A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
Wolves won’t
be delisted
without a fi ght
C
attlemen are cheer-
ing an announce-
ment that the De-
partment of the Interior will
soon propose a plan to end
federal protections on grey
wolves.
On March 6, Acting Sec-
retary of the Interior David
Bernhardt announced the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice will soon come up with
a plan for delisting wolves,
returning management to the
states and tribes.
“Recovery of the grey
wolf under the Endangered
Species Act is one of our
nation’s great conserva-
tion successes, with the wolf
joining other cherished spe-
cies, such as the bald eagle,
that have been brought back
from the brink with the help
of the ESA,” said Fish and
Wildlife spokesman Gavin
Shire.
While we agree that this
is good news, the proposal
has a long way to go before
becoming reality.
Since they were reintro-
duced in 1995, grey wolves
have enjoyed intensive fed-
eral and state management.
When biologists fi rst con-
sidered how long it would
take wolves to become
re-established in the Pacifi c
Northwest, they had no idea
the species would thrive
the way it has. They started
with 31 wolves transplanted
from Canada to Idaho and
35 transplanted to Yellow-
stone National Park. Now
hundreds of wolves blanket
Idaho and parts of Montana
and Wyoming and range
as far west as the Cascade
Mountains in Oregon and
across much of Washington
state.
The number of wolf packs
in the Northwest contin-
ues to multiply with no help
from state or federal wild-
life managers. Wolves also
show up in the most unlikely
places. OR-7, a wolf origi-
nally from northeastern Ore-
gon, wandered as far south
as California before return-
ing to Oregon and establish-
ing his own pack. Recent
attacks suggest a wolf or
wolves have now made it to
Curry County and the Ore-
gon coast.
Wolf attacks on cattle and
sheep grazing on federal
and private lands are com-
mon. Ranchers can rightfully
claim that they have invol-
untarily paid a big part of the
price to re-establish wolves
throughout the West.
Now federal regulators
say their work is done and
it’s time to take the grey
wolf off the federal Endan-
gered Species List. That will
hardly signal open season on
wolves, as they still enjoy
robust state protections.
But environmental groups
disagree.
“Given that grey wolves
in the Lower 48 states
occupy such a small percent-
age of their historical habi-
tat, it is almost laughable for
the Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice to determine that they
are successfully recovered,”
said John Mellgren, an attor-
ney with the Western Envi-
ronmental Law Center.
“On its face, this appears
to be politically motivated,”
Mellgren said. “We look for-
ward to reviewing the draft
delisting rule, and look for-
ward to taking the Fish and
Wildlife Service to court
should its proposal not be
based on what the science
tells us.”
Let the lawsuits begin.
Sticking with you
“Mom-meeeeeeeeee!” my
3-year-old screamed at the top end
of his vocals. “Help me!”
One would think that, upon
hearing this noise, I would have
dropped everything and headed out
to help my son. But I was in the
middle of switching a load of laun-
dry — and honestly, my young-
est son seems to use that tone of
voice for many things. It could be
that his cracker fell on the fl oor,
the hound knocked him over, the
bookcase toppled over on top of
him or maybe just that he needed
another glass of water. The next
shout made me drop my laundry
basket.
“Blooooooooood. Blood.
Mommy, Blood!”
I bounded up the stairs two
at a time. My toddler was sitting
on the counter, a Pampered Chef
knife and sheath lay next to him
along with little droplets of blood.
He wasn’t crying, but he was
looking at his bleeding index fi n-
ger in panic.
I pinched his fi nger, and hauled
him into the bathroom. He had
done a good job of cutting it, and
it took a bit for the bleeding to
subside. He wasn’t excited about
a bandage on his fi nger — he
thought that a kiss would be a bet-
ter idea. It seemed to take a lot
of talking to convince him that
mommy’s kisses were like Santa
— they’re the ones with the magic
— but sometimes they need the
elf bandages to help get the work
done. It took a bit, but he fi nally
decided bandages would be OK as
long as they were kissed too.
