Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 12, 2018)
News Blue Mountain Eagle Wednesday, September 12, 2018 Finding common ground on wolf plan proves difficult WATER Continued from Page A1 The amount has topped 1 million gallons. Options in addition to haul- ing water include tying the city’s water system to a private well near Dixie Creek or a well at the former Prairie Wood Products mill, but Mayor Jim Hamsher estimated the cost of hooking up the wells was about the same as paying for trucking water from John Day, Brown said. Hamsher has promoted the Faiman Springs site as the city’s best option for more than a decade, but debt the city in- curred for constructing a wa- ter treatment facility on Dixie Creek Road made it difficult to arrange loans to develop Faiman Springs. The original estimate to develop the site was about $900,000. Recognizing the emergen- cy situation, the state agreed to provide Prairie City up to $1.5 million for the project, with one-third as a grant and the rest as a 30-year loan at 1.7 percent interest. Brown said engineering consultant firm Anderson Per- ry is working with the state to finalize the state funding ap- plication for the city. She ex- pected the application could be completed and submitted in about three weeks, and the state funding would become available about 45 days after that. The city will receive a $550,000 grant and a loan up to $950,000, Brown said. Once the city begins making pay- ments on the loan, city water fees will increase by $7.60 per month. Sewer fees will re- main the same, she said. Brown said 105 people showed up at an Aug. 22 town hall meeting where the water fee increase was brought up. All of the people present at the meeting agreed to the fee increase, she said. The city is also applying for a $1 million emergency grant from the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture Rural Development. That money could be used to pay the cost of hauling water from John Day and pay off the state loan, Brown said. The state will not penalize the city for paying off the loan ahead of schedule, she said. The availability of the fed- eral grant could be 24 months away, and there’s no guaran- tee the city will be awarded the grant, Brown noted. The water emergency and proposed infrastructure im- provements are not on the Sept. 12 city council agenda, Brown said. The city council will meet again Oct. 10, at which point more informa- tion will be available. HOMICIDE Continued from Page A1 lives in Hawaii, told the Ea- gle she felt pretty sure from the beginning that the Smiths had died and were consumed in the fire. But there were still unanswered questions. “I can’t understand where the truck went,” she said. She said the sheriff’s office asked her for a DNA sample and then three weeks later Second meeting scheduled for Sept. 21 By George Plaven EO Media Group It was a tale of two meet- ings Thursday in The Dalles as traditional adversaries sat down to find common ground within the Oregon Wolf Con- servation and Management Plan, now three years past due for an update. Around the table, mem- bers of farming, ranching, environmental and hunting organizations laid out their objectives for the plan, which will guide wolf recovery across the state for the next five years. Conversations were heat- ed at times — especially while discussing the prospect of hunting wolves — but the group eventually reached some areas of compromise, and agreed to schedule a sec- ond meeting. Deb Nudelman, a medi- ator with Kearns & West in Portland, was hired by the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife to facilitate the talks. ODFW staff mem- bers, including Director Curt Melcher, were also on hand to listen. Joining the work group were Todd Nash, with the Oregon Cattlemen’s Asso- ciation; Mary Anne Cooper, with the Oregon Farm Bu- reau; Rob Klavins, with Or- egon Wild; Nick Cady, with Cascadia Wildlands; Jim Ak- enson, with the Oregon Hunt- ers Association; Dave Wiley, with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation; Amaroq Weiss, with the Center for Biolog- ical Diversity; Quinn Read, with Defenders of Wildlife; and Amira Streeter, natural resources policy adviser to Oregon Gov. Kate Brown. “I think it’s a great group,” EO Media Group/George Plaven Todd Nash, a rancher and Wallowa County commissioner representing the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association, speaks during a meeting in The Dalles to find common ground on an update to the state’s Wolf Conservation and Management Plan, while Quinn Read with Defenders of Wildlife and Amira Streeter, natural resources policy adviser to Gov. Kate Brown, listen. Nudelman said. “Groups like this don’t come together if it’s easy. They come together