Descendent of pioneers
to speak in Sisters page 4
DAYLIGHT
SAVINGS TIME
Sisters skier headed
to nationals page 7
Turn your clocks forward an
hour at 2 a.m. on Sun., March 11
The Nugget
Vol. XLI No. 10
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
A tale
of two
winters
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Headed
to the
BIG DANCE
By Ron Thorkildson
An Olympic
celebration
for Sisters
couple
Correspondent
Sisters Country might as
well have had two winters this
season — one mild and dry,
and one with plenty of snow
and chilly temperatures.
When a neutral El Niño-
Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
signal was measured in the
tropical Pacific Ocean last
fall that looked like it might
morph into a La Niña by win-
ter, it’s understandable why
many seasonal forecasters
foresaw roughly normal con-
ditions with regard to temper-
ature and precipitation for the
Pacific Northwest this winter,
with “ample” mountain snow.
What they got right was
that a La Niña did indeed
By Charlie Kanzig
Correspondent
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
Lustin Lake pulls down the rebound in Outlaws Boys Basketball action versus Henley.
The win earned the Outlaws a berth at the state championships. See story, page 8.
See WELTHER on page 30
See OLYMPICS on page 21
Snowpack levels
show dramatic decline
By Mark Floyd
Correspondent
CORVALLIS — A new
study of long-term snow mon-
itoring sites in the western
United States found declines
in snowpack at more than 90
percent of those sites — and
one-third of the declines were
deemed significant.
Since 1915, the average
snowpack in western states
has declined by between 15
and 30 percent, the research-
ers say, and the amount of
water lost from that snow-
pack reduction is comparable
in volume to Lake Mead,
the West’s largest manmade
reservoir. The loss of water
storage can have an impact
on municipal, industrial and
Inside...
When it came to planning
the celebration of his 50th
birthday in February, Tate
Metcalf and his wife Aimee
put no limits to ideas when
they began to brainstorm pos-
sibilities. Sharing ideas, their
focus turned from warm,
sandy beaches on an exotic
island to the Winter Olympics
in Pyeongchang, South Korea.
“After a while we had so
many ideas it got overwhelm-
ing,” said Aimee. “Finally we
asked ‘What does Tate love?’
“The answer was sport,
any and all kind of sport,
agricultural usage, as well as
fish and other animals.
Results of the study are
being published today in NPJ
Climate and Atmospheric
Science, a Nature publication.
“It is a bigger decline than
we had expected,” said Philip
Mote, director of the Oregon
Climate Change Research
Institute at Oregon State
University and lead author
on the study. “In many lower-
elevation sites, what used
to fall as snow is now rain.
Upper elevations have not
been affected nearly as much,
but most states don’t have that
much area at 7,000-plus feet.
“The solution isn’t in
infrastructure. New reservoirs
See SNOWPLCK on page 25
To save a life in Sisters
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
David Adler is still com-
ing to terms with a journey
right up to the threshold of
death.
On February 12, while he
was working out at Sisters
Athletic Club, Adler, 65,
collapsed in sudden cardiac
arrest. Thanks to quick, con-
certed action by the people
around him, Adler not only
survived — despite the fact
that he was not breathing and
had no pulse when he hit the
floor — he is expected to
make a full recovery.
“It will take a long time
before I fully process it,”
Adler said. “In truth, I can’t
stop thinking about how
extraordinary it is that I am
actually alive — and well.”
It was a very, very
PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS
David and Marcy Ldler met with Clyde Dildine and The Nugget to recount
David’s near death due to sudden cardiac arrest.
close-run thing.
Adler ’s wife, Marcy,
recalled that David had
wanted to go down into the
crawl space under the house
for a second time to check a
gas line that had been giving
them trouble. She persuaded
him not to do that, and he
went to the club instead.
See SLVE L LIFE on page 12
Letters/Weather ................ 2 Obituaries ......................... 9 Movies & Entertainment ....11 Bunkhouse Chronicle ....... 23 Classifieds ..................26-28
Meetings ........................... 3 Announcements ............... 10 Paw Prints ....................... 18 Crossword ....................... 25 Real Estate .................28-32
