TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
LOCAL & STATE
Air Force training could disrupt Owyhee’s ‘Big Quiet’
has a detachment of F-15SG fight-
ers on long-term assignment there.
This isn’t the first time the
USAF has proposed expanding
training in the Owyhee Desert from
its Mountain Home Air Force Base.
Seeking live bombing, missile
shooting and low-flying exercises
in the area in 1989, the Air Force
expected minimal opposition in one
of the country’s most remote and
lightly populated areas.
This turned out to be a miscalcu-
lation.
Opposition from Idaho-based
groups led to nearly a decade of
litigation and a compromise that
ultimately allowed restricted
low-altitude jet fighter training in
Idaho’s Owyhee County.
ing more than a million acres of
wilderness in the Owyhee Canyon-
lands, and designating 33 miles of
ONTARIO — One of the coun-
Wild and Scenic Rivers precisely
try’s most sparsely populated and
where the military has proposed
persistently defended high desert
more intensive training.
wild lands may soon be subject to
The military’s plan would also
frequent sonic booms and shrieking
impact more than 500,000 combined
fighter jets.
acres of Wilderness Study Areas
The Mountain Home Air Force
and Bureau of Land Management
Base in southwestern Idaho is pro-
lands, according to ONDA.
posing to expand military training
Much of the Owyhee Desert’s
allowances across large portions of
sprawling shrub steppe and can-
the Owyhee Desert — a 9-million-
acre landscape of shrub steppe and
yons are on public land.
remote canyons spanning three
“The Air Force needs to hear that
states cherished by tribes, ranchers,
there is strong, broad support for
sportsmen, paddlers, hikers, conser- ‘Gunfighters’ legacy
conservation in the Owyhee Can-
yonlands and southeastern Oregon,
vationists, scientists and stargazers.
Mountain Home Air Force Base
and that their proposal threatens to
is home to the 366th Fighter Wing
The air base’s Proposal for Air-
undermine the qualities that make
(nicknamed the “Gunfighters”) and
space Optimization for Readiness
this region so exceptional,” accord-
the F-15E Strike Eagle, a dual-role
would increase both the frequency
and low-flight intensity of jet fighter fighter designed to perform air-to-
ing to an ONDA web posting.
Environmental impact
air and air-to-ground missions. An
exercises across giant sections of
The deadline for public comment
statement pending
array of avionics and electronics sys-
southwestern Idaho, northern Ne-
In Oregon, the USAF’s proposal on the Air Force’s proposal was Oct.
tems gives the F-15E the capability could increase the frequency of sonic 25.
vada and southeastern Oregon.
The Air Force is required to pro-
to fight at low altitude, day or night, boom-producing training flights
Current airspace restrictions
to nearly 19 per day — shatter-
in all weather.
vide a final environmental impact
in the latter two states within the
The 366th Fighter Wing’s pri-
established USAF training range
ing the area’s famed Canyonlands, statement by a date that remains
pending.
are set above at least 10,000 feet — mary mission is to provide combat
nicknamed “The Big Quiet,” and
“Given the breadth and depth
or 30,000 feet when breaking the
distressing indigenous wildlife.
airpower and support, as well as
of public comment provided on the
sound barrier.
ONDA has launched a new
quick response to the military’s
draft plan, we suspect it will take
worldwide contingency operations. online story map of the area.
“In many cases that’s barely
many months just to incorporate
Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and
The base is also used for training
noticeable — you might see those
Jeff Merkley have proposed protect- that (public) input,” says Salvo.
by the Singapore Air Force, which
planes before you hear them —
By JORDAN RANE
Columbia Insight
but it’s nothing like what’s being
proposed in the current plan,” says
Mark Salvo, conservation director
at Oregon Natural Desert As-
sociation (ONDA). “We’re deeply
concerned about fighter jet noise
and disturbance to wild lands, wild
waters, sensitive wildlife and local
communities, the risk of wildfire
from the increased use of flam-
mable flares — and the fact that
the Air Force hasn’t explained why
it needs to conduct more and more
intense training across this huge
tri-state area.”
Jim Davis/Contributed Photo
The Mountain Home Air Force
Base in southwestern Idaho is
proposing expanded military
training allowances across
large portions of the Owyhee
Desert — a 9-million-acre
landscape of shrub steppe
and remote canyons spanning
three states cherished by tribes,
ranchers, sportsmen, paddlers,
hikers, conservationists,
scientists and stargazers.
CRISIS
Continued from A1
Loennig said in a
previous interview with
the Herald that the
Bi-Mart pharmacy has
been processing about
1,500 prescriptions per
week.
In addition to the
transferring of prescrip-
tions from the Bi-Mart
pharmacy, Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown’s vaccina-
tion mandate, which
took effect Oct. 18, could
also have an effect on
staffing, Loennig said.
The mandate applies
to pharmacists and
pharmacy technicians.
Loennig said two of
the seven employees at
the Bi-Mart pharmacy
in Baker City had left
their jobs due to the
mandate.
According to the
OHA, as of Oct. 4, 87%
of pharmacists in Or-
egon were vaccinated,
and 82% of pharmacy
technicians.
On Monday morning,
Nov. 1, several custom-
ers waited in line at
the Baker City Rite Aid
store, where the phar-
macy opens at 10 a.m.
One of the waiting
customers, Roberta
Vanderwall, said “It’s
sad.”
“I feel bad for the em-
ployees because they’re
being cut back and then
they can’t get help and
then people get grouchy
with the employees and
it’s not fair,” Vanderwall
said. “It’s not fair what’s
going on.”
