Blue Mountain Eagle News Today

EO Media Group is making substantial changes across the company, including layoffs and reductions in print frequency at several newspapers.

EO Media Group is making substantial changes across the company, including layoffs and reductions in print frequency at several newspapers.

Dan K. Wiley, a candidate to become the national commander of the American Legion, stopped by the Blue Mountain Eagle office on Monday, April 22, 2024.

CANYON CITY — The U.S. Forest Service and a federal union have expressed full support for Ricky Snodgrass, the Forest Service burn boss who was indicted in Grant County earlier

CANYON CITY — The U.S. Forest Service and a federal union have expressed full support for Ricky Snodgrass, the Forest Service burn boss who was indicted in Grant County earlier

Arraignment hearing in John Day, Oregon for burn boss Ricky Snodgrass

It made national headlines in October 2022 when Forest Service burn boss Ricky Snodgrass was arrested while overseeing a prescribed fire in rural Oregon. Now, a year and a half later, Snodgrass has been indicted on a misdemeanor reckless burning charge. The union he’s a member of is hopeful that he won’t be found guilty, but a representative says the case has still had impacts.

The unprecedented “reckless burning” charge came in a conservative county with a long history of tension between landowners and federal authorities, including the 2016 takeover of a nearby wildlife refuge by armed protesters.

A grand jury in Grant County Circuit Court on Feb. 2 has indicted U.S. Service burn boss Ricky Snodgrass on a misdemeanor count of reckless burning. Grant County Sheriff Todd McKinley arrested Snodgrass on Oct. 19, 2022, on suspicion of reckless burning.

PENDLETON — Dennis Duchek couldn’t completely scrub all the ink from his hands for several decades.