A18
News
Blue Mountain Eagle
CASE
Continued from Page A1
Officials took photographs
and conducted a grid search
until the effort was halted by
snowfall.
Hansford initially said he
needed to further study the
skull fragment to determine
if it was human. The sheriff’s
office at first assessed the skull
as from a bear, but an anthropo-
logical exam confirmed it was
from a human. By that time,
however, winter conditions in
the area ended the on-site in-
vestigation.
Interest in the case was
renewed seven months later
when Ted Ferrioli discovered
a corpse in the cold rushing
waters of Vance Creek. Ferri-
oli was walking his dog on the
weekend of May 2-3, 1998,
when he discovered the re-
mains.
The naked body, missing its
head and hands, was found par-
tially buried and immersed in
Vance Creek, below a log land-
ing from an old timber sale and
about 100 yards from where
Holliday had found the skull
fragment. It was believed the
creek did not run high enough
to move the body downstream.
The body was semi-mum-
mified after being in Vance
Creek for a time and then fro-
zen through the winter. The
remains were transported to
Driskill Memorial Chapel and
then sent to the State Medical
Examiner’s Office in Portland
for additional examination.
An autopsy determined that
the deceased white man was
49-73 years old, about 5 feet 7
inches tall and weighed about
225 pounds. The forensic lab
determined the man was killed
between May and November
1997. No personal items, teeth
or hair were found in the area,
but the autopsy determined the
man had severe atherosclerotic
coronary artery disease.
Budget concerns
Palmer, who was a John
Day police officer at the time
of the discovery, took over the
case following his election as
sheriff in 2000. After gathering
Wednesday, December 5, 2018
information on the case and
reaching a standstill, he went
to the public in 2011 seeking
assistance.
The cause of death was a
homicide, Palmer said at the
time, but he withheld details
on the manner of death. The
sheriff said the man was either
brought to the site and killed
or killed somewhere else and
dumped there.
A nearby secondary road
was likely used by the suspect,
Palmer said. The remoteness of
the area suggested the perpetra-
tor was a local, but DNA testing
had ruled out leads involving
missing people. He said he be-
lieved the man was from out-
side the area.
Palmer noted at the time that
several leads had been unsub-
stantiated or disproved. Even
psychics had come forward
with opinions, he added.
“We’re still trying to find his
identity,” Palmer said at the
time. “It’s definitely a homi-
cide, but we know that some-
body doing this by themselves
is highly unlikely.”
Palmer advised the county
court Nov. 28 that investigating
the cold case would increase
expenses for the sheriff’s of-
fice, including overtime.
“Until we can determine if
this person was shot and killed
here or shot somewhere else
and dumped here, this will be
our case until a crime scene of
a different origin can be deter-
mined,” Palmer said.
These types of investiga-
tions are time consuming, he
said, and if the sheriff’s office
dedicated one or two people
solely to this case, other per-
sonnel likely would have to
carry the rest of the office’s
workload.
The office is also investi-
gating the death of Terry and
Sharon Smith on Nan’s Rock
Road near Mt. Vernon as a
homicide. The couple’s home
burned during the night of July
17-18.
“This, coupled with the
Smith case, is going to be labor
intensive, and there will most
likely be costs associated that
we did not anticipate in our
budget process,” Palmer told
the Eagle.
ACCESS
Continued from Page A1
ing from an open forest to a
closed forest, she said, and the
direction seemed to be a man-
date from Washington, D.C.
For those who rely on the for-
est, the change was making
honest people into criminals,
she said.
Under a closed forest, all
roads are closed unless desig-
nated as open, Frances Pres-
ton said.
Closed forest roads made
putting out the 2015 Canyon
Creek Complex fire more dif-
ficult, Jim Sproul said. Grant
County never had that prob-
lem before, he said.
The stage was set years
ago by previous forest su-
pervisors, Judy Kerr said. In
addition to closing roads, the
Forest Service had illegally
taken over historic roads that
should belong to the county,
she added.
Tank traps
Howard Geiger said he
wasn’t opposed to closing
some roads, but the Forest
Service should not use “tank
trap” berms or rip up the
roadways because the road
could not be reopened in an
emergency. He also noted
that “tank trap” berms can be
dangerous for snowmobilers.
Geiger said many road clo-
sures were rubber-stamped
through the federal environ-
mental review process with-
out individual review.
Destroying the forest road
system made no sense, Shan-
non Voigt said. Closing roads
will impact all multiple uses,
from berry picking to fire-
wood cutting, he said.
The Forest Service has
done more harm to Grant
County than anything else
in history, Ron Phillips said.
FOREST
Continued from Page A1
also wanted the rule limiting
the harvest of trees measuring
21 inches at breast height re-
placed by common sense.
Timber harvesting is the
economic engine that enables
other multiple uses, said Rex
Storm, representing Associat-
ed Oregon Loggers. The myr-
iad requirements in the forest
Seated left to right, Jim Sproul and Dave Traylor
participate in a Forest Plan objectors meeting at the
Trowbridge Pavilion at the Grant County Fairgrounds
Nov. 27.
