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About Baker City herald. (Baker City, Or.) 1990-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 2019)
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2019 BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A HOWARD BUTTE IN WALLOWA COUNTY Eye In The Sky: High-tech camera on the lookout for wildfire smoke By Bill Bradshaw Wallowa County Chieftain HOWARD BUTTE — Fire detection has come a long way in the 75 years since Smokey Bear was fi rst cre- ated to remind us, “Only you can prevent forest fi res.” In fact, it now includes technology almost unimagi- nable when Smokey was created in 1944. The fi rst Smokey was an imaginary bear for an ad campaign, but after an orphaned bear cub was found after a 1950 wild- fi re in New Mexico, he was adopted by the USDA Forest Service to add life to the wild- fi re prevention effort. In his original day, fi re look- out towers and public reports were the prime detection efforts. Today, alongside a wooden lookout tower built in 1946 on 4,319-foot-tall How- ard Butte stands a 110-foot- tall metal tower topped by a 360-degree, high-defi nition camera. It gives a 20-mile view to detect smoke visible from its perch in western Wallowa County, said Matt Howard, unit forester for the Wallowa Unit of the Oregon Department of Forestry. The towers stand on 2 acres of land deeded to the ODF by what was then the Bowman-Hicks Lumber Co. for the purpose of establish- ing a lookout. Also there is communications equipment serving the ODF, state and county agencies powered by a line from Pacifi c Power and Light, Howard said. The ACTi i96 PTZ camera completes a full rotation in about 15 minutes. If smoke is detected, an alert is sent via a microwave signal west to Mount Emily and down to La Grande, where the signal is relayed to the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center in Prineville. Once notifi ed of an alert, the center views the image sent by the camera and then contacts the appropriate response units to check it out. Howard said that since the camera was installed in July, there have been several alerts but all have proven to be legal burns. Although the state-of- Oregon Department of Forestry photo This close-up shows the high-defi nition fi re-detection camera mounted on a 110-foot tower atop Howard Butte Bill Bradshaw / Wallowa County Chieftain in Wallowa County. The camera relays views showing Matt Howard, unit forester for the Oregon Department of Forestry’s Wallowa Unit, smoke to the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Cen- looks at a view transmitted from the fi re-detection camera on Howard Butte on a com- ter in Prineville. puter in his offi ce in Wallowa. “I can’t say enough about it. I’d like to get three or four more in the county.” — Paul Karvoski, fi re chief for Wallowa County and the city of Enterprise, talking about a camera on Howard Butte the-art camera is the latest technology, it’s by no means a “silver bullet” and they won’t replace human eyes, he said. “We just like having it in our tool box of different tools” for detecting fi res, Howard said. That “tool box” includes a partnership the ODF has de- veloped with the U.S. Forest Service, Wallowa County and other state agencies. Paul Karvoski, fi re chief for the county and the city of En- terprise, works closely with the ODF and hopes to see additional cameras located in the county. “I can’t say enough about it,” he said on the one on Howard Butte. “I’d like to get three or four more in the county.” In particular, he’d like to see one established on Court- ney Butte overlooking Troy, which was nearly destroyed by the Grizzly Fire in August 2015. Nathan Goodrich, U.S. Forest Service fi re manage- ment offi cer for the Wallowa Valley Ranger District of the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest based in Joseph, said there are no such cameras in his area. Although there are lookout towers, they are lack- ing in basic infrastructure required for a camera, such as power lines, cables, hardware and line-of-sight connections to which the microwave dishes can transmit. “We’ve been looking at those (cameras) for some time now, but they’re pretty spendy to get into,” he said. “They’ve shown to be pretty successful.” But Goodrich is relatively satisfi ed with his lookout towers that are manned dur- ing the peak fi re season from June to October. “They’re invaluable,” he said. “You can’t talk to a cam- era and get more informa- tion.” Goodrich said he’d like to see a camera on Mount Ireland on the Grant-Baker County line “if we come into a little extra money.” For now, Howard Butte has Northeast Oregon’s only fi re detection camera. Howard Oregon Department of Forestry photo The Howard Butte camera is the only one operating in Northeast Oregon, but fi re of- fi cials would like to add others. said another is planned in Umatilla County, likely by next spring. Another is being considered for Baker County. He said such cameras are used in other areas of the state and other states, though he didn’t have statistics on those. But the cameras don’t come cheap. The one on Howard Butte, since there already was a communications tower there, cost about $60,000, Howard said. To erect one where there is no tower, the price increases by another $50,000 to $75,000. Howard said his unit has an annual budget of about $900,000, about half of