COFFEE BREAK
8B — THE OBSERVER & BAKER CITY HERALD
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2020
Man with history of cheating Fires set stage for irreversible
is caught on ‘hook-up’ sites forest losses in Australia
DEAR ABBY: I just found out my husband
After 30 years, it is a little late to correct
of 18 years has been going to “hook-up” websites. the mindset your ex may have caused these
He says he was just looking at the pictures, but
relatives to have about you. But if at this late
I don’t believe him. I have caught him cheating
date you try to spread the word that she was
twice in the past, so it’s hard to trust him.
cheating, it will accomplish nothing positive,
My problem is, he knows I can’t leave him
and I don’t advise it.
because I have no job, no skills, no money —
P.S. If the silence continues, then I recom-
nothing. I went right from my parents’ house
mend you bring someone — a friend or a date
to living with him after our wedding. We have — with you to these gatherings. At least you
six kids and one on the way.
will have someone to talk to.
He will continue to go to these
DEAR
websites because he knows I
DEAR ABBY: I have an
ABBY
am stuck. What should I do?
acquaintance I see occasionally.
— SOON-TO-BE MOTH-
He recently told me he is getting
ER OF SEVEN
married. When I congratulated
DEAR SOON-TO-BE MOTHER OF
him, I wanted to ask who the lucky groom is
SEVEN: The fi rst thing you should do is see
because I have often thought he was gay, but I
your doctor and be checked for STDs. If you are found out he’s marrying a woman. What’s the
well, thank your higher power. If you aren’t, get appropriate way to ask this question nowadays
treatment, get well and talk to a lawyer. Your
since all of us can marry, I am happy to say.
situation may not be as hopeless as you think.
— PONDERING IN NEVADA
Have you any relatives or friends you can
DEAR PONDERING: A subtle way to ask
stay with when you leave, change your life
that question would be, “Congratulations!
and become self-supporting? It may require
What’s your lucky fi ance’s (-ee’s) name?”
job training and time, but please consider it.
I doubt your husband will have much time
DEAR ABBY: My son got married eight
for philandering if he has six kids to take
months ago. I recently found out he and his
care of by himself in addition to his job. I
wife haven’t sent thank-you notes to anyone.
also doubt that few, if any, women he might
Some of our friends and family took time off
be hooking up with would welcome becom-
work, traveled across the country, spent a lot
ing the instant mother of six. And one more
of money on airfare, hotels, meals, as well as
thing, from now on, please use birth control.
wedding gifts. I am mortifi ed.
Abby, there were only 60 guests, so there
DEAR ABBY: I have been divorced for 30
were fewer than 30 thank-you notes to send.
years. During this time, my ex-wife has rarely
When I asked my son about it last week, he
spoken to me, and in the last 10 years said not said they hadn’t sent them because so much
one word to me. There have been many occa-
time had passed and it was too late. I told
sions and events at my son’s home to celebrate him it was inexcusable, and they need to get
my granddaughter’s birthday, etc. My ex and
those notes written now because this is defi -
many other people attend, but basically, no one nitely a case of better late than never.
speaks to me. I am totally ignored.
If they don’t do it within the next week,
I have a strong hunch that during the
I intend to contact my friends and family
divorce my ex told people I hit or abused her.
and thank them myself and apologize for
(Not true!) She told my sister something to this their rudeness. My son was not raised to be
effect. I believe it was a ploy to distract from
ungrateful and rude. What do you think?
the fact she had been cheating on me. Regard-
— FURIOUS IN ARIZONA
less, this situation is extremely hurtful and
DEAR FURIOUS: What you have in mind
unpleasant. Any ideas how to deal with this?
may be well-intentioned, but it won’t make
— OSTRACIZED AND PARALYZED up for your son and daughter-in-law’s lack
DEAR O. & P.: Have you tried to initiate a of courtesy. If they fail to contact the guests
conversation? Have you asked these people
who made such an effort to attend their wed-
why they give you the silent treatment?
ding, do not speak up on their behalf because
They’re fair questions.
it will only make them look worse.
weather
The Associated Press
Australia’s forests are burning at a rate
unmatched in modern times and scientists
say the landscape is being permanently al-
tered as a warming climate brings profound
changes to the island continent.
Heat waves and drought have fueled
bigger and more frequent fi res in parts of
Australia, so far this season torching some
40,000 square miles, an area about as big
as Ohio.
With blazes still raging in the country’s
southeast, government offi cials are drawing
up plans to reseed burned areas to speed
up forest recovery that could otherwise take
decades or even centuries.
But some scientists and forestry experts
doubt that reseeding and other intervention
efforts can match the scope of the destruc-
tion. The fi res since September have killed
28 people and burned more than 2,600
houses.
Before the recent wildfi res, ecologists
divided up Australia’s native vegetation
into two categories: fi re-adapted landscapes
that burn periodically, and those that don’t
burn. In the recent fi res, that distinction
lost meaning — even rainforests and peat
swamps caught fi re, likely changing them
forever.
