10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2015
Fires: ‘Log it, graze it or watch it burn’
Stark difference
About 370 miles to the
south, near John Day , retired
U.S. Bureau of Land Manage-
ment forester Bob Vidourek,
pointed out the difference in
the way federal forests were
formerly managed and how
they are managed today.
He oversaw projects from
2003 to 2007 that thinned some
of the 2,500 acres of BLM land
that abuts U.S. Forest Ser-
vice and private land on Little
Creek Mountain. The projects
included a timber sale, thinning
stands and clearing out a large
amount of slash.
On Aug. 28, the Canyon
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est Service land and crested
Little Creek Mountain. Vi-
dourek’s home was put on a
Level 3 “leave immediately”
evacuation order but he wasn’t
worried. The BLM land that
had been thinned and cleaned
up several years earlier was
separating the blaze from his
home.
“I was never really wor-
ried,” he said. “I knew if it got
into that stand, it wouldn’t burn
too hot.”
7KH ¿UH GLG EXUQ VRPH RI
the BLM land but slowed con-
siderably and stopped 1,000
feet from Vidourek’s house.
Vidourek said he faced
North Central Washington wildfires
36, voiced concerns about
“mismanagement” of govern-
ment lands. Their comments
mirrored those of ranchers in
southeastern Oregon after the
massive 582,313-acre Long
Draw and 430,000-acre Hol-
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prise for those of us who live
and work in e astern Washing-
ton. We’ve been warning about
the potential disastrous effects
of federal and state manage-
ment policies for many years,”
said Nicole Kuchenbuch.
Agencies have allowed
forests to become overgrown
and unhealthy, consumed by
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she said.
“Agencies tell us to keep
our cattle out of creek bottoms,
but there’s no grass elsewhere
because they don’t thin for-
ests,” she said.
Sod was so thick in Wash-
ington Department of Fish and
Wildlife grasslands from 20
years of no cattle grazing that it
took bulldozers two and three
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she said, adding that sod can be
a fuel that’s almost impossible
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While ranchers have lob-
bied for change, nothing hap-
pens because of the political
strength of environmentalists
and the Endangered Species
Act, the Kuchenbuchs said.
Haeberle calls them “aspha-
lites — born on asphalt, raised
on concrete and living in a
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Sandra Kaiser, spokeswom-
an for the Washington State
Department of Natural Re-
sources, said the agency is fully
on board with thinning forests
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“Last biennium we request-
ed $20 million from the Leg-
islature and got $10 million
for forest health treatment and
thinning,” she said. “It’s essen-
tial to preparing landscape to
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to be done.”
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(from lightning) and guys were
scrambling,” he said.
About 130 miles to the
northeast in Lauier, Wash.,
rancher Len McIrvin said the
Stickpin, Graves Mountain and
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er on his range. He said he’s
losing about 200,000 acres of
grazing allotments, but saved
300 to 400 head of cattle and
doesn’t know the fate of 300 to
400 others.
“Up to now, no one’s really
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It’s just protecting houses. It’s a
let-burn policy. It’s the plan all
along. It’s a proposed wilder-
ness area so they (Forest Ser-
vice) wouldn’t put a bulldozer
in there. Later they did,” McIr-
vin said.
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years they let them burn. They
refuse to come in and stomp
out a little lightning strike.
Courtesy of Nicole Kuchenbuch
They use all the resources to
Rancher Casey Kuchenbuch herds cattle toward his home field during the Okanogan fire, Aug. 18. More than 2 million save a little shack and lose bil-
acres of Washington state has burned this summer, impacting scores of ranches.
lions of dollars of livestock and
timber,” he said.
He agreed with the Kuchen-
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*
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JXV QRZ JUD]H ¿HOGV LQWHQGHG buchs that the underlying prob-
Four large wildfires burning in or near Okanogan County, Washington,
for hay and fall forage. He lost lem is build up of forest and
have scorched roughly 600,000 acres. Last year’s Carlton Complex
half his Forest Service grazing sod fuel loads from no logging,
WASH.
was the state’s largest on record, burning more than 256,000 acres.
allotment summer range, 200 thinning and grazing.
Tonasket
“A big sign that went up this
tons of premium alfalfa hay
20 OKANOGAN
2015
2014
NATIONAL
OKANOGAN
and many miles of fencing that VSULQJLQ&ROYLOOHVD\Vµ3XEOLF
FOREST
1. Chelan Complex
lands. Log it, graze it or watch
costs about $20,000 per mile.
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it burn,’” he said.
They
rescued
120
cow-calf
20
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FOREST
pairs but 60 are missing. They
2. Carlton Complex (2014)
Helping out
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Help
has come from many
their
herd
of
425
pairs
and
100
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replacement heifers and buy directions.
