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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 2018)
A18 News Blue Mountain Eagle FAITH Continued from Page A1 “In Ghana, we were kind of hunkered down,” James said. “We were in survival mode.” The couple said one of the hardest parts of living in Accra was the feeling of isolation from anything familiar. “We were together, but we were alone,” James said. There’s no 911 operator to help if something goes wrong, he said. “We were surviving on faith,” Kaylee said. A rewarding part of living in Ghana was being together 24/7, Kaylee said. James agreed, and Contributed photo/Meagan Armstrong Photography said the three of them developed an intense bond, and were it not Kaylee and James Wilson posed for a photograph with their for that experience, they may not newly adopted daughter Emmanuella this summer. be as close as a family. While overseas, they also grew “Americans are interested in coffee house in John Day since their roasted coffee bean business small talk and not offending each August has helped them readjust, called Level Grounds Xpresso, other,” Kaylee said. James said. which has now gone nationwide. “— Diplomacy and tact,” Young Wella played with her Upon arriving back in the James added. toys — a doll and a small rocking states, the culture shock was “in- He said that even a simple taxi horse were among the assortment tense,” the couple said. ride was a confrontational experi- in her toy box — as her parents Entering an air-conditioned ence in Ghana. took turns tending to customers grocery store, with a wide selec- “You have to speak plain and Oct. 10 at the coffee shop. tion of food options, was over- brash at times to get what you “She’s definitely spoiled but whelming, they said. need,” Kaylee explained, adding appreciates it, because she knows Being around crowds of peo- Ghanaians don’t see it as brash. what it’s like to have nothing,” ple was also difficult, and they They had become so accus- Kaylee said, adding that in Gha- had to relearn how to communi- tomed to a blunt way of com- na, her “toys” included sticks and cate with people. municating that it took effort to empty toilet paper rolls and cans. “Interactions in Ghana versus relearn the “American way” of Wella also enjoys dressing up interactions in the U.S. are com- interacting with people, they said. with an apron and pretending to pletely different,” James said. Managing The Corner Cup cook. FOREST Continued from Page A1 process is to find as much common ground as possible and work toward a balanced path forward for these nation- al forests and all concerned,” Fargo said. County objections The Grant County Court finalized its objections to the forest plan during an Aug. 15 special meeting. In addition to citing its comments from Au- gust 2014, the court noted that the “entirety” of a report by the Grant County Public Forest Commission was not addressed and should be implemented. The forest commission was established by voter initiative in 2002 and disbanded fol- lowing a circuit court ruling in 2016. Malheur National Forest Supervisor Steve Beverlin cited that court ruling in an Aug. 16 541-523-6377 email to the county court. “I believe this judgment in- validates any work undertaken by the Public Forest Commis- sion, including the report that is referenced in the current Grant County objections to the Blue Mountains Forest Plan Revi- sion,” Beverlin said. Beverlin noted then that the objection period would not end until Aug. 28 should the court decide to modify its objections. Grant County Commission- er Rob Raschio responded in an email the same day. While agreeing with Grant County Circuit Court Judge William D. Cramer Jr.’s decision about the broad language used to enact the forest commission, Raschio noted that the county court had incorporated the commission’s findings in its 2014 comments on the Forest Plan. “I find them, as a commis- sioner, as the comments of an advisory committee,” Raschio said. Raschio cited language from Cramer’s ruling stating 541-963-6577 541-573-6377 that Grant County voters were free to establish a forest com- mission “to provide advisory information on how the county court should seek to collaborate and advocate for uses on state and federal land.” Local objections Sheriff Glenn Palmer also submitted objections on behalf of the Grant County Sheriff’s Office. He opposed decom- missioning roads and restrict- ing motorized access through adoption of a Travel Manage- ment Plan. Palmer criticized the “per- ception that the environment is the primary concern in man- agement of the public lands, and that the social and eco- nomic well-being of our com- munities come secondary