A8
SPORTS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
Area student athletes honored
ing to an established scoring sys-
tem. Those points go toward the
OSAA Cup, awarded at the end
of the school year.
Grant Union’s boys cross
country fi nished fi fth in the
2A/1A division with a collective
3.47 GPA, while the girls’ squad
placed ninth in the 3A/2A/1A
division with an overall GPA of
3.78.
The Grant Union football
team was recognized with a num-
ber of all-league selections in the
Blue Mountain Conference.
Justin Hodge, a senior, was
a fi rst-team selection at running
back, defensive back and punter.
Parker Neault, a senior, made
the second team as a defensive
back. In addition, Tanler Fuller,
a senior, received an honorable
mention.
Rylan Cox, a senior, was
named to the fi rst-team off ensive
line, while Alex Finley, a sopho-
more, was named to the second
team. Finley was also an honor-
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Grant County
student athletes were among the
best and brightest in the state this
year.
With fall sports coming to a
close, the Oregon School Activ-
ities Association has announced
its season-ending awards, with
area student-athletes bringing
home a number of honors.
Grant Union’s boys and girls
cross country teams both got
nods for academic excellence,
landing on the top 10 lists in their
respective divisions.
The OnPoint Community
Credit Union Academic All-State
Program recognizes outstanding
achievement in the classroom.
Teams in OSAA-sanctioned
events earn 25 points for their
schools by getting a 3.0-grade
point average or higher, with
teams in the top 10 of their sports
making additional points accord-
able mention for the defensive
line. Talon VanCleave, a sopho-
more, was named second-team
linebacker, while Sheldon Lenz,
a junior, was an honorable
mention.
Maverick Miller, a senior,
was named to the second team as
a quarterback, while Fuller was
named to the second team as a
receiver. Neault received an hon-
orable mention as a receiver.
Several members of the Prai-
rie City volleyball team earned
all-league selections in the High
Desert League.
Betty Ann Wilson, a junior,
made the league’s fi rst team,
while Laken McKay, a junior,
earned a second-team nod and
Hannah Wall and Jaycee Wine-
gar were honorable mentions.
Prairie City’s football coach,
Nick Thompson, was named
Coach of the Year, while Cole
Teel was named Off ensive Player
of the Year and fi rst-team run-
ning back. Teel was also named
to the second team as a kicker.
Prairie City’s Eli Wright
made the fi rst team on the off en-
sive and defensive lines. Wes
Voigt was named to the fi rst team
as a linebacker and second team
as a quarterback. Meanwhile,
Tucker Wright was an honorable
mention as a running back and a
second-team linebacker.
John Titus was named to the
second team as a wide receiver,
while Cody Reagan was named
to the second team as an off en-
sive lineman and Trey Brown
was named to the second team as
a defensive lineman. Doyal Law-
rence was named to the second
team as a returner.
Grant Union volleyball play-
ers Grace Taylor and Lauryn Pet-
tyjohn were named to the Blue
Mountain Conference fi rst team.
Paige Gerry, Carson Weaver and
Drewsey Williams were named
to the second team. Freshman
Adeline Northway was an hon-
orable mention.
Fall grass good news for game
By JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
BAKER CITY — When Brian
Ratliff gazes at the south-facing
slopes that loom above the Snake,
Powder and Burnt rivers in Baker
County, he’s gratifi ed by the soft
green haze he sees.
Better that than brown.
Or, worse still, white.
The green fuzz — detectable
even from miles away — reveals
a crop of tender grass that has
sprouted, nourished by the peri-
odic rains that arrived in North-
eastern Oregon soon after the con-
clusion of a summer defi ned by
severe drought.
This forage, coming as it has
before snow has accumulated at
the lower elevations that serve as
winter range for many species,
could spare deer and other wildlife
from the potentially fatal depri-
vations of winter, said Ratliff , the
district wildlife biologist at the
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s Baker City offi ce.
