THE SPOKESMAN • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2022 A9
OREGON
Water violations
continue climbing
BY MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
CO Media Group
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Evron Jones-Sprouse sits with her dog Aurora Grace on the front porch of her home in Madras.
Poodle puppy falls down elevator
shaft, lives to bark another day
BY JOE SIESS
CO Media Group
It was an August day like any
other day, and two of 84-year-
old Evron Jones-Sprouse’s poo-
dles, a female named Blackberry
and her 8-month-old puppy,
Aurora Grace, took off running
at full tilt, as dogs are wont to
do.
Jones-Sprouse, of Madras,
has been breeding poodles for
50 years, and she is used to her
dogs bolting off after cats or to
do any number of dog related
activities. But this time was dif-
ferent. As the sun began to set,
Jones-Sprouse called and called
for her two poodles but Black-
berry and Aurora Grace never
came home.
So, Jones-Sprouse and her
husband got in the car and
looked for the two dogs all over
town and out into the fields. But
there was no sign of them.
As it turned out, Aurora
Grace fell down an elevator
shaft at an under construction
hotel next to the Inn at Cross
Keys Station down the road
from Jones-Sprouse’s home.
It was Aurora Grace’s mother
who initially came back home
hours later to alert Jones-
Sprouse about the puppy’s situa-
tion, Jones-Sprouse said.
“You could see with the ag-
itation the mother had, ‘help!
Help!’ and we had no idea,”
Jones-Sprouse said as she
stroked and gently shushed the
young poodle sitting on her lap.
“Blackberry apparently saw her
Trails
Continued from A8
The trail starts from Dutch-
man with a tough climb — from
6,350 feet in elevation to nearly
7,000 feet. It was a steep climb
through the high-alpine for-
est. After a few miles, the trail
flattened out and I came to the
junction with Metolius-Wind-
igo. A right turn would keep me
on Flagline and lead me down a
fast downhill section toward the
Swampy Lakes area and eventu-
ally back to Bend.
But I made a left turn onto
Metolius-Windigo, one of the
highest-elevation bike trails in
Central Oregon, not counting
those at the Mt. Bachelor Bike
Park.
After a steep downhill with
some tight turns, I came to a
viewpoint of South Sister and
Broken Top, just a few miles
away. The trail continued with
some long uphill sections but
remained relatively flat and rid-
able. Late August usually makes
for a somewhat sandy track
along Central Oregon trails,
but because Flagline and Me-
tolius-Windigo are located at
such a high elevation, they tend
to remain less sandy than trails
closer to Bend.
Come fall, after some rain
and freezing temperatures and
before snow accumulation,
Flagline and Metolius-Windigo
will be at their best for moun-
tain bikers.
“You could see with the
agitation the mother had,
‘help! Help!’ and we had no
idea. Blackberry apparently
saw her daughter fall
through the hole, was panic
stricken. Rushed home to
see if we could help.”
— Evron Jones-Sprouse
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Evron Jones-Sprouse sits with her dog Aurora Grace on the front porch
of her home in Madras.
daughter fall through the hole,
was panic stricken. Rushed
home to see if we could help.”
“I was afraid a raptor might
have gotten her, because she
would never have left her
mother, and her mother would
never have left her,” she said.
It wasn’t until first thing in
the morning the next day that
Jones-Sprouse learned Aurora
Grace had fallen into the hole.
Somebody heard her barking,
called the police and the police
removed the poodle from the
elevator shaft and brought her
to the humane society. When
Jones-Sprouse called, they con-
firmed the poodle was safe and
she went to pick her up.
“By God’s grace, which is why
she is Aurora Grace, she did not
get hurt, no broken legs, back,
head, nothing. I think she had
a little sprain on the front paw.
She was pretty scared, and I
imagine she was in the shaft all
night,” Jones-Sprouse said. “It
was pitch dark, so I think she
was probably there all night.
Come morning, somebody
heard her barking, and called
the police and they got her out. I
don’t know how they got her out
and I don’t know how deep the
shaft was.”
Now that Aurora Grace is
safe, Jones-Sprouse hopes the
construction site will take care
of the open elevator shaft. She
said she has since learned that
the only thing covering the el-
evator shaft is a bar across the
opening.
“A bar across it is not going
to keep an animal or a child, or
maybe an inebriated adult at
night, from falling in,” Jones-
Sprouse said. “The shaft should
definitely be totally covered. I
Eventually I came into an
open area with a dramatic view
of Broken Top. The trail then
led me to a creek crossing,
which was just shallow enough
for me to ride my bike through.
Much of the Metolius-Win-
digo Trail parallels Forest Road
370, which leads to the Broken
Top Trailhead and the popular
hike to No Name Lake in the
Three Sisters Wilderness. Bikes
are not allowed in wilderness ar-
eas, but it is possible to ride your
bike to the trailhead then make
the hike to the lake. (Reminder
that a Central Cascades Wilder-
ness permit is required for the
Broken Top Trailhead).
But I remained on the Me-
tolius-Windigo singletrack and
decided to turn around after six
miles.
I soaked in more of the
mountain scenery of Broken
Top and South Sister, then
turned back onto Flagline for
the fast and precipitous drop
back down to Dutchman Flat.
