A4 THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 Garden Continued from A1 Denise Rowcroft, program manager for The Environ- mental Center, said the garden program has grown each year despite the pause due to the pandemic. Last year, $10,000 was awarded to nine schools. Since the program launched in 2016, the organization has awarded $40,000 for gardens in schools. The program funds a wide range of projects, including shade and warming structures, raised garden beds, pollinator gardens and outdoor seating, Rowcroft said. “There’s definitely a variety of ways schools are using their outdoor garden spaces and rea- sons for why they are doing it,” Rowcroft said. Some notable projects this spring include a pollinator garden at Warm Springs K-8 Academy to attract bees and butterflies, and an outdoor gar- den at R.E. Jewell Elementary School in Bend for a first grade class that doesn’t have any win- dows in the classroom, Row- croft said. Teachers have told Rowcroft that each project is not only educational, but also supports students’ mental wellbeing through the pandemic. “It’s going to be really im- portant now that kids are back in school to utilize that just for the social and emotional as- pects,” Rowcroft said. The Environmental Center relies on grants and donations to run the school garden pro- gram. Those interested in do- nating can contact Rowcroft at denise@envirocenter.org. Rowcroft hopes continued support will allow the program to expand. “We’ve been busy adapting but we are still looking to sup- port more schools that want to have garden-based education,” Rowcroft said. “We still have plans to keep growing that pro- gram.” At Realms Middle School, Anderson is excited to start the school garden again after it was Body cams “Even cleaning out a garden bed is really therapeutic.” With students now back in school, they will spend the next few months adding to the gar- den, Anderson said. Students will help build the oven and plant the native garden. “We are always trying to find ways to keep kids engaged with projects,” Anderson said. “Right now, it’s nice to try to keep them engaged outside.” e e Reporter: 541-617-7820, kspurr@bendbulletin.com “I’m really excited. We’ve been trying to do this for a long time.” Continued from A1 The Bend Police Depart- ment first tried using body cams in 2014. That year, a day after the death of Black man Eric Garner by a white New York City Police officer, former Bend Chief Jim Porter went to the city manager to tell him he sensed a cultural shift com- ing, Porter has said. But the $100,000 body cam pilot pro- gram failed to take flight. Porter told the City Council that $100,000 was not enough to outfit all the officers. His budget came down to a choice between body cams and put- ting more cops on the road and in key positions, such as a homeless outreach officer. Under Porter’s replacement, Mike Krantz, who took over as chief in July, the depart- ment has developed a plan for dealing with public records requests and storage of the vo- luminous amounts of data re- corded each day, Maniscalco said. shut down last spring. Anderson was able to briefly restart the garden program in the fall. Students were still learning remotely, but were in- vited to Realms each Wednes- day for two hours in the gar- den. Students planted garlic before the ground froze. Anderson said seeing the students safely interact out- doors after months of solitude from the pandemic was price- less. “It’s incredible watching kids in the garden,” Anderson said. — Capt. Jason Maniscalco, body camera project manager In December, the City Council passed an increase to the Public Safety Pro- gram of $435,000 to purchase body-worn cameras. Of that, $320,000 is dedicated to equip- ment, $73,000 to hire a senior records and evidence specialist to handle records and $42,000 for upgrades to the city’s infor- mation technology infrastruc- ture to handle charging cam- eras and increased upload and security demands. The department is look- ing at two models, the AXON Body 3 and the WatchGuard by Motorola. If it’s determined neither will work for the city, the department will reach out to vendors to test additional products. Once a vendor is se- lected, it’s likely the city would enter into a five-year contract with the company for service. Maniscalco said the depart- ment has worked with the city legal department and the De- schutes County District Attor- ney’s Office developing policies for the new technology. The Oregon Legislature has given some guidance with a 2015 law requiring standards for body cams. Officers wearing the cameras in Oregon are re- quired to turn on their cameras as soon as they develop reason- able suspicion a crime has oc- curred. Agencies are mandated to retain footage for 180 days and release footage when it’s in the public interest. The department has also worked on the project with its slightly larger regional coun- terpart, the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, which has also committed to adding body cams in the short term. Spokesman Sgt. Jason Janes said the office is still develop- ing its body cam policy. He said a cost has not yet been de- termined, nor a final vendor identified. “We are currently reviewing data from the testing phase of both body-worn and in-car camera systems,” he wrote to The Bulletin. “We are