BAKER CITY HERALD • TUESDAY, JUNE 14, 2022 A3
LOCAL
Council
Continued from Page A1
Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
Type 2 fire crews typically carry a sequence of tools, pulaskis, shovels and rakes, to construct fire lines. Trainees worked on the technique on
June 9, 2022, outside Burnt River School in Unity.
Trainees, clad in fire-
resistant Nomex clothing
— green pants, bright
yellow shirts — hard hats,
sunglasses and gloves,
learn to use an array of
hand tools to dig fire lines
designed to prevent flames
from spreading.
Firefighters
Continued from Page A1
“Today we’re using hand
tools and hand line, pumps
and hose,” Cuellar said.
“They’ll set up a Mark 3
pump and get instructions
on what type of hose to
string out.”
BLM firefighters, along
with volunteers from many
rural protection districts
and associations, cover
some of the vast rangelands
between the Snake River
and extending as far south
as Reno, Nevada.
Trainees, clad in fire-re-
sistant Nomex clothing —
green pants, bright yellow
shirts — hard hats, sun-
glasses and gloves, learn to
use an array of hand tools
to dig fire lines designed to
prevent flames from spread-
ing.
They also learn to carry
out “gridding,” where crew
members are separated to
slightly wider than arm’s
length apart and systemati-
cally cover ground in order
to ensure no single ember
remains.
Ian Crawford/Baker City Herald
A BLM 800 gallon all-terrain fire truck fills a portable tank, known
as a “pumpkin,” on June 9, 2022, at Burnt River School in Unity.
Fire is normally obvious,
but heat can also hide, Cuel-
lar said.
He mentioned fires in
Western Oregon in 2017
that, even after they were
extinguished above ground,
still produced smoke from
heat in underground root
systems half a decade later.
Besides training firefight-
ers, the camp at Burnt River
School trained younger
workers, as young as 16, to
serve as support crews at fire
camps. They can do all sorts
of tasks, from serving food,
to setting up and tearing
down camps, often in bar-
ren, rocky areas.
Pay for Type 2 firefighters
can range up to $19.80 an
hour. They’re often sent to
high-risk locations for shifts
up to 14 days long. They dis-
patch not just as individuals,
but as an entire unit, vehi-
cles and equipment included
— everything but the water.
Cuellar said his crews
have been sent as far as
Alaska, and have made vis-
its to the Carolinas, Florida,
Kentucky and Georgia over
the years. Fire crews were on
call and responded to situa-
tions as unique as the Chal-
lenger space shuttle disaster
and Hurricane Katrina.
If the situation merits,
they can sometimes spend
as much as two weeks on
call without seeing fire, but
standing by in locations
such as California and New
Mexico, where any open
flame can expand into di-
saster.
If you’re able bodied and
interested in a career in
firefighting, visit www.blm.
gov/programs/public-safety-
and-fire/fire/careers or call
the Oregon BLM at 503-
808-6001.
Travel Baker County/Contributed Photo
Bicyclists race a course around downtown on June 26, 2021, during the Baker City Cycling Classic. This year’s three-stage race is June 17-19.
Cycling
Continued from Page A1
Race director Brian Cim-
miyotti said there will be
a detour from 8 a.m. to
11:30 a.m. of northbound
traffic on Highway 30 at
Hughes Lane and Pocahontas
Road, as well as where Chico
Road joins the highway.
The race action then
moves downtown with kids
races sponsored by the Baker
County YMCA and the Tour
d’Town Criterium.
The race for kids ages 4 to
15 is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Registration is free and starts
at 10:50 a.m. at the corner
of Main and Washington
streets. Or register in advance
at www.bakerymca.org/proj-
ects-3.
Helmets are required.
There are three age cate-
gories: ages 5 and younger
(short course on Main
Street); ages 6-9 (two laps
of the race course); ages 10-
15 (three laps of the race
course).
The Criterium follows
the kids races, and this is
the most spectator-friendly
event of the stage race when
groups of bicyclists race a
tight course around down-
town from about 11:30 a.m.
to 7 p.m.
There will be parking re-
strictions on Main Street,
Valley Avenue, First Street,
Second Street, Broadway
Street, Court Avenue and
Washington Avenue.
Sunday: Dooley Mountain
Sunday’s stage begins at
7:30 a.m. from Baker High
School. The route heads
south on Highway 7 to Aus-
tin Junction, then left on
Highway 26 to follow a roll-
ing course to the Highway
245 intersection outside of
Unity.
From there it’s all uphill to
the finish at the summit of
Dooley Mountain.
There will be traffic de-
lays along these highways
throughout the course of the
day.
Cimmiyotti said those who
would like to see the finish
should carpool if possible
because parking is limited,
and arrive at the finish line
by noon.
Support for the race
In addition to Scott’s Cy-
cle and Sports, the race is
supported by BELLA Main
Street Market, Churchill
School and Anthony Lakes
Mountain Resort.
“The event is entering its
20th edition here in Baker
County and is proud to sup-
port our local Baker High
School sports and education
programs,” Cimmiyotti said.
Each year, groups who
help with race support re-
ceive a donation from the
Baker City Cycling Classic.
Cimmiyotti said each year
the race donates more than
$5,000 to BHS programs and
volunteer groups including
Best Friends of Baker and the
Northeast Oregon Compas-
Don’t text and
drive... you
won’t have to
come see us!
sion Center.
“We at Scott’s Cycle and
Sports and all the riders that
take part in this great race
truly appreciate your support
and encouragement and we
look forward to seeing you
out at the races cheering and
ringing your cow bells,” Cim-
miyotti said.
For more information, visit
www.bakercitycyclingclassic.
com.