because it’s hard.” This is not the first time opponents have met face- to-face to talk about wolves. The Oregon wolf plan was first written by ODFW in 2005, and last updated in 2010. Environmental groups sued the department in 2011 to halt killing wolves that had preyed on livestock under Phase I of the plan, which resulted in a settlement in 2013 emphasizing non-lethal deterrents. Since then, the Oregon wolf population has grown to a minimum of 124 ani- mals, and the plan has pro- gressed to Phase III in East- ern Oregon, allowing greater flexibility for ranchers and wildlife managers to consid- er killing so-called “chronic depredators.” Wolves remain protected under the federal Endangered Species Act west of highways 395, 78 and 95. ODFW was supposed to update the wolf plan again in 2015. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission decided to postpone its vote indefinitely in January so the sometimes the only conclu- sion we can come to.” Klavins, northeast Ore- gon field coordinator for Or- egon Wild, fired back at the notion of hunting wolves. Adding hunting into the wolf plan would be troublesome, he said, and might actually backfire when it comes to protecting livestock. He re- ferred to research that sug- gests killing wolves actually increases the odds of future attacks, because it disrupts the social structure of packs. “We’re not trashing hunt- ing,” Klavins said. “We are expressing serious concerns about (wolf) hunting.” Weiss, the West Coast wolf advocate with the Cen- ter for Biological Diversity, said hunting wolves in the lower 48 states is not being done for subsistence, and de- cried it as a “waste of wild- life.” Having reached an im- passe, the group shifted gears to focus on collaring wolves with GPS tracking collars, and using the data to alert ranchers when wolves are in the area. The cattlemen’s associ- ation has called for making Continued from Page A1 Monument City council position 4 — one position, four- year term No candidate filed City council position 5 — one position, four- year term No candidate filed City council position 6 — one position, four- year term No candidate filed Mt. Vernon Mayor — two-year term Kenny Delano City council at large — two positions, four- year term Prairie City Mayor — two-year term Carole Garrison Frances M. Preston City council at large — three positions, four- year term Scott Officer Tisha Packard Les Church Chantal Marie DesJardin Chase McClung Eddy Hicks 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. Seneca City council — three positions, four-year term Lilly Foster return the next day. The Smiths sometimes let people stay on the 80- to 100- acre property on Nan’s Rock Road that the couple bought in the mid-1990s, Hinshaw said. They were a very social couple, and their disappear- ance was very unusual and suggested foul play, she said. Hinshaw said she’s dealing with the tragedy. “After a while, it gets easi- er,” she said. “I’m trying. There are good days and bad days.” sure at least one wolf from every pack in the state is wearing a collar. But Roblyn Brown, wolf program coor- dinator for ODFW, said it is nearly impossible for staff to find and safely collar certain wolves in densely forested habitat. ODFW also esti- mates collaring costs about $2,000 to $7,000 per wolf, with an average lifespan of 18 months per collar. “It’s just a tough thing to do,” Brown said. Nash said ranchers need to know where wolves are mov- ing to make the most effec- tive use of range riders and other non-lethal deterrents. Rather than provide specific GPS points of where wolves have been, Brown said it may be more effective to use the data as a whole, coloring a picture of where wolf activity is most active — what wild- life officials call the “blue blob.” Despite concerns about whether the data would be used to poach wolves, Klavins said GPS collars may be one area where environ- mental groups may be willing to make a compromise. With that bit of progress, the work group decided it would be worth it to meet again on Sept. 21 in Red- mond. Derek Broman, state car- nivore biologist for ODFW, said the tentative plan is to go back before the Fish and Wildlife Commission in Oc- tober to receive further direc- tion. “We know there’s not going to be unanimous deci- sions,” Broman said. “That’s ultimately why this process is so valuable.” Melcher, the ODFW di- rector, said he is an “eternal optimist,” and believes the collaboration will prove to be a positive investment. “We’re writing the checks, and we’re happy to keep do- ing it,” Melcher said. Barbara Northington Sue Holliday Jan Lowry Mitchel Wilson Bryan Montague RACES asked her to send a form con- firming that they could use her sample. Hinshaw said she spoke to Sharon the evening