OUTDOORS
MyEagleNews.com
SHOOTING
THE BREEZE
Queasy
rider
H
unting season this
year, like so many
other things about
2020, was somewhat under-
whelming if not altogether
lackluster. Still, whenever I
get to feeling like I should sell
all my guns and buy a tread-
mill on the
premise that
I would get
just as much
exercise and
kill just as
many elk, I
think back to
Dale Valade
a day many
moons ago
for solace. It was a cold, rainy
day on the Oregon Coast.
My one and only deep sea
fishing trip was about to com-
mence, and the excitement
already had my stomach in
knots. My party all decided
to go get a huge breakfast
in anticipation for the day’s
events. A friend who had
“been there and done that”
told me to buy some Dra-
mamine and take it the night
before and before getting on
the boat so it would be in my
system. That may have been
the best decision I had made
all weekend.
On the Oregon Coast there
is a system which the Coast
Guard and local fishermen
adhere to as a safety guide. If
there are three red flags fly-
ing, the ships don’t launch at
all. On this fateful day there
were two red flags. We were
escorted out, supervised from
a distance and escorted back
to port by the Coast Guard.
The waves were huge. One
younger passenger on our
boat may have been brought
to tears as the roller coaster
ride out of the harbor was
eerily similar to the climactic
scene in The Perfect Storm, a
fact he may have exclaimed
outloud between whimpers.
Once we were allowed
to come out on the deck and
drop our lines into the water,
the fishing was immediately
magnificent. Rock bass and
ling cod were biting faster
than one could reel them in
and cast back into the water.
The waves were 25 to 30 feet,
and our boat was constantly
moving. There was a cute girl
to my right whom I thought
about giving my phone num-
ber to for a brief time, and
then just like that, the barf-a-
rama began.
I looked around the boat,
and instead of seeing glee-
ful faces enjoying a day on
the ocean, it looked more like
a scene from Stand by Me.
Oh the chum made the fish-
ing even better, but the rest of
it wasn’t so good. That cute
girl I thought about asking out
managed to vomit on me. It’s
bad enough if you get your
own on yourself, but it’s even
worse when it’s a stranger’s.
One passenger had it stuck in
his beard. Another exclaimed
that she would prefer to fall
over board and be eaten by a
shark than to further endure
this fiasco. The captain care-
fully counted the catch and
realized that we had all
caught our limit of fish. Wip-
ing breakfast from his chin,
he staggered to the wheel and
turned us to port. Of the entire
compliment, 18 of the 22 of
us got violently sea sick that
day. Myself and three others
were spared participation but
were still spectators in a lit-
eral front row splash zone.
But the fishing was good.
No matter how bad of a
time or year you may be hav-
ing, it could always be worse.
Keep your chin up and don’t
let breakfast come back to
haunt you or any innocent
bystanders.
Have you ever been deep
sea fishing? Write to us at
shootingthebreezebme@
gmail.com!
Dale Valade is a local
country gent with a love for
the outdoors, handloading,
hunting and shooting.
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
Grazing permit restored to Hammond family
By Mateusz Perkowski
EO Media Group
The federal government
has authorized livestock graz-
ing on 26,400 acres of pub-
lic allotments in Oregon to the
Hammond family, which most
recently lost its permit in 2019.
Controversies over the fam-
ily’s use of the grazing allot-
ments stem from the arson con-
victions of Dwight and Steven
Hammond, a father and son
who were later pardoned by
President Donald Trump for
setting fire to rangelands.
“It’s great news they’ve
issued the final decision and
issued the grazing permit to the
Hammond family,” said Alan
Schroeder, the family’s attor-
ney. “The fact it’s been restored
will certainly stabilize this live-
stock operation that’s been
around for 50 years.”
Not being allowed to graze
livestock on public lands in pre-
vious years had a “material”
impact on the Hammond fam-
ily, which owns a ranch amid
the allotments in Diamond, he
said.
“They were forced to go
other places to put their live-
stock,” which involved signifi-
cant expenses for hay, leases and
transportation, Schroeder said.
The Western Watersheds
Project, an environmental
group opposed to the grazing
authorization, isn’t surprised by
the decision because the Trump
administration has “bent over
backwards” to accommodate
the Hammond family, said Erik
Molvar, its executive director.
“This is a totally political
decision,” Molvar said.
The ranchers were originally
indicted for setting fires to gov-
ernment property in 2010 and
convicted in a federal jury trial
two years later.
