A16
NEWS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Forest
Continued from Page A1
general approach to determin-
ing land uses. The Forest Service’s
Tom Montoya said these adminis-
trative recommendations go through
a review process under the National
Environmental Policy Act.
Trulock said in a Feb. 11 phone
call the goal was to come to a col-
lective understanding about the For-
est Service’s process: Even if there
are no additional set-asides, they
still have to go through the analy-
sis to get to that point and make that
recommendation.
Another topic the subcommittee
discussed was inventoried roadless
areas. The 2001 rule established 58
million acres that mapped out areas
within the inventory that prohibit
permanent roads.
Trulock said the decision-mak-
ing elevates “quickly” to the regional
forester level and up to the chief in
order to propose something within an
inventoried roadless area.
Trulock said a proposal such as a
commercial timber harvest is com-
plicated for supervisors to propose
within a roadless area without a
“robust and pretty extensive analy-
sis.” On the other hand, he said get-
ting authorized to use bulldozers in
a roadless area to corral a quickly
growing fire is a rapid process.
“There are mechanisms in place
for firefighting that allow us to have
more latitude, that save wilderness,”
he said.
Trulock said it is possible to get
authorization for forest restoration,
such as non-commercial thinning and
other activities that do not involve
tree removal. Trulock said there is
not enough timber value to warrant
things like helicopter logging.
Overall, Trulock said the dis-
cussions have been “a little slow,”
but the meetings have been positive
regarding transparency.
“A lot of what led to the BIC
was to gain some transparency that
was maybe lacking in the last forest
plan revision process amongst all
the government agencies,” he said.
“And so I think that has been going
really well.”
Eagle file photo
The trail from Forest Road 1370 to Monument Rock passes between numerous large rock outcroppings.
Owens said there needs to be a
balance between set-asides areas
and “working forest” areas.
“The direction they continue
to take is to take more forest out
because it qualifies as a scenic river
in somebody’s mind,” or a wilder-
ness area, or a roadless area, he said.
He said the plan needs to desig-
nate part of the forest as a “working
forest” for communities like Grant
County to prosper, even if it’s at a
reduced scale from where it used to
be in the 1980s and 1990s.
“We need that working forest
to be able to have some commer-
cial harvest, have some mushroom
picking and have some resource
extraction from it that is sustain-
able,” he said.
He said, if the forests remain
“locked up,” communities will be
unable to manage wildfires.
“I believe 90% of the communi-
ties far and wide want a fire-resilient
forest,” Owens said.
He said there are areas within the
forests where fire restoration crews
cannot reach to remove the fuels.
“Whether it be a pre-commer-
cial or commercial harvest or wil-
derness areas,” he said, “there is a
tinderbox.”
‘It is semantics’
Scheeler, the tribal wildlife man-
ager, said most of the travel and
access restrictions they are talking
about could allow them to get in, do
management activities and remove
fiber from the forest to reduce
wildfires.
Scheeler said the Forest Service
put the travel management plan on
hold within the Wallowa-Whitman
and Malheur national forests. Still,
he said, there are issues within the
forest plan that have implications
for travel and access, including elk
security habitat.
He said they have created “sur-
rogates” out of some of the future
wildlife “desired conditions” that
have been challenging.
“The open roads on the forests
and access for vehicle travel is a
really big issue in some communi-
ties with some individuals, and it’s
very emotional, and it’s become
highly politicized,” he said.
Scheeler said he has worked for
25 years on the elk issue on the Blue
Mountain Elk Initiative. He said the
problem is “real” and “compelling”
for private landowners who have elk
pushed on to their land. But, he said,
for people who do not want to lose
their favorite hunting area or fire-
wood spot, they get pushback.
He said trying to find common
ground on that issue has been “very
challenging.” Again, Scheeler said
that wilderness and set-asides are
used as a “surrogate” for access and
travel, which has been put on the
back burner pending completion of
the forest plan.
He said the county commissioners
have “leaned in” and better under-
stand the issue, and they have found
“reasonable compromises.”
He said, when talking about
desired conditions, they are not
talking about anything specific.
Scheeler said so much of these talks
is how they say things to one another.
He said there is a lack of trust in
how the plan will look once it hits the
ground, but the group has been work-
ing hard to come together to the extent
that they can agree on those issues.
He said he believes that the group
will come to some “reasonable rec-
ommendations” on set-asides and the
language in the “desired conditions.”
Scheeler said he had not spo-
ken to Owens and that they would
speak on the steering committee level
“shortly.” He said, so far, there have
not been any any real “non-starters.”
He said it is just a matter of articulat-
ing their concerns to the Forest Ser-
vice so that they are understood.
Scheeler said, when they talk
about desired conditions, they are not
far apart.
“It is semantics,” Scheeler said.
He said, when they are talking
from the “30,000-foot level,” there is
a lot general agreement.
Scheeler said everybody would
like to see elk on public lands where
they’re accessible for both hunters
and people who want to view wild-
life. Nobody, he said, wants to see elk
pushed off onto private lands and into
agricultural areas where they will
cause economic and social problems.
He said the way the desired condi-
tions are written would have implica-
tions that they don’t know how they
will play out.
“So there’s a general fear,” he
said, “that it may impact some-
body’s sacred cow and that it’s not
in their interest.”
Leather
Continued from Page A1
ciated with leatherwork, according to Kehrberg.
“You can show up and use our tools and get your feet
wet or get back into it to see if you want to make the
investment in your own tools,” Kehrberg said.
Seeing the students have fun, talk with each other and
put creativity into a project has made it worth it for her,
she said.
More beginning tooling classes and more types
of leather classes are planned, and the center is seek-
ing additional tools and instructors. Kehrberg said any-
one interested should contact her or center Director Kim
Randleas.
Contributed photo
“As we get more tools and some sewing machines,
we’ll be able to offer more classes,” Kehrberg said. “If any- Lindy Cruise creates a leather patch
body has tools to donate or would like to make a monetary for a hat based on a picture from her
donation, that would be fantastic as the program grows.” phone during a leather class Feb. 19.
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