BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 2022 A5
LOCAL & STATE
VA plan calls for big changes to
its Walla Walla medical center
vice,” Wyden said. “The vets com-
mitted their lives to our country
and now I’m going to make sure we
WASHINGTON — Oregon U.S.
make our commitment to them re-
Sen. Ron Wyden last week said he
ally clear.”
plans to personally contact the De-
A market analysis showed veteran
partment of Veterans Affairs regard- enrollment in VISN 20, the service
ing recommendations to reduce ser- region centered by the Walla Walla
vices at the Jonathan M. Wainwright VA, is predicted to increase modestly
Memorial VA Medical Center in
and largely outside of Walla Walla.
Walla Walla.
According to the Walla Walla paper,
The VA in mid March released
the recommended strategy is to in-
a report from the Asset and In-
vest in new outpatient facilities and
frastructure Review Commission
expand services in existing clinics to
to modernize and realign the VA
meet future demand, while “rightsiz-
health care system. According to
ing” services at the Walla Walla VA,
the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin, the officials said.
report is in response to 2018’s MIS-
The full set of recommendations
SION Act, also known as the Vet-
call for closing a total of 17 VA med-
eran Community Care Act.
ical centers nationwide while build-
After site visits, listening ses-
ing 14 new ones and 140 new clinics,
sions and data gathering around
according to the Spokane Spokes-
the country, the AIR Commission
man-Review, and encourages veter-
listed among its recommendations
ans, especially in rural areas, to seek
that the Walla Walla VA reduce ser-
care from private providers.
vices to primary care and mental
Under the proposal, Walla Walla
health, which could result in the fa-
would become an outpatient clinic
cility being reclassified as a commu- similar to those in Coeur d’Alene,
nity-based outpatient clinic, known
Idaho, and Wenatchee, Washington,
better as a CBOC, rather than a full
per the Spokesman-Review. Along
medical center, according to the
with ending surgeries and other in-
Walla Walla UB.
patient treatment at the Walla Walla
At a virtual town hall for Union
hospital, the plan proposes relo-
County residents on Wednesday,
cating the residential rehabilitation
April 20, Wyden addressed several
treatment program housed there
concerns related to veteran health
to Spokane, where such a program
care in Eastern Oregon. Key points
doesn’t exist.
included slow hiring processes, travel
According to Walla Walla VA
pay, difficulties at call centers across Medical Center Public Affairs Of-
VA clinics and attaining health care
ficer Linda Wondra, the proposed
services outside of the VA.
changes to Walla Walla will not lead
Wyden noted he has been hearing to any changes at the local level in
often from veterans on similar issues La Grande, which has provided ser-
and said he will be reaching out to
vices to veterans from as far away
the VA himself for an explanation
as Pendleton.
and how to address the four major
“At the current time, we have no
concerns brought up at the meeting
knowledge or concern that the La
and potential changes to the Walla
Grande clinic will be affected in any
Walla medical center.
way,” Wondra said. “All our sites of
care are expected to continue provid-
“Vets have earned the benefits
because of their extraordinary ser- ing care as before.”
BY DAVIS CARBAUGH AND
JOHN TILLMAN
EO Media Group
Wolves
Per the Spokane paper, relocating
services to Spokane and Richland
would serve a larger number of vet-
erans than the Walla Walla area, the
VA report says. According to an as-
sessment of VA’s Inland Northwest
market, about 5,000 veterans en-
rolled in VA health care services live
within an hour drive of Walla Walla,
while more than 9,100 live within an
hour of Richland and nearly 29,000
within an hour of Spokane.
Not all local veterans oppose the
plan to move to outpatient services.
Vietnam War destroyer sailor George
Oblisk of Athena said that’s how he
uses the Walla Walla VA now.
“The change wouldn’t affect me,”
he said. “They just expanded dental
services and eyeglasses there. They
put up a whole new building.”
And if he needed surgery, the
VA would send him to Portland or
pay for it at St. Anthony Hospital in
Pendleton, or Providence St. Mary
Medical Center in Walla Walla.
“I wouldn’t want to undergo sur-
gery at the Walla Walla VA,” he said.
A statement from the Walla
Walla VA stated the proposals are
strictly recommendations, with
nothing set in stone to date. Any
potential changes to the infrastruc-
ture of health care within Veterans
Affairs could be several years away,
depending on congressional deci-
sion making.