All told, I rode about 12 miles
and climbed about 800 feet in just
over two hours. No, it was not the
classic Central Oregon loop ride,
but it provided a refreshing es-
cape into the high country with-
out taking up an entire day.
█
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Bus: 541-548-6023
mean if you have a hole in the
ground, a well or anything, you
put a cover over it. Anybody
could fall in in the middle of the
night. Or another animal or a
deer or heaven knows what.”
█
jsiess@bendbulletin.com,
541-617-7820
The number of water law vi-
olations in Oregon has contin-
ued climbing in 2022, building
on a trend that state regulators
have observed over the past
five years.
So far this year, state water
regulators have issued 50 no-
tices of violation for unlawful
irrigation and other problems,
up from 40 in all of 2021 and
five times as many as in 2018.
“They have increased dra-
matically in recent years,
largely due to illegal cannabis,”
said Ivan Gall, field services
division administrator for the
Oregon Water Resources De-
partment.
Black market marijuana
producers have been known
to steal water, but OWRD has
also encountered regulated
cannabis growers who’ve run
afoul of water law — for exam-
ple, by using domestic water
sources for commercial pro-
duction.
Concerns about adverse
impacts from marijuana and
hemp production in Oregon
have prompted legal reforms
and increased funding for can-
nabis regulation, such as the
$5 million approved specifi-
cally for OWRD’s water rights
enforcement last year.
Employees from OWRD
have been working in conjunc-
tion with law enforcement of-
ficers who destroy illegal mar-
ijuana plants and associated
irrigation equipment during
raids, Gall said during a Sept. 1
meeting of the state’s water re-
sources commission.
“That is by far the most ef-
fective way to get compliance
with water law,” he said.
The water rights enforce-
ment money was approved
last year as part of an “unprec-
edented” investment in water
resources, including funding
for irrigation projects, drought
assistance and basin studies,
according to the agency.
Since last summer, OWRD
has hired 27 new field services
employees, including seven
dedicated enforcement em-
ployees focused on cannabis,
which has increased the divi-
sion’s staff size by nearly 50%.
“We’re looking forward to
some exciting times,” Gall said.
“It’s really exciting to be filling
these positions.”
Watermasters and other
field services employees re-
sponded to 1,120 complaints
and initiated 732 investiga-
tions last year, in additional to
conducting more than 23,000
checks to ensure compliance
with water rights rules.
The field services division
also inspected more than 1,550
wells in 2021, finding con-
struction deficiencies in about
15% of the newly-constructed
ones, and about 160 of the 950
dams that come under state’s
regulatory jurisdiction.
The expanded field services
workforce will provide more
“boots on the ground” and im-
prove data collection at a time
when water supplies are in-
creasingly lacking, Gall said.
For example, in the past
couple years, the state has ex-
perienced a serious problem
with domestic wells going dry
due to depleted groundwater
levels.
“It doesn’t look like it’s go-
ing to get resolved in the short
term, so I think that’s going to
be an ongoing workload the
agency will need to deal with,”
he said.
Illegal water diversions by
illicit marijuana producers
have been relatively minor on
an individual basis, but that
doesn’t mean the issue is in-
consequential, Gall said.
“Although small, in total
they can certainly add up to
problems, especially in times
of scarcity,” he said.
Plan your 2023 Getaway!
ALASKA: CALL
OF THE WILD
7 DAYS
AUGUST 17-23, 2023
DAY 1: ARRIVE ANCHORAGE
DAY 2: ANCHORAGE, RAIL JOURNEY, DENALI NATIONAL PARK
DAY 3: DENALI NATIONAL PARK, TUNDRA WILDERNESS TOUR
DAY 4: DENALI, SEWARD
DAY 5: SEWARD, GLACIER & WILDLIFE CRUISE
DAY 6: SEWARD AS YOU WISH, DAY AT LEISURE
DAY 7: SEWARD, ANCHORAGE, FLIGHT HOME
HIGHLIGHTS
Anchorage
2 Nights In Denali
3 Nights in Seward
Domed Rail Journey
Denali Nat’l Park
Tundra Wilderness Tour
Mt. McKinley
Kenai Fjords National Park
Glacier & Wildlife Cruise
Seward
INCLUSIONS:
Roundtrip Airfare
- PDX or RDM (+$250pp)
Professional Tour Director
6 Nights First Class Hotel
Accommodations
Deluxe Motorcoach Transportation
Domed Rail Journey - Anchorage
to Denali
10 Meals: 6B, 2L & 2D
Roundtrip Hotel Transfers
Sightseeing & Admissions per
Itinerary
Baggage Handling at all Hotels &
Lodges
ACCOMMODATIONS:
1 Night: Hilton or Sheraton,
Anchorage
2 Nights: Denali Park Village or
Denali Bluffs, Denali
3 Nights: Windsong Lodge or The
Gateway of the
Harbour 360, Seward
On some dates alternate hotels may
be used
Visit www.bendbulletin.com/offers/travel
for a more detailed look at all trip itineraries.
For more information or to book, call (877) 953-8687 x 276