“Right now it’s great,” Rat-
liff said on Wednesday, Nov. 10.
“If we had had a dry fall and then
gone right to snow, we would be in
a lot worse shape. I’m very, very
happy that we got (the fall grass).”
That grass is especially vital for
deer, Ratliff said.
The source of nutritious food
allows deer to amass a layer of fat
that can sustain them during the
frigid weeks and months to come.
Fawns are particularly vulnera-
ble due to their smaller body mass,
which can’t generate as much heat.
But Ratliff said bucks, which
are in the rut now and thus burn-
ing more calories than usual, are
also vulnerable to dry falls when
most of the available forage has
been left desiccated by the hot, dry
summer.
Dry grass isn’t as nutritious as
the new fl ush of growth spurred
by rains in October and early
November.
Elk and bighorn sheep tend to
be hardier than deer, but those ani-
Brett French/TownNews.com Content Exchange
Whitetail deer and other wildlife stand to benefi t from a bumper crop
of fall grass in Northeastern Oregon.
mals also benefi t from the crop of
nutritious grass just before winter
descends.
Ratliff said he would have pre-
ferred to see the greenup begin a
bit earlier, in late September or
early October, which would have
given animals more time to pack
on pounds.
Although daytime tempera-
tures have been near average,
Ratliff said frequent sub-freezing
nights have limited grass growth
on north-facing slopes, which get
much less sunlight.
Most of the new grass is con-
fi ned to south slopes, with winter
ranges in the Snake River country
faring better than along the lower
Powder and Burnt rivers, Ratliff
said.
Grant County
Ryan Torland, district wildlife
biologist at the ODFW offi ce in
John Day, calls the fall grass crop
in Grant County “tremendous.”
“Following a hot and dry sum-
mer, it’s certainly going to help a
lot,” Torland said. “It’s one of the
greenest falls I’ve seen.”
Unlike Baker County, where
the lushest grass is mainly con-
fi ned to south-facing slopes, Tor-
land said fall rains have resulted
in a more widespread crop of new
growth, including at higher eleva-
tions and in forested areas.
“We defi nitely got enough rain
to make a diff erence,” he said.
Union County
The situation is similar in
Union County, said Matt Keenan,
district wildlife biologist at
ODFW’s La Grande offi ce.
“We’re defi nitely seeing a
fall greenup, and it’s a pretty
welcome sight after such a dry
summer,” Keenan said. “It’s
defi nitely going to help. It’s
super crucial for deer and elk
to add to those last-minute fat
reserves.”
Like Ratliff , Keenan said the
rain would have been even more
benefi cial had it arrived earlier
in the fall, when warmer tem-
peratures would have yielded a
more bountiful grass crop.
During winter, deer, elk
and bighorn sheep burn their
fat reserves to produce body
heat. So long as those reserves
last, the animals can with-
stand even subzero tempera-
tures for extended periods,
biologists say.
But once those fat layers
have been shed, deer in partic-
ular struggle to fi nd enough to
eat to keep their body tempera-
ture up.
Even with the welcome fl ush
of new green grass this fall, Rat-
liff said deer could be vulnerable
this winter.
“If we have a whopper of a
winter again, we’re going to
lose deer,” he said.
During the last such winter,
2016-17, deep snow and pro-
longed periods of frigid tem-
peratures devastated deer herds
in Baker County and other parts
of Northeastern Oregon.
In response to the loss of
hundreds of animals, ODFW cut
hunting tags by up to 50% for
the 2017 hunting season.
In many units, deer herds
have yet to recover enough to
prompt state offi cials to increase
tag allocations.
Benefi ts for birds
Autumn grass also benefi ts
upland game birds, such as chu-
kars and quail, that eat grass,
Ratliff said.
Birds don’t need as much
forage, of course, as the much
larger deer and elk.
But Ratliff pointed out
that birds are much less capa-
ble of digging through snow
to reach grass compared with
deer.