Damschen
Dixon
Guyer
Waggoner
Wolves
Continued from Page A1
During the summer and fall
of that year, Lookout Moun-
tain wolves killed at least nine
head of cattle and injured three
others, according to ODFW
investigations. Most of those
happened in the central and
southern parts of the area,
near the Durkee Valley.
The repeated attacks
prompted agency employees to
kill eight wolves from the pack,
which initially included an es-
timated 11 wolves.
After ODFW biologists con-
firmed that Lookout Mountain
wolves had attacked cattle five
times during July 2021, killing
three and injuring three oth-
ers, agency employees killed
two wolf pups, born during the
spring of 2021, on Aug. 1.
Following additional at-
tacks in August and September
that killed five head of cattle,
ODFW employees shot and
killed three more wolves, in-
cluding the pack’s breeding
male, on Sept. 17, 2021.
There were no attacks on
cattle for almost a month, until
Oct. 16, when biologists deter-
mined that wolves had killed
a 400-pound calf, likely on
Oct. 14.
ODFW employees then shot
and killed three more wolves,
two juveniles born this year
and one wolf born in 2020, on
Oct. 20, 2021.
At that point, ODFW offi-
cials believed the pack, which
roams the area between High-
way 86 on the north and In-
terstate 84 to the south, con-
sisted of just two wolves — the
breeding female and one juve-
nile (now a yearling) born in
the spring of 2021.
The breeding female has a
GPS tracking collar that allows
state biologists to monitor her
movements.
Ratliff said an adult male
wolf joined the breeding fe-
male at the end of January
2022. ODFW officials cap-
tured the male on Jan. 31 and
fitted the animal with a radio
tracking collar. Ratliff said ra-
dio collars, although they don’t
automatically send location
data daily as GPS collars do,
tend to last much longer and
are less prone to malfunction-
ing.
The adult wolves apparently
mated, Ratliff said.
He bases that on a series of
GPS locations for the alpha fe-
male this spring that indicates
she found a den site where she
gave birth to pups.
Ratliff said a female wolf
that has a litter leaves a distinc-
tive record of movements, con-
tinually returning to the same
site after short forays in what
biologists call a “wagon wheel
pattern,” with the den site as
the hub and the trips away as
the spokes of the wheel.
Ratliff said ODFW has not
set up any remote cameras
near the den site, so biologists
don’t know how many pups
were in the litter.
He said the alpha female has
continued to return to the site,
however, so at least one pup is
still alive.
Ratliff said there are no cat-
tle grazing near the den loca-
tion now, although cattle use
most of the Lookout Mountain
unit at some point during the
summer.
Latest investigation
On the morning of June 6,
a rancher found three injured
calves while gathering cattle
in a 3,000-pasture in the Daly
Creek area north of the Snake
River Road near Richland. The
pasture includes both public
and private land, according to
an ODFW report.
Ratliff estimated the calves
had been attacked two to three
weeks earlier.
One calf had multiple bite
scrapes and tooth punctures
on the inside of the right hind
leg, with infection and tissue
damage, according to the re-
port.
A second calf had a tooth
puncture on the inside of the
right hind leg and an open
wound on the outside of the
leg, as well as multiple tooth
scrapes on the inside and out-
side of the leg.
The third calf had a ¾-inch
open wound at the base of its
tail and multiple tooth scrapes
around the tail.
“The locations of the in-
juries on all three calves are
consistent with wolf attacks
on calves,” the report con-
cludes. “These attacks appear
to be from the same event and
are attributed to the Lookout
Mountain pack.”
Ratliff said that although
there were no GPS location
data from the alpha female
that put the pack in the area
when the calves were at-
tacked, there are no other
wolves known to roam that
area, so the attack was at-
tributed to the Lookout
Mountain pack.
Ratliff said he has been in
touch with ranchers who have
cattle in the area and will con-
tinue to give them updates
about the alpha female’s loca-
tion.
Annual Youth Trail
Ride started in
1964 is sponsored
by the
• Lumber
• Plywood
• Building Materials
• Hardware
• Paint
• Plumbing
• Electrical
And much more!
3205 10th Street
Baker City
541-523-4422
2390 Broadway, Baker City
541-523-5223
His email is cityrecorder@bakercity.gov. To
be eligible, prospective candidates must be reg-
istered voters who have lived within the city for
at least 12 months prior to the election.
Positions up for election this November are
those held by Joanna Dixon, Johnny Waggoner
Sr., Dean Guyer and Kenyon Damschen.
The three other councilors — Kerry Mc-
Quisten, Shane Alderson and Jason Spriet —
are serving terms that continue through the
end of 2024. All three were elected to four-year
terms in November 2020.
Dixon and Waggoner, along with Heather
Sells, were elected to two-year terms in that
election, and their terms expire at the end of
2022.
Guyer was appointed to the Council in De-
cember 2021 to replace Lynette Perry, who
resigned in August 2021 due to health issues.
Guyer is serving the remainder of Perry’s term,
which ends Dec. 31, 2022.
Damschen was appointed in March 2022 to
replace Sells, who resigned because she moved
outside the city and was no longer eligible to
serve.
The City Council generally meets the second
and fourth Tuesdays of each month, at 7 p.m. at
City Hall.
Councilors earn $10 per meeting, with an
annual cap of $150.
Mon-Fri 7:30 am - 5:30 pm
Saturday 8 am - 5 pm
Closed Sun
Baker County
Mounted Posse
This is an outdoor camp with horseback
riding and outdoor adventure for boys and
girls ages 12-15 years old.
Cost is $ 2.00
(that's right only $2.00 dollars)
June 25-26, 2022
For more information, questions or an
application please call Jodie Radabaugh at
541-524-9358 or 541-403-4933
All state and county regulations will be followed.