OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
A4
Wednesday, February 3, 2021
State should reset
virus response
F
rustration. Confusion.
Fear. Anger.
Anyone who is pay-
ing attention to the COVID-
19 pandemic is familiar with
these emotions.
When a nation is faced with
a tremendous challenge, the
actions of federal, state and
local governments set the tone
for how we as individuals
respond.
The new coronavirus is a
tremendous challenge. But,
rather than uniting Ameri-
cans against a common enemy
(the virus), many government
actions have led to division.
Oregon has, in many ways,
been a success story when
compared to other states. Our
hospitals have not been over-
whelmed by COVID-19.
Cases per 100,000 popula-
tion are the second lowest in
the nation. Death rates are the
sixth lowest in the nation.
The unemployment rate
in Oregon is in the middle of
the pack — 19th highest in
the nation — indicating that
the state’s actions to prevent
the spread of COVID-19 have
been effective without dis-
proportionately damaging our
economy.
Now, Oregon’s new case
rate is on a significant down-
ward trend after the spike that
began during the December
2020 holidays.
That’s all the good news.
More frustration, confusion,
fear and anger surrounded the
state’s recent decision to pun-
ish Grant County businesses
by forcing the county from the
lowest risk level to “moderate”
because the state’s electronic
laboratory test reporting sys-
tem did not work as intended,
causing a backlog of previous
cases to be reported as occur-
ring all on the same day, skew-
ing the data.
Although state officials
knew their system was hav-
ing problems and knew that
older cases from Grant County
had not been reported, they
used these old cases to justify
enacting further restrictions
on businesses — despite pleas
from our local public health
administrator, the county court
and our state representative.
Why? It just doesn’t make
sense.
And then there’s the vac-
cine rollout. Once vac-
cines began arriving in Ore-
gon, what should have been a
well-planned, easy-to-under-
stand vaccination program has
become deeply political.
The governor’s actions have
pitted senior citizens and the
medically vulnerable against
educators. And now, with the
announcement that promised
vaccines would be diverted
from multiple rural counties to
the Portland metro area, there
is the appearance of pitting
urban versus rural.
Thus, more frustration, con-
fusion, fear and anger.
It didn’t have to be this
way. Oregon should have fol-
lowed the CDC’s Advisory
Committee on Immunization
Practice’s COVID-19 recom-
mendations, which spelled out
in detail how vaccines should
be prioritized for vulnera-
ble groups. Doses should be
distributed proportionally to
counties, based on population
— with small tweaks to assure
the most vulnerable groups are
vaccinated first.
Oregon has thrown this log-
ical and science-based guid-
ance out the window, replac-
ing it with complicated and
ever-changing plans. An Ore-
gon COVID-19 Vaccine Advi-
sory Committee was created
to ensure the needs of “sys-
temically affected populations,
including communities of
color” were met, yet educators
— a group that is 89% white,
according to the 2020 Oregon
Educator Equity Report —
were moved ahead of senior
citizens and affected commu-
nities of color.
Rural Morrow County —
population 11,600 — vacci-
nated all health care provid-
ers and was ready to vaccinate
educators and senior citizens
per state recommendations last
week, when it was told that
further doses destined for the
county were being sent to the
Portland metro area instead.
More frustration, confusion,
fear and anger.
It’s time for Oregon to
hit the reset button. When it
comes to counting cases with
business restrictions on the
line, use the actual date of the
positive tests. When it comes
to vaccine rollout, stick to
ACIP guidance and send out
the vaccine to counties based
on population.
Take the politics out of it.
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
‘If people?’
To the Editor:
This letter is in response to part of
an article in the Jan. 27 Eagle titled,
“Natural Resources Advisory Com-
mittee elects new chairman.” The
article was informative and to the
point, but a statement in the latter
section of it has caused me some con-
cern: the statement, “If people can get
it through their heads…”
The subject was addressing fire
hazard fuels and who was respon-
sible for the problem. Just a few
simple, and I thought well-known,
facts: First, there is a total of
62,963,610 acres in the state of Ore-
gon. The national forests lay claim
to 16,000,000 of those acres and
the Bureau of Land Management to
another 15,700,000 acres. Now sim-
ple math, without including all the
other federal and state agencies, show
that just between these two agencies
very near 50% of our great state is
under government control.
