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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 15, 2018)
GRANT COUNTY NPRA RODEO DRAWS A CROWD – PAGE A10 The Blue Mountain EAGLE Grant County’s newspaper since 1868 W edNesday , a ugust 15, 2018 • N o . 33 • 18 P ages • $1.00 www.MyEagleNews.com Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revision enters home stretch By George Plaven EO Media Group L ogging trucks growl over the Blue Mountains in northeast Oregon, hauling freshly cut timber to one of Boise Cas- cade’s three manufacturing facilities scattered around the region, including a plywood mill in the rural town of Elgin. About 250 people work full-time at the Elgin complex, making ply- Lindsay wood panels Warness for building construction. Elsewhere on site, a stud mill sits empty after Boise Cas- cade announced an indefinite curtailment, ceasing opera- tions in mid-July. Mill closures are nothing new in Eastern Oregon. Since 1990, the industry has lost 18 mills and more than 1,200 jobs locally, said Lindsay Warness, forest policy ana- lyst for Boise Cascade. On a percentage basis, that’s equiv- alent to 106,000 jobs in the Portland metro area. To keep the remaining mills open, Boise Cascade buys roughly 33 percent of its timber from as far as Mount Hood and southwest Idaho, trucking in logs from 250 miles away. A smaller per- centage comes from the three national forests within the Blue Mountains — the Uma- tilla, Wallowa-Whitman and Malheur — where Warness said the company has seen a “significant decline” in avail- EO Media Group A new plan for the three national forests in northeastern Oregon could ultimately increase logging and grazing. able timber supply. That could change soon, as the U.S. Forest Service has proposed doubling the tim- ber harvest in its latest rec- ommendations for the Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revi- sion, encompassing 5.5 mil- lion acres of public lands — an area about the size of New Jersey. After 15 years, the Forest Service released its final draft of the management plans and environmental study for all three forests in June, focusing on a wide range of environ- mental, social and economic factors. The public now has un- til Aug. 28 to file objections, kicking off another 90-day resolution period. Only groups and individuals who have previously established legal standing can file objec- tions. Once that is complete, the Northwest regional forest- er in Portland will sign off on a record of decision. Jim Pena, the previous re- gional forester in Portland, retired July 3. The Forest Ser- vice has not yet named his re- placement. In general, forest super- visors for the Umatilla, Wal- lowa-Whitman and Malheur said the plans strive for more active management to im- prove forest health and reduce the risk of the large and dan- gerous wildfires plaguing the West. Part of that is doubling the annual timber harvest across all three forests from a recent average of 101 million board- feet to 205 million board-feet. Between forest products, live- stock and recreation, the For- est Service estimates the re- vised Blue Mountains Forest Plan will create up to 1,173 new jobs and $59.5 million in added income in the region. Warness said that all sounds good, but she — and others — question how the Forest Service will achieve such ambitious numbers. “The plan itself is fairly vague in their desired future conditions as to what they’re trying to achieve on the land- scape,” Warness said. “I think that is causing a lot of frustra- tion for a lot of people who have been highly involved.” Long overdue Forest plans are gener- ally updated every 10 to 15 years, though the current Blue Mountains Forest Plan was adopted in 1990. The revi- sion process, which started in 2003, has lasted as long as the plan it will produce. A draft of the plan was re- leased in 2014, though it was universally panned by the Eastern Oregon counties and environmental and industry groups. The Forest Service received more than 4,300 comments, nearly all of them negative. In 2015, the agency de- cided to re-engage the public, holding a series of meetings to hear concerns and ideas. Officials developed two new plan alternatives, including the latest preferred alterna- tive, dubbed “E-Modified.” Steve Beverlin, the Mal- heur National Forest super- visor based in John Day, said E-Modified should lead to an overall increase in the pace and scale of restoration across the forests, working with lo- cal partners and collaborative groups. “I think those opportu- nities are really interwoven across all three forests,” Bev- erlin said. The Forest Plan itself does not make any decisions on specific projects, but it does establish the sideboards for future work, setting goals and desired conditions on the landscape. The overarching goals are ecological integ- rity and economic and so- cial well-being, leading into guidelines on timber, grazing, access, wilderness, recreation and other uses. To fully implement Al- ternative E-Modified, the Forest Service estimates it would need an annual bud- get of $78.5 