News
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 22, 2017
A7
New timeline for revised Blue Mountains Forest Plan
By George Plaven
EO Media Group
It may be 12 years overdue,
but the U.S. Forest Service is
inching closer to revising the
outdated Blue Mountains For-
est Plan.
A final environmental im-
pact statement, or EIS, may
be ready by the end of June,
according to Victoria Anne,
revision team leader. The final
EIS was expected before the
end of 2016, though staff turn-
over has further delayed what
has already been a lengthy
process.
In addition, the Forest Ser-
vice has crafted two new plan
alternatives based on a year’s
worth of feedback from local
communities and stakehold-
ers. When completed, the Blue
Mountains Forest Plan will
Eagle file photo
The Strawberry Mountains from Keeney Fork Road on
the Malheur National Forest in Grant County. A final
environmental impact statement may be ready by the
end of June for the Blue Mountains Forest Plan revision.
form the backbone for land
management on the Umatilla,
Wallowa-Whitman and Mal-
heur national forests.
But there is still plenty of
work left to do, even after the
agency’s environmental analy-
sis is finished.
Tom
Montoya,
Wal-
E. Oregon job growth expected
to trail behind state through 2024
By Claire Withycombe
Capital Bureau
Job growth in Oregon’s ru-
ral areas — particularly south-
eastern Oregon — is projected
to trail behind the rest of the
fast-growing state until 2024,
according to the Oregon Em-
ployment Department.
Oregon’s jobs are expected
to grow 14 percent between
2014 and 2024, more than
double the national expected
rate for that period.
But in Harney and Malheur
counties, the number of jobs
is expected to increase mere-
ly 3 percent until 2024. That’s
compared to 6 and 7 percent
in neighboring counties to
the north and west, which is a
rate on par with expected job
growth nationally.
Counties near the cen-
tral Columbia River Gorge,
meanwhile, are expected to
see 11 percent job growth un-
til 2024.
The outlook comes in the
broader context of the slow
post-recession jobs recovery
in rural areas of the state.
While Oregon as a whole
has made up the jobs it lost
during the Great Recession,
that’s not the case for many of
the state’s rural areas — such
as Gilliam and Wheeler coun-
ties.
But the future may be
brighter for them: Both are
projected to exceed the coun-
try’s jobs growth rate until
2024.
Construction, health care
and professional and business
services jobs are expected to
grow the fastest, according to
a presentation employment
department officials made to
lawmakers on the state’s work-
force committee Thursday.
The high-tech sector is also
expected to continue grow-
ing — a recent dip in jobs can
be attributed to layoffs in the
semiconductor industry, but
the overall trend is upward,
said Nick Beleiciks, a state
employment economist with
the Oregon Employment De-
partment.
Filling those new jobs may
be a challenge in rural Oregon,
too, though.
lowa-Whitman National Forest
supervisor, said there will be a
90-day objection period after
the final EIS is issued, and it
could take six months or more
to work through objections.
Certainly, the plan has prov-
en a lightning rod for controver-
sy since a draft environmental
analysis was released in 2014.
While not a decision-making
document in and of itself, it
does set desired conditions for
everything in the woods from
fire protection and logging to
wilderness and road access.
The proposal drew so much
fire that the Forest Service de-
cided to take a step back in
2015 and re-engage through
a series of public meetings.
Through that process, Montoya
said officials heard from locals
who wanted to see them pick
up the pace and scale of resto-
ration to make the forests more
healthy, while also protecting
old growth trees.
That’s what the two new al-
ternatives will seek to address
in different ways, Montoya
said.
“We continue to have that
dialogue,” he said.
The Forest Service was
on track to have the final EIS
out last fall, but the timeline
has since been stretched out
to later this year. Part of the
delay, Montoya said, was the
departure of former team lead-
er Sabrina Stadler, who left in
August.