which comes from a landowner as- sessment and half from the state’s general fund. Oregon even has an insurance policy with Lloyds of London to cover fi re-suppression costs — the only state in the Union with such a policy. How- ard said he believes that’s because Lloyds determined Oregon a “good risk.” “We don’t ever run out of money because we have so many layers of funding to cover it,” he said. Court ruling limits police questioning during traffic stops By Rebecca Ellis Oregon Public Broadcasting A recent ruling by the Oregon Supreme Court has banned a controversial polic- ing practice: No longer can offi cers use a broken taillight or a failure to signal as a justi- fi cation for scouting a driver’s car for illegal guns or drugs. The ruling instructs offi cers to stick to questions “reason- ably related” to the reason the driver was pulled over, effectively ending law enforce- ment’s ability to turn a routine traffi c stop into a fi shing expedition for a more serious offense. Law enforcement agen- cies are in various stages of reviewing the ruling and creating new instructions for offi cers. While the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Offi ce and the Salem Police Department said they were both awaiting guidance from their district and city attorneys, respective- ly, police departments in Bea- verton and Gresham, as well as the Oregon State Police, were working on a training bulletin. The Portland Police Bureau said it is reviewing its training protocols and updat- ing offi cers. While many of these law enforcement agencies have now told offi cers to keep the conversation during these stops related to the traffi c infraction, they say it’s clear the ruling grants some leeway if an offi cer is in danger or has a strong reason to believe a crime has occurred. “If a deputy pulls someone over for a traffi c violation, walks up, smells the odor of alcohol and sees blood shot eyes, poor coordination in their hands, that would establish reasonable suspicion for a DUI,” said Sgt. Danny DiPietro, a spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff’s Offi ce. “Then they can inquire about that crime.” But no longer can offi cers randomly segue into questions about the presence of guns or drugs. “Each offi cer or deputy in this case are going to have to change the way they conduct their traffi c stops on a day-to- day basis,” said DiPietro. “It’s very signifi cant.” The decision stems from the case of Mario Arreola-Botello, who was pulled over by a Bea- verton Police offi cer in 2015 for failing to signal a turn. Arreola-Botello consented to a search of his car, leading offi cers to discover a package of methamphetamine on the fl oor. Arreola-Botello’s attorney, Joshua Crowther, argued the search of his car was uncon- stitutional because it was spawned by questions that went outside the scope of what police should be allowed to ask during a routine traffi c stop. A trial court and the Oregon Court of Appeals had previ- ously rejected the argument. Both courts cited precedent that offi cers could go off-topic during an “unavoidable lull” in the interaction, which usu- ally occurs while the driver was busy searching for their license and registration. The Oregon Supreme Court saw it differently. “Put simply, an ‘unavoid- able lull’ does not create an opportunity for an offi cer to ask unrelated questions, un- less the offi cer can justify the inquiry on other grounds,” the decision states. Civil rights advocates say this decision will likely provide needed protections to people of color, who evidence indicates are far more likely to see rou- tine traffi c stops devolve into an investigation. “This decision closes a loophole in the protection of our constitutional rights that police had been using to conduct warrantless searches,” said Leland Baxter-Neal, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Oregon. “And those searches had disproportionately tar- “Youʼll love the work we do. I guarantee it.” - JR geted people of color.” A report released last year analyzing Portland’s traffi c stop data collection from 2016 found Native Americans and black drivers “were searched at signifi cantly higher rates when compared to overall stop rates.” The trend is not confi ned to Oregon. In an amicus brief supporting the defense, the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association and the Oregon Justice Resource Cen- ter pointed to an analysis of 55 million traffi c stops that found people of color were more than twice as likely to fall victim to this kind of escalatory policing as the average driver. While, overall, drivers were searched during a traffi c stop 3.4% of the time, black drivers were searched 7.6% of the time, and Hispanic drivers were searched 8.7% of the time. Bobbin Singh, the executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center, called the Supreme Court’s decision “symbolically incredibly important for communities of color,” as it provides assur- ances that the worst-case scenario for a traffi c stop is a traffi c ticket and not an arrest. “As a person of color, what I’ll say is, that’s what white people’s expectations are,” he said. “People of color, when they’re stopped by the police, there’s not really any expecta- tion of where the limits are.” NO MORE GUTTER CLEANING, OR YOUR MONEY BACK – GUARANTEED! 0 % AND! 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