NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Tuesday, October 8, 2019
Ventenata, a noxious weed, spreads across the West
become especially apparent
after fires ignited by light-
ning strikes in 2014 and
2015 that devastated tens
of thousands of acres sur-
rounding John Day.
“The invasion rate was
reaching a level that it
seemed to be affecting fire
spread,” said Becky Kerns,
a research ecologist with
the U.S. Forest Service. “It
doesn’t need fire to trigger
an invasion, but fire may
exacerbate and increase the
population.”
Kerns is taking part in an
interagency research proj-
ect that’s studying ventena-
ta’s influence on novel fire
behavior, as well as map-
ping the extent of the weed’s
spread and examining the
role of climate change in
that invasion.
The study began in 2016
in response to reports that
ventenata was creating fuel
connectivity across open
scrubland, allowing flames
to traverse sparsely vege-
tated areas that normally
serve as fire breaks.
It’s expected that research
papers from the study will
first be published in 2020
though the overall project
may last another year.
Ventenata appears to
recolonize burned acres
more quickly than native
species, such as sagebrush,
which provide important
By MATEUSZ
PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
JOHN DAY — Looking
out at an expansive meadow
in Oregon’s Blue Moun-
tains, local cattleman Loren
Stout sees not an idyllic
landscape but an “environ-
mental disaster.”
The problem is as subtle
as it is pervasive: The wispy
yellow grass drying in the
sun isn’t forage that’s read-
ily consumed by livestock
and wildlife.
It’s ventenata, an inva-
sive species that originated
on the other side of the globe
but now crowds out native
plant life on large swaths of
government-owned land in
the Blue Mountains.
The
weed
contains
enough silica — a com-
pound traditionally used for
glass production — that it’s
largely considered inedible
for herbivores.
“There is nothing utiliz-
ing this stuff,” said Stout. “It
just looks lush in spring, but
they won’t touch it.”
Aside from its lack of
forage value, experts are
finding that ventenata has
another pernicious trait.
Specifically, the invasive
grass seems to benefit from
the same wildfires that it
helps fuel.
That
dynamic
has
Capital Press Photo/Mateusz Perkowski
Cattleman Loren Stout examines ventenata, an invasive
weed, growing in Oregon’s Blue Mountains near John Day.
The species appears to benefit from wildfire, helping it
spread.
wildlife habitat, said Claire
Tortorelli, an Oregon State
University graduate stu-
dent participating in the
study.
“We’re not really seeing
the recovery of those shrubs
or woody perennials,” Tor-
torelli said.
Preliminary study results
indicate perennial grasses
are holding their own bet-
ter than annual forage types,
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
which haven’t been return-
ing as readily after fires, she
said.
Even though peren-
nial grasses may have sur-
vived a fire, ventenata may
impede their reseeding of
the ground, she said.
“The concern is you’ll
lose that perennial compo-
nent in the long term,” said
Kerns. “Invasive grasses
tend to be pretty aggressive.”
Chilly with plenty
of sunshine
58° 32°
49° 25°
Cool with plenty of
sunshine
Partly sunny and
cool
Cool with periods
of sun
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
53° 27°
56° 30°
58° 42°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
55° 22°
63° 35°
57° 25°
58° 28°
OREGON FORECAST
60° 43°
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
54/34
52/28
59/29
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
58/34
Lewiston
54/34
63/36
Astoria
56/36
Pullman
Yakima 59/33
54/31
59/36
Portland
Hermiston
57/39
The Dalles 63/35
Salem
Corvallis
58/33
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
52/30
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
60/36
56/27
53/29
Ontario
64/37
Caldwell
Burns
79°
35°
69°
41°
88° (2014) 25° (2012)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
58/34
0.00"
0.01"
0.12"
4.77"
5.56"
6.68"
WINDS (in mph)
66/37
61/24
0.00"
Trace
0.22"
10.85"
7.11"
9.16"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 49/28
57/34
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
58/32
59/38
76°
38°
68°
43°
87° (1980) 23° (1898)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
54/33
Aberdeen
52/27
54/31
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
52/39
Today
Wed.
Boardman
W 10-20
Pendleton WSW 10-20
Medford
65/36
NNE 6-12
NNW 6-12
61/23
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
Full
7:02 a.m.
6:23 p.m.
4:41 p.m.
1:36 a.m.
Last
New
First
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 99° in Thermal, Calif. Low 8° in Antero Reservoir, Colo.
Oct 13
Oct 21
Oct 27
Nov 4
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
BAKER
CITY
—
Searchers found the body
of Andrew Dean Dennis of
Haines late Sunday morning
in a nearly sheer rock chute
in the Wallowa Mountains,
eight days after the 60-year-
old Haines man failed to
return from a planned one-
day deer-hunting trip.
It appears that Den-
nis died from a fall in the
steep terrain near East Eagle
Creek, his niece, Candy
Sturm, said Sunday.
Sturm said her uncle’s
body was found near where
searchers trapped Dennis’
dog, Barney, on Saturday
evening. The site is near
where Curtis Creek crosses
the East Eagle trail, about
2 miles from the trailhead
where Dennis parked his
vehicle on Sept. 28.
Dennis’ body was ini-
tially spotted by a drone,
according to a post Sturm
made on her Facebook page.
Searchers found Dennis
about 11:30 a.m. Sunday,
according to a press release
from the Baker County
Sheriff’s Office.
“His death appears to be
a tragic accident,” according
to the press release. “No foul
play is suspected.”
Ashley McClay, the pub-
lic information officer for
the sheriff’s office, said a
drone operated by the Uma-
tilla County Sheriff’s Office
search and rescue team
located Dennis’ body.
