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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 2018)
A18 News Blue Mountain Eagle POT Continued from Page A1 is no commercial property within the city limits that is more than 1,000 feet from the public school, said City Manager and Recorder Raamin Burrell. As a result, recreational marijuana businesses can- not operate in Seneca, but the city receives about $100 each quarter from statewide marijuana taxes, which goes into the city’s general fund, she said. Prairie City received $2,706 in 2017 from the statewide marijuana taxes and put the money in the city’s general fund, City Recorder Bobbie Brown said. Canyon City received $2,096, City Recorder Cor- ry Rider said. The money was put in the general fund as miscellaneous funds in the same way the city deals with liquor and cigarette taxes, he said. Mt. Vernon received $1,561 in 2017 from state- wide marijuana taxes and put the money in the city’s general fund, City Recorder Tami Kowing said. Dayville received $446, City Recorder Ruthie Moore said. The money has not been designated for any specific purpose, she said. Monument received $386 and Long Creek received $580, Krawczyk said. Awareness programs John Day, the largest city in the county, received $4,945 as its share of state- wide marijuana taxes. The John Day City Council on Feb. 13 unanimously approved providing the money to the Community Health Needs Assessment Substance Abuse Commit- tee to support education on substance abuse issues. Grant County received $15,175 from the Depart- ment of Revenue for its share of the state mari- juana tax. Blue Moun- tain Hospital CEO Derek Daly subsequently asked the county to provide the money to CHNA to fund a variety of projects to in- crease public awareness of substance abuse. LAWSUIT Continued from Page A1 public records request,” Sullivan said in the order. “... This appears to be a budget matter internal to Grant County. In any event, there are no facts pled as to why the defendants would be liable to the attorneys hired by the Sheriff or why he hired outside counsel, instead of availing the County Counsel for assistance, as would nor- mally be done.” After the judge’s order of dismissal, attorney Benjamin Boyd, on behalf of Palmer, DeFord and the sheriff’s of- fice, filed a motion to modify the judge’s findings and to enter substitute findings and for leave to amend their orig- inal complaint July 20. County Judge Scott Myers noted at the time that the county wasn’t sure how the money should be spent, and the court unan- imously approved the re- quest. It has since been determined that this mon- ey was not earmarked for treatment and prevention, and the county could have spent the funds for law enforcement, roads or any other county needs. On April 4, the county received $18,362 from the Oregon Health Authori- ty. According to Nicole Corbin, an adult behav- ioral health services man- ager at the Oregon Health Authority, that money was earmarked for alcohol and other drug treatment or prevention services. The money has not yet been spent by the county. Altogether, CHNA in partnership with the Trau- ma Informed Care Com- munity Task Force re- ceived $20,120 from John Day and the county, about 43 percent of the total re- ceived by the county and its eight cities. “The funding is being used to create awareness around both substance abuse and trauma-in- formed care through youth engagement as well as professional development for youth-serving orga- nizations and agencies,” said Lisa Weigum, a drug awareness coordinator at Community Counseling Solutions in John Day. About $14,000 has been allocated for youth engagement and commu- nity outreach, she said, including the Teen Health Fair in 2019. “This fall, an award-winning global speaker, Kevin Hines, is scheduled to speak in our community to both stu- dents and the general pub- lic,” Weigum said. The remainder of the funding, about $6,120, will be used for profes- sional development, in- cluding a trauma-informed care workshop for edu- cators scheduled in Oc- tober. Other professional development opportuni- ties, such as for substance abuse and mental health, are in the process of being scheduled, she said. “Normally, a county of- ficial sued for an injunction pursuant to Oregon’s Pub- lic Records Law would be able to avail him or herself of County Counsel for legal assistance,” Boyd said in the motion. “In this highly irregular case, Grant Coun- ty refused to afford Sheriff Palmer, Civil Deputy De- Ford, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office such as- sistance and instead deter- mined that it would not en- gage counsel to defend its officers.” Boyd also argued the judge failed to consider the full definition of a tort when ruling on the matter. A hearing was held on the motion Aug. 10. The judge said she would take it under advisement and promptly make a decision. Wednesday, September 5, 2018 times as much fish as a nearby control stream, and water-tem- perature spiking eased. The results made Bridge Creek the poster child for BDA projects, drawing international attention and documentary filmmakers. BEAVER Continued from Page A1 Even if BDAs don’t at- tract beavers to an area, they mimic the action of natural beaver dams — slowing stream flow, improving groundwater