A4 BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2022
BAKER CITY
Opinion
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Baker City, Oregon
EDITORIAL
States can
manage
wolves
F
or all of the gnashing of teeth
and worries about the impend-
ing decline of Idaho’s wolves,
any predictions of their demise are
greatly exaggerated.
Last year, the Idaho Legislature mod-
ified the law related to hunting and
trapping wolves. Since it’s the state’s job
to manage them, such laws were well
within the purview of lawmakers.
Wolf advocates said the legislators
were threatening the state’s 1,500 wolves
and any efforts to reduce that number
would mark the beginning of the end for
the predators.
In the year since the law was passed,
not much has happened. The state’s wild-
life managers keep tabs on the wolves
that have taken up residence in Idaho.
What they found is — drum roll, please
— the wolf population is about the same
as before.
The wolf population peaks in the sum-
mer, after the pups are born. After that,
any deaths are counted. The Idaho pop-
ulation’s annual low point is about 900 in
the early spring, before the next batch of
pups is born.
State wildlife managers say that if for
some reason the population began to
decrease too far, they could make mid-
course adjustments.
That’s the sort of thing wildlife man-
agers do.
Montana’s Legislature passed similar
legislation. For the vast majority of the
state the new hunting and trapping rules
had little impact on the overall wolf pop-
ulation. However, they found that some
wolves from Yellowstone National Park
had a tendency to drift outside the park
and were killed by hunters and trappers.
When wildlife managers saw this,
the hunts in that area were called off.
The Yellowstone wolf packs will no
doubt rebuild.
There is a concept that continues to be
circulated about wolves: They are timid
creatures that need the help of man
to survive in the wild. Environmental
groups use that concept to build a case
for protecting wolves, and raising money.
Unfortunately for them, wolves are
robust, smart and reproduce rapidly.
Idaho started with 35 wolves imported
from Canada in the mid-1990s. Now
the population peaks at 1,500 each year,
even with hunting, trapping and culling
wolves that attack livestock.
Similarly, the wolf populations in
Washington state and Oregon are
healthy, yet the way they are managed
has frustrated many ranchers.
Idaho and Montana have shouldered
the responsibility of managing wolves in
those states. They are held accountable
and able to make changes as needed to
maintain the health of the wolf popula-
tions without sacrificing the livelihoods
of farmers and ranchers.
Our hope is that, some day, political
leaders in the nation’s capital, Washing-
ton state and Oregon will allow wildlife
managers to do the same statewide.
The last thing any of those states need
is for the federal government to take over
all management of wolves. Idaho and
Montana have demonstrated that it’s not
needed, or wanted.
Unsigned editorials are the opinion
of the Baker City Herald. Columns,
letters and cartoons on this page express
the opinions of the authors and not
necessarily that of the Baker City Herald.
COLUMN
Keeping a valued friendship
despite disagreeing on masks
BY KERRY LESTER KASPER
In the sad reality that is middle age, I have
lost more friendships than I ever thought
possible. Abdications to an ex. A move from
the suburbs to the city, a change in jobs. Do-
ing a generally poor job keeping up with real
and meaningful connections amid the daily
chaos of being a working parent during a pro-
longed pandemic.
So it’s through this lens that I have found
that one of my very best friends today is an
anti-masker, someone who I thoroughly dis-
agree with on the subject and yet still cling
to tightly because I can’t bear to lose another
important bond.
My relationship with — I’ll call her M —
started long before COVID-19, when we hap-
pened to run into one another with newborns
strapped to us in slings. Her daughter was
three months older than mine, a long, chubby
baby with adorable little tufts of black hair.
Mine was tiny and feisty, a ferocious eater
making up for lost time.
Motherhood — a continual state of sec-
ond-guessing for me — was and continues
to seem completely natural to M. She breast-
fed, with ease, while we had a first coffee at
a pretentious local pastry shop. She knew
how to get her tiny little wonder to sleep for
hours on end — I, meanwhile, felt helpless
and close to tears consulting books about
the “healthy sleep habits” of “happy chil-
dren.”
Then, we started to run, sometimes so early
it was before sunrise, a jog that efficiently
covered 5 miles and the stresses of the week
all in one.
