Josh Munyon receives Christian athletics award

PRAIRIE CITY – Joshua Munyon, who is a home-schooled student, was named second team honorable mention by the High School Christian Student/Athlete All-American Program for the 2002-03 year.

The award is presented to students in “recognition for impacting your generation for Christ through outstanding achievements in sports, academics and servant leadership.”

There were 3,100 nominations for awards, with the first 50 receiving First-Team All-American honors, 173 receiving Second-Team recognition, 224 named First-Team Honorable Mention and 155 receiving Second-Team Honorable Mentions.

Other participating student-athletes received Nominee recognition.

Draft bighorn, mountain goat rules on agenda

PORTLAND – The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will host 14 public meetings statewide this month to discuss a new draft plan to guide future management of bighorn sheep and mountain goats in Oregon.

An existing plan for bighorn sheep management emphasized transplanting wild bighorns into areas that historically supported them. Since that plan was written in 1992, ODFW has led extremely successful efforts to transplant California bighorns into nearly all historic habitat.

The revised draft plan emphasizes transplanting Rocky Mountain bighorns into historic habitat and ensuring that California bighorns maintain genetic diversity and continue to expand their range.

For the first time, ODFW is proposing management direction for Rocky Mountain goats.

Oregon has a growing population of goats in the Wallowa and Elkhorn mountains and Hells Canyon. The draft plan identifies potential transplant sites where habitat is suitable.

The draft plan also suggests direction for allocating hunting tags and strategies to protect animal health, water sources and habitat for both wild sheep and wild goats.

A copy of the draft plan will soon be available on the ODFW Web site at www.dfw.state.or.us. Copies also may be obtained by calling the ODFW Wildlife Division at (503) 872-5260.

Public meetings will be held at the following dates and locations:

Canyon City – Thursday, June 19, 6-7:30 p.m. at the Grant County School District Conference Room, 401 N. Canyon City Boulevard.

La Grande – Wednesday, June 18, 7-9 p.m. at Eastern Oregon University’s Hoke Room 301, One University Boulevard.

Enterprise – Thursday, June 19, 7-9 p.m. at the Best Western Motel, 1200 Highland Avenue.

Ontario – Wednesday, June 18, 7-9 p.m. at the Malheur County Extension Office, 710 Southeast Fifth Avenue.

Finleys, Legg ride at Molalla rodeo

MOLALLA – The Grant County High School rodeo team traveled to Molalla on June 8-9 to compete in the final rodeo of the season before the state finals.

At Molalla, Tara Finley placed fifth in pole bending and Jessie Legg finished 10th.

Chance Finley earned a seventh-place finish in the team roping event.

The state finals will be held in Klamath Falls June 18-21, followed by the nationals in July.

Local youth soccer group hosts camp

JOHN DAY – The Grant County Youth Soccer Association will be sponsoring a youth soccer camp June 23-26 at the Seventh Street Complex.

This camp is open to all boys and girls from kindergarten through high school, and will be coached by John Stockton, who is the head soccer coach at Mountain View High School in Bend.

Stockton played professional soccer for more than 10 years, and has complied an impressive record as a high school coach.

The exact times of the camp will be determined by the amount of students who sign up, but it is anticipated that there will be two sessions per day to accommodate different age groups.

The cost of the camp is $100 per student.

For more information or to sign up for the camp, call P.J. Wunz at (541) 575-0340.

Regional golfers converge at club

JOHN DAY – Ladies visitation was held at the John Day Golf Club on Wednesday, June 11, and a total of 27 golfers from Burns, Baker City and John Day were on hand for the event.

First flight winners included Denise Smith, who was the low gross winner, and Dana Endicott who captured low net honors.

Second flight low gross winner was Kathy Hopkins, with Patty Deergan and Helen Frazier tying for low net.

Sammye Linzel was third flight low gross champion, and Kay Daniels took low net.

Lunch for the ladies was served by the Squeeze Inn Deli.

ODFW provides grant for big-game habitat at Hereford

HEREFORD – A $17,900 grant from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Access and Habitat Program will be used by a Baker County rancher to replace crops eaten by elk and to allow five years of public hunting access.

Pat Sullivan’s property is surrounded by fee hunting operations, and as many as 200 elk wander from those lands onto his alfalfa and grass fields from late summer to October.

The Access and Habitat funds will be used to purchase new irrigation equipment and planting an additional crop field will allow Sullivan to replace the alfalfa and grass eaten by the elk while still affording them some forage.

In addition to the Access and Habitat Program grant, Sullivan is contributing $26,000 toward the cost of the project. In return for the funding, the landowner will permit public hunting on his property on a by-permission basis for the next five years.

Created by the Oregon Legislature in 1993, the A&H Program is funded by a $2 surcharge on hunting licenses.

Funds raised by the program are distributed through grants to individual and corporate landowners, conservation organizations, and others for cooperative wildlife habitat improvement and hunter access projects throughout the state.

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission approved $135,600 in grant awards for seven projects that improve hunting access and wildlife habitat.

The projects included the Murderer’s Creek Winter Range: $10,000 toward a $84,250 project in Grant County to improve winter range habitat through native seedling plantings on the state’s Phillip W. Schneider Wildlife Area.

For more information on the Access and Habitat Program, contact program coordinator Susan Barnes at (503) 872-5260, extension 5349.

Forest Service warns against mud bogging

PENDLETON – Mud Boggers. You’ve seen them driving around town with mud caked-on so thick you can barely tell what color the truck is painted.

Mud bogging or “mudding” may look like a lot of fun to some, but it is becoming an increasing problem for public land managers in the Blue Mountains.

Mud bogging is an activity done by people who drive motorized vehicles through wet areas including meadows, springs, ponds, streams and lakeshores.

“When vehicles spin their tires to throw mud, they rip up fragile vegetation and soil, creating deep mud holes and ruts,” said Bob Wolfe, law enforcement officer on the Umatilla National Forest. “This extensive resource damage to the land and vegetation is expensive to repair and labor intensive. In most cases, these areas can never be restored to their original state.”

Not only is mud bogging extremely damaging to the land, it is illegal.

“It is always unlawful to operate a vehicle off-road in a manner which damages or unreasonably disturbs land and vegetative resources,” said Wolfe. “It is punishable by up to a $5,000 fine and/or six months in jail and assessed restitution.”

Last year, three violators were indicted with felony criminal mischief for mud bogging in a meadow adjacent to a stream that is essential habitat for salmon, steelhead and native trout.

Areas damaged by mud bogging provide ready seedbeds for noxious weeds and other invasive plants. Seeds from one area are easily trapped in the deep treaded tires and transported to other areas, spreading the noxious weed.