McClay said searchers
later found his body in what
they described as a “water-
fall, crevice area” on a steep
slope above the East Eagle
trail. Sheriff Travis Ash
described the location as a
chute.
McClay said it appears
that Dennis fell on Sept. 28,
the day he arrived in the area
to hunt for deer.
“We believe that he died
the day he went hunting,”
McClay said.
Sturm said Barney was
reunited with Dennis’ wife,
Patty, and that the dog,
although he has lost some
weight, is doing well.
Sturm said she “cannot
express enough” to thank all
the people who participated
in the search for her uncle
over the past week.
On her Facebook page
Sturm, who traveled from
her home at Ridgefield,
Washington, to participate
in the search, posted: “I
watched as men and women
came down that mountain
after searching from sun up
to sun down, some strangers,
a lot of friends and family
and Uncle Andy’s brothers
along with SAR members.
Sitting by the fire to warm up
with tears in their eye they
wouldn’t give up. Thank you
to each and everyone of you
that searched.”
The search effort included
members
from
Baker,
Union, Umatilla, Wallowa
and Harney counties, as well
as the Oregon State Police
and Baker Aircraft and the
Oregon National Guard,
the latter two supplying
helicopters.
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
-10s
cies exceeds what we’re able
to do,” both from the budget
perspective and due to envi-
ronmental study require-
ments, she said.
The interagency research
currently being conducted
is expected to help focus
resources on areas where
ventenata treatment will
still be most effective, Brun-
son said.
Stout, the cattleman,
blames the spread of ven-
tenata on grazing restric-
tions that opened the region
to medusa head rye —
another invasive grass —
and eventually led the way
to ventenata.
“You have to take the
competition away from
these (desirable) annual
grasses, and they do exactly
the opposite,” Stout said,
referring to federal and state
land managers.
Kerns, the Forest Service
research ecologist, said the
interagency study has not
established a link between
grazing and ventenata
prevalence.
It’s possible the weed’s
behavior is varied across
landscape types, such as
prairies, forests and scab-
lands, said Tortorelli, the
OSU graduate student.
“In each of those commu-
nity types, it’s going to have
different impacts in relation
to grazing,” she said.
Missing man’s body found
By JAYSON JACOBY
EO Media Group
Clouds and sun, a
shower; cooler
An advantage the weed
holds over many other plant
species is its adaptability to
land that normally has only
scattered vegetation, said
Tortorelli.
Ventenata is more abun-
dant than these native plants
and thus it contributes to the
overall intensity of fires, she
said.
“They’re
not
these
super-productive
eco-
systems,” Tortorelli said.
“When
ventenata
has
invaded, there’s just so much
more ventenata than any-
thing else in that system.”
The invasive species
is considered an “ecolog-
ical driver” that’s capable
of altering “ecosystems at
landscape levels,” said Jessi
Brunson, a botanist with the
Malheur National Forest’s
supervisor’s office.
“It can push the ecosys-
tem over the edge, so to
speak, into an environmen-
tal state from which it’s dif-
ficult to recover,” she said.
Because it’s now so wide-
spread, however, ventenata
falls into the “tolerate” cate-
gory of weeds under the For-
est Service’s classification
system — the lowest prior-
ity for treatment, Brunson
said. Other categories for
weeds include “eradicate,”
“control” and “contain.”
“The amount of herbicide
and cost to control the spe-
10s
rain
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flurries
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60s
cold front
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BRIEFLY
Proud Boys member involved
in Portland fights arrested
PORTLAND — A right-wing extremist,
who rose to prominence for fighting in Port-
land during political protests and fled the
Pacific Northwest after being indicted on fel-
ony assault charges, has been arrested.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reported the
U.S. Marshals Service detained 23-year-old
Tusitala “Tiny” Toese at the Portland Interna-
tional Airport around 10:30 p.m. Friday.
That’s according to Brent Weisberg, a
spokesman for the Multnomah County Dis-
trict Attorney’s Office.
Toese was later booked into the Multnomah
County jail on a pair of outstanding warrants.
Toese, who is 6-foot-4 and 265 pounds,
gained notoriety as a member of the right-
wing groups Patriot Prayer and the Proud
Boys who fought left-wing activists and others
during demonstrations in Portland.
He was scheduled to appear Monday
morning in Multnomah County Circuit Court,
Weisberg said.
Oregon must redo guidelines
for river temperature
SALEM — A U.S. district court says
Oregon must develop new plans to keep the
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state’s rivers from getting too warm for fish.
A ruling Friday set a series of deadlines
that cover more than a dozen rivers, includ-
ing the Willamette, Umpqua, Rogue, John
Day, Columbia and Snake.
Federal law requires Oregon have plans
in place to ensure that the state’s rivers don’t
get too warm. These plans are referred to
as TMDLs, or total maximum daily loads,
under the federal Clean Water Act. Oregon’s
current TMDLs for temperature are permis-
sive enough to kill salmon and steelhead,
which rely on cold water to survive.
This section of the Rogue River was one
of the first in America to be protected by the
Wild and Scenic Act of 1968.
Nina Bell is executive director of North-
west Environmental Advocates, a plaintiff in
the case. She said this ruling is a victory, but
the real test comes after the plans are in place.
“It still leaves it in the lap of Oregon agen-
cies and elected officials as to whether they’re
going to use these plans to address Oregon’s
largest sources of water temperature in our
streams and rivers and that is the logging,
farming and taking water out of the streams,”
she said.
Depending on the location, the state will
have between four and eight years to get the
work done.
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