A2 The BulleTin • Tuesday, augusT 30, 2022
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LOCAL, STATE & REGION
Gov. Brown declares a statewide Man gets
emergency over wildfire danger life sentence
28 active fires
burning in Oregon,
with largest at more
than 10,700 acres
8 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon.-Fri.
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B
BY GARY A. WARNER
Oregon Capital Bureau
The Rum Creek Fire, the
state’s largest active wild-
fire burning in southwest
Oregon, grew to more than
10,700 acres as of Monday
morning.
Containment on the fire
centered near Galice in Jose-
phine County was at 1%.
Southwest of Bend, the Ce-
dar Creek Fire has burned
7,654 acres since it began
Aug. 1 about 3 miles west
of Waldo Lake. The fire was
10% contained as of Monday
morning.
The two wildfires are
among the 28 active fires
in Oregon, according to the
State of Oregon Fires and
Hotspots Dashboard. And
with temperatures rising and
widespread drought, other
Gov. Kate Brown declared a
statewide emergency Sunday
due to wildfire danger.
inciWeb
Fire crews structure-wrap the historic Whisky Creek Cabin on Aug. 23
with an aluminum fire blanket material designed to protect struc-
tures from sparks or embers and withstand intense heat from the
Rum Creek Fire, the state’s largest active fire. The cabin is one of the
few remaining relics of the Rogue River gold rush era.
“With wildfire behavior
increasing across the state,
and with the threat of fire not
likely to recede in the near
future, it is imperative that
we act now to prevent fur-
ther loss — of life, property,
business, and our natural
resources,” Brown said in a
statement announcing the
emergency declaration.
The declaration also comes
as Oregon approaches the
two-year anniversary of the
massive 2020 Labor Day fires
that burned over 1.1 million
acres, killed 11 people, and
destroyed more than 3,000
structures.
According to Brown’s an-
nouncement, “The Gover-
nor’s declaration authorizes
the Oregon Department of
Forestry and the Office of
the State Fire Marshal, in co-
ordination with the Oregon
Department of Emergency
Management, to utilize per-
sonnel, equipment, and facil-
ities from other state agencies
in order to respond to or mit-
igate the effects of the wildfire
emergency. The declaration
allows state agencies to tem-
porarily suspend any rules
that impair the response to
wildfires, if needed, and also
allows the state to request
assistance from other states
through the Emergency Man-
agement Assistance Compact
if necessary. “
Brown said the National
Guard would be used if other
resources are depleted.
The Rum Creek Fire, a
lightning-sparked fire that
began Aug. 17, had burned
about 1,200 acres on Friday,
according to state fire offi-
cials. It grew to 4,700 acres on
Saturday and was reported at
8,400 acres by midday Sunday.
Logan Taylor, of Talent,
was killed Aug. 18 by a fall-
ing tree while battling the fire.
Brown has ordered flags to be
flown at half-mast on Mon-
day to honor Taylor.
One house and two min-
ing structures have been de-
stroyed by the Rum Creek
Fire, according to the Na-
tional Interagency Fire Cen-
ter.
█
gwarner@eomediagroup.com
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5 fires in NE Oregon left to burn naturally
BY JAYSON JACOBY
Baker City herald
Forest Service officials
are monitoring five light-
ning-sparked fires in the Ea-
gle Cap Wilderness with the
intention of letting the blazes
burn naturally.
The agency has employed
that strategy for more than 30
fires over the past quarter cen-
tury in the Eagle Cap, which at
365,000 acres is Oregon’s big-
gest federal wilderness area.
It’s also the place Forest Ser-
vice officials have most often
allowed lightning fires to burn
themselves out.
The Nebo Fire,
estimated
at 20 acres
on Sunday is
burning in the
Eagle Cap Wil-
derness north
of Halfway.
u.s. Forest service
That’s not a coincidence.
