BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2022 A5
LOCAL & REGION
Stakeholders seek consensus for forest management
Local group submits goals for Blue
Mountains forest management plans
tions, including economics;
access; management area desig-
JOHN DAY — Groups that nation; pace and scale of resto-
have long been at odds on for- ration; grazing; fire and salvage
est management issues have
logging; coordination between
reached a consensus on goals
agencies; and wildlife.
and desired conditions that will
The counties argued the
frame how the U.S. Forest Ser- agency’s plan would close
vice drafts land management
roads and limit livestock
plans on three national forests grazing while failing to thin
in Northeastern Oregon and
enough of the woods to boost
Southeastern Washington.
timber jobs or lower the risk
At a meeting on Jan. 25, the of large wildfires.
access subcommittee of the
The BIC subcommittee re-
Blue Mountains Intergovern-
vised the list of conditions
mental Council — or BIC for
pertaining to a number of key
short — submitted its final rule issues, including access, elk se-
and desired conditions to the
curity, wilderness and other
full council.
set-asides.
The Forest Service formed
the BIC, made up of county
Forest access
officials, tribal members and
In its final draft document
other stakeholders from the
of desired conditions, the BIC’s
Blue Mountain region, after
access subcommittee wrote for-
the agency’s proposed 2018
est access was the most conten-
management plan revision
tious topic during the 2018 for-
fizzled in the face of intense
est plan revision process.
public scrutiny.
Committee member Bill
The three national forests
Harvey said the forest roads
covered by the management
have been used by people in
plan — the Umatilla, Wal-
rural areas for 75 to 80 years.
lowa-Whitman and Malheur
Harvey, chairman of the
— are collectively known as
Baker County Board of Com-
the Blue Mountain Forest and missioners, said people have
make up a third of Oregon’s na- lived, worked and played in
tional forest land.
the Blue Mountains their
Each forest has its individ- whole lives.
ual resource and management
“Why, in God’s name,” Har-
plans, with desired conditions vey said, “would we want to
and goals spelled out. While
take that right away?”
the plans do not dictate proj-
ect-level decisions, the desired Public use
The group writes that the
conditions will form a foun-
dation for the broader guide- public desires to be well in-
formed on forest access. It
lines surrounding key issues
such as forest access, elk secu- wants the agency to provide an
rity, forest health and grazing up-to-date and comprehensive
inventory of all forest roads
when the Forest Service be-
gins the process of revising its and the status of those roads.
This was an important de-
management plan for the Blue
sired condition for subcom-
Mountain Forest.
Craig Trulock, Malheur Na- mittee member Mark Owens,
tional Forest supervisor, said he a state representative from
Crane, who told the Blue
is not sure when the revision
process would begin. However, Mountain Eagle last year that
he said a proposal has been for- he understands certain ar-
eas have wilderness or wild-
warded to U.S. Forest Service
life designations restricting
headquarters in Washington,
D.C., to put a team together to motorized vehicle access.
But he wanted to learn what
begin drafting the revision.
From the beginning, Trulock roads are open and what
said, the idea was to seek com- roads are closed and why they
are closed.
promise and solutions on as
He said he wanted to see
many issues as possible.
which roads were closed
“I think we made huge
progress with the BIC on un- through the National Environ-
derstanding each other,” Tru- mental Policy Act and which
roads were closed by the For-
lock said.
est Service administratively.
The Forest Service’s 2018
“If they’re closed through
management plan revision,
which was drafted before Tru- NEPA, we really can’t get
it back open unless we go
lock was named Malheur’s
through NEPA, but if you’re
supervisor, received intense
closed administratively, then
backlash. The plan called for
an increase in thinning dry up- those are open for a conversa-
tion on the subject,” he said.
land forests to improve wild-
According to the final doc-
fire resilience while doubling
the current timber harvest and ument, “use restriction of a
designating 70,500 acres of new road previously reviewed and
approved through the NEPA
wilderness.
The Eastern Oregon Coun- process should be clearly
and effectively posted for the
ties Association, to which
public and reflected on up-
Baker and Grant counties be-
dated maps.”
long, listed eight main objec-
BY STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald, File
A group comprising county officials and others recently submitted a list of goals for new management plans for the national forests in the Blue
Mountains, including the Wallowa-Whitman, which manages most of the Elkhorn Mountains west of Baker City.
Elk security
The group writes that forest
road and trail system use, den-
sity and habitat conditions may
have some negative effects on
wildlife in general and specifi-
cally on elk distribution.
The desired condition is that
habitat is managed to provide
a balance of adequate nutri-
tional resources, cover, and
human disturbance regimes
so we encourage elk to remain
on public lands. Collabora-
tion and coordination occur
that benefits these desired fu-
ture conditions by addressing
the many other factors such as
predation, hunting, and private
land practices that also effect
elk distribution while provid-
ing year-round recreational
and cultural opportunities and
limiting agricultural damage
on private lands.
a result, the public and groups
that frequent the routes would
be well informed and allowed
to comment on changes in
management actions.
Harvey writes that Baker
County submitted several ed-
ited versions of desired condi-
tions, and the subcommittee
offered “minimal regard” for
the county’s input.
Local governments know
Wilderness, habitat and
their counties best, Harvey
set-asides
writes.
Last year the subcommittee
“And it’s ridiculous to be
asked the Forest Service’s Dennis
overridden by committee
Dougherty, a recreation planner,
members that have no au-
Nick Goldstein, a regional plan-
thority or knowledge of what
ner, and Trulock about the pro-
is best for the citizens of this
cess of recommending set-asides
county,” Harvey added.
within a forest plan.
