A4
Opinion
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Now is the
time to work
together
N
ot for the ¿rst time,
Grant County residents
are grappling with
an emergency that tests their
resolve and their bootstraps
The Canyon Creek Complex
¿res arose last week out of an
unfortunately perfect storm
of conditions: widespread
lightning storms, intense
heat, stiff winds and thin
¿re¿ghting ranks The cost to
the community to date is heart-
wrenching Some 26 homes
burned beyond recognition,
leaving so many families —
our neighbors, relatives and
friends — displaced with little
or no possessions
Amid the wreckage, we
can take heart that this is a
community noted for its caring
and resilience It is proving that
with an immediate and growing
outpouring of goodwill Fund-
raising efforts are multiplying
online to help those left
homeless Local businesses are
collecting donations of goods
and money The fairgrounds
has set up “shop” to provide
free goods for ¿re victims to
help patch them through an
unbearably tough time
People not touched by the
¿re are looking at their homes
and realizing they have much
to share: clothing, furnishings,
even school supplies for
children facing a new school
year amid bewildering loss
Individuals are stepping
up with everything from
pop bottle collections to art
auctions, and the credit union
has established a plan for a
fund that will be locally run
and locally targeted to help all
the ¿re victims, without the
overhead that marks some large
organizations¶ efforts
Animals also are sharing the
love: The veterinary clinic and
area ranchers have offered hay
and pasture for livestock, and
animal advocates here and as
far as Pendleton and Baker City
have offered food and supplies
to help displaced pets
As we write this, the ¿re
continues to Àare and spread
in the hills outside Canyon
City Across the county, signs
are popping up to give thanks
to the ¿re¿ghters risking
their lives to battle the blaze
Some of those ¿re¿ghters and
contractors are our neighbors,
relatives and friends; they labor
even as their own homes and
property may be at risk or lost
As we acknowledge their
contributions, there also have
been voices of criticism, some
of it quite vicious and personal,
directed at the ¿re effort and
the agencies facing this threat
for us While frustration and
even anger are not surprising
responses to such a disaster,
we urge people to hold their
powder We can¶t undo this ¿re,
no matter how much we wish it
were so
As with any ¿re, there will
be a time for review, but we
are still in the thick of this
one And if we are to heal
our community, it will not
be through recrimination and
blame but through our heart and
our resilience Now is the time
to work together and respond
with positive contributions
Let¶s all try to be Grant County
strong
W HERE TO WRITE
Washington, D.C.
The White House, 1600 Pennsyl-
vania Ave NW, Washington, DC
20500; Phone-comments: 202-456-
1111; Switchboard: 202-456-1414
US Sen Ron Wyden, D — 516
Hart Senate Of¿ce Building, Washing-
ton DC 20510 Phone: 202-224-5244
E-mail: wayneBkinney#wydensen-
ategov Web site: http:wydensenate
gov Fax: 202-22-21
US Sen Jeff Merkley, D — 313
Hart Senate Of¿ce Building, Wash-
ington DC 20510? Phone: 202-224-
353 E-mail: senator#merkleysen-
ategov Fax: 202-22-399 Oregon
of¿ces include One World Trade Cen-
ter, 121 SW Salmon St, Suite 1250,
Portland, OR 9204; and 310 SE
Second St, Suite 105, Pendleton, OR
901 Phone: 503-326-336; 541-
2-1129 Fax: 503-326-2990
US Rep Greg Walden, R —
(Second District) 1404 Longworth
Building, Washington DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-630 No direct
e-mail because of spam Web site:
wwwwaldenhousegov Fax: 202-
225-54 Medford of¿ce: 14 North
Central, Suite 112, Medford, OR
9501 Phone: 541-6-4646 Fax:
541-9-0204
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
It’s time for Senate to act
on wild¿re prevention bill
By Greg Walden
For the Capital Press
A
round
Oregon
and
throughout the West, an-
other ¿re season is well
underway Overstocked, dis-
eased, and bug-infested forests
are at risk of the massive and
catastrophic wild¿res that clog
our air with smoke and threaten
our streams All the while our
mills are starving for a reliable
supply of timber and people need
Mobs It¶s clear the status quo isn¶t
working for our forests, our com-
munities, or our environment We
can do better
The US House has passed
a bipartisan bill — the Resil-
ient Federal Forests Act — that
would help reduce the threat of
catastrophic wild¿res and bring
active management back to our
federal forests Through active
management, we can clean up our
forests, prevent these unnaturally
large ¿res, protect our air, and put
people back to work in our forest-
ed communities
Our bill puts into place much
needed reforms to federal forest
policy For example, the bill re-
peals the arbitrary and outdated
prohibition on harvesting trees
over 21 inches in diameter on na-
tional forests in eastern Oregon
“Temporarily” put in place in
199, this rule still hasn¶t been re-
moved nearly 20 years later! This
Àawed, one-size-¿ts-all rule il-
lustrates Must how broken federal
forest management has become
The restriction greatly limits
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John Day, Oregon
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Marissa Williams, marissa@bmeagle.com
editor@bmeagle.com
Kristina Kreger, kristina@bmeagle.com
Cheryl Hoefler, cheryl@bmeagle.com
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Lindsay Bullock office@bmeagle.com
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Grant County
Elsewhere in Oregon
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local communities for a reliable
supply of timber to fund essen-
tial local services like schools,
roads, and law enforcement The
bill tells the BLM to go back to
the drawing board, and propose
new plans to actually provide
sustainable timber production for
Oregon¶s rural communities as
required by law
Finally, the endless cycle of
“¿re borrowing” — forcing the
federal government to use wild-
¿re prevention funds to pay for
¿ghting ¿re — is ended under
this bill It ¿xes how we pay to
¿ght ¿re by allowing the Forest
Service to apply for FEMA disas-
ter funds to pay for ¿re¿ghting
This treats wild¿re as the natural
disasters they are, similar to hur-
ricanes or tornadoes
The Resilient Federal Forests
Act will improve the health of
our forests and our rural econo-
mies During the last session of
Congress, the House twice passed
bipartisan legislation I worked on
to reform federal forest policy
The Senate failed to take up for-
estry legislation However, with
new leadership in that body I¶m
hopeful that the Senate will take
meaningful action on forestry
legislation
We cannot let this opportuni-
ty pass us by again Our forested
communities have already waited
too long Now is the time to act
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden rep-
resents Oregon’s Second Con-
gressional District, which covers
20 counties in southern, central,
and eastern Oregon.
