BAKER CITY HERALD • THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2022 A3
LOCAL
Forest
simply call “fuel” — can curb
the risk of wildfires during the
summer, when flames tend to
be much more difficult to con-
trol due to hot, dry weather.
Forest Service officials also
say that prescribed fires can
spur the growth of native
grasses and shrubs that are
valuable food sources for wild-
life and cattle.
In general, prescribed fires
are intended to mimic fires
that used to burn relatively
frequently in areas where pon-
derosa pine was the dominant
species — every decade or so,
according to scientists who
have studied fire scars on old
growth trees.
Some of those fires were ig-
nited by lightning.
Native Americans also used
prescribed fire to partially clear
the ground.
Continued from Page A1
But it didn’t start that way.
Lewis said that in early
April, with the snow line re-
ceding and generally dry
weather persisting, a trend
that lasted much of the win-
ter, conditions in some places
were almost suitable for pre-
scribed burning.
If the rain had held off for
another three or four days,
Lewis said burning likely
would have started in a few
places.
But then one storm damp-
ened the rapidly drying
woods.
And the parade of Pacific
tempests has continued, with
relatively brief intermissions,
ever since.
Much too brief to get for-
ests “back in prescription,” as
Lewis puts it.
What he means is a piece of
ground that’s not so dry that
flames will spread too fast or
burn too hot, but also not so
soggy as to quickly squelch
the flames.
The period when a section
of forest meets the necessary
criteria typically happens only
during spring or fall.
In some seasons it doesn’t
happen at all.
And Lewis is starting to
think spring 2022 might be
one of those.
Steven Cooke, Lewis’ coun-
terpart on the Wallowa-Whit-
man’s Grande Ronde Fire
Zone, which generally co-
incides with the La Grande
Ranger District, agrees.
“It’s going to be a really short
window (for prescribed burn-
ing) if we even get one,” Cooke
said on Tuesday, April 26.
As of that day, the Blue
Mountain Interagency Dis-
patch Center in La Grande,
which covers the Wal-
lowa-Whitman and parts of the
Umatilla National Forest, re-
ported no prescribed burning
projects completed this year.
“Right now it’s not looking
good for any prescribed burn-
ing this spring,” Lewis said.
“We’ll see what the rest of the
spring brings.”
If it continues to bring
frequent rain and snow for
much longer, he said the Wal-
lowa-Whitman’s burning “win-
dow” might well close at least
until the autumn rains (which
tend not to be as reliable as
those of spring).
As May progresses, fire
managers have another crite-
rion to add to their list — coni-
fer trees sprouting fresh green
buds.
Once those buds begin to
proliferate, prescribed burn-
ing is more risky because the
flames and heat can scorch the
new growth and stunt the tree,
Lewis said.
By late May, prescribed
burning typically isn’t fea-
sible even if the ground has
the proper moisture content.
The growth of lush new grass
— which is likely after a pro-
longed period of rain — also
can stymie fire managers, since
green vegetation doesn’t burn
as readily as the desiccated mat
of pine needles and other de-
bris that predominates earlier
in the spring.
As of now, Lewis said, it
would likely take 10 to 14 days
Jayson Jacoby/Baker City Herald, File
Alex McDonald, left, and Nick Schramm, both members of the La
Grande Hot Shots firefighting crew, talk tactics during a prescribed
fire at Phillips Reservoir on April 15, 2021. This April has been too
damp to allow for prescribed burning.
of dry weather to get forests to
a condition where prescribed
burning could be effective.
But for much of April there
hasn’t been more than a few
consecutive dry days.
That’s not nearly long
enough to dry the ground,
Lewis said — especially ground
that was covered with half a
foot of soggy spring snow.
That was the situation with
many of the places where pre-
scribed fires were planned this
spring, he said.
Snow, as you might expect,
poses a more formidable im-
pediment to burning than rain
does.
Rain mainly soaks into the
ground, and a couple of sunny,
warm days can pretty much
erase the effects of a rainstorm,
Lewis said.
But once the snow melts,
the ground remains about as
wet as it would be after a rain
shower, so the drying cycle is
proportionately longer.
“It just really set us back,”
Lewis said of the multiple
snowstorms in the Blue Moun-
tains during April.
He said some units near
Sparta, and a couple on the east
side of Black Mountain, south
of Phillips Reservoir, are the
most likely candidates for po-
tential prescribed burning this
spring.