connectivity to the surrounding area and building up sediment to improve riparian areas. Juve- nile fish can swim through gaps in BDAs, and the minimum fish-jumping height for older fish can be achieved by install- ing multiple BDAs. Beaver dam analogs can also help reduce stream water temperature, according to Ste- phen Bennett, an adjunct pro- fessor in watershed sciences at Utah State University. BDAs can increase groundwater con- nectivity through annual spring flooding and by the hydraulic action of the standing water be- hind the dams. The temperature under- ground is about 50 degrees, Bennett said. The log structures also provide some shade, and scouring around BDAs can cre- ate deeper pools, but the goal is to improve riparian areas, al- lowing hardwoods to grow and provide much needed shade. Support for this new tech- nique does not always extend to government agencies — many officials don’t know how to regulate the structures. Some agencies have cited flood risks in denying permits for BDA projects. In many cases, streams cho- sen for BDA projects provide habitat for endangered species, which adds to the bureaucratic hurdles, and installing struc- tures that completely span a stream deemed navigable could trigger an Army Corps of Engi- neers review. Post-project mon- itoring might also be required. The Oregon Department of State Lands attempted to draft new rules to expedite imple- mentation of BDAs, but the process bogged down over statewide versus regional re- quirements and has been de- layed. Professionals gather Getting the word out on beaver dam analogs was the goal of a workshop held in ROAD Continued from Page A1 in Grant County to the coun- ty, was passed Nov. 5, 2002, by 1,796-1,436 with 76 percent turnout. Ordinance 2013-01, which the county court passed unani- mously May 23, 2013, ordained that all roads, trails, stock drive- ways and by-ways crossing public lands be kept open to the public for historic and custom- ary uses unless authorized for closure by the county court and the county sheriff. According to County Judge Scott Myers, an Access Com- mittee established by the court had promoted the road ordi- nance, and Yockim had recom- mended it be passed as a resolu- tion, not an ordinance. The complaint Webb requested a declara- tion by the court that the mea- sures and the ordinance are invalid due to procedural errors ThermaFan Kit! New product created and manufactured in Grant County! On sale at the John Day Farmers Market starting September 15, 2018! This STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) educational project demonstrates several fundamental principles of electro thermodynamics. Supplies are limited for this round of sales! More information is available at : www.envme.com If you miss the Farmers Market, you can order your fan online. Camp Creek project The Eagle/Richard Hanners Thirty-five stream restoration professionals traveled to Camp Creek in the Middle Fork John Day River drainage July 26 to study beaver dam analogs installed by the Forest Service in 2016. The fencing was installed to protect willows planted in the sedge meadow to provide food for beavers. Grant County this summer with 35 stream restoration profes- sionals. The purpose of the work- shop was not just instructing people on how to build beaver dam analogs or persuading them to use the technique, but also to release new information on what’s been accomplished, said Elise Delgado, project manager for the South Fork John Day Watershed Council. “Not everyone will leave a believer,” she said. The workshop was spon- sored by the John Day Basin Partnership, which represents groups from Prairie City to the Columbia River. Herb Winters, a project manager at the Gil- liam Soil and Water Conserva- tion District, sits on the partner- ship’s steering committee. “There’s lots of angst about BDAs,” he said. Winters said he hopes to see the practice used across the basin, employing best manage- ment practices and completing quality projects. “We don’t want failures that will give BDAs a bad name,” he said, calling them a potential game-changer. Winters said he believes all the group’s partners sup- port BDAs, but they need to take the low-hanging fruit first and take it slow. He noted that many opinions exist on fund- ing sources and permitting, but both state and federal agencies are taking a serious look at this new technology. The goal should be low-im- pact construction with no heavy equipment and not to anger in adoption and because they conflict with paramount state law and the state and U.S. con- stitutions. In his Aug. 21 complaint, Webb noted that the United States ratified the U.N. Char- ter as a treaty, and the U.S. Constitution prohibits states and counties from making or changing treaties. He also noted that Measure 12-37 did not address a matter of county concern, as required by state law for citizen initiatives, and the measure conflicts with and is preempted by the U.S. Con- stitution. By petitioning Congress, Measure 12-40 was an admin- istrative act, not a legislative act, and therefore was outside the scope of the state’s refer- endum or initiative process, Webb said in his complaint. He also noted that the measure did not approve or reject an or- dinance previously enacted by the county court or propose a new ordinance. The 