A4
OPINION
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
New editor
takes the reins
at the Eagle
A
s some readers of
I’ve traveled to Eastern
Oregon plenty of times before
this newspaper may
— my ex-wife had family
already be aware,
the Blue Mountain Eagle has ties to Lonerock in Gilliam
County, and over the years
a new editor. After
I’ve enjoyed memo-
nearly fi ve years in the
rable trips to the Wal-
position, Sean Hart has
lowas, Steens Moun-
decided to move on to
tain, Hart Mountain,
pursue other interests.
the Alvord Desert, the
The staff of the Eagle
Deschutes River, Mal-
heur Wildlife Refuge
wishes him the very
Bennett Hall
and the Painted Hills.
best in his next en-
But those were all short-
deavor.
term
visits. This time I’m
The paper’s Sept. 15 edi-
here
to
stay.
tion was the last produced
Driving out here last week,
under Sean’s guidance, and
I
was
struck yet again by the
the Sept. 22 edition was the
wild and rugged beauty of
fi rst produced under mine.
this part of Oregon. (And to
My name is Bennett Hall,
and I’m the new editor of the the driver who fl ashed your
brights at me in the Ochocos,
Blue Mountain Eagle. I’m
proud to be taking the reins of thank you. At fi rst I was mad,
Oregon’s oldest weekly news- since I had my low beams on
paper, which has been serving and it wasn’t even full dark
yet, but then I rounded a bend
the people of John Day and
and realized you were just
Grant County in one form or
trying to warn me about cattle
another since 1868.
in the highway ahead.)
While I’m not from Ore-
I can’t wait to start explor-
gon originally, I’ve lived
ing
the area and getting to
more than half my life in
know the mountains and
this state and consider it my
canyons, lakes and streams
home. This is where I went
to college, where I raised my around here. But more than
that, I can’t wait to start get-
family and where I launched
ting to know my new neigh-
my journalism career. I’ve
bors, the people of John Day
been working for Oregon
and the other communities
newspapers since 1987, fi rst
that make up Grant County.
in Portland, then in Eugene
As the Eagle’s new editor,
and, for the last 25 years, in
I
hope
to build on the strong
the Corvallis-Albany area.
legacy of community journal-
You’ll note that my Ore-
ism established by Sean Hart
gon years have been spent
and his predecessors at this
in the Willamette Valley, in
newspaper. That means cov-
the western part of the state.
ering the news fairly, accu-
But this is the east side, and
rately, honestly and ethically,
things are diff erent here.
That was abundantly clear and always keeping the best
as I made the drive over here interests of the community in
from Corvallis last week, with mind.
It also means listening to
most of my worldly goods
crammed into the back of my what you have to say, whether
Subaru. The minute you cross it’s a story idea, a criticism or
even a pat on the back for a
the Cascade crest, the land-
scape starts to look quite a bit job well done. You can reach
drier. (You also start to see a
me at 541-575-0710 or edi-
lot fewer Subarus and a lot
tor@bmeagle.com. I look for-
more pickup trucks.)
ward to hearing from you.
OTHER VIEWS
BLM needs to reimagine Owyhee
F
or many Oregonians, hunt-
ing, public lands and family
go together. Every year, par-
ents take their children out to bag
their fi rst buck, catch their fi rst trout
or take aim at their fi rst covey of
chukar.
Generation upon generation of
hunters pass on the family tradition
of waking up early, heading out to
our state’s gorgeous public lands,
and heading home (hopefully) with
protein to feed the family. As we
approach hunting season, it’s worth
refl ecting on how we use our pub-
lic lands and how we can protect
access to hunting, fi shing and our
wild public lands for our children.
This year, the Bureau of Land
Management, which manages
some of the best hunting and
fi shing areas in Southeast Ore-
gon, is celebrating its 75th anni-
versary. The theme of this mile-
stone is to “Reimagine our Public
Lands,” which include places like
the Owyhee Canyonlands and the
Trout Creek Mountains. This anni-
versary comes right as the BLM’s
Vale District is conducting a public
process to amend its resource man-
agement plan — a once-in-a-gener-
ation opportunity to guide manage-
ment on these lands for the next 20
years.