Cooke said a couple units
north of Interstate 84 at Hil-
gard possibly could dry out
early enough to be burned this
spring, but the potential effects
of smoke, given the proximity
to La Grande, could be a chal-
lenge.
cessive years can be.
Last spring was much more
conducive to prescribed fire.
In mid April 2021, crews
from the Wallowa-Whitman
burned several hundred acres
of ponderosa pine forest near
Phillips Reservoir, about 17
miles southwest of Baker City.
Although a few patches of
snow still survived in sheltered
spots, Lewis said the lack of
spring rain, and the ongoing
effects of drought, left the for-
est floor dry enough to sustain
flames.
Those blazes killed a small
percentage of pines, and black-
ened the bark and turned the
green needles red on some
others.
But Wallowa-Whitman of-
ficials, including Lewis, who
toured the burned areas a few
months later were satisfied
with the results.
Forest managers prescribe
controlled fires for multiple
reasons and in multiple situa-
tions.
But the common goal is to
reduce the amount of com-
bustible stuff on the ground
— dead dry grass, mats of pine
needles and fallen twigs and
limbs, as well as the manmade
debris left after logging or thin-
ning of trees too small to be
sawed into boards.
Trimming the volume of this
material — what fire officials
A much different spring
If all the potential burn-
ing is postponed this spring,
it wouldn’t be the first time,
Lewis said.
But this year demonstrates
how dramatically different suc-
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Effects on wildfire risk this
summer
The ample moisture during
April likely will have the pre-
dictable effect of pushing back
the onset of fire season, Lewis
said.
But another effect might not
be as obvious, nor is it neces-
sarily beneficial.
The damp spring probably
will nourish a bumper crop of
grasses — the same grass that
would stifle a prescribed fire,
he said.
The trouble is that come
summer, those grasses almost
certainly will turn brown and
dry, turning into tinder that
ignites about as easily as old
paper.
That tinder — what fire
managers call “fine fuels” to
distinguish them from, say,
fallen logs or thick limbs —
also can contribute to a fire’s
rapid spread, Lewis said.
Ultimately, though, the fac-
tor that tends to define how se-
vere the fire season is in North-
eastern Oregon is one that can’t
be predicted in advance with
anything like the confidence
of estimating how prolific the
year’s grass crop will be.
That factor is lightning.
Those bolts from the sky
spark about 80% of the fires,
in an average year, on the Wal-
lowa-Whitman and on other
public lands in Northeastern
Oregon.
(Human-caused fires tend
to be more common on private
lands.)
Even during severe drought
years, the fire season in North-
eastern Oregon can be tranquil
if lightning is either rare, or it
is accompanied by heavy rain
that either douses the fire alto-
gether or stifles its spread long
enough that firefighters can
control it.
That was the case in both
2020 and 2021, when fire dan-
ger reached extreme levels in
the region, but there were few
large blazes.
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Suit
Continued from Page A1
Wilson is represented by
Scott Levin, a Portland at-
torney.
Mark Snider, a spokes-
man for the Saint Alphonsus
Health Care System in Boise,
said the company does not
comment on litigation.
According to the lawsuit,
Wilson broke her right an-
kle on April 21, 2020, when
a wheel broke on her walker/
wheelchair. She was taken to
the emergency room at the
Baker City hospital, where she
was diagnosed with a frac-
tured ankle.
Sandefur performed sur-
gery on Wilson’s ankle on
April 22, 2020, and a second
surgery on May 7, 2020, ac-
cording to the lawsuit.
Wilson contends that San-
defur failed to take action to
deal with her infected surgical
incision at multiple follow up
visits. According to the law-
suit, Wilson’s home nurse, as
well as her husband and son,
told Sandefur that the incision
was not healing properly.
On July 9, 2020, Sandefur,
during an exam, noted that
the plate and screws he placed
in Wilson’s ankle during the
surgery were exposed. He or-
dered infection tests, which
were positive, according to
the lawsuit.
On July 16, 2020, Wilson
was referred to the emergency
room at Saint Alphonsus in
Baker City by her primary
care provider. She was then
taken by ambulance to Saint
Alphonsus Medical Center
in Boise for “emergency re-
pair surgery of the open and
infected surgical wound,” ac-
cording to the lawsuit.
The metal hardware San-
defur had installed was re-
moved, and Wilson was in the
hospital until Aug. 7, 2020, ac-
cording to the lawsuit.
The infection had spread to
her bones, resulting in removal
of infected bone that left her
“permanently disabled,” ac-
cording to the lawsuit.