2013 road ordinance also does not address a matter of county concern, Webb said in his complaint. As a result of the U.S. Constitution, the Federal Land Policy and Man- agement Act and the National Forest Management Act, Grant people, Winters said. He noted that over time BDAs disappear as sediment builds up behind the structure and vegetation grows over them. Light on the land Two BDA projects last year in Grant County took dramat- ically different approaches. While a project on private land on the South Fork John Day River near Izee was low-tech, with posts pounded in by hand and willows found at the site weaved in between, a Forest Service project on East Fork Beech Creek north of Mt. Ver- non utilized heavy equipment, with excavators brought in to drive posts into the stream bed. Nick Bouwes, a professor at the College of Natural Re- sources at Utah State Universi- ty, advised workshop members to be efficient in how they build BDAs because a project might require a lot of them. Bouwes was a leader in the largest beaver dam analog project in the United States, on Bridge Creek near Mitchell, where a powerful stream had gouged a 6- to 10-foot-deep incision. About 2.5 miles was treated to improve habitat for steelhead starting in 2005. Bouwes and his team built 121 BDAs from 2009 to 2012. By 2013, beavers had fortified 60 of the BDAs and built 115 new dams. The stream bed gradually filled with sediment and rose back to the top of the trench, and the submerged area tripled. Monitoring showed Bridge Creek produced nearly three County is preempted from reg- ulating federally owned roads, he said. The exception were roads authorized by Revised Statute 2477 of the 1866 Mining Act and other rights-of-way estab- lished on federal public lands before the creation of the Na- tional Forest System, Webb said. The road ordinance was also preempted by and con- flicted with the 1859 Oregon Admission Acts, which stated that Oregon “shall not inter- fere with the primary disposal of the soil within the same by the United States, or with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing title in said soil to bona fide purchas- ers thereof,” Webb said in his complaint. Past challenges Webb, a former county judge, has been successful in challenging county actions in the past. Most recently, he chal- lenged Measure 12-72, the Sec- ond Amendment Preservation Ordinance. On June 29, Grant County Circuit Court Judge William D. Cramer Jr. ruled that the measure was preempted by state law and that the measure’s language would have confused A four-mile section of Camp Creek in the Middle Fork John Day River drainage has seen significant improvement since Malheur National Forest fish- eries biologist Dan Armichardy headed up a BDA project there in 2016. The goal was to pro- tect mid-Columbia River steel- head, he said. There’s no beaver sign now at the three meadows on the project site, but Long Creek rancher Sharon Livingston re- calls a large beaver dam at the site when she was a child. The Forest Service blew it up, she said, causing her to wonder why the government has changed its mind about beavers. The science at the time called for removing beavers, Delgado said. But the science keeps changing. For years, the Forest Service built thousands of check dams across the West to slow stream flow. Made of rocks and intended to be per- manent, many failed causing even more damage. The For- est Service also tried log weir dams, but 45 weir dams were removed at the Camp Creek site in 2011. A five-foot high natural bea- ver dam exists on Camp Creek about three miles downstream from the project site at Pepper Creek, but the degraded ripari- an habitat at the project site was not good for fish or cattle. An 8-degree temperature rise had been recorded between the up- stream and downstream ends of the 4-mile reach before the project. The Forest Service installed 70 BDAs and numerous wood jams. About 3,500 cottonwoods and 1,500 willows were planted in the floodplain, but deer and elk ate them and fencing is now needed. Excavators were brought onto the sedge mead- ows to drive in large wooden posts for the BDAs, but no signs of the heavy equipment were visible to workshop mem- bers two years later. voters. As a result, the measure will not appear on the Novem- ber ballot. Webb also challenged the establishment of a Grant Coun- ty Public Forest Commission, which was created following a 1,634-1,579 vote in favor of the commission on Nov. 5, 2002. The initiative stated that “the people of Grant County ... shall assume responsibility to man- age public lands within Grant County by creating a commis- sion ... to create and administer policies for lands and natural resources in the public domain within Grant County.” Webb requested a judicial review of the commission in March 2016. Cramer informed the county clerk in September that he intended to nullify the commission and issued his full opinion in November. Cramer said the county was free to pass a measure to es- tablish a forest commission to develop plans to manage pub- lic lands if and when the lands were owned by the county, or to advise the county so long as the measure clearly stated the commission’s limits. He also ruled that the measure must meet procedural requirements and not violate other “superior or paramount laws.”
