W EDNESDAY , S EPTEMBER 27, 2017
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Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
FIGHTING FIRE
WITH FIRE
Wildfi re season
sparks calls for
forestry reform
Low-intensity
fi res, logging
prevent
megafi res
By George Plaven
EO Media Group
O
The problem
Before the current era of megafi res,
Hessburg said, when frequent, low-in-
tensity fi res created a dynamic patch-
work of tree stands and meadows, that
very patchwork sculpted by fi re pre-
vented larger fi res from occurring.
With less dense tree stands, he said,
fi res would consume grasses and small-
er trees, brush and dead material on the
forest fl oor, while sparing the canopies
of some of the larger trees. Those trees,
some of which need fi re to reproduce,
could reseed the nutrient-rich area cre-
ated by the fi re, he said.
Even when the fi res climbed the
fuel ladder from the grasses through the
other material and into the leaves and
needles of the larger trees, the fi res were
less prone to crown — spread treetop
to treetop — because the trees and tree
stands were farther apart.
ut of the ashes of another record-breaking wildfi re sea-
son across the West, Oregon lawmakers are calling for
changes in the way national forests are managed and how the
government pays for fi ghting increasingly large, destructive
fi res.
Rep. Greg Walden, the state’s lone Republican member of
Congress, visited Eastern Oregon last week where he touted
the Resilient Federal Forests Act of 2017, which passed the
House Committee on Natural Resources in June. The con-
troversial bill includes provisions that would expedite certain
forest thinning projects, while establishing a pilot program to
resolve legal challenges through arbitration.
Democrats Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, meanwhile,
joined a bipartisan group of senators pushing to end the prac-
tice of “fi re borrowing,” where the Forest Service and Bureau
of Land Management are forced to rob money from fi re pre-
vention programs to pay for fi ghting wildfi res.
Their bill, the Wildfi re Disaster Funding Act of 2017,
would make federal disaster funding available when the cost of
fi refi ghting exceeds the 10-year average, thereby maintaining
the agencies’ budgets for other conservation and restoration
programs.
In a statement last week, Wyden said communities are put
in danger and fi re prevention work is left undone because of
the backward fi re budgeting system.
“It’s past time for Congress to make it a top priority to end
fi re borrowing, stop the erosion of the Forest Service becoming
the ‘Fire Service,’ and start treating wildfi res like the natural
disasters they are,” Wyden said.
The Forest Service has spent more than $2 billion so far on
wildfi res nationwide in 2017, setting a new record. Nearly 8
million acres of forest have been consumed by fi re this sum-
mer, including 678,000 acres in Oregon.
The problem, Walden said, is a lack of active management
in the forests, which has resulted in a buildup of overly dense
and dead tree stands ready to burn.
“I don’t want to see our forests continue to go up (in fl ames)
like they are,” Walden said during a meeting Thursday with the
East Oregonian editorial board.
More than three-quarters of the Umatilla and Wal-
lowa-Whitman national forests are at moderate to high risk for
uncharacteristic fi re, according to the Northern Blue Mountains
Coalition, a group dedicated to increasing forest thinning and
logging. Across the country, 58 million acres of national forests
are at high or very high risk of severe wildfi res — an area equal
to the size of Pennsylvania and New York combined.
See FIRE, Page A6
See REFORM, Page A6
By Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
A
The 2015 Canyon Creek Complex burned 43 structures in Grant County.
The situation
The 191,067-acre Chetco Bar Fire in
southwestern Oregon, 97 percent con-
tained as of Mon-
day, has burned
30 structures. The
suppression cost
is already up to
$60.9 million.
And
that’s
only one of 14
large fi res burn-
Paul Hessburg ing in the North-
west, according
to the National
Interagency Fire Center.
This year, 48,850 wildfi res have
burned 8.5 million acres across the
United States, up signifi cantly from the
10-year average of 53,691 fi res burning
5.8 million acres.
In 2016, 4.9 million acres burned,
but that was following the 2015 season
that burned 9 million acres, including
the Canyon Creek Complex that de-
stroyed 43 structures in Grant County.
While the Forest Service spent only
17 percent of its budget on fi re suppres-
sion 25 years ago, the agency spent 57
percent to fi ght fi res in 2015, Hessburg
said.