Known for its dark skies where
one can view the stunning spread
of the Milky Way, fi nd increasingly
rare solitude and build memories of
backcountry adventures, the Owyhee
is one of the most remote and
beloved expanses in the Lower 48.
For decades, folks have been trying
to preserve this unique area through
USPS 226-340
Grant County’s Weekly Newspaper
Email: www.MyEagleNews.com
Phone: 541-575-0710
John Day, Oregon
Issues remain after deadline pushed back
ditor’s note: This editorial
originally appeared in the
East Oregonian.
The news that more than half
of Oregon’s state employees will
get an extra six weeks to get inoc-
ulated against COVID-19 was wel-
come, but the question of what
happens after the deadline remains
unanswered.
Gov. Kate Brown pushed back
the earlier October deadline and
set Nov. 30 as the fi nal date state
employees must be vaccinated.
The decision aff ects more than
20,000 workers.
Yet many people — including
many in the health care industry —
have no intention of getting vacci-
nated for a variety of reasons, and
that could mean the state will face
a new crisis on top of an already
spiraling COVID-19 surge.
Now, more than a quarter of
all health care workers in Uma-
tilla, Union and Morrow counties
remain unvaccinated. All those
R EPORTER
S PORTS
M ULTIMEDIA
M ARKETING R EP
O FFICE A SSISTANT
Bennett Hall, bhall@bmeagle.com
Steven Mitchell, steven@bmeagle.com
sports@bmeagle.com
Alex Wittwer@awittwer@eomediagroup.com
Kim Kell, ads@bmeagle.com
Alixandra Hand, offi ce@bmeagle.com
PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY BY EO Media Group
Blue Mountain Eagle
195 N. Canyon Blvd.
John Day, OR 97845-1187
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workers would be fired or forced
to resign under the governor’s
vaccination mandate.
Dr. Jon Hitzman, Umatilla
County’s public health officer,
said last week the situation is like
a game of chicken.
“Who’s going to relent first?”
he asked.
That we’ve reached this point
in what is a once-a-century pan-
demic is beyond troubling. It is
sad.
Yet, here we are. If neither side
budges — and so far, the governor
hasn’t indicated she plans to back
down — then the small towns
scattered across Eastern Ore-
gon will encounter a new medical
emergency because there will be
fewer qualified people to attend
to those with the virus and people
injured or in need of serious care.
In a sense, the area’s hospitals
are caught in the middle — a not
uncommon situation since the pan-
demic began — as they must com-
ply with the state mandate but, at the
same time, need qualifi ed people to
operate eff ectively.
Ultimately, much of the fi nal con-
sequence of this situation is out of
the hands of residents of the region.
We can sympathize with health care
workers, or we can feel they should
all follow the governor’s mandate
but, in the end, it will be an individ-
ual decision thousands of workers
have to make.
So, the real question is what mea-
sures and fail-safes are elected lead-
ers across the region proposing to
overcome a sudden loss of thou-
sands of qualifi ed workers? What
will be the state’s role if the region
faces a mass exodus of health care
workers? Have local elected lead-
ers reached out to state leaders about
the issue? If so, what plan is in the
works?
We can’t aff ord to wait around
and see who blinks fi rst. We need
actionable plans in case we lose a
great number of workers.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
MEMBER OREGON NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
E DITOR
ing the shared treasure of our pub-
lic lands, this is a golden opportu-
nity to truly reimagine this plan.
The BLM is reviewing more
than 4,000 public comments that
were submitted about the draft
plan. The bulk of those comments
asked the BLM to make changes
to their proposal and to conserve
this backcountry escape. With
the recent shift in the administra-
tion, the BLM has a great oppor-
tunity to make changes between
the 2019 draft plan and the soon-
to-be released, proposed fi nal plan.
