COFFEE BREAK
B6 — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
THuRSDAY, FEBRuARY 17, 2022
Cousin desperate to help woman in abusive romance
DEAR ABBY: I have always
been extremely close to my
cousins; we even refer to ourselves
as sisters. The problem I’m having
is with the boyfriend of one of
them. They have been dating for
almost 10 years.
For the first few years we were
all close, and I enjoyed spending
time with them. The past three
years, however, have been heart-
breaking. He’s rude to her and her
mother and belittles and ridicules
everything she says and does. We
all walk on eggshells when he’s
around, not to mention he con-
stantly stares at our chests.
They recently moved hours
away for his job. I feel he has
purposely isolated her from all
of us, and is mentally and emo-
tionally abusing her. She used to
want to get married and have a
family with him, but now she is
calling me selfish for being preg-
nant. He’s dragging her down
and has bought himself more
time by getting her a dog.
Even if they did get engaged,
I’d feel sad she’s spending her
life with this man. If he treats her
like this in front of all of us, what
is he doing behind closed doors?
My cousin is very prideful and
shuts down any criticism. How
can I explain to her that I’m wor-
ried about her without risking our
relationship? — SCARED FOR
HER IN THE EAST
DEAR SCARED: Tell your
cousin you love her dearly and
will be saying this only once,
so you want her to remember it.
Then repeat to her what you have
written to me. Explain that abusers
erode the self-esteem of their
“love object” through constant
criticizing and belittling. Say you
realize she has invested 10 years
of her life in that relationship, but
if she ever has doubts or changes
her mind about living away from
the family, you will be there
for her. Then give her the con-
tact information of the National
Domestic Violence Hotline (800-
799-7233; thehotline.org) if there
have been any instances in which
he has hit or threatened her — or
the dog — when he’s angry.
DEAR ABBY: My hus-
band will not do things unless
I “remind” him. He has a med-
ical issue and experiences painful
symptoms if he forgets to take the
medication his doctor prescribed.
He’ll then have a flare-up, take
his medicine and not take it again
until another flare-up happens.
Also, he’ll need to have an
important doctor’s appointment
for a procedure and he won’t
even think about making the call
to schedule it. I used to remind
him about all these things but,
frankly, I’m not his mother. I’m
his wife. Please help. — NOT HIS
MOTHER
DEAR NOT HIS MOTHER:
Being a loving spouse requires
us to fill varying roles in the life
partnership. Not only are we
lovers, best friends and some-
times nurses, but we must some-
times act as “parents.”
It’s hard to believe someone
who has a chronic condition that
brings painful flare-ups would
forget to take a medication that
would avert them, which makes
me wonder about your husband’s
mentation. Doctor visits can
sometimes be uncomfortable,
which may be why he hesitates to
schedule them.
If you love him, please
shoulder that responsibility as
you would want him to do if the
situation were reversed.
WOLVES
“Sometimes I feel the pro-
ducer is trustworthy, the
claim seems reasonable
and I support it. Sometimes
the claim seems exagger-
ated and/or doubtful. How
to know what became of
the missing livestock or,
without independent ver-
ification, even to know if
the counts are accurate?
For 2019, Wallowa County
ranchers claimed $1,800
in direct losses, $47,000
in indirect losses. The dis-
crepancy seems out of
proportion. Even if the
stock count is accurate, all
missing cattle are not vic-
tims of wolf predation.”
What both groups agree
on is that the fund has not
led to an acceptance of
wolves among ranchers.
Adrian Treves, pro-
fessor of environmental
studies at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison and
director of the Carnivore
Coexistence Lab at the
university wrote in testi-
mony, “The moral hazard
is that negligent owners
will reduce protections
for their domestic ani-
mals because they reason
the government will pay
them anyway.”
Continued from Page B1
decide whether it’s likely the
animal was lost to wolves.
The committee then asks
the Department of Agricul-
ture for reimbursement for
the livestock owners. Also,
at least one-third of the wolf
compensation fund money
is set aside for helping
owners pay for nonlethal-le-
thal methods of keeping
wolves away, like alarm or
scare devices, fencing with
electric wires and paying
range riders who patrol live-
stock grazing areas.
