BUSINESS & AG
2B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THURSDAY, MARCH 25, 2021
Grande Ronde Hospital acquires Blue Mountain Associates
The Observer
LA GRANDE —
Grande Ronde Hospital
and Clinics, La Grande,
is expanding its health
system.
The hospital announced
Friday, March 19, that
Blue Mountain Associ-
ates, an outpatient treat-
ment center in La Grande,
will become part of the
GRH system. The hospital
reported it expects a full
transition to a new GRH
Behavioral Health Clinic
to begin June 1.
GRH President and
CEO Jeremy Davis in
a press release said the
acquisition means better
care for Union County
residents and allows
vices for the people
for fuller integra-
of Union County,”
tion of behavioral
Davis said.
health care into the
Dr. Joel Rice,
hospital’s system.
who started BMA
He cited the trend
almost 30 years
over the last decade
ago, echoed Davis’
Rice
toward a multi-disci-
statement.
pline care track that
“It’s been a long
places the patient at
time coming,” Rice
the center of a col-
said. “The process
laborative exper-
of integrating behav-
tise model designed
ioral health care into
to treat the whole
primary care clinics,
Davis
patient with medical,
hospital wards and
mental and behav-
emergency rooms
ioral services.
is the cutting edge of
“We believe this inte-
innovation in health care
gration of services will
not only nationally, but
help improve coordination worldwide.”
and access for a broader
The press release did
spectrum of health ser-
not provide any fi nancial
terms of the deal.
The integrated team
of Blue Mountain Asso-
ciates and Grande Ronde
Hospital associates will
eventually work from
BMA’s location at 1101 I
Ave., providing a home
base as both entities work
to ensure a smooth tran-
sition. According to the
announcement, BMA
patients should notice
little diff erence in their
care.
Grande Ronde’s behav-
ioral health team will con-
tinue to see patients in all
primary care locations.
However, Rice will have an
offi ce in Grande Ronde’s
Regional Medical Clinic,
506 Fourth St., La Grande.
Davis added that
having the fi rst psychia-
trist on staff at the clinic
gives the organization a
key foundational building
block for recruiting addi-
tional psychiatrists to the
GRH team. Notably, the
clinic also is the fi rst pri-
mary care clinic in Union
County to have a pharma-
cist on staff .
GRH was an early
adopter of the Compre-
hensive Primary Care Ini-
tiative, which the federal
government launched in
2012 to strengthen pri-
mary care. The plan set
the stage for popula-
tion-based care manage-
ment and cost-savings
opportunities and was the
foundation for the broader
Comprehensive Primary
Care Plus, which the Cen-
ters for Medicare and
Medicaid Services initi-
ated in 2017 and referred
to as the “largest-ever
multi-payer initiative to
improve primary care in
America.”
The program seeks to
improve quality, access and
effi ciency of primary care.
Numerous studies show
the integration of med-
ical, mental and behav-
ioral health services can
serve to reduce the demand
on emergency services in
community hospitals.
Guest column: Ag has plenty to teach
ANNE MOSS
OREGON FARM BUREAU
n honor of National Ag Week,
March 21-27, I’d like to share a
few things I’ve learned while
working for Oregon Farm Bureau
since 2004.
1. There’s room for and a need for
all types of farming.
Organic, conventional, biotech,
no-tech, small-scale, mid-size, com-
mercial-scale, direct-to-consumer,
contract for food processors, inter-
national exports — all can be found
in Oregon and all have an important,
vital place in agriculture.
The myth that one type of
farming is “good” and another is
“bad,” and therefore should be pitted
against each other, is just plain
untrue.
I know farms in Oregon that grow
organic crops on one fi eld, conven-
tional crops on another and biotech
crops, like GMO alfalfa or sugar
beets for seed, on a third.
Other farms stick to just one
farming method.
Farmers decide what to do
based on many factors, including
their customer base, market poten-
tial, the farm’s location, the crop’s
I
Susan Montoya Bryan/Associates Press
This Feb. 17, 2021 photo shows an empty irrigation canal at a tree farm
in Corrales, New Mexico, with the Sandia Mountains in the background.
Much of the West is mired in drought, with New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada
and Utah being among the hardest hit. The National Oceanic and Atmo-
spheric Administration’s offi cial spring outlook March 18, 2021, sees an
expanding drought with a drier than normal April, May and June for a
large swath of the country from Louisiana to Oregon.