When COVID-19 struck, she became one
of my only outlets outside my own home.
As we navigated the beginning stages
of lockdown, I’m not sure either of us had
strong views — other than a perpetual state
of uncertainty and a shared sense of frustra-
tion over the lakefront running path’s clo-
sure.
But what solidified over time was an assur-
ance that I had her back and she had mine, a
commitment that grew even as it became in-
creasingly clear we were on opposite sides of
the political spectrum.
I find bottles of soy sauce and almond
flour on our stoop when I’m running low.
When her washing machine broke, ours
served as her local laundromat.
Yet, one recent Saturday, the day after a
group of parents won an injunction against
masking in schools, I caught my breath,
reading her text: “Would you sign a petition
for (the girls’ preschool) to be mask optional?
(Totally OK if not).”
I promised that I’d dig through the re-
search and let her know but did so with the
sinking feeling of an impending breakup.
As a longtime journalist, life exists for me
in a perpetual shade of gray. It drives my law-
yer husband, who sees everything in black
and white, nuts. There’s all too often one
more fact, one more study, one more com-
ment, that keeps me considering exactly
where right and wrong lie.
And with COVID-19 — while I tend to
place my confidence in our national ex-
perts — the increasing distrust and anger
over continued restrictions among those in
M’s camp befuddles me. What am I missing?
How could this otherwise perfectly reason-
able person feel such anger over the rules I’ve
trusted the powers that be to implement?
What I do know, for now, is that we ulti-
mately come down on opposite sides of the se-
riousness of the virus and the right of a govern-
ment to restrict or deny access to citizens based
on personal health choices. I worry about un-
wittingly passing on a deadly infection and that
my unvaccinated toddler could be the one to
develop a rare, serious form of COVID-19.
M worries about the social and emotional
developmental ramifications for masked chil-
dren and likens the requirement of having to
show her vaccination card at a local restaurant
to being asked to give an intensely private med-
ical exam in public.
I’m fully cognizant that we each come to
this debate from a place of fortune — that our
spouses and children are healthy, that neither
of us has lost extended family members to
COVID-19.
As our school moves to a “mask recom-
mended” state in the coming weeks, our cards
will be on the table — her daughter unmasked
and mine masked until a vaccine is available.
When I told her about this column, I had a
good hunch about what her response would be
before she even sent it. “I’m honored.”
I am, too, for a connection that is based on
such trust despite disagreement.
I’m not sure our little ones will be able to
comprehend why they will all of the sudden
look different from one another in class. But
I hope, like their moms, that they’ll be able to
look past it for the sake of friendship.
Maybe someday, our politically polarized na-
tion can, too.
Kerry Lester Kasper is a freelance journalist
and senior writer for Robert F. Kennedy Human
Rights who lives in Lincoln Park, Illinois.
OTHER VIEWS
Compensate the wrongly convicted
Editorial from St. Louis Post-Dispatch:
Gov. Mike Parson raises an interesting, but
not terribly well-informed, point about how
Missouri’s criminal justice system works. Re-
cently in a radio interview, he questioned why
the state should be the one to compensate
wrongfully convicted prisoners when county
prosecutors are the ones responsible for send-
ing innocent people to prison.
It’s a fair question. County prosecutors
are the ones who receive criminal cases and
weigh whether there’s adequate evidence to
win a conviction. County prosecutors act as
agents of the state in criminal cases, and it’s
because they’re acting on the state’s behalf
that they have the power to send a person to
a state prison.
In an interview last week with Kansas City
public radio, Parson was asked about com-
pensation for wrongfully convicted people like
Kevin Strickland, who spent 42 years in prison
for a triple murder he didn’t commit. He was
freed in November but didn’t receive a dime in
state compensation.
“Who is responsible for that, if there is a re-
sponsibility party?” Parson asked. “I just think,
to say: OK, all the taxpayers in the state of
Missouri are responsible for that. … If he was
wrongfully convicted in a county or in a city,
what responsibilities do they have to that?”