A bandage on a 3-year-old
doesn’t last very long — between
dirt and play and
water — and I
seemed to be
changing or replac-
ing it every few
hours. Somewhere
in this period, my
Brianna
son’s other fi ngers
Walker
started to feel real
bad for his index
fi nger. Suddenly, they all needed
bandages. Again, bandages on
3-year-olds don’t last long —
whether they are on real or sym-
pathetic hurts. We blew through
an entire box in just a few days
and started on a second. It soon
became apparent that it would be
more economical to buy some-
thing other than the fabric, fl ex
bandages — seeing as how the
chance of one of them lasting
from breakfast to lunch was about
as good as coaxing an egg out of
my rooster.
My toddler became obsessed
with his bandages. Thankfully,
over the course of a few weeks, his
other fi ngers stopped having “hurt
pains,” and we could cut back on
the bandage usage. Well, at least
the bandage usage on his un-cut
fi ngers. The bandages that were
saved now were used to “help” the
toilet seat stay down and the bath-
room door to stay shut. A crack on
my cellphone screen was “fi xen”
(the opposite of broken) with a
brightly-colored bandage. Ban-
dages also started popping up on
torn items of clothing, or on body
parts that had moles or bruises.
Bandages even ended up in my
hair after my toddler saw me doing
a french braid one morning.
“What doing, Mommy?” he
asked.
“Fixing my hair,” I replied.
“Oh, why Mommy’s hair bro-
ken?” he asked, his big blue eyes
looking genuinely concerned about
my hair.
Anything that appeared broken
was fi xen with the help of a ban-
dage — everything, that is, except
the initial cut on my toddler’s
index fi nger.
He would hold his fi nger out of
the water during baths or cry when
made to wash his hands — because
his bandage would get wet. Play-
ing with the baby lambs was fun
— until they started to nibble on
the fi nger with his bandage. Mean-
while, weeks passed and the ban-
dage boxes rotated through our
medicine cabinet. The cut under
the bandage has long since healed,
with hardly even a scar to mark
its history, but try convincing my
3-year old. I think you’d have bet-
ter luck talking to my rooster.
I wonder if it’s a 3-year-old
thing. My oldest got his thumb
slammed in a car door and wore a
thumb protector for months. Even
after he had lost his thumbnail and
a new rosy-pink one had grown
back in its place, he still insisted
that he needed that protector.
As parents, we should never
worry that our children aren’t lis-
tening — because they are always
watching us, ready to imitate our
worst habits. Makes me wonder
what I don’t need that I won’t let
go of? (And, no, it can’t be a closet
full of shoes — regardless of what
my husband might say!)
Brianna Walker occasionally
writes about the Farmer’s Fate
for the Blue Mountain Eagle.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Withdrawal
decision highlights
fundamental
problems
WHERE TO WRITE
GRANT COUNTY
• Grant County Courthouse — 201
S. Humbolt St., Suite 280, Canyon City
97820. Phone: 541-575-0059. Fax:
541-575-2248.
• Canyon City — P.O. Box 276, Canyon
City 97820. Phone: 541-575-0509.
Fax: 541-575-0515. Email: tocc1862@
centurylink.net.
• Dayville — P.O. Box 321, Dayville
97825. Phone: 541-987-2188. Fax: 541-
987-2187. Email:dville@ortelco.net
• John Day — 450 E. Main St, John
Day, 97845. Phone: 541-575-0028.
Fax: 541-575-1721. Email: cityjd@
centurytel.net.
• Long Creek — P.O. Box 489, Long
Creek 97856. Phone: 541-421-3601.
Fax: 541-421-3075. Email: info@
cityofl ongcreek.com.
• Monument — P.O. Box 426,
Monument 97864. Phone
and fax: 541-934-2025. Email:
cityofmonument@centurytel.net.
• Mt. Vernon — P.O. Box 647, Mt.
Vernon 97865. Phone: 541-932-4688.
Fax: 541-932-4222. Email: cmtv@
ortelco.net.
• Prairie City — P.O. Box 370, Prairie
City 97869. Phone: 541-820-3605. Fax:
820-3566. Email: pchall@ortelco.net.
• Seneca — P.O. Box 208, Seneca
97873. Phone and fax: 541-542-2161.
Email: senecaoregon@gmail.com.
