LOCAL & STATE
SATURDAY, MAY 30, 2020
BAKER CITY HERALD — 5A
Summer of struggle: Fires and the virus Wolves
By Gary A. Warner
For the Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon has to prepare for
a possible second spike of
COVID-19 in the fall, fi ght
wildfi res while not spreading
the infection to crews, and do
it with budgets slashed by the
state’s dire fi nances, lawmak-
ers were told Wednesday.
The hearing by the House
Interim Committee on Veter-
ans and Emergency Prepared-
ness was cast as a time out for
state agencies to tell legisla-
tors how they have dealt with
the coronavirus pandemic and
what they plan to do going
forward.
What specifi c equipment,
training and planning do state
agencies need as “we fi nd the
time to put Humpty Dumpty
back together again?” said
Rep. Paul Evans, D-Mon-
mouth, chair of the committee.
The committee cannot work
on bills during the interim
between sessions, but it can
take testimony to help shape
future legislation. Though
the 2021 session doesn’t start
until January, Gov. Kate
Brown is expected to call a
special session within the next
few months to deal with a
projected shortfall of nearly $3
billion due to cratering state
revenues caused by thousands
of closed businesses and mass
layoffs that resulted from
shutting the state down to try
and suppress the spread of the
deadly virus that has killed
more than 100,000 people
in the United States since
February.
Brown has asked state
agencies to come up with a
plan to cut 17% of their cur-
rent budgets. It’s a baseline for
discussions with the Legis-
lature on how to save some
areas from the chopping block
while deepening cuts in other
areas or increasing revenue.
The result would be ham-
mered out when Brown calls
on lawmakers to return to
Salem to deal with the crisis.
Evans said he has no time-
table for when that might be.
“I don’t know when and if
there will be a special session,”
Evans said.
Andrew Phelps, director of
the Oregon Offi ce of Emer-
gency Management, said the
coronavirus is the longest,
biggest and most expensive
disaster in state history. Be-
cause the pandemic hit every
state and almost every nation,
the usual network of shared
resources between govern-
ments collapsed under the
unprecedented demand.
Phelps said that even if a
vaccine is found within the
next year, the recovery from
the damage wrought on the
health and economy of the
state will likely last through
the end of the decade.
“Hopefully this is a once in
a lifetime event,” he said. “This
will be the largest natural
S. John Collins / Baker City Herald fi le photo
Oregon offi cials worry about fi ghting wildfi res this summer without spreading the
coronavirus among fi re crews.
disaster to hit Oregon by a
factor of 10.”
The virus will still be
circulating through the state
population as the summer fi re
season starts.
Doug Grafe, Fire Protec-
tion Chief of the Oregon
Department of Forestry, said
COVID-19 was shaping the
way the state will fi ght blazes.
The key will be early fi re
suppression to hold down the
number of crews that have to
be deployed.
“We have to be aggressive
on the initial attack,” Grafe
said. “We have to keep large
fi res off the landscape.”
Grafe said that likely won’t
be easy with about 90% of the
state in drought condition and
a hot summer forecasted.
Smoky conditions as in past
summers would aggravate
the breathing problems of
those who are struggling with
COVID-19’s attack on their
lungs.
Rep. Kim Wallen, R-Med-
ford, asked Grafe about any
disconnect between the state
and the U.S. Forest Service,
which in the past has allowed
fi res deep in the wilderness to
burn unchallenged.
Grafe said federal offi cials
agreed that there would be no
watch-and-wait approach this
year.
“That is not a policy choice
they are willing to make be-
cause of the COVID situation,”
Grafe said.
While offi cials will try
to limit the infection from
spreading by changing the
way fi refi ghters set up camp
and keeping a tighter limit on
who can come into a command
center, the bottom line is that
crews will not be held back if
they are needed.
“We’re ready to respond,”
said Jim Walker, Oregon State
fi re marshal. “I’m not sure we
will know the fi nish line until
we get a vaccine.”
The Oregon National Guard
will supply fi refi ghting teams,
but won’t be able to send in it’s
CH-47 Chinook helicopters,
which can dump up to 1,500
pounds of fi re retardant at a
time. They have been deployed
overseas with 1,600 guard
members mobilized to serve
in U.S. Army anti-terrorism
operations in 10 different
countries around the horn
of Africa. So have Chinooks
based in Washington state. Or-
egon National Guard offi cials
have made inquiries about
obtaining the twin-rotor heavy
helicopters from the east
coast if necessary. While the
fi rst units will start returning
to the state next month, the
helicopters are not scheduled
to return until next year.
“They will be back in time
for the 2021 fi re season,” said
Dave Stuckey, deputy director,
Oregon Military Department.
