4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JUNE 29, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
Founded in 1873
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
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Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Fire season is here, be safe
I
t’s that time of year again. Fire sea-
son officially kicked off last week
in northwest Oregon. For most
residents of the state, fire season started
weeks prior.
Northwest Oregon typically gets a
good dose of rainfall during the spring,
and that delays the start of an active fire
season. But this spring was drier and
warmer than usual, and that means the
environment is more flammable.
Last year, the Northwest Oregon
District, typically one of the last in the
state to declare the start of fire season,
didn’t do so until July 10. This year it
was June 21.
Just because we’re on the wet side of
the mountains doesn’t mean we’re not
at risk. Wildfires in the Tillamook State
Forest — collectively known as the
“Tillamook Burn” — charred more than
350,000 acres of old-growth trees from
1933 to 1951; debris reached ships 500
miles at sea.
When fire season is declared in
a district, it means that the Oregon
Department of Forestry and related
agencies impose certain restrictions on
public and work-related activities in the
state’s forests.
Early signs suggest that we can
expect a fire season that could stretch
into September: Already, more than
156 square miles are burning in central
Oregon, the largest near Maupin.
As of last week, more than 200 wild-
fires already have been reported on
Oregon Department of Forestry lands.
More than 80 percent of them were
caused by humans, the department said.
Which brings to mind another bit
of timing surrounding fire season: It’s
not at all unusual to have the start of
the season roughly correspond with
the stretch of time during which fire-
works legally can be sold in Oregon.
Fireworks stands in Oregon opened on
June 23 and will continue sales through
July 6.
In the wake of last year’s Eagle
Creek fire, started when a teenager
dropped a smoke bomb onto extremely
dry ground in the Columbia River
Gorge, we probably don’t need much of
a reminder about the potentially danger-
ous combination of fireworks and tin-
der-dry forest lands. But here goes any-
way: Oregon law prohibits possession,
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
A helicopter drops a bucket of water along the leading edge of a wildfire as it burns along Montgomery Road near Lake Billy Chinook
in Oregon last week.
Tristan Fortsch/KATU-TV
A wildfire burns in the Columbia River Gorge above Cascade Locks in 2017.
use or sale of any firework that flies
into the air, explodes or travels more
than 12 feet horizontally on the ground,
unless you have a permit issued by the
Oregon State fire marshal. Bottle rock-
ets, Roman candles and firecrackers are
illegal in Oregon without a permit.
All fireworks are prohibited on
all Oregon beaches, in state parks
and campgrounds and on all federal
public lands.
Officials can seize illegal fireworks
and charge offenders with a class B mis-
demeanor, which could result in a fine
of up to $2,500 per violation and a civil
penalty of up to $500. People who mis-
use fireworks or who allow fireworks
to cause damage may be required to
pay fire suppression costs or other dam-
ages — witness the Washington teen-
ager who started the Eagle Creek fire,
now saddled with a $36 million restitu-
tion bill.
Here’s something else to keep in
mind as we approach the heart of fire
season: If you’re responsible for starting
a blaze, you put firefighters at risk. They
began training at Camp Rilea last week-
end (see photo gallery on Page 5A);
400 National Guardsmen are slated for
pre-training in early July.
Those firefighters will have plenty to
do this summer; lightning strikes will
keep them busy. There’s no need for you
to add to their workload. Act with care
this summer while you’re enjoying our
wildlands.
GUEST COLUMN
For live music in June, Astoria offered it all
Astoria Music and
Scandinavian festivals
connected musicians
and listeners
hen I finish teaching a music history
class, I always ask my students:
What did you think of the class,
and what would you change if you were the
instructor?
This spring one of my students responded:
I wouldn’t make the live concert review a
requirement — it should only
be for extra credit.
Well, that’s one change I
have no intention of making.
Live music is something
humans respond to on a deep
level. It contains aesthetic ele-
DENISE
ments that connect performer
REED
and listener.
Music expert John
Shepherd, paraphrasing composer L. B.
Meyer, said “A competent listener perceives
and responds to music with his total being …
Through such empathetic identification, music
is quite literally felt …”
Live music takes us back to experiencing
music as it was originally intended.
entertained and inspired classical music buffs
throughout the Northwest.
Scandinavian Festival
W
Astoria Music Festival
The Astoria Music Festival, which runs
through July 1, has been the place to be for
classical enthusiasts.
The festival offered everything from solo
Scott Docherty/redhare.com
Sunniva Brynnel, left, and Sara Pajunen perform at the Scandinavian festival.
and chamber ensembles to large symphony
pieces and opera, beginning with Renaissance
work and extending to pieces from the 20th and
21st centuries.
Opening night at the 16th anniversary gala
recital brought us some of the finest classical
instrumentalists around — world-class perform-
ers such as cellist Sergey Antonov,
violinist Maureen Nelson and pianist Cary
Lewis, director of AMF Chamber Music.
You see the music in their faces and body
movements, and hear and feel it in the way they
caressed their instruments.
In my book, you can’t beat live opera for its
emotional content, and the AMF’s production of
Puccini’s “Tosca” was just magnificent. I cried
with Tosca and sighed with the lovers’ plight.
I’m still not able to suppress extraneous sounds
as I feel the emotion in the music. (I apologize
to those around me whose concentration might
have been disturbed by my clasped hands and
anxious breathing.)
Even with several leadership changes and
financial crises, the festival has consistently
If you were looking for music that opens
up your world to different cultures, then it’s the
Astoria Scandinavian Midsummer Festival that
you want to experience with excellent Finnish,
Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, composers
and performers.
Astoria visitors can’t help but recognize the
influence of Scandinavian culture on the city.
This 51-year-old festival is a reminder of this
influence with its arts, crafts, food — and, of
course, the music that connects us.
While listening to the Pajunen/Brynnel duo,
an act of Swedish-Finnish American ancestry,
I began to imagine myself in the environment
that influenced these composers and musicians.
Both received classical training at the New
England Conservatory, but they have roots
in large Scandinavian communities in the
Midwest.
The festival’s folk musicians inspire
centuries-old dance movements — dancing
that looks natural and uncomplicated, with the
musical vibrations flowing through listeners
and performers, resonating through their entire
bodies.
Long after the festival’s conclusion, I found
myself humming the tunes, moving with the
rhythm of what I’d heard, even hearing it in the
wind. This is what live music does: It haunts
you for days.
Denise Reed is conductor of the North Coast
Chorale and a member of the Oregon Human-
ities Board of Directors. She teaches at Clatsop
and Tillamook Bay community colleges.