Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 1995)
Forest service may let wildfires burn ■ OPPORTUNITY: The m i season has allowed forest managers to test the net ■’ burn" policy GRANTS PASS \p) \ slow forest firt* season in the Northwest allows the li S For cst Service to ease into its now policy of allowing firt* hac k in the wilderness “It allowed us to got our foot wot." said |im Brain, a protet • turn specialist at Forest Service regional headquarters in Port land. A wet winter and cool sum mer coincided with progress in developing the planning docu ments the Forest Service needs on hand before letting a fire take its course in a particular area The numbers show a startling drop in wildfire this year In 1994, 2,,17'i fires burned a total of 281075 acres of national forests in Oregon and Washing ton So far this year, 1.089 fires have burned only t>,(>;»;) acres Statu am! private forest lands in Oregon saw little fire, is wall lust 4,222 acres burned this year In a total of 924 fires, t.ir Iadovs the typical level of 10,000 acres, said Brian Ballou of the Oregon Department of Forestry. For several vears. the Forest Service has known that a centu ry of putting out forest fires actually has increased the dan ger of truly catastrophic burns, especially in the ponderosa pine forests of Eastern Oregon. When fire is a frequent visitor. ii generally burns cooler and < leans tip ihe brush and fallen trees and brani lies on the forest floor When fire is kept out. the amount of fuel builds up, so when a fire does start, it burns !>igJs,’r and hotter St letitisls also have found that without fire, the structure of the forest changes, leading to in sis t Infestations that kilt whole stands of trees Thick young stands of fir grow up where low ering pines once shaded open ground The thick stands are susceptible to insist attacks and too dense for many birds and animals In Oregon, prescrilwd natural fires were allowed to burn this vear on the Ochoi u, Malheur l 'matilla and Wallowa Whitman national forests. Brain said All were naturally sparked by light ning All were in wilderness areas, w hich are oft limits to log ging All were monitored rather than actively fought. A i ase in point is lh*' Mill Creek fire on the Ochoco National Forest outside Prineville A lightning strike hit in the Mill Creek Wilderness on Sept IB Hv the end of the day it had grown to 15 acres, burning in a ponderos.i pine forest The next day. fire manage ment officer Tim Rich convened his team for the "Go-No Go Process," and the pieces began to fall into plai e They had just finished writing their fire management action plan for the Mill Creek Wilder Judge says nude dancers deserve minimum wage (AP) — A judge's ruling puts the nude entertainment industry in Oregon on notice that exotit dancers deserve minimum wage and should not have to get by on tips alone, the state's Bureau of Labor and Industries said Wednesday. Lane County Circuit judge Gregory Foote has ruled that the dancers are employees and not independent c ontractors, meaning the\ are entitled to minimum wage. lit* decided that two Eugene dubs owned by James A Hansen must pay $45,000 to nine dancers who filed wage claims last year. Assistant Attorney Gener al Gmlchen Gunn Merrill, who argued the woman's case for the state Bureau of laibor and Industries, said the ruling should change the way 75 Oregon nude dancing estab lishments do business Dancers in most of the clubs are paid by tips alone. She said Hansen paid dancers minimum wage until early 1992. The Hur«au of Labor and Industries received its first complaints in April 1994 The rase was settled after a two-day trial that con cluded last Friday Hansen pledged to appeal the ruling "all the way to the Supreme Court if 1 hove to." He said the wage claims and the state action were aimed at shutting down nude dancing clubs and collecting more tav es from dam ers "It's going to hurt danc ers immensely," Hansen said "it's going to hurt the clubs that don't know bow to deal with it." The ruling lakes effect later this week It i.overs both Jig gles and The Alaska Bush Company in Eugene, both owned by Hansen State officials estimated that the ruling will cost a nude dancing club about $12,000 per week in wages alone, assuming the club pays min imum wage and employs 74 dancers per day in three-hour shifts lies'., selling out guidelines for letting a fire burn. The weather WM good Fire danger level was manageable It was late in the season, so even if the fire got awn\ from them, chances were good it wouldn’t do a lot of dam age before fall rams fell So tiles decided the Mill Creek fire would lie a prwn ribed natural fire Over the next week, the fire continued to grow, but not w ild Iv hire t rews built about two miles of band line to keep it from spreading too far outside the wilderness Rangers kept a ( lose eve on it But they didn’t active tv fight it When it died down on its own. it had burned 1.1(>0 at res. or 7 pert ent of the 17.400-at re wilderness "Within the Forest Servit e, we prohahlv opened a new chapter in our approach to fire, and especially in pine types, when- we now know we need to gel fire back in the ecosystem,” Rich said "It is going to take t generation of attitude change toward fire, but this is definitely a giant leap forward.” Il is tough to get used tu let ting fires bum after 100 year* of putting them all out. said Ru b "I liken it to a foot I to 11 game " he said We re so used to play ing offense We don't know how to play defense very well "The sooner we get on with reintroducing fire in these ecosystems, the less it w ill cost and the better it will he for the l.indsi apt- and tin.' w ildri - the long run Kitzhaber turns traffic cop, helps catch reckless driver SALEM (AP) Gov John Kitzhaber tins added traffic cop to hts credentials. He helped bust n motorist ac t used of rec kless driving State police l.t. Bernie Giusto said Kitzhaber and Ins set uritv officer. Trooper Greg las k wood, wore returning to tfu> governor’s mansion Tuesday night when they spotted an erratic; driver Kitzhaber ami Lockwood, who was driving the- sedan, noticed a car quickly approach ing from behind. The vehicle passed several c ars, fori mg some oncoming motorists onto the shoulder Finally, the car passed the governor's sedan "At that point, the governor asked and directed that the vein t ie l«j stopped." Giusto said He did that out of concern for other people and the hid that the guy was a danger." Another trooper called to the scene issued a citation to Charles Evans Naylor. )7, charg ing him with driving recklessly Animals: Baby pets often grow into a big surprise ■ Continued from Page 7 iguanas aren't mean, they just weren’t cared for properly ua v<> .iiv■ hai put igua nas in bags and drop them off in front of tin? store, like kittens If an exotic pet ts too much to handle. Howerton recommends putting an ad in the paper or calling various pet stores to see if they w ill take it “Whatever von do. don't stop caring for them," Howerton said. “Some people don't realize how big their pets can get so they get stored of them and don't want to handle them." Squirmy, an iguana who belongs to Nick Kaye, a Univer sity post-bacciilaurate biology student, is currently 3 foot long. Kaye, however, dries realize that Squirmy will grow to be twice that in length. Just what should t» done with 6-foot iguana' "Squirmy's a loner.” Kaye said. “He doesn't mind being handled, but he’d just ns rather not lie He )ust does his thing." On sunny days, Kaye sets out u table in front of his house so Squirmy can bask in the sun. However. Kaye rarely takes Squirmy out in public, such as to the mall or around the neigh borhood on a leash. "I think some people have fear of a giant lizard,” Kaye said. 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