of the fire, and Sharon had told her they were headed to bed. The Smiths had planned to clean the caretaker’s house the next day and then go fishing. The caretaker’s wife had suffered a stroke. The couple were in Idaho seeking med- ical treatment at the time of the fire but were expected to agency could build a broader consensus among stakehold- ers. Thursday’s work group got the process started, though it nearly faltered out of the gate. After identifying numerous issues, the group attempted to debate the mer- its of killing wolves that re- peatedly prey on livestock, which led to an uneasy di- alogue that had Nudelman openly questioning whether to proceed. Akenson, conservation di- rector for the Oregon Hunters Association, said he believes hunting needs to be included in management of wolves. “The bottom line is, hunt- ers need to be part of the pro- cess,” Akenson said. “It’s a real need.” Nash, a Wallowa County commissioner and longtime rancher, said livestock pro- ducers never wanted to kill wolves in the first place, but are in a predicament now where they must protect their livelihood. “There isn’t a class of livestock out there that is safe anymore,” he said. “Le- thal take in the remote areas where we run (livestock) is COUPLE Continued from Page A1 was 12. Hinshaw was Terry’s age and was in his class at school. Even at 13, Terry was a “go-getter,” Hinshaw said. He found a job as a bus boy at a restaurant at a large hotel in Eugene and one month later was the assistant manager, she said. “His goal at the time was to have a career in hotel manage- ment,” she said. Sharon was a cheerleader in high school and was very social, Hinshaw said. When Terry was hired to help man- age a hotel at Seattle-Tacoma Grant County Soil and Water District At large position 2 — four-year term Roger O. Ediger Zone 1 — four-year term Joanne Keerins Monument Soil and Water District At large position 2 — four-year term Andrew Watkins Zone 1 — four-year term Jim Bahrenburg Zone 3 — unexpired term Brian Campbell International Airport in Wash- ington, Sharon dropped out of high school and went with him, Hinshaw said. After a time, the Smiths re- turned and established a trad- ing post or second-hand store in the Springfield area. Anoth- er trading post in Harrisburg followed, then a restaurant in Springfield and another restaurant in Eugene. Terry and Sharon were a happy couple, Hinshaw said. “I never saw them yell at each other,” she said. The Smiths never had chil- dren. They were always work- ing and keeping busy — Terry with his various business in- terests along with hunting and fishing, and Sharon gardening A man wakes up in the morning after sleeping on an ADVERTISED BED, in ADVERTISED PAJAMAS. He will bathe in an ADVERTISED TUB, shave with an ADVERTISED RAZOR, have a breakfast of ADVERTISED JUICE, cereal and toast, toasted in an ADVERTISED TOASTER, put on ADVERTISED CLOTHES and glance at his ADVERTISED WATCH. He’ll ride to work in his ADVERTISED CAR, sit at an ADVERTISED DESK and write with an ADVERTISED PEN. Yet this person hesitates to advertise, saying that advertising doesn’t pay. Finally, when his non-advertised business is going under, HE’LL ADVERTISE IT FOR SALE. Then it’s too late. AND THEY SAY ADVERTISING DOESN’T WORK? DON’T MAKE THIS SAME MISTAKE Advertising is an investment, not an expense. Think about it! Blue Mountain Eagle MyEagleNews.com 78297 A18 Don’t get left behind, call today! Kim Kell 541-575-0710 and reupholstering furniture or working for senior homes and hospice. Hinshaw recalled them serving food at homeless shelters on Thanksgiving and Christmas. “Terry would give you the shirt off his back,” she said, adding that he always picked up hitchhikers. Hinshaw moved to Hawaii in the early 1980s, and after a few visits, the Smiths bought property there. Over the years, Terry bought numerous prop- erties in Hawaii and rented them out. The Smiths later went into the clothing business, hiring seamstresses in Bali, Indone- sia, and even designing clothes and printed fabrics. Hinshaw joined them for a time. “We really got into it for a while,” she said. The Smiths wintered in Hawaii and sold clothing and other items during the sum- mer. They had outlets at Fri- day Harbor, in the San Juan Islands of Washington and at a large flea market in Blaine, Washington, Hinshaw said. Terry had suffered two heart attacks in the past few years, Hinshaw said. He was in Hawaii each time and was flown to a hospital in Hono- lulu. One of the heart attacks was brought on when Hin- shaw’s 400-pound semi-wild pig passed away under her bedroom window and Terry was trying to deal with the dead animal. “If it had happened three or four weeks later, he would have been out hunting in Eastern Oregon,” she said.