Flames have blazed through jungles
dried out by drought, such as Eungella
National Park, where shrouds of mist have
been replaced by smoke.
“Anybody would have said these forests
don’t burn, that there’s not enough material
and they are wet. Well they did,” said forest
restoration expert Sebastian Pfautsch, a re-
search fellow at Western Sydney University.
“Climate change is happening now, and
we are seeing the effects of it,” he said.
High temperatures, drought and more
frequent wildfi res — all linked to climate
change — may make it impossible for even
fi re-adapted forests to be fully restored,
scientists say.
“The normal processes of recovery are go-
ing to be less effective, going to take longer,”
said Roger Kitching, an ecologist at Griffi th
University in Queensland. “Instead of an
ecosystem taking a decade, it may take a
AROUND OREGON AND THE REGION
Astoria
Longview
51/54
Kennewick
48/54
St. Helens
48/54
40/48
36/47
48/55
48/54
Condon
THU
FRI
SAT
SUN
Rain and drizzle
A few morning
showers
A snow shower
Morning rain;
overcast
Showers
possible
44 31
42 33
43 31
Eugene
3
0
0
49/59
44 35
43 36
44 26
2
0
4
La Grande
36 44 38
Comfort Index™
Enterprise
3
0
2
34 44 36
Comfort Index™
2
44 35
40 25
5
3
4
4
ALMANAC
MONDAY EXTREMES
TEMPERATURES Baker City La Grande Elgin
NATION (for the 48 contiguous states)
High Monday
Low Monday
High: 78°
Hollywood, Fla.
Low: -30°
International Falls, Minn.
Wettest: 0.62”
Quillayute, Wash.
40°
33°
42°
37°
43°
31°
PRECIPITATION (inches)
Monday
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Normal year to date
0.00
0.12
0.55
0.12
0.55
0.00
0.82
1.13
0.82
1.13
0.00
5.11
2.15
5.11
2.15
HAY INFORMATION THURSDAY
65%
SSE at 8 to 16 mph
1.9
0.04
RESERVOIR STORAGE (through midnight Tuesday)
Phillips Reservoir
Unity Reservoir
Owyhee Reservoir
McKay Reservoir
Wallowa Lake
Thief Valley Reservoir
23% of capacity
46% of capacity
69% of capacity
22% of capacity
43% of capacity
101% of capacity
Florence
Keno
Astoria
936 cfs
74 cfs
11 cfs
153 cfs
N.A.
139 cfs
SUN & MOON
New
Jan 24
First
WED.
THU.
7:24 a.m.
4:44 p.m.
5:50 a.m.
2:44 p.m.
7:23 a.m.
4:46 p.m.
6:45 a.m.
3:40 p.m.
Feb 1
Full
Feb 8
34/41
Beaver Marsh
33/40
Roseburg
50/57
Brothers
45/53
Coos Bay
Powers
39/51
Oakridge
46/59
Last
Feb 15
nee R d E
O
M
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d
u
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,
s
g
n
i
t
s
Show Li
,
Crosswords
orts
p
S
,
h
c
r
a
e
S
Word
re...?
o
M
&
s
e
z
z
i
Qu
Burns
Boise
37/49
Jordan Valley
34/41
Paisley
32/44
Frenchglen
33/44
Diamond
Grand View
Arock
32/43
33/50
33/43
Fields
Medford
31/42
Klamath Falls
28/43
Lakeview
27/41
McDermitt
Shown is Thursday’s weather. Temperatures are Wednesday night’s lows and Thursday’s highs.
31/40
RECREATION FORECAST THURSDAY
FRI.
City
Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W
Astoria
54/49/r 54/46/r
Bend
51/39/c 50/37/c
Boise
49/38/pc 49/37/c
Brookings
54/48/r 54/48/sh
Burns
42/30/c 44/29/c
Coos Bay
55/50/r 56/49/r
Corvallis
56/49/r 56/46/r
Council
39/34/c 39/34/sf
Elgin
44/37/r 44/34/sf
Eugene
59/50/r 58/47/r
Hermiston
52/41/c 58/40/c
Hood River
48/40/r 52/39/r
Imnaha
47/39/c 47/36/sf
John Day
48/38/c 47/36/c
Joseph
43/35/c 43/31/sf
Kennewick
52/44/c 58/39/c
Klamath Falls 43/33/c 47/35/c
Lakeview
41/33/pc 44/30/c
34/43
Silver Lake
31/42
39/55
47/54
Juntura
29/42
45/56
Brookings
Ontario
33/45
33/44
Chiloquin
Grants Pass
Huntington
34/43
Bend
Elkton
THU.
A record 17.4-inch snowfall on Jan. 22,
1902, in Buffalo, N.Y., was dwarfed by 30
inches in Philadelphia, Pa., on Jan. 8, 1996.