Eagle photos/Richard Hanners
From left, Judy Kerr, Grant County Commissioner Jim Hamsher and Grant County
Sheriff Glenn Palmer attend a Forest Plan objectors meeting.
Fire risks
Residents can no longer make
a living here unless they’re
a government employee, he
said. As a result, residents rely
on firewood cutting to heat
their homes, but road closures
force them into smaller and
smaller areas. As for wild-
fires, the sooner firefighters
can get to them the better, so
roads need to be kept open, he
said.
Rex Storm, representing
Associated Oregon Loggers,
said the Forest Service places
too much emphasis on eco-
system management and not
enough on socioeconomic
benefits. Management deci-
sions are coming from Wash-
ington, D.C., not local offi-
cials, he said. Road-density
figures for elk security were
artificial, and impacts to fish
and riparian areas were over-
stated while socioeconomic
review was insufficient.
Grant County Commis-
sioner Jim Hamsher said
roads should not be closed
until the forest is “cleaned
up” to reduce fire risks. He
didn’t want cities in Grant
County to suffer the same
fate as Paradise, California,
recently did in the Camp
Fire. He also noted that the
rebounding recreation indus-
try could benefit from more
open roads.
Hamsher said he wanted
the Forest Service to work
more closely with the coun-
ty. The Forest Plan objection
process provided little time
for him to comment, he said.
Objectors and interested
persons in the room repre-
sent hundreds of years of
experience and education
in forestry, Sheriff Glenn
Palmer said. He recalled cut-
plan prevent forest managers
from achieving the goals stat-
ed in the plan, he said.
Mark Webb, the executive
director of Blue Mountains
Forest Partners, noted that
forest plan requirements lim-
ited the types of vegetation
treatments allowed. The result
was some areas were treated
and some were not.
The focus on achieving de-
sirable conditions will be the
downfall of the forest plan,
said King Williams, repre-
senting Iron Triangle Log-
ging. Too much emphasis was
on ecosystem management in-
stead of socioeconomic bene-
fits, he said.
In order to address forest
conditions, the Forest Service
needs to treat 3.5 percent of
the Malheur National For-
est annually, Williams said.
But not enough suitable land
for forest projects was being
made available, he said.
ting firewood in the past all
across the Malheur National
Forest and a more vibrant
timber industry that kept lo-
cals employed. He suggest-
ed keeping the forest open
to everyone and handing re-
sponsibility over some forest
roads to the county.
Alec Oliver, representing
the Grant County Stock-
growers Association, ex-
plained the importance of
open roads to ranchers mov-
ing cattle to pasture. He sug-
gested the Forest Service let
ranchers maintain the roads.
He noted that everyone in
the room favored leaving the
roads open and said he didn’t
see the need to spend money
decommissioning roads —
let them close on their own,
he said.
Joe Cronin, a rancher
from Burns, was concerned
a forest road providing im-
Ranchers object
Susan Doverspike, a ranch-
er from Burns, described how
the conditions of one graz-
ing allotment dramatically
improved following a thin-
ning project, including more
streamflow from a spring that
had dried up.
Blowdown at an allot-
ment that had not been treat-
ed was so thick horses and
cattle couldn’t get through,
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about future road closures,
and no public comment was
taken, he said. The people
of Grant County should be
allowed to comment on all
prior road closures, he said.
He was pessimistic about the
outcome of the latest meet-
ing — the Forest Service
will do whatever it wants, he
said.
Doverspike said. Her crews
used chainsaws to clear a
path linking one pasture to
another. She noted it was
not a question of if a wildfire
would occur there but when.
Cici Brooks, a rancher
from Fox, described a forest
project near her grazing al-
lotment that went through a
NEPA process long ago with
no follow-up work. She also
described a thinning project
where the slash was never
burned and the logs left on
the ground prevented horse
travel.
The spread of lodgepole
pine impacts grass for cat-
tle grazing, horse travel and
elk habitat, said Alec Oliver,
representing Grant County
Stockgrowers Association.
He described the manage-
ment differences between
private and public land, and
he recommended the Forest
Service mimic private prac-
tices.
The Forest Service needs
to be more proactive about
preventing wildfire, Jim
Sproul said. Citing the de-
struction of Paradise, Cali-
fornia, by the recent Camp
Fire, Sproul noted the only
thing that saved Canyon City
from the 2015 Canyon Creek
Complex fire was a change in
wind direction.
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portant access to his property
could be closed — even after
he spent more than $27,000
on repairs to it. A historic
road used to move his cattle
might also be closed in the
future, he said.
Mike Browning recalled a
past Forest Service meeting
on access. About 350 con-
cerned residents were told
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Forest Service reviewing officer Chris French, in the
brown plaid shirt, speaks at a Forest Plan objectors
meeting in John Day. The Forest Service held four
sessions during the week in different locations.
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