The BulleTin • Friday, May 28, 2021 A5
EDITORIALS & OPINIONS
AN INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER
Heidi Wright
Gerry O’Brien
Richard Coe
Publisher
Editor
Editorial Page Editor
Commitment to open
government should
not be half-hearted
H
ere’s an editorial for the people who work in Oregon
government. They can be excused for not getting
as wound up about government transparency as
journalists or other members of the public do.
But Oregon governments from
the governor’s office down to the dog
boards are supposed to be transpar-
ent. They are in a number of ways.
But they don’t always put their heart
into it. Sometimes they don’t follow
the law. So when one part of Oregon
government calls out another part
of Oregon government for not being
transparent, we pay attention.
The Oregon Secretary of State’s
Office recently released a follow-up
to an audit it did in 2019. That orig-
inal report encouraged the state —
and in particular the state’s Depart-
ment of Administrative Services, or
DAS, — to enhance the transpar-
ency in the state’s budget.
If it’s not easy to find out where
the state gets its money or how it
spends it, that’s a problem.
The department did implement a
number of recommended changes
since that 2019 audit. It worked with
the Legislature to allow additional
money be spent to beef up the state’s
transparency website. And it hired a
consultant to compare what Oregon
does against some of the best prac-
tices of other states. That’s good.
But DAS is not monitoring a
practice of state agencies to use
non-budgeted positions. And it’s not
using its position on the Transpar-
ency Oregon Advisory Commission
to encourage that the commission
meet regularly and release transpar-
ency reports required by law in a
timely manner, the report said.
For instance, there’s a require-
ment in state law that the commis-
sion shall report to the Legislature
on completed improvements to the
transparency website and ways to
improve it further by Feb. 15 of each
odd-numbered year. The Legislative
The impact of the pandemic on
state staff could have certainly
been a reason. There could be
other parts of a heavy workload
that they chose to prioritize. It
would be nice, though, if they
were transparent about why
they aren’t filling a transparency
obligation required by state law.
Fiscal Office missed that deadline
in 2019. It apparently has missed it
again this year. At least, we couldn’t
find it on office’s website.
We emailed on Wednesday the
two members of the Legislative Fiscal
Office assigned to the commission to
ask what was going on. No response.
The impact of the pandemic on
state staff could have certainly been a
reason. There could be other parts of
a heavy workload that they chose to
prioritize. It would be nice, though,
if they were transparent about why
they aren’t filling a transparency ob-
ligation required by state law.
One other thing struck us about
the way the Department of Admin-
istrative Services — which it is im-
portant to note is overseen by Gov.
Kate Brown — responded to the au-
dit. DAS chose to respond to some
of the audit recommendations with
what state auditors called “extra-
neous responses.” DAS declined to
even disagree or agree with some of
the audit recommendations.
Do some employees at DAS not
have a commitment to transparency
in their heart? Is Gov. Brown going
to insist they act like they do?
Measure would transform
Oregon farm practices
A
ballot measure proposed for
the Oregon ballot in Novem-
ber 2022 could mean a big
change for the state’s farmers. Many
common farm practices such as kill-
ing livestock or artificial insemina-
tion would become crimes.
Initiative Petition 13 still has
hoops it must get through before
it ends up on the ballot, but farm
groups are concerned and pushing
back. The Capital Press has a good
article about it.
IP 13, as it’s called in state lingo,
does not ban the sale of meat, leather
or fur in Oregon. But a farmer
would have to wait until an animal
dies naturally before it could be pro-
cessed and distributed. Proponents
say it just makes farmers subject to
the same standards as everyone else
when it comes to animal cruelty.
And they are correct in a way, but
that would also be a threat to the
livelihood of farmers across the state
— let alone what you might find on
shelves of stores.
We don’t know if supporters will
gather enough signatures to get it on
the ballot. But it’s a possible measure
that is worth doing your homework
on. There is information from pro-
ponents here: yesonip13.org. Oppo-
nents at the Oregon Farm Bureau
have information here: oregonfb.
org/ip13.
