Appeal Tribune
| WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2021 | 1B
OUTDOORS
Ski or snowshoe through
scar of Oregon wildfire
The northern route through the winter trails at Ray Benson Sno-Park features wooden Blowout Shelter, forest burned by the 2003 B&B Complex Fire and views of
Three-Fingered Jack and Mount Washington. ZACH URNESS / STATESMAN JOURNAL
era in Oregon. In combination with the
2002 Biscuit Fire, it heralded the begin-
ning of larger and more powerful wild-
fires that reached an apex, in many
ways, with this year’s Labor Day fires.
Now after almost two decades, the
forest burned is a fascinating place to
explore, and it offers some sense of
what to expect once we return to the
places burned this year.
(For the full story of the B&B Complex
, see StatesmanJournal.com.)
Zach Urness
Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
This year’s Labor Day fires left an in-
delible mark on Oregon’s outdoors, and
many places we love to hike, fish and ex-
plore are likely to remain closed for one
to three years.
In the Santiam Canyon, places im-
pacted range from Shellburg Falls to
Opal Creek, and when we’re eventually
allowed to return, those places will look
a lot different than we remember.
But it won’t be the first time a wildfire
has transformed an area in the Central
Cascades east of Salem, and there’s no
better evidence than exploring the scar
of the 2003 B&B Complex on Santiam
Pass.
Last week, I skied through an area
burned by the B&B fire at Ray Benson
Sno-Park on a 6.5-mile loop that also in-
cluded a stop at North Blowout Shelter.
It was the third installment of my series
on the popular sno-park, as I rediscover
cross-country skiing, an ideal activity
for a pandemic.
This route, also open to snowshoers,
was a step-up in terms of challenge, fol-
lowing the North Loop, Twin Buttes,
Claypool Butte and South Loop trails on
terrain that offered the greatest chal-
lenge yet.
There were two main highlights.
First, stopping at Blowout Shelter, an-
other of the sno-park’s wooden shel-
ters, while the second was observing
how the forest has responded following
Dwarf forest on Ray Benson’s
North Loop
Blowout Shelter offers dramatic views of Three Fingered Jack and a place to rest
and warm up from Ray Benson Sno-Park. ZACH URNESS / STATESMAN JOURNAL
the high-severity wildfire that burned
almost 18 years ago.
A brief history of the B&B
Complex Fire
President George W. Bush called it a
"holocaust."
Wildfire experts called it a canary in
the coal mine.
Those who saw it up close remember
the speed and fury, and a smoke plume
that rose 35,000 feet above Santiam
Pass west of Sisters in a period between
Sept. 1 to 8, 2003.
“We’d never seen a fire behave like
that — a fire that could eat square miles
overnight and create its own weather
patterns,” Brad Peterson, a longtime
wilderness ranger for Willamette Na-
tional Forest, told the Statesman Jour-
nal for a 2018 story on the wildfire. “It
felt like something new.”
In some ways, it was.
The B&B Complex, which significant-
ly altered large swaths of Santiam Pass
and the Mount Jefferson Wilderness,
marked the beginning of the megafire
From the parking lot at Ray Benson, I
headed out skiing the North Loop, a
route rated “more difficult” on winter
recreation maps because of steeper hills
and such.
After a short stretch of intact forest,
the trail transitions into the B&B Com-
plex’s burn scar. The landscape is
marked by the old snags of trees killed
in the wildfire, along with a dwarf forest
of trees that have sprouted and grown in
the past 18 years.
The green layer of new trees rises up
between about knee and waist height
and makes you feel as though you’re a
giant skiing through a land of Lillipu-
tian-sized people for whom this consti-
tutes a thick canopy.
Or maybe that’s just my overactive
imagination.
Anyway, the upside for us giants is
See WILDFIRE, Page 2B
Flex your artistic mettle with wildlife art competition
Henry Miller
Guest Columnist
USA TODAY NETWORK
As the old line goes, “I don’t know art,
but I know what I like.”
Or, in my case, as far as taste, it’s all
in my mouth.
The Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife has opened its annual 2022
stamp art competitions.
That’s not a typo; the competition is
for next year’s offering of fish and wild-
life-related collectors’ stamps for the
Habitat Conservation, Waterfowl and
Upland Bird stamp competitions.
The winners each get a $2,000
award, and their art is featured on
stamps and other promotional materi-
als, with money from the sales going to
the relevant programs to benefit fish,
wildlife and state-supported habitat
projects.
I’ve actually scored in a competition,
Cinnamon teal by artist Guy
Crittenden was the 2021 winner in the
Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s Waterfowl Stamp
competition.
The winning entry in the 2021 Upland
Game Bird Stamp competition
featuring the spruce grouse was artist
Bruce Spencer.
OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH & WILDLIFE
OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH & WILDLIFE
receiving a 2012 Habitat Conservation
Stamp ceramic mug for serving as a
judge.
What’s the old line? In the event of
prizes, duplicate ties will be awarded.
I digress. Make that divert.
My selection as a judge came as
something of a surprise.
My taste in critter art runs to dogs
playing poker, while fine art is com-
prised of framed renderings of Kenny
Rogers in neon colors on black velvet.
Amazingly, I also served on several
panels for upland game bird stamp
competitions.
I accepted the honor because of the
stipend, a smoked quail dip during the
judging that was prepared by Dave Bu-
deau, the department’s since-departed
upland game bird coordinator.
While I’m no expert, there are mem-
bers of the panel who are. And there are
department biologists on-hand to ad-
vise and comment on the accuracy and
authenticity of the fish, wildlife and
habitats portrayed in the entries.
And those, in my experience, run the
gamut from primitive to classical real-
ism.
Anyway, give it a shot.
The conservation stamp offers the
most variety open to depictions of ev-
erything from mammals, reptiles and
amphibians to, no kidding, plants and
algae.
Waterfowl and upland bird are spe-
cies-specific annually. The 2022 com-
petitions are for Northern Shoveler and
Chukar partridge, respectively.
See ART, Page 2B