20
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
MORE FIRES: State spent
record $515 million
fighting fires
Continued from page 11
to British Columbia blew
smoke into the Portland area,
causing unhealthy air quality
for days on end. In southern
Oregon, unhealthy air lasted
for months.
In total, the state spent
more fighting wildfires in
2018, nearly $515 million,
than in any other year.
A problem of this scale,
which spans millions of acres
across numerous state lines,
has no easy solution.
“We need it all. More
thinning. More mechanical
treatments. More prescribed
burning,” Bailey said. “But
it needs to be strategic. You
want to look for areas that
haven’t burned in a long time
so, if a wildfire does start
there, maybe it will be 5,000
or 10,000 acres instead of
100,000.”
On average, roughly
165,000 acres a year have
been treated with prescribed
burns in Oregon over the last
decade. Three times that area
— about 470,000 acres a year
over the past 10 years — have
burned in wildfires. In 2018,
wildfires scorched more than
830,000 acres in the state.
Still, there are examples of
success. The Milli Fire, which
burned nearly 25,000 acres in
the Three Sisters Wilderness
in 2017, could have been
much worse had the area near
the town of Sisters not been
treated with prescribed burns
before the wildfire.
In 2017, the Eagle Creek
fire scorched nearly 50,000 of
Oregon’s most beloved acres
in the Columbia River Gorge
and rained ash and smoke on
the state’s densest popula-
tion center. That same year,
the Chetco Bar fire in south-
west Oregon burned for five
months and scorched nearly
200,000 acres.
“Firefighters had a path
to approach,” Sterns said.
“(Prescribed burns) not only
make fires less likely to grow,
they make them safer to
fight.”
With fire comes smoke,
though, and that’s been the
big stumbling block in mak-
ing wider use of burns. The
Oregon Smoke Management
Plan, adopted in 1972 to con-
form with the federal Clean
Air Act, essentially prohibits
any burn that results in vis-
ible smoke in a populated
area. Every five years the
plan comes up for review,
and that process began early
in 2017 with a series of five
meetings across the state.
Among the stakeholders
at those meetings was Carrie
Nyssen, senior advocacy
director for the American
Lung Association, who some-
times felt like the odd person
out at the meetings as one of
the few who resisted the push
to relax regulations.
“It’s a difficult issue for
the Lung Association. It’s
hard for us to support any
policy that puts more smoke
in the air,” she said. “But
we know there is no option
where there’s no smoke and
we want to make sure folks in
affected communities know
when it’s coming, what their
options are and where they
can go.”
Joining Nyssen on the
panels were public health
officials, forest collabora-
tives, environmentalists, tim-
ber operators, elected offi-
cials and a tribal representa-
tive, all of whom aired their
differences and forwarded a
set of recommendations to
state officials.
Among the recommen-
dations: a relaxation of the
threshold for smoke intru-
sions, but also an increase in
communication to affected
communities so arrangements
could be made by those most
vulnerable.
The benefits would be
multifold, according to
Bailey.
“If we proactively and
consciously go after this
buildup of fuels, it will
reduce the amount of fire, the
amount of money we spend
on fire and the number of
fatalities we have,” he said.
“All of that equals less smoke
in the air.”
State officials are review-
ing comments on the pro-
posed changes, which could
be approved and put in place
as early as January 2019.
GUEST RANCH:
Group has appealed
county decision
Continued from page 1
livestock practices that qual-
ify as a farm use under DCC
18.04.030.
Central
Oregon
LandWatch filed an appeal
with the County regarding the
approval of the conditional-
use permit and site plan for
the guest ranch.
Additional conditions of
approval by the County stated
that the guest ranch shall not
exceed 18 events in a calen-
dar year, and that none of the
events may last for longer
than 72 hours. The maximum
number of event attendees
shall not exceed 200 people
at any one time.
There are requirements
regarding number of guest
lodging units (4-10), build-
ing height (not over 30 feet),
event noise, food services
for ranch guests and special-
event attendees, existing veg-
etation around structures, and
exterior lighting.
Conditions of approval
also address signage, length
of guest occupancy, unrea-
sonable disturbance of neigh-
bors, no overnight camping,
parking spaces and surfaces,
and landscaping.
The County approval was
based on the application,
site plan, specifications, and
supporting documentation
submitted by the Coles.
The Central Oregon
LandWatch appeal is based
on the assertion that the appli-
cants have not sustained their
burden of proof on a number
of key criteria, arguing that:
• “The livestock opera-
tion has not been shown to
be “existing and continuing”
because it began around the
same time the application for
a guest ranch was submitted;
• “It has not been estab-
lished that the proposed guest
ranch will be incidental and
accessory to an existing live-
stock operation because the
size and scope of the exist-
ing livestock operation will
be dwarfed by guest ranch
activities;
• “The property has not
been shown to use accepted
livestock practices that qual-
ify as a farm use; and
• “The application does
not indicate that the dwell-
ing of the livestock opera-
tor is located on the subject
property.”
Jennifer Cole indicated
that no one from LandWatch
has ever contacted them for
information about the ranch
operations and contends that
the LandWatch assertions are
not accurate. She provided
the following statement to
The Nugget.
“We have proposed,
and Deschutes County has
approved, a guest ranch that
complies with the law. Guest
ranch lodging will be pro-
vided by an existing house
and five small cabins. Guest
events are limited so they
will be less intense than those
allowed on large ranch and
farm properties with an agri-
tourism/special event permit.
The guest area is tucked in
the trees where it will not
interfere with farm use.
“We offer the following
response to the issues raised
in the LandWatch appeal:
“1. Our livestock opera-
tion is in existence now and
was in existence when we
filed our application.
“2. Our guest ranch use
will occupy a small part of
our property and will not
dwarf livestock operations.
“3. We employ accepted
farm practices in our ranch-
ing operation and our live-
stock operation is a ‘farm
use’ as defined by law.
“4. Our property includes
a dwelling for the livestock
operator.
“Our guest ranch will
operate like other approved
guest ranches,” Cole stated.
“We have no intention of set-
ting new precedents. We wish
Central Oregon LandWatch
had reached out to us directly,
and sooner, but look forward
to discussing their concerns
and putting everyone’s minds
at ease.”
A hearing before a
Deschutes County Hearings
Officer is set for January 8,
2019.
Thank you, Sisters Country, for your votes!
We did it!
And a huge thank-you to my volunteers!
ur support. I look
yo
of
ll
a
r
fo
u
yo
k
n
a
Th
Deschutes County!
d
n
a
u
yo
g
in
rv
se
to
forward
Patt i Adair
Patti4you.com | Patti@Patti4you.com
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