TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2021
BAKER CITY HERALD — A3
LOCAL & STATE
Truck crash leads to series of wrecks OHSU predicts fewer
hospital cases due to
the omicron variant
Baker City Herald
A commercial truck-
trailer combination lost
control on an icy curve on
Interstate 84 near Rye
Valley, southeast of Baker
City, Sunday morning,
Dec. 26, leading to a chain
reaction in which several
other vehicles were dam-
aged.
There were no serious
injuries, although several
drivers or passengers
sustained minor injuries,
according to an Oregon
State Police report.
The incident started
when truck driver Teresa
S. Hubbard, 59, of Knox-
ville, Tennessee, who was
driving westbound near
Milepost 342, about 38
miles southeast of Baker
City, slid on the slick pave-
ment just before 10 a.m.
and careened off a steep
embankment.
The trailer was partial-
ly blocking one westbound
lane, and several other
vehicles crashed when
they reached the site,
according to a report from
Sgt. David Aydelotte.
Shortly after the chain
reaction crashes, a Lexus
SUV crashed into an
Oregon Department of
Transportation snowplow
that was helping with the
incident.
Several vehicles,
including the truck and
trailer, had to be towed.
The truck crash
caused signifi cant dam-
age to the concrete bar-
rier in the center of the
freeway, and destroyed
a section of guardrail,
according to Aydelotte’s
report.
An estimated 150 gal-
lons of diesel spilled from
the truck.
By FEDOR ZARKHIN
The Oregonian
Oregon’s COVID-19 omicron
hospitalization peak won’t be nearly
as bad as forecasters predicted a
week ago but could still overwhelm
the health care system within weeks
with about as many people needing
hospital beds as did during the delta
wave.
Oregon Health & Science
University revised its omicron surge
projections Thursday, Dec. 23, down
from about 2,400 people hospitalized
at the peak of the upcoming surge
to about 1,200, provided Oregonians
take steps to prevent the spread of
infections.
The peak, which is expected to
hit in early February, could exceed
HERDS
Continued from A1
He said that’s strong evidence
that the bacteria, which sheep can
easily spread among themselves, is
still present in those larger groups
and likely killed all of this year’s
lambs.
“In the smaller subgroups there’s
less chance of lambs being infected,”
Ratliff said.
Biologists were initially opti-
mistic in 2020, with no dead lambs
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald, File
found as of mid June.
A group of bighorn rams photographed on June 20, 2020, in the
They knew, from earlier testing, Lookout Mountain unit in eastern Baker County.
that lambs aren’t infected by their
mothers prior to birth.
Campaign to save sheep herds costly
But later in the summer of 2020,
Trapping, testing and attaching GPS collars to bighorn sheep in
as ewes and lambs started to con-
some
of Baker County’s most rugged country is a time-consuming, and
gregate in larger “nursery” groups,
expensive,
endeavor.
lambs started to sicken and die.
Finding the ‘shedders’
The key to saving the Lookout
Mountain herd — and the smaller
herd of California bighorns, a
smaller subspecies, in the Burnt
River Canyon south of I-84 — is
fi nding the sheep that are chronic
“shedders” of the bacteria that
causes potentially fatal pneumonia,
Ratliff said.
That’s the focus of a multiagency
effort that started in 2020 and likely
will continue for several more years.
This campaign relies heavily on
temporarily capturing bighorns,
testing them for the bacteria, and fi t-
ting them with GPS tracking collars.
Chronic shedders often don’t get
sick, but they can quickly spread
the bacteria to other sheep that lack
high levels of immunity, Ratliff said.
Ewes that are chronic shedders
are especially problematic because
they mingle with other ewes, and
lambs, more often than rams, which
are either solitary or with other
rams much of the year.
Lambs are especially vulnerable,
as the nearly wholesale loss of the
youngest animals the past two years
attests.
Last fall, ODFW, with fi nancial
aid from the Confederated Tribes of
the Umatilla Indian Reservation,
as well as the Oregon and national
chapters of the Foundation for North
American Wild Sheep, captured 25
bighorns from the Lookout Moun-
tain herd. Although all 25 of those
sheep had antibodies in their blood
showing they had been infected
with the bacteria, just four of the 25
were shedding bacteria at that time,
Ratliff said.
Biologists fi tted all those sheep
with tracking collars so they can be
captured again and retested.
So far this fall, ODFW has cap-
tured, tested and collared 14 more
sheep from Lookout Mountain.
None was a chronic shedder,
Ratliff said, although test results
from two of the bighorns were incon-
clusive, so it’s not clear whether they
are shedders or not. One of the 14, a
ewe, was a chronic shedder identi-
fi ed in 2020, but was not shedding
this fall.
