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OUTSIDE
East Oregonian
Saturday, June 10, 2017
Oregon park fees could change soon
BLOOMIN’ BLUES
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
Photo by Bruce Barnes
Narrow-leaf collomia, Collomia linearis
Seldom-seen collomia
a cluster of small flowers
By BRUCE BARNES
For the East Oregonian
Common
Name:
Narrow-leaf collomia
Scientific
Name:
Collomia linearis
After several articles on
large, showy plants, I don’t
want to leave out the little
ones often not noticed. This
plant is seldom seen and
is often only a single plant
by itself, though it may be
fairly common. The plant is
rather small and its flowers
don’t stand out, so it is likely
simply passed by. It is known
to grow in scattered locations
from British Columbia to
California, and eastward
to Quebec, Wisconsin, and
Nebraska to New Mexico.
The name Collomia
comes from the Greek “kola”
for glue, referring to the slimy
coating on the seeds when
moistened. Linearis refers to
the slender or linear shape of
the lower leaves. There are
several species of Collomia
in the western U.S., which a
genus in the Polemoniaceae
or Phlox family.
The plant is usually 6 to
16 inches tall, and the stem is
seldom branching. The leaves
are mostly 1 to 3 inches long,
linear to narrowly triangular,
with the uppermost leaves
broader than those lower
on the stem. The flowers
are pink to bluish or white,
tube-shaped with five petals
spreading outward at the
opening. Most of the flowers
are in a tight cluster at the top
of the stem, and often with
a few small clusters at the
bases of the upper leaves.
This collomia can be
confused with Phlox gracilis,
graceful phlox, which has
tiny pink flowers in smaller
clusters, is seldom over 4
inches high, often branches,
and is abundant nearly every-
where in the Blues.
Northwest Indian tribes
used a similar collomia
species for medicinal uses.
However, the only apparent
use for the narrow-leaf
collomia was by an eastern
tribe that used the plant as
a poultice for wounds and
bruises.
Where to find: Collomia
linearis is most likely to be
spotted when walking in
open wooded grassy areas in
the Blues.
Photo contributed by U.S. Forest Service.
Area damaged by the Rail Fire near Unity.
Tree removal underway from
Rail Fire, Eagle Fire areas
East Oregonian
Visitors to the Wallowa-
Whitman National Forest can
expect to see crews hard at
work removing burned trees
from two wildfire areas in the
Whitman Ranger District.
The Eagle Complex,
which was sparked by
lightning in 2015, spread
over 12,763 acres about 20
miles northwest of Richland
in Baker County, while the
Rail Fire swept over 41,716
acres near Unity last summer.
Crews are now working to
remove damaged trees that
may pose a risk to hikers and
campers near forest roads
and trails.
“Removing
dangerous
trees near roads and trails
is part of our commitment
to public safety,” said Jeff
Tomac, district ranger.
“We appreciate everyone’s
patience while our crews are
working to make post-fire
areas safer for public use.”
Burned areas will remain
open, though visitors may
experience some delays and
traffic, which will be heaviest
during weekdays.
In addition to safety,
salvage logging will provide
an economic outlet for useful
timber from the damaged
areas.
Revenue from salvage
also helps to pay for planting
new trees.
For more information,
visit the Wallowa-Whitman
National Forest website at
www.fs.usda.gov/wallowa-
whitman.
Have a great outdoors
story?
We’d love to hear it!
Call outdoors page editor
Tim Trainor at 541-966-0835.
SALEM — Visitors could soon see
different fees at state parks and camp-
grounds under a bill passed 27-to-1 by
the Senate Wednesday.
The legislation allows the state parks
director to adjust fees, within a range
approved by the parks commission and
the Legislature, up to four times a year.
The parks department’s plan is to
hike fees at more popular parks and
campgrounds and to reduce fees at
parks significantly below capacity.
“We’re nearly 100 years old, and we
are really looking to the future to try to
figure out how we can do things a little
bit differently,” said Lisa Sumption,
Oregon State Parks director during a
hearing May 11.
Since 1952, the department has set
identical rates at parks.
The change could generate up
to $800,000 in the next two years,
according to the Legislative Fiscal
Office. State parks officials said they
want to use the proceeds to beef up
maintenance and repairs at parks
facilities.
