LOCAL A2
WEST A5
SPORTS A6
Four have fi led for
Baker City Council
Fire devastates
Klamath River area
Nix ready for Ducks’
QB competition
Serving Baker County since 1870 • bakercityherald.com
IN THIS EDITION: LOCAL • OUTDOORS & REC • SPORTS
QUICK HITS
—————
Good Day Wish
To A Subscriber
A special good day to Herald
subscriber Ross Fritz of North
Powder.
BRIEFING
—————
Campfi res limited to
designated sites
Starting Friday, Aug. 5,
campfi res are allowed only
in designated campgrounds
and recreation sites on the
Wallowa-Whitman and Umatilla
national forests.
Both forests moved to Phase
B of public use restrictions
due to increasing fi re danger
resulting from the recent hot,
dry weather.
Firewood cutters with a valid
permit can use chain saws from
between 8 p.m. and 1 p.m. dai-
ly. It’s not legal, however, to use
a chain saw around a campsite.
SATURDAY, AUGUST 6, 2022 • $1.50
West Nile virus found in Baker County mosquitoes
Mosquitoes were
trapped in Keating
Valley on July 28
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
West Nile virus has been found in
mosquitoes in Baker County for the
first time this year.
The mosquitoes were trapped July
28 in the Keating Valley about 15
miles east of Baker City, said Matt
Hutchinson, manager of the Baker
Valley Vector Control District.
It takes about a week for test re-
sults to arrive, and Hutchinson an-
nounced the positive test on Thurs-
day, Aug. 4.
Hutchinson is responsible for con-
trolling mosquitoes in a 200,000-acre
area that includes most of Baker, Keat-
ing and Bowen valleys.
The virus, which mosquitoes can
spread to people, has been detected in
mosquitoes in Baker County in all but
two years (2018 and 2020) over the
past decade.
Typically the virus is confined to in-
sects and birds.
Baker County is the second Or-
egon county to have infected mos-
quitoes in 2022. Two batches of
mosquitoes tested positive earlier in
Michelle Gabel/mgabel@syracuse.com-TNS
Mosquitoes can transmit West Nile virus
to humans.
Malheur County.
Hutchinson sends dozens of “pools”
of dead mosquitoes — each pool con-
sists of around 10 to 50 insects — to a
lab at Oregon State University where
the bugs are tested for West Nile virus
and other mosquito-borne diseases.
So far this summer, Hutchinson
said 160 pools of mosquitoes from
Baker County have been tested, with
only the one positive for West Nile
virus.
He sent 38 more pools for testing
on Thursday, Aug. 4. Results usually
arrive within five or six days, he said.
Hutchinson said he has sent about
twice as many mosquito pools for test-
ing as he did at this time a year ago, a
difference he attributes to the severe
2021 drought.
State
withdraws
fire risk
map
“A lot of good people came to help. We’re
fortunate to have all these people and resources
available to handle these fires.”
— Jeff Phillips, who lives near where the Keating fire
burned on Aug. 3
But map has
already forced local
resident to buy
more expensive
insurance policy
Haines Stampede
Demolition Derby
Saturday
The annual Haines Stam-
pede Demolition Derby is set
for Saturday, Aug. 6 at 6 p.m.
at the rodeo arena on the east
side of Highway 30, just south
of Haines. Spectator gates open
at 4 p.m.
Admission is $15 for adults,
$10 for seniors and military
members, $5 for ages 6-12,
and free for kids 5 and younger.
In addition to the demolition
derby (with welded and chain
and bang classes), there will be
youth and adult barrel racing,
the Bill Taylor cow hide race,
and an outhouse race.
WEATHER
—————
Today
84/39
Mostly sunny
Sunday
91/46
Sunny
Full forecast on the back
of the B section.
The space below is for a postage label
for issues that are mailed.
See West Nile / A3
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
were on different hilltops with good
views across the area during the storm
and kept in contact by phone.
They both saw the lightning hit near
Gilkison Sawmill Road, and within a
minute or so, dark smoke was visible,
Harper said.
He said he arrived within about
five minutes, and the fire had already
burned an acre or two. Within eight
minutes he estimated the fire at 30 acres
“and running.”
Oregon’s new map show-
ing wildfire risk levels for ev-
ery tax lot in the state has been
scrapped.
The map, which was released
June 30, has prompted wide-
spread concern from property
owners and state legislators.
One common concern is
that owners of land that was
rated as high or extreme fire
risk, and that’s also within
the wildland-urban interface
(WUI), would be required by
a 2021 state law to do work,
such as pruning trees, to re-
duce the fire risk.
That requirement isn’t im-
mediate, as the Oregon State
Fire Marshal is still working
on regulations for cleaning up
properties.
