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
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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.