THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
LOCAL
FOREST
Walt, moved in January 2021
from Washington County,
where they raised Christmas
Continued from A1
trees and were active in the
Small Woodlands Association
Baker County has a
lengthy history of having an chapter there for about fi ve
years, to Halfway.
active local chapter of the
Debi Lorence is the presi-
Oregon Small Woodlands As-
sociation (OSWA). The state- dent for the new Northeast
Oregon chapter, which met
wide organization lobbies in
most recently on Thursday,
the Oregon Legislature on
Sept. 2.
behalf of its members and
Although the Lorences’
also offers advice for private
17-acre property in Pine
forest owners about how to
Valley near Halfway didn’t
manage their properties.
have a single tree when they
Putney said the Baker
County chapter, which added moved in, Debi said they have
Grant County members when planted a couple thousand
seedlings, including ponderosa
the latter county’s chapter
pines and tamaracks, on two
dissolved in 2011, gradu-
ally cut back on its activities acres. The remainder of the
around 2018, when his prede- property is growing alfalfa.
Debi Lorence said she was
cessor, Bob Parker, retired.
eager to become involved with
Putney said he convened
a meeting of the local chapter a local group of tree owners,
in early 2020, just before the and potentially pass on some
of the knowledge she had
pandemic started.
This was not the best time gained through her participa-
tion in Washington County’s
to try to restart the group.
Small Woodlands Association
Or any group, come to
chapter.
that.
“It helped me as a young
But more recently the
tree grower to understand
effort to reconstitute the
everything I was getting into,”
chapter has gained traction,
something Putney attributes she said.
When she learned that
largely to Debi Lorence.
Lorence and her husband, the local chapter had mostly
gone dormant, Lorence said
she talked with residents who
had been involved with the
chapter about the prospects of
reviving the group.
“I just wanted to get it
going again,” she said with a
rueful chuckle. “And now I’m
the president.”
Putney said this is an
excellent time to encourage
forest owners to join the local
chapter. He emphasized the
adjective “small” in small
woodlands.
“Even if you own an acre of
trees,” he said.
Lorence amplifi es on
Putney’s point.
“You don’t have to own a
forest,” she said. “Even if you
have a tree on your property
and you like it and would like
to protect it, OSWA will help.”
With wildfi res becoming
an increasingly widespread
threat to forests across the
West, both private and public,
Putney said it’s natural that
woodland owners would be in-
terested in learning how they
can protect their trees.
“Managing for reducing
wildfi re risk is always a major
motivation for small woodland
owners,” Putney said. “Hav-
ing a place where woodland
owners can get together and
talk about the challenges is
benefi cial.”
Although expanding the
local chapter’s footprint to
include Union and Wallowa
counties will create some logis-
tical challenges in scheduling
meetings — it’s a pretty long
drive from, say, Enterprise to
John Day — Putney said the
chapter, as in the past, will
also strive to schedule fi eld
trips and other outdoor events
where members can gain
practical knowledge.
Strolling through some-
body’s stand of ponderosa
pines, for instance, is inher-
ently more useful than sitting
at a table and talking about
those trees.
The Defrees Ranch in
Sumpter Valley, about 20
miles southwest of Baker City,
is likely to be a destination for
a fi eld trip.
Dean Defrees, whose
family has been involved in
the Baker County chapter of
the Small Woodlands Associa-
tion for many years, said he’s
excited about Lorence and
Putney working to revive, and
expand, the chapter.
“I think it’s a very good
deal,” said Defrees, whose
Ed Merriman/Baker City Herald, File
Lyle Defrees on his family’s forested property in
Sumpter Valley, about 20 miles southwest of Baker City.
ing from each other. We want
people who have been doing
this a long time to share that
knowledge.”
Lorence also hopes to
spread the word in local schools
about the association’s work.
“With the drought showing
no signs of ending, the need is
greater than ever for knowl-
edge, and for getting the mes-
sage out about how important
trees are,” she said.
More information about
the Small Woodlands Associa-
tion is available by emailing
Lorence at debilorence@
gmail.com, or by phone at
541-604-1151.
family was named the Out-
standing Tree Farmers of the
Year for 2016 by the Ameri-
can Tree Farm System, out
of 74,000 entries. “It’s good to
get things put back together
and rolling again.”
Defrees encourages all pri-
vate forest owners to consider
joining the chapter.
Lorence said fi eld trips and
similar events are integral
to the mission of the Small
Woodlands Association.
“It’s a hands-on organi-
zation,” she said. “It’s not
supposed to be about a bunch
of meetings. It’s supposed to be
about participating and learn-
LAWSUIT
Wallowa-Whitman National Forest/Contributed Photo
The Rock Creek fi re burning on Aug. 31. The blaze, which started Aug. 30, hasn’t grown in the past week.
FIRE
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Fire bosses were concerned
because the fi re was initially
torching trees and spreading
from crown to crown on the
warm, windy afternoon. The
BROWN
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the majority of those inside
were not wearing masks.
The rules are also in place
for the Pendleton Round-Up,
which begins Sept. 11 in
Umatilla County. Brown said
she hoped fair organizers
would follow state rules and
venues that violated the rule
could face state sanctions.
She said she hoped at-
tendees will wear masks and
be aware of social distancing
and other ways to prevent
getting or spreading the
virus.
“Let ‘er buck,” Brown said,
using the Round-Up’s signa-
ture saying.
Brown has attended the
Round-Up in prior years
and even rode a horse in the
parade. She did not go to the
state fair and will not be in
Pendleton next week out of
concern for “public spread” of
the virus.
Major public health fore-
casts indicated for the fi rst
time last week that the top
of the spike may have been
reached.