Editorials reflect the views of The Bulletin’s editorial board, Publisher Heidi Wright, Editor
Gerry O’Brien and Editorial Page Editor Richard Coe. They are written by Richard Coe.
My Nickel’s Worth
Switch us to clean energy
I would like to thank Sen. Ron
Wyden for his service to the state of
Oregon and our nation, and encour-
age him to continue to take action to
create change in order to power Ore-
gon and the U.S. with 100% clean en-
ergy. Sen. Wyden has risen as a leader
on sustainable practices: working on
a just transition toward a renewable
energy future and ensuring relief for
Oregon communities impacted by
natural disasters exacerbated by the
changing climate.
Sen. Wyden has introduced and
supported bills to protect Oregon’s
rivers, improve soil health and crop
resilience, ban U.S. oil exports, create
millions of good-paying jobs in re-
pairing America’s infrastructure and
reduce air and water pollution. These
actions are among the many that have
shown that Sen. Wyden is in favor of
climate legislation and community
resiliency that puts the planet and its
people before the profit of unsustain-
able and outdated businesses.
As the chairman of the Senate Fi-
nance Committee and a senior mem-
ber of the Energy and Natural Re-
sources Committee, Sen. Wyden has
the ability to not only understand the
importance of transitioning to a clean
energy economy but also the connec-
tions to take action and provide fund-
ing for this transition. In particular,
Wyden has the opportunity to help
ensure strong climate action in Presi-
dent Biden’s American Job Plan.
We need bold climate legislation
that promotes the transition to a clean
energy economy and I am confident
that Sen. Wyden will step up to help
lead this integral project.
— Sydney Dedrick, Bend
Protect the Owyhee
In 1988, our founder Gary Fish es-
tablished a small brewpub downtown
and named it after the iconic waterway
flowing through town. At Deschutes
Brewery, we depend on healthy for-
ests, protected public lands, and clean,
free-flowing water to brew our world-
class beer. It’s simple — our business
depends on the protection of wild
places. Our business and Oregon’s
outdoor recreation-based industry is
thrilled to see Sen. Wyden’s commu-
nity-driven, Oregon-crafted solutions
for protecting the places we all play.
Deschutes Brewery is crafted for
community, and community is some-
thing Sen. Wyden understands well.
From his statewide call for nomina-
tions leading to an Oregonian-built
River Democracy Act, to convening
stakeholder groups in eastern Oregon
to produce the Malheur Community
Empowerment for the Owyhee Act,
Deschutes Brewery applauds Sen.
Wyden’s efforts to preserve Oregon’s
natural resources for future gener-
ations. Sen. Wyden’s Owyhee pro-
posal will protect recreational assets
and important wildlife habitat, and
provide vital economic development
opportunities that support local Mal-
heur County economies and commu-
nities. Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands
are a true gem and we hope to see
a bill passed this year that gives this
place the protection it has so long de-
served.
— Michael LaLonde is the president and
CEO of Bend-based Deschutes Brewery
Shield deer migration corridors
This spring, I killed my first mule
deer buck. If you are a hunter like me,
you should be outraged that my first
buck was killed out of season. Un-
fortunately, it turns out many deer
are killed in Central Oregon every
spring by hunters and non-hunters
alike who, like me, are simply driving
through a migration corridor that’s
been in place for centuries, which is
bisected by up to 28,000 vehicles a day
traveling at 65 miles per hour along
Highway 97.
Each spring, Central Oregon’s mule
deer decide to pick up and move
out of their winter range in the sage
brush-covered High Desert and head
west toward the mountains. The Cas-
cades provide summer food in the
form of shrubs and grasses that give
fawns and their mothers the energy
they need to make it through the long
winter yet to come. These long-estab-
lished movements are at risk of crum-
bling apart as uncontrolled develop-
ment in places like Central Oregon
continues to truncate and cut off their
paths.
Fortunately, conservation-minded
hunting and angling groups are work-
ing together to find balanced solu-
tions that allow for the migration of
game and continued sustainable de-
velopment. These groups are working
on an approach to protect these cor-
ridors through an eventual statewide
migration policy. As scientists con-
tinue to learn more precisely where
big game migrate, we should use this
knowledge to conserve these corri-
dors before they are gone.
