SUNDAY • August 21, 2022 • Serving Central Oregon since 1903 • $3
NEED FOR SPEED
Mountain View High’s Diggory Dillingham set to compete
in Junior Pan Pacific Championships in Hawaii • SPORTS, B1
HUNNELL ROAD
Bend
PRIZED
WATER
SUPPLY
Homeless:
Firearm
incidents
cause
concern
Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photos
A water gauge is placed on the edge of Arnold Irrigation District’s main canal.
Irrigation district, residents, tangle over seeping canal
BY JOE SIESS
The Bulletin
Homeless residents living on Hunnell
Road in Bend are wondering if they were
targeted earlier this month when they
say someone fired multiple rounds from
what sounded like a high-caliber rifle at
their campsites.
While nobody was injured, the res-
idents said they are unsure if the shots
were from an individual being negligent
with a firearm, or if someone was pur-
posefully shooting at them from a neigh-
boring property.
Witnesses said shots were fired twice:
first from the west at around 5:30 p.m.
Aug. 5, and then again, between 7:30 and
8 p.m. that day from the northeast, not
far from U.S. Highway 97.
The first episode was the most intense,
striking vehicles and dumpsters and ric-
ocheting off the street for about 15 min-
utes, they said.
During the first shooting, residents
said they took cover in their tents and
dwellings, laying on the ground to avoid
being struck. Kierra Jackson, who lives
on Hunnell Road, said bullets whizzed
past her head. She took cover behind ve-
hicles and couches along the road.
“I could see the bullet, it was going like
three or four inches from my head,” Jack-
son said. “It was literally at head height. It
would’ve been a head shot.”
See Homeless / A5
A small section of Arnold Irrigation District’s main canal is lined with concrete near Bend.
BY MICHAEL KOHN • The Bulletin
F
rom above, the Arnold Irrigation District main canal appears like a serpent, meandering in gentle green curves along
the southern fringe of Bend. At ground level, the canal is lined with shrubs and ponderosa pine trees, perfect cover
for mule deer and other wildlife. It seems idyllic.
But just below ground is a highly prized water supply that is under fierce debate.
The water supply that feeds
this ecosystem is the result of
water seeping into the ground
from the canal, which was in-
stalled more than a century
ago by settlers who could not
predict the problems, debates
and environmental impact
their irrigation projects would
cause later generations of
Bend residents.
Arnold Irrigation District
wants to stop the seepage with
a $34 million pipeline. Piping,
the district says, could have
kept irrigation water flowing
until September this year. In-
stead, the district ran out of
water a month ago, leaving the
canal bone dry.
Geoff Reynolds,
left, and Mark
Elling stand above
a short section of
Arnold Irrigation
District’s main ca-
nal that has been
lined with concrete
near Elling’s home.
Save Arnold Canal,
a community-led
grassroots move-
ment, wants the
canal lined with
concrete to con-
serve some water
but also allow a
percentage to seep
into the ground to
charge the shallow
aquifer.
See Water / A6
“We think for everyone’s sake, whether it’s keeping water in the reservoir
for threatened species habitat in the winter time or transferring water to North Unit
in Madras, we think there are other ways to achieve that, which don’t have the
collateral damage of the pipeline.”
— Mark Elling, president and board member of Save Arnold Canal
Partly sunny
High 94, Low 57
Page B6
INDEX
Business/Life
Classifieds
Dear Abby
C1-8
B5
C8
Editorial
Horoscope
Local/State
A4
C8
A2-3
Lottery
Market Recap
Obituaries
Will logging
save giant
sequoias?
BY JOSHUA PARTLOW
The Washington Post
KINGS CANYON NATIONAL
PARK, Calif. — Every June, Tony Cap-
rio and his wife Linda hike into the
Sugarbowl — a cluster of giant sequoias
high in the Sierra Nevada — to admire
the profusion of wildflowers and walk
among
Doc um some
ent 3. of
qx the
d oldest
2/ 22/ and
05 tallest
1: 07 PM
trees on the planet.
See Sequoias / A7
B2
B4
A9
Puzzles
Sports
Yesteryear
C5
B1-6
C4
The Bulletin
An Independent Newspaper
We use
recycled
newsprint
Vol. 117, No. 329, 30 pages, 4 sections
SUN/THU
TODAY’S
WEATHER
Ryan Christopher Jones/for The Washington Post
Fire ecologist for the National Park Ser-
vice, Tony Caprio, spends time in a patch of
burned forest called Sugar Bowl in Kings
Canyon National Park.
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Pa ge 1