defi nition
beyond its original intent.
Under language adopted
in the late 1990s, the “great-
est permanent value” was
changed to include envi-
ronmental
and
recre-
ational considerations that
restricted timber harvests,
shortchanging the 14 coun-
ties and tax districts within
them of revenues, the plain-
tiff s claimed.
Attorneys for Oregon
appealed the jury verdict on
the grounds that the coun-
ties didn’t have an enforce-
able contract that dictated
how state forest offi cials
must manage the nearly
700,000 acres of donated
property.
The law governing state
forestlands pertains to “mat-
ters of statewide concern”
that cannot be challenged in
court by the counties, state
attorneys claimed. As polit-
ical subdivisions of the Ore-
gon government, the coun-
ties cannot sue over such
state policies.
Federal
environmen-
tal laws enacted since the
property was donated, such
as the Endangered Spe-
cies Act, also eff ectively
limit how much timber can
be extracted from state for-
estlands, according to state
attorneys.
The counties claimed
that Oregon forestry offi -
cials weren’t obligated to
create habitat for feder-
ally protected species that
resulted in logging restric-
tions. In any case, the coun-
ties said the state gov-
ernment can alter forest
management policies but
must still pay them damages
for breaching the contract.
Counties provide health
care and other functions
under contract with the
state government, so they
must be able to rely on such
agreements being enforce-
able, the plaintiff s said. If
the counties had known
the state government could
re-interpret the contract’s
terms at will, they’d never
have donated such huge
amounts of forestlands.
The appeals court rul-
ing does nothing to allevi-
ate the hardships that for-
est mismanagement created
for rural communities, said
Roger Nyquist, a commis-
sioner for Linn County, the
lead plaintiff .
Aside from economic
issues, the state’s forest
management approach has
caused these communities
to live with the danger of
deadly wildfi res, Nyquist
said in an email.