The Walla Walla VA is continu-
ing efforts to strengthen its regional
health care services in areas with
a high volume of veterans, such as
Richland and Yakima. Moving for-
ward, the Asset and Infrastructure
Review Commission is set to con-
duct public hearings on any new rec-
ommendations heading into January
2023 — input and feedback at these
hearings could impact the extent of
the recommendations to the Jona-
than M. Wainwright Memorial VA
Medical Center in Walla Walla.
Following additional attacks
in August and September that
As of December 2021, two of
killed five head of cattle, ODFW
the 19 confirmed wolf packs in
employees shot and killed three
Eastern Oregon have ranges that more wolves, including the pack’s
are largely in Baker County.
breeding male, on Sept. 17, 2021.
Those are the Keating pack,
There were no attacks on
which consisted of 10 wolves,
cattle for almost a month, until
and the Cornucopia pack, with
Oct. 16, when biologists deter-
five wolves.
mined that wolves had killed a
There is also a group of wolves,
400-pound calf, likely on Oct. 14.
which ODFW does not consider
ODFW employees then shot
a pack, in the Lookout Mountain
and killed three more wolves,
area of eastern Baker County.
The state killed eight of the 11 two juveniles born this year and
wolves from the former Lookout one wolf born in 2020, on Oct.
20, 2021.
Mountain pack during the sum-
ODFW officials believe the
mer of 2021 after those wolves
killed at least nine head of cattle Lookout Mountain wolves,
and injured at least three others. which generally roam in the
area between Highway 86 on
After ODFW biologists con-
the north and Interstate 84 to
firmed that Lookout Mountain
the south, now consists of up to
wolves had attacked cattle five
three wolves — the breeding fe-
times during July 2021, killing
male and two juveniles born in
three and injuring three others,
the spring of 2021 that are now
agency employees killed two
wolf pups, born during the spring about one year old.
of 2021, on Aug. 1.
— Jayson Jacoby
Wolves in Baker County
Continued from Page A1
Environmental groups ar-
gued the report shows Ore-
gon’s wolf population is in cri-
sis due to poaching and other
human-caused mortality.
Danielle Moser, wildlife
program coordinator for Or-
egon Wild, said the deaths re-
ported by ODFW are “only
known mortalities and there
are certainly many more unac-
counted for deaths and poach-
ing of uncollared wolves.”
Zoe Hanley, Northwest rep-
resentative for Defenders of
Wildlife, said the group is con-
cerned Oregon’s wolf recovery
is not adequately addressing
threats like poaching.
“This year’s report is a call
to action for agencies like
(ODFW) and Oregon State Po-
lice to recognize the severity
of poaching incidents and take
additional steps to protect Ore-
gon’s vulnerable wolves,” Han-
ley said.
John Williams, wolf commit-
tee co-chairman for the Oregon
Cattlemen’s Association based
in Enterprise, said he was sur-
prised by the wolf population
being mostly unchanged, con-
sidering ranchers are seeing
wolves in areas where they’ve
never seen them before.
“We know their areas are ex-
panding. We know the numbers
are expanding,” Williams said.
Most wolves in Oregon in-
habit the far northeast corner
of the state, though they are
branching into new territory.
ODFW established four new
areas of resident wolf activ-
ity in 2021, covering parts of
Grant, Jefferson, Klamath and
Union counties.
The state now has 21 known
wolf packs — 16 of which
qualify as breeding pairs — in
addition to eight other groups
of two or three wolves.
Wolves also continued to
prey on livestock in 2021.
ODFW confirmed 49 cases of
wolf depredation, up from 31
in 2020. In all, wolves killed or
injured 95 animals, including
six cows, 44 calves, 17 ewes,
11 lambs, 14 goats and three
guard dogs.
The vast majority, 92%, of
those depredations occurred
between July and November,
with 86% on private land and
14% on public land.
Williams said wolves are be-
coming an increasing problem
for ranchers across the state,
with the impacts extending
beyond killed or injured live-
stock to lower birth rates for
cows and lower birth weights
for calves. He urged the state to
take a more proactive approach
to managing the predators.
“The rancher is taking the
brunt of it,” Williams said. “It is
becoming one of the major ex-
penses for the producer.”
Between August and Oc-
tober, ODFW killed eight
members of the Lookout
Mountain pack in Baker
U.S. Drought Monitor
Between April 12 and April 19, 2022, the percentage of Baker County’s land
rated as being in extreme drought, the second-worst of five categories, dropped
from 84% to 62%.
Drought
Continued from Page A1
Drought conditions improve slightly
April’s showers have had a mod-
est effect on the drought in Baker
County.
