LOCAL
Psilocybin
Continued from A1
The Baker City Council has also decided
to put a psilocybin-banning measure on the
Nov. 8 ballot. Councilors made that decision
on July 12, and they’re slated to review the
text of a ballot measure during their July 26
meeting.
County commissioners had a public hearing
prior to their decision on Wednesday.
Dan Garrick spoke in favor of the proposed
ban in unincorporated parts of the county.
“I’m definitely in favor of banning this,” said
Garrick, who will run against Shane Alderson
in the Nov. 8 election for the county commis-
sion chairman position.
“I don’t see any good that can come out of
this,” Garrick told commissioners. “Marijuana
has already proved that it’s a bad deal and all
these people that claim that it heals anything
and everything is a bunch of baloney.”
County Counsel Kim Mosier told com-
Bennett
Harvey
Nichols
missioners that although the state’s new psi-
locybin rules are similar to medical mari-
juana statutes, a significant difference is that
retail sale of psilocybin is not allowed. Peo-
ple 21 and older, who don’t need a prescrip-
tion, can ingest psilocybin only at a state-li-
censed center. The state expects to start
taking applications for service centers, as
well as psilocybin production and process-
ing facilities, in 2023.
Mosier said the Oregon Health Authority is
working on rules to regulate psilocybin. The
agency is set to release a new draft of the pro-
posed rules in September.
BAKER CITY HERALD • SATuRDAY, JuLY 23, 2022 A3
“So, we don’t have rules that tell us even how
this would be regulated if we were to not opt
out,” Mosier told commissioners.
Commissioner Bruce Nichols said he has re-
ceived emails from people in support of Mea-
sure 109.
But he said that doesn’t mean he endorses its
use.
“They say there’s a lot of medical need for it
and it works. Now, whether that’s true or not, I
don’t know,” Nichols said.
He said he spoke with Shari Selander, chief
executive officer at New Directions Northwest,
and she told him she needs more time to review
the research.
“There is an option, from what I understand,
that we can put a moratorium on this for up to
two years before we refer it to the voters,” Nich-
ols said.
Mosier said the county could propose a mor-
atorium for any period, but that, like an out-
right ban, would need to be approved by voters.
She said the concept behind a two-year mor-
atorium is that it would give cities and counties
time to see how the OHA rules are working.
Mosier also told commissioners that the new
law allows county commissioners to repeal a
voter-approved ban.
“If you were to go ahead with the ordinance
as it’s drafted and send it to the electors and
the electors were to approve it and then it be-
comes permanent, the statute allows a repeal
of the opt out ordinance without an election,”
she said.
Commission Chairman Bill Harvey said that
if the voters overwhelmingly approve a ban on
psilocybin in November, he would not be in-
clined to later reverse their decision.
Commissioner Mark Bennett said that coun-
tries that have legalized psilocybin, including
the Netherlands, have been “reining back” their
laws due to harmful effects of legalization.
Commissioners will have another public
hearing on the subject at their next regular
meeting, Aug. 3 at 9:30 a.m. at the Courthouse,
1995 Third St.
Watershed
Pass Road, that is not designated as
roadless, and commercial logging is
proposed in that corridor, Cikanek
said.
The project also calls for a recon-
struction of the Marble Creek Pass
Road, which would make it easier for
trucks to haul logs, as well as improv-
ing access for the public to the pass,
which is the southern terminus for
the Elkhorn Crest National Recre-
ation Trail.
The current road is rocky
and rough, and better suited to
high-clearance vehicles. Crews did
make some improvements to the
road last fall, however, and it’s in bet-
ter shape now than it has been for
decades.
Continued from A1
Fire risk
Discussions among Forest Service
and city officials about the potential
for a major fire in the watershed date
back more than a quarter century.
Although lightning has sparked
several fires inside the watershed
during that period, firefighters have
quickly doused all of those blazes.
But Cikanek said there hasn’t been
a large blaze in the watershed since
the 1880s. And based on a study
of fire scars on old trees in the area
done by researchers from the Univer-
sity of Washington in the mid 1990s,
such a blaze, based on historical in-
tervals, likely is overdue.