Trulock said that the BIC’s
Dougherty talked about the
charter allows for the submis-
difficulties during the 2018
sion of the minority report.
plan revision. However, he told
Ultimately, he said, the
the group his biggest takeaway
Forest Service would have to
was complying and comport-
make decisions through the
ing each component with the
forest planning effort, which
overarching forest plan.
Dougherty said it is import-
will include alternative drafts
ant to remember the forest plan
and a public comment pe-
riod.
does not designate motorized
Grant County Commis-
usage on forest roads. Instead,
User-created routes
sioners Jim Hamsher and
those provisions come from the
The desired condition is to
Sam Palmer, who both served
travel management plan.
establish objective criteria for
on the BIC, said they knew
He also told the group that
user-created routes, such as
there would need to be com-
some areas are statutorily des- Baker’s minority report
evaluating historical maps and ignated. Also, he said, Con-
Harvey submitted a minority promises.
aerial imagery to determine if gress identifies certain set-
report disagreeing with the BIC
“You’re never going to get
the agency should include the asides as well.
access subcommittee’s final
everything you want,” Palmer
forest system.
draft of the desired conditions said.
He explained a Forest Ser-
The routes would be evalu- vice document, the “suitabili-
document.
He said he was happy that
ated and analyzed at the project ty-rating table,” used during the
Harvey writes that spe-
all of the entities began work-
level for social, cultural, histor- last revision, which lists man- cial interest groups, agencies, ing with each other early in
ical, economic, habitat and en- agement areas, activities, land and tribes disregarded for-
the process, which, he said,
vironmental concerns while, at allocations and designations
est management principles
did not happen in 2018.
a minimum, seeking to ensure that the forest can use to make the Eastern Oregon Coun-
“We brought all the agen-
access in the general area.
ties Association compiled in
cies up to the table at the
access and land-use recom-
The evaluation would co-
a 2019 document throughout front end instead of the back
mendations.
ordinate with local and tribal
the subcommittee meetings.
end,” Palmer said. “In two
Dougherty said he recog-
governments with ample pub- nized the framework as cum-
Meanwhile, Harvey noted that years we had a product when
lic notice and involvement
before they had one that got
bersome and complicated be- this let other counties make
through the NEPA process. As cause of the plan amendments too many concessions.
scrapped after 15 years.”
over the years. However, he
said it is the Forest Service’s
general approach to determin-
ing land uses.
The Forest Service’s Tom
Montoya said these adminis-
trative recommendations go
through a review process under
the National Environmental
Policy Act.
Trulock said the goal was
to come to a collective under-
standing about the Forest Ser-
vice’s process: Even if there are
no additional set-asides, they
still have to go through the
analysis to get to that point and
make that recommendation.
The final draft of the de-
sired condition was to under-
stand that the forest service
has to evaluate the suitability
and eligibility through the
forest planning process for
future set-asides.
That said, the subcommittee
does not see the need for any
additions to set-asides.
Bill banning business vaccine mandates advances in Idaho
BY REBECCA BOONE
Associated Press
BOISE — A panel of Idaho
lawmakers has advanced a bill
that would make it a crime for
Idaho businesses to require
employees to get vaccinated
against the coronavirus.
The federal government
and companies employing
health care workers would be
exempt under the bill from
Rep. Charlie Shepherd. But
all other businesses would be
barred from firing, segregat-
ing or otherwise treating un-
vaccinated workers differently
than vaccinated employees.
The House Business Com-
mittee sent the bill to the full
House with a “do pass” recom-
mendation on a party-line vote
Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 15.
Shepherd, a Republican
from Pollock, said the bill
protects “individual liberty,”
and that businesses could
simply close their doors if the
owners feel it is too dangerous
to work with unvaccinated
employees during the corona-
virus pandemic.
“All it says is at no time in
the future are we going to al-
low a business to push their
will on an individual worker,”
Shepherd said.
The legislation would
make it illegal for employers
to “limit, segregate, or clas-
sify employees or applicants
for employment in any way”
that would hurt the employ-
ee’s status based on whether
they are vaccinated against
the coronavirus. If enacted,
the law would remain in ef-
fect even if the coronavirus
mutates into a more danger-
ous strain in the future.
Breaking the rules would
be punishable by a misde-
meanor, with a fine not to
exceed $1,000.
The legislation garnered
praise from Republican
Reps. Brent Crane and Ben
Adams, both from Nampa,
though they said the bill did
not go as far as they would
have hoped.
“You’re headed in the right
direction,” Crane told Shep-
herd. “It’s a good start.”
Rep. Steve Berch, a Demo-
crat from Boise, asked Shep-
herd what would happen if
a more deadly mutation of
coronavirus occurs in the fu-
ture: “You would rather see
a business shut its doors and
put people out of work then
to have them be protected by
a vaccine and be able to con-
tinue working — am I under-
standing you correctly?”
Yes, Shepherd said.
“I would rather have that
happen and give time for
someone like myself to come
back up here and rewrite the
law that protects the individ-
ual to the best of their ability
rather than trample on our
constitutional rights,” Shep-
herd told the committee.
Democratic Rep. Brooke
Green from Boise voted
against the bill, saying the
committee should work to
empower businesses to make
the choices they think are
best, not put obstacles in
their way.
“Quite frankly, I’m on
the side of the business that
wants to get their job done,
who wants to look out for
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greater public health risk.
“Individual freedom with-
out responsibility or account-
ability is anarchy,” Berch said.
“We’re making a decision
based on a reality, a current
situation, which may not re-
flect a much more dire future
reality.”
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said. “This does the complete
opposite. We owe it to busi-
nesses to give them the tools
to do their jobs.”
Berch, who also voted
against the bill, said it isn’t
good public policy, especially
since the virus that causes
COVID-19 could easily mu-
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