to environmental concerns of the agency.” He said the forest plan “failed to take a hard look at the impacts of the 2015 and 2016 fires on Eastern Oregon com- munities.” Palmer also said the “Forest 541-576-2160 84502 Democratic Party of Grant County Endorses these Candidates The Democratic Party of Oregon Recommends: VOTE YES! ENDORSE MEASURE 102 Allows local gofernments to work with non-profts and businesses to build affordable housing with bonds. VOTE NO ON MEASURE 103 Adds a risky, misleading and permanent tax loophole for specific businesses. VOTE NO ON MEASURE 104 Expands supermajority requirement, putting funding for healthcare, schools and serfices in jeopardy. VOTE NO ON MEASURE 105 Anti-Immigrant measure to repeal Oregon’s Sanctuary State law VOTE NO ON MEASURE 106 Restricts access to safe, legal abortions, especially for the most fulnerable Oregonians. Governor Kate Brown www.katebrownfororegon.com US Congressional District 2 Jamie Mcleod-Skinner Wednesday, October 24, 2018 “We have healthy lotions, and she’ll play pretend hair and skin care,” James said. “She has a real- ly active imagination.” Kaylee said Wella understood the village language of Ewe but did not start speaking until they came into her life. “Now she’s speaking non- stop,” Kaylee said. The 4-year-old also enjoys playing with friends, including her cousins, and being with grand- parents Kirk and Kim Ausland of John Day and Kent and Kathy Wilson of Portland, she said. While Wella is James and Kaylee’s first child, they hope to see their family grow, down the road. “We would like to adopt HIV children from as many different countries as possible,” Kaylee said. The couple said they’ve felt called to help children with this specific “special need.” They hope to adopt a little one from India in a couple years. “We will walk through what- ever door God opens for us,” Kaylee said. James said his advice to any- one with the heart to adopt a child is to overcome fear. “If you can take care of a kid, do it,” he said. “If you can’t adopt, then help someone else who is adopting,” Kaylee added. “This has been the hardest thing we’ve gone through, but also the most fulfill- ing. We’d do it all again for her.” Service failed to directly coor- dinate the plan with counties that formally requested co- ordination, but instead chose to use privately held 501(c) (3) corporations and coerced cooperative agency status to gain lead agency status and to strong-arm counties into relin- quishing their right to direct government-to-government co- ordination or ‘lose their seat at the table’ and only serve in an advisory role.” Mark Webb, objecting for Blue Mountains Forest Part- ners, noted that the FEIS “is extremely difficult to read; con- tains contradictory and extrane- ous content; is not based on the best available science; and oth- erwise does not paint a cogent picture of the need for change or how the proposed plan(s) will achieve desired future con- ditions.” He added that the Land and Resource Management Plan and the FEIS ignored the Blue Mountains Forest Partners’ work, and suggested the forest plan will not withstand judicial review. “This threatens BMFP’s ability to increase the pace, scale and quality of forest res- toration on the Malheur and may compromise the ecolog- ical integrity of the forest and the socioeconomic stability of Grant and Harney counties,” Webb said. Alec Oliver, objecting for Grant County Stockgrowers, said many of the land use re- strictions that would be put in place by the proposed plan would impose significant re- strictions and loss of forage for the livestock industry, in- cluding significant changes to the number of acres classified as riparian habitat conserva- tion areas and riparian man- agement areas. Ken and Pat Holliday, speaking for Holliday Land and Livestock, Inc., object- ed that “the table of riparian area widths is arbitrary” and “measurement protocols have PROGRAM Continued from Page A1 rancher Jim Dovenburg and others brought the program back in 2017. It was too late in the fiscal year to fully fund the program, and the county budgeted $35,000 for the program with the stipulation that other funding would become available. Dovenburg said $12,000 was raised from landowners. When combined with $29,000 from the state and federal governments and $35,000 from the county, funding fell $24,000 short of the $100,000 estimated cost for a full-time program, he said. An option was to operate the program at a three-quarters level, Dovenburg said, but that would mean raising about $11,000 next fiscal year to fill the gap left after federal, state and county funding was included. Dovenburg said he was reluctant to request as- sistance