SILVERTONAPPEAL.COM ܂ WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2018 ܂ 3A
Forecast projects warmer than normal winter
Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
On the heels of a drought-stricken
summer and fall, Oregon is expected to
stay warm into this coming winter.
Long-term forecasts project a 50 to
60 percent chance of a warmer-than-
normal winter likely to include low
snowpack, according to NOAA’s Climate
Prediction Center.
The extended forecast, which in-
cludes December to February, says a
weak El Nino loads the dice toward
warm and dry conditions in the North-
Parks
Continued from Page 1A
istrative tasks in the office and covering
more ground out in the field.
Some big projects planned for the
winter include a new restroom and pic-
nic shelters at Scotts Mills, new picnic
tables at Denny and Labish Village and
cutting back of overgrown vegetation at
Spong’s Landing.
A big summer for county parks
The addition follows a busy summer
season for the county park system.
The department had eight temporary
employees over the summer season
which allowed some larger projects to
be tackled.
A long-overgrown area in Minto Park,
about 4 miles east of Mill City along the
North Santiam, was cleared for a trail
and viewpoint overlooking the river.
west, meteorologists said.
“Historically, winters with a weak El
Nino bring warmer temperatures and
lower snowpack,” said Jeremiah Pyle, a
meteorologist with the National Weath-
er Service in Portland.
“It doesn’t always end up like that,”
he said, “but some of the worse winters
we’ve had have been in weak El Nino
years.”
The news doesn’t come at a particu-
larly good time.
Eighty-five percent of Oregon re-
mains mired in “severe drought” follow-
ing the ninth- warmest summer in rec-
ords going back to 1894. It was the Salem
area’s fourth-hottest June, July and Au-
gust on record, according to meteorolo-
gists.
The hot and dry conditions this sum-
mer led to the most expensive wildfire
season in history, the Statesman Jour-
nal first reported earlier this month.
Multiple wildfires burned from July
to September in a season fueled by last
winter’s dry conditions.
Oregon had below-average snow-
pack for much of last winter, particular-
ly in the south, which paved the way for
a wildfire season that cost $514.6 million
in 2018.
“There is good reason to be con-
“The trail opened westward to new
areas I hadn’t even seen,” Dilley said.
Nearby, the county’s only camp-
ground, open since 2014, saw record at-
tendance this summer.
The 15-site campground at Bear
Creek Park had 443 groups stay in 2018,
up from 391 last year.
Additionally, Dilley says the county
parks along the North Santiam River
haven’t seen tree die-offs from drought
damage like other nearby parks in the
Santiam Canyon.
Fishermen’s Bend, a 170-acre park
operated by the Bureau of Land Man-
agement, and the North Santiam State
Recreation Area, a 150-acre park man-
aged by the Oregon Parks and Recrea-
tion Department, both saw large-scale
projects this summer to remove dead or
dying trees.
The county has a full description and
location of every park on the Marion
County Parks website at http://
www.co.marion.or.us/PW/Parks/.
County parks open year-round
Fish
Bonesteele Park north of Turner
Auburn, Denny, Eola Bend, Joryville, Labish Village and Parkdale in the Salem
area
Rogers Wayside near Silverton
Minto, Niagara and Packsaddle along the North Santiam River
County parks closing for winter
The following parks will still close for the winter season on Nov 1.:
Spong’s Landing near Keizer
Bear Creek, North Fork and Salmon Falls along the North Santiam River Basin
Scotts Mills: The gate will be locked but walk-ins are allowed. Restrooms are not
available.
The following park closed for the season Oct. 1:
St. Louis Fish Ponds: The gate is locked but walk-ins are allowed. Restrooms are
closed.
think the city and county are actually
diametrically opposed to what we’re
trying to accomplish in the lawsuit,”
Fairbrother said. “Part of us are us doing
a better job of explaining what this law-
suit is about.
“My understanding is they think
we’re seeking to compel the corps to
build the fish passage.”
Contact Bill Poehler at bpoeh-
ler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twit-
ter.com/bpoehler
Detroit Lake U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS
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“It even goes further from there that
it flushes out the carnivorous fish that
tend to live in the river,” Fairbrother
said. “It also moves sediment and debris
in the river. It also helps reduce infec-
tious diseases in the reservoirs that de-
velops in their gills and will kill them
eventually.
“Some promising results coming out
of that and we’d be interested in explor-
ing where it would be feasible to explore
some draw downs.”
Native Fish Society, Northwest Envi-
ronmental and Wildearth Guardians
filed a lawsuit in March against the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers for not meet-
ing its legal requirement under the 2008
opinion.
When Marion County and the City of
Salem intervened in the lawsuit be-
tween three environmental groups and
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the
environmental groups did not fight it.
“Our standing is that we have an eco-
nomic and agricultural interest,” Marion
County Commissioner Kevin Cameron
said in an earlier interview. “Salem’s on
the water supply, the domestic water
supply. And Stayton relies on that water,
and they didn’t enter into (the lawsuit).
AN
LE
gration by 10 times at Fall Creek.
“That is certainly what we’re inter-
ested in seeing is making sure that all
the options are on the table and make
sure that we’re choosing the thing that’s
best for the rivers and the communi-
ties,” Fairbrother said.
“Detroit is a more unique dam project
on the Willamette basin.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’
proposal would draw down Detroit Lake
for one to three years to build a water
cooling tower to correct water temper-
atures in the river to pre-dam levels and
build a system to move fish upstream
past the dam.
Among the construction alternatives
the Corps has presented is drawing
down the water level at Detroit Lake to
1,310 feet above sea level for construc-
tion, below the 2015 drought level of
1,425 feet.
The Corps considered a similar con-
cept to the Fall Creek solution by draw-
ing down the elevation to 1,370 each
winter as part of its screening process,
but eliminated the alternative because
of how Big Cliff Dam is operated and the
need for higher water to produce hydro-
power.
Big Cliff Dam is downstream of De-
troit Dam on the North Santiam River
and is used to re-regulate the river.
The Corps’ current plans to build a
water tower and fish collection screen
are projected to cost $100 million to
$250 million by the time it’s completed
in 2028.
Drawing down the water yearly, in-
stead, has the potential to correct more
environmental problems than fish pas-
sage, environmental advocates say.
Aumsville Ponds near Aumsville
“What that allows us to do is be on
the team when negotiations are made.”
That Marion County and the City of
Salem are involved in the suit doesn’t
mean they are on the same side as the
environmental groups.
The environmental groups asked
that the governmental bodies’ involve-
ment in the suit be limited to areas
where they have specific interest, nota-
bly the North Santiam River.
“In the big picture of things, we don’t
Continued from Page 1A
cerned,” Pyle said. “We could easily see
a warm and dry winter, and that obvi-
ously could be a problem.
“At the same time, nothing is set in
stone. There have been El Nino winters
that brought good snowpack. You just
never know.”
Zach Urness has been an outdoors
writer, photographer and videographer
in Oregon for 11 years. He is the author of
the book “Best Hikes with Kids: Oregon”
and “Hiking Southern Oregon.” He can
be reached at zurness@StatesmanJour-
nal.com or (503) 399-6801. Find him on
Twitter at @ZachsORoutdoors.
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