Snow doesn’t pose a major
problem for deer unless it’s
capped with an ice crust, he said.
But for birds, several
inches of snow can keep
them from reaching the grass,
Ratliff said.
Dale Valade/For the Blue Mountain Eagle
The .30-06 Springfi eld may be the only gun you’ll
ever need.
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
Ode to the .30-06
I
n the history of self-contained cartridges, I’m
not sure if there has been a single cartridge
which has been more iconic nor prodigious.
Love it or hate it, the .30-06 in all of its military
and civilian glory is a legend and arguably the best
all-around cartridge ever devised.
After our troops encountered
the ballistically superior Mauser
rifl es in Cuba, our then newly
adopted Krag rifl es were already
up for replacement. The result of
much development and exper-
imentation, which I will not go
Dale Valade
into here, gave us the Spring-
fi eld 1903 rifl e fi ring a cartridge
known as .30 caliber Government Model of 1906.
For the sake of brevity it became known as the
.30-06, pronounced thirty-aught-six.
From both a military and a sportsman’s out-
look, it was an instant hit. Theodore Roosevelt
was the fi rst hunter of note to adopt it as a favor-
ite, fi nding it adequate for dangerous game on his
1909 African adventures. He preferred its lighter
recoil to the big bore weapons on his safaris as
well as when hunting stateside. After World War I,
doughboys returning home with war surplus rifl es
were largely to thank for America’s change in
trend from lever-action to bolt-action rifl es. Other
hunters of note that preferred the .30-06 include
but are not limited to Ernest Hemingway, Stewart
Edward White, Robert Ruark, Gary Cooper, Clark
Gable, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Jr.
Today, the .30-06 remains a top fi ve seller in
the United States and worldwide. It remains the
most powerful non-Magnum .30-caliber rifl e
extant. Rifl es and ammunition are available com-
mercially on every continent where such is sold.
From both a factory ammunition and handload-
ers standpoint, hundreds of diff erent styles of bul-
lets ranging from 100 to 220 grains in weight are
available for any custom or niche load application
desirable. Rifl es are manufactured in every varia-
tion, including bolt, single-shot, pump, semi-auto-
matic and lever-action designs.
But surely anything 125 years old cannot seri-
ously compete with today’s technology, right?
Much to the chagrin of the “Magnum means bet-
ter” and the 6.5mm fans, the .30-06 is still the
measuring stick against which all newcomers are
pitted. While I enjoy shooting everything from the
smaller calibers up to the big bores as much as the
next person, the .30-06 for me will always be the
ultimate all-around hunting cartridge. It has been
successfully used to take every kind of animal on
the planet. When loaded with the right bullet, there
isn’t any job it can’t handle. To paraphrase an old
friend, “It may be perfect for nothing but it works
great on everything!”
If the .30-06 lacks anything, it’s pizazz. All my
childhood heroes arrived and left on horseback or
in farm trucks, but kids today expect more pomp
and circumstance, and therefore the .30-06 might
seem a bit wrinkly and dim. But I assure you, it’s
as useful, versatile, powerful and deadly as ever.
The .30-06 might not be the only gun you’ll ever
want, but it may well be the only one you’ll ever
need.
Are you a .30-06 fan? Write to us at shoo-
tingthebreezebme@gmail.com!
Dale Valade is a local country gent with a
love for the outdoors, handloading, hunting
and shooting.
Sponsor:
Polk County
Craft Festival
November 26th & 27th 9am - 5pm
Debbie Ausmus
245 South Canyon Blvd.
John Day, OR 97845
OPEN WED. & THUR.
9 am - 5 pm
2 Buildings full of quality handmade items
Admission by donation, free parking
541-575-1113
food available onsite
24 hrs/7 days wk
debbie.ausmus@
countryfinancial.com
Polk County Fairgrounds & Event Center
520 S Pacific Hwy W Rickreall, OR 97371
503-623-3048
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