These changes should incorporate
additional conservation measures
that would protect hundreds of
thousands of acres of remote, back-
country landscapes.
The solitude and the quiet in
these remote high desert canyons
and sagebrush plateaus are some of
the fi nest values any place can off er.
As the BLM celebrates 75 years,
we should make sure our pub-
lic lands are protected for the next
75, starting with this hidden Ore-
gon gem. Please make your voice
heard and speak up by joining the
Owyhee Sportsmen’s Coalition or
contacting your senators today.
Updating the Southeast Oregon
RMP to include conservation mea-
sures will make sure we are always
able to share this place with the next
generation of hunters and anglers
and we continue to have robust
game species to pursue this uniquely
American heritage.
Michael O’Casey lives in Bend
and is the Oregon/Washington fi eld
representative for the Theodore Roo-
sevelt Conservation Partnership.
OTHER VIEWS
E
EAGLE
various pathways
including legisla-
tion, national mon-
ument designation
and through admin-
istrative planning,
such as the RMP.
While the BLM
Michael
is asking the pub-
O’Casey
lic to reimagine our
public lands, hunters and anglers are
asking them to make changes to its
preferred alternative within the draft
Southeast Oregon Resource Man-
agement Plan, the amendment that
was published in 2019. In the BLM’s
preferred alternative, it chose not to
manage even a single additional acre
for its conservation values.
The kicker is the agency itself
identifi ed more than 1.2 million
acres as containing wilderness char-
acteristics, meaning these lands
are wild, undeveloped, backcoun-
try lands and many of these acres
deserve to be managed to ensure
they remain that way.
Oregonians deserve a plan that
protects our access and enjoy-
ment of these shared public lands
and one that will conserve habitat
for iconic species such as the sage
grouse and our state’s renowned
big game animals that have been
declining for decades.
This RMP will guide manage-
ment across millions of acres of
public land for decades to come.
Through this amendment pro-
cess, there is an opportunity for
the BLM to conserve this wild and
remote area by limiting unneces-
sary development. Following the
BLM’s stated vision of reimagin-
Masks in schools
a sensible move
To the Editor:
Oregon has laws that require chil-
dren to be in safety/car seats. Every
state in this nation has car seat laws.
Car seats save children’s lives and pro-
tect them from serious injury. Kids
in car seats can’t move around the
car once buckled in. Their freedom
L
is very restricted. Fines are imposed
on the driver if kids aren’t properly
secured. Car seats and boosters are
taken for granted. Yet mandating a par-
ent and a school that a child has to wear
a piece of cloth over their face in cer-
tain environments, just while the pan-
demic is still happening, which protects
the child and the children around them,
and their teachers, from contracting and/
or spreading what can now be a deadly
disease for kids and even infants, is “tyr-
anny”? I am seeing that word plastered
around this community. History has hor-
rifi c examples of tyranny. Trying to keep
kids from dying by mandating a simple
protective measure is not going to show
up in history books as tyrannical. If it is
reported, it will be as a simple, responsi-
ble, public health measure that any rea-
sonable government would take to pro-
tect its most vulnerable people.
Nancy Nickel
John Day
ETTERS POLICY: Letters to the Editor is a forum for Blue Mountain Eagle readers to express themselves on local,
state, national or world issues. Brevity is good, but longer letters will be asked to be contained to 350 words. No
personal attacks; challenge the opinion, not the person. No thank-you letters. Submissions to this page become
property of the Eagle. The Eagle reserves the right to edit letters for length and for content. Letters must be original
and signed by the writer. Anonymous letters will not be printed. Writers should include a telephone number so they
can be reached for questions. We must limit all contributors to one letter per person per month. Deadline is 5 p.m.
Friday. Send letters to editor@bmeagle.com, or Blue Mountain Eagle, 195 N. Canyon Blvd., John Day, OR 97845; or fax to
541-575-1244.