STATE
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, March 9, 2022
A7
Timber bills get bipartisan nod
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
SALEM — A trio of bills
that seek to end Oregon’s “tim-
ber wars” have won bipartisan
support from state lawmakers,
who confi rmed the previously
negotiated compromises by wide
margins.
Senate Bill 1501, which
enshrines into law new logging
standards agreed upon by tim-
ber and environmental groups,
passed the Senate 22-5 and the
House 43-15 in the waning days
of this year’s legislative session,
which ended Friday, March 4.
A companion bill that pro-
vides tax credits to small forest-
land owners who abide by stricter
logging regulations, Senate Bill
1502, was approved unani-
mously in both chambers.
The Legislature also voted
overwhelmingly in favor of
Senate Bill 1546, which would
implement a new management
strategy for the Elliott State For-
est. The 90,000-acre property
would remain under state own-
ership while managed by Ore-
gon State University for forest
research and timber harvest.
The three bills must now be
signed by Gov. Kate Brown to
become law.
Over the past four decades,
Oregon’s legislative, executive
and judicial branches haven’t
been able to resolve the festering
dispute between the timber indus-
try and environmental groups
over forest management, said
Rep. Ken Helm, D-Beaverton.
“Our institutions were not
well-suited to doing that,” Helm
said.
The recent timber bills are
“diff erent animals” because they
were brokered by stakehold-
ers ahead of the legislative ses-
sion, which may serve as a model
for resolving other longstanding
problems, he said.
“Senate Bill 1501 embod-
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press File
Felled trees are moved in preparation for being cut into log
lengths and loaded onto a truck. Three bills that affi rm compro-
mises between the timber industry and environmental groups
were approved by Oregon lawmakers in the fi nal days of the
legislative session that ended Friday, March 4.
ies a monumental, if not historic,
agreement for protections for our
environment and for certainty for
our timber economy,” Helm said.
Representatives of timber
and environmental groups struck
the Private Forest Accord deal in
SALEM — A retired U.S.
Army colonel from Douglas
County, a conservative activ-
ist who switched from a race
in Arizona and a 2020 can-
didate for the U.S. Senate
in Arizona have fi led to run
against US Rep. Cliff Bentz,
R-Ontario.
Bentz is seeking a second
two-year term representing
the 2nd Congressional Dis-
trict, which covers nearly all
of eastern, central and much
of southwestern Oregon.
The sprawling, mostly
rural area already had a strong
Republican tilt that was made
even more pronounced under
redistricting that extracted
northern Deschutes County,
the district’s largest Demo-
cratic enclave, and moved it
into the 5th Congressional
District.
Joseph Yetter III of Aza-
lea in Douglas County fi led
on Thursday, March 3, with
the Oregon secretary of state
to run in the Democratic pri-
mary in the 2nd Congressio-
nal District. He is currently
the only Democrat in the race.
Yetter’s fi ling lists him as
a physician and farmer. The
candidate statement fi led with
the secretary of state says he
Several forest product com-
panies and the Oregon Small
Woodlands Association signed
onto the Private Forest Accord
with the understanding that it
would provide more regulatory
certainty and reduce the likeli-
hood of disruptive lawsuits and
ballot initiatives.
The agreement is costly for
the timber industry, not only
fi nancially but also in terms of
its unity, since some companies
remain opposed to the new reg-
ulations, said Chris Edwards,
president of the Oregon Forest &
Industries Council.
However, there is too much
at stake for the timber industry to
roll the dice and move forward
without the deal, he said during
a legislative hearing on SB 1501.
“At its core, the Private For-
est Accord is about protecting a
future for forestry in Oregon,”
Edwards said. “It’s also about
turning the page on the timber
wars of the past.”
Second woman accuses former
St. Charles doctor of sex abuse
Bentz draws more
challengers in
reelection bid
By GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
2021 after a year of talks medi-
ated by the governor’s offi ce,
which convened the panel to
avoid the prospect of compet-
ing ballot measures on forestry
regulations.
The history behind SB 1501
didn’t sit well for lawmakers
such as Rep. Christine Good-
win, R-Roseburg, who said
she’d vote against the bill to pro-
test the “blackmail” of the timber
industry.
“I am opposed to the pres-
sures imposed on our timber
industry to accept these compro-
mises,” she said. “I’m opposed
to the intimidation to accept this
accord or else it could be much
worse for the timber industry.”
