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LA GRANDE SCHOOL DISTRICT WALLOWA COUNTY
• Stakeholders get chance to see progress of Lower Joseph Creek restoration By Katy Nesbitt The Observer
T
aking a discussion from the board room to the landscape is the only way to getproper perspectiveofaw orking forest, something the Wallowa-Whitman Collaborative put into practiceWednesday with a tour of Lower Joseph Creek in northern Wallowa-County. Nearly five years ago, the Wallowa County Natural Resource Advisory Committee, a team composed of industry, agency and private interests, began developing a watershed assessment that w ouldrestore overstocked forestswhile making provisions for rangeland, fish and wildlife. The area comprises more than 90,000 acres, a mix of forest and grassland with oversight from the U.S. Forest Service. The region is used recreationally by campers and hunters. The first stop on the tour was a meadow rife with wildflowers with a view of the Blue Mountains off in the distance.
Last year, the Wallowa-Whitman Collaborative adopted the Lower Joseph Creek Watershed assessment as a pilot project, putting the ForestService's acceleratedpace and scale philosophy restoration to work. The Eastside Restoration Team started the environmental analysis work in September, and the plan is scheduled to have on-the-ground work begin in 2015. Getting projects fiom the planning stage to implementation in a quicker fashion started on the Malheur National Forest, said John Laurence, Wallowa-Whitman National Forest supervisor. That process was extended to the Umatilla, Ochoco and Wallowa-Whitman to improve Eastern Oregon's forest health. This summer, the team is working on a range of alternatives, Laurence said, and those options will soon go out for public comment. ''We are working to get the project going on a grand, ambitious timeline," Laurence said.'There's been a lot of work done by
Wallowa County and the advisory committee, and now we are trying something new with a dedicated ID team." Ayn Shlisky said part of the accelerated focus is a regional emphasis to push forestrestoration toward more resiliency. Fire suppression has altered the landscape and the plan calls for thinning, logging and using prescribed fire on almost half of the timbered land based on the forest' shighestneeds. The overall plan, Shlisky said, is to leaveold-growth trees alone,w hile encouraging a multi-storied forest. A lot ofthe area has already been logged and existing roads will be used to remove harvestedtimber. Nils Christoffersen, Wallowa Resources representativ eto the advisory committee, said promoting old-growth structure is consistent with the county's watershed assessment. Brian Kelly of the Hells Canyon Preservation Council said the assessment's forestry sub-committee had zones SeeTour / Page 5A
• Resolution passed by La Grande School Board By Dick Mason The Observer
La Grande School District Superintendent Larry Glaze needed no time to reflect on the question. Glaze was asked at a meeting of the La Grande School Board on Wednesday if the $31.85 million bond the school district is set to ask voters to approve in November would boost the security level of La Grande's public schools. ''We have an excellent opportunity to addresssecurityissues, "Glaze said. The school board approved Wednesday a resolution for a $31.85 million bond levy to be placedon theNovember ballot. Glaze said funding from the bond would be spent to build many new elementary school classrooms,meaning that the totalofapproximately 10 modulars at Central Elementary and Island City Elementary now serving as classroomscouldberemoved. The removal of the modulars would boost security because it would mean students at Central and Island SeeBond / Page 5A
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Inside • Retention of bonuses could total Sponsors an initiative that would up to tj650,000
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llf jl'I Itl' ,h!I li'If. ,"rl I!jlj Ii ! „ ',, ; r r , e ' , .)II, !r i ordtion'project e'ncompasses 90 000 acres t The Lower Joseph Creek rest %6 6 thah half fojkst arld thI 'rirnainder grgss r lands. Roughly 20,000 acres of timber are targeted for logging, thsinrting and prescribed burni~g to rystore the forest's health. 'III/k.$ 'f",!i SA'5('-I., 51 8 iLI
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oca over-t e-air te evisioninSeri • FCC auction threatens Blue Mountain Translator District By Dick Mason The Observer
Many Union and Baker county television viewers may find themselves in the dark a
couple years from now. The Federal Communications Commission is planning to sell to smartphone companies the channels now used by many over-the-air television stations. The sale could send the Blue Mountain Translator District, whichprovidesover-the-airtelevision, into a death spiral. ''We could lose it all. Everybody hasa lotatstake,"said
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Beverly Beach, the business manager of the Blue Mountain Translator District. The FCC will conduct an auction of the spectrum of channels in the 30 to 49range. Itis expectedthat companies providing wireless phone services will use their deep pockets to snatch up these channels in Union and Baker counties at the auction. They will receive no competition
at the auction from the Blue Mountain Translator District. ''We can't participate. We are struggling to survive as it is," Beach said. Following the auction, the Blue Mountain Translator District likely will be left with only the channels in the under-30 category to work with, a far from ideal situation since most of the SeeBMTD / Page 5A
CONTACT US
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541-963-3161 Issue 77 3 sections, 26 pages La Grande, Oregon
DO YOUROWNINDEPENDENCEDAY DECORATIONS •000
SALEM — Cover Oregon has off ered retention bonuses to employees who stick around through a tumultuous time for the struggling health insurance exchange. The bonuses, which could totalup to $650,000, are necessary to avoid losing staff with expertise in key technology and health-policy issues, Cover Oregon's executive director Clyde Hamstreet saidina letterto the board of directors. The organization has been struggling from the loss of 27 staff members sinceApril to layoffs and voluntary departures. "Many of the employees SeeBonuses / Page 5A
legalize recreational marijuana traveled to Salem on Thursday to turn in boxes stuffed with enough signed petitions to bring their total signatures to 145,000 — far more than are needed for the measure to qualify forthe November ballot. Page A10
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Email story ideas to newsC~ jagrande observer.com. More contact info on Page 4A.
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