A2 THE BULLETIN • SUNDAY, AUGUST 28, 2022
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SOUTHWEST OREGON
Wildfire quadruples in size
BY ANDREW SELSKY
Associated Press
SALEM — A wildfire in remote
southwest Oregon almost quadrupled
in size overnight Saturday, forcing
evacuations and prompting the gover-
nor to invoke an emergency act that al-
lows the state fire marshal to take com-
mand of suppression efforts.
The Rum Creek Fire, which had
covered around 1,200 acres on Friday,
increased to 4,700 acres in size, Gov.
Kate Brown’s office said Saturday.
Authorities also ordered evacuations
as a wildfire grew in rugged terrain
in western Idaho. The Valley County
Sheriff’s Office said on Facebook Sat-
urday that evacuation preparedness
for some neighborhoods in the rural
area “have been changed to a “GO” sta-
tus and we are initiating an immediate
evacuation of the area.”
Planes were scooping water from
nearby Lake Cascade and dumping it
on the fire, which had grown to 10,000
acres . Boaters were warned to stay
clear of the path of the aircraft.
In Oregon, the Josephine County
Sheriff’s Office ordered evacuations of
several unincorporated communities
along the Rogue River, which is popu-
lar among rafters. Sections of the river
were closed to recreation by federal of-
ficials because of the fire.
“The Rum Creek Fire grew rapidly
overnight, requiring additional re-
sources to battle the fire and support
the state’s response,” Brown said in a
statement. “This is a good reminder
that conditions can change quickly,
and that fire knows no bounds.”
Brown’s declaration cleared the way
for the State Fire Marshal to mobilize
firefighters and equipment to assist lo-
cal firefighters and to support a coordi-
nated response.
The unincorporated community
of Galice was among those ordered
evacuated. The county fairgrounds in
Grants Pass has been designated as an
evacuation shelter, with space for peo-
ple, their pets and livestock.
The fire was started by lightning
on Aug. 17 and killed Logan Taylor,
a 25-year-old firefighter, after he was
struck by a tree the next day. Brown
has ordered all flags at Oregon public
institutions to be flown at half-staff on
Monday in honor of Taylor, with his
memorial service to be held the same
day.
“He will be remembered for his
bravery, courage, and commitment to
protecting Oregonians from wildfire,”
Brown said.
A wildfire near Spokane, Washing-
ton, prompted evacuations Friday but
has been brought under control, emer-
gency officials said Saturday.
The fire was held to 41 acres with
no structures burned, the Spokane
County Fire District said on Facebook.
And in Northern California, a wild-
fire that broke out Saturday in Nevada
County that prompted local evacua-
tion orders, according to the Fresno
Bee newspaper. The Still Fire had
burned 30 acres by mid-afternoon and
was zero percent contained, according
to state fire officials.
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LEGAL NOTICES
PACIFIC CITY
New generation keeps famous dory fleet afloat
BY LORI TOBIAS
The Oregonian
In 2003, when Shawn Fars-
tad tracked down the dory
boat his father sold in 1988,
the boat was rotted and the
owner was asking “a fortune.”
But it had been built by
Farstad’s grandfather, skip-
pered by his dad and named
for his sister, Susann, and
mom, Janet. So, Farstad and
his wife, Crystal, paid the
price. Then, Farstad took the
Su-Jan home, stripped it down
to the bones and built it all
over again.
In this coastal home of the
Pacific City dory fleet, the
bond between fisher and boat
runs deep.
“You put so much love
and care into them,” Farstad
said. “Oiling and sanding and
painting and just maintaining
wood — you live with the boat
all summer.”
Today, Farstad builds dories
and helps maintain the fleet.
The demand for his work is
growing as the dories grow
older and need more care.
“We’re cutting the rot out and
putting in new wood,” Fars-
tad said. “A lot of people, their
boat was their dad’s, and they
have some connection to them
and hang on to them forever.
It’s not very often that people
buy and sell boats.”
The flat-bottomed dory
boats have been part of the
fishing scene in Pacific City
since the early 1900s, evolved
from the Nestucca Bay gill
net fleet, according to the Pa-
cific City Dorymen’s Associ-
ation. Today, about 300 boat-
ers launch their dories in the
Cape Kiwanda surf to take
part in the fishery said to be
unlike any other in the world.
“This is a really unique
place, a unique fishery,” Fars-
tad said. “For one thing, the
experience of going off the
beach is just incredible. It’s not
Lori Tobias/For The Oregonian
Geraldine Butkovich, 90, fished from dory boats with her dad when
she was a kid. She passed the tradition on to her son, Tony Butkovich,
who now builds a new generation of dory boats.
like going out of a harbor. In
Pacific City, you can catch hal-
ibut, Dungeness crab, sea bass,
ling cod and salmon within a
mile of your pickup.”
