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About Hermiston herald. (Hermiston, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (March 20, 2019)
LOCAL Wednesday, March 20, 2019 herMIsTOnheraLd.cOM • A3 Forest Service withdraws Blue Mountains Forest Plan revision By GEORGE PLAVEN EO MEDIA GROUP PORTLAND — After 15 years of preparation, the U.S. Forest Service was on the cusp of updating manage- ment plans for three national forests covering 5.5 mil- lion acres in the Blue Moun- tains of Eastern Oregon and southeast Washington. Instead, the agency is again taking a step back as it tries to resolve deep- rooted concerns of residents, industry and environmental groups. Northwest Regional For- ester Glenn Casamassa announced the Forest Ser- vice is scrapping the pro- posed Blue Mountains For- est Plan Revision, which includes the Umatilla, Wal- lowa-Whitman and Malheur national forests. A final draft of the plans was released in June 2018. The three forest plans — which together total more than 5,000 pages — contain guidelines for everything from grazing and timber harvest to wilderness protec- tions. While the plans do not authorize specific projects, they do set goals and desired conditions for the forests, and are ripe for scrutiny. Forest plans are due to be revised every 10 to 15 years to account for changes in the landscape and to keep up with the latest science. Casamassa, who joined the Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region in August, said he was invited by U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., to meet with the staff photo by e.J. harris The Blue Mountain Forest Plan has been withdrawn. Eastern Oregon Counties Association in October, where county commission- ers said the plans fell short of meeting economic, cul- tural and social needs. More than 300 people also spoke against the plans during objection resolu- tion meetings held across Eastern Oregon in Novem- ber and December. Objec- tions mostly centered on road closures, forest access and restoring landscapes to improve wildfire resilience, while also providing eco- nomic benefit to communi- ties, Casamassa said. Environmental groups, too, worry about the increas- ing fragmentation of forest habitat for vulnerable wild- life species, such as wolves, birds and endangered fish. “These lands are import- ant. They mean a lot to a lot of different people,” Casa- massa said. “We need to get it right. If it means taking (more) time to do that, that’s what we’re going to do.” This is not the first time the Forest Service has hit the reset button on the planning process. A draft version of the plans was completed in 2014, and received so much back- lash the local forest supervi- sors decided to develop new plan alternatives. The result was a new alternative favored by the Forest Service that officials said would have provided for thinning up to 33 percent of dry upland forests, and more than doubled the cur- rent timber harvest from 101 million board-feet per year to 205 million board-feet. The proposal also iden- tified 242,800 animal unit months, or AUMs, of live- stock grazing. An AUM is the amount of forage one cow and her calf, one horse or five sheep or goats eat during a month. In total, the feds claim the plans would have created up to 1,173 new jobs in forest products, ranching and rec- reation, with $59.5 million in added income. The decision to withdraw the revised plans came from Chris French, the review- ing officer and acting deputy Forest Service chief. While the review did not iden- tify any specific violations of law, regulation or policy, French said the plans were difficult to understand and “do not fully account for the unique social and economic needs of local communities in the area.” “Many factors com- pounded to produce revised plans that would be difficult to implement,” French said. The current Blue Moun- tains forest plans, which were last updated in 1990, will remain in effect for the time being. Casamassa said the Forest Service will be reaching out again to stake- holders to determine the next steps toward the long-over- due revisions. Despite the setback, Casamassa insisted the last 15 years of work have not been wasted, and the les- sons they learned will play a role in helping the agency to come up with Forest Plans that are implementable, and written in plain English. “To be quite honest, we can’t obviously do this on our own,” he said. “We need everyone working together. Walden thanked the Trump administration for restarting the process and listening to local input. “While it is unfortunate to have to begin again, I’m hopeful we can move for- ward in a manner that ensures the needs of our local com- munities are finally being heard and reflected in the plan,” Walden said. “Get- ting this plan right is import- ant to improving the health of our forests and our com- munities, reducing the threat of wildfires and maintaining access to our public lands that is part of our way of life in rural Oregon.” Obesity grows in Umatilla County Hermiston School District sets budget parameters for next two years By KATHY ANEY STAFF WRITER By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN STAFF WRITER Umatilla County fell and Morrow County improved in a national report that scru- tinizes health behaviors. Umatilla County dropped from 15th to 20th of Oregon’s 36 counties in the annual County Health Rankings, released Tues- day by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wiscon- sin Population Health Insti- tute. Morrow County rose from 19th to ninth. The report is a snap- shot in time in health out- comes such as premature death, low birthweight and poor physical/mental health days. Along with outcomes, researchers considered health factors such obesity, smoking, binge drinking, physical activity, sexually transmitted diseases, teen births and other behaviors to discover which counties are healthy and which are