— Isaac O’Casey, Bend
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Conservation opportunities in the Owyhee Canyonlands
BY MICHAEL O’CASEY
T
his spring, my family and I
ventured out to the Owyhee
Canyonlands to view one of
the strangest mating rituals that takes
place anywhere.
Lekking sage-grouse. A lek is a
place where male sage-grouse return
to every spring to
perform some of
the best bird danc-
ing moves in the
West. Biologists rely
on these lek sites to
monitor popula-
tion trends for these
O’Casey
important and in-
creasingly rare birds.
In 2020, Oregon’s sage-grouse popu-
lation was estimated at 14,200 birds,
which is the second-lowest population
count recorded.
Waking up in the pre-dawn desert
light and hiking across sagebrush to
see these birds dance for a mate is an
experience that should be near the top
of every Oregonians outdoor recre-
ation bucket list, and there is no bet-
ter place than the Owyhee to make it
happen. The 4.6 million acres of pub-
lic lands that are part of the Vale BLM
District provide some of the best re-
maining sage-grouse habitat left. This
corner of Southeast Oregon has been
identified by the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service as one of just six focal ar-
eas across the bird’s range and keeping
the sage-steppe habitat healthy is criti-
cal to their survival. Fortunately, there
are two current opportunities to con-
serve the wild country of the Owyhee
and the intact habitat it provides.
The first opportunity started in
2010 when the Vale District began
a public process to amend their Re-
source Management Plan.
These RMP’s guide the manage-
ment across all 4.6 million acres of
public land for the life of the plan,
which is usually 20 years or more.
Through this amendment process,
there is an opportunity for the BLM to
conserve this wild and remote land-
scape by limiting development such
GUEST COLUMN
as renewable energy. Additionally, the
BLM is analyzing changes to off high-
way vehicle and grazing management.
The draft RMP amendment was
published in May 2019, and unfortu-
nately, the BLM’s preferred alternative
proposed that 0 additional acres be
managed for conservation values even
though more than 1.2 million acres
were identified by the BLM as wild,
backcountry lands.
The BLM is reviewing more than
4,000 public comments that were sub-
mitted about the draft plan. The bulk
of those comments asked the BLM to
make changes to their proposal and to
conserve these wild landscapes. With
the recent shift in the administra-
tion, the BLM has a great opportunity
to make changes between the 2019
draft plan and the soon to be released,
proposed final plan. These changes
should incorporate additional conser-
vation measures that are supported
by a broad group of local stakeholders
through the Southeast Oregon Re-
source Advisory Council.
The second opportunity to con-
serve this landscape is by working
with Oregon’s senators and congress-
men and -women to pass a bill that
would permanently protect the wild-
est portions of the Owyhee.
In 2019, Oregon’s senior Sen. Ron
Wyden worked feverishly with doz-
ens of stakeholders to craft Senate Bill
2828. This bill would protect more
than one million acres of the Owyhee
as Wilderness and provide needed lo-
cal economic development opportu-
nities and funding for ecological res-
toration to keep this landscape intact
for future generations. Sen. Wyden
is working to reintroduce this bill
later this year. Thousands of Oregon’s
hunters and anglers like me who value
this landscape look forward to con-
tinuing our work with Sen. Wyden,
Congressman Bentz and others to
find a compromise in the Owyhee
through the passage of a bill like this.
The solitude and the quiet that
is found in this remote canyon
country is one of the finest values
any place can offer. But right now
is not the time to be quiet about
conserving the Owyhee.
The solitude and the quiet that is
found in this remote canyon country
is one of the finest values any place
can offer. But right now is not the
time to be quiet about conserving the
Owyhee. Learn more about how to
speak up and engage by joining the
Owyhee Sportsmen’s Coalition and/or
contacting your senators today.
Successful conservation through
the above opportunities will make
sure we are always able to find birds
dancing in the desert with every
spring.
e e
Michael O’Casey live in Bend and is the Oregon/
Washington field representative for the Theodore
Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.