Dwight Hammond was
originally sentenced to three
months in prison for one count
of arson and Steven Hammond
sentenced to one year in prison
for two counts of arson.
However, the father and son
were ordered to return to prison
in 2016 after the 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals ruled they
were subject to mandatory five-
year prison terms.
Protests against the decision
culminated in an armed stand-
off at the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge that gained
national attention.
Trump fully pardoned the
Hammonds in 2018 before they
were finished serving the entire
mandatory minimum sentences.
While the criminal proceed-
ings played out in federal court
in 2014, the U.S. Bureau of
Land Management also refused
to renew the Hammonds’
10-year grazing permit for sur-
rounding public lands.
The U.S. Interior Depart-
ment, which oversees the BLM,
ended up renewing the Ham-
monds’ grazing permits in early
2019, citing the pardons as a
new circumstance, but U.S.
District Judge Michael Simon
ruled that decision was unlaw-
ful and overturned it later that
same year.
The BLM opened up the
four allotments to competition
last year, with the Hammonds
vying against two other appli-
cants for permits to graze the
combined 26,400 acres.
The agency has now issued
a new 10-year permit to the
Hammonds after determining
that five of the eight regula-
tory factors considered “gener-
ally weigh in favor” of the fam-
ily, including its historic use and
proximity to the allotments.
The Western Watersheds
Project protested the BLM’s
proposal to issue the grazing
permit and is now “looking at
all the options,” including a
federal lawsuit against the deci-
sion, said Molvar.
When ranchers violate the
terms of their grazing permits,
those authorizations should be
revoked, he said. “The BLM
has no business issuing grazing
permits to known offenders.”
Schroeder, the attorney for
the Hammond family, said he’s
still reviewing the specifics
of the new permit but said the
BLM based its legal decision on
solid legal grounds.
The decision to issue a new
permit in 2021 was based on
different factors than the gov-
ernment’s previous renewal in
2019, which was overturned in
court, he said.
“The department went above
and beyond what Judge Simon
required of them,” Schroeder
said.
Report hunts online or at
license sales agent by Jan. 31
Blue Mountain Eagle
Big game and turkey
hunters should report their
tags online or at a license
sale agent to avoid long
phone queues.
The deadline to report
most tags and avoid any
penalties is 11:59 p.m. on
Sunday, Jan. 31, according
to an Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife press
release.
Hunters need to report
on every deer, elk, bear,
cougar, turkey and prong-
horn tag purchased or
issued as part of a Sports
Pac license, even if they
didn’t harvest an animal or
go hunting.
Go to https://odfw.hunt-
fishoregon.com/login and
use “Verify/Look Up” to
find a hunter profile, which
will include any tags to
report. Enter ODFW ID
number (printed on all
licenses and tags) and fol-
low the directions to set
up an account. An email
address is required. Click
under “Mandatory Report-
ing” to complete reports.
Hunters can also visit
any license sale agent (busi-
nesses that sell hunting and
fishing licenses) to report.
License agents will not
charge hunters a fee for this
service. See a list of agents
at https://myodfw.com/arti-
Contributed photo
Richard McCurter from St.
Helens with the Wenaha
Unit bull elk he took in
2020 after winning the in-
centive tag for reporting
hunts on time. The dead-
line to report hunts ending
in 2020 is Jan. 30, 2021.
cles/where-find-odfw-li-
cense-agentsvendors.
Hunters who fail to
report a deer or elk tag by
the deadline will be charged
a $25 penalty. They will
have to pay this fine to pur-
chase a 2022 or future hunt-
ing license. (The deadline
to report is Jan. 31, 2021,
for any hunt that ends by
Dec. 31, 2020, and April
15, 2021 for 2020 hunts that
extend into the new year.)
To learn more about
mandatory reporting, visit
myodfw.com or listen to the
Beaver State Podcast.
24 th Annual
Oft Angus /
Vallad Cattle
PERFORMANCE
SALE
Thursday, March 18, 2021
1:00 P.M. MST
Selling Registered
Angus & Hereford Bulls
One of the West’s Premier
Selections of Older Bulls
ONTARIO, OR
A9
ONTARIO, OR
Terry Oft
Jason & Deanne Vallad
Home: (541) 889-6801
Cell: (208) 741-0824
Home: (541) 889-4562
Cell: (208) 881-7989
S225429-1