County prosecutors have authority to decide
which cases to pursue, and they are respon-
sible for abiding by all state laws concerning
prosecutorial ethics. If they hide exculpatory
evidence or ignore credible information point-
ing to another person’s guilt, state law should
ensure they are held accountable. At the same
time, newspapers across the state have been
telling Parson for years that strong witness tes-
timony pointed to Strickland’s innocence, yet
Parson was uninterested and repeatedly re-
fused to pardon him. In the end, it was Parson
who made the decision to keep a wrongfully
convicted man in prison. To quote Parson,
“Who is responsible for that?”
The Legislature should be asking whether
counties deserve to foot at least part of the
compensation bill, but lawmakers first must
establish that wrongful conviction — regard-
less of how it is affirmed — is government’s re-
sponsibility to correct with generous compen-
sation. Missouri currently allows a pittance in
compensation, and then only when DNA test-
ing proves innocence.
Texas, where Republicans hold a superma-
jority, ranks among the most generous in the
country when it comes to compensating the
wrongfully convicted. Why? Because Texas
conservatives believe in personal responsibil-
ity, and they extend the concept to the state
when it’s the state that has committed a wrong.
When any person is wrongfully deprived of
liberty, Texas conservatives embrace the con-
cept of compensation with gusto. Texas pays
$80,000 per year of wrongful imprisonment —
DNA or not.
Before quibbling about who covers the cost,
Parson should start by acknowledging that the
wrongfully convicted deserve to be pardoned,
and that they deserve full and fair compensa-
tion for having been robbed of their freedom.
That’s the conservative thing to do.
CONTACT YOUR PUBLIC OFFICIALS
President Joe Biden: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania
Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500; 202-456-1111; to send
comments, go to www.whitehouse.gov.
Avenue Suite 112, Medford, OR 97850; Phone: 541-776-4646;
fax: 541-779-0204; Ontario office: 2430 S.W. Fourth Ave., No. 2,
Ontario, OR 97914; Phone: 541-709-2040. bentz.house.gov.
State Rep. Mark Owens (R-Crane): Salem office: 900 Court
St. N.E., H-475, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1460. Email: Rep.
MarkOwens@oregonlegislature.gov
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley: D.C. office: 313 Hart Senate Office
Building, U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-3753;
fax 202-228-3997. Portland office: One World Trade Center,
121 S.W. Salmon St. Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204; 503-326-
3386; fax 503-326-2900. Baker City office, 1705 Main St., Suite
504, 541-278-1129; merkley.senate.gov.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR
97310; 503-378-3111; www.governor.oregon.gov.
Baker City Hall: 1655 First Street, P.O. Box 650, Baker City,
OR 97814; 541-523-6541; fax 541-524-2049. City Council
meets the second and fourth Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Council
Chambers. Councilors Jason Spriet, Kerry McQuisten, Shane
Alderson, Joanna Dixon, Heather Sells, Johnny Waggoner Sr.
and Dean Guyer.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden: D.C. office: 221 Dirksen Senate Office
Building, Washington, D.C., 20510; 202-224-5244; fax 202-
228-2717. La Grande office: 105 Fir St., No. 210, La Grande, OR
97850; 541-962-7691; fax, 541-963-0885; wyden.senate.gov.
Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read: oregon.treasurer@
ost.state.or.us; 350 Winter St. NE, Suite 100, Salem OR 97301-
3896; 503-378-4000.
Oregon Attorney General Ellen F. Rosenblum: Justice
Building, Salem, OR 97301-4096; 503-378-4400.
Oregon Legislature: Legislative documents and information
are available online at www.leg.state.or.us.
U.S. Rep. Cliff Bentz (2nd District): D.C. office: 1239
State Sen. Lynn Findley (R-Ontario): Salem office: 900
Court St. N.E., S-403, Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1730. Email:
Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C., 20515,
202-225-6730; fax 202-225-5774. Medford office: 14 N. Central Sen.LynnFindley@oregonlegislature.gov
Baker City administration: 541-523-6541. Jonathan
Cannon, city manager; Ty Duby, police chief; Sean Lee, fire
chief; Michelle Owen, public works director.
Baker County Commission: Baker County Courthouse
1995 3rd St., Baker City, OR 97814; 541-523-8200. Meets the
first and third Wednesdays at 9 a.m.; Bill Harvey (chair), Mark
Bennett, Bruce Nichols.