L ETTERS TO THE E DITOR
195 N. Canyon Blvd. • John Day, OR 97845
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
forest managers¶
ability to address
site speci¿c needs
of the forest on
the ground and has
only served to fur-
ther tie up proMects
Walden
in endless appeals
and litigation
Our plan also gives the For-
est Service greater Àexibility to
move quickly on proMects to re-
duce the threat of ¿re around our
rural communities, streamlining
proMects developed through lo-
cal counties¶ community wild¿re
protection plans
Right now, after a ¿re, the For-
est Service is able to reforest less
than 3 percent of areas burned
This plan would accelerate the
removal of timber after a ¿re (to
help pay for replanting), and re-
quires a large percent of the area
impacted be reforested within
¿ve years Just like we do after
other natural disasters, we ought
to clean up and rebuild after wild-
¿res
As we saw earlier this summer
on the Buckskin Fire in southern
Oregon, failing to clean up only
leads to future ¿res in old burn
scars full of fallen trees and snag
that prove dif¿cult and too dan-
gerous for ¿re¿ghters
This bill also cuts costs and
streamlines rules for timber pro-
duction on legislation pertaining
to Oregon¶s unique OC Lands
The Bureau of Land Management
recently unveiled new manage-
ment plans for these lands that
would fall short of the needs of
1 year
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or copied in any form or by any means — graphic, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
taping or information storage and retrieval systems — without written permission of the publisher.
Pave the path to the
Rodeo Grounds
To the Editor:
Did anybody notice how bad the
pathway is from the Barns and Pa-
vilion to the Rodeo Grounds? For
people pushing wheelchairs and us-
ing walkers, it is almost impossible
to navigate! Instead of raising mon-
ey for a PA system, use that money
AND apply for grants to get at least
the pathway paved, if not the whole
gravelly area
I am also writing to the fair board
and the county commissioners to do
this Not Must consider, but do it Or
try pushing a loaded wheelchair on
that path, and see how hard it is!
Rosalie Averett
Austin
We need Canyon
Meadows dam
To the Editor:
In light of the recent ¿re activity,
it has come to mind a public meeting
L
with the forest service several years
ago regarding the Canyon Meadows
dam
Public input was overwhelmingly
in favor of repairing or replacing the
dam to restore the reservoir Advan-
tages repeatedly cited were these:
recreation, ¿sh habitat, tourism, ir-
rigation, Àood control and a water
source for ¿re suppression Unfortu-
nately, the dam remains in disrepair,
and the reservoir is gone
We sorely need that water source
now as the helicopters Ày farther
a¿eld to ¿nd enough water to ¿ll
their buckets It¶s long past time to
do something about this!
Robert Reed
Judith Beaudet Reed
Canyon City
Thanks to Riverside
residents
To the Editor:
I want to give a big thank you
to all the residents of Riverside
Home Park who came together,
and so quickly, when they saw that
a fire had started in a vacant lot
With 911 called and the fire de-
partment on their way, the neigh-
boring residents grabbed shovels,
picks, hoses and went to work
The fire went in two directions to-
ward homes, but due to their quick
actions, as the fire was closing
in on both units, they were able
to stop the fire from burning the
units even before the fire truck ar-
rived
This is not to say that the fire-
fighters were slow, by any means
They also need to be thanked as
they were here in no time at all,
with all the other things going on
So, we say “thank you” to the offi-
cers and firefighters for their quick
response also
We are very lucky to have the
people and volunteers we do living
around us who are willing to come
together at a moment¶s notice
Again, thank you and God bless
all of you for your helping hearts
Lisa Delano
Riverside Home Park, John Day
etters policy: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local, state, national or world issues. Brevity
is good, but longer letters will be asked to be contained to 350 words. No personal attacks; challenge the opinion, not the person. No thank-you letters.
Submissions to this page become property of the Eagle. The Eagle reserves the right to edit letters for length and for content. Letters must be original and
signed by the writer. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Writers should include a telephone number so they can be reached for questions. Deadline is 5
p.m. Friday. Send letters to editor@bmeagle.com, or Blue Mountain Eagle, 195 N. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845; or fax to 541-575-1244.