But some property owners
say the map has already led to
their homeowner’s insurance
policy being canceled due to a
high or extreme risk designa-
tion. In response to the com-
plaints, on Thursday, Aug. 4,
State Forester Cal Mukomoto
announced that the wildfire
risk map has been withdrawn.
State Sen. Lynn Findley,
R-Vale, whose district includes
Baker County, lauded the deci-
sion. Findley and Baker Coun-
ty’s other legislator, Rep. Mark
Owens, R-Crane, on Wednes-
day, Aug. 3 called for the state
to pull the map, saying it “has
no credibility.”
The lawmakers criticized
state officials for failing to so-
licit comments from landown-
ers and the public before craft-
ing the map, which was a joint
effort between the Oregon
Department of Forestry and
Oregon State University.
See Teamwork / A3
See Fire Risk / A3
Teamwork tames the flames
Baker County Sheriff’s Office/Contributed Photo
A single-engine air tanker drops fire retardant near Keating on Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022.
Ranchers, firefighters quickly
corral lightning-sparked blaze
near Keating
BY JAYSON JACOBY
jjacoby@bakercityherald.com
Jeff Phillips was surprised that only
one fire started.
The thunderstorm that passed
through the northern side of the Keat-
ing Valley Wednesday afternoon, Aug.
3, spawned far more than a single light-
ning bolt.
But only the one that struck around
5:30 p.m. just east of Gilkison Sawmill
Road, less than a mile northeast of Phil-
lips’ home on a hill near the Keating
School, ignited the grass that’s turned to
tinder during the record-breaking heat
wave that started the last week of July.
“It immediately took off,” Phillips
said of the fire that ended up burning
197 acres. “There’s a lot of fuel.”
But there were also a lot of eyes on
the smoke that rapidly rose as flames
charred sagebrush and grass, including
highly combustible cheatgrass.
Phillips, who is a cattle rancher, said
ranchers were the first to respond, with
two bulldozers digging control lines
soon after the fire started. Phillips said
there were control lines around about
two-thirds of the fire before crews from
multiple agencies arrived.
Chuck Lowry, a rancher who lives
Brent Meisinger/Vale District BLM/Contributed Photo
Rangeland burned during a lightning-sparked fire near Keating on Aug. 3, 2022.
along Tucker Creek, a half a mile or so
west of where the fire started, said he
used a tractor with a disc harrow to cut
a fire break.
Three bulldozers were at work al-
most immediately, he said, including
one from the North Powder Rural Fire
Protection District.
Buzz Harper, chief of the Keating
Rural Fire Protection District, said he
watched the storm cross the valley with
trepidation.
He and Curt Jacobs, a local rancher,
Local couple launches
new plant-themed cafe
BY IAN CRAWFORD
icrawford@bakercityherald.com
If you’re strolling down the east side of
Resort Street and come to Broadway, odds
are you’ll find yourself pausing at the win-
dow of 2080 Resort, peering into what ap-
pears to be a thriving jungle behind a big
pane of glass.
Cacti and broadleafs, vines and succu-
lents, couches, books and mugs. The prom-
TODAY
Issue 37
12 pages
Classified ....................B2-B4
Comics ..............................B5
Community News.............A2
ises made in the window display of Jubilee
Plants and Gathering have come to fruition
with the opening of the business Saturday,
Aug. 6 at 10 a.m.
“It’s as far away as Boise that you’ll find
anything like this,” said owner Macey Blan-
kenship, gesturing to the cozy seating and
almost uncountable leafy features of her
shop space.
See Cafe / A3
Crossword ...............B2 & B4
Dear Abby .........................B6
Jayson Jacoby ..................A4
County commissioners
OK lease-purchase deal
BY SAMANTHA O’CONNER
soconner@bakercityherald.com
Baker County commis-
sioners on Wednesday, Aug.
3 unanimously approved a
$1.45 million lease-purchase
agreement for a 70-acre prop-
erty they decided to try to buy
about two months ago.
The land in north Baker
City is currently a mint field
owned by the Ward family.
The property is just south
Horoscope ..............B3 & B4
Lottery Results .................A2
News of Record ................A2
Opinion .............................A4
Outdoors .................B1 & B2
Senior Menus ...................A2
of Hughes Lane. It’s bordered
on the east and south by the
Leo Adler Memorial Parkway,
and on the west by the Baker
Sports Complex.
On Wednesday commis-
sioners agreed to a deal with
the legal owners, Kathy Lo-
rene Ward and Harold Walter
Crawford II, trustees of the
Crawford-Ward Family Revo-
cable Living Trust.
See Deal / A3
Sports ...............................A6
Turning Backs ..................A2
Weather ............................B6