Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Capital press. (Salem, OR) 19??-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2015)
12 CapitalPress.com August 21, 2015 Wildfi res Fires in the Pacifi c Northwest are getting top priority FIRE from Page 1 Koshare Eagle, of the National Interagency Fire Center, said the center prioritizes fi res based fi rst on threats to public safety, fol- lowed by threats to communities and infrastructure. Numerous fi res meet those criteria, Eagle said, but because resources were so thin on Aug. 18 they had 60 orders for hot- shot crews that have gone unfi lled. The fi res in the Pacifi c North- west are getting top priority when it comes to allocating pinched re- sources. A lightning-sparked fi re in Oregon’s Malheur National For- est, the Canyon Complex fi re, has grown to 63 square miles and destroyed at least 36 houses. An additional 500 structures are threatened by the fl ames, as are the communities of Canyon City and John Day. On Aug. 18, federal offi cials made the fi re their top priority. In the Northern Rockies, so many wildfi res have ignited this month that offi cials are letting some that might be suppressed under normal circumstances burn because manpower and equip- ment are committed elsewhere. The area experienced a normal fi re season until last week, when a combination of drought, high tem- peratures and lightning-packed storms created new blazes across western Montana and Idaho. The Soda fi re, burning in southwest Idaho and southeast Oregon, had by Aug. 19 burned more than 283,000 acres. Dan Wheat/Capital Press Helicopter with a tube for sucking water out of the lake or river takes off Aug. 17 from Chelan Airport. Large Western U.S. wildfires * (As of Aug. 19) Wildfire data change rapidly. For the most up-to-date information, go to: activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/# Size Fire 1. Nickowitz 2. Route Com. 3. Collier Butte 4. Gasquet Com. 5. Humboldt Com. 6. River Com. 7. Stouts Cr. 8. Mad River Com. 9. Fork Com. 10. Cable Crossing 11. Jerusalem 12. South Com. 13. National Cr. Com. 14. Blankenship 15. County Line 2 16. Cougar Cr. 17. Thursday Cr. 18. Wolverine 19. Cuesta 20. First Cr. 21. McFarland Cr. 22. Dodge 23. Black Canyon 24. Okanogan Com. 25. Reach 26. Walker 27. Canyon Cr. Com. 28. North Star 29. Roy 30. Rough 31. Carpenter Rd. 32. Stickpin 33. Warm 34. El Dorado 35. Phillips Cr. 36. Marble Valley 37. Bendire Com. 38. Cabin 39. Cold Springs 40. Rutter Canyon 41. Tower 42. Eagle 43. Horno 44. Cornet-Windy Ridge 45. Sawtooth 46. Scotchman Peak 47. Soda 48. Mann 49. Big Lost 50. Elk City Com. 0-75 percent contained (Acres) 3,331 33,962 8,000 6,426 4,883 43,144 25,076 24,981 35,097 1,857 25,118 22,037 6,228 180 62,000 23,100 200 40,470 2,500 1,731 4,708 10,570 6,671 30,927 69,445 3,715 43,738 35,000 120 24,200 6,786 37,317 300 20,601 2,601 3,100 44,397 1,723 4,012 155 7,743 2,518 1,846 103,540 100 2,400 283,686 1,356 1,280 520 76-100 percent contained Idaho and Oregon ranchers fi ghting one of nation’s largest By SEAN ELLIS Capital Press 14 MONT. 16 WASH. 79 13 ORE. 27 34 37 3 IDAHO 47 22 12 8 NEV. 11 CALIF. 39 UTAH 26 30 N 19 *100 100 acres or more occurring in timber; 300 acres or more in grass/sage. 78 43 Size Fire (cont.) (Acres) 51. Rapid 52. Parker Ridge 53. Baldy 54. Not Creative 55. Clearwater Com. 56. Napoleon 1 57. Tepee Springs 58. West Scriver 59. Municipal 60. Clark Fork Com. 61. Cougar 62. Marble Cr. 63. Grizzly Cr. Com. 64. Slide 65. Campbells 1,402 6,147 515 135 72,150 2,160 5,080 607 1,872 2,850 591 1,024 694 1,000 2,200 Sources: activefiremaps.fs.fed.us; inciweb.org Size Fire (cont.) (Acres) 66. Snow Peak Com. 125 67. Weigel 100 68. N.E. Kootenai Com. 2,265 69. Red River Com. 300 70. Melton 1 3,303 71. Bobcat 315 72. Thompson Divide Com. 13,932 73. Scotchmans Gulch 186 74. Morrell Com. 384 75. Flat Cr. 200 76. Sucker Cr. 2,640 77. Cabin Cr. 1,895 78. Rattlesnake 4,000 79. Eustis 8,721 Alan Kenaga/Capital Press HOMEDALE, Idaho — Dozens of ranchers in South- western Idaho and Eastern Oregon are helping battle one