NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
A3
Merkley: ‘We’re starting a new chapter in America’
Oregon Senator Jeff
Merkley provides
thoughts on Biden’s
inauguration and hopes of
unity for the future
By Rudy Diaz
Blue Mountain Eagle
Inauguration Day marks a new
chapter for America, U.S. Sen.
Jeff Merkley told Oregon report-
ers Jan. 20.
This ceremony to install the new
president was different. Merkley
said many moments stood out: the
National Guard troops stationed at
the Capitol to prevent protests, an
empty National Mall filled with
200,000 flags, the absence of for-
mer President Donald Trump, Vice
President Kamala Harris making
Contributed photo
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley shares his experience of Inauguration Day 2021 during a
Zoom call with Oregon reporters.
history as the first woman, Black
American and South Asian-Amer-
ican to hold the office and new
President Joe Biden’s address
stressing unity.
Merkley said the country must
come together to address the
COVID-19 pandemic and the asso-
ciated economic crisis.
“If there’s one place where we
should be able to work together to
accelerate our efforts, it’s in this
area,” Merkley said.
He said the pledge Biden made
to organize a vaccine program that
will vaccinate 100 million people
over his first 100 days in office is a
great way to start.
The challenge of creating unity
between the political parties will
not be easy, Merkley said, requir-
ing elected officials to reach across
the aisle on issue after issue.
Merkley said he wished Trump
decided, as a final act, to show
up at Biden’s inauguration to
honor the tradition of a peaceful
transition.
“I think the message from
(Biden) is one of reconciliation
and partnership and that is very dif-
ferent from the message of division
and bigotry that we have had over
the last four years,” Merkley said.
Tackling the pandemic and its
economic impact will be the first
order of business at the Senate,
Merkley said, adding they must
also move forward with the second
impeachment trial of Trump.
“We will proceed,” Merkley
said. “Obviously, the potential pun-
ishment of evicting someone out of
office is not there, but the Constitu-
tion calls for two potential forms of
punishment. The second of which is
barring an individual from holding
any future office.”
Merkley said the Senate must
also confirm Biden’s cabinet mem-
bers. Then, he said, the focus will
shift to the fundamentals: health
care, housing, education and
good-paying jobs.
“We’re starting a new chapter in
America,” Merkley said.
Natural Resources Advisory Committee elects new chairman
Grant County’s Natural
Resources Advisory Com-
mittee installed a new chair-
person Thursday.
The committee voted in
Chairperson Pat Voigt, a long-
time Grant County rancher,
who was nominated by Aus-
tin resident Billie Jo George.
George, who had served
as the NRAC chair, said the
committee could use Voigt’s
experience as the chairper-
son of the Grant County Soil
and Water District.
The committee also
named Tim Rude from Rude
Logging as the vice chair,
and George was named com-
mittee secretary.
George said the com-
mittee still needs the Grant
County Court to approve
NRAC’s bylaws.
The group discussed old
business, consisting mostly
of County Commissioner
and committee liaison Jim
Hamsher’s report from the
Blue Mountain Intergovern-
mental Committee meeting.
Formed in 2019, the BIC is
a collective of state, tribal,
federal and county repre-
sentatives created to resolve
long-standing conflicts over
the Umatilla, Wallowa-Whit-
man and Malheur national
forests, which have been
meeting over the last year.
The BIC has been meet-
ing monthly in subcommit-
tee meetings that deal with
four different forest manage-
ment areas, including wild-
fire management, access,
socioeconomic assessment
and grazing, according to
Hamsher.
Hamsher, who attended
both the access and socioeco-
nomic subcommittee meet-
ings last month, said access
had been the most conten-
tious topic so far.
Hamsher said the county
is hoping to hear back about
the Travel Management
Plan. He told the commit-
tee BIC would be meeting in
the next couple of days with
Chris French from the U.S.
Forest Service to see where
the Forest Service is at with
the county’s petition to opt-
out of the Travel Manage-
ment Plan.
In a Jan. 15 email, State
Rep. Mark Owens said there
was nothing new to report
with the new administra-
tion’s transition.
“Chris did say he is still
very committed to our com-
munities and helping with
the relationships with the
forest service,” Owens said.
“We look forward to con-
tinuing to work with him.”
Bill Skinner, who worked
for the Forest Service and is
now retired, said there is no
way to have any activities,
be it logging or anything,
without a travel plan.
“How are you going to
have your activities if you
don’t have a road, if you
don’t have access?” Skinner
said.
Skinner said the travel
plan encompasses trails too,
and that can be a “constrict-
ing program.”
Hamsher said, when the
county submitted the peti-
tion, the Department of Agri-
culture said they would likely
not get an answer until after
the presidential election.
“We’ll see what the direc-
tion the new administration
might take,” he said.
The Eagle/Steven Mitchell
Tim Rude, left, of Rude Logging and Brett Morris of Morris Logging attend the Natural Resources
Advisory Committee meeting Jan. 14 at the Grant County Courthouse.
Firewise update
Firewise Coordinator Irene
Jerome gave the NRAC a
brief overview of the Commu-
nity Wildfire Protection Plan
and what it entails. She also
walked the committee through
a potential incentive-based
juniper removal program.
Jerome said the county is “los-
ing the fight” to juniper, a sig-
nificant fuel for wildfire.
She said, while some land-
owners are diligent in remov-
ing the trees, others are not.
Jerome asked the NRAC what
an incentive might be to cre-
ate a sense of urgency among
residents.
Rude said the way to
drive more juniper removal
would be property tax. But
at the same time, he said, the
county needs to have an out-
let for the material. He said
there are dead pine and lodge-
pole throughout the forest, and
there is nowhere to take the
dead trees.
“We’ve narrowed down
to one sawmill,” he said.
“Very seldom do they ever
buy outside fiber or pulp
from anybody.”
Rude said the county does
not have a good outlet for pri-
vate timber sales.
Hamsher said he would
like to get the co-generation
plant running again and start
chipping the dead trees or
bringing a wood chipper out
to those areas, but the cost to
undertake the project would
require various kinds of gov-
ernment subsidies.
Jerome said, at the end of
the day, it’s about getting peo-
ple to remove the fuels before
they become a fire hazard.
“If people can get it through
their heads, they are not going
to get a bunch of money for
it, but if you get rid of it rev-
enue-neutral, I mean, you’re a
winner,” she said.
The group talked about
grants and other funding
streams but agreed that it
would be more beneficial for
the county to find a way to
enhance the county’s natural
resources and perhaps create
jobs.
“Recreation is fine,” she
said. “But it is heavily depen-
dent on the general economy,
and the whims change with
the public.”
She said jobs in nat-
ural resources are more
“value-added.”
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By Steven Mitchell
Blue Mountain Eagle