As a federal agency, taxpayers ul-
timately shoulder the cost of fi refi ght-
ing. The problem is exacerbated when
the Forest Service is forced to spend
money planned for fi re prevention to
s wildfi res continue
to burn in Oregon and
throughout the West, a
research ecologist’s in-
sights from the past could shape the fu-
ture of fi re management.
A combination of factors has turned
forests that were once a patchwork
of tree stands and open meadows into
overgrown tinderboxes, prime to erupt
into the massive fi res plaguing the cur-
rent era that are far more devastating
than the smaller, more frequent blaz-
es of the past, Dr. Paul Hessburg said
during his presentation “Era of Mega-
fi res” on Thursday in John Day.
Many forests, he said, are a “ticking
time bomb,” needing only a fl ash of
lightning or a human-caused ignition
to quickly grow into a force consuming
everything in its path and darkening the
skies with the haze becoming increas-
ingly familiar each summer.
Even by conservative estimates, the
fi res will continue to increase in size
and number, he said. But there is hope.
Understanding how low-intensity
fi res help prevent megafi res and how
management practices contributed to
the current conditions, Hessburg said
steps can be taken to improve condi-
tions and reduce risk.
“We can learn to live with wildfi res
in another way,” he said.
Contributed photo/U.S. Forest Service
control massive blazes.
And the actual cost of fi res is even
worse. From lost homes and other neg-
ative costs, Hessburg said the economic
impact of a fi re is 24 times the suppres-
sion cost.
“Fires fi nancially impact every tax-
payer,” he said.
Holding a phone while driving means big fi nes starting Oct. 1
By Jade McDowell
EO Media Group
Answering a text could
cost you a pretty penny after
Oregon’s new distracted driv-
ing law takes effect on Oct. 1.
The more important thing,
Oregon State Police empha-
size, is it could cost you your
life.
That’s why starting in Oc-
tober, using a handheld elec-
tronic device while driving
will cost you $260 to $1,000
for your fi rst offense, $435 to
$2,000 for your second and up
to six months in jail for your
third.
“I think the message is
very clear that the state takes
distracted driving seriously,”
OSP Sgt. Michael Berland
said.
Previous distracted driv-
ing laws in Oregon only cov-
ered texting and talking on
the phone. Since those laws
were put in place, however,
drivers have come up with an
Contributed photo/Hermiston Police Department
Jonathan Newkirk was killed June 25, 2011, in what police
suspect was a distracted driving crash on Umatilla River
Road near Hermiston.
increasingly long list of rea-
sons to take their eyes off the
road. They send photos of the
scenery via Snapchat, search
Google for nearby restau-
rants, scroll through a playlist
for their favorite song, send
work emails or post updates
to Facebook.
Berland said one incident
that stands out in his mind was
a rollover crash he responded
to a few years ago where the
female driver was killed.
“We found her iPhone and
she was in the middle of mak-
ing a grocery list,” he said.
Instead of spelling out ev-
ery type of use, the legislature
took a more comprehensive
approach this year by passing
a bill banning all use of mo-
bile electronic devices while
driving. Just holding a phone
in your hand while driving is
a violation, even if you’re not
actively using it when an offi -
cer spots you. You can use it
if you’re legally parked on the
side of the road, but not while
stopped at a red light or stuck
in a traffi c jam.
More than 3,100 people die
every year in cellphone-relat-
ed crashes, according to the
Centers for Disease Control.
They leave behind thousands
more loved ones devastated
by the news of their death.
“One of the worst parts of
my job is knocking on some-
one’s door and giving them
the worst news of their life,”
Berland said.
Most people wouldn’t
drive down Interstate 84 with
their eyes closed just because
their friend dared them to,
but if they answer a text from
that same friend while driv-
ing, it creates a similar effect.
According to the U.S. De-
partment of Transportation,
a person takes their eyes off
the road for an average of 4.5
seconds while reading a text.
At 55 miles per hour, that’s
the equivalent of driving
the length of a football fi eld
blindfolded. If the road curves
unexpectedly, a car in front
hits the brakes or a deer runs
onto the road, that “blindfold”
can be disastrous.
“Nobody intends on crash-
ing,” Berland said. “Nobody
intends on taking that call and
then running a red light or
rear-ending someone or run-
ning over a child.”
Previously, using a phone
while driving was a Class C vi-
olation, with a presumptive fi ne
of $160. All fi nes are automati-
cally doubled in a school zone
or construction zone.
Under the law that takes
effect Sunday, a fi rst-time
See DRIVING, Page A6