COVID
Continued from A1
“We’re not going to let up on the
vaccinations,” Staten said. “That’s
the one thing we can do that we
know will help.”
Case counts stay relatively
steady
After reporting 11 cases on Dec.
RESCUE
Continued from A1
Christensen said in a phone
interview with the Herald on
Monday afternoon that he is also an
experienced snowmobiler who has
participated in search and rescue
missions, involving snowmobiles,
with the Umatilla County Sheriff’s
Offi ce.
Christensen said he was riding
his snowmobile in the Tollgate area,
north of Elgin, on Sunday. He said
he had just returned to his cabin
when he got a phone call from Mike
Kelly, a friend from Burbank, Wash-
ington, near the Tri Cities.
Kelly said he and four other
riders, all of them friends with
Christensen, were riding in the Fish
Lake area north of Halfway and
that they were lost in a storm that
brought fog, snow and gusty winds
that eradicated their tracks. The
riders couldn’t fi nd their way back
to the trailhead in the dark.
“I immediately started making
phone calls,” Christensen said.
One of those was to the Wallowa
Avalanche Center in Joseph, where
a staff member gave Christensen a
phone number for Ash.
Kelly used his cellphone to send
Christensen a digital map osten-
sibly showing their location. But
the map showed them to be in the
Catherine Creek area, more than 15
miles to the west.
At about 5:43 p.m., the Baker
County Sheriff’s Offi ce received an
SOS alert from a Garmin satellite
device. The message stated that
several snowmobilers, one of whom
had a medical condition, were lost.
The message pinpointed the group’s
location near Fish Lake.
Ash said it was clear that this
was the same group that Chris-
tensen had called him about.
Christensen said another mem-
ber of the group, John Mecham of
Kennewick, brought the Garmin
InReach satellite device.
Ash said he told Christensen,
who had intermittent cellphone
contact with Kelly, to tell the group
to stay where they were since the
GPS message had established
their location.
Christensen said his friends
had ridden in the area several
times, but were unable to get their
bearings in the storm.
They did have materials to start
a fi re, as well as some food.
“They’re experienced riders,”
Christensen said. “That’s something
all snowmobilers should do, to be
Brian Ratliff, wildlife biologist at the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s (ODFW) Baker City offi ce, said the agency has benefi ted from
fi nancial assistance from the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian
Reservation, as well as technical assistance from the Tribes’ biologists.
The Tribes have contributed $32,000 from their own budget, and also
received a federal grant for $183,000.
Ratliff said the Oregon chapter of the Foundation for North American
Wild Sheep contributed $10,000, and the Foundation’s national offi ce
allocated $50,000 for a three-state bighorn sheep project that includes
Washington and Idaho. The Bureau of Land Management, which over-
sees much of the land that both the Lookout Mountain and Burnt River
Canyon bighorn herds use, recently contributed $20,000. And ODFW
has spent more than $125,000 so far on the campaign, Ratliff said.
Sheep that are trapped twice
and are chronically shedding both
times will be euthanized, Ratliff
said.
So far, ODFW hasn’t euthanized
any bighorns from Lookout Moun-
tain since none has twice been
identifi ed as a chronic shedder.
Ratliff said it’s possible that
the herd could naturally recover
from the outbreak by virtue of the
chronic shedders dying naturally.
Over time, more sheep are likely
to gain immunity from a previous
exposure to the bacteria, as well.
On the other hand, just a few
chronic shedders could poten-
tially keep the bacteria circulating
within the herd, and decimating
each year’s crop of lambs.
“We’ve just got to fi gure out who
it is,” Ratliff said.
To maintain the herd popula-
tion requires a minimum of 20
lambs per 100 ewes, Ratliff said.
The average ratio for the Lookout
Mountain herd is 38 lambs per 100
ewes, and the number has ranged
from a high of 67 per 100 to a low
of 24.
But again, because chronic shed-
ders usually aren’t themselves ill,
the absence of any obviously sick
sheep doesn’t mean the bacteria
isn’t still present, Ratliff said.
The key period will be the
summer, when the ewes and lambs
begin to gather into their nursery
groups, greatly increasing the
chance of spreading the bacteria.
Source of bacteria remains
mystery
Ratliff said biologists don’t know
how the Lookout Mountain herd was
initially infected with the bacteria.
Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae
bacteria are not known to be carried
by cattle, but domestic sheep can be
infected.
Domestic sheep graze on a public
land allotment, overseen by the
Bureau of Land Management, in the
Lookout Mountain unit, Ratliff said.
None of the domestic sheep that
graze on that allotment has been
tested for the bacteria.