of the nation’s largest wild- fi res. In many cases, they’re fi ghting to defend their own livelihoods. The wind-driven Soda fi re had burned more than 283,000 acres as of Aug. 19 and was spreading rapidly, driven by high winds, tem- peratures above 100 degrees and low humidity. It’s burning mainly in Owyhee County but jumped across the Oregon border Aug. 12, where it has scorched more than 25,000 acres. The fi re has destroyed tens of thousands of acres of grazing land and is threaten- ing ranches that are scattered throughout the region. Rancher Tim Macken- zie, who runs cattle from Homedale to Jordan Valley, Ore., said the fi re has de- stroyed all of his spring range and it has destroyed all of the spring and summer range of eight other ranchers he knows. He’s one of about 50 ranchers from two Rangeland Fire Protection Associations — one in Oregon and one in Idaho — who are helping fi ght the fi re. “It’s had a huge impact on me,” Mackenzie said. “It’s the worst one I’ve seen in my life- time.” The fi re started close to Paul Nettleton’s ranch near Murphy but he has escaped unharmed so far because winds drove it away from his Wildfi re claims apple packing plant Estimated $50 million to $80 million loss By DAN WHEAT Capital Press CHELAN, Wash. — A major Washington tree fruit packer, Chelan Fruit Cooper- ative, lost one of its two main plants and the other was dam- aged in fi res that destroyed other businesses and 50 to 75 residences at Lake Chelan. “It’s quite a disaster,” said Reggie Collins, the co-op’s general manager. He estimat- ed the co-op’s facilities losses at $50 million to $80 million. Chelan Fruit Cooperative’s Plant No. 1, also known as the Trout plant, had a pre-size line and two apple packing lines. It had capacity for 120,000 to 130,000 bins of storage, most- ly controlled atmosphere. It was destroyed along with about 150,000 empty bins, Collins said. The adjacent plant No. 2, also known as Blue Chelan dating to before the late 1990s merger of Blue Chelan and Trout, received smoke dam- age and cosmetic burns but will be operational within a few days, Collins said. “Plant No. 1 is an 18 to 24-month rebuilding project. It will have to have all new (packing) lines. Concrete walls that are not fallen in will have to be pushed down and we’ll have to start from the ground up,” Collins said. He said he hopes insur- ance covers losses, but that the plant will be rebuilt “one way or another.” With apple and pear harvest just starting, Chel- an Fruit will make up for the loss of No. 1 by run- ning more volume and night shifts throughout the year at No. 2 and its plants in Bee- be, Orondo and Pateros, Col- lins said. Dan Wheat/Capital Press Apples spill from bins outside Chelan Fruit Cooperative’s packing plant No. 1, which was burned in a wildfi re. It has additional storage in Okanogan and Omak, but will need bins, storage and packing assistance. “We will have to have outside help. We will be asking for and finding help. It’s a tight industry and even though we’re all competi- tors, we’re all friends when a disaster hits,” he said. That might be limited, he said, because the industry already is sharing resourc- es to help Blue Bird Inc. and Stemilt Growers LLC, which lost packing lines to the Sleepy Hollow Fire in Wenatchee on June 28. But Gebbers Farms in Brewster, Manson Fruit Co- operative in Manson, and Stemilt, Columbia Fruit and McDougall & Sons, all in Wenatchee, have said they will put together a plan of how much fruit they can pack and when, Collins said. “I’m pretty confident that between all those guys we will have a plan to take care of our fruit without any loss- es to our growers,” he said. Chelan Fruit estimates packing 6.5 million to 7 million boxes of apples and pears from the 2015 crop. That’s down from 8 million last season because its a smaller crop and because of “devastating hail in multiple areas,” Collins said. Chelan Fruit will do ev- erything to keep its employ- ees from plant No. 1 working at its other facilities, he said. Crop loss to the co-op’s growers is minimal as fires tend to