Another customer,
Sherrie Richardson,
said a pharmacy
employee told her last
week that they were “14
days behind on their
prescriptions. I think
they are doing the best
they can.”
Customer Shelly
Thoms said: “Literally
every place in this town
is doing this; they don’t
have enough people.”
Joanna Priestley/Contributed image
Paul Harrod was the co-production designer on the film “Isle of Dogs.”
ARTISTS
Continued from A1
Brian and Corrine Veg-
ter, who own Churchill, are
offering two- and four-week
residencies that overlap with
the First Friday art walks.
“It’s to bring artists from
outside the area, and they
have a way to show their
work,” Brian said.
The residencies, Corrine
said, help “expose new creativ-
ity from the outside to our
community.”
Brian said the length of
these residencies also give
the artists time to explore the
local area, and visit shops in
town.
Long careers in film
Both Harrod and Priestley
have spent three decades in
the film business.
They met at California In-
stitute of the Arts, where Har-
rod earned his undergraduate
and graduate degrees, and
Priestley earned her master’s
degree.
“That school had a major
impact on both of us,” she said.
Her path to animation
came when she was in her
20s and living in Sisters. She
was an artist — a painter
VACCINE
and printmaker — and she’d
helped start a local film festi-
val. One of the first guests did
animation.
“It snapped in my head — I
have to do this,” she said.
She bought a pack of index
cards and started drawing.
Then she rigged a setup to
animate the drawings.
Her film was her admis-
sion to Cal Arts, where she
toured studios and heard from
people in the film business.
“There were a lot of early
pioneers who came to the
school and talked,” she said.
Harrod’s interest in film
came much earlier in his life,
when he was around the age
of 5.
“I think it was all written
for me when I saw Godzilla
and King Kong,” he said.
Then he saw “2001: A
Space Odyssey” and “Planet of
the Apes” at age 10.
“Nothing else was even an
option after that,” he said.
His family encouraged his
interest.
“From a very early age, my
mother said find something
you like doing and make a
career out of it,” he said.
He made his first mask
when he was 12.
“I just kept on doing that
sort of thing,” he said.
much of the country, Baker
County reported 68 cases.
Weekly case totals reached
Continued from A1
records in two straight weeks
— 128 from Sept. 5-11, and
Weekly cases reach
139 from Sept. 12-18 — but
3-month low
Baker County reported then declined in four straight
24 COVID-19 cases for the weeks, to a low of 37 cases
from Oct. 10-16.
week Oct. 24-30. That’s
Cases rose to 51 from Oct.
the fewest in any week
17-23 but then dropped again
since July 18-24, when
there were six cases in the the next week.
Cases dropped by almost
county.
64% in the county during
The following week,
July 25-31, with the much October, from September’s
more contagious delta vari- record total of 465 to 168 dur-
ing October.
ant spreading rapidly in
Remember the California
Raisins? Harrod was involved
with the final production, a
project of Will Vinton Studios
in Portland where he was the
senior art director.
He also, in 1999, was
production designer for “The
PJs,” which he said was the
first stop-motion animation
on prime time television.
He designed the show, and
directed five episodes.
More recently, he worked
on Wes Anderson’s stop-
motion feature “Isle of Dogs,”
which earned the Art Direc-
tors Guild award in 2019
for Excellence in Production
Design for an Animated
Feature.
Stop-motion animation
has changed over the decades
Harrod has worked in the
business. For instance, a
production today may use a
3D printer to create multiple
facial expressions, which can
be easily swapped during
filming — and quicker than
molding faces by hand.
Harrod and Priestley
both discovered that their
business is “pandemic proof”
thanks to the use of comput-
ers and the Internet.
“You can do feature films
with artists working in differ-
ent countries,” Harrod said.
Booster doses
Staten said last week that
residents have been express-
ing interest in getting a
booster dose of a vaccine.
Residents 80 and older
have the highest vaccina-
tion rate in the county at
71.2% — 787 of the 1,106
residents in that age group.
As of Friday, Oct. 29, 5.7% of
those people have received a
booster dose, according to the
OHA.
Rates for other age groups
in the county:
• Ages 70 to 79 — 69.9%
Joanna Priestley/Contributed image
Filmmakers Joanna Priestley and Paul Harrod are
spending two weeks as the resident artists at Churchill
School in Baker City. Here they are shown at the
premiere of the stop-motion film “Isle of Dogs.”
He is currently working
for Bix Pix Entertainment, a
studio based in Burbank, Cali-
fornia (the studio that created
“Tumble Leaf” for Amazon).
Priestley has her own
company, Priestley Motion
Pictures. She works solo, but
does have an internship pro-
gram. She also works with a
vaccination rate (1,533 of
2,192 residents); booster dose
rate, 6%
• Ages 60 to 69 — 57.1%
vaccination rate (1,759 of
3,082 residents); booster dose
rate, 1.3%
• Ages 50 to 59 — 48.5%
vaccination rate (1,111 of
2,289 residents); booster dose
rate, 1.8%
• Ages 40 to 49 — 49%
vaccination rate (805 of 1,644
residents); booster dose rate,
1.3%
• Ages 30 to 39 — 36.7%
vaccination rate (714 of 1,947
composer, sound designer and
compositor to finish her films.
This film process is not
quick — she said it took six
years to finish a one-hour
feature film.
To learn more about these
artists, visit their websites:
www.joannapriestley.com and
www.paulharrod.com.
residents; booster dose rate,
0.9%
• Ages 20 to 29 — 39.6%
vaccination rate (515 of
1,301 residents); booster dose
rate, 0.7%
People with questions about
COVID-19 vaccines or other
topics can call the Health De-
partment at 541-523-8211.
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