2A — BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 2020
LOGGING
Webinars
scheduled
Continued from Page 1A
T URNING B ACK THE P AGES
50 YEARS AGO
from the Democrat-Herald
August 18, 1970
Oregon State Police District Four headquarters, located
in Baker, is the largest Oregon State Police district in Or-
egon. The district headquarters is separated from the Baker
OSP Patrol Offi ce, although both are located in the same
building at 1050 South Bridge St.
25 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
August 18, 1995
UNION CREEK CAMPGROUND — For people who like
to get away from home but not away from it all, this spot
on the north shore of Phillips Reservoir has been a popular
destination since it opened in September 1968.
By next month, when the campground will be able to
accommodate even more travelers who can live without
the daily grind but not without fresh-ground coffee or the
nightly news, it’s likely to become even more so.
Workers from a Montana company are installing fresh
water connections and electrical outlets at 34 of the camp-
ground’s overnight spaces.
10 YEARS AGO
from the Baker City Herald
August 18, 2010
Republican gubernatorial candidate Chris Dudley out-
lined his vision of Oregon as a place where Republicans
and Democrats “roll up their sleeves and work together.”
By listening to people in all parts of the state and work-
ing with lawmakers from all parties to change policies that
discourage business development, Dudley said he will
create jobs and restore a balanced statewide economy.
ONE YEAR AGO
from the Baker City Herald
August 19, 2019
The Hells Canyon Motorcycle Rally has donated $2,100
to the Baker City Police Department.
Todd Godfrey, the HCMR organizer, received a painting
from world-renowned artist David Uhl to auction off at the
HCMR concert.
All funds raised from the auction were dedicated to the
BCPD and the painting sold for $2,200, $100 of which went
to shipping the painting to the buyer.
Police Chief Ray Duman accepted the donation from
Godfrey Aug. 14. The money will go to purchasing a new
ballistic vest for an offi cer.
“With the generosity of the Hell’s Canyon, the next of-
fi cer who comes on board will get a vest,” Duman said.
Ballistic vests are tailored to the offi cer and range in
price from $1,400 to $1,800, not including plates and a
holder that will also need to be purchased.
Godfrey also presented a check of $6,240 to the Baker
High School girls soccer and basketball coaches, Kristin
Rushton and Jason Ramos, who represented Mat Sand,
head girls basketball coach.
Godfrey said the money was from the $30 fee paid by
campers using the high school football fi eld for the HCMR.
Rushton said the money will go to a fundraiser for a
new sound system.
“We got new lights on our fi eld and, so, we’re really
excited to have a new sound system to go up on that.”
The high school offers the practice football fi eld and
parking lot to motorcyclists and travelers who want to
camp out during the rally.
O REGON L OTTERY
MEGABUCKS, Aug. 15
7 — 12 — 13 — 15 — 26 — 37
Next jackpot: $5.4 million
POWERBALL, Aug. 15
5 — 12 — 34 — 45 — 56 PB 3
Next jackpot: $22 million
MEGA MILLIONS, Aug. 14
3 — 24 — 29 — 42 — 47
Mega 13
Next jackpot: $40 million
WIN FOR LIFE, Aug. 15
4 — 15 — 33 — 55
PICK 4, Aug. 16
• 1 p.m.: 9 — 6 — 5 — 9
• 4 p.m.: 3 — 5 — 6 — 5
• 7 p.m.: 1 — 4 — 9 — 5
• 10 p.m.: 4 — 5 — 0 — 2
LUCKY LINES, Aug. 16
4-8-10-13-20-21-25-30
Next jackpot: $41,000
S ENIOR M ENUS
■ WEDNESDAY: Meat lasagna, peas, garlic breadsticks,
carrot-raisin salad, cookies
■ THURSDAY: Chicken-fried chicken, potatoes and gravy,
broccoli-blend vegetables, bread, potato salad, tapioca
■ FRIDAY: Barbecued pork ribs, au gratin potatoes, green
beans, roll, coleslaw, lemon bars
■ MONDAY (Aug. 24): Orange-glazed chicken tenders, fried
rice, Asian vegetables, bread, Asian salad, cookies
■ TUESDAY (Aug. 25): Spaghetti with meat sauce,
caulifl ower, garlic breadsticks, green salad, cheesecake
Over the past 25 years the
agency has on occasion tried
to amend the 21-inch limit.