The 44-page bill expands
no-harvest buff ers around
streams, implements stricter
requirements for road-building,
prioritizes non-lethal control of
beavers and creates a new model-
ing system to avoid and mitigate
the eff ects of landslides.
The legislation is expected to
set the stage for a federal Habitat
Conservation Plan for the state’s
private forests, which would
shield landowners from liability
under the Endangered Species Act
when harvesting trees.
By GARRETT ANDREWS
The Bulletin
is a retired U.S. Army colo-
nel who served from 1968 to
2004.
Bentz already has two
opponents in the Republican
primary, both with ties to Ari-
zona politics.
Katherine “Kat” Gallant,
a conservative commenta-
tor living in Ukiah, in Uma-
tilla County, has been listed as
qualifi ed by the Oregon secre-
tary of state to run for the 2nd
Congressional District as a
Republican.
Gallant had planned to run
for the 1st Congressional Dis-
trict in Arizona in 2022. After
redistricting maps for both
states were fi nalized, Gallant
said she decided to run for the
seat in Oregon instead.
Gallant said she was born
and raised in Pendleton, lives
in Umatilla County, and also
has property in Arizona and
Utah.
Mike Cavener of Klam-
ath Falls, who lists several
nonprofi t and political action
groups in his career, fi led to
run for the 2nd district in early
January.
Cavener fi led to run in
the 2020 U.S. Senate spe-
cial election in Arizona, but
withdrew prior to the pri-
mary vote, according to the
political tracking website
Ballotpedia.
BEND — A second
woman has accused a former
St. Charles Bend doctor of
sexual abuse.
Theodore Braich, a long-
time oncologist, is now
accused of grabbing the
breasts of a 77-year-old
patient in 2017, according to
a $700,000 lawsuit fi led this
week in Deschutes County
Circuit Court.
He was sued for $1 mil-
lion last summer by a dif-
ferent woman who made
similar allegations about a
medical exam at St. Charles
Bend in 2020.
Braich has denied the
claims in the fi rst lawsuit
and sought to have that case
dismissed. He has yet to
be served with the second
lawsuit.
“No comment,” he said,
when reached by phone
Tuesday.
It’s common once a doctor
is accused that other victims
come forward, said attorney
Greg Kafoury, who is repre-
senting both women. He said
his fi rm, Kafoury McDougal,
has sued every major hospi-
tal system in Oregon.
“Sexual predators are
drawn to the medical pro-
fession, because it gives
them cover,” Kafoury said.
“They’re dealing with peo-
ple who are ill or medicated,
and the medical professional
is cloaked in respectability.
They have an opportunity
to abuse people with a high
degree of impunity.”
In the latest lawsuit, the
accuser scheduled a consul-
tation with Braich in 2017
to determine if she was tak-
ing the appropriate medica-
tion. She’d been diagnosed
with blood clots in her lungs
earlier that year, the lawsuit
states.
While seated on the exam
table during her appointment,
Braich allegedly grabbed
the woman’s right breast,
according to the complaint.
“Shortly
thereaf-
ter, Defendant Dr. Braich
then grabbed plaintiff ’s
left breast, then released
it, standing next to plain-
tiff and staring blankly for a
few moments,” the lawsuit
states. “Braich then turned
abruptly and walked away
from the exam table, say-
ing that the examination was
over.”
The lawsuit states the
woman has suff ered anxi-
ety as a result of the alleged
touching and a reluctance to
schedule medical appoint-
ments to treat her life-threat-
ening blood clots.
In the earlier case, Braich
conducted a new patient
exam with a woman on April
15, 2020. During the visit,
Braich allegedly inappro-
priately touched the woman
numerous times.
Afterward, she contacted
St. Charles Bend to com-
plain about her interactions
with Braich. St. Charles
Bend responded with a let-
ter stating it had conducted
an internal investigation that
included interviewing Dr.
Braich about the woman’s
allegations.
In his response to the
lawsuit, Braich denies he
engaged in any “deliber-
ate, intentional, unlawful,
or deliberately off ensive and
injurious” touching of the
woman.
Braich, 70, does not face
criminal charges.
He retired as of Jan. 1,
according to records of the
Oregon Medical Board.
He earned his medical
degree from Oregon Health
& Science University in
1979 and was certifi ed in
hematology, oncology and
internal medicine.
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