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About Applegater. (Jacksonville, OR) 2008-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2012)
Applegater Winter 2012 3 Community Calendar Firing away at media distraction by tOM AtZet AA Meeting There is an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous every Wednesday at 7 am at the Williams Community Church Fellowship Hall on East Fork Road in Williams. This meeting is open to those who have a drinking problem and have a desire to stop drinking, and also to anyone interested in the Alcoholics Anonymous program of recovery from drinking. American Association of University Women (AAUW) Grants Pass Branch meets monthly from September through June. Days, times, and locations vary. All those who hold an associate of arts, a baccalaureate or higher degree from an accredited college or university are welcome to join. Contact Connie Johnson at budcon@charter.net or 541-476-2567, or Angie Bifano-Sokol at angiebifano@hotmail.com or 541-862-8228. Visit our website at http://aauwgrantspass. org, and see us on Facebook. Applegate Christian Fellowship. For service times, call 541-899-8732, 24 hours/day. Applegate Fire District Board of Directors meets on the third Wednesday of each month at Station 1, 18489 N. Applegate Rd. at 7:30 pm. Except for the months of March, April and May, which are held at Headquarters, 1095 Upper Applegate Road. For more information, call 541-899-1050. Grants Pass Nordic Ski Club meets on the first Thursday of the month, November through April, at the Newman Methodist Church at 7th and B Streets in Grants Pass at 7 pm. Ski outings are on Saturdays. Listings are on the snow phone at 541-592-4977. Greater Applegate Community Development Corporation meets the second Wednesday of January, April, July and October at 6 pm at Applegate Fire District Station 1, 18489 North Applegate Road. For more information, go to www.gacdc.org. Josephine County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) meets Thursdays at 6 pm. For meeting information, call 541-474-6840. Ruch Library Hours Sunday.........................................................closed Monday.......................................................closed Tuesday............................................11 am - 5 pm Wednesday..................................................closed Thursday...........................................1 pm - 7 pm Friday ...........................................................closed Saturday..........................................12 pm - 4 pm (Storytime will be held Tuesdays at 11 am.) Sanctuary One is open to the public for farm tours every Wednesday and Saturday at 10 am. Recommended donation is $5. Please check out our website for details: www. SanctuaryOne.org and call to reserve a spot. 541-899-8627. Applegate 4-H Swine Club meets on Tuesday following the third Wednesday of every month at 7 pm. For more information contact Charles Elmore at 541-846-6528 or Barbara Niedermeyer at 541-846-7635. Southern Oregon Beekeepers Association meets the first Monday of each month, 7:30 pm, at the OSU extension. For more information, please contact sobeekeepers@gmail.com. Applegate Friends of Fire District #9 meets on the third Tuesday of each month at the Fire Station—1095 Upper Applegate Road—at 6 pm. New members are welcome. For more information, call Bob Fischer 541-846-6218. T.O.P.S. (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets every Monday morning at Applegate Church, 18960 North Applegate Road (at the corner of Hwy. 238 and N. Applegate Road). Weigh-in starts at 8:30 am; the meeting starts at 9:00 am. Come join us! Applegate Library Hours Sunday..........................................................closed Monday........................................................closed Tuesday..............................................2 pm - 6 pm Wednesday...................................................closed Thursday.......................................................closed Friday .................................................2 pm - 6 pm Saturday...........................................10 am - 2 pm (Storytime will be held Tuesdays at 2:30 pm.) Applegate Neighborhood Network (ANN) meets on the last Wednesday of every month at the Ruch Library. All interested persons are welcome to attend. ANN is a community organization dedicated to protecting, preserving, and restoring the Applegate watershed. For more information about ANN, call Duane Bowman, 541-899- 7264. Applegate Partnership and Watershed Council meets the 4th Thursday of the month at the Applegate Library. For more information call 541-899-9982. Applegate Valley Garden Club meets at 1:30 pm on the third Wednesday of the month from September through May. For meeting locations and programs, call Sandra King at 541-899-9027 or Betty Lou Smith at 541- 846-6817. Williams Creek Watershed Council Meetings: fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 pm at the Williams Creek Fire Station. The Public is welcome. For more information, call 541- 846-9175. Williams Grange Pancake Breakfast, second Sunday of each month, 8:30 to 11 am, followed by the Bluegrass Jam, 11 am to 1 pm. Closed July and August. 20100 Williams Hwy. near Tetherow Rd. Information 541- 846-6844. Williams Grange #399 Business Meeting, second Tuesday of each month, 7 pm. 20100 Williams Hwy. near Tetherow Rd. Information 541-846-6844. Williams Library Hours Sunday.........................................................closed Monday.......................................................closed Tuesday........................................1:30 pm - 4 pm Wednesday..................................1:30 pm - 4 pm Thursday......................................................closed Friday...........................................................closed Saturday..........................................12 pm - 4 pm Williams Rural Fire Protection District Meetings: fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 pm at the Williams Fire Department. Food & Friends Senior Nutrition Program invites local 60+ seniors to enjoy a nutritious, hot meal served at 11:30 am Monday through Friday at the Jacksonville IOOF Hall located at the corner of Main and Oregon Streets. A donation is suggested and appreciated. Volunteers help serve meals or deliver meals to homebound seniors. For information about volunteering (it takes 40 volunteers to keep the Jacksonville program going ) or receiving meals, call Food & Friends at 541-664-6674, x246 or x208. Women Helping Other Women (WHOW) meets the second Tuesday of the month at 10036 Hwy 238 (Gyda Lane) at 6:30 pm for a potluck meeting to plan work parties at each other’s homes. New members are welcome. For more information, call Thalia Truesdell at 541-899-8741 or Sioux Rogers at 541-846-7736. Friends of Ruch Library Board of Directors meets on the first Thursday of each month at 6:30 pm at Ruch Library. All are welcome. 