NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
A2
Thursday, December 16, 2021
The elk arrive
notably the meadow along Anthony
Creek, west of North Powder — on
Dec. 1. And the animals stroll into
the meadow even in years, such as
the current one, when the fall has
been mild, snow is scarce and the
elk have no particular need for
handouts of alfalfa hay.
“These elk, they know where
that feed is,” Marvin said on Friday
morning, Dec. 10. “They have a
phenomenal memory of where
they’ve wintered in the past, and
they can migrate for many miles
overnight to be here at the feed site
the next morning.”
To be clear, Marvin and his
crew distribute several hundred
tons of alfalfa to elk each winter
not because the animals wouldn’t
survive without the supplemental
feed. Elk are tough and hardy, capa-
ble of digging through deep snow
to get at the meager winter forage.
Snow or no, the animals
know when state-run
feeding sites are closed
to the general public
By JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City Herald
NORTH POWDER — Elk don’t
need calendars.
Dan Marvin is convinced of that.
He can’t vouch for the animals’
ability to recognize, say, Christmas
or Independence Day or any other
holiday observed by humans.
But elk certainly know when
December arrives.
Some elk, anyway.
Marvin can attest only to the
chronological acumen of the elk that
congregate each year at the Elkhorn
Wildlife Area.
‘They know where
that feed is’
Lisa Britton/Baker City Herald
Rocky Mountain elk congregate at a feeding site in a meadow along Anthony Creek on Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021.
This site, about 10 miles west of North Powder, is one of the 10 sites that comprise the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife’s Elkhorn Wildlife Area.
from migrating into the valleys.
During the ensuing decades,
Marvin said, the elk have become
habituated to these seasonal offer-
ings, their instincts so keen that
their arrival, as the calendar turns
from November to December, is
quite reliable.
“The cows every year bring their
calves here, and they learn, and then
they bring their calves,” Marvin
said.
Although the elk know when
December comes, they don’t always
wait until then, Marvin said. In
years when snow comes early —
2020 was an example, with a couple
feet of snow accumulating in the
mountains the first half of Novem-
ber — elk will wander into some of
the feed sites.
“Acting like they’re going to
starve to death,” Marvin said with
a chuckle during a 2020 interview.
Keen instincts
That’s the series of 10 elk-feed-
ing stations, ranging from Old
Auburn Lane in the south to Shaw
Mountain in Union County, oper-
ated by the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife.
Marvin is starting his fourth
winter as the Elkhorn Wildlife Area
manager.
The publicly owned portions of
the wildlife area (some stations are
on private land for which ODFW
has leases) closed to public entry on
Dec. 1, and remain closed through
April 10.
Marvin said elk start to show up
at some of the feed sites — most
Even a nasty winter, the sort
that can kill hundreds of mule deer
across Northeastern Oregon, typi-
cally takes only a minor toll on elk.
ODFW started the Elkhorn
Wildlife Area in 1971 for a very
different purpose — to stop elk
from marauding cattle ranch-
ers’ haystacks in the Baker, North
Powder and Bowen valleys. The
idea, which has proven largely
effective over the past half century,
is to set up feeding stations where
daily distributions of alfalfa will, in
effect, intercept the elk, satisfying
their hunger and discouraging them
Forecast for Pendleton Area
But ODFW doesn’t start bucking
hay bales before Dec. 1, early snow
or no. The reason, Marvin said,
is that the Elkhorn wildlife area
remains open to the public, includ-
ing hunters, through Nov. 30, and he
doesn’t want to, in effect, set up bait
stations where elk would congre-
gate.
Typically, as was the case last
year, early snow melts and the elk
return to the mountains, waiting for
Dec. 1.
Elk numbers
This fall was quite different, with
little snow until this past weekend.
Nonetheless, about 150 to 170 elk
arrived at the Anthony Creek feed-
ing site Dec. 1, and they’ve been
showing up daily since, Marvin
said.
Elk numbers have been much
lower at the other sites, however.
That’s pretty typical, Marvin said,
even though the Wildlife Area crew
set out hay at each of the sites on
Dec. 1.
The elk that congregate at
Anthony Creek tend to be the most
consistent when it comes to the Dec.
1 arrival, Marvin said.
“They’re very habituated elk,”
he said.
Elk that migrate to the other
feeding sites, by contrast, often
don’t show up in large numbers
until snow begins to pile up.
