The Nugget
Vol. XLI No. 38
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Another
roundabout
for Sisters?
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Celebration!
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
A proposed mini-round-
about at the intersection of
Highway 20 and Locust Street
by the elementary school
would provide a near-term
solution to the congestion at
that intersection. It would also
enable truck traffic to avoid
Cascade Avenue by using the
Barclay Drive alternate route,
because trucks would be able
to use the roundabout for left-
hand turns from Locust onto
Highway 20.
Funding for a roundabout
could possibly be secured
from the House Bill 2017
Safe Routes to School pro-
gram because of its proximity
to the elementary school. The
application is due October 15.
Bob Townsend, Oregon
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
Los Temerosos from Hood River
entertained at Sisters’ first celebration
of Mexico’s traditional Independence
Day. See story, page 5.
ODOT
to begin
repairing
Hwy. 242
Repairs to Oregon 242
(the Old McKenzie Highway)
across the Cascades began
Monday, September 17.
Oregon Department
of Transportation mainte-
nance crews will be stabi-
lizing slopes and improv-
ing drainage, thanks to an
$850,000 reimbursement
from the Federal Highway
Administration following
the devastating Milli Fire of
2017.
The Milli Fire was active
in and around the Three
Sisters Wilderness area that
adjoins the highway, destroy-
ing trees, culverts and patches
of the highway surface.
Working west from the
eastern entrance near Sisters
toward a point near the
PHOTO BY JERRY BALDOCK
See ROUNDABOUT on page 28
See HWY. 242 on page 30
Fighting weeds along
the Metolius River
Cougars are part of the landscape
Depending on appropri-
ate weather conditions, the
Deschutes National Forest
will apply herbicides to inva-
sive plants within an area
adjacent to the Metolius
River and the Metolius River
Trail October 1-5.
The Sisters Ranger
District will use two her-
bicides (Aquamaster and
Polaris) to treat invasive
non-native ribbongrass, reed
canarygrass and yellow flag
iris on about 1.5 acres of the
Metolius River. Treatments
will take place in select loca-
tions from just upstream of
the confluence with South
Fork Lake Creek downstream
past Gorge Campground.
The method of treatment
will be spot applications
with a backpack or hand-
sprayer. It involves applica-
tion of herbicide to foliage
Authorities shot and killed
a cougar in the Mount Hood
National Forest last week, a
female cat believed to have
been responsible for kill-
ing 55-year-old hiker Diana
Bober of Gresham.
The attack is the only
known fatal incident involv-
ing a cougar in Oregon.
Cougars are a seldom-
seen but ever-present ele-
ment of the natural world of
Sisters Country. There have
been several sightings this
summer in and immediately
around town, and an incident
of predation on goats at a
Sisters-area ranch. The cou-
gar believed responsible for
those killings was trapped and
killed. A Bend man shot and
killed a cougar last month,
when he and his wife went
out at night to check on a herd
of sheep that had previously
Inside...
of target invasive plants to
minimize effects to native
plants. The applied her-
bicides will dry within an
hour of being applied and
do not pose a risk to human
or animal health under
the concentrations being
applied, the Forest Service
reports.
The Metolius River
Trail will remain open dur-
ing treatment, but the pub-
lic should remain on the
trail during active treatment
operations and keep dogs
leashed.
Ribbongrass, reed
canarygrass and yellow flag
iris are aggressive invasive
plants that are overtaking
native sedges, wildflow-
ers, and shrubs within the
river ’s riparian habitats.
See WEEDS on page 18
By Jim Cornelius
Editor in Chief
PHOTO COURTESY ODFW
Cougars are a presence around Sisters. They generally avoid human
contact.
come under a cougar attack.
The cougar population is
widely estimated at approxi-
mately 6,600, which is about
double the estimated popu-
lation in 1994, when voters
approved a ballot initiative
banning the use of hounds to
hunt cougar.
“Measure 18 passed
in 1994 by the narrowest
of margins,” said Duane
See COUGARS on page 24
Letters/Weather ................ 2 Announcements ................12 Hike ................................. 16 Sisters Naturalist ............. 22 Classifieds ..................26-28
Meetings ........................... 3 Entertainment ..................13 Paw Prints .......................20 Crossword ....................... 25 Real Estate .................29-32