Stadler died on Sept. 7,
2016, due to complications
with pancreatitis. Michael
Hampton, a retired Forest Ser-
vice employee, filled the role of
team leader on an interim basis
until Anne arrived on the job in
mid-December.
The team also recently
brought on a new fisheries bi-
ologist to lead consultation
with the National Marine Fish-
eries Service and U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service on complying
with the federal Endangered
Species Act — primarily for
PLAN
Continued from Page A1
second-poorest connectivity in Ore-
gon with average download speeds less
than 10 megabits per second and upload
speeds of less than one megabit per sec-
ond.
John Day Mayor Ron Lundbom said
he supported Green’s development plan
and thought improving internet access is
key to attracting new residents.
“I think that’s the way he wants to
grow our tax base, by giving amenities
and services that we don’t already have,
by trying to attract people who are go-
ing to bring their expertise and entrepre-
neurship,” Lundbom said.
An internet task force has been set
up to address the problem. Consisting
of six members, including Green and
Grant County Judge Scott Myers, the
task force is working towards establish-
ing fast and reliable internet for resi-
dents and local businesses.
The task force recently had its first
meeting and is working to help John
Day join the rest of the world in terms
of broadband access, Myers said.
U.S. Rep. Greg Walden addressed
concerns from the community about the
quality and cost of internet in the county
holding back local communities during
a town hall meeting on Feb. 9. He said
he recently met with Federal Commu-
nications Commission Chairman Ajit
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
A water tank above John Day.
Varadaraj Pai, who wants to expand
broadband access in unserved and un-
der-served areas.
“We need to get service to every cor-
ner of America, especially our rural ar-
eas,” Walden said.
Green also wants to raise awareness
of what the area has to offer new res-
idents through a digital marketing and
branding campaign, and he wants to
move forward on recreation projects
like a proposed Seventh Street Park
Complex bike track.
If these methods attract people to the
city, a wider range of housing options
across a broad price range will be need-
ed. Fifty percent of homes built in the
city were built prior to 1960, and less
than 1 percent rentals are vacant, Green
said.
One resource the city may be able
to use to attract development is its wa-
ter supply. Water sales are the largest
revenue source for John Day, bringing
in roughly $600,000 a year, Green said,
Snake River salmon, steelhead
and bull trout.
“We’ve been trying our best
to temporarily fill some of those
gaps,” Montoya said.
Though the Blue Mountains
Forest Plan is being studied
under one umbrella, each of
the three forests will have its
own individual plan. The final
decision will come down to Re-
gional Forester Jim Peña in the
Forest Service’s Portland head-
quarters.
Montoya said the two new
alternatives could more than
double the pace of restoration
being done on the forests. The
question is how and where that
restoration will be addressed.
“We’re trying to make sure
we’re being responsive as
much as possible, meeting with
folks who want to help us with
this,” Montoya said.
and the city has the infrastructure in
place to provide more than 10 times the
average daily demand.
Although state law requires water
revenues to be deposited into a dedi-
cated water fund that can only be spent
on the water system, Green said the city
may have options to promote economic
development with the resource. He said,
if the city waived water fees for certain
sectors, such as government agencies,
and instead charged them an economic
development fee, those funds could be
used for projects not related to the water
system.
Green said the city could also pro-
vide water rate incentives to attract
“thirsty” industries or amenities, such as
a botanical garden and recreational re-
sort similar to the 80-acre Oregon Gar-
den in Silverton.
“Beyond the cost of operations and
maintenance, the highest and best use of
the city’s residual water revenue would
be to increase the population of the ser-
vice area in order to maximize taxpayers
return on investment,” Green wrote in
memo to the city council.
Green has also proposed a creative
plan for a new wastewater treatment
plant incorporating a hydroponic gar-
den. The plant would use reclaimed wa-
ter to grow cash crops to offset the cost
of building and operating the plant.
A feasibility study is planned for
2017 to determine if the hydroponic
plant is the best option for the city.