gather- ing data from the testers of the cameras as well as our IT de- partment, and our vehicle fleet manager.” e e Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com OBITUARY Marion LePage McMillin September 28, 1929 - February 6, 2021 Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin Bend Police fficer Karin Porter wears a body cam Wednesday. Trees Continued from A1 “The proposed timber sale would negatively impact the aesthetics, social context and biophysical aspects of Wal- ton Lake’s current and beloved sense of place,” said Karen Coulter, director of the Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project. Kassidy Kern, a spokesper- son for the Ochoco National Forest, said the project is not a “timber sale” but a service contract and the Forest Service does not take profits. Rather, the Forest Service must pay a contractor to remove the trees, clear the brush and haul every- thing away. “The value of the timber is used to offset the cost of hav- ing the contractor complete associated work outlined in the integrated resource ser- vice contract,” said Kern. “The remainder of the cost comes from appropriated funds we get from Congress.” Kern said an assessment of the value of the timber made in 2015 needs to be recalculated because of changes in the mar- ket as well as changes in the ac- tual project. She added that the value of a tree affected by root rot falls considerably compared to a healthy tree. “Once you have the rot in the root, there is no longer any way for that tree to bring up nutrients through its root sys- tem to feed the rest of the tree and keep it alive and healthy,” said Kern. The complaint from Blue Mountains was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon, Pendleton Division, according to Beth Peer, envi- ronmental coordinator for the Ochoco National Forest. Blue Mountains is being represented by Tom Buchele, co-director of the Earthrise Law Center at Lewis & Clark School of Law in Portland, and Jesse Buss, the founder of Wil- lamette Law Group in Oregon City, which specializes in envi- ronmental law. The most recent plan to thin and sanitize the forest around Walton Lake was approved by the Ochoco National Forest on Dec. 7. The Forest Service said it would conduct a sani- tation harvest on 35 acres and tree thinning on 143 acres. The planting of conifers, hard- woods and shrubs is part of the plan. A sanitation harvest dif- fers from a clear cut because it would remove all species that serve as hosts for the disease, in- cluding Douglas fir and grand fir, but will retain the ponderosa pine and western larch. Walton Lake is located 30 miles east of Prineville and is a popular weekend destination for hiking, fishing and boating. There are camping spots and a bike path around the lake. The area’s large diameter firs and pines provide a scenic back- drop for it all. Signs posted on trails around the lake warn hikers of the danger of trees, advising them to remain vigilant in case one should suddenly topple in the wind. Some parts of the rec- reation area have been com- OBITUARY IN BRIEF Rush Limbaugh life, Limbaugh gal- vanized listeners for Rush Limbaugh, the more than 30 years talk radio host who with his talent for sar- ripped into liberals castic, insult-laced and laid waste to po- commentary. litical correctness with He called himself Limbaugh a gleeful malice that an entertainer, but his made him one of the rants during his three- most powerful voices in poli- hour weekday radio show tics, influencing the rightward broadcast on nearly 600 U.S. push of American conserva- stations shaped the national tism and the rise of Donald political conversation, swaying Trump, died Wednesday. He ordinary Republicans and the was 70. direction of their party. Limbaugh said a year ago Rush Hudson Limbaugh III that he had lung cancer. His was born Jan. 12, 1951, in Cape death was announced on his Girardeau, Missouri, to the for- show by his wife, Kathryn. mer Mildred Armstrong, and Unflinchingly conservative, Rush Limbaugh Jr., who flew wildly partisan, bombastically fighter planes in World War II self-promoting and larger than and practiced law at home. pletely closed to the public. The sanitation harvest in- tends to remove all grand fir and Douglas fir. Ponderosa pines in the sanitation zones would not be harvested as they are not susceptible to getting root rot. In a statement, Blue Moun- tains said the project would result in the removal of 500 old-growth firs, the degrada- tion of wildlife, impairment to outdoor recreation and de- struction of the visual quality of the area provided by the old- growth forest. A similar sanitation project was announced in 2015 and the work was awarded to Sweet Home-based T2 Inc., which specializes in forest thinning projects. Blue Mountains sued the Forest Service in a federal court in 2016, alleging the For- est Service had not accurately described the work it was in- tending to conduct. The court issued an injunction, and the Forest Service withdrew the project to conduct additional analysis. Kern said conditions have changed in the project area since the initial contract was signed and if the work is able to go ahead, the agreement with T2 would need to be revisited. Kern said the Forest Service Terry W. Holmes of Redmond, OR March 27, 1966 - Feb 5, 2021 Arrangements: Arrangements Entrusted