Rep. David Brock Smith, R-Port
Orford, testified last month the tactic
could help stimulate tourism in parts
of his district on the Southern Oregon
Coast.
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
The John Day River winds though the Cottonwood Canyon State Park
outside of Condon. The park was once a cattle ranch before being sold
and the land was donated to the state.
“We know that for just a little bit
more in some of our places that are
very special and loved, that we might
be able to drive more folks (to other
parks),” Sumption said. “For example,
on the South Coast, we could get folks
to go from a larger campground that’s
full and maybe use price and other
amenities to drive folks to Humbug
Mountain, which is at 17 percent
capacity.”
The goal is to find “a way to disperse
people and create greater access and
opportunity through price as one tool,”
she said.
The House of Representatives
passed the legislation unanimously
May 30.
The bill needs only a signature from
Gov. Kate Brown to become law.
Wonder and awe of total solar
eclipse will be something to behold
By TESS NOVOTNY
The (Eugene) Register Guard
As the moon passes between the
sun and Earth, the sun’s gleaming
corona — its surrounding aura of
plasma — can be seen from Earth.
Don’t miss this sight during the
total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, Dr.
Randall Milstein, astronomer-in-
residence at Oregon NASA Space
Grant Consortium, told an audience of
eclipse enthusiasts recently during a
lecture in the atrium at The Register-
Guard.
Milstein’s lecture offered more
details on the total solar eclipse that
has galvanized world interest and that
will bring throngs of eclipse viewers
to Oregon this summer.
More than 110 people attended
Milstein’s free lecture. He is a faculty
member at Oregon State University’s
Department of Physics, its University
Honors College, and the College
of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric
Sciences. He told his attentive
audience about the history, science
and safety around the eclipse, then
took questions from the audience until
about 8 p.m.
A total solar eclipse occurs as
the moon passes between the Earth
and the sun, fully blocking the sun
and casting a shadow of complete
darkness across the area it faces.
“That’s the million dollar thing, is to
see the corona; that is possibly one of
the most beautiful sights,” he said.
On Aug. 21, states along a “path of
totality” that stretches about 62 miles
wide and extends from Oregon to
South Carolina, will be darkened by
the cosmic phenomenon that is among
the universe’s most beautiful celestial
events.
Milstein began his lecture by
recalling some of the cultural history
of viewing solar eclipses.
“Throughout history, they’ve
talked about it in all kinds of Greek,
Asian, Indian and Middle Eastern
texts,” he said after the lecture. “There
are big events and they’ve been part
of us as long as we’ve looked at the
sky, which is probably ever since
there were people walking on this
planet.”
Milstein also said that eclipse
watchers need to keep eye safety
in mind when viewing a total solar
eclipse.
He encouraged viewing the eclipse
through solar eclipse glasses — which
were distributed to audience members
after the talk — or to use another safe
viewing device, such as a shadow
box, a solar telescope or a pair of
shade 14 welder’s glasses.
“The possibility of people hurting
their eyes is huge,” he said. “You
just cannot look at the sun — not
even quick glances. That’s enough to
damage your eyes.”
It’s safe to view the eclipse
without glasses only when the sun
is completely obscured — and that
won’t last for long.
Eugene will not be on the path
of totality, but in Corvallis, Salem,
Redmond and Madras, the eclipse
will reach total darkness around 10:15
a.m., and that will last for about a
minute and 30 seconds.
Milstein told the crowd about an
interactive map on NASA’s website
that tells the time when the partial
eclipse begins, the maximum eclipse
occurs, and partial eclipse ends for
every coordinate along its path.
The map also gives the obscurity
percentage and latitude of the eclipse
at each viewing location. You can
access the map and other information
at eclipse2017.nasa.gov.
Though Eugene will be in 99
percent darkness, Milstein highly
recommended that viewers travel to
somewhere where they can see the
total eclipse. He likened missing out
on viewing the total eclipse to staring
at a photo of an ice cream cone
while someone else was devouring a
sundae.
Milstein said he has seen a few
partial solar eclipses, but never a total
one.
“The sun, without a doubt, is
probably the most beautiful thing
that’s in our sky,” Milstein said. “And
then to see it in its state of truest
beauty is pretty amazing. So it’s a
pretty exciting thing to me.”