The city gets most of its water from
a dozen springs and streams in the
watershed, which spans an area from
Elk Creek at the south end to Go-
odrich Creek at the north.
Major sources of water include
Salmon, Mill, Marble and Goodrich
creeks, as well as several springs.
Those sources produce exception-
ally clean water. The city is one of just
a few in Oregon that doesn’t have to
filter its surface water sources to meet
federal clarity standards.
But city officials fear that a large
fire in the watershed would foul
streams with mud and ash washing
off denuded slopes during rainstorms
following the blaze.
Such a blaze could force the city to
rely on alternate sources of water —
the city has one well now and a sec-
ond well is expected to come online
this fall — and likely lead to the city
needing to build a water filtration
plant, which officials estimate would
cost more than $10 million.
The basic concept behind the wa-
tershed project, Cikanek said, is two-
fold.
First, through a combination of
cutting trees and lighting prescribed
fires, the project is designed to reduce
the fuel loads and make it less likely
that a fire starting outside, but near,
the watershed would burn into the
watershed.
The project area covers almost
23,000 acres — more than half of
that outside the watershed. Most of
the land outside the watershed is to
the south or east, areas where, based
on past fires and prevailing summer
winds, the risk is higher for a fire to
Training
Continued from A1
The Karolskis object to aspects of
the training that their daughter, Shey-
lin, who recently turned 16, attended.
Bryan Karolski said Sheylin was one
of eight students, ages 15 to 18 and in-
cluding boys and girls, who attended
the class at Baker High School as part
of the school district’s Youth Transi-
tion Program (YTP), which provides
job skill opportunities for students
with special educational needs.
Students are selling ice cream from
an insulated cooler attached to a spe-
cial bicycle.
The personal hygiene training was
one of the courses students took be-
fore starting work. The health depart-
ment didn’t charge the district for the
presentation.
Bryan Karolski said he assumed
that personal hygiene would focus on
such things as proper handwashing
and the importance of showering be-
fore coming to work.
But Karolski, who was not present
during the event, said his daughter
told him the health department em-
ployee gave detailed descriptions of
sexual activity.
He said his daughter was “really up-
set” and “embarrassed and ashamed”
about the episode, particularly about
being around boys.
“As a parent, I just about flipped
out,” Karolski said. “This was really
traumatic for my child.”
He said he and his wife have
“reached out to a couple of local at-
torneys and are waiting to hear back
from them” regarding a potential law-
suit.
Karolski said he has talked with
parents of some of the other students
who attended the presentation, and
that they are also upset about what
happened.
Chancey, who also did not attend
the presentation, said the former
health department employee, who she
Lisa Britton/ Baker City Herald, File
Baker City’s watershed covers 10,000 acres on the east slopes of the Elkhorn Mountains west of Baker City, ranging from near
Elkhorn Peak, the highest point at far right in the photo, south (left) for several miles.
limited ladder fuels to create crown
burn into the watershed, Cikanek
fires, and surface fuel loadings would
said.
produce fire intensities that would be
Second, inside the watershed the
generally confined to a surface fire
project calls for similar work — cut-
where firefighters would have a high
ting and piling trees less than 10
likelihood of stopping the fire spread
inches in diameter, burning the piles
safely.”
and lighting prescribed fires. This
Arvid Andersen, a former Baker
work would be similar to what crews
City Council member, said he’s grat-
have done over the past few years in
ified that the Forest Service has pro-
the northern Elkhorns, including
gressed from discussing
along the Anthony Lakes
the watershed to design-
Highway, but would be
ing a large-scale project.
more “aggressive” in re-
Open
house
“Kendall has defi-
ducing the number of
scheduled
nitely addressed the is-
trees, Cikanek said.
sues very carefully, very
The goal, he said, is to
A public open
professionally,” he said,
create fuel breaks, pri-
house for the
marily along the several
referring to Cikanek.