According to Jonathan
Sandau, a special assistant
to the director at the state
Agriculture Department,
79% of the wolf compen-
sation money paid out over
the last four years has gone
to nonlethal wolf mitiga-
tion methods. About 9% of
the money has gone to reim-
bursing owners for con-
firmed wolf kills.
Between 2017 and 2021,
Sandau said, the department
received $1.6 million in
requests from the fund. The
department was able to pay
out only $725,000 — about
$181,000 a year.
It didn’t have enough
money to reimburse all
of the claims for missing
cattle that the ranchers had
requested.
“We’ve never been able
to meet the full requests
since the inception of the
program,” Sandau said.
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Contributed Photo, File
A trail camera in January 2016 caught this image of two adult wolves from the Walla Walla Pack in northern Umatilla County.
the end of 2019, according
to the Fish and Wildlife
Department.
But livestock owners say
they are losing a growing
number of animals to wolf
kills but don’t receive ample
compensation. They also
say they have to wait a year
to be paid because county
commissions get to request
the funds only once a year.
Nash, of Wallowa
County, said many ranchers
and farmers want to with-
draw from the program
because of low and slow
payouts and are becoming
increasingly weary of the
state’s protection of wolves.
“It’s really disheartening
to not see full support to
fully fund the program that
pays just a small portion
of what we have to put up
with and the losses we’ve
endured,” he said.
For Danielle Moser,
a wildlife program coor-
dinator at Oregon Wild,
the number of claims for
missing livestock against
confirmed kills, and the
Disappointment on
both sides
The wolf compensation
fund aimed to keep both
sides happy, allowing the
wolves to roam while com-
pensating livestock owners.
The number of wolves in
the state has continued to
grow since 2009, from 14
wolves to at least 173 by
men’s Association, Eastern
Oregon Counties Associ-
ation and Oregon Hunters
Association — submitted
letters supporting the
proposal.
Nash said many owners
believe the state is under-
counting wolves and the
number of livestock killed
by them.
number of wolves in the
state, seem dispropor-
tionate. She said the fund
hasn’t been audited or
reviewed since it was cre-
ated in 2012.
“The overarching thing
is that we need to take a
step back and review the
program,” Moser said. “Is it
achieving its intended goal?
Making sure we’re actu-
ally building social toler-
ance? Like many programs,
we don’t think we should
add more to the pot until
we ensure it’s being spent
correctly.”
“I’ve got $500,000
worth of asks and only
$100,000 to go around,”
said Nash, who is also a
county commissioner who
helps review reports.
But another member of
Wallowa County’s Wolf
Compensation Com-
mittee, Wally Sykes,
said he opposes the bill:
Testing the ‘social
tolerance’ for wolves
Prior to the Feb. 9
hearing, 50 individuals,
ranchers, conservation and
animal rights groups and
a Wallowa County Com-
mission wolf committee
member had submitted tes-
timony opposed to the bill.
Five powerful groups —
the Association of Oregon
Counties, Oregon Farm
Bureau, Oregon Cattle-
weather
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AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
41/49
Kennewick
43/49
St. Helens
41/53
Hood River
38/59
40/53
Condon
39/63
42/53
FRI
SAT
SUN
MON
Partly cloudy
Mostly sunny
Mostly cloudy
Cooler with
snow showers
Cloudy with a
little snow
42 25
39 22
36 15
Eugene
3
1
1
36/55
49 33
40 27
38 20
5
0
0
La Grande
26 49 32
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
5
5
5
21 47 26
Comfort Index™
3
37 26
32 21
5
0
0
8
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Tuesday
Low Tuesday
High: 83°
Low: -44°
Wettest: 0.22”
38°
23°
43°
28°
46°
31°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Tuesday
0.00
Month to date
Trace
Normal month to date 0.32
Year to date
0.38
Normal year to date
1.02
Trace
0.41
0.66
1.68
2.33
0.15
0.79
1.30
4.72
4.57
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
HAY INFORMATION FRIDAY
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
40%
SSE at 6 to 12 mph
5.9
0.07
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Wednesday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
3% of capacity
30% of capacity
21% of capacity
40% of capacity
24% of capacity
45% of capacity
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Tuesday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
1860 cfs
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
1 cfs
Burnt River near Unity
9 cfs
Umatilla River near Gibbon
277 cfs
Minam River at Minam
153 cfs
Powder River near Richland
101 cfs
Pecos, Texas
Kabetogama, Minn.