Twisp
Okanogan Complex
At the request of the Okan-
up to 750 tons of hay at about
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ogan
County Cattlemen’s As-
$150,000
to
compensate
for
Carlton
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WKUHHPRQWKVRIH[WUDIHHGLQJ sociation, Monte and Laurie
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Nespelem
split between fall and spring. Andrews, owners of Ag-Tech
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with their own hay and grazing. are coordinating hay that’s
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5 miles
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their grazing will be drastically as Spokane, the Tri-Cities, El-
Dam
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174
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reduced for two or three years. lensburg and Mt. Vernon.
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*As of Sept. 2
As of Aug. 31, the feed store
Well over 200 cattle, hay
155
174
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Sources: LQFLZHEQZFJJRY
had
received about 1,000 tons.
and
hobby
ranches
were
im-
Chelan
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CHELAN
LINCOLN
GRANT
“Cattle loss is not as great as
pacted by the Okanogan, Tunk
172
97
Alan Kenaga/Capital Press
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said. Of that, about 20 are oper- be, maybe 5 percent, but a lot
many hurdles when he tried He treated cattle with burned RQWKHVRXWKRIWKH¿UHKHVDLG ations with more than 200 head of ranchers haven’t found their
to get the forest management feet and sold others, saying he
7KHUHDUHDORWRIJRRG¿UH of cattle that lost their spring cattle yet,” Monte Andrews
projects going, but was even- would have to reduce his herd ¿JKWHUVEXWWKHUHZDVODFNRI and fall pastures, portions or said.
In The Dalles , Elizabeth
tually able to overcome them.
from 700 to 200 for winter.
coordination and delays of en- all of grazing allotments and
Turner offered 1,200 acres of
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“Gerald told them not to gagement, said rancher Casey haystacks.
we did probably saved some of backburn anything up here. Kuchenbuch.
Cass Gebbers, co-owner of dry pasture. Depending on the
these houses,” he said, pointing +H¶VEHHQ¿JKWLQJ¿UH\HDUV
Gebbers Farms and Gamble weather, it could hold 50 to 100
‘Tough decision’
WRRWKHUQHDUE\KRPHV7KH¿UH and was adamant we didn’t
Land & Timber, said he lost pair for two months and with
“We had a tough decision. most of the rest of his DNR wheat stubble straw maybe
“killed everything on the other need it,” said his wife, Bobbi.
side of the mountain. I’m con-
Kaiser, the DNR spokes- Move our cows and save them grazing allotments in this longer, she said.
Oregon Country Natural
¿GHQWWKHZRUNZHGLGVORZHG woman, said she would have to or go build a Cat line,” Kuchen- \HDU¶V¿UHWKDWKHGLGQ¶WORVHLQ
Beef Co-op is making a list of
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¿QGRXWWKHIDFWVRIWKHVLWXD buch said. “I was promised by WKH&DUOWRQ¿UHODVW\HDU
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Altogether, 95 percent of resources, she said.
tion before commenting.
Fire mismanagement
“My hope is (burned out)
Okanogan County Com- a Cat up there. It never hap- his allotments are burned out,
Beside land mismanage- missioner Jim DeTro said he pened. We saved our cows. If and this year so far he has 18 ranchers don’t have to sell their
ment, ranchers involved in repeatedly asked an agency I’d gone and had Gebbers with cows dead, 33 badly maimed cows, because once you sell
:HVWHUQ¿UHVLQUHFHQW\HDUVDO — he declined to say which me there’s a high percentage and 46 pairs and 10 bred heif- them it’s almost impossible to
lege state and federal miscues RQH²QRWWREDFNEXUQLQ3LQH chance I might have saved the ers missing, he said.
buy bred cows later,” Turner
LQ¿JKWLQJ¿UHVZKLOHSUDLVLQJ Canyon, but it did. As a result, rest of my summer range ...”
“We barely got out of said. “If there’s enough re-
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“We recognize they had the west fork of Rock Creek sources to move those animals
the dozen or so ranches along
In the Long Draw and Hol- 3LQH&UHHNORVWWKHLUVSULQJDQG limited resources and a mas- JDWKHULQJFDWWOHZKHQWKH¿UH around and not sell them, it’s
ORZD\ ¿UHV LQ 2UHJRQ WKUHH fall grazing ground.
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boiled out of there. It sound- better for feedlots and every-
years ago, ranchers accused
But a Forest Service con- ed like a jet engine,” Gebbers one in the Northwest.”
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A lot of the help came in
the BLM of letting land burn to HDVW VLGH DQG ¿YH KRXUV DIWHU sultant turned around Gebbers’ said.
H[SDQG GHVLJQDWHG ZLOGHUQHVV they did that burnout they were Cats and “they backburned the
Early on, lightning ignited the form of neighbors helping
areas. The BLM denied it.
