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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (June 13, 2018)
DRAGON, LION DANCERS CELEBRATE KAM WAH CHUNG – PAGE A3 Blue Mountain The EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 W edNesday , J uNe 13, 2018 • N o . 24 • 16 P ages • $1.00 www.MyEagleNews.com Local, state gun initiatives challenged Grant County firearms initiative challenged Second challenge to state ‘assault weapons’ ban ballot title By Claire Withycombe Capital Bureau A second legal challenge was filed Thursday against a certified ballot title for IP 43, a proposed ballot measure that would ban certain types of semi-automatic firearms and large-capacity mag- azines. The Oregon state director for the National Rifle Association and the legislative committee chair of the Oregon Hunters’ Association say the certified bal- lot title issued by the Attorney General’s Office doesn’t comply with state laws on ballot title language. It’s the second request for Su- preme Court review of the con- troversial ballot title. Another petition was filed Wednesday by an Oregon lobbyist whose cli- ents include the NRA. Both petitions for review ob- ject to the language used in the ballot title. The certified ballot title currently states: “Prohibits ‘assault weapons’ (defined), ‘large capacity maga- zines’ (defined), unless registered with State Police after back- ground check. Criminal penal- See SECOND, Page A16 Signature gathering on hold until ruling By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle EO Media Group file photo An initiative aimed at prohibiting enforcement of laws that restrict gun possession in Grant County has been challenged and awaiting a ruling by Judge William D. Cramer Jr. An initiative aimed at pro- hibiting enforcement of laws that restrict gun possession in Grant County has been challenged and is awaiting a ruling by Grant County Cir- cuit Court Judge William D. Cramer Jr. In the meantime, Ron Rue of Prairie City, who submit- ted Measure 12-72 to Grant County Clerk Brenda Percy on May 3, has not been autho- rized to begin gathering signa- tures, Percy told the Eagle. According to the summary provided by the Grant Coun- ty District Attorney’s Office, Rue’s Second Amendment preservation ordinance, if approved by voters, would make unconstitutional in Grant County “any law or regulation that restricts a per- son from possessing firearms, ammunition and firearms ac- cessories” and “would require the Grant County sheriff to review federal, state and local laws affecting firearms, fire- arms accessories and/or am- munition.” The initiative also pro- vides for a fine of up to $2,000 for an individual or $4,000 for a corporation for those who violate the measure. A petition challenging Per- cy’s determination that Mea- sure 12-72 should be placed on the ballot was submitted by Mark Webb of Mt. Vernon on May 14. Webb maintains that “given the scope of its sub- ject matter,” Rue’s initiative “goes well beyond the matters of county concern” allowed under the state’s initiative process. See FIREARMS, Page A16 TIMBER FUTURE New technologies highlighted at Mass Timber Rising Summit By Phil Wright LOOKING UP EO Media Group B ill Gamble stood before the crowd Thursday in the Sandbox and touted the work to restore its health. The Sandbox Vegetation Manage- ment Project encompassed 16,000 acres in the Blue Mountains near Union in the Upper Catherine Creek Watershed. Gamble is the U.S. Forest Service ranger for the La Grande District. He oversaw the work that re- sulted in a more open and natural forest while selling 16 million board feet of timber. The project wrapped up in 2015. The crowd was a couple dozen academics, forest managers and industry insiders who were attending the Mass Timber Ris- ing Summit in La Grande. The Sand- box, Gamble said, is an example of good, smart work to keep the forest healthy. Around 1.2 million acres of the Blue Mountains needs some kind of restoration, he said. That includes thinning and timber sales, which the mass timber industry wants and needs. Mass timber is about engineering load-bear- ing structures of wood and using those to build big, such as Framework, the 12-story high rise going up in Portland this fall. Nearly all of the building is wood in one form or another, in- cluding cross-laminated timber, or CLT, which See TIMBER, Page A16 EO Media Group photos/E.J. Harris Participants walk through a cleared section of forest while on a tour during the Mass Timber Rising Summit north of Union. LEFT: Associate professor Lech Muszynski talks about the benefits fires can have on a forest ecosystem. Timber Innovation Act gains backing in Senate Bill would aid development of mass timber for construction By George Plaven EO Media Group A bipartisan group of U.S. senators secured the inclusion of most of the provisions from the Timber Innova- tion Act in the 2018 Farm Bill pro- posed by the Senate. In a letter to Committee on Agri- culture, Nutrition and Forestry Chair- man Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and ranking member Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, the senators pushed for the proposal to promote mass timber products such as cross-laminated tim- ber panels used in building construc- tion. The committee will review the bill today. The included provisions would establish a new research and devel- opment program under the USDA for mass timber. U.S. building codes cur- rently do not recognize mass timber as EO Media Group file photo official construction materials, leav- A worker guides a glulam beam ing the products without a standard into place Oct. 3, 2017, during rating system for fire and earthquake construction of the First Tech Credit Union headquarters See ACT, Page A16 building in Hillsboro. SHOCK COLLARS FOR WOLVES? Joseph teens’ invention getting noticed By Steve Tool EO Media Group While ranchers, government employees and environmental- ists argue about the best way to manage the state’s wolf popula- tion, two students from Joseph Charter School are proposing their own solution. The two eighth-graders, Ian Goodrich and Corin Armen- trout, think a territory-boundary collar would do the trick. The boys are students in teacher Tim Bombasci’s Joseph Middle School science class, which spent time in a “Real World Problems” unit. Ian Goodrich Although neither lives on a ranch or raises cattle, they said they both knew the problem was a concern to local livestock operators. So the 14-year-olds are working to develop a collar that gently punishes wolves when they move too near live- stock through the use of either modest electric shock or emit- ting high-pitched signals that wolves eschew. “Our original idea was to make a device similar to a shock collar that would be put on the alpha wolf, so if the wolf Corin were to cross Armentrout into a certain area, the collar would give it a shock and hope- fully stop it from getting at cat- tle,” Armentrout said. The two said transmitters could be installed on fence lines every 2 miles or so. They built a prototype of the devices but did not have access to a GPS at the start, a problem they lat- er solved. Battery life is also a challenge. The boys have also floated the idea of installing a solar panel on the collar. County extension agent John Williams talked to the two about their project after a class- room presentation. “I think it’s an interesting idea, and I’m glad to see young people thinking,” he said. Williams noted that others have unsuccessfully bandied the idea about for some time. It’s even been tried on cattle to keep them from grazing in ri- parian areas, but the weight of the device proved prohibitive. “The methodology of their (the boys’) thinking is inge- nious, and that’s where solu- tions are found,” he said. “I applaud them for their presen- tation, which was well thought out. I appreciate what they’re doing and the school for help- ing them think outside the box.” The two said Williams had a number of good ideas for con- tacts and examples of ideas al- ready tried by others along with suggested improvements. Further talks with a techni- cal expert on the subject elicit- ed suggestions of different parts See COLLAR, Page A16