Baker City
watershed project
major ridges that extend
Andersen, who is a
is set for Aug. 17
from the Elkhorn crest
professional forestry
from 6 p.m. to 8
east toward Baker Valley,
consultant, made pro-
p.m. at the Baker
where the relative lack
tecting the watershed
County Events
of fuel would in theory
from fire a priority
Center, 2600 East
deprive a fire of momen-
during his four-year
St. in Baker City.
tum.
term as a councilor,
These fuel breaks
which ended Dec. 31,
would constitute a series
2020.
of “defensible spaces” that fire crews
Andersen called the proposed
could use as anchor points in their ef- project a “really valid strategy,” and
fort to corral a wildfire. Limiting the
he credited Cikanek with “finally get-
effects of a fire to one or two streams ting some traction” on the effort to
could allow the city to continue to
protect the watershed.
divert enough water, from unburned
Andersen said he believes the po-
streams and springs, to meet resi-
tential cost of building a filtration plant
dents’ needs, Cikanek said.
would be an excessive burden on city
The scoping letter describes fuel
residents, and one that can be avoided
breaks as a “location that a wildfire
by reducing the amount of fuel, in-
would not be able to carry through
cluding trees weakened or killed by
the overstory canopy, would have
bark beetles and other insects.
“As a parent, I just
about flipped out. This
was really traumatic
for my child.”
— Bryan Karolski, whose
daughter, Sheylin, 16, attended
July 7 presentation
didn’t name, was expecting, based on
the request from the school district, a
group with an age range of 18 to 20.
Chancey said there was “a brief mo-
ment when family planning services”
were discussed, but that the employee
ceased presenting that topic when an
adult attending the presentation made
that request.
Karolski said his daughter told him
that the instructor talked about va-
ginas and penises, and about how to
clean the tip of the penis prior to sex-
ual intercourse.
He said his daughter also told him
that the instructor asked the students
whether any of them was sexually ac-
tive.
Karolski said the health department
employee brought condoms, and of-
fered to bring a wooden model of a
penis to demonstrate how to put on
a condom, although there were no
models or other props at the presen-
tation.
Chancey said the employee did
have condoms, but did not distribute
them to the students.
She said the employee did hand out
hygiene products such as soap, sham-
poo and toothbrushes.
Lindsey McDowell, public informa-
tion and communications coordinator
for the Baker School District, said the
sexual nature of some of the training
was “inappropriate” given that the sole
purpose of the presentation was per-
sonal hygiene.
“The topic that came up should
never have been covered,” McDowell
said.
Dispute about what led to discussion
There is a discrepancy between the
health department and the school dis-
trict about what might have led to the
incident.
Bennett said his understanding,
after talking with Chancey, is that a
district employee, in requesting the
personal hygiene presentation, said
something along the lines of also ex-
panding the discussion.
But Janie Radinovich-Brose, who
is one of the school district’s youth
transition specialists and is helping
to oversee the Youth Transition Pro-
gram, said she was present when a dis-
trict employee phoned the health de-
partment to request the presentation.
Radinovich-Brose said the district
employee made no mention of sexual
education topics or anything other
than basic personal hygiene.
Bennett said Chancey sent to the
school district a draft version of a let-
ter apologizing for the incident, with
the intention that the district forward
the letter to students who attended the
July 7 presentation.
But McDowell said district officials
disagree with some aspects of the let-
ter, related to the question of whether
the incident resulted from a misun-
derstanding stemming from the dis-
trict’s initial request for the presenta-
tion.
McDowell said “my understanding
is there wasn’t a misunderstanding.”
She said a discussion of sexual top-
ics should not have happened during
a personal hygiene course, regardless
of the age of the participants.
McDowell said district officials
didn’t think it was appropriate to send
the county’s letter, in its draft form, to
students and their parents.
Neither the district nor the county
would provide a copy of the draft letter.
Bennett said he decided to with-
He said he has seen, on logging
and prescribed burning projects he
has designed on private land, how re-
ducing fuel loads can help fire crews
stop a wildfire.
In the late 1990s the Wallowa-
Whitman spent more than $2.2 mil-
lion to cut trees and light prescribed
fires to create fuel breaks on the
fringes of the watershed. Most of the
work was on the south end and along
the road under which is buried the
city’s water pipeline, with a goal of
giving fire crews a place to head off a
blaze moving toward the watershed.
The current project will expand on
those efforts, Cikanek said.
Roadless issues
The watershed project also calls for
commercial thinning on about 2,668
acres, most of which are outside the
watershed itself.