To: Redmond Memorial Chapel; 541.548.3219. Please visit www.redmond- memorial.com to view full Obituary when available &/ or leave a thought, mem- ory, or condolence for the family Services: A Celebration of Life is planned to be held for Terry at Highland Baptist Church, Sat., Feb. 20th, 2021, 1:00PM Contributions may be made to: A local Veteran’s Charity of your choice Doris Louise Bailey of La Pine, OR June 16, 1925 - Feb 12, 2021 Arrangements: Baird Memorial Chapel of La Pine is honored to serve the Bailey family. Please visit our website, www.bairdfh.com, to share condolences and sign the online guestbook. is unable to speak about ongo- ing litigation in relation to the case, but noted that the Forest Service stands by the sanitation and thinning project. “The sanitation harvest will remove all host species of a root disease,” said Kern. “Thin- ning in other stands in the Wal- ton Lake recreation manage- ment area will maintain large ponderosa pine and larch.” After the trees are removed, project managers will conduct fuels treatment and then plant trees that will be resistant to laminated root rot in the fu- ture, said Kern. The American Forest Re- source Council, a trade associ- ation that represents more than 100 logging companies, says over the long haul, the thin- ning project will improve safety for people and conditions for wildlife. “The national forest has sought to mitigate this hazard and have bent over backward for anti-forestry groups, over multiple rounds of planning,” said Nick Smith, a spokesman for the council. “This litiga- tion would only throw another obstacle in the path of public lands managers and would add more delay to this important public safety project.” e e Reporter: 541-617-7818, mkohn@bendbulletin.com Beatrice “Bea” Mae King of Bend, OR April 14, 1932 - February 13, 2021 Arrangements: Baird Funeral Home of Bend is honored to serve the King family. Please visit our website, www.bairdfh.com, to share condolences and sign our online guest book. Gregory Lynn Schaub of Bend, OR Sep 14, 1959 - Feb 10, 2021 Arrangements: Baird Memorial Chapel of La Pine is honored to serve the Schaub family. Please visit our website, www.bairdfh.com, to share condolences and sign the online guestbook. OBITUARY DEADLINE Call to ask about our deadlines 541-385-5809 Monday-Friday 10am-3pm Email: obits@bendbulletin.com Marion Josephine LePage McMillin died on Saturday, February 6, 2021 at Central Oregon Adult Foster Care in Redmond, OR from complica} ons of mul} ple sclerosis and demen} a. She was 91 years old. Marion was born in Saint Croix Falls, WI on September 28, 1929 to Joseph LePage and Emma Marie Lindall LePage. Marion was educated in St Croix Falls gradua} ng from its high school in May 1947. She worked locally for what would today be a } tle company. Marion intended to go to college; however, her father passed away and without his û nancial backing she was not able to at end. Marion and her sister moved to the Sacramento, CA area. She was employed by General Motors Acceptance Corpora} on as an accountant from 1951 to re} rement in 1986. When she re} red she was the Assistant Accoun} ng Manager. On December 31, 1953 Miss Marion LePage married Richard E Bowser in Oakland, CA in the presence of James & Grace Newsum, Marion9s sister. Dick & Marion lived in Rancho Cordova, CA before she was widowed. Robert Dale McMillin began work at GMAC on January 1, 1966. Marion and Bob became friends and he was introduced to Marion9s family Christmas 1974. They married in Sacramento, CA on February 14, 1986 av er they both re} red. At that } me employees could not marry if they were working in the same department of General Motors Financial. Av er re} ring, Bob and Marion moved to Placerville, to start a Fuji apple orchard for friends of theirs. They ran the apple hill-farm called Goldbud Farms for over 10 years un} l it was sold. The farm supplied produce to Ronald and Nancy Reagan when Ron was Governor of California and 40th US President. Marion was funny with a dry sense of humor. She was quick wit ed and always had a comment with a sly smile to follow. She was a <cheese-head= because she loved the Green Bay Packers football team. She was also a Rush Limbaugh fan. Marion loved oatmeal cookies and blueberry pies. She was an excellent swimmer from growing up along the St Croix River. Marion was an avid reader always wan} ng the newspaper upon waking, and she was a whiz at Sudoku. She loved traveling, good food and great wine. Bob and Marion enjoyed traveling to see her family as well as touring in Alaska, Venezuela, Tahi} , New Zealand, Singapore and Canada. Although Marion had no children of her own, Bob and Marion were pseudo grandparents to Rachel and Shawn Radekin of Placerville, CA. They at ended Rachel9s gradua} on, wedding and many birthdays. Marion was preceded in death by her husband Bob; siblings, Ariel Set er of Deer Park, WI, Mildred Johnson of Hudson, WI, and Donald LePage of Valencia, CA. Marion leaves behind her sister, Grace Newsum of Thomasville, GA; nieces, Melanie Yager of Menomonie, WI, Valerie Peterson of Centuria, WI, Tina LePage of Tucson, AZ, Sherie Ambrose of Thomasville, GA; and nephews, Joel Johnson of Waverly, IA, Gary Newsum of Atlanta, GA, William Anthony (Sam) Newsum of Huntsville, AL, Mark Dunham of Bay City, OR and Les Dunham of Dupont, WA.