The growth in infections
may have peaked as early as
Aug. 25 in Oregon, accord-
ing to the widely followed
blaze burned mostly in sub-
alpine fi r trees, a species that
burns easily.
By the afternoon of Sept.
1, though, the fi re was show-
ing minimal growth, and that
situation has prevailed since,
Fargo said.
The Forest Service is
COVID-19 monitoring and
forecasting of The Institute
for Health Metrics and
Evaluation at the University
of Washington.
The Oregon Health & Sci-
ence University forecast last
week that hospitalizations
for COVID-19 was expected
to peak at an estimated
1,208 patients on Monday.
The latest state report, from
Sept. 2, showed 1,172 CO-
VID-19 patients in hospitals.
“We’re in a dire state, but
I am seeing some signs that
this is going to level out in
the next week,” said Dr. Peter
Graven, the lead forecaster,
in a statement accompanying
the Sept. 2 report.
The OHSU model showed
that with current mask
usage and other safeguards,
cases would drop back to
pre-surge levels of under 200
hospitalizations by the last
two weeks in October.
If the trendline continued,
the number of hospitaliza-
tions statewide could be
under a dozen by mid-De-
cember.
The next OHSU forecast
is due Thursday, Sept. 9.
The World Health Or-
ganization said last week
that the delta variant wave
worldwide had started to
fall, with the United States
investigating the cause of the
fi re, but it is listed as human-
caused on the Blue Mountain
Interagency Dispatch Center’s
fi re statistics report.
The Rock Creek fi re is
by far the biggest blaze this
summer on the Wallowa-
Whitman’s Burnt-Powder
somewhat behind Europe
and other regions.
The trends won’t be
known for sure until addi-
tional reports over the next
week show the drop continu-
ing.
Sidelinger said an increase
in voluntary mask-wearing
and other efforts to slow
transmission of COVID-19
could shorten the timeline for
getting to a lower level.
On the fl ip side, if people
drop safeguards too early, it
could push the recovery into
November and closer to im-
pacting the winter holidays.
The COVID-19 pandemic
is far from over, with the
possibility of new variants
Fire Zone, which includes the
southern part of the forest.
There have been 17 fi res on
the Burnt-Powder zone — 13
started by lightning and four
human-caused. The lightning
fi res have burned a total of 4.5
acres, and the human-caused
fi res 63.7 acres.
as long as large numbers of
people worldwide remain
unvaccinated.
Once it infects someone,
the virus can mutate within
its host, and release a vari-
ant of the original infection.
“This is a crisis that is
largely being driven by
people who have not yet been
vaccinated,” said Sidelinger.
As of Tuesday, there have
been 221.5 million cases
and over 4.58 million deaths
worldwide, according to the
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus
Resource Center.
Just over 5.37 mil-
lion people worldwide are
expected to die of COVID-19
by Dec. 1, according to a the
Rachel Pregnancy Center
2192 Court Avenue, Baker City • 541-523-5357
Services Provided:
Free Pregnancy Tests
A resource
center for
Referrals for Free Ultrasounds
families
Pregnancy Options Counseling
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Prenatal, Infant Care & Parenting Classes
Maternity & Baby Clothing
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Helping women & men in an
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All services free & confidential.
10 am - 5 pm
(closed for lunch)
able on the city’s website,
www.bakercity.com.
Two people have
Continued from A1
applied as of Wednesday
Before and during the morning, Sept. 8.
“If any one of the
Council’s Aug. 24 meet-
ing, a group of residents council members wants
any of these applicants
gathered outside City
to go up for a vote, then
Hall to protest the vac-
cine and mask mandates. they can do that at their
next meeting, which is
Mayor Kerry Mc-
Quisten said the vaccine next Tuesday,” Cannon
said. “Otherwise, we’ll
requirement, which
continue to just receive
applies to the city’s
applications and provide
fi refi ghter/paramedics,
could result in employees them to council.”
resigning, leaving the
fi re department without City staff change
critical staff.
In his weekly report,
Affected employees
Cannon wrote that he
must either be fully
has hired Stacy Spriet,
vaccinated by Oct. 18,
who previously worked
or receive an exception
in the city’s public works
on either medical or
department, to replace
religious grounds.
Robin Nudd as human
resources manager.
City Council vacancy
Cannon wrote that he
Cannon said the city “owes a debt of gratitude”
continues to advertise
to Dawn Kitzmiller, who
the vacancy on the seven- runs the city’s building
member Council created department and served
by Lynette Perry’s resig- as interim human
nation last month.
resources manager for
Applications are avail- seven weeks.
Institute for Health Metrics
and Evaluation.
The United States last
week passed 40 million
reported cases and deaths
are at 649,271, according
to Johns Hopkins. IHMA
projects 751,417 deaths by
Dec. 1.
As of Tuesday, the Oregon
Health Authority reported
3,326 deaths from COVID-19
during the pandemic. IHME
projects 4,619 deaths in
Oregon by Dec. 1.
Johns Hopkins said its
survey of state and local
health agencies showed that
44,558 vaccine doses were
administered nationwide
Monday. Over 176 million
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people are fully vaccinated,
about 51 % of the U.S. popu-
lation.
The New York Times
reported Tuesday that the
current spike has peaked
in the United States. The
average daily new cases of
131,135 is down 12% from
from two weeks ago. The
analysis showed that Oregon
had dropped 33% over the
same period.
The Oregon Depart-
ment of Education suggests
families should check their
school’s website or the state’s
“Ready Schools, Safe Learn-
ers” website at https://www.
oregon.gov/ode/readyschools/
Pages/default.aspx.
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Baker City office hours:
Mon-Thurs 8am-5am
Clinic hours: Tuesday 8am-5pm
Thursday 8am-12pm
Clinic offices in Ontario (every other monday)
John Day (every other monday)
La Grande (every Wednesday)
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