And in one notable case
the agency tried to exempt a
specifi c logging project from
the rule. That was the Snow
Basin project on the Wallowa-
Whitman National Forest in
eastern Baker County.
Wallowa-Whitman offi cials
contended that to achieve
their goal of protecting from
wildfi re forests that had his-
torically been dominated by
ponderosa pines and tama-
racks but in recent decades
largely replaced by Douglas-
fi r and grand fi r trees, it was
necessary to remove many
of the fi rs, some of which
were larger than 21 inches in
diameter.
Snow Basin included four
timber sales. In 2014 Boise
Cascade logged most of the
fi rst sale and did a small
amount of cutting on the
second when a federal court,
ruling on a lawsuit fi led by
environmental groups, halted
the project.
A federal judge ruled
that the Wallowa-Whitman
couldn’t ignore the 21-inch
limit for a single project, Snow
Basin, because the issue
affected the entire Wallowa-
Whitman.
Veronica Warnock, the con-
servation director for Greater
Hells Canyon Council in La
Grande, said the organization
has always encouraged the
Forest Service to address the
issue of preserving large trees
at a “landscape” level rather
than for specifi c projects such
as Snow Basin.
Warnock disputes the
Forest Service’s claim that
cutting trees larger than 21
inches in diameter is neces-
sary.
Indeed, Warnock contends
that the purpose of the ban
on logging such trees is as
relevant today as it was 25
years ago.
She said those trees store
the majority of the carbon
sequestered in forests.
Yet Warnock said the Forest
Service didn’t even address
the issue of carbon storage,
and its infl uence on climate
change, in the environmental
assessment that looks at the
possible effects of ending the
21-inch limit.
Many areas of national for-
ests lack large dead trees —
snags — that serve as habitat
for birds and other wildlife,
Warnock said.
A signifi cant percentage of
Mary Morin
Baker City, 1938-2020
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such projects most of the trees
removed are smaller than 21
inches.
Arvid Andersen of Baker
City has a much different view
of the 21-inch limit.
Andersen is a private for-
estry consultant.
He describes the 21-inch
limit as “arbitrary” and he
believes it has contributed to
the severity of some wildfi res
by restricting the Forest Ser-
vice’s ability to thin forests and
reduce the fuel load.
Andersen said he was
the contractor on a thinning
project on the Wallowa-Whit-
man several years ago and
because loggers couldn’t cut
trees larger than 21 inches,
taxpayers had to subsidize the
removal of the smaller, less
valuable trees.
He’s especially worried
about how the 21-inch limit
could affect the proposal to
cut trees in Baker City’s
10,000-acre watershed, which
is managed by the Wallowa-
Whitman. Andersen is a Baker
City Council member and a
longtime advocate of logging
in the watershed to reduce the
risk of a fi re that could foul
with ash and mud the streams
and springs the city taps for its
water supply.
A large fi re in the watershed
could force the city to fi nd a
temporary alternative source
of water as well as build a
fi ltration plant that could cost
several million dollars.
“You can cut all the little
trees you want but you’ve got
to get that fuel loading down,”
Andersen said.
He said he doesn’t advo-
cate for wholesale removal
of large trees, but he believes
the Forest Service should
have more fl exibility than
it has now with the 21-inch
limit.
Warnock also criticizes the
Forest Service for study-
ing the potential effects of
eliminating the 21-inch limit
through an environmental
assessment rather than the
more in-depth environmental
impact statement.
The 1969 National Envi-
ronmental Policy Act, which
requires federal agencies to
study the potential effects
of their actions, states that
an environmental impact
statement should be done
for projects likely to have a
signifi cant effect.
Warnock contends that
doing away with the 21-inch
limit on six national forests
clearly meets that criteria.
“There’s no way there’s
not going to be signifi cant
effects,” she said.
Greater Hells Canyon
Council joined four other or-
ganizations — Oregon Wild,
Western Environmental
Law Center, Sierra Club and
Central Oregon Landwatch
— in writing a letter on Aug.
12 to Forest Service Regional
Forester Glenn Casamassa
asking him to require an
environmental impact state-
ment for the proposal and
extend the public comment
period to at least 90 days.
