6A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL August 5, 2015
B EYOND THE G ROVE
Impactful news from Lane County and surrounding communities
F IRE DOWN SOUTH
(photo courtesy ODFW)
Members of the Territorial Riders chapter of Backcoun-
try Horsemen of Oregon head up the trail on Mt. Hood
with a load of trout that were released in Shellrock Lake.
Crews in Douglas County battle
vicious blazes in stifl ing heat
S
Horsemen help
ODFW release high
lakes trout
peratures and dryer conditions.
Temperatures may reach the 90s
and there is a chance of thunder-
storms.
Mindful of this cautionary note,
fi refi ghters paused during the
morning briefi ng to honor fallen
comrade David Ruhl, who was re-
cently killed in a wildfi re in North-
ern California.
The fi re area and forest roads
remain closed to the public. High-
way 138 remains open with the aid
of a pilot car.
moke and haze in the Cot-
tage Grove area in recent
days are evidence of a battle rag-
ing in nearby Douglas County, as
crews have fought blazes and hot,
dry weather simultaneously in two
separate fi res.
Sunday’s cooler weather with a
smattering of rain helped fi refi ght-
ers progress in battling the Cable
Crossing Fire, which started on
Tuesday afternoon, July 28, along
Highway 38 six miles east of
Glide. On Saturday, fi re crews met
with concerned Glide area citizens
to answer questions about the fi re
and their efforts.
On Monday morning, an update
from the Oregon Department of
Forestry stated that “fi refi ghters
on the Cable Crossing Fire took
advantage of” Sunday’s “break in
hot, dry weather to gain ground
on the fi re.” They say the fi re is
now completely trailed and esti-
mated at 1,674 acres and 20 per-
cent contained. As a precautionary
measure, the level one evacuation
notice remains in effect on Little
River Road from the Peel Store
to the Wolf Creek Trail Head and
along Highway 138 in the vicin-
ity of Evergreen Lane to Honeycut
Road. Those seeking more infor-
mation on evacuation notifi cation
levels and Ready, Set, Go can visit
www.wildlandfi rersg.org.
“Crew bosses are hopeful they
took the fi ght out of the fi re,” said
Incident Commander Link Smith.
“We’re confi dent we’ll continue to
make great strides toward contain-
ing the fi re.”
Smith said the optimism is not
without its precaution, however.
Crews plan to be fl exible today as
the weather shifts to warmer tem-
Meanwhile, the 15,000-acre
Stouts Fire continues to burn east
of Canyonville, though more fa-
vorable weather has again aided
the fi refi ghters’ cause, according
to recent updates. Residents along
Upper Cow Creek Road were al-
lowed back into their homes on
Sunday, though many residents are
being cautioned to remain ready to
evacuate.
On Monday, an ODF update
stated that build additional fi re
line, prepare contingency lines,
and assess the areas around struc-
tures that need clearing and start-
ing work to help protect them if
the fi re moves that way. The fi re
grew slightly but remains just over
15,000 acres, and is estimated
at 5% containment. About 1400
fi refi ghters continue fi ghting the
Stouts Fire around the clock. Over
160 community members turned
out to Sunday night’s meeting at
the Milo fi re hall. The fi re is burn-
ing approximately 1/3 on private
land, 1/3 on Bureau of Land Man-
agement land, and 1/3 on National
Forest land.
The causes of both fi res remain
under investigation.
E
courtesy photo
Helicopters have been enlisted in efforts to fi ght the
Cable Crossing Fire, which started July 28 about six
miles east of Glide along Highway 138.
Grant funds solar install for Creswell food pantry
Concerning
Creswell
News and notes from our neighbor to the north
BY JON STINNETT
The Cottage Grove Sentinel
T
he efforts of a food pantry in Creswell
were supercharged last week with the
fl ip of a switch.
Community Food for Creswell, which op-
erates in that city’s Cobalt Building on the
north end of town, recently utilized funding
from a 2014 Green Power Grant from the
Emerald Peoples Utilities District (EPUD)
to install a 13.2 kilowatt solar power system
on its roof. The organization’s Susan Blach-
nik said the new system, which Blachnik
started herself by fl ipping a switch outside
the Cobalt Building on Thursday, should re-
duce the energy costs the pantry pays by 50
percent, saving the pantry about $1200 per
year, an amount equal to 10 percent of its
annual budget.
Blachnik said the savings will come at a
crucial time for the pantry.
“We’ve been using up our savings for
about a year,” she said. “It’s important that
we decrease our expenses, and there aren’t
many grants available to reduce operating
expenses.”