Most of the watershed is a des-
ignated roadless area, Cikanek
said, and no commercial logging is
planned in that area. Logging in a
roadless area would require the Wal-
lowa-Whitman to conduct an envi-
ronmental impact statement (EIS)
and amend the forest’s management
plan, he said.
An EIS is a more intensive study
than the environmental assessment
that’s proposed for the watershed,
Cikanek said. An EIS would take lon-
ger, and cost more, to prepare.
There is a section of the watershed,
a corridor along the Marble Creek
draw the letter and instead make a
formal apology, through an interview
with the Herald, to the students and
parents.
Bennett said the situation is “dif-
ficult to sort out” in part because the
former health department employee
can’t be compelled to talk about the
incident.
He said Chancey talked to the em-
ployee after the July 7 presentation,
but because Chancey hadn’t yet heard
about the Karolskis’ concerns, she
didn’t broach the matter of what the
employee had discussed during the
presentation.
“We’re truly sorry that
it happened. We believe
strongly that reproductive
education is the province
of the parent. I want the
community to know this is
a one-off event. The health
department cares about the
community and respects
parental rights.”
— Mark Bennett,
Baker County commissioner
Radinovich-Brose said a district
employee who attended the presenta-
tion was “caught off guard” when the
health department employee started
talking about sexual topics.
The presenter stopped that discus-
sion when the district employee asked
her to do so, Radinovich-Brose said.
She said she supports the health
department and has always been
pleased with its presentations, which
is why she suggested the district ask
the agency to do the personal hygiene
Proposed schedule
Cikanek said Wallowa-Whit-
man employees will be working on
the draft environmental assessment
through 2022.
He expects to make a final decision
on the project in the late winter or
early spring of 2023, and work could
start on the ground in the summer
of 2023.
Cikanek said that although the
Forest Service is leading the water-
shed project, its progress is a tribute
to cooperation among multiple of-
ficials and agencies, including Mi-
chelle Owen, director of the Baker
City public works department, Doni
Bruland of Baker County’s natural
resources department, the Oregon
Department of Forestry, U.S. Natural
Resources Conservation Service and
the OSU Extension Service.
Earlier this year, Owen, in response
to the Forest Service’s announcement
that it was working on a watershed
project, said: “The Baker City water-
shed is a major asset to the City of
Baker City and our community. We
are partnering with the U.S. Forest
Service to make the watershed less
susceptible to a catastrophic wildfire.
Removing excessive fuels and provid-
ing for fire breaks along the pipeline
road are really the City’s top priori-
ties and in line with the City Council’s
goals. This type of a project has been
discussed for many years and it’s great
that there is finally some real progress
being made.”
Cikanek also noted that Oregon’s
congressional delegation has sup-
ported, and continues to support, the
effort to reduce the risk of fire in the
watershed.
training.
“It’s very unfortunate that this hap-
pened,” Radinovich-Brose said. “We’ve
learned from this.”
Health department administrator
writing new policy
To ensure a similar mistake doesn’t
happen again, Bennett said Chancey
is writing a policy that will include,
among other things, the requirement
that requests, from the school district
or other organizations, for health de-
partment training be made in writing.
The goal, Bennett said, is to ensure
that the requester’s expectations are
clear. The written request must also
include participants’ ages, so health
department employees can ensure the
presentation is appropriate, he said.
The county’s attorney will review
the proposed policy and forward it
to commissioners for final approval,
Bennett said.
Parent pleased with
summer work program
Bryan Karolski said that although
he’s angry about the incident, and be-
lieves the health department should
be held accountable, he’s very happy
with the school district program and
that Sheylin is able to participate.
“Other than (the training) it’s a
positive experience, and she abso-
lutely loves it,” he said. “She’s learning
a lot. It’s done my daughter a world of
good.”
Both school district and county of-
ficials said they believe the agencies
continue to have a good relationship.
“We really value our partnership
with the health department,” McDow-
ell said.
Bennett said he hopes the single
incident doesn’t diminish the health
department’s reputation, particularly
after its extensive work during the
pandemic, or its connection with the
school district and the community.
“We value our partnership with the
school district,” Bennett said.