DROUGHT
Continued from Page 1B
agency said. A La Nina
cooling of parts of the cen-
tral Pacifi c continues to
bring dry weather for much
of the country, while in the
Southwest heavy summer
monsoon rains failed to
materialize. Meteorolo-
gists also say the California
megadrought is associ-
ated with long-term climate
change.
The March 18 national
Drought Monitor shows
almost 66% of the nation is
in an abnormally dry condi-
tion, the highest mid-March
level since 2002. And fore-
casters predict that will
worsen, expanding in parts
of Florida, Texas, Okla-
homa, Kansas, Nebraska,
Colorado, Wyoming and
South Dakota, with small
islands of relief in parts of
the Great Lakes and New
England.
More than 44% of the
nation is in moderate or
worse drought, and nearly
18% is in extreme or excep-
tional drought — all of
it west of the Mississippi
River. Climate scientists are
calling what’s happening in
the West a “megadrought”
that started in 1999.
“The nearly West-wide
drought is already quite
severe in its breadth and
intensity, and unfortunately
it doesn’t appear likely that
there will be much relief
this spring,” said UCLA cli-
mate scientist Daniel Swain,
who writes the Weather
West blog and isn’t part of
the NOAA outlook. “Winter
precipitation has been much
below average across much
of California, and summer
precipitation reached record
low levels in 2020 across the
desert Southwest.”
With the Sierra Nevada
snowpack only 60% of
normal levels, U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture mete-
orologist Brad Rippey said
“there will be some water
cutbacks and allocation cut-
backs in California and
perhaps other areas of the
Southwest” for agriculture
and other uses. It will prob-
ably hit nut crops in the
Golden State.
Winter and spring wheat
crops also have been hit
hard by the western drought
with 78% of the spring
wheat production area in
drought conditions, Rippey
said.
The dry, warm con-
ditions in the upcoming
months likely will bring “an
enhanced wildfi re season,”
said Jon Gottschalck, chief
of NOAA’s prediction
branch.
Swain of UCLA said
the wildfi res probably
will not be as bad as 2020
because so much vegeta-
tion already has burned and
drought conditions retarded
regrowth. Last year, he said,
wildfi re was so massive
it will be hard to exceed,
though this fi re season
likely will be above average.
Drought and heat breed
a vicious cycle. When it’s
this dry, less of the sun’s
energy goes to evaporating
soil moisture because it’s
not as wet, Swain said. That
leaves more of the energy to
heat up the air, and the heat
makes the drought worse by
boosting evaporation.
In the next week or two,
parts of the central United
States may get pockets of
heavy rain, but the ques-
tion is whether that will be
enough to make up for large
rain defi cits in the High
Plains from the past year,
Nebraska state climatologist
Martha Shulski said.
The drought’s fl ip side
is that for the fi rst time in
three years, NOAA is pro-
jecting zero major spring
fl ooding, with smaller
amounts of minor and mod-
erate fl ooding.
About 82 million people
will be at risk for fl ooding
this spring, mostly minor
with no property damage.
That’s down from 128 mil-
lion people last year.
Flooding tends to be a
short-term expensive local-
ized problem while drought
and wildfi re hit larger areas
and are longer lasting,
NOAA climatologist Karin
Gleason said.
Since 1980, NOAA has
tracked weather disasters
that caused at least $1 bil-
lion in damage. The 28
droughts have caused nearly
$259 billion in damage,
while the 33 fl oods have
cost about $151 billion.
labor requirements and equipment
available.
2. Big doesn’t mean bad.
The size of a farm or ranch does
not dictate its commitment to a
healthy environment, care for ani-
mals, treatment of employees, or
respect for neighbors.
A farmer with 2,000 acres cares
as much about these things as does
a farmer with 20 acres. Their day-
to-day work may be diff erent, but
their values and integrity are shared.
Nearly 97% of Oregon’s farms
and ranches — including commer-
cial-scale farms — are family-owned
and operated. Some are “corporate
farms” that incorporated for tax pur-
poses or succession-plan reasons.
These are run by families, people
raising kids, often living on the farm,
who are involved in their commu-
nities and are proud of what they
do. They’re not in the business of
harming their customers, their neigh-
bors or themselves.
3. Part of sustainability is profi t-
ability. Because eating food is such
a personal act, there’s a tendency for
consumers to forget that the people
growing their food are also running
a business. Even the smallest farms
must ultimately make a profi t to
survive.