singe edges of or- chard but not burn them, Collins said. However, he said, he lost 20 acres of his own orchard and deer fenc- ing. His sister lost her brand new house and his house and his sons’ were smoke dam- aged. Ranchers, USDA spar over forest management By TIM HEARDEN Capital Press As wildfi res rage throughout the West, two ranchers’ groups are engaging in fi nger-pointing with federal offi cials over what the cattlemen call the “gross” mismanagement of forests and rangelands. In an Aug. 17 letter, National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and Public Lands Council of- fi cials urged President Barack Obama to “streamline regula- tions that will allow for active management” of federal lands and stop closed-door settlements with environmental groups that seek to block such efforts. Further, NCBA president Philip Ellis and PLC president Brenda Richards voiced support for legislation that would re- quire the Forest Service to treat at least 2 million acres a year through mechanical thinning or prescribed burns. But Robert Bonnie, the USDA’s under secretary for re- sources and environment, coun- tered the groups should instead support a wildfi re funding bill by Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Ida- ho, which has widespread bipar- tisan backing and is similar to language in Obama’s proposed budget. Simpson’s Wildfi re Disaster Funding Act would treat cata- strophic wildfi res the same as other disasters when it comes to funding and end the practice of “fi re borrowing,” in which the U.S. Forest Service has to raid its management coffers when it exceeds its budget for fi refi ght- ing. The bill “would not only stop fi re transfers but would provide the agency with additional re- sources to restore forests,” Bon- nie told the Capital Press in an email. “As a result, this proposal would increase restored acres by one million annually, with an output of 300 million board feet of timber sold.” The NCBA and PLC are promoting the Resilient Federal Forests Act by Rep. Bruce Wes- terman, R-Ark., which passed the House of Representatives by a 262-167 vote in July. A similar bill by U.S. Sen. John Barras- so, R-Wyo., had a hearing last month in the upper chamber’s Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “Despite the increasing ev- idence that mismanagement of forests and rangeland is to blame for the higher occurrence of cat- astrophic wildfi res, Washington seems to believe that allocating more money to fi re suppression is the answer,” Ellis and Rich- ards told Obama in the letter. “We encourage you to work with the ranching communities across the West to ensure lands are actively managed and there- by reducing future catastrophic fi re and reduce the ever-ex- panding fi re costs impacting the agencies,” they wrote. However, Bonnie respond- ed the Republicans’ bill fails to address the ever-increasing por- tion of the budget devoted to fi re suppression, which limits mon- ey to restore and manage forests. As it is, the Forest Service has actually increased acres re- stored since 2008, producing 18 percent more timber, USDA offi cials said. In 2014, the agency treated 2.7 million acres to restore forest health and reduced hazard- ous fuels on another 1.5 million while exceeding its targets in planned timber sales and steward- ship contracts, offi cials said. The competing bills come as about 95 large wildfi res are burning 1.1 million acres in the West. For the fi rst time, the U.S. Forest Service expects to spend more than half its budget — 52 percent — on fi re suppression this year, further squeezing for- est restoration, watershed and landscape management pro- grams, according to an agency report. In fi scal 1995, the Forest Service spent 16 percent of its budget on fi refi ghting, but fi re expenditures could balloon to as much as two-thirds of the Forest Service’s budget within the next decade, the agency believes. The PLC’s Richards, a Reyn- olds Creek, Idaho rancher who recently suffered property dam- age as the Soda Fire in south- western Idaho and southeast- ern Oregon