HYDFXDWLQJ3LQH&UHHN&UXP rest of our summer range and just inside the “donut hole,” one another. Oliver, the Seneca
In Washington’s 256,108- bacher development and Riv- our cabin to try to save the acres of his private range he rancher, said a lot of ranchers
DFUH &DUOWRQ ¿UH ODVW \HDU erside,” DeTro said.
town,” Haeberle said.
saved last year. “We threw dropped what they were doing
many ranchers and others be-
6WDWH DQG IHGHUDO ¿UH¿JKW everything we had on it and and rushed to help him and
DNR stepped up on early
OLHYH WKH '15 OHW WKH ¿UH JR lightning strikes, using smoke ers went back to camp for the QDLOHGLWLQ¿YHWRDFUHVMXVW RWKHUV ZKR ZHUH ¿JKWLQJ WR
to gain more federal dollars. jumpers on initial attacks, DeT- QLJKWEXWORFDO¿UH¿JKWHUVDQG an hour before high winds hit,” protect their operations.
“It’s pretty shocking how
More than 200 landowners ro said. “Then it had one or two volunteers held lines all night he said.
DUH SUHSDULQJ WR ¿OH D ODZVXLW major screw-ups that turned because “it was our land and
Gebbers’ Cats built and many people dropped every-
seeking more than $75 million into catastrophic situations.”
our homes,” Nicole Kuchen- held a line on the south side of thing they were doing and
in damages for what their attor-
WKH¿UHMXVWQRUWKRI+LJKZD\ came and helped us out,” he
Things went well once Type buch said.
ney says was “a series of inten- 1 management teams, which
20, and received “much more said. “We had a pile of help.”
Ranch losses
Capital Press staff writ-
tional and negligent actions.”
government support in hold-
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Haeberle lost all of his ing it” than they did last year, er Dan Wheat reported from
In this year’s Okanogan he said.
Okanogan, Wash., and staff
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DNR contracted with Geb- 6,000 acres of spring and fall he said.
Gerald Scholz, blamed DNR bers Farms, of Brewster, which pastures on the hillsides on
“Government guys were writer Sean Ellis reported from
backburning for the loss of his XVHG VL[ &DWHUSLOODU ' EXOO both sides of the still green val- stretched real thin. The morn- John Day .
grazing land, timber and hay. dozers to build and hold a line
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Continued from Page 1A
Alt
Fick:µ,¶PUHDOO\H[FLWHGWREHDKHDGFRDFK¶
Continued from Page 1A
UHHU ZLWK D WKSODFH ¿QLVK
in the 1999 OSAA state meet
every day.’ But we’re coming at Lane Community College,
up with different workouts, where the Fishermen placed
different routes and different seventh in the team standings.
coaches and teams to coordi-
And that was back in the
nate with. I enjoy all that.”
GD\VRIWKHROGIRXUFODVVL¿FD
<RXUHDOO\ZRXOGQ¶WH[SHFW tion OSAA, when it was a lot
anything less from Fick.
tougher to place at state.
A counselor at the h igh
The
current
Astoria
s chool, Fick takes an intense cross-country program may
interest in the lives of his stu- be going through some lean
dent-athletes.
years, but the tradition is
“Working at the high still there, as are the famil-
school as a counselor, I get iar names who have always
to work closely with a lot of been a part of the program.
students, but coaching is a fun And they’re all there to offer
way to get to know kids in a a hand, Fick said.
different way, and get out and
“It’s great to have those
JHWVRPHH[HUFLVH´KHVDLG
resources to lean on. I consult
And Fick knows the hills, a lot with John Goodenberg-
streets and trails of Astoria er and coach (Carl) Dominey
pretty well by now.
around some of their work-
outs, and continue to design
Success as
some of my own workout
student runner
plans.
As a student at Astoria
“Being an Astoria alum,
(Class of 2000), Fick closed it’s fun to come back and —
out his prep cross-country ca- having run under their coach-
ing — have a different role. I
really enjoy that.”
Father ¿ gure
Fick’s father, Mark Fick,
has logged thousands of hours
as a high school coach in Clat-
sop County, most recently as
both the girls and boys bas-
ketball coach at Jewell High
School.
“My dad has lots of great
H[SHULHQFH ZRUNLQJ ZLWK
kids and just being a pos-
itive figure, encouraging
them and focusing on team-
work, hard work ethic … I
try to build on some of those
lessons that he’s taught me,”
said Fick , who just happens
to focus on a different sport
than his dad.
“Being an assistant track
coach last spring was a great
introduction,” he said. “I’m
UHDOO\ H[FLWHG WR EH D KHDG
coach. It can make for some
long days, but I love it.”
— Gary Henley
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