Now what “people” are we talking
about being responsible for over-
stocked fuel supplies? Presently, I
can look out my window and see 100
acres of juniper, sage brush, toad flax
and medusahead, knapweed, surpris-
ingly all on BLM land.
I understand that these agencies
are under a mountain of regulations
and restrictions. Several years ago, I
requested permission to cut a dozen
juniper trees on the BLM we border
to help with protecting my property
from fire. I was told that I could not
because that would require an envi-
ronmental impact study.
This letter is not directed at any
one person or even organization, but
please let it be known that the “peo-
ple” are not the sole source of the
problem of over-stocked fuels!
In closing I would like to add
the BLM mission statement: “The
BLM’s mission is to sustain the
health, diversity and productiv-
ity of public lands for the use and
enjoyment of present and future
generations.”
Richard Smarr
Dayville
Bad moon on
the rise, No. 2
To the Editor:
Following up on my last letter,
let’s say you are driving around in
your $50,000 car/pickup/ATV while
texting. OK. Why not swing into a
place that sells the Blue Mountain
Eagle? Now go park and enjoy the
latest happenings. First of all, my pre-
dictions are as follows. No. 1, within
one to two years, President Biden will
be declared mentally unable to serve
and the vice president will step in. I
truly believe that this was the plan to
begin with. No. 2, the new admin-
istration will launch the new Green
Deal program. This will halt coal pro-
duction and severely curtail oil pro-
duction. The domino effect will limit
production of electricity (especially in
the East) and somewhat all over the
U.S. No. 3, the borders will be open
to anyone who desires to enter (better
brush up on your Spanish) and crime
numbers will skyrocket. Amnesty
will be granted to all illegal aliens to
include many dead ones. That sounds
similar to our vote counting. No. 4,
the stock market will crash as it did
when Obama took over. The feds will
raise interest rates to try and prevent
inflation. Due to the fact that many
people will lose their homes, the
housing market will take a dive. You
may be able to get a free home with
a fill-up since gas will approach $8 a
gallon. Next comes the depression as
it did in the 1930s. I predict this time
it will be much worse. That is about
it as far as my predictions. I may be
wrong, but that is doubtful because
my wife claims that I’m the smart-
est man in the universe. OK. Maybe I
exaggerated a little bit. But still, I’m
the smartest man at 343 S. McHaley
St. Next, here is a few things you can
do to prepare for my predictions. No.
1, stock up on nonperishable food
(canned and dried) and try to stay
away from items that require refriger-
ation because power may be limited
or not at all for long periods of time.
No. 2, keep plenty of flashlight bat-
teries on hand.
Ed Butler
Prairie City
Fair elections
are our history
To the Editor:
The Blue Mountain Eagle has fea-
tured election workers in the past, and
in light of the attacks on the integ-
rity of the vote in this nation, most
recently stunningly equated with
Joseph Stalin’s murderous regime in
a letter to the Blue Mountain Eagle,
these articles must be re-visited. On
Nov. 6, 2020, in the Eagle, Lenora
Thomason, who has been a Grant
County election committee member
for 40 years and served in November
2020 despite the risk to her health,
was quoted as saying, “If all of them
people would work on the election
once, they would see that everything
is on the up and up.” In another arti-
cle, first published Nov. 3, 2020, and
then updated Nov. 6, “Out of the
Past: Nov. 4, 2020,” that included a
photo of election workers and a local
woman handing them her ballot, the
Eagle reported:
“From 50 years ago: When citi-
zens exercise their voting franchise, it
means work for local election board
members all across the country. Three
county candidates ran unopposed in
Tuesday’s balloting. County Com-
missioner Joe W. Officer of Izee
received 1,704 votes, according to
unofficial tallies. Mrs. Grace K. Wil-
liams, county district attorney, polled
1,556 votes. Running in three of the
county’s 15 precincts only, Mrs. Betty
Dompier of Prairie City received
342 votes for justice of the peace in
District No. 2 – Union, Austin and
Strawberry Precincts. There were 80
absentee votes cast in the county.”