SALEM
• Gov. Kate Brown, D — 254 State
Capitol, Salem 97310. Phone: 503-
378-3111. Fax: 503-378-6827. Website:
governor.state.or.us/governor.html.
• Oregon Legislature — State Capitol,
Salem, 97310. Phone: (503) 986-1180.
Website: leg.state.or.us (includes
Oregon Constitution and Oregon
Revised Statutes).
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
Published every
Wednesday by
To the Editor:
The Forest Service’s recent
decision to withdraw its revised
forest plan, as relieving as it is,
sheds light on some fundamental
problems within the organization.
What we see in the Forest Ser-
vice’s failure to institute a new
plan, after 15 years in the making,
is that it isn’t in touch with reality.
For starters, many things can hap-
pen in 15 years. A plan that takes
15 years to complete will be obso-
lete by the time it’s fi nished. This
is something Forest Service deci-
sion makers remain incapable of
wrapping their heads around.
Also consider the length of the
plan itself. At over 5,000 pages,
the revised plan was more than
four times the length of the aver-
age Bible (about 1,200 pages). A
5,000-page plan would be so dif-
fi cult to navigate that it would
essentially be worthless, as the
revised plan turned out to be.
What we can glean most of all
from this is the glaring lack of
accountability demanded of For-
est Service leadership. After 15
years, and presumably millions of
MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Controlled burns
‘have not been
enough’
To the Editor:
Revised rules that protect air
quality in areas of Oregon sus-
ceptible to smoke from controlled
forest burns have gone into effect,
adopted by the Oregon Board
of Forestry and approved by the
Oregon Department of Environ-
mental Quality.
This sounds great, but after
reading the rest of the story, you
fi nd out that nothing has changed
except the cost and responsibility
for the health of our county’s chil-
1 YEAR SUBSCRIPTION RATES
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Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
Publisher............ ......................................Chris Rush, crush@eomediagroup.com
Editor & General Manager ...............Sean Hart, editor@bmeagle.com
Reporter ...................................................Richard Hanners, rick@bmeagle.com
Community News .................................Angel Carpenter, angel@bmeagle.com
Sports ........................................................Angel Carpenter, angel@bmeagle.com
Marketing Rep .......................................Kim Kell, ads@bmeagle.com
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dollars spent, the Forest Service
has nothing to show. If a blunder
of this magnitude had occurred in
the private sector, people would
have lost their jobs. It’s doubtful
that a single reprimand was issued
to those responsible for this mas-
sive waste of public resources.
In conclusion, the Forest Ser-
vice needs to adopt some basic
common sense. It needs to join us
here in the real world, stop mak-
ing excuses and begin manag-
ing our forests, as it was created
to do.
Gregg Boethin
Canyon City
Grant County .........................................$45
Everywhere else in U.S. .......................$57
Outside Continental U.S. ....................$60
Online: BlueMountainEagle.com
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POSTMASTER
send address changes to:
Blue Mountain Eagle
195 N. Canyon Blvd.
John Day, OR 97845-1187
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Phone: 541-575-0710
dren and elderly will be on us.
Our great leaders in Salem
want a cap and trade for indus-
try in Oregon to reduce CO2 and
carbon ash pollution. (They want
more tax money.)
While the U.S. Forest Ser-
vice is increasing controlled
burns yearly, Oregon Department
of Forestry recorded, for 2018,
181,282 acres of controlled burns,
which amounted to an estimated
1.3 million tons of woody debris.
The acreage is increasing each
year.
I have had contact with numer-
ous Forest Service employees,
and all think controlled burns is
the answer to our wildfi re prob-
lem. After stopping forest fi res
for over 100 years, and in the last
40 to 50 years not managing our
pine forest correctly, controlled
burns and what little proper for-
estry practices that have been
done, have not been enough. A
comprehensive plan based on
true forestry practices, and not
what well-meaning people push-
ing politicians think, is best. Look
around you, we have a prob-
lem. All leadership needs to pull
theirs out of the sand, stop think-
ing of themselves and use com-
mon sense to solve the building
problems.
Ken Koser
Prairie City
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Blue Mountain Eagle
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