Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 6, 2018)
A12 News Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, June 6, 2018 FOREST Continued from Page A1 10 years, with as much as 500 million board-feet of timber harvested. The contract was partially funded by the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration program, with the Forest Ser- vice, Oregon State Univer- sity and the Blue Mountains Forest Partners partnering to monitor the work. That work could increase to 500 plots in 100 different forest stands in 10 different planning areas in 2018. Blue Mountains Forest Partners emerged in 2006. The collaborative group’s diverse stakeholders include loggers, environmentalists, ranchers, landowners, tim- ber industry representatives, elected government officials and federal land managers. “Prior to Blue Mountains Forest Partners’ inception, management of the Malheur National Forest was plagued by gridlock,” the group states in its website. “Not only did this have a negative impact on the local economy, it also prevented forest restoration work.” The group says its mission is promoting the long-term well-being of the forest. “The forest’s declining condition is largely due to a combination of fire suppres- sion, social and legal gridlock that arose as a result of dis- senting stakeholders’ views and sharply curtailed silvicul- tural management, outcomes of well-intentioned policies and advocacies that have produced a myriad of unfore- seen and unintended negative � Eagle file photo A view of the Strawberry Mountains from Keeney Fork Road on the Malheur National Forest in Grant County. consequences,” the website states. Contract update Mark Webb, the collabora- tive group’s executive direc- tor, updated the Grant Coun- ty Court about the group’s work. Grant County’s econom- ic opportunities are limited, Webb said. Google won’t set up a server center here, so the county will need to focus on its natural resources. Webb said the collabora- 18TH ANNUAL � Grant County Quilt Show the Grant County Piecemakers Quilting Guild FRIDAY and SATURDAY June 8th & 9th 2018 Fri. 9am to 6pm & Sat. 9am- 4pm Grant County Fairgrounds Trowbridge Pavilion, John Day, OR $5.00 FOR BOTH DAYS FEATURING Quilts of Valor P ATRIOTIC Q UILTS M ADE F OR V ETERANS Sunday workshop on the Woven Star Taught by Mary Lou Drury of Heartfelt Quilts and Karen Hinton of The Shiny Thimble Workshop is Sun. June 10th 9am- 4pm $20.00 Bring your own kit to work on or work on a patriotic community quilt kit There will be a delicious menu to choose from. Door prizes & special awards too! Our guild will be selling raffle tickets for this gorgeous quilt and drawing a name on Saturday. PROJECTS Continued from Page A1 Blue Mountain Acting District Ranger Amanda Lindsay, a forester and silvi- culturist, said about 5,400 acres of tree planting was completed this spring on land burned by the Canyon Creek Com- plex fire in 2015. Another 3,500 acres could be planted next spring to wrap up that project. “That will depend on the success of the planting we’ve already done,” she noted. Last year’s hot summer caused seedling mortality across the region, she said. This spring has been cooler and wetter, which bodes well for the seedlings. Lindsay took the position of acting district ranger as District Ranger Dave Halemeier is leaving in July. Prescribed burns typically take place in spring and fall. About 50 acres near the Sumpter Valley Interpretative Site was burned by Prairie City Ranger District personnel in April, and about 740 acres in the Knox project on Cot- tonwood Creek, southeast of Prairie City, was burned in May. About 600 acres of thinning will take place in the Crane Prairie area south of Prairie City this summer. Some of it will be “lopped and scattered,” while the rest will be hand-piled. That will be followed by an “under burn” in the fall. Guzman said three timber harvest UPTMOR For Information or class sign up send email to gcpiecemakers@gmail.com Or call Lou’s Heartfelt Quilting (541) 620- 2798 or The Shiny Thimble (541) 932- 4111 Continued from Page A1 “In reality, education is about learning,” he said. Sale now until June 15, 2018. Give us a call for more special prices! ⁄ 4 ” -0 State Spec Picked up - $7.00/ton Delivered - *$12.00/ton 1 1 ⁄ 2 ” -0 State Spec Picked up - $6.00/ton Delivered - *$11.00/ton 3” Commercial RIP RAP Picked up - $12.00/ton Asphalt • Redi-Mix • Gravel • Excavation • Driveways • Sidewalks *delivered price is within 15 miles of pit JOHN DAY, OREGON might be because the stew- ardship treatments were not aggressive. Webb said he’d like to see more aggressive treatments, but he expected that could spark litigation. The col- laborative group might not want to be more aggressive, he said. Jobs supported According to the study by the University of Oregon’s Ecosystem Workforce Pro- gram, about 96 jobs sup- contracts were sold for the 30,000-acre Summit Prairie project, which also will include aspen treatment and thinning. Some fencing projects designed to keep livestock out of critical stream habitat also will take place this year, he said. On the Blue Mountain Ranger District, four timber harvests on the 19,422-acre Damon project north of Seneca are completed, Lindsay said. Forest crews will return this year for fuels treatment. That will include mas- tication — using heavy machinery to grind up trees less than 9 inches in diameter — along with chainsawing, hand-piling and slash burning for the rest of the project site. Fisheries and roads A large fisheries project on the main fork of the Malheur River this year will involve using helicopters or excavators to place large woody debris in a 2-mile stretch of the river to create pools for juvenile fish, Guzman said. “They’ll need to clear a site for the helicopter, so they’re falling ponderosa pines,” he said. Both the main fork and the west fork of the Malheur River are designated for protection under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, he noted. On the Blue Mountain Ranger