BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 2022 A3
LOCAL & STATE
Snow
Continued from A1
Without the jet stream
to shove storms through,
the snow-producing
front has been parked
across Eastern Oregon
for most of the week.
When the front is
north of Baker City,
the winds tend to blow
from the south, bring-
ing slightly warmer air,
Breidenbach said.
When the front
moves the opposite di-
rection and dives south
of Baker City, the wind
direction shifts, with
northerly winds usher-
ing in colder air.
This fluctuating pat-
tern played out earlier in
the week. On Tuesday,
Jan. 4, the front, acting
as a warm front, pushed
north toward Washing-
ton. The temperature at
the Baker City Airport
rose to 35 degrees — the
warmest so far in 2022
— about 5:30 a.m. on
Wednesday, Jan. 5.
But then the front re-
versed course, passing
through Baker County
again and prompting
north winds that cooled
the temperature to 31
degrees at 9 a.m.
The front isn’t fin-
ished, though.
Breidenbach said it
will move north again,
this time bringing even
warmer air from the
south. Temperatures in
Baker City are forecast
to rise into the low 40s
on Thursday, Jan. 5 and
Friday, Jan. 6.
Over the weekend
a major change in the
pattern is likely, he said,
with a ridge of high
pressure replacing the
low pressure trough that
has dominated the first
week of the new year.
“The ridge will put an
end to the stormy pat-
tern,” Breidenbach said.
The shift also likely
will result in a tem-
perature inversion,
with colder air trapped
in Baker and other val-
leys, potentially lead-
ing to fog.
Breidenbach said the
ridge could persist for
a week or longer, with
little chance of precip-
itation.
Snowplow priority map for Baker City.
Witham
Continued from A1
Witham said she worries
about the long-term effects
on children of mask require-
ments.
She said she is also trou-
bled by people losing their
jobs due to the vaccine man-
date.
Witham said that although
she lacks experience as an
elected official, she believes
she’s well-positioned to rep-
resent county residents due
to her familiarity with the
county, its history, customs
and culture.
Cattle
Continued from A2
“They were all acclimated to
this climate, but not all accli-
mated to this specific terrain.
Some do not know how to
navigate canyons, so they have
wandered in the wrong direc-
tion as we searched for them
and brought in other groups.
New cows are more difficult to
gather than cows that have run
on the same range for several
consecutive years and know
the way home. These cows are
not calving in the snow; the
ranch’s fall calving season was
October through November.
When we began gathering in
September, there were 1,613
mother cows on summer
range.”
He acknowledged bovine ca-
sualties in the recovery efforts.
“Despite the efforts of our
crew and the community, 10
cows have been found unre-
coverable,” he said, adding that
“1,548 Dean Oregon Ranches
mother cows were success-
fully gathered by Dean Oregon
Ranches crew before the snow.
After the snow, 34 mother
cows have been gathered
through the joint efforts of
our crew and the community.
Of those, 26 were Dean Ore-
gon Ranches cattle; the others
were owned by neighboring
ranches.”
Warnock expressed his grat-
itude to fellow ranchers assist-
ing in the recovery.
“We truly appreciate the ef-
fort the community has shown
in this final push to gather the
remaining cows,” he said. “We
plan to continue aerial searches
and hope to bring in the ma-
jority of the remaining 29
mother cows.”
County involved
At an emergency meeting of
the Wallowa County Board of
Commissioners on an unre-
lated matter Dec. 30, Nash —
who is a rancher and president
of the Oregon Cattlemen’s As-
sociation — said information
on the situation at present was
limited.
“The things we do know is
that this was a Forest Service
permit for the Upper Big Sheep
Creek and the Upper Imnaha,”
Nash said after the meeting. “It
Taxes
Continued from A1
Baker City Public Works Department
“I know so many people
and businesses and issues in
the county just through my
work over the last three de-
cades,” she said.
Witham, who was born in
Baker City, moved away with
her family in 1976, when she
was a second-grader, and
then returned during her se-
nior year in high school. She’s
been here since.
Although Witham em-
phasizes that she’s not a
politician, she has experi-
ence in political advocacy,
most notably as a supporter
of maintaining access for
motor vehicles to the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National For-
est and other public land in
the county.
Witham is a longtime
member of a local group of
four-wheel-drive enthusiasts
who use local roads and trails
and also have hosted many
events to clean up trash on
public lands.
Witham said she believes
natural resource issues will
continue to be vital to Baker
County, including forest
management.
“Our forests need help,”
she said, citing recent large
wildfires in and around the
county.
About half of Baker Coun-
ty’s 2 million acres is public
land, managed by either the
Forest Service or the Bureau
of Land Management.
Witham said that if she’s
elected she’s eager to con-
front a new challenge.