With the first major winter storm
of the season bringing heavy snow
to the Elkhorns this past week-
end, Marvin said he expects the
elk numbers will rise at all the sites
soon.
“Peak numbers are usually in
January when it’s the coldest and
the snow tends to get the deepest,”
Marvin said.
| Go to AccuWeather.com
TODAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
A bit of snow this
morning
Cloudy
Cloudy
Rain and drizzle
A thick cloud cover
41° 32°
43° 26°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
45° 36°
43° 28°
45° 34°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
45° 32°
42° 29°
43° 36°
46° 31°
48° 33°
OREGON FORECAST
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
46/36
31/22
38/22
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
39/29
Lewiston
46/39
43/29
Astoria
47/38
Pullman
Yakima 39/23
44/34
38/29
Portland
Hermiston
45/39
Salem
The Dalles 45/32
42/34
Corvallis
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
39/32
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Bend
48/38
43/29
36/34
Ontario
38/24
Caldwell
Burns
45°
23°
42°
28°
68° (1939) -7° (1932)
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
Eugene
0.00"
0.18"
0.49"
5.25"
3.96"
8.01"
WINDS (in mph)
39/26
34/18
0.00"
0.41"
0.68"
7.79"
12.33"
12.41"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
41/32
49/37
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
Pendleton 36/24
47/39
47/35
43°
25°
41°
28°
67° (1959) -18° (1919)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
43/34
Aberdeen
31/17
33/22
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
42/36
Today
Boardman
Pendleton
Medford
40/31
Fri.
SW 6-12
WSW 6-12
NNE 3-6
W 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
36/19
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
7:30 a.m.
4:12 p.m.
2:39 p.m.
5:11 a.m.
Full
Last
New
First
Dec 18
Dec 26
Jan 2
Jan 9
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 89° in Zapata, Texas Low -10° in Stanley, Idaho
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
Steven Mitchell/Blue Mountain Eagle
A Rude Logging truck on Saturday, Dec. 11, 2021, drives down Main Street in John Day during
the 28th annual Timber Truckers Light Parade. Rude Logging’s rig took first place in the tim-
ber category.
Yule loggers: Timber truckers
brighten up Christmas season
By STEVEN MITCHELL
Blue Mountain Eagle
JOHN DAY — Trucks
decked out with thousands
of Christmas lights hauled
in the holiday spirit Satur-
day, Dec. 11, as John Day’s
28th annual Timber Truckers
Light Parade rumbled down
Main Street.
More than a hundred
people lined the sidewalk and
braved the cold to cheer on
the decorated logging trucks,
commercial vehicles, Forest
Service rigs and others. This
year the parade had 30 partic-
ipants.
The parade floats repre-
sented four categories: farm
and ranch, timber, commer-
cial and community.
Longtime parade orga-
nizer Leslie Traylor, a John
Day resident, said the parade
was started by D.R. John-
son, who, at the time, oper-
ated Prairie Wood Products in
Prairie City and Grant West-
ern Lumber Co. in John Day.
The purpose was to showcase
the importance of the timber
industry in Grant County.
Traylor said the D.R.
Johnson family continues to
support the John Day parade
as well as a similar parade in
Riddle.
In the early years, Traylor
said, a majority of the trucks
— if not all — were log trucks.
The lighting displays of
the parade floats, she noted,
were extremely elaborate.
“They went to so much
trouble,” she said, “so
much expense to give us
some beautiful, beautiful
entries.”
Last year’s parade, Tray-
lor said, underscored how
significant the event is to the
community. Due to pandemic
restrictions, the organiz-
ers could not host an awards
dinner and did not seek dona-
tions from merchants for
prizes.
She said she asked the
drivers what they wanted to
do, and they told her, “We’ll
have a parade anyway.”
IN BRIEF
Anthony Lakes Ski Area
opens for season Saturday
NORTH POWDER — With another eight
inches of snow falling overnight Monday,
Dec. 13, Anthony Lakes Ski Area will open
for the season Dec. 18.
Anthony Lakes reported a base of 22
inches the morning of Dec. 14, with 19 inches
of snow falling in the past three days.
The resort, in the Elkhorn Mountains
about 34 miles northwest of Baker City, will
be open daily through Jan. 2, except Christ-
mas Day. The ski area will close at 1 p.m. on
Christmas Eve.
Unlike last winter, the lodge will be open
this year, although face coverings are required
indoors.
More information, including daily
snow updates, are available at www.antho-
nylakes.com.
— EO Media Group
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
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0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
60s
cold front
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