On April 12, the U.S. Drought
Monitor designated about 84% of
the county as being in “extreme”
drought on the five-level scale that
ranges from abnormally dry, the
least severe condition, to moderate,
severe, extreme and, the worst, ex-
ceptional drought.
The remaining 16% of the
county was rated as being in severe
drought, one step below extreme.
A week later the Drought Mon-
itor, which is updated weekly,
pegged 62% of the county in ex-
treme drought and 38% in severe
drought.
Most of the area that improved
from extreme to severe drought is
in the eastern part of the county.
Martin and Ward both said they
hope the weather pattern that has
dominated the second half of April
will continue for at least the next
month or so — albeit with warmer
temperatures.
County after wolves repeat-
edly attacked cattle.
Under Phase III of the Or-
egon Wolf Management Plan,
wolves can be killed east of
highways 395, 78 and 95 if
they meet the state’s “chronic
depredation” threshold of two
confirmed depredations in
nine months.
Ranchers must first be using
non-lethal deterrents and re-
move all potential wolf attrac-
tants in order for an incident to
qualify toward lethal removal.
Western Oregon wolves were
restored to the federal endan-
“April and May are the months
that make the rangeland and grass-
lands flourish,” Martin said.
Spring rains not only nourish
rangelands and crop fields, but they
can allow irrigation district manag-
ers to store more water in reservoirs,
where it can be used later in the sum-
mer when rain is much less likely and
generally comes only in the form of
scattered thunderstorms.
Damp weather too late for some
ranchers
Martin said that although the
spurt of grass growth in the sage-
brush country bodes well for ranch-
ers as they turn out their herds onto
spring and summer grazing pastures,
the drought has already caused major
problems for some producers.
The 2021 drought, which re-
duced hay production by 25% to
40% in some areas, left some ranch-
ers without enough hay to feed
their entire herds this spring, Mar-
tin said. And with the grass yet to
appear, they couldn’t move cattle to
spring pastures.
That forced some to either sell
some of their base herds, or cut back
on the number of replacement heif-
ers they bought, he said.
gered species list following a
court ruling earlier this year.
The Oregon Department of
Agriculture’s wolf compensation
program awarded $130,814 in
grants to 10 counties in 2021,
which helps pay for non-lethal
deterrents and provides direct
payment for ranchers covering
dead and missing livestock.
“After a calm spring with
few incidents, we saw a much
higher number of depredations
from July through November
despite livestock producers’
extensive non-lethal efforts to
reduce conflict,” Brown said.
“We thank all producers who
have taken preventative mea-
sures and encourage all those
in areas with wolves to reach
out for assistance.”
Brown did express concern
about an uptick in poaching
that included the poisoning of
eight wolves, including all five
members of the Catherine pack
in Union County, in 2021.
So far in 2022, three wolves
have also been poached in
northeast Oregon.
All cases are being investi-
gated by the Oregon State Po-
lice Fish and Wildlife Division.
GARAGE DOORS
With Thermospan TM doors, you have your choice
of styles, colors and customizing options.
N E -H I E NTERPRISES
CCB#155399
2122 10th • Baker City • 541-523-6008
Reelect David Baum
Oregon Trail Electric Board, Position 8
STATEMENT TO VOTERS: The electric utility industry is seeing significant changes due to increased demand, new
technologies, government mandates, high prices of natural gas and oil, and weather renewables (solar and wind).
Weather renewables work only when the Sun is shining and the Wind is blowing.
Currently OTEC purchases 100% of its electrical power from Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and some of the
lowest electrical rates in the country. But BPA is being challenged with increasing costs, reduced revenue, and threat
of the removal of the four lower Snake River dams. As the board member involved with the Wildfire Mitigation Plan, we
have aggressively pushed forward with the drafting and finalization of a Wildfire Plan.
As we negotiate a new contract with Bonneville (BPA), my legal experience is a valuable evaluation tool. My focus will be to
continue to work diligently in areas of Power Supply, Transmission and Distribution. I will strive to keep your electrical rates
low.
Our CEO, Les Penning and staff with board support will not be raising your electrical rates for 2022.
It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to serve as your representative on the board of Directors. I have grained a signifi-
cant knowledge and experience about cooperatives during this time. I will continue to work hard at keeping electric
rates low while providing safe and reliable electricity to our members along with excellent customer service. I have
knowledge, experience, energy and time to serve.
I ask for YOUR VOTE and look forward to our future challenges.
Paid For By David Baum / The Committee to Reelect David Baum
2022
I
Northeast Oregon
PHOTO
CONTEST
Visit bakercityherald.com and enter today!