“I do look forward to div-
ing into it — I think it’s an in-
teresting position,” she said.
“I want to come at it with
a commonsense approach.
I don’t have an agenda. My
agenda is the people of the
county, and that’s it.”
Witham pointed out that
although this has no influ-
ence on her decision to run,
she would be, if elected, the
county’s first female commis-
sioner.
takes in a large area — 72,000
acres — known as the Marr
Flat Grazing Allotment. They
had a viable permit to go on
sometime in the spring. They
were supposed to have all cattle
removed according to the For-
est Service permit. By the 15th
of October, there were still cat-
tle that remained out there and
are in very deep snow, some of
them have expired. There is a
rescue effort being made right
now to try and rescue as many
as possible. We’ve committed
county resources to it. There’ve
been a number of people who
have volunteered or have con-
tributed time. There’s been he-
licopters that have flown feed
into some that were extremely
isolated and the rescue contin-
ues. Those are the basic facts
that I do know.”
Nash went on to specify the
county resources.
“The Road Department
cleared about 10 miles of road
in a heavy snowfall area on the
Upper Imnaha,” he said. “They
cleared about 90 trees out of
the road. Compounding the
heavy snowfall that came all at
once, we had an event where
we had rain and heavy snow-
fall afterword. There are trees
across a lot of the access roads
that they’re trying to get down
right now that has exasperated
those efforts to try to extricate
the cattle from their situation.”
He was unsure how many
cattle were involved, but was
aware some had young calves.
Rancher Casey Tippett said
he called the Forest Service in
November after hearing re-
ports from hunters that cat-
tle were on land where they
weren’t supposed to be, but
he never heard back from the
federal agency.
“Those cattle should’ve been
taken off that land a long time
ago,” Tippett said Dec. 30.
“When they take strange cattle
to an allotment, when winter
hits they don’t know how to
get out. The people who know
that country should’ve been
getting them out.”
hero in all of this,” she said of
the Joseph construction con-
tractor. “It was Adam Stein
who got the ball rolling.”
She said he started gathering
people to help after viewing
the cattle from the air.
Warnock added his take on
Stein’s assistance.
“I contacted Adam Stein to
fly for the ranch and flew with
him to look for cows multiple
times,” Warnock said. “I am
very thankful we reached out
to Adam — he has been awe-
some through all this and his
expertise in the snow and in
the air has been an invaluable
resource.”
Nash said various agencies
have been apprised of the sit-
uation, ready to lend what aid
they could. He said the Wal-
lowa County Sheriff’s Office
and the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest are aware, as
well as others.
“I’ve had some discussion
with the Oregon Department
of Agriculture on this situ-
ation,” he said. “They’re the
ones with the Brand Depart-
ment a lot of the (state laws)
concerning the current situa-
tion.”
Peter Fargo, public affairs
officer for the Wallowa-Whit-
man National Forest based in
Baker City, said in an email
Dec. 31 that the county, the
sheriff’s office and volunteers
not only had been rescuing
cattle, they “have been hauling
hay and water with snowmo-
biles, side-by-sides and he-
licopters. The priority of the
operation is first on everyone’s
safety and then saving as many
cattle as possible.”
He said the Forest Service
instructed the permittee and
ranch manager to remove all
the cattle in October.
Fargo estimated there were
an estimated 70 head of cattle
still on the allotment Dec. 21
and as of Dec. 30, there were
up to 25 animals still unac-
counted for. Tom Birkmaier,
president of Wallowa County
Stockgrowers, said he has
heard the numbers are higher,
but couldn’t say exactly how
many.
But mostly it’s people in
Wallowa County who are get-
ting out the effort to rescue the
stranded cattle and calves.
“There’s a lot of people who
are quite concerned,” Nash
said.
Birkmaier, who ranches on
Crow Creek where he and wife,
Kelly, have been caring for
some of the rescued calves, was
emphatic in his concern for the
situation.
“Several factors created
near perfect storm that led to
an unfortunate series of event
impacting a group of cattle in
southern Wallowa County. Ap-
parent mismanagement, ex-
treme weather events and lac-
tating cows with young calves
all played a part,” Birkmaier
said. “Over 40 folks nearly
all volunteers, mostly led by
Adam Stein’s common sense
and tireless commitment both
in the air and on the ground
have been working the past 10
days on an incredible rescue of
many livestock.”
Humane Society
Carol Vencill, president of
the local Humane Society, said
she, too, was unsure of the
numbers, but said the snow
was 7 feet deep in some places.
“Adam Stein is really the
The six-year average is
87.9%, Durflinger said.
Property tax bills were
mailed in late October 2021.
Durflinger said the county
received one letter from a
property owner who with-
held paying taxes as a protest
against the governor’s vaccine
mandate.