from ranchers again to make up the short- fall. He said he looked into requesting assistance from ODFW or hunting organizations, but an op- tion for the next fiscal year was to roll over funds left from the previous year. Grant County Judge Scott Myers noted that county policy prohibited rolling over leftover funds to the next fiscal year. Waiving the policy for one program could create significant budget problems, he said. Myers recommended Wildlife Services aggressively spend allocated funding so nothing is left. Commissioner Rob Raschio said he wanted to take a closer look at how the $100,000 figure for a full-time program was reached. The funding gap needs to be filled before the next fiscal year starts July 1, Smith said. Myers noted that some animal damage con- trol actions takes place inside city jurisdictions and suggested Dovenburg contact the local city governments to see if they would assist with the funding. inconsistencies in their esti- mates of grazing indicators.” MT Anderson, represent- ing High Desert Cattle Co., which holds the Fields Peak and Aldrich grazing allot- ments, expressed concerns about the McClellan Moun- tain Wilderness Area pro- posed in the plan. He asked for assurance that his allotments would be grandfathered in. Eastern counties The Eastern Oregon Coun- ties Association summarized its objections into eight major issues, beginning with eco- nomics. The association noted that the FEIS focused on the period 2000-2014, but “local economies were already dec- imated by 2000.” Social and economic well-being should be mea- sured in terms of conditions in 1990, when newly issued for- est plans predicted allowable sale quantities of 579 million board-feet, the EOCA said. The association also objected to “generic and rigid access constraints.” “Forest Service lands are public lands and the public should have access to those lands,” the association said. “When access is to be limited, the Forest Service must un- dertake a site-specific analy- sis on the project level.” The EOCA objected to any designation or recommenda- tion for new wilderness, new wild and scenic rivers or new research natural areas. It also noted that alternatives pre- sented in the plan don’t ad- dress the need to accelerate the pace and scale of forest restoration efforts. While acknowledging it supports the proposed graz- ing guideline, the EOCA had concerns about its implemen- tation. “If we do not have some guidance for implementation, the effort that went into this guideline will have just been academic in nature and not provide the desired outcome of maintaining grazing and achieving the desired condi- tions over time,” the associa- tion said. The EOCA was particular- ly concerned about propos- als that wildfire be allowed to burn “in order to hasten achievement of desired future conditions on multiple acres of unplanned ignitions.” The association said the proposal “lacks credibility” and was risky. “The Forest Service does not have the social license for this type of activity in our counties,” the EOCA said. The association also ob- jected to the lack of coordi- nation and cooperation. The EOCA said a “dismissive atti- tude toward the agency’s obli- gation to cooperate with local government appears through- out the document.” This was particularly important when it came to local economies. “We are the subject mat- ter experts for social and economic well-being, yet we were never contacted by those who prepared the analysis,” the EOCA said. “If someone had called, we would have gladly helped. Now we have only the objection process to read and respond.” The EOCA also objected to species diversity guidelines in the forest plan, especially for wolves. “Our objection is based upon the fact that gray wolves are not federally listed on parts or all of the forests of the Blue Mountains,” the EOCA said. “No critical hab- itat has been designated for gray wolves within the Blue Mountains.” The association noted that under the proposed guide- lines, ranchers holding graz- ing permits would absorb “the entire burden of not only po- tential killed or injured live- stock but also having their entire operations disrupted as the result of these guidelines.” Thank you to the following businesses for supporting Newspapers in Education Their generous support of the Blue Mountain Eagle NIE program helps provide copies of the newspaper and unlimited access to BlueMountainEagle.com and the e-Edition to schools throughout the community. www.jamiefororegon.com OR Senate 30th District Solea Kabakov www.soleaforsenate.org Please VOTE By 8 p.m ., Nov. 6 Paid for by the Democratic Party of Grant County. 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