A18
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
MEGAFIRES
Continued from Page A1
3,000-acre inferno that de-
stroyed 29 homes and three
commercial businesses.
Less than two months lat-
er, Eastern Oregon would
face a trio of monstrous fires:
the Canyon Creek Complex
near John Day, Grizzly Bear
Complex outside of Troy and
Cornet-Windy Ridge Fire in
Baker County. All together,
those fires would torch nearly
300,000 acres, and another 43
homes would burn in Canyon
Creek.
The Forest Service spent
$2.1 billion fighting fires
throughout the region, though
Hessburg said the toll was
much higher in reality. Sup-
pression costs are just one
piece of the puzzle, he said.
Combined with rebuilding in-
frastructure, lost property val-
ues and business revenue, the
Paul Hessburg
actual cost figures to be more
than $50 billion.
“As taxpayers, this should
concern all of us,” he said.
Getting to the root of mod-
ern megafires requires a look
back at history. In 1905, Pres-
ident Theodore Roosevelt and
forester Gifford Pinchot cre-
ated the Forest Service. Five
years later, the Great Fire of
1910 burned roughly 3 mil-
lion acres across northeast
Washington, northern Idaho
and western Montana.
From then on, Hessburg
said the Forest Service pledged
to fight fires at all costs. It took
about 25 years for the agen-
cy to get really good at fire
suppression, and by 1934 the
agency adopted the so-called
10 a.m. policy, which ordered
every fire be put out by 10 a.m.
the day after it was first report-
ed.
The result, Hessburg said,
has been decades of fire exclu-
sion on the landscape, which
has changed the composition
of the forests to overly dense
and crowded with vegetation.
Past logging practices also re-
moved older and larger trees
from the forest, encouraging
the growth of less fire-resil-
ient species.
“This is when our forests
started to become sick and un-
healthy,” Hessburg said.
Comparing historical and
current photos, Hessburg
pointed out how forests used
to be a patchy mosaic of large
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
trees and open grassy mead-
ows, which kept fires low to
the ground and low in inten-
sity. Now forest fires have
much more fuel to consume
and climb their way up into
the canopy of tree stands.
Climate change is also
making summers warmer
and extending fire season by
months, Hessburg said, turn-
ing the forests into a powder
keg. By 2050, data show the
West could experience two or
three times as much fire as it
does now.
“Even the most conserva-
tive forecasts are pretty darn
dire,” he said.
Fire suppression alone is
an incomplete solution, Hes-
sburg said. What needs to
happen is large-scale reha-
bilitation of the forests and
rangeland using a variety of
management tools.
It will be an immense job,
as Oregon and Washington
have a combined 11.6 million
acres in need of treatment to
restore better fire behavior.
The first and perhaps most
important step, Hessburg said,
is restoring fire to its natural role
on the landscape. He pointed
to things like prescribed burns
and managed wildfires, where a
naturally caused, low-intensity
blaze is allowed to run its nat-
ural course.
Fire is the most important
natural process for forests in
the West, Hessburg said. Not
only does it increase future re-
silience, but some species de-
pend on wildfire for survival
— lodgepole pine cones will
only open after a fire, while
certain types of birds make
their habitat in burned snags.
Mechanical thinning can
also be a valuable tool if it’s
done in the right places, Hess-
burg said. The timber industry
has a role to play, using the
wood to make products such
as lumber, chips and biomass
for power plants.
911
Green said the League of
Oregon Cities and Associa-
tion of Oregon Counties are
lobbying for 911 tax reform
and will likely succeed in
2019.
The 911 tax was last in-
creased in 1995. John Day
City Councilor Paul Smith
described the current rate as
a “relic.”All phone users pay
75 cents per month per line on
their bills each month, and the
funds are distributed to dispatch
centers based on the number of
connections they serve.
If the tax were increased
to $1.50 per line, the dis-
patch center would receive
about $270,000 in addition-
al funding, resulting in a
budget surplus instead of a
deficit.
Even if the tax is not in-
creased — or if the other cit-
ies and the county decline to
participate in the cost-sharing
agreement — Green said re-
questing voter approval for
a local option levy, collected
with property taxes, could be
another way to maintain the lo-
cal center. The levy, similar to
a bond, could cover the current
deficit by charging about 36
cents per $1,000 of assessed
property value to all county
residents. Green said a sunset
provision could be included to
reduce or eliminate the levy if
state tax revenues increased.
County Judge Scott Myers
and County Commissioner
Boyd Britton voiced support
for the levy during a March 1
court meeting. Britton said he
also liked the sunset provision.
Without increased tax
funding, an interagency agree-
ment or a local option levy,
Green said the city would need
to evaluate the feasibility of
merging its dispatch services
into a regional service, such
as Frontier Regional Dispatch
center in Condon. This would
require negotiating agree-
ments with external agencies
and improving long-haul radio
relays, he said.
