Thursday • June 24, 2021
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SPORTS PULLOUT, A5-8
Record number of chinook
return to the Deschutes River
By MIChaEL KOhN
The Bulletin
It’s been an uphill battle for
fish in the Deschutes River —
their historic numbers have
fallen due to the construction
of dams and diversions that
have disrupted their native
habitat. But this year a project
to help recover their numbers
is finally showing signs of suc-
cess.
So far this year, 59 spring
chinook salmon have been
collected from the Pelton Trap
and released above the Pelton
Round Butte dam complex,
according to Allison Dobscha,
a spokesperson for Port-
land General Electric. That’s
a record number for the fish
transfer project.
Fish habitats in the Upper
Deschutes River were deci-
mated over the past century,
partially due to farming and
agriculture. But the biggest
culprit was the installation
of a series of dams along the
Lower Deschutes west of Ma-
dras. The dams blocked access
to the upper reaches of the
river and also altered the tem-
perature of the river water.
“This is the best return of
spring chinook we’ve experi-
enced since adults started re-
turning to the project in 2011,”
said Dobscha. “We’ve seen re-
turns in the low fifties before,
but 59 surpasses those records
and we still have weeks to go
in the run.”
See Chinook / A14
Plan gives employers
relief for payroll tax
bate in either chamber.
The sole Senate amendment
was to add $500,000 for 17
short-term positions to incor-
porate the changes into the Em-
ployment Department’s com-
puter modernization project.
The first phase of the project,
which starts in July, will include
collection of payroll taxes that
employers pay into the state
unemployment trust fund.
By PETEr WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Many Oregon businesses will
see smaller increases in their
unemployment payroll taxes,
and even forgiveness of some
amounts, as a result of a bill now
headed to Gov. Kate Brown.
House Bill 3389 was re-
passed by the House on a 56-0
vote Wednesday after it cleared
the Senate on a 25-4 vote the
previous day. There was no de-
See Payroll / A14
HOMELESS IN BEND
CITY CLEANS UP EMERSON AVENUE CAMP
Dean Guernsey/Bulletin photos
LEFT: Tanyia rogers and John stone sort through their belongings at The shepherd’s house shelter after being evacuated from their camps on Emerson avenue in Bend on Wednesday.
rIGhT:The Central Oregon Peacekeepers, a social justice group, were on hand to support homeless people during the evacuation.
W
orkers contracted by the city of
Bend began clearing out a large
homeless camp Wednesday
morning on Emerson Avenue where
safety and public health concerns had
fueled community discussion over its
impact on the area.
Just one person was at the camp
when the workers arrived.
What remained were large piles of
personal belongings and trash sur-
rounded by abandoned tents behind
the Les Schwab Tire Center. Workers
picked through the piles, throwing
By dyLaN JEFFErIEs aNd KyLE sPurr • The Bulletin
away trash and stashing possessions
for storage. Bend Police officers set
up a barricade around the camp, and
several officers stood watch over the
sweep.
The road was home to about 38
camps and had steadily grown in size
since the start of the year. The city
posted an evacuation notice Thurs-
day. Social welfare advocates esti-
mate 50 people were displaced by the
sweep Wednesday.
“There will be some touch-up to-
morrow, but things are mostly fin-
ished,” said Grant Burke, the city’s
facilities manager, Wednesday after-
noon. “There was lots of soiled cloth-
ing. Lots of defecation. Tents filled
with mold and maggots. But not all of
them. Some of them were clean.”
About six members of the Central
Oregon Peacekeepers, a social justice
organization, arrived to protest the
sweep. They had a table set up with
water bottles, doughnuts and other
snacks.
“We heard from one of the camp
residents that it was still dark when
police came and started hassling peo-
ple to get out,” said Luke Richter,
leader of the Central Oregon Peace-
keepers. “I guess that was the best-case
scenario in their heads, to warn peo-
ple to get off the street before this is all
happening.”
See Camp / A13
Amid clamor to increase prescribed burns, obstacles await
Mark Ylen/Albany Democrat-Herald
Firefighters light native grasses near harrisburg in 2010. hundreds of
millions of acres of forests have become overgrown. Officials want to
sharply increase prescribed burns.
TODAY’S
WEATHER
Mostly sunny
High 91, Low 58
Page a12
INDEX
SALEM — In the 1950s,
when University of Califor-
nia forestry professor Harold
Biswell experimented with pre-
scribed burns in the state’s pine
forests, many people thought
he was nuts.
“Harry the Torch,” “Burn-
Em-Up Biswell” and “Doctor
Burnwell” were some of his
nicknames from critics, who
included federal and state for-
esters and timber groups.
Six decades after Biswell
preached an unpopular mes-
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and under carefully
sage to those who ad-
RELATED
vocated full-on fire
• $195M wild- controlled conditions
to clear underbrush,
suppression, he is seen
fire bill ad-
pine needle beds and
not as crazy but some-
vances, with
other surface fuels.
one whose ideas could
some reser-
Last month, four
save the U.S. West’s for-
vations, a3
Democratic U.S. sen-
ests and ease wildfire
ators — Ron Wyden of Or-
dangers.
egon, Joe Manchin of West
Millions of acres have be-
Virginia, Maria Cantwell of
come overgrown, prone to
Washington and Dianne Fein-
wildfires that have devastated
towns, triggered massive evac- stein of California — intro-
uations and blanketed the West duced legislation that requires
federal land managers to sig-
Coast in thick smoke.
nificantly increase the num-
Today, officials want to
ber and size of prescribed
sharply increase prescribed
fires on federal lands. Wyden
fires — those set intentionally
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Vol. 117, No. 329, 14 pages, 1 section
said it would more than dou-
ble funding for prescribed
burns.
“We would have a techni-
cally skilled prescribed fire
workforce,” Wyden said in a
phone interview. “We would
streamline the smoke regula-
tions in winter months.”
Wyden and the Biden ad-
ministration are also seeking
creation of a 21st century Ci-
vilian Conservation Corps,
to provide more boots on
the ground to work on forest
health.
See Burns / A13
SUN/THU
By aNdrEW sELsKy
The Associated Press
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