The Nugget
Vol. XLIII No. 15
P OSTAL CUSTOMER
News and Opinion
from Sisters, Oregon
www.NuggetNews.com
Drug
trafficking
bust made
on Cascade
Avenue
Detectives assigned to
the Central Oregon Drug
Enforcement (CODE) team
arrested two Prineville resi-
dents in Sisters on Tuesday,
March 31, as the result of a
long-term investigation by
the CODE team into the ille-
gal trafficking of commercial
quantities of methamphet-
amine into Central Oregon.
Detectives assisted by the
Deschutes County Sheriff9s
Department contacted and
PRE-SORTED STANDARD
ECRWSS
U.S. POSTAGE PAID
Sisters, OR
Permit No. 15
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
The mountains abide&
The Sisters backcountry still beckons, offering solitude and solace in times of trouble.
See DRUG BUST on page 23
PHOTO BY BRETT MILLER — BARRAGE STUDIOS, SISTERS
Volunteers rally to sew Birdwatching comforts during pandemic
homemade face masks
By Jodi Schneider
Correspondent
By Jodi Schneider
Correspondent
Last week, a respected sci-
entific panel told the White
House that research now
shows that the coronavirus
can be spread by talking, or
possibly even just breathing.
According to a fed-
eral official, the Centers
for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) has been
preparing to recommend that
everyone wear homemade
face coverings in public set-
tings, like pharmacies and
grocery stores, to avoid
spreading the virus.
Public health officials
have continued to stress
that N95 masks and surgical
masks should be saved for
frontline doctors and nurses,
who have been in dire need
of protective gear.
With a whole lot of heart
in the effort, seamstresses
See FACE MASKS on page 14
Sisters students will
learn from a distance
By Charlie Kanzig
Correspondent
In a school district like
Sisters, which is continually
striving to keep students feel-
ing engaged, prepared and
connected, the <Distance
Learning for All= mandate
from Governor Kate Brown9s
office has local teachers and
administrators working hard
to make the best of a very dif-
ficult situation.
Inside...
The mandate comes out
of the <Stay At Home, Save
Lives= executive order the
governor issued last month.
In a letter to the com-
munity published April 2,
Superintendent Curt Scholl
said that on April 6, when
teachers got back on the job
after spring break, <We intend
to immediately start reach-
ing out to our students and
See SCHOOLS on page 22
With the world on lock-
down, public spaces closed,
and only so many episodes of
<Outlander= to keep us enter-
tained, we9ve got little left
but to stare out our windows.
The optimistic isolationist
will find a whole amazing
world of wildlife out there,
enough to keep us busy until
this is all over. It9s time to
become a backyard birder.
Birding is a perfect hobby
for the quarantined. It9s a
fun activity you can do from
home in your own backyard.
It requires little more than
eyes and ears, some open sky,
and maybe a few ponderosa
pine or juniper trees where
you can spot many species
of birds. You can be an active
participant by having a feeder
or building bird boxes, or you
can just watch the action
unfold.
It helps to have some
binoculars, because birds
are small and far away and
because getting a closer view
greatly enhances your appre-
ciation of their beauty and
behavior. Birds are loudest
and most active 4 and so are
easiest to see 4 in the morn-
ings. Birds spend most of the
rest of the day feeding on and
off, so if you9ve got feed-
ers in your backyard, you9re
PHOTO BY JODI SCHNEIDER
An end-of-March flicker in a Sisters-area backyard.
good all day long.
Between 50 and 60 mil-
lion Americans list bird-
watching as a hobby. To start,
all you need is a bird feeder.
For safety and comfort,
position feeders near a tree
or bush at least 15 feet from
windows. An unmarked win-
dow looks like an escape
route. They won9t see the
glass. Products like Window
Alert, a decal that reflects
ultraviolet rays that birds see
but humans don9t, can pre-
vent a crash.
Central Oregon is part
of the Pacific Flyway, the
See BIRDWATCHING on page 22
Letters/Weather .................2 Your Story Matters ..............6 Announcements ................10 Face Mask Pattern .........12-13 Classifieds ................... 19-21
Meetings ............................3 Obituaries ..........................7 Sisters Country Naturalist..11 Crossword ........................ 18 Real Estate .................. 21-24