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Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
July 18, 2014
>NI'H>s tDmoN: Local • Health@Fitness • Outdoors • TV QUICIC HITS
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FIRERACESTHROUGH SAGEBRUSH RANGELAND ONTHURSDAY JUST SOUTHEAST OF BAICER CITY
Good Day Wish To A Subscriber A special good day to Herald subscriber Wayne Burnside of Baker City.
Outdoors, 2C A Bend man has pleaded guilty to charges related to running an illegal hunting guide service, in what Oregon State Police say may be one of the largest investigations for its Fish and Wildlife Division. In announcing the case Wednesday, state police said Alan Roy Aronson, 43, became the primary suspect in an investigation that led to more than 200 charges against Aronson and 22 others. Oregon electronic court information shows Aronson faced more than 150 counts in Wheeler and Deschutes counties. The case involved the killing of dozens of elk, including several large trophy elk and at least nine buffalo.
World, 10A ROZSYPNE, Ukraine — Emergency workers, police officers and even off-duty coal miners spread out Friday across the sunflower fields and villages of eastern Ukraine, searching the wreckage of a jetliner shot down as it flew miles above the country's battlefield. The attackThursday afternoon killed 298 people from nearly a dozen nations — including vacationers, students and a large contingent of scientists heading to an AIDS conference in Australia. U.S. intelligence authorities said a surfaceto-air missile brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, but could not say who fired it. The Ukraine government in Kiev, the separatist pro-Russia rebels they are fighting and the Russia government that Ukraine accuses of supporting the rebels, all deny shooting the passenger plane down.
WEATHER
Today
BB/50 Mostly sunny
Saturday
B5/4B Mostly sunny
Sunday
B9/53 Mostly sunny Full forecast on the back of the B section.
Correction: A story on Page 1 of Wednesday's Baker City Herald contained an error. Baker City Police Sgt. Dustin Newman earns $5,085 per month.
S. John Collins/ Baker City Herald
A single-engine tanker drops fire retardant on a rangeland blaze east of Baker City on Thursday.
By Jayson Jacoby jacoby©bakercityherald.com
The flames were moving so fast, Clay Gyllenberg said, that even with a bulldozer he couldn't carve fire lines quickly enough to block the blaze. '%hen the wind gusts came up it moved at such a high speed," Gyllenberg, of Baker City, said this morning. The terrain through which the Radio Tower fireburned Thursday,in the sagebrush rangelands north of Interstate 84 about four miles southeast of Baker City, wasn't conducive to rapid firefighting, either, Gyllenberg said. "It's extremely rocky," he said.'You can't even get through with a cat 4ulldozerl in some
MORE FIRE COVERAGE: • New fire flares in Wallowas, Page 5A • Baker's air quality suffers, Page 5A
places." Although the fire wasn't officially contained this morning, Carolyn Chad, a spokeswoman at the BLM's Vale District, said"we believe we have it corralled." The smoke plume that dominated the southS. John Collins/ Baker City Herald east skyline fiom Baker City most of Thursday Traffic backed up Thursday afternoon beginning at Exit had dissipated by about 5:30 p.m. 304 in Baker City due to a traffic accident and the closure See FirelPage9A of 1-84 due to a rangeland fire east of town.
State lawmaKer WorriedAhontForeign Competition
BaKerSchool Board
Bentzlamentslackoflogging New faces in "We've been
By Pat Caldwell pcaldyyell©bakercityherald.com
A state lawmaker said he fears the long-term sustainability of timber markets may be in jeopardy as legal skirmishes regardingaccesstologscontinues to endure. Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontario, whose district includes Baker County, said recently that while legalconfrontations tied to federaland state regulations and accessto logs continue,the basic elements of capitalism prevail. "The trouble we have, while all of thesebattles are ongoing,the market is finding other sources of woodthat arefar cheaper than our forest products," Bentz sard. For example, he said, a tree farm in a foreign country can grow treesfaster and ata lower
TO D A T Issue 29, 24 pages
locked outfoall of the U.S. forests. So youhave people in other countries tvho say,'Hey, they still need
wood.'" — State Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ontalio
cost. That, in turn, can undercut Eastern Oregon timber producers on the open market. Add the cost produced by lawsuits in the U.S. tied to access to public forests in particular, and the situation can quickly grow grim, Bentz said. 'You add in the litigation cost on top of the wood as you try to get those logs you will be priced
out of the market," he said. In a sense, Bentz said, more litigation inside the U.S. regarding accessibility to forests is a good thing forforeign producers. '%e've been locked out of all of the U.S. forests. So you have people in other countries who say, 'Hey, they still need wood,' " he said. And the phenomenon isn't a nebulous concept. "It is happening right now," Bentz said."In a weird, crazy way the value in the timber is eroding by virtue of other markets coming up to take its place." The bottom line, he said, is expenses for area or regional producerstoleverage existing timber tracts is simply too high to competeeffectively.
local schools By Chris Collins ccollins©bakercityherald.com
Students in the Baker School District will be greeted by some new teachers and will see some familiar faces in new roles when the new school year begins Sept. 2. The Baker School Board reviewed these sta5ng changes Tuesday night: • Robert Barrington, who earned his master's degree at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, will teach chemistry and physics at Baker High School. • Tish Bloomer will move from her role as BHS special education teacher to the K-3 physical education teacher at Brooklyn Primary School. • Katy Collier will move from teaching prekindergartento a second-grade classroom at Haines.
See LoggingIPage 8A
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Calendar....................2A C o m m u nity News ....3A He a lth ...............5C & 6C O b i t uaries..................2A Sp o r ts ........................SA Classified............. 1B-BB C r o ssword........4B & 5B Ja y son Jacoby..........4A Op i n i on......................4A T e l e vision .........3C & 4C Coriic.... ...................7B DearAbby.................SB News of Record... .....2A Outdoors..........1C & 2C Weather.....................SB
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