lagging behind. In that part of the report, the results were more grim. Umatilla remained at 32nd and Mor- row dropped one to 21. Both counties are get- ting fatter. In Umatilla County, 35 percent of residents are obese, up from 33 percent in 2018 and 26 percent in 2012. A third of Morrow County residents are obese, up from 31 percent last year. The state averages 28 percent. “Obesity has crept up,” said Ericka Burroughs-Gi- rardi, a spokeswoman for the Healthy Counties Rankings. In Umatilla County, sex- ually transmitted diseases are a cause for concern, with 395 cases of newly diagnosed chlamydia for The Hermiston School Board is planning for slight growth over the next year but remained conservative in its spending limits after approving budget planning parameters March 11. The board assumed a growth of 50 Average Daily Membership weighted (ADMw). The ADMw is different than simple enroll- ment numbers, referring to the number of students in the district with the added consideration of how much money will be allocated per student based on various needs, such as special edu- cation or English language learners. The board also approved a state school fund estima- tion of $8.871 billion, and $8,155 per ADMw. Katie Saul, the district’s director of business services, said the legislature sets the state budget as a total amount for the two years of the biennium, and then has to decide how to split the funding over two years. For many years, 49 percent of the funding was allocated to the first year, and 51 percent aP Photo/Patrick sison, File A closeup of a beam scale in New York. every 100,000 people. Twenty percent of Uma- tilla County children live in poverty, compared with the state’s 17 percent. Smoking stayed steady at 18 percent of adults. The percentage of driv- ing deaths that involved alcohol rose from 26 to 30 percent. The county saw improvement in other cate- gories. Teen births dropped from 44 births (per 1,000 females aged 15-19) to 41, though even with the drop, Umatilla is second-highest in the state. The percentage of unin- sured residents dropped from 11 to 10 percent. The high school graduation rate climbed from 71 to 76 percent. There is one doctor for every 2,180 residents in Umatilla County. In Morrow County, the ratio is one-to-3,760. Those numbers worry Umatilla County Pub- lic Health Director Joe Fiumara. “I have a sense that this number is actually higher than when the data was col- lected,” he said. “We have a hard time getting and keep- ing providers.” About the full report, Fiumara said Umatilla County has stayed pretty level since last year. He suspects that other coun- ties’ improvements actually caused the drop in Umatil- la’s health outcome rank. “There’s not anything here that’s a surprise to us,” he said. “We just keep plug- ging along and keep trying to improve these metrics.” This year’s report also studied housing and its relationship to health. In Oregon, many house- holds spend more than half of their income on hous- ing costs. That leaves fewer dollars to use for health. “Seventeen percent of families in Oregon spend more than 50 percent of their income on rent or mortgage payments,” Bur- roughs-Birardi said. “Black families are more impacted at 34 percent. These fam- ilies have less money to spend on other necessities like utilities, health care, healthy food and other sup- ports for a healthy life- style. There is a direct tie to health outcomes.” DONATE YOUR CAR 1-844-533-9173 FREE TOWING TAX DEDUCTIBLE 5 Theater Cineplex Check wildhorseresort.com for showtimes $5 Matinee Classics Every Wednesday Credit & Debit Cards accepted Cineplex gift cards available Help Prevent Blindness Get A Vision Screening Annually Ask About A FREE 3 Day Vacation Voucher To Over 20 Destinations!!! 541-966-1850 Pendleton, OR I-84 - Exit 216 FRIDAY: NOON ؏ 7PM • SATURDAY: 9AM ؏ 6PM • SUNDAY: 10AM ؏ 2PM HERMISTON COMMUNITY CENTER, HWY 395 • Free Admission! • Over 60 Booths! • Food Vendors! • Smitty’s Ace Hardware Kid Zone! 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That money is set aside as a safety net, to meet various mainte- nance needs, and allow them to continue funding pro- grams and staff in the event of an economic downturn. That allocation would put them at about $7.78 mil- lion with reserves, and $6.64 million without reserves. The board voted to be able to access about half of its reserve dollars for funding shortfalls — up to $650,000 of its current bien- nial balance of $1.3 million. The PERS reserve bal- ance is $2.57 million, and the board elected to have access up to $500,000. In the 2019-21 biennium the PERS rate will increase by 4.88 percent, and more rate increases are expected in the future. Saul said the district fore- casts an expenditure bud- get of $64,152,499, and pre- dicts receiving $63,439,383 in revenue. March 22nd - 24th presents 1-844-239-9335 to the second year. That split was to help districts with annual increases in costs for items such as salaries and utilities. In more recent budget years, Saul said, the state has allotted 50 percent of the funds for each year. But this biennium, districts are lob- bying to return to the 49/51 split. Saul said the even split makes it difficult for districts to plan for the second year, and often leaves districts without as much funding as they would like, or turn- ing to deficit spending in the second year. This can lead to cutting expenditures, includ- ing staff positions. Saul said although the current biennium’s budget was split 50/50, the funding was higher than expected and prevented a shortage for most districts. But she said that’s not something districts can count on, leading dis- tricts to push for more fund- ing funneled into the second year of the biennium. “While we may not have to make the significant cuts that other districts do, we are also not able to expand pro- grams or offerings to sup- port the additional growth,” Saul said. Sponsored by :