Farstad, 46, started going
out in his dad’s dory when he
was just 2 years old. Back then,
recreational dory fishers were
few and the winter population
of Pacific City barely 50, he
said. But in the summer, that
number grew tenfold, every
field a tent city of sorts as fish-
ers — many of them school-
teachers on summer break
— came from all over Oregon
to land their share of the com-
mercial fishery.
As a commercial dory fisher,
Farstad’s in the minority. Sport
fishers now outnumber com-
mercial, the fleet growing right
along with the population of
Pacific City. They’re lured by
nostalgia for tradition, the
quick access to an abundance
of seafood and the thrill of the
ride.
For Cedar Johnston, for-
merly a commercial crabber in
Alaska and Oregon, it was all
that and then some.
Johnston had heard of do-
ries, but he’d never been on
one. Then, 28 years ago, he
met his future wife, Shelli, who
grew up dory fishing with her
dad, Toledo schoolteacher Lee
Parks. He fell hard, both for
Shelli and, after a few lessons
with her dad, dories.
“I was hooked right off the
bat,” he said. “I couldn’t believe
the excitement, the adrena-
line.”
The launch of a dory boat is
not a simple act, but one that
calls for an impeccably timed
choreography of mariner, boat,
vehicle and tide. It’s not rocket
science, Johnston says, but it is
a matter of timing and experi-
ence.
“First thing, you have to
know your tide, know your
drift,” Johnston said. “Is it going
to suck your boat out, push you
south, push you north? If there
is a strong rip, you better think
of getting some help.”
Hesitate, or move too slow
and you might find your truck
and trailer stuck in the wet sand
as your dory floats away.
Next, you have to clear the
surf, being careful not to go at
the swells faster than they are
coming at you. Hit the wave too
fast, and you’ll fly over the top
and come down hard.
“You just want to be able to
float over it, engage at the top of
the break and just keep going
forward after that,” Johnston
said.
Then, it’s time to fish.
Lee Parks died in 1998, but
Johnston kept learning, taking
tips from other experienced
dory boaters. Today, Johnston
fishes the Kiawanda Jr., a wood
dory built for Parks in 1979 by
noted local boat builder Terry
Learned.
Traditional dories like the Ki-
awanda Jr. and Farstad’s Su-Jan
are a standard design, one that
hasn’t changed all that much
over recent decades.
But change is coming,
prompted by a wave of fishers
who see the future not in wood,
but in “space age” materials.
Leading that wave is Tony
Butkovich, who learned of the
dory culture from his mother,
Geraldine “Gerry” Butkovich.
Now 90, Gerry fished with her
dad in the 1930s and ‘40s, when
dories were double-ended boats
pushed out to sea on foot, bow
first.
“They didn’t have the motor
in the back,” she recalled. “You
put the motor in the well, then
rowed out through the waves,
then put the motor on.”
Fishing, she said, was an all-
day outing for weekends from
the Fourth of July to Labor Day.
Ten years ago, eyeing re-
tirement from his job as an
iron worker, Tony Butkovich
decided it was time for a new
dory. He didn’t want a wood
hull — too much work. So,
when he met a tool maker for a
former boat manufacturer, he
hired him to build a mold for a
new kind of dory boat.
In 2014, Butkovich and his
wife, Janet, launched Breaker
Dory, a boat building company
based in Pacific City, its slo-
gans “Where the past meets the
present,” and “The no rot dory
evolution.”
Breaker Dory boats are built
one at a time from lightweight,
durable resins and fiberglass
with a Kevlar reinforced bot-
tom. Known for their bright
colors, the dories have been
dubbed the “Skittle Fleet” for
the similarly colorful candy.
Butkovich made some modi-
fications to the standard dory
form – “lengthened it, opened
the beam and kicked the cor-
ners out about 6 inches on ei-
ther side.”
The company builds about
three dories a year. While But-
kovich’s boats are popular with
fishers who like the ease of the
maintenance and the sharp
looks, they’ve earned him some
ribbing among the traditional
fishers.
But at the end of the day, re-
gardless of the boat, dorymen
and women here know they
can and must count on one an-
other.
“Pacific City is probably one
of the only ports on the coast
that does not have a Coast
Guard,” Farstad said. “We kind
of maintain our own little
fleet. If someone breaks down
out there, they don’t call the
Coast Guard. They call some-
one at home, and we’ll make
several calls until we find
someone who can get their
boat out and tow them back
in. Everybody sticks together.”
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