Lynn Lamont Miller
May 19, 1951 - April 20, 2022
Lynn Lamont Miller, 70, of
Baker City, Oregon, passed away
on April 20, 2022, at Saint Alphon-
sus Medical Center in Boise, Ida-
ho. A visitation will be held at the
Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day
Saints Relief Society Room; his
funeral service was held on Thurs-
day, April 28, 2022 at the Church
of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints in
Baker City. Directly following the funeral service was
an interment at Mt. Hope Cemetery in Baker City, Ore-
gon. A reception followed at the Church of Jesus Christ
Latter-day Saints.
On May 19, 1951, in Baker, Oregon, Frank and
Odetta (Jacobs), Miller welcomed Lynn Lamont Miller
into the world. He attended high school at Baker High,
graduating in 1970. Lynn took some classes to learn
about the heating and sheet metal industry. He worked
as a school bus driver for Baker County, a truck driver
for Lehman Farm for three seasons, and drove truck for
Radford Trucking for approximately 10 years. He also
farmed and was self-employed.
When he wasn’t busy working, he enjoyed deer
and elk hunting, camping, and ATV adventures; he
loved shooting ground squirrels and going on mountain
drives. Lynn was always very involved with his church,
the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints in Bak-
er City; he also served as a return missionary for the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Alton,
Illinois. He was also a member of the Powder River
Sportsman’s Club.
Lynn was full of piss and vinegar, but he never went
a day without his contagious smile! He loved having
conversations with locals, and he thoroughly enjoyed
helping where he could.
Lynn is survived by his partner, Barbara Bushman
(Miller) of Baker City, Oregon; children Joeseph (Re-
nae) Miller of Hillsdale, Illinois, Shanna Miller of Mo-
line, Illinois; stepchildren Donna Ward and Matthew
Paul of Nevada; twelve grandchildren: Kirstin (Noah)
Miller, Mackenna Miller, Wyatt Miller, Logan Har-
rington, Jasmine Lenth, Brandi Jones, Shantel Jones,
Denise Miller, Mattix Miller, Dannielynn Miller, Troy
Lee Ward, and Sophia Jade Ward. He is also survived
by one great-grandchild (on the way).
His parents, Frank and Odetta Miller; siblings Wil-
liam “Willy” Miller and Odett Patterson; many cousins
and dear friends also preceded him.
Memorial contributions may be made in honor of
Lynn to assist with his burial expenses. You may donate
through the website at www.grayswestco.com or by
sending a check to Gray’s West & Co. Pioneer Chapel,
1500 Dewey Ave., Baker City, OR 97814; please write
Lynn Miller on the reference line.
To leave an online condolence for the family of
Lynn, please visit, www.grayswestco.com.
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“As a result of the non-heal-
ing surgical wound and subse-
quent infection, Plaintiff was
completely bedridden for the
next year and will never again
regain her ability to ambulate
normally,” the lawsuit states.
Wilson is asking for a jury
trial.
According to the lawsuit,
economic damages would be
determined by a jury at trial,
with the amount “not ex-
pected to exceed $2 million.”
Wilson is also seeking non-
economic damages not to ex-
ceed $8 million.
Another malpractice lawsuit
with Sandefur and Saint Al-
phonsus-Baker City as defen-
dants is pending, with a trial
set to start Sept. 6, 2022, in
Baker County Circuit Court.
Mark and Lynne Brown of
Union County filed the suit
on Feb. 11, 2021, claiming
Mark Brown lost mobility in
his right leg as a result of the
defendants’ negligence in a
total knee replacement sur-
gery that Sandefur performed
on Oct. 16, 2018, at the Baker
City hospital.
The Browns are seeking up
to $26 million in damages —
up to $10 million in economic
damages for complications
after the surgery and up to
$16 million in noneconomic
damages.
Both the Browns’ lawsuit,
and Wilson’s complaint, con-
tend that Saint Alphonsus
should have known that San-
defur “had a history of sur-
gical outcomes that resulted
in the development of infec-
tions.”
A $5.2 million lawsuit filed
in September 2020 accused
Sandefur, Saint Alphon-
sus-Baker City, and Veronica
Crowder, a physician assistant
who worked with Sandefur, of
negligence in treating 6-year-
old Avery Martin’s fractured
arm in May 2018.
That lawsuit was dismissed
with prejudice, meaning the
complaint can’t be refiled, and
without any costs to either
side, in 2021, after the parties
agreed to settle the case, ac-
cording to court records.
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