The Eagle Cap is not only is
bigger than either Multnomah
or Hood River counties, but
the wilderness has areas where
fires, rather than turning rap-
idly into conflagrations that
threaten people and property,
tend to grow slowly, often be-
cause there are natural barriers,
such as outcrops of rock, that
help keep the flames contained.
Moreover, Forest Service
officials say, the fires typi-
cally help rather than harm
the forest, in particular by
reducing the fuel load and
making it less likely that
a future fire will spread fast.
“The Eagle Cap is a very
large, very intact wilder-
ness that we can use to
learn more about how fire
behaves and how it ben-
efits the resources,” said
Anthony Botello, deputy
supervisor for the Wal-
lowa-Whitman National
Forest, which manages the
wilderness.
for killing
his mother
BY CATALINA GAITÁN
The Oregonian
A Washington County
circuit court judge on Mon-
day sentenced Garth Patrick
Beams, 47, of Tualatin to life in
prison for beating his 74-year-
old mother to death with a
baseball bat in 2018.
Beams was convicted of sec-
ond-degree murder and unlaw-
ful use of a weapon. He will be
eligible for parole after 25 years,
the Washington County Dis-
trict Attorney’s office said in a
statement Monday.
Prosecutors said Beams at-
tacked his mother, author and
screenwriter Wendy Jane Hen-
son, in a fit of rage.
According to court records,
Beams was diagnosed with
schizophrenia in 1995 and was
the subject of a conservatorship.
He lived with his mother, who
managed his Social Security
income. Tensions began esca-
lating between the two in early
2018 due in part to the increas-
ing level of care Henson needed
as she aged, court records show.
On July 19, 2018, Beams
struck Henson in the head with
a baseball bat.
Tualatin police officers ar-
rived just before 3 p.m. and
found Henson inside the home
with multiple head injuries. She
was rushed to Oregon Health &
Science University Hospital but
died from her injuries. Officers
arrested Beams that day.
Beams underwent a psychi-
atric evaluation at the Oregon
State Hospital in Salem and
was declared fit to proceed with
a bench trial in December of
2020, according to records.
Henson published a textbook
on screenwriting and wrote
various novellas and screen-
plays, her LinkedIn profile
says. She also wrote a movie-re-
view column for the publica-
tion Tualatin Life.
Columbia Riverkeeper challenging
new gas pipeline infrastructure
east Oregonian
An environmental group is
challenging the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission’s ap-
proval of the Coyote Springs
Cogeneration Project near
Boardman.
According to state and fed-
eral energy department doc-
uments, the $32.5 million
fracked gas pipeline compres-
sor station would operate on a
22-acre site at the Port of Mor-
row Industrial Park. The plant
would have two combustion
turbines that would generate
440 average megawatts of en-
ergy when complete. The proj-
ect would be built in phases.
Columbia Riverkeeper,
which filed the petition chal-
lenging the decision, seeks a
rehearing of FERC’s approval.
Audrey Leonard, staff attorney
at Columbia Riverkeeper, said
Friday the organization is “tak-
ing a stand against another mis-
guided fossil fuel project.”
The regulatory commission
issued a license to Gas Trans-
mission Northwest, which the
company TC Energy owns, to
build new infrastructure to in-
crease the pressure of fracked
gas in its pipeline system. Co-
lumbia Riverkeeper contended
approving new fracked gas
infrastructure is inconsistent
with Oregon’s and Washington’s
climate goals calling for a rapid
reduction in fossil fuel use.
“Our communities are al-
ready feeling the impacts of cli-
mate change,” said Maig Tinnin
from community organization
Rogue Climate. “The only way
to meet our climate goals is to
stop building new fossil fuel in-
frastructure and to transition to
clean energy and greater energy
efficiency.”
The Coyote Springs station
would result “in more annual
greenhouse gas pollution than
all commercial buildings in the
state of Washington,” according
to Columbia Riverkeeper.
FERC released its approval of
the Coyote Springs compressor
station on July 28. The agency
has 30 days to respond to Co-
lumbia Riverkeeper’s petition
for rehearing.
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