Blachnik said the process of applying
for and utilizing the grant funding has been
quite complicated, as the City of Creswell
photo by Jon Stinnett
Flanked by EPUD representatives, Community Food for Creswell's Susan Blach-
nik fl ips the switch to engage the solar energy system at the Cobalt Building.
owns the Cobalt Building and its name ap-
pears on its utility bill. The changes are part
of a broader restructuring there, however, as
the lease has just been renewed from a fi ve-
year lease with a fi ve-year extension option
to a 10-year lease with a fi ve-year option.
“It’s got us covered until at least 2030,
and that’s a very big deal for us,” she said.
“It makes us a lot more stable.”
Community Food for Creswell serves an
average of 169 households with a food box,
Blachnik said, while numbers have been in-
creasing in the last three months. July was
especially hard on the pantry’s clients in
July, she said, because the month had fi ve
It’s not too early to
weeks as opposed to four and clients’ SNAP
benefi ts typically run out about three weeks
into any given month.
Top brass from EPUD were on hand for
the ceremony, including General Manager
Scott Coe, Energy Services Coordinator
Rob Currier and many others.
“We’re tickled pink that the food bank
was awarded the grant,” Coe said. “A lower
bill lets them spend more money to serve
clients.”
Coe pointed out that participants in
EPUD’s Green Power program support the
grant program entirely by paying an extra
fee on their monthly utility bills.
SAVE MONEY. SAVE LIVES.
PR E PA R E FO R
THE SEASON.
Wildfire season is upon us. State Farm ® can help before
as well as after it strikes. Contact me today to learn how to prepare
or visit statefarm.com ® .
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Memberships
$65 per year
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why ODFW uses them to stock
high lakes only during odd-
numbered years.
The horsemen helped ODFW
staff load 40 trout into plastic
bags fi lled with oxygen-en-
riched water and ice into paniers
onto fi ve mules for the 30-min-
ute walk from the loading area
into Shellrock Lake. Walczak
said fi sh loaded this way in cool,
oxygenated water will probably
survive for up to two hours.
Only three fi sh died on the ride
into Shellrock Lake.
Walczak said that based on
this year’s successful release, he
is looking to expand the horse-
stocking operation to as many
as six or eight release sites next
year. Not every location is a
good candidate. Horse-stocking
release sites need to be within
two hours ride over a horse-
compatible trail.
“This gives us some more op-
tions as far as releasing trout
and creating additional fi shing
opportunity in the high lakes
during those years when we
can’t afford to use helicopters,”
Walczak said, noting that ulti-
mately the success of the project
depends on the participation of
volunteer horsemen.
There is a lot of interest in
fi shing Oregon’s high mountain
lakes, especially this year when
many other locations have been
impacted by drought conditions.
Oregon’s high lakes consistently
get top ratings in ODFW angler
surveys. ODFW encourages an-
glers to consider the high lakes
in their summer fi shing plans.
“Fishing Oregon’s high lakes
can be a really good experience,”
said Mike Gauvin, manager of
ODFW’s Recreational Fisher-
ies Management Program. “The
crowds are usually smaller, you
don’t have competing activities,
and it’s generally more relaxing,
not to mention some exceptional
scenery.”
Looking Glass
Community
Services
SOUTH LANE COUNTY
FIRE & RESCUE
P077169.1
very two years the Or-
egon Department of Fish
and Wildlife goes to the air to
release more than 350,000 fi n-
gerling trout into more than 500
lakes throughout the Oregon
Cascades mountain range.
This summer, ODFW added a
low-tech twist to its high lakes
trout stocking program: horses
and mules.
Every two years, ODFW
stocks the high lakes with fi sh,
mostly from helicopters be-
cause they are fast, cover a lot
of ground and can carry a big
payload.
This year, in addition to heli-
copter stocking, two Northwest
Oregon high lakes were stocked
with fi sh carried in on horses
and mules provided by the Ter-
ritorial Riders Chapter of Back-
country Horsemen of Oregon.
On July 11, the volunteer rid-
ers delivered 200 “legal-sized”
eight-inch trout to in Shell-
rock Lake, located in the in the
High Rock Lakes area 38 miles
southeast of Portland. A month
earlier, the horsemen helped
Walczak deliver 1,200 trout fi n-
gerlings to Cast Lake near Gov-
ernment Camp on Mt. Hood.
“Having dedicated volun-
teers who generously donate
their time and resources made
this project a success,” said Ben
Walczak, ODFW fi sh biologist.
ODFW has used horses to
stock high lakes for decades but
gradually turned away from that
practice in favor of helicopters
because of their ability to cover
so much more ground.
Still, horses have advantages
over helicopters, including on-
the-ground reports of lake con-
ditions, high survival rates of
fi sh stocked, and the ability to
stock larger fi sh, according to
Walczak.
“We can’t stock legals from a
helicopter,” he said.
Helicopter time is also ex-
tremely expensive, which is
®
Call 541-942-4493 for info.
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