consumed roughly 300,000 acres of rangeland, said the mismanagement of federal lands has created the need for such expenditures and caused economic hardship and danger for ranchers. “The livestock industry and rural economies will spend decades attempting to recov- er from the millions of dollars’ worth of infrastructure damage and forage loss” from fi res, Richards said in a statement. The bills by Westerman and Barrasso would ease en- vironmental requirements for forest-thinning projects and re- quire an arbitration process be- fore anyone could challenge the projects in court. It would also prohibit federal agencies from raiding accounts necessary for forest and range management. “It’s tough to say what the Senate will end up taking up in September, but we continue to urge them to take up the bill,” PLC spokeswoman Shawna Newsome said in an email. “With strong support in the House, we expect to see the same in the Senate.” operation. He said the fi re has been devastating to some of his rancher neighbors. “This fi re is pretty scary,” Nettleton said. “Not only have they lost some ground, but probably a lot of cattle graz- ing in that area as well.” BLM offi cials said pro- tecting lives and property are their top priorities and after high winds caused the fi re to explode the night of Aug. 11, fi refi ghters fell back into defensive positions to protect ranches and other structures. Steve Acarregui, BLM’s fi re cooperative coordinator in Boise, said the volunteer RFPAs, which consist almost entirely of ranchers, have proven helpful in fi ghting the Soda fi re. “The (RFPA) program has exceeded my expectations,” he said about the groups’ ef- forts on this and other fi res. “It’s been going really well.” Acarregui spent part of the last three days with the RF- PAs as they conducted burn- out operations and suppressed direct fi re lines with fi re en- gines and bulldozers. “They have a vested inter- est in protecting the forage on federal land where they have grazing permits,” he said. “They want to keep that fi re as small as possible to protect as much of that forage as pos- sible for grazing. It’s a good deal for them ... and for tax- payers.” BLM offi cials said much of the area where the fi re is burning is considered primary sage grouse habitat. The fi re was likely caused by an Aug. 10 lighting strike, BLM offi cials said. Chelan FFA adviser loses home to wildfi re By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press FFA adviser Rod Cool and his family are among the doz- ens of people who lost their homes to the massive wildfi re that burned through the Chel- an, Wash., area. Cool lost his home and outbuildings Aug. 14. He’s not sure about the cost to re- place it all, but said he has good insurance. He planned to begin the rebuilding pro- cess this week. Cool and his family were evacuating when the fi re hit. “I drove by the driveway and the trees were on fi re in the yard, that’s how close it was,” Cool said. “The fi re re- ally came fast.” Fire surrounded the home, but wasn’t moving, Cool said. He got some FFA pigs he was keeping for students loaded, but ran out of time and three were lost to the fi re, he said. The remaining animals have been moved to other lo- cations in the school district, he said. Cool says that as an ag- riculture teacher he teach- es about “defensible space” around houses to guard against wildfi res. “Sometimes, fi re behavior, especially in a year like this, you almost have to double what you think is safe,” he said. “I had 100 feet of bare ground all around my house, and it still burned down.” Several of Cool’s neigh- bors also lost their homes, but others were untouched. “It’s just a weird deal, hit and miss, on how houses started on fi re and which ones started fi rst,” he said. Cool and his family are living in town with his moth- er. He hopes his insurance will provide a rental place un- til they can get back into their home. Daughter Sammi Jo Sims said she is in the process of moving to Moscow, Idaho, for college but was storing gifts from her July wedding at her parents’ home.