The Fires of Summer
by Sandra Bishop
“Fire scars on old growth trees at
the edge of the Valley attest to
Indian fires.
99
In the 1800‘s and before, extending
back in time to pre-history, the native
inhabitants of the Willamette Valley
burned vast stretches of land on the
valley floor. The Indians burned the
land each September to preserve the
open oak savannah then prevalent in
the valley. Without burning, the land
would quickly be overgrown with
thick underbrush and the dense fir
surrounding the valley would spread
onto the valley floor.
Although trappers and explorers
passing through the Valley at a time
of burning reported dramatic displays
of smoke and destruction, the fires
usually burned only grass and brush
and the land was covered with a lush
growth of grasses and other vegeta
tion less than a month after burning.
Geese and other waterfowl, as well as
deer and small game, were attracted
to the abundant growth, providing
easy hunting for the native people.
Burning also increased the yield of
seeds and berries and other wild plant
food. Fire scars on old growth trees
at the edge of the Valley attest to the
Indian fires.
Once settlers moved into the Ore
gon Territory the way of life of the In
dians changed. It is ironic that the pio
neers objected to the burning, as it
was the annual burning that provided
the open, arable land which attracted
the homesteaders. By the late 1840‘s
the burning of open land stopped. The
face of the land changed. Rolling hills
and grassland interspersed with scat
tered oak became densely forested.
The South Hills of Eugene, now priz
ed as expensive home sites because
of the thick growth of trees, were
grasslands in pioneer times.
But history was to repeat itself. For
ty years ago, shortly after World War
II, a new agricultural industry blos
somed . . . grass seed growing. The
growers discovered the most effective
way to sanitize and clear their fields
after harvest was burning. So, after
100 years of dormancy, fire erupted
again on the valley floor. The Willa
mette Valley accounts for between 60
and 80 percent of the world’s produc
tion of grass seed. The industry brings
more than $160 million into Oregon
each year.
Regardless of the success of the in
dustry, by the late 1970‘s smoke incur
sion into populated areas was a ma
jor summertime problem. Summer in
Eugene was a bittersweet experience
as the warm weather also brought at
least a few days, if not a week in late
summer, of smoke so thick you
couldn’t get a clean breath of air in
the city. Forest fires and slash burn
ing also added to the problem. In 1979
the Oregon State Legislature man
dated a field burning management
program.
The management program is run by
the State Department of Environmen
tal Quality (DEQ) and the Grass Seed
Grower’s Council. The DEQ is di
rected to allow the maximum number
of fields to be burned with minimum
impact of smoke on populated areas.
In 1986 there were three hours of
smoke intrusion into populated areas
in the mid-Willamette Valley. In 1985
there was only one hour of smoke in
trusion. This is compared to 27 hours
of smoke in the cities in 1982.
The field burning management pro
gram is entirely paid for by the grass
seed growers. Growers pay $1 per
acre to register their land and $2.50
per acre for burning. The maximum
number of acres allowed to be burned
in one season is 250,000. In 1986
199,000 acres were burned. A com
plex set of measurements including
humidity, high and low pressure, wind
and temperature are monitored hour
ly to determine when and how many
acres of land can be burned on any
given day without infecting the cities
and towns with smoke.
Although a little earlier than tradi
tional Indian burning, August is the
height of the field burning season.
When you’re driving up the valley and
you see a field on fire, don’t be sur
prised if you see the hazy figure of
an Indian stalking a deer, or a trap
per walking toward the creek looking
for grass for his horse.
If the smoke gets in your eyes, call
the DEQ. Their complaint line
number is 686-7673.
CITY OF EUGENE
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
BLOCK GRANT
Public Hearing
Wednesday, August 19, 1987
11 A.M.-1 P.M.
Council Chambers
City Hall, 777 Pearl Street
The Community Development Committee will receive
ideas for future City capital improvement projects and
comments on:
Proposed 1988-89
City Capital Improvement Projects
For more information, call Linda Dawson, Community
Development Division, 72 West Broadway, 687-5443.
■LITERARY ARTS
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2.
FROM LEFT: Double winners Lisa Cohn and Gaines Smith and second-place winner Maureen Jeske.
Local writers scoop up honors
Three affiliated Eugene writers
have won literary awards in the past
two weeks at regional writer’s con
ferences, and two are double winners
in separate competitions.
Gaines Smith and Lisa Cohn won
awards both in last Saturday’s annual
Kay Snow Writing Contest sponsored
by Willamette Writers and in the
Pacific Northwest Writers Conference
Literary Awards. The Willamette
Writers’ contest was a northwest con
test, and the PNWC included entries
from all over the nation. Smith and
Cohn prevailed over hundreds of
writers to win their awards.
At its annual meeting Saturday, in
Portland, Willamette Writers award
ed Smith First Prize in its fiction
writing competition. Smith’s winning
short story was Fruitcakespeak, a
story about discord during “an obliga
tory family gathering” at Christmas.
Smith received a certificate of merit
and $100. Only two weeks earlier,
Smith also won a certificate of merit
and a $100 cash award from the Pa
cific N.W. Writer’s Conference Lit
erary Awards. This conference, held
in Tacoma, is one of the largest in the
country. This year they received over
800 entries in eight different cate
gories. In the fiction competition,
Smith’s Third Place winner was Ecs
tasy, a story about a writing instruc
tor who resents the literary success of
one of his students.
Maureen Jeske received second
place in the humor category with her
. story My Baby the Six Foot Wrestler,
a story about a mother watching her
13-year-old, six-foot son competing
in a “dangerous” sport. She received
a certificate of merit and a $150 cash
award.
Willamette Writers also awarded a
certificate of merit and an Honorable
Mention to Cohn for her non-fiction
piece, Still Dancing: One Man’s
Triumph over AIDS, about a man’s
zest for life while fighting AIDS. Two
weeks earlier Cohn also won a cer
tificate of merit for finishing as a
finalist in the PNWC non-fiction writ
ing competition for her piece entitled,
Classrooms of the Future: A Com
puter on Every Desk, about experi
mental computers classrooms in Eu
gene and across the country.
Smith has taught free-lance writing
through Lane Community College for
13 years. He is also the editor of the
statewide distributed fiction anthology
entitled Popular Fiction by Oregon
Authors. “Needless to say, I am very
happy that our writers’ group has
done so well in these competitions.
Obviously, we must be doing some
thing right.”
Cohn is a free-lance writer special
izing in business and science writing.
Cohn writes for local and national
magazines and writes PR materials
for local businesses.
Jeske is a Junction City free-lance
writer, currently working on a humor
book.
Smith, Cohn, and Jeske are all
members of the Free-Lance Writing
Seminar, a group of professional and
semi-professional writers that has
been meeting in Eugene for 10 years.
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