million, which is $6 million more than recent allocations. Beverlin said he does not expect funding to increase, but he pointed to several other agency-wide ini- tiatives that will help do work quickly and more efficiently. For starters, Beverlin said the Forest Service is looking to tweak how it reviews proj- ects under the National Envi- ronmental Policy Act, putting crews to work faster while avoiding costly lawsuits. Congress also recently passed legislation ending the practice of “fire borrowing,” in which the Forest Service took money from its fire pre- vention programs to pay for fighting wildfires. Wildfires will now be covered under a $2 billion federal disaster fund. See FOREST, Page A18 Demand exceeds supply: Prairie City faces water emergency Trucks bringing in water from John Day By Richard Hanners Blue Mountain Eagle Drought conditions have taken their toll on Prairie City, forcing the city into emergency restrictions and now trucking water from John Day. Prairie City Mayor Jim Ham- sher told the Eagle he wants to use available water tenders to build up the city reservoir level now before a wildfire comes to Grant County and ties them all up. The city declared a water emer- gency Aug. 6, as demand exceeded supply from the city’s two pumps and the reservoir dropped to a foot and a half. Output from the infiltra- tion galleries on Dixie Creek, which reached 200 gallons per minute in August 2005, had dropped to about The Eagle/Richard Hanners Residents continue to arrive at the Prairie City council chambers Aug. 8 for what turned out to be a heated discussion on water restrictions announced by the city for the second summer in a row. 15-20 gpm as the creek dried up and basically stopped running, Hamsher said. Two water tenders from the Grant County Road Department went into The Prairie City Fire Depart- ment’s water tender was also put to work, and the city contracted with L&L Excavating and Marciel Well Drilling to deliver water. Hamsher said he hopes a federal grant will re- imburse the cost of the trucking. The city of John Day is provid- ing the water for free, City Manag- er Nick Green said. He said he felt comfortable making that call, given Prairie City’s current need. “We are in a position to help them out until they are back on their feet,” he said. “It’s just the right thing to do, and I am confident they would be there for us if we needed it.” Water violators operation Aug. 12 transporting water from John Day to Prairie City, Road- master Allan Hickerson said. There’s no cost to the city because it’s an emergency, he said. Hamsher called John Day’s offer “generous,” but he had strong words for water customers in Prairie City who are ignoring the restrictions. “Some residents continue to wa- ter their gardens,” he said. “They don’t understand what kind of water emergency this is.” He said he drove around Prairie City Sunday night looking for vio- lators. He noted that last year, when water restrictions were imposed not because of drought but because of damage to the water system’s elec- trical controls by a lightning strike, continuing violations prevented the city from lifting the restrictions sooner. “Stopping five or 10 violators could make a real difference,” he said. Hamsher expressed frustration over the attitudes of some viola- tors who say they don’t care if their neighbor’s home burns down be- cause there’s not enough water, just so long as their garden is green. Locating violators is not difficult — all one has to do is drive around See WATER, Page A18 Preparing for the fair By Angel Carpenter Blue Mountain Eagle Prairie City 4-H Community Club member Jaycee Winegar coaxes her steer along Thursday at the Heritage Barn in John Day. Amanda Rockhill and Kim Jacobs are advisers for the 4-H club. Seven Prairie City FFA Beef Club members walked their an- imals around the Heritage Barn arena Thursday in preparation for the Wednesday through Sat- urday, Aug. 15-18, Grant Coun- ty Fair in John Day. Working with their animals were Rilee Emmel, Brianna Zweygardt, Declan Zweygardt, Abby Winegar, Carson McKay, Lucas McKinley and Jayden Winegar. Members of 4-H, including Strawberry Riders Etc. and Ju- niper Ridge clubs, were also in the arena Thursday with Prairie City FFA adviser Lindy Cruise helping the youths, and parents watching. Rilee Emmel, 16, who will soon be a junior at Prairie City School, said this is the seventh steer she’s shown since fourth grade. The black Angus is 18 months old, and she acquired him last winter. “In December, I spend a lot of time with them — get in there with them and get to know them,” she said. “I put their hal- ter on and get them used to peo- ple and other steers.” When asked what she en- joys most about raising steers, she said, “It’s a great experi- ence and a good thing to be involved in all around. It gets you ready for life. It’s a huge responsibility.” Eagle photos/Angel Carpenter Eleven-year-old Clyde Holliday of John Day practices with his steer Thursday at the Heritage Barn. Holliday is part of the Strawberry Riders Etc. 4-H Club with Didgette McCracken as steer adviser.
