Appeal Tribune
| WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 2022 | 1B
OUTDOORS
The painted hills of the Juniper Hills Preserve near Post. WILLIAM SULLIVAN/FOR THE REGISTER-GUARD
OREGON TRAILS
Explore eastern Oregon’s painted hills
(no, not the famous ones)
William Sullivan | Special to the Statesman Journal
T
he colorfully striped Painted Hills of Eastern Oregon are often featured in picture books of the state, but did
you know this scenery isn’t limited to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument? Private ranches through
the Ochoco Mountains have similar hills. h Now, the Nature Conservancy has bought one of the best and
opened it to respectful hikers. The 13,998-acre Juniper Hills Preserve is on the outskirts of Post, a remote
ranching community in the upper Crooked River valley. h Although Post is generally considered part of Eastern Oregon,
it claims to be the geographic center of Oregon, and a glance at the map shows that’s true.
See JUNIPER, Page 2B
Time for a little holiday halibut fishing?
Henry Miller
Special for the Statesman Journal
Henry Miller with a halibut hauled up with the assist of an electric motorized
reel. FILE PHOTO
Holiday halibut fishing is becoming a
thing in Oregon.
“Memorial Day weekend is cram-
packed with fishermen,” Paula Griffith,
an office clerk at Newport Tradewinds,
said.
She was talking about the all-depth
halibut season that is open daily
through June 30 off the coast from Cape
Falcon near Manzanita south to Hum-
bug Mountain just north of Brookings.
While weekend 12-hour trips to the
halibut grounds up to 35 miles off the
coast are filling fast, charter offices are
having to get their sea legs about the ev-
eryday fishing, a novelty after the tradi-
tional three-open, four-closed fishing
during the spring season that had fish-
ing closed for the 2021 Memorial Day
weekend.
“It’s a very big deal in that we don’t
know what to expect,” said Lauren Cra-
ven at Newport Marina Store & Yaquina
Bay Charters about the expanded op-
portunity, adding that weekends in May
are, “very, very full. And then the week-
days are a little more spread out, but we
still do have a lot of bookings.”
High winds and rough seas during
the 2021 spring and summer all-depth
seasons coupled with COVID-19 restric-
tions such as social distancing meant
the total allowed sport catch between
Falcon and Humbug wasn’t landed,
which led to the 2022 season restruc-
turing.
Previous seasons under the three-
on, four-off open-days format cut skip-
pers some slack after physically taxing,
and fuel-consuming 12 hours at sea be-
yond 240 feet depth (40 fathoms), the
borderline between near-shore and all-
depth fishing.
“It’s posed some logistical challenges
with scheduling,” Craven said. “It’s diffi-
cult for our captains and our crews to
know exactly what to expect and try to
make sure we’re not overbooked with
too many long trips in a row.”
And don’t get her started about
stocking herring and other baits for the
private boats joining the halibut flotilla.
Charter offices are juggling schedul-
ing by going with online bookings and
scheduling all-depth halibut trips on
high-interest days to cut the skippers
some slack.
Along with scheduling and the un-
predictability of the weather, there’s
one other potential snag: Fuel prices.
The last big spike was during the
2008 recession when most charters had
to impose a fuel surcharge because of
rising costs.
“We raised the price on halibut trips
for the season,” said Eva Harmon, the
owner with her husband of Dockside
Charters in Depoe Bay.
Hopefully, she said, operators won’t
have to do that again this year.
The feeling was mutual, said Craven
at Newport Marina & Store.
“Our prices are set right now with no
fuel surcharge, and that’s what we’re
hoping going into June,” she said. “But if
fuel doesn’t go down at all, we might
have to add a surcharge or up our price a
little bit. We really don’t want to.”
Charters aren’t the only ones affected
by the prices at the pump. It also affects
the decisions of people thinking about
the long drive to the Oregon Coast ports
to fish, Craven said.
“We hope people don’t cancel be-
cause of gas prices,” she said.
On the plus side, Craven added, boats
came back with a few halibut after the
See HALIBUT, Page 2B