Few people get into agriculture to
get rich quick. It often involves slim
WOLVES
w
op
co
Town
a h
de
hi
O
Continued from Page 1B
conservation group
Defenders of Wildlife, said
the deaths were suspicious,
though without knowing
the cause of death, they
cannot say whether
poaching may have been to
blame.
“It highlights the
pressing need for a thor-
ough investigation, for
sure,” Gobush said.
Gobush, who is in
Seattle, said she has never
heard of so many wolves
found dead at once in either
Oregon or Washington.
“We’re all waiting to
hear what the cause of
death is,” she said. “A lot of
this is a mystery.”
Rodger Huff man, a
rancher in Union, and wolf
committee co-chairman
for the Oregon Cattle-
men’s Association, said
the relationship between
wolves and local producers
remains contentious, due in
part to what he describes as
“shoddy” management of
the species.
Oregon’s Wolf Man-
agement and Conservation
Plan allows for ranchers
and wildlife offi cials to
legally kill wolves that
prey on livestock if they
sq
fa
so
So
ti
un
dow
“T
th
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo en
A trail camera in January 2016 caught this image of two adult wolves from the Walla Walla Pack in northern in t
Umatilla County. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife is investigating the deaths of fi ve wolves in
C
Union County.
reach a certain number
of “confi rmed” depreda-
tions within a certain time
period, and non-lethal
deterrents have failed.
But Huff man said it is
frustratingly diffi cult to
“confi rm” a wolf depre-
dation, unless it is found
and reported immediately,
leaving ranchers in a diffi -
cult predicament.
“The wolf population
is not a celebrated thing
in cattle country,” he said.
“It’s frustration, there’s no
doubt about it.”
Wolf poaching is not
unheard of in Eastern
Oregon. Two incidents
were reported last year in
neighboring Baker County
— one in late September,
a breeding male from the
Cornucopia Pack, and
another in late October, a
sub-adult female from the
Pine Creek Pack.
Gobush said apex pred-
ators like wolves play an
important role in the eco-
system, and should be
protected.
Defenders of Wildlife
Outstanding
Computer Repair
Dale Bogardus 541-297-5831
Call or Text 24/7
Now fixing cell phones
and tablets
Helping you live
Also recycling small
your
dream this
electrics
Holiday
Season!
Phones, tablets,
Hours
Mon-Fri: 8:00 AM - 6:00 PM
Sat: 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM
2306 Adams Ave
La Grande, OR 97850
(541) 963-8411
We're just west of I-84 (exit 261)
on Adams Ave at 20th St.
laptops, towers
www.outstandingcomputerrepair.com
Refurbished Desktop & Laptops For Sale
House calls (let me come to you!)
Drop Offs & Remote Services are Available
also supports a bill in the de
Legislature that would help do
crack down on poachers, 2,
Gobush said. Senate Bill pa
841 would appropriate $1.6 w
million from the state gen- la
eral fund to support the
Department of Justice’s
al
Environmental Crimes
and Cultural Resources
St
Enforcement Unit.
V
The bill, sponsored by do
Democratic Sens. James St
Manning Jr., Chris Gorsek co
and Deb Patterson, is
a 7
scheduled for a public
and a
hearing on April 5.
sh
ti
pe
WE’RE
Mobile Service
All credit cards accepted
profi t margins at the mercy of many
uncontrollable factors like weather,
pests, fl uctuating commodity prices
and rising supply costs.
This is compounded by the fact
that almost every realm of public
policy, from transportation to taxes, te
directly impacts agriculture. When inspe
regulations bring new fees or compli- bu
ance costs, it’s very diffi cult for most of t
farmers to pass along those expendi- ru
en
tures to their customers.
pe
4. There’s no such thing as a
O
“simple farmer.”
Farmers do more than raise crops ci
or take care of animals. Farmers are of f
also business owners, accountants, bot
scientists, meteorologists, mechanics
and marketers. Many are also eager be
innovators, always searching for new it’
technology to help them produce
H
more with less: less water, less fertil- ge
izer, less fuel, fewer pesticides.
no
5. There’s more that unites agri- ch
culture than divides it.
ci
No matter the amount of acreage of o
worked, farming method used or
number of animals raised, Oregon L
farmers and ranchers share core
so
values: a deep love for the land,
T
incredible work ethic and immense w
pride in their work.
de
———
w
Anne Marie Moss is the L
communications director for the th
Oregon Farm Bureau. fe
tio
avoid
lesschwab.com
HERE TO
HELP
dard
pa
le
an e
re
ha
th
fo
len