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About The Blue Mountain eagle. (John Day, Or.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 2021)
YOUNGSTERS COMPETE IN JUNIOR RODEO | PAGE A9 Wednesday, September 15, 2021 153rd Year • No. 37 • 16 Pages • $1.50 MyEagleNews.com ‘As friends we part’ Pendleton man fears for Afghan family through U.S. evacuation By Bryce Dole EO Media Group Contributed photo/National Guard Capt. Leslie Reed U.S. Army Sgt. Maj. Joshua Paullus, 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infan- try, Oregon Army National Guard, shields his eyes from the sun Oct. 2, 2014, to evaluate the work on a Commander’s Emergen- cy Response Program project in Kabul, Afghanistan. Paullus, a longtime Pendleton resident, helped his friend, Hussein, relo- cate from the county to the U.S. with his wife and three daugh- ters to avoid the Taliban. Sgt. Maj. Joshua Paullus speaks to his old friend Hussein once or twice a week. The longtime Pendleton resident listens to the 32-year-old Afghan relate his family’s plight in Kabul, Afghanistan, the high-des- ert metropolis where the two met at a mili- tary base seven years ago. For weeks, half of Hussein’s family has been stuck at home, watching the Taliban patrol the streets day and night in trucks and armored military vehicles, perhaps search- ing for Afghans like them who worked for the United States during the 20-year war. The other half, including his mother and father, were stuck at the airport alongside thousands of Afghans, awaiting their escape until nearby explosions killed and wounded scores of Afghan civilians and American service members on Aug. 26. Hussein’s family fl ed back to their home. “They don’t sleep,” Hussein said of his family. Out of concern for his family’s safety, Hussein asked the East Oregonian not to publish his last name. “When I get note from the embassy, I will tell them, ‘Go to the airport.’ I tell them, don’t take any bags and wear your hijab,” he said. “I will tell them to burn everything. If (the Taliban) fi nds any military docu- ment, they will shoot them.” Hussein worked for the U.S. Armed Forces for 15 years, fi rst as a linguist and then as a contractor. By 2015, as Paullus See Afghan, Page A16 EO Media Group/Alex Wittwer Mariah Davis pours an IPA for a fl ight of beers for customers at Terminal Gravity Brewery and Pub on Sept. 2. Terminal Gravity recently closed on Tuesdays following a staff shortage. Many of the kitchen staff are high school students, who have returned to school, leaving the Enterprise brewpub further short staff ed. Plan B Shortage of employees leads to altered business models Editor’s Note Th is is the second in a fi ve-part series by EO Media Group look- ing at the issue of the lack of workers for jobs in Central and Eastern Oregon — why workers are not returning to previously held jobs and how businesses are pivoting to function without being fully staff ed. By Davis Carbaugh and Alex Wittwer EO Media Group Enterprise isn’t the largest town in East- ern Oregon, with a population of 2,052. But it’s just a few miles from the ever-popu- lar town of Joseph and its vistas across Wallowa Lake to the peaks of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. In a normal summer, Terminal Gravity Brewing in Enterprise would be busy all days of the week serving local, handcrafted beers to patrons and traditional brewpub fare. But due to a labor shortage this summer the com- pany had to cut hours during its lunch rush, and close altogether on Tuesdays. Natalie Millar, chief executive offi cer of the Wallowa County brewery, said it’s an inevitability that they’ll have to close for even more days as their skeleton crew of cooks, servers and hostesses return to school — high school, to be exact. “Heading into fall it is looking like we’re going to have to cut an additional day and probably cut lunches,” Millar said. “It is pretty brutal.” Demand for restaurant meals soared over the summer as restrictions lifted across Oregon. Nearly all restaurants saw a huge uptick in customers. But where demand reached new heights, a new challenge appeared — staff - ing the restaurants that have balanced narrow margins and threats of closure since the pandemic hit. In order to keep employees from burning out, Millar cut operating hours and closed See Workers, Page A16 Farm Bureau requests expansion of general season elk damage program Pilot program only covers main John Day Valley By Steven Mitchell Blue Mountain Eagle The Grant County Farm Bureau called on the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife to expand the boundaries of a pilot program allowing for elk damage hunts on private land to encompass all Grant County private lands. In a Sept. 1. press release, the Grant County Farm Bureau noted ODFW established its elk damage season in 2020. The program aims to control the number of elk that move onto the private property of cattle producers, eat grass, damage equipment and tear down fences, taking a big bite out of their profits. Because the state governs elk populations, landowners must abide by hunting laws and wildlife Contributed photo/ODFW The Grant County Farm Bureau is seeking a change to help reduce elk damage. management objectives. Ryan Torland, a district biolo- gist with ODFW, told the Eagle in a Sept. 2 email that elk distribu- tion on private and public lands is a “priority concern” and one that ODFW is working with federal and landowner partners to address. According to ODFW’s website, the program allows landowners and hunters to work together to address damage occurring during the open season directly. With permission from the private landowner, hunt- ers can purchase a cow elk tag to hunt on a specific property within the Murderers Creek and Northside units. The agency notes that the tag replaces 19 controlled hunts and will replace the need for land- owner damage program tags in the areas and during the periods of the hunts. This is the hunter’s only elk-hunting opportunity, and they cannot hunt in a different hunting unit. Torland said that, when the ODFW’s commission approved the pilot program for a three-year win- dow, it also developed monitoring and reporting criteria to assess the new “tool” and make changes that could include a larger swath of pri- vate lands within the county. Over 130 hunters participated in the program, and over 40 of them harvested a cow elk. He said land- owners were still learning about the program and expect it to be more popular this season. Grant County Farm Bureau President Shaun Robertson said the damage from elk populations feast- ing in pastures intended for live- stock has been an ongoing problem on private lands since the federal government began reducing timber harvests in the 1990s. “Unfortunately, the failure of the federal landowners to address the lack of high-quality forage on their own lands has directly resulted in large numbers of elk translocating to private lands seeking replacement See Elk, Page A16