P6 THE SPOKESMAN • WEDNESDAY, MARCH 30, 2022
FLASHBACK
Fire turns Smith Rock State Park into living lab in 1997
Submitted Photo
Girl Scout Troop 438-69 inspects new growth in a fire study plot at Smith Rock State Park. Pictured above are
Megan and Hannah Larkin, Tessa Lynch, Molly O’Neal, Kristin Skow and Krystin Previti.
The Spokesman
100 YEARS AGO
March 30, 1922 — Terre-
bonne builds several new
homes
A number of attractive new
farm residence buildings have
been completed this spring
with several others under con-
struction at Terrebonne, ac-
cording to Mrs. S.M. Miller,
who was visiting in Redmond
yesterday.
One of the new homes
has just been completed at
the Miller farm on a beauti-
ful building site overlooking
Crooked River Valley near
Smith Rock. This is a bunga-
low of five large rooms.
75 YEARS AGO
April 3, 1947 — Alternate
route not in budget
There are no provisions
in the state highway depart-
ment budget for the next three
years for paving an alternate
route through Redmond for
Highway 97, the city planning
commission was informed in
a letter from R. H. Baldock,
highway department engineer.
Over the last two years the
city has been corresponding
with the highway department
regarding the street. And al-
though Baldock’s letter, as in-
terpreted by city officials, does
not mean the project cannot
be placed on the state budget,
it does indicate that the state
does not have definite plans for
doing the work.
At its meeting Tuesday eve-
ning the planning commis-
sion went over routine details
of street improvements, and
started work drafting a recom-
mended ordinance setting up
standards of curb, sidewalk,
and street construction.
50 YEARS AGO
March 29, 1972 — Dicalite
mine sold
Wade West, operating man-
ager of Grefco Inc., Los Ange-
les, has announced the sale of
all Grefco property presently
owned in Deschutes County,
including the dicalite mine at
Lower Bridge and 31/2 blocks
and two buildings next to the
railroad in Terrebonne. Pur-
chaser is Deschutes Valley
Farms Inc.
Rex Barber, president of De-
schutes Valley Farm Inc., said
the old mine might be con-
verted to a grass seed cleaning
mill and grain storage building.
Deschutes Valley will disman-
tle and sell other equipment at
the site. The acquisition of the
1,200 acres brings Deschutes
Valley’s total acreage in Lower
Bridge to 6,300 acres. Some
120 acres of the newly acquired
property will be planted to
seed.
25 YEARS AGO
April 2, 1997 — Fire turns
park into living lab
Hikers, climbers and plain
old gawkers flock to Smith
Rock State Park each day, soak-
ing up scenery and tackling to-
pography unequaled anywhere
on earth.
Now Girl Scouts hang out
there and Boy Scouts. And
Campfire Boys and Girls. And
students from Bend, Madras,
Sisters and Culver.
As part of an extensive reha-
bilitation effort at Smith Rock,
youth from throughout Cen-
tral Oregon have made an out-
door classroom of a large patch
of ground blackened last year
in a fire accidentally started by
a park employee.
With the help of the Ore-
gon Parks and Recreation De-
partment, the student staked
out study plots last fall, seeding
them with native grasses that re-
cently sprouted from the ashes.
Eleven plots are set up along
the trail near the park en-
trance, each group also has
a small control plot where
nothing was planted, to com-
pare natural regeneration with
seeded areas.
For Molly O’Neill, 12, a Girl
Scout with Redmond Troop
438, the project is a fun way to
learn about ecology and resto-
ration of an ecosystem — and
very different from the canned
food drives and nursing home
visits that normally constitute
community service projects for
scout troops.
“We’re learning about differ-
ent vegetation and how fire can
do so much damage,“ she said,
“and how seeds can come back
after the fire.“
Fire is a natural and healthy
part of the ecosystem: It thins
dense vegetation, knocks back
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invasive plants, helps seeds
germinate, replenishes soil and
creates wildlife habitat.
In a few years, signs of the
fire largely will be obscured by
new growth.
“To a natural feature like
Smith Rock, having a one day
‘poof’ go through is nothing,”
said Brad Skelton, chairman
of the Smith Rock Group, an
organization of climbers and
other park boosters. “It’s our
environment that changed, not
so much that of the park.”
Of about 300 acres burned
in the Smith Rock fire last Au-
gust, only 30 to 35 acres are
targeted for restoration work,
including a work party Satur-
day during which 40 ponder-
osa pine trees will be planted
by volunteers, including a
church youth group from the
Willamette Valley.
Most of the burned area,
however, is being left alone.
“We realize nature has a lot
of recovery power,” said Paul
Patton, a parks official coordi-
nating restoration projects.
Skelton added that as life re-
claims the burn, the success of
seedings and natural regenera-
tion will guide what other steps
are taken.
“As far as we are concerned,
we’ve gotten just about all the
big stuff done. Now it’s up to
Mother Nature,” he said. “Most
of us on the sidelines will be
watching real closely.“
O’Neill and her fellow
scouts, who have found a fun
way to learn something new,
will be watching, too.
“I like to see how things
grow,“ she said.
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