Oregon’s U.S. senators, Ron
Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both
Democrats, have also urged
the Forest Service to give the
public more time to comment.
and Pamela. Mary was a devoted wife
and mother who taught her children to
love Christ. She led a Christ-like life and
showed love, kindness, and charity to all
who were blessed to know her.
Mary is survived by her husband, Ted;
her four daughters; 24 grandchildren, and
seven great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her son,
Albert; and her grandson, Nicholas.
Arrangements are under the direction
of Tami’s Pine Valley Funeral Home & Cre-
mation Services. Online condolences can be
made at www.tamispinevalleyfuneral
home.com
Cheshire, Oregon, and a
former longtime Baker City
resident, died Aug. 8, 2020.
An outdoor memorial
service will take place at the
Hentze family farm in Junc-
‘Dick’
tion City on Saturday, Aug.
Hentze
22, at 2 p.m.
Dick was born on March
28, 1945, at Junction City to Merle and Al-
ice (Glenn) Hentze. He grew up in Junction
City, graduating from Junction City Senior
High School in 1963 and from Oregon
State University in 1968 with a degree
in education. He married Janet Baker in
1969 and moved to Baker City in 1970,
where he taught elementary school until
he retired in 2000.
See Obituaries/Page 5A
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the old trees in national for-
ests east of the Cascades were
logged between World War
II and the late 1980s, which
is one reason environmental
groups lobbied, and in some
cases sued, to prevent logging
of the remaining older trees.
Warnock agrees with the
Forest Service that the 21-
inch limit was intended to be
a temporary rule when the
agency enacted it in 1995.
But she contends the Forest
Service has not replaced the
rule with a policy that would
adequately protect large trees.
And the agency’s current
proposal would not accomplish
that goal, either, she believes.
Instead, Warnock said, the
Forest Service is in effect pro-
posing to give national forest
supervisors the authority to
cut large trees with no limit on
the number or size.
She said she doesn’t expect
that ending the rule would
lead to widespread logging
of big trees, but she believes
there would be an increase in
cutting of trees larger than 21
inches, especially in areas that
haven’t been logged recently.
“There’s a lot of room to
improve the (21-inch) rule, but
we believe going forward we
still need enforceable protec-
tion (for large trees) rather
than giving full discretion to
forest supervisors,” Warnock
said.
Although Forest Service
offi cials say the 21-inch limit
has made it more diffi cult
to thin crowded forests and
reduce the wildfi re danger,
Warnock notes that in many
On July 30, 2020, Mary
Patricia Morin, loving wife,
mother, grandmother, and
great-grandmother, died
peacefully at the age of 82
with her family by her side.
Mary
A graveside service and
Morin
dedication will take place on
Friday, Aug. 21, at 11 a.m. at
Mount Hope Cemetery.
Mary was born on March 17, 1938,
at Fossil to Alfred and Elsie (Harrison)
Caldera. She was the fifth of 10 children.
She met her lifelong love, Ted Morin, in
‘Dick’ Hentze
1954 and they were married on Aug. 12,
1958. They were blessed with a son, Albert, Formerly of Baker City, 1945-2020
Richard Merle “Dick” Hentze, 75, of
and four daughters: Karen, Nancy, Janell
C ONTACT THE H ERALD
ISSN-8756-6419
Serving Baker County since 1870
Lisa Britton/ For the Baker City Herald
A spider web in a forest along Rock Creek in the Elkhorn
Mountains west of Haines.
O BITUARIES
Luncheon at the Senior Center, 2810 Cedar St., 11:30 a.m.
to 12:30 p.m.; $4.50 donation (60 and older), $6.75, under
60. Meals must be picked up; there is no dining on site.
Telephone: 541-523-3673
Fax: 541-833-6414
A 30-day public com-
ment period is under-
way for the U.S. Forest
Service’s environmen-
tal assessment and
proposed amendment
to the 21-inch harvest
standard.
The agency will hold
a pair of webinars,
scheduled for 6-7:30
p.m. Aug. 19 and 1:30-3
p.m. Aug. 20, to provide
information and gather
feedback. Registration
information will be
posted on the project’s
website at https://go.usa.
gov/xvV4X. Groups and
individuals can also sub-
mit written comments
via email to SM.FS.
EScreens21@usda.gov.
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