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