A10
Wallowa County Chieftain
STATE
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
Wyden welcomes end to proposal
to reduce care for area veterans
medical center.
“What I heard earlier
this month from veterans
in Umatilla, Union, Wal-
lowa, Baker and Morrow
counties was their deep
and well-justifi ed con-
cern about how these pro-
posals would undercut the
quality and accessible care
they earned with their ser-
vice to our country,” said
Wyden, who also wrote a
letter last month to the VA
detailing the rural Oregon
veterans’ concerns. “The
end to the process that
could have led to poorer
and more distant care for
Eastern Oregon veterans
is good news, and I’ll con-
tinue to advocate for these
rural veterans to ensure
these ill-considered pro-
posals don’t resurface.”
Central Oregon Fire Information/Submitted photo
The Rosland Road Fire, northwest of La Pine in July 2020.
Survey fi nds wildfi re fears
eased after spring rains
Signifi cant rainfall this
spring noticeably greened
up the Oregon countryside
and appears to have calmed
nerves across the state,
according to a survey about
wildfi re danger conducted in
June by the Oregon Values
and Beliefs Center.
The survey, conducted
from June 2-11, found that
60% of respondents felt
wildfi re was a threat to their
local community. In May
2021, that number was 68%.
The wildfi re perception
survey interviewed 1,446
Oregon residents 18 years
or older. The survey sought
to gauge how concerned
Oregon residents are head-
ing into what offi cials have
warned could be a danger-
ous wildfi re season.
In mid-May Gov. Kate
Brown warned that this
year’s fi re season could be
extreme due to drought and
climate change. But May
great concern about the loss
of public forestland.
“We already lost so many
trees to logging, we should
try to save as many as we
can,” said Mandee Seeley, a
Deschutes County resident.
Another
Deschutes
County resident, Robin
Johnson, said the best way to
deal with fi res is for fi re offi -
cials to attack and extinguish
them instead of letting forest
fi res burn naturally.
“The fi res can quickly get
out of control so they need
to be managed,” said John-
son. “In addition, the smoke
impacts larger portions sep-
arate from the fi re causing
respiratory issues, and the
fi re may take out habitat.”
Survey results show that
75% of Oregonians agree
with Johnson. The remain-
ing respondents lean toward
or agree with, the idea of
allowing a wildfi re to burn
out naturally.
A respondent from Polk
County, who declined to
be named, was more blunt
when it comes to managing
wildfi re.
“We just can’t let our
state burn to the ground,”
she said.
Just how many Orego-
nians have had to evacu-
ate due to wildfi re? Accord-
ing to the survey, 19% of
respondents said they have
evacuated their homes due
to wildfi re. Some 43% of
respondents said they have
an evacuation plan in place.
The Oregon Values and
Beliefs Center is an inde-
pendent, nonpartisan organi-
zation. The center partnered
with Pamplin Media Group
and the EO Media Group,
which owns The Bulletin.
The survey has a margin
of error of about 2.5%.
and June were relatively cool
and wet in the Pacifi c North-
west, lowering drought lev-
els across the region.
Oregon’s only remain-
ing swath of exceptional
drought — the highest level
of drought according to the
U.S. Drought Monitor —
is located in an area strad-
dling Crook and Jeff erson
counties.
“Considering
the
extremely wet spring, it is
not a major surprise that
when asked about their area
of Oregon, Oregonians’
concern for wildfi re has
decreased a bit since May
of last year,” according to a
statement from the polling
group.
While the fear of fi re dan-
ger in the short term has
been slightly lowered, 88%
of respondents expect wild-
fi res to increase over the next
10 years. Nine out of 10 Ore-
gonians (92%) see wildfi res
as a serious threat to “people
living in Oregon.”
However, not as many
people believe they are in
harm’s way. Just six out of 10
respondents (60%) see wild-
fi re as a very or somewhat
serious threat in their local
community. Five out of 10
people (53%) see wildfi res
as a direct threat to them-
selves and their families.
When asked about their
greatest concerns over the
impacts of fi re, most Orego-
nians (83%) said they were
worried about the health
impacts of smoke. Loss of
wildlife and fi sh habitat reg-
istered as the second-high-
est level of concern among
Oregonians, with 82% say-
ing they had great or moder-
ate concern.
Eight out of 10 (79%) of
respondents had moderate or
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By MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
RD
WASHINGTON, D.C.
— U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
announced the proposal
to make the Jonathan M.
Wainwright Memorial VA
Medical Center in Walla
Walla, Washington, an out-
patient clinic is coming to
an end.
Wyden in a press
release Wednesday, June
29, said he welcomed the
news that Senate Veterans’
Aff airs Committee Chair-
man Jon Tester, D-Mon-
tana, U.S. Sen. Patty Mur-
ray, D-Washington, and a
bipartisan group of sena-
tors will block the veter-
ans Asset and Infrastruc-
ture Review Commission’s
proposals to reclassify the
Walla Walla veterans facil-
ity as a community-based
outpatient clinic and to
move its 31-bed residen-
tial rehabilitation treat-
ment program 180 miles
north of Walla Walla to
Spokane.
This comes as Wyden
has been pressing the
Veterans Administration
through town halls he
hosted for Eastern Oregon
veterans, their families
and veterans service pro-
viders to ask top VA offi -
cials about proposed VA
cuts and service changes
that would have gone to
the AIR Commission for
consideration.
Wyden shared East-
ern Oregon veterans’ con-
cerns at a June 4 town hall
about VA recommenda-
tions to the Walla Walla VA
TH
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