That property owner had
two separate properties, how-
ever, and the withheld pay-
ment, for about $200, was less
than the taxes for the other
parcel. The tax for that prop-
erty was paid by the owner’s
lender, and was made auto-
matically, Durflinger said.
She said her office also re-
ceived one phone call from a
resident who expressed oppo-
sition to the vaccine mandate.
The county typically re-
ceives a majority of the prop-
erty taxes it levies before the
end of the year.
Property owners who pay
their full bill by Nov. 15 receive
a 3% discount. Those who pay
at least two-thirds of their bill
by Nov. 15 receive a 2% dis-
count.
To avoid having any inter-
est added to their bill, prop-
erty owners have to pay at least
one-third of the bill by Nov. 15.
The second one-third payment
is due by Feb. 15, and the final
one-third by May 15.
Earlier in the fall of 2021, the
group Baker County United
produced a flier noting that
the governor’s mandate that
health care workers be vacci-
nated, or receive a religious or
medical exception, could result
in worker shortages.
The group also sent letters to
the Baker City Council, Baker
County commissioners and
Sheriff Travis Ash requesting a
“public declaration of county
wide mandate defiance, imple-
mentation of a self governance
measure, and a warning that
property taxes will be withheld
if further action is not taken by
these local government bod-
ies to stand for our freedoms
against these mandates.”
Baker County United called
the property tax withholding
idea “Operation Boston Tea
Party.”
In a newsletter dated Dec.
30, 2021, posted on its website,
www.bakercountyunited.com,
the group states that “Our
reach is gaining traction, but
not enough for this effort cur-
rently, so we decided to put a
hold on Operation Boston Tea
Party. As a reminder, the pen-
alty is 1.33% every month so
those penalties versus the re-
ward are greater right now so
go ahead and pay, but it’s your
choice.”
In an email response to a
question from the Herald, Jake
Brown, a member of Baker
County United, wrote that
the group is now encourag-
ing people who withheld their
property taxes to pay them
because decisions by local offi-
cials to grant religious or med-
ical exemptions to most emer-
gency responders who aren’t
vaccinated meant that “emer-
gency services were preserved.”
Brown wrote that the
group’s concern about the
governor’s mandate resulting
in a shortage of paramedics
and other emergency workers
was legitimate. He noted that
county commissioners ap-
proved a resolution stating as
much in late September 2021.
Brown wrote that the pur-
pose of Operation Boston Tea
Party was intended to support
emergency workers, not to de-
fund city and county services.
“I can’t emphasize enough
that it wasn’t to defund our
emergency services, but rather,
to make a statement that if we
lost half of our rural fire emer-
gency personnel, as was being
talked about as well as others
in law enforcement and med-
ical services, then why would
we continue to pay?” Brown
wrote. “What were we fund-
ing? This was being done to
put pressure on the county
commissioners to stand by the
people instead of buckling to
pressure from Salem.”
Brown noted that County
Commissioner Mark Ben-
nett stated, during a Dec.
15 commissioners meeting,
that property taxes bring in
about $6 million of an annual
county budget of about $42
million.
“Many residents of the
county took his comment to
mean that we will always be
second to the demands of Sa-
lem and DC,” Brown wrote.
Property taxes are a signif-
icant source of revenue for
Baker City’s budget. The city
receives about $3.6 million per
year in property taxes, and the
largest share of that money,
almost $3 million for the cur-
rent fiscal year that started July
1, 2021, goes to the general
fund.
That fund includes the po-
lice and fire departments.
Most of the rest of the city’s
share of property taxes is used
for street maintenance.
Baker City Manager Jona-
than Cannon said in early Oc-
tober 2021, after Baker County
United began distributing the
flier encouraging people to
withhold property taxes, that a
significant reduction in prop-
erty tax revenue would force
the city to cut services, poten-
tially including police and fire,
that residents have come to de-
pend on.
Baker County United’s Dec.
30 newsletter urges property
owners, when they pay their
property taxes, to include a let-
ter or email to the three county
commissioners “explaining
that you are paying in protest
and express your support for
Baker County declaring itself a
constitutional county.”
Baker County United rep-
resentatives attended the com-
missioners’ Dec. 15 meeting
and called on them to pass
a resolution declaring Baker
County a “constitutional
county.”
The resolution states, among
other things, that “all actions
by the federal government and
its agents will conform strictly
and implicitly with the prin-
ciples expressed within the
United States Constitution,
Declaration of Independence,
and the Bill of Rights.”
County commissioners
took no action Dec. 15, but
they scheduled a work session
for Jan. 12 to continue the dis-
cussion.
Baker County United’s
Dec. 30 newsletter encourages
people to attend the Jan. 12
session “to show us and the
county commissioners that
they must uphold their oaths
and adopt this resolution.”
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