Service quality and re-
sponse time for emergency
units could potentially suffer
due to a lack of familiarity
with the area, Green said,
and outsourcing the service
would result in the loss of six
local jobs.
five years for general op-
erations, or for the lesser
of 10 years or the useful
life of the asset for capital
projects.
These taxes are subject to
the Measure 5 maximum tax
limits of $15 per $1,000 of
real market property value —
up to $10 for general govern-
ment and $5 for education —
so no additional taxes would
be levied on properties that
have already reached the lim-
it. Local option taxes are also
the first to be cut when these
limits are reached.
General obligation bonds
Cities, counties and some
special districts can also re-
quest voter approval to enter
into debt for capital projects
through the issuance of gen-
eral obligation bonds to be
repaid with interest. The dis-
trict receives the funding up-
front and collects additional
taxes from property owners
each year to make annual
debt payments.
Unlike local option taxes,
general obligation bonds are
not subject to the Measure 5
limits, so the tax levied on
a property may exceed $15
per $1,000. Like local option
taxes, except in May and No-
vember elections, at least 50
percent of registered voters
must vote on the measure.
Proceeds from bond lev-
ies can only be used for the
purpose stated in the ballot
measure.
Editor’s note: This is the
third entry in the Eagle’s 2017
“Your Taxes” series, in which
we will examine all 27 taxing
districts in Grant County so
you know where your proper-
ty taxes are going.
Continued from Page A1
The Eagle/Rylan Boggs
Brynn Elizabeth works on a painting at her studio. The
John Day artist sells her work internationally.
ARTIST
Continued from Page A1
She will sketch with pencil
or paint and continue to add
layers. Each painting has 12
to 20 layers and can take a
week to a couple months to
complete.
Kim Randleas, anoth-
er local painter, described
Brynn’s work as having “a
very ethereal quality.”
“It’s really dreamlike
with vibrant colors,” she
said. “They kind of pull you
in and make you want to
know this person.”
Randleas, who said she
met Elizabeth when she was
a barista at Station 62, com-
plimented Elizabeth on her
use of color and subjects.
“Right from the begin-
ning, she did really well,”
Randleas said. “I’m ex-
cited to see what she does
from here because she’s so
young.”
Much of Elizabeth’s
for John Day residents to
subsidize regional services
for other tax jurisdictions,”
Green wrote in a memo to the
John Day City Council.
He has proposed an inter-
agency cost-sharing agree-
ment to maintain the facil-
ity until a possible 911 tax
reform package could be
passed by the Legislature in
2019 to provide more fund-
ing to the center.
The three-year cost-shar-
ing agreement would divide
the roughly $200,000 defi-
cit equally among all cities
within the county, with Grant
County responsible for cov-
ering those who live outside
of city limits. With the deficit
equaling $26.88 per person,
each jurisdiction would pay
that amount multiplied by its
population. Granite, with a
population of 40, would pay
$1,075, and Grant Coun-
ty, with an unincorporated
population of 2,805, would
pay $75,403, while John
Day would cover its share of
$46,640.
“Deliberation” by Brynn
Elizabeth.
work is done for herself,
but she also works occa-
sional commissioned pieces.
While they’re not always
what she prefers to paint, at
the end of the day, it’s still
painting.
“This is what Ive always
wanted to do. I feel like this
is what I’m supposed to be
doing,” she said. “It’s eas-
ier to get out of bed when
you’re excited to go do what
you love to do.”
TAXES
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rate or dollar amount paid in
addition to the district’s per-
manent rate and are collected
annually at the same time.
Unless the election is held
in May or November, at least
50 percent of registered vot-
ers must cast a vote in the
election.
Local option taxes can be
approved for a maximum of
Eagle file photo
A desk in the John Day dispatch center includes a
map monitor, a radio monitor, a multi-use monitor, a
keyboard, a radio, a telephone and a monitor displaying
cameras on the premises.
541-523-6377
05383
Homeowners who live in
the woods also need to con-
sider thinning around their
homes in an effort to keep
their properties safer, Hess-
burg said. The general rule of
thumb is a 30-foot buffer of
defensible space.
“Continued development
in the wildland-urban inter-
face is putting a whole lot
of stress on our firefighters,”
Hessburg said.
The Oregon Department of
Forestry does have a program
to work with homeowners on
“firescaping” projects, and
reimburse up to 75 percent of
the cost.
By being proactive instead
of reactive, Hessburg said lo-
cal agencies and communities
can help reduce the trend of
megafires and restore forest
and rangeland health.
“It’s up to us,” he said.
“The question is, how do
you want your fire and your
smoke?”
541-963-6577
541-573-6377
541-523-6377
05370