Sunrise
Sunset
Moonrise
Moonset
Florence
32/39
34/43
Seneca
REGIONAL CITIES
MOON PHASES
STREAM FLOWS (through midnight Monday)
Grande Ronde at Troy
Thief Valley Reservoir near North Powder
Burnt River near Unity
Umatilla River near Gibbon
Minam River at Minam
Powder River near Richland
High: 56°
Low: 16°
Wettest: 0.07”
WEATHER HISTORY
AGRICULTURAL INFO.
Lowest relative humidity
Afternoon wind
Hours of sunshine
Evapotranspiration
OREGON
38/48
37/52
Council
30/42
John Day
37/55
Sisters
50/55
Comfort Index takes into account how the weather will feel based on a combination of factors. A rating of 10 feels
very comfortable while a rating of 0 feels very uncomfortable.
32/41
31/41
Baker City
Redmond
49/54
50/55
Halfway
Granite
48/56
Newport
48/58
44 31
37/48
44/50
49/56
Corvallis
Enterprise
34/44
36/44
Monument
39/50
Idanha
Salem
TONIGHT
1
Elgin
36/44
La Grande
40/51
Maupin
Comfort Index™
40/48
Pendleton
The Dalles
Portland
Newberg
Lewiston
38/46
Hood River
41/54
TIllamook
30 42 33
Forecasts and graphics provided
by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2020
Walla Walla
41/52
Vancouver
47/53
50/55
Baker City
century or more to recover, all assuming we
don’t get another fi re season of this magni-
tude soon.”
Young stands of mountain ash trees —
which are not expected to burn because
they have minimal foliage — have burned
in the Australian Alps, the highest moun-
tain range on the continent. Fire this year
wiped out stands reseeded following fi res in
2013.
Mountain ash, the world’s tallest fl ow-
ering trees, reach heights of almost 300
feet and live hundreds of years. They’re
an iconic presence in southeast Australia,
comparable to the redwoods of Northern
California, and are highly valued by the
timber industry.
“I’m expecting major areas of (tree) loss
this year, mainly because we will not have
suffi cient seed to sow them,” said Owen Bas-
sett of Forest Solutions, a private company
that works with government agencies to
reseed forests by helicopter following fi res.
Bassett plans to send out teams to climb
trees in parts of Victoria that did not burn
to harvest seed pods. But he expects to get
at most a ton of seeds this year, about one-
tenth of what he said is needed.
Fire is a normal part of an ash forest life
cycle, clearing out older stands to make
way for new growth. But the extent and
intensity of this year’s fi res left few surviv-
ing trees in many areas.
Already ash forests in parts of Victoria
had been hit by wildfi re every four to fi ve
years, allowing less marketable tree species
to take over or meadows to form.
“If a young ash forest is burned and killed
and we can’t resow it, then it is lost,” Bas-
sett said.
The changing landscape has major
implications for Australia’s diverse wildlife.
The fi res in Eungella National Park, for
example, threaten “frogs and reptiles that
don’t live anywhere else,” said University of
Queensland ecologist Diana Fisher.
Fires typically burn through the forest
in a patchwork pattern, leaving unburned
refuges from which plant and animal spe-
cies can spread. However, megafi res are
consuming everything in their path and
leaving little room for that kind of recovery,
said Griffi th University’s Kitching.
By Matthew Brown
and Christina Larson
City
Lewiston
Longview
Meacham
Medford
Newport
Olympia
Ontario
Pasco
Pendleton
Portland
Powers
Redmond
Roseburg
Salem
Spokane
The Dalles
Ukiah
Walla Walla
THU.
FRI.
Hi/Lo/W
46/40/r
54/50/r
43/37/i
55/43/r
54/49/r
53/47/r
45/34/pc
53/45/c
54/44/c
55/49/r
57/50/r
55/38/c
59/47/r
56/50/r
41/39/sh
47/40/c
44/35/i
48/44/c
Hi/Lo/W
51/38/sh
55/47/r
43/33/sf
56/43/c
53/48/r
53/44/r
48/33/sh
59/39/c
56/39/c
56/47/r
58/50/sh
55/39/c
60/48/sh
56/47/r
46/35/r
53/39/r
43/31/c
53/40/pc
Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain,
sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice
Check out
our new
TV Magazine
ANTHONY LAKES
PHILLIPS LAKE
A little a.m. snow
A p.m. shower
32
25
41
32
MT. EMILY REC.
BROWNLEE RES.
Snow and sleet
Cloudy
38
34
43
37
EAGLE CAP WILD.
EMIGRANT ST. PARK
A little a.m. snow
Cloudy, p.m. rain
33
27
41
33
WALLOWA LAKE
MCKAY RESERVOIR
Mostly cloudy
Not as cool
43
35
54
44
THIEF VALLEY RES.
RED BRIDGE ST. PARK
A morning shower
Showers around
42
33
44
38
Y
R
E
EV
Y
A
D
FRI
BL
E LOGO
REVERS
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