San Diego, Mont.
OREGON
High: 57°
Low: 16°
Wettest: 0.04”
The Dalles
Prineville
Roseburg
Powers
39/63
On Feb. 17, 1980, Albany, N.Y., had its only
subzero temperature of the season. The
following year, on the same date, tempera-
tures in nearby Connecticut soared into
the 60s.
SUN & MOON
THU.
6:51 a.m.
5:22 p.m.
6:38 p.m.
7:47 a.m.
FRI.
6:49 a.m.
5:24 p.m.
7:48 p.m.
8:08 a.m.
MOON PHASES
Last
Feb 23
New
Mar 2
First
Mar 10
37/54
Full
Mar 17
Jordan Valley
23/50
Paisley
28/61
23/61
Frenchglen
28/57
36/67
Brookings
30/64
City
Astoria
Bend
Boise
Brookings
Burns
Coos Bay
Corvallis
Council
Elgin
Eugene
Hermiston
Hood River
Imnaha
John Day
Joseph
Kennewick
Klamath Falls
Lakeview
SAT.
Hi/Lo/W
49/41/c
66/31/c
50/29/s
62/40/pc
55/25/pc
54/35/c
53/33/c
40/22/s
50/27/s
55/36/c
63/35/pc
59/40/c
54/34/pc
55/27/pc
46/27/s
61/32/pc
59/24/c
58/23/c
Hi/Lo/W
49/40/r
61/34/pc
53/33/pc
56/42/s
56/26/pc
50/40/c
49/38/c
39/25/pc
49/33/c
50/39/c
57/42/pc
52/43/c
53/35/c
54/30/pc
48/27/c
60/42/c
61/28/pc
60/25/pc
Grand View
Arock
26/51
24/56
26/59
Klamath Falls
23/59
Lakeview
22/58
McDermitt
Shown is Friday’s weather. Temperatures are Thursday night’s lows and Friday’s highs.
FRI.
Diamond
28/55
Fields
Medford
45/62
Boise
25/50
Silver Lake
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
26/54
26/63
23/54
RECREATION FORECAST FRIDAY
REGIONAL CITIES
WEATHER HISTORY
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
Beaver Marsh
Juntura
23/55
25/61
23/58
Roseburg
Ontario
26/48
Burns
Brothers
34/60
Coos Bay
Huntington
25/53
29/66
Oakridge
18/40
25/44
Seneca
Bend
Elkton
Council
16/41
28/55
27/65
Florence
TUESDAY EXTREMES
ALMANAC
22/47
John Day
25/63
Sisters
37/54
Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels
very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable.
18/39
Baker City
Redmond
39/51
39/51
Halfway
Granite
34/53
Newport
37/53
50 27
27/58
36/61
39/55
Corvallis
Enterprise
21/47
26/49
Monument
34/65
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
3
25/50
La Grande
33/61
Maupin
Comfort Index™
Elgin
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
34/53
35/54
33/59
TIllamook
16 41 19
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2022
Walla Walla
33/61
Vancouver
40/51
38/52
Baker City
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City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
FRI.
SAT.
Hi/Lo/W
53/36/pc
49/40/c
51/31/s
64/32/pc
51/40/c
49/39/c
48/29/s
59/32/s
59/34/pc
53/40/c
63/37/c
63/26/c
54/38/c
55/37/c
45/32/c
63/38/pc
51/28/pc
54/39/pc
Hi/Lo/W
55/40/c
46/41/r
48/33/c
60/37/pc
49/41/r
47/38/r
49/31/pc
57/41/c
57/40/pc
48/40/c
54/41/c
60/33/pc
52/41/c
52/40/c
43/34/c
58/43/c
49/29/c
53/38/c
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
35
20
49
22
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
43
31
47
26
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
Mostly sunny
Mostly sunny
38
17
48
23
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Mostly sunny
Partly sunny; mild
46
27
61
37
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
Partly sunny
Mostly sunny
41
19
49
32