541-899-7438. Send your calendar information to gater@ applegater.org. Be sure to keep the Gater updated with any changes to these Community Calendar listings. Wonder Neighborhood Watch Meetings: second Tuesday of each month, 6:30 pm, Wonder Bible Chapel. BORED? Check out our online calendar jam-packed with events all over southwest Oregon. www.applegater.org There were loads of media coverage of and biological stresses. We assume that the the tenth anniversary of the Biscuit Fire. best adapted survive, but there are always My comments emphasize fire’s behavior as individuals that are just flat-out lucky. ecosystem process and a tad about how the Regardless, all add to species diversity. Fire produces a range of severity anniversary was covered. Let me start with an anecdote. It effects across the landscape, which varies happened over 20 years ago. As I vaguely by elevation aspect, slope, live and dead recall, the climax of this science and values fuel loads, weather and random chance, seminar at the Southern Oregon University to name a few. Until the Biscuit Fire, Union bottom floor was billed as a shoot- southwestern Oregon national forest out between the timber industry and records indicate that high severity fire, environmentalists, represented by Greg sometimes called “stand replacement fire,” Miller and Jack Shipley, respectively. Like typically occurred on less than 20% of the circling vultures, reporters and cameras area burned. Low severity fire, where a lined up at the back of the room to scattering of vegetation is lightly burned cover the impending contentious debate. skipping about half of the area, usually Unbeknown to everyone, Greg and Jack occurred on over half the burned area. had been talking and listening to one In other words, fires create a mosaic of another, backstage, about their visions for landscape effects and diversity that tend to our valley. They walked out together and increase ecosystem resilience. One of our jointly announced that their commonalities communities’ main goals is to eliminate greatly outweighed their disparities, and “house replacement” fire. In the last few decades, local burns they would emphasize collaboration. have included an That caused a bit of increasing proportion of commotion in the back high severity fire (Quartz of the room as many about 40% and Biscuit of the reporters and all It’s just a about 50%). Speculation of the camera crews feeling that about this increase immediately packed up includes global warming, and left. controversy and intense fire suppression, I can’t say that this the sensational management practices, anecdote characterizes salvage, backfires and the behavior of the get more lack of management. media—after all it’s only attention than Causal relationships one observation and in ecology typically I have not objectively unbiased, solid comprise a nonlinear studied coverage as an information. combination of all of the issue. It’s just a feeling above. Complexities are that controversy and often lost on those who the sensational get more prefer straightforward attention than unbiased, single-factor explanations. While it may solid information. I have, however, studied and analyzed ecosystems and the role of be exciting and controversial to speculate fire (including the Biscuit) in southwestern and assign blame, the focus should be Oregon since the late 1960s. and I think recognizing valid behavior and trends. Have you ever noticed that when our community could have been better served by a focus on basic fire concepts greeting a friend the intensity of the rather than dredging up old controversies. greeting is related to the amount of time Closure in science is frowned upon. you’ve been apart; the greater the length of Since “we can’t learn what we think we the absence, the more intense the greeting. know” (don’t know who first said this, Similarly, the intensity of a fire is inversely maybe Yogi, but I am willing to learn), related to the frequency of occurrence. The it’s imperative to keep an open mind. greater the amount of time between fires, However, we are surer of some concepts the more severe the effects. I’m not sure than others. For example, we are almost what builds up during absences between certain that each of us will die, sometime. friends, but in the ecosystem, live and dead But the proposition that everyone will be fuels accumulate faster on more productive taxed is less certain. Similarly, in ecology, sites. Most, if not all, of how the Biscuit some concepts carry more power than Fire behaved was expected, except maybe others. Let’s review some of what we think for the size and the proportion of high- we know. Ecosystem fire is temporally severity fire. But that also seems to be in and spatially universal. Records document keeping with the current national trends— that fires have occurred throughout the larger and more severe fires. Most of us understand the principles Applegate Valley for at least the last 12,000 years (Native American information), and for sustaining our own health. Fire is a bit probably as long as lightning has been like exercising the human body—it both around. Although the second half of breaks down and builds up structure (and the previous sentence is supposition, it is there are many beneficial ancillary effects). Both exercise and fire may sometimes be widely regarded as virtually certain. Fire is essential for maintaining unpleasant and cause pain, but nonetheless ecosystem functionality across the contribute to long-term health and landscape. Fire assures some level of sustainability. We do understand how mortality, stimulates reproduction, and fire serves the basic long-term needs helps to redistribute resources (carbon is a of ecosystem health; dredging up old biggie) for growth and survival. Severe fire controversies is an unneeded distraction. often produces open space, allowing new Tom Atzet combinations of genes (reproduction) to jatzet@budget.net be tested under changing environmental Happy Holidays!