This year, the state will
have to depend on HH-60M
Blackhawk helicopters, which
can carry 520 pounds of retar-
dant per trip. Forest Service
and civilian contracted fi re-
fi ghting aircraft are also going
to be involved in stopping any
major fi re.
Stuckey said that troops
returning from deployment
overseas will spend two weeks
in quarantine at a train-
ing facility in the U.S. as a
precaution against spreading
COVID-19 before they are
allowed to come back to their
hometowns.
Brian Young, president of
the Oregon Emergency Man-
agement Association, which
represents local response
forces around the state, said
the possibility of a pandemic
has always existed, but most
of the regional emergency
management scenarios were
geared toward fl oods, fi res and
at the top of the list, earth-
quakes.
“A year ago we were talking
about Cascadia and about
what that would do to the
region,” he said.
Young called for a better
integration between federal,
state and local emergency
responses. Not for a future
disaster, but for the ongoing
one.
“This is more like a pause
HOSPITALS
ARE OPEN,
SAFE, AND
HERE FOR
YOUR
HEALTH.
Infectious disease control has always been a top priority
for Oregon’s hospitals. With extra CDC and Oregon Health
Authority safety measures in place, our teams are ready
to welcome back patients and address health needs. Rest
assured that behind those masks are smiles from the same
people who’ve always been there, ready to take care of you
and your loved ones.
in the middle of the game,”
Young said. “Take a high over-
view of the lessons learned.”
Young said that a bigger
and better cache of items
needed by fi rst responders and
medical providers needed for
the pandemic was a top prior-
ity. The breakdown of supply
chains early in this year’s
crisis led to shortages of face
masks and other personal pro-
tective equipment (PPE), with
panic buying of what little
equipment became available.
Evans agreed that the
scramble of sometimes
competing agencies made a
cohesive effort diffi cult to build
and maintain.
“Emergency management
can be like herding cats,” he
said. “Disasters are won or lost
on a local level.”
Rep. Jack Zika, R-Redmond,
a committee member, said
that any solution to the PPE
shortage had to include how
to ensure that local doctors,
dentists and others aren’t for-
gotten. Many contributed their
masks and other equipment to
emergency medical person-
nel caught in the shortage.
They need their supplies to be
replenished to survive.
“If hospitals are having a
hard time, how do any of these
other businesses even have a
chance?” Zika said.
Akiko Saito, Director of
Emergency Operations for the
Oregon Health Authority, said
the agency was simultane-
ously trying to fi gure out the
short-term response to the
pandemic and what a mid-
term, nonemergency response
will look like before a vaccine
is found.
“We have to watch and
make sure we can guard
against a rebound of the
virus,” she said. “We’re prepar-
ing for a possible second wave
in the fall.”
Saito said protecting public
health, back-to-school scenar-
ios for children, and other is-
sues were playing out against
a backdrop of state fi nancial
austerity that isn’t likely to go
away any time soon.
“We’re planning for the long-
term,” she said. “What does
the new normal look like?”
Evans called on those who
testifi ed to come back to the
committee with very specifi c
requests of what they have to
have going forward into the
next phase of fi ghting the coro-
navirus and wildfi res.
“I need to know what a
worst case and a worst-worst
case is in the fall so we can
push for PPE, ventilators
now,” he said.
Evans said he would fi ght
for supplies before the Joint
Ways & Means Committee,
the Legislature’s top fi nancial
panel, which would fashion a
legislative response to fi ll the
budget gap during a special
session.
“I want to be able to beat
the hell out of folks so that we
get that equipment,” Evans
said.
Otherwise, the same high
demand amid limited supply
will happen all over again.
“The public understands
once,” Evans said. “They won’t
understand a second time.”
injure
calf
LA GRANDE —
State biologists say
wolves from a pack in
the northern Wallowa
Mountains injured a
200-pound calf found
on private land in
Union County earlier
this week.
According to a
report from the Oregon
Department of Fish
and Wildlife (ODFW),
a rancher found the
injured 6-week-old calf
on Monday evening.
The rancher took
the calf to a veterinar-
ian for treatment and
reported the case to
ODFW.
Biologists examined
the calf on Tuesday and
found puncture wounds
on the right and left
rear quarters, tooth
scrapes and areas of
missing muscle tissue
and hide.
“The calf was miss-
ing large sections of
muscle tissue and hide
on the right and left
rear quarters above the
hock,” according to the
ODFW report. “The lo-
cation, size and severity
of injuries are consis-
tent with confi rmed
wolf attacks.”
The attack happened
2 to 3 days before the
examination, according
to ODFW.
The agency attrib-
uted the attack to the
Clark Creek pack,
which produced at
least two pups in 2019.
According to ODFW
the pack lives in the
northern parts of the
Catherine Creek and
Minam units.
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541-523-3679
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