Notably, Grace K. Williams, attor-
ney, was, in 1958, the first woman
elected as district attorney in Oregon.
That historical result was possible
due to a fair election, conducted by a
competent county clerk and trained
election workers. It is time to stop the
slander.
Nancy Nickel
John Day
‘It’s time to
change practices’
To the Editor:
Another threat of litigation against
the U.S. Forest Service (front page
article “Forest Service Axes 21-inch
rule”).
Why was the 21-inch rule really
put into place by the USFS? Let’s
hear the truth. Was it forestry science
that brought about the rule? No, I
believe it was to appease the environ-
mentalists. How has that been work-
ing for us? Unhealthy forests that are
loaded with so much fuel that, when
conditions are right, we have mas-
sive destruction of our renewable
resources. With property and human
life loss. Ask yourself, has this rule
and holding the Forest Service hos-
tage in courts been working for you?
Mr. Klavins thinks there are other
ways of fixing the Eastside Screens
along with this rule.
The Forest Service has alluded to
increasing the acreage of controlled
burns, in the last few years, to solve
the extra fuel conditions. I wonder,
how much carbon particles are being
put into the atmosphere helping to
increase global warming? The smoke
from our 2020 western Oregon fires
traveled all the way to Europe and
beyond.
Mr. Klavins said the Forest Ser-
vice cut out an entire objection
period. If you read on in the article,
Mr. Stephen Baker, a Forest Service
spokesman, said the agency held a
30-day public comment period that
began Aug. 11. He said they extended
the period an additional 30 days.
I took the time to write in to Mr.
Shane Jeffries in the Ochoco Super-
visor’s Office and lodged my objec-
tions with sound forestry science
behind them.
The last 30 years our renewable
national resources have been going
down hill and up in smoke. It’s time
to change practices. Let’s watch and
see how it works, because it obvi-
ously hasn’t worked for the past 25
years.
Ken Koser
Prairie City
‘Regarding the
21-inch rule’
To the Editor:
The article regarding the 21-inch
rule had a few errors and ambiguities
that I thought I could clear up to help
get the public to better understand
what’s going on.
1. The new rule defines old trees
as over 150 years, not 100. (See the
Record of Decision, page 4.)
2. As described in the article a
“guideline” allows more flexibility
than a “standard.” A standard must
be followed precisely. A guideline
must be followed unless the agency
can show that deviation from the
guideline is “as effective in achiev-
ing the purpose” as implementing
it exactly as written. (36 C.F.R. §
219.15(d)(3)). In this case the pur-
pose that the agency must adhere
to is “to maintain and/or enhance a
diverse array of LOS conditions.”
LOS stands for “Late and Old
Structure.”
3. The article states that Klavins
said “the Northern Blues Collab-
orative’s support of amending the
21-inch rule “drove a wedge””
between members. The Northern
Blues Forest Collaborative never
formally supported amending the
21-inch rule. The minutes from all
the meetings are up on the collabo-
rative’s website. Admittedly, some
people in the collaborative thought
the amendment was a good idea.
But some didn’t — notably, Klavins
himself. Given these diverging
views, the collaborative as a whole
never took a formal position. But
that’s the point of a collaborative:
to host a forum where people of dif-
fering perspectives can hear each
other out, and seek mutually agree-
able solutions. Where we can’t find
consensus on action, we seek bet-
ter mutual understanding. The facts:
The collaborative only discussed
the proposed amendment on two
occasions. In March 2020, just 10
days after the amendment process
was officially begun, the Forest Ser-
vice gave the collaborative an over-
view presentation. In May 2020 we
discussed the reactions to the pub-
lic science forum that had occurred
just days before. It’s not been on the
agenda since.
I hope that the Blue Mountain
Eagle will publish these corrections
in the printed edition, and next time
someone makes claims about formal
collaborative positions, seek com-
ment from the collaborative itself.
Pam Hardy
Bend