Milstein also discussed the
“There are big
events and they’ve
been part of us
as long as we’ve
looked at the sky,
which is probably
ever since there
were people
walking on the
planet.”
— Dr. Randall Milstein,
Astronomer in residence at Oregon
NASA Space Grant Consortium
Eclipse Ballooning Project, which
will launch during the eclipse. About
25 participating teams in locations
from across the path of the eclipse
will launch cameras attached to
high-altitude balloons to document
the event.
They will send live video and
images to NASA’s website for people
to view. Images and videos of a total
eclipse have been captured only
once, in Australia, so scientists and
the public alike are eager to see it.
Milstein said that eclipse viewers
didn’t need to worry much about
protecting their pets’ eyes because
animals rarely look at the sun anyway,
but suggested keeping pets inside, to
be safe.
Carol Petty, who attended
Milstein’s lecture, recalled afterward
that she saw the last total solar
eclipse that came near Eugene on
Feb. 26, 1979, during a camping trip
to Marysville, Wash. It was such
a profound experience that Petty
plans to view the Aug. 21 eclipse in
Corvallis, with a friend.
“I saw why in biblical times in
they didn’t understand what a solar
eclipse was; that they thought the
world would end,” she said. “It was
such a spiritual, amazing experience.”
— The (Eugene) Register Guard,
via Associated Press
BRIEFLY
Committees OK Wisc.
woodchuck season
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The
Legislature’s outdoors committees
have approved a bill that would create
a woodchuck season.
The Republican bill would remove
woodchucks from the Wisconsin’s
protected species list and establish
a hunting and trapping season
that would run from July through
December with no bag limits.
The Assembly’s Natural Resources
and Sporting Heritage Committee
amended the measure Wednesday to
establish a year-round open season
on the animals on an 11-2 vote and
passed the bill 9-4.
The Senate’s Sporting Heritage,
Mining and Forestry Committee met
on the bill on Wednesday as well. That
panel signed off on the amendment
5-0 and passed the bill 4-1.
Committee approval clears the
way for votes in the full Senate and
Assembly.
Rescuers save fallen
climber in Grand
Canyon National Park
PAGE, Ariz. (AP) — Authorities
say they rescued a solo climber in
Grand Canyon National Park after he
fell about 200 feet while looking for
future climbing locations.
Coconino Sheriff’s Office officials
say in a statement a 33-year-old
man fell in the park while climbing
Tuesday and suffered severe injuries.
They say that incident is just one of
multiple search and rescue operations
over the last few days. Another
rescue crew saved a 15-year-old girl
Wednesday after she crashed her bike
over the edge of the Mogollon Rim
and fell about 25 feet before landing
on a ledge. She was treated and sent to
Payson Hospital for a laceration to her
head and other possible injuries.
Officials also rescued a lost woman
hiking alone outside of Sedona that
day along with a man who was hiking
with his wife near Flagstaff.
Endangered sea turtle
hatchings released into
Gulf of Mexico
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP)
— It was still dark outside and the
parking lot was filling up.
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times
reports more than a half-hour before
the sun rose, Padre Island National
Seashore was full of spectators
waiting to catch a glimpse of the
endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle
hatchlings.
The Division of Sea Turtle
Science and Recovery, plus dedicated
volunteers, on Wednesday released
78 turtle hatchlings into the Gulf of
Mexico. It has been a record-breaking
year for Kemp’s ridley nests statewide
with 307 found so far. Nesting season
continues until mid-July.
“We think it’s a record-breaking
year because the turtles can take a
number of years off between nesting
seasons,” said Donna J. Shaver, chief
of the Division of Sea Turtle Science
and Recovery. “That number has
increased from nesting every two
years on average to every 3.5 years
now. We think that a lot of the turtles
that took time off nesting came in this
year.”
With a mild-to-warm South Texas
winter, Shaver believes the turtles
“fattened up” to get the energetic
reserves necessary to make eggs and
to migrate.
The Kemp’s ridley species is
the smallest sea turtle and has been
endangered since 1970. The national
seashore turtle program started in
1978 with Shaver at its helm.
The program’s first success
occurred 21 years ago when four
Kemp’s ridley nests were confirmed
on Padre Island.