Sheep from two other domestic
fl ocks near Richland, at the north
end of the Lookout Mountain unit,
were tested in 2020 and none was
carrying the Mycoplasma ovipneu-
Looking ahead to 2022
moniae bacteria, Ratliff said. A llama
Ratliff said he expects to see a
owned by a resident along the Snake
typical crop of lambs born in the
Lookout Mountain herd late in the River Road was also tested, and was
also negative for the bacteria.
coming spring.
Sheep in the Burnt River Canyon
During the aerial survey this
began dying around October 2020,
month, he said he didn’t see any
evidence of sick sheep — bighorns and Ratliff believes sheep from
that herd crossed I-84 earlier in the
that develop pneumonia from the
bacteria typically cough and stum- year, mingled with infected Lookout
ble. And based on 2020 and 2021, it Mountain bighorns and became ill,
doesn’t appear that the bacteria is then returned and began spreading
affecting the reproductive capacity the bacteria among Burnt River
Canyon sheep.
of the herd.
21, Baker County had daily totals of
three, six, two, zero (on Christmas
Day) and one.
The weekly total (Dec. 18-25) was
25, an increase of three cases from
the previous week.
December is on pace to have the
lowest daily average case count
since July. Through Dec. 26, the
daily average for the month was 3.5
cases, down from 4.8 per day in No-
vember and 5.4 per day in October.
July’s average was 2.9 cases per
day.
The county’s numbers, driven
by the arrival of delta variant, rose
rapidly thereafter, to 10 cases per
day during August and to a record
of 15.5 per day in September.
Staten said that although De-
cember’s case counts have declined,
she believes there are residents in
the county who have symptoms
consistent with COVID-19 but who
choose not to be tested.
She said the more important
issue is that people who feel ill take
precautions, such as staying home
from work, to avoid potentially
infecting other people.
Staten encourages people who
are seriously ill to make sure they
seek medical treatment.
Breakthrough cases
Baker County had two break-
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1,700 if Oregonians’ behavior doesn’t
change, though it always has in the
past when infections have started
to climb, OHSU data analyst Peter
Graven said.
But while the downward revision
could be heartening, the currently
predicted wave of hospitalizations
could still rival or exceed Oregon’s
peak in early September.
“The risk of overwhelming hos-
pital systems is real,” Graven said.
“We’re seeing a dire situation.”
The numbers could be revised
down again next week, when Graven
hopes to produce a forecast with yet
more accurate data. The key variable
driving the uncertainty is how likely
an omicron infection is to land a vac-
cinated person in the hospital.
prepared even if they don’t think
they’ll ever be stranded.”
Ash said that after confi rming
the group’s location he called Duane
Miles of the Panhandle Snowmobile
Club, who immediately started
assembling riders while Ash was en
route from Baker City to Halfway.
Ash said the sheriff’s offi ce has
worked with members of the Pan-
handle Snowmobile Club for many
years, and their knowledge of the
area is valuable.
“They know the terrain and
they’re used to riding it all the
time,” he said.
Several of the club members
who participated in the rescue had
been riding in the area earlier in
the day, and they refueled their
machines and headed back into
the mountains despite the dark-
ness and the severe weather.
The club members reached
the fi ve Washington men about
9:10 p.m. They were cold and tired
but otherwise OK. They rode back
about nine miles to the Clear Creek
Sno-Park on the road to Fish Lake.
The group, in addition to Kelly
and Mecham, consisted of John
Rasmussen of Kennewick, and
Alan Townsend and Steve Paget,
both from Burbank.
The sheriff’s offi ce thanked the
members of the Panhandle Snow-
mobile Club who helped in the res-
cue: Dusty Traw, Ray Denig, Kyle
Bennett, Josh Sevier, Kyle Dennis,
Chad DelCurto, Tucker Gulick,
Kelly Grisham, Shane Denig.
Christensen said he talked with
Kelly on Monday morning, and he
and the other riders expressed their
gratitude to the Panhandle Club
members, Ash and everyone else
who assisted in the rescue.
“They were super thankful for
all the help,” Christensen said. “It
was really amazing how quickly the
community banded together.”
Ash and Christensen agreed that
the incident is a reminder of why all
outdoor recreationists should carry
a GPS device that has the capability
to send messages via satellite, allow-
ing them to summon help even from
areas lacking cell service.
Had rescuers had only the
snowmobilers’ cell-derived map
as guidance, they would have
searched in the wrong place, and
the riders would have had to
spend at least one night in the
mountains, Ash said.
The nearest weather station to
the rescue site, a snow-measuring
device at Schneider Meadows,
recorded temperatures as low as
10 degrees early Monday.
through cases — infections in fully
vaccinated people — for the most
recently measured week, Dec.
12-18, according to OHA. There
were 22 total cases in the county
that week, and the breakthrough
rate of 9% was the county’s lowest
since August.
From Sept. 5 through Dec. 18,
the county’s breakthrough case
rate was 16.8% — 143 of 849
cases.
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