Dis- trict, Bear Creek will be reconnected to the Middle Fork of the John Day River near Galena by opening up tail- ings piles created decades ago by mine dredges. Crews also will place woody debris “Each student should en- joy learning, and educators should have the tools to support them.” Uptmor said he’s confident about the resiliency of Ore- gon schools after seeing them tough it out through the recent economic recession. Schools were hit hard with budget constraints but are pulling out of that now, he said. in the stream for steelhead and chinook salmon. “Beaver dam analogs” can be created by driving posts into the stream bed and weaving willows between the posts. Beavers finish the job of building dams that create pools for juvenile fish. Two historic mining ponds at Big Creek, which is steelhead, chinook salmon and bull trout habitat also in the Middle Fork drainage near Galena, will be filled using material from nearby mine tailings. Log jams will be installed on a quar- ter mile of Long Creek to slow water flow for juvenile fish. A side channel will be reconnected to the main chan- nel to provide fish passage. Two cul- verts will be replaced nearby on the East Fork of Beech Creek and on Tin- ker Creek to meet fish-jumping height specifications. Road closure work across the Mal- heur National Forest started in April, according to Zeke Langum, the forest’s assistant forest engineer. The work is contracted out and involves installing berms and water bars, he said. The decision to close roads is deter- mined by hydrology, fish, wildlife, ar- chaeology and other staff, and proposals undergo a National Environmental Poli- cy Act review. Langum, who recently received the Chiefs Award for National Engineering Technician of the Year, said road cov- erage in the Malheur National Forest is “pretty dense” compared to the Willa- mette National Forest, where he worked previously. “I believe as educators we should have an engaging plan that meets every student’s needs,” he said. “Working to- gether with the staff, students, parents and community, we can plan for all students to suc- ceed. I’m excited to see what we can accomplish together.” Uptmor’s children are grown up and attending col- lege. He and his wife, who is working on her Realtor li- cense, will move to the John Day area. They enjoy camping and four-wheeling and have a summer place in Sumpter. He said he’d like to meet with community members — for a cup of coffee, a town hall or a barbecue — when he arrives. Grant SWCD Weed Control Dept. Working for You in 2018 Picked up - $5.25/ton Delivered - *$10.25/ton 46057 3 areas are being treated, and he would like to see that in- creased to 40 or 50 percent. That increase, however, might trigger more administrative work under the National En- vironmental Policy Act. Blue Mountains Forest Partners tries to help the Forest Service avoid litiga- tion and to facilitate stew- ardship projects, Webb said. No litigation over timber projects on the Malheur Na- tional Forest has occurred since 2006, he said, but that Planting and thinning PRESENTED BY Vendors for lots of shopping include: Lou’s Heartfelt Quilting, Marilyn’s Pickets and Patchwork, Quilts and Beyond, Shiny Thimble Quilt Studio, & Thimbles and More. tive process was mandated by federal law. Forest Ser- vice and Bureau of Land Management lands in Grant County are public lands, so citizens across the U.S. have an interest in what happens to these lands. On the other hand, locals needed an addi- tional voice, he said. Without the steward- ship contract, the Malheur Lumber Co. mill in John Day, would have shut down, Webb told the court. About 10 percent of the planning ported by the stewardship contract from 2015 through 2017 were in the private forestry sector and involved harvesting and transporting timber or conducting forest and watershed restoration projects. Another 36 jobs were at the Malheur Lumber Co. mill in John Day, where har- vested timber was processed into lumber and bioenergy products. The stewardship contract also supported saw- mill jobs in other northeast- ern Oregon locations. The Malheur National Forest hired 55 addition- al employees to implement and monitor the stewardship contract, and 81 jobs at lo- cal businesses in Grant and Harney counties were sup- ported through the economic multiplier effect, the study reported. On average, about 38 million board-feet of timber was harvested each year un- der the stewardship contract, with about 15 million board- feet of sawlogs and 8,700 tons of non-sawtimber deliv- ered to the mill in John Day, the study reported. Webb estimated about one-third of logs harvest- ed on the Malheur National Forest went to the mill in John Day and the rest went out of the county. According to Blue Moun- tains Forest Partners, Iron Triangle increased employee wages by nearly $1 million from 2013 through 2016. The company also increased the number of subcontractors needed to meet the steward- ship contract requirements and invested about $5 mil- lion in equipment. (541) 932-4888 Thanks to the Grant County Court and Northeast Oregon Forests Resource Advisory Committee, Grant Weed Control is able to offer a 50% Cost Share Program for Noxious Weed Control on Private Grazing Lands, through a Title II funded Grant Project. This program will provide a maximum $5,000 of noxious weed control services with a $2,500 maximum landowner contribution to qualifying participants. To be eligible for participation, the treatment property must not be actively irrigated and must be primarily managed for livestock grazing, minimum of 20 acres in size, located within Grant County, and must contain weed species listed on the Grant County Noxious Weed List. Applications for this limited weed control assistance opportunity will be funded on a first come first serve basis. Contact the Grant Soil and Water Conservation District Office at (541) 575-1554 or visit 721 S. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845 for applications and additional information. 61745
