W EDNESDAY , A UGUST 10, 2016
The
• N O . 32
• 18 P AGES
• $1.00
www.MyEagleNews.com
Grant County’s newspaper since 1868
Blue Mountain
EAGLE
CANYON CREEK COMPLE X FIRE
Illustration/Thinkstock.com
1 YEAR LATER
Post-fi re rehab a ‘community effort’
By Sean Ellis
For the Blue Mountain Eagle
T
he bulk of the post-Canyon Creek Com-
plex fi re rehabilitation work has been ac-
complished, and federal, state and local
offi cials say it has been a successful effort.
The work includes projects to rehabilitate parts of
the Malheur National Forest that were scorched by the
110,000-acre fi re, repair parts of Highway 395 dam-
aged by the blaze and help Canyon Creek withstand the
possibility of major fl ooding.
“It was a really successful project,” engineer Doug
Ferguson said about a $350,000 Grant County project
to place berms, dikes and sandbags in key areas along
Canyon Creek to mitigate fl ood risks. “We actually ac-
complished a lot more than we
INSIDE
set out to.”
Ferguson, who was hired by
the county to act as a liaison for More than
the various post-fi re restoration 1,000 tons of
efforts, estimates the improve- hay donated
ments will protect against a ma- for livestock
PAGE 8
jor fl ood event that would result
in Canyon Creek fl ows reaching Last
1,000 cubic feet per second in summer’s
certain areas.
fire pushes
As a comparison, during the bears to new
2011 fl ood that damaged part of food sources
the local high school, fl ows in
PAGE 9
Canyon Creek reached 856 cfs.
A specialized U.S. Forest Service team that studied
the impacts of the Canyon Creek Complex blaze pro-
jected that because of the loss of vegetation, a major
storm could result in catastrophic fl ooding.
A 10-year storm could result in creek fl ows peak-
ing at 1,997 cfs, the team estimated, which would
have devastating effects on Canyon City and John
Day. Before the fi re, that same type of storm event
would have caused fl ows to reach 661 cfs.
See REHAB, Page A8
Contributed photo/U.S. Forest Service
To prevent stream blowouts and protect fish habitat, this log jam was one of 14 that were placed
in streams affected by the Canyon Creek Complex fire to store sediment. Some damaged trees
that still had their root balls attached were placed in streams to slow the velocity of the water
and help catch debris and sediment and improve stream banks.
Courtney and Dean
Fox, along with
daughter Brooke,
stand outside their
newly built home,
one year after the
devastating Canyon
Creek Complex fire.
Brooke is holding the
family’s puppy Dusty,
and Spendy and
Deuce are also in the
photo.
RISING FROM THE ASHES
Families rebuild, relocate after fire destroys their homes
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
emories of the Aug. 14, 2015,
Canyon Creek Complex fire are
still fresh, especially for resi-
dents whose homes went up in fl ames.
A total of 43 homes were lost in the
fi re that roared through the canyon south
of Canyon City and later swept through
M
the Strawberry Wilderness area, threat-
ening the town of Prairie City.
One year later, families are fi nding
their own way of moving on from the
devastation .
On the morning of that fateful day,
business owners Dean and Courtney
Fox went to work at Pioneer Feed in
John Day, as usual.
“When we left for town that morn-
ing, it was blue skies and not a worry in
the world,” Courtney said.
She said what followed was chaos
— “a nightmare.”
They made an effort to protect their
home, but nothing, at that point, could
save it from the unrelenting fi re that
rushed down the hill into their back yard.
The Eagle/Angel Carpenter
See RISING, Page A9
Grant County Fair:
Judge orders Sheriff
Palmer not to delete emails 10 things not to miss
By Sean Hart
Blue Mountain Eagle
A judge granted a tempo-
rary restraining order against
Grant County Sheriff Glenn
Palmer Aug. 3, preventing
him from deleting emails.
Grant County Circuit
Court Judge William D. Cra-
mer Jr. ruled in favor of Or-
egonian Publishing Company
and reporter Les Zaitz, who
fi led a motion July 22 request-
ing the temporary restraining
order against Grant County
Sheriff’s Offi ce, employee
Sally DeFord and Palmer,
while awaiting the court’s
action on a May complaint
seeking an injunction requir-
ing Palmer to
disclose cer-
tain emails.
Cramer
said there is a
“strong likeli-
hood” Palmer
Sheriff
will eventual-
Glenn
ly be ordered
Palmer
by the court
to turn over a
number of emails to satisfy
the plaintiffs’ public records
request and that requiring the
preservation of all emails re-
lated to the case did not seem
overly burdensome on the
sheriff’s offi ce.
He said, however, there
was a clear possibility of ir-
reparable injury to the plain-
tiffs if emails that should
have been disclosed were
already deleted. He ordered
the sheriff’s offi ce to tempo-
rarily preserve all emails in
whatever form they current-
ly exist, whether electron-
ic or printed copies, until a
future court action on the
matter.
Attorney Brad Daniels, on
behalf of the plaintiffs, claimed
in the request for the restrain-
ing order that it is the sheriff’s
offi ce’s “pattern and practice to
delete all electronic copies of
emails from the email accounts
that they use to conduct the
public’s business.”
See PALMER, Page A18
By Angel Carpenter
Blue Mountain Eagle
Visitors at this year’s
Grant County Fair can antic-
ipate a fun event with a few
new twists in entertainment.
“Kids at the Fair — Ev-
erywhere” is the theme, but
whether young or young at
heart, all should fi nd plenty to
do and see at the fair, which
runs Wednesday through Sat-
urday, Aug. 10-13.
Admission is free on
Wednesday, and tickets for
the remainder of the week are
$6 daily and $13 weekly.
Seniors 65 and older and
children 5 and under enter the
gates for free.
Fair tickets can be pur-
chased at the fairgrounds,
Len’s Drug and Radio Shack
in John Day; Bar W-B in
Prairie City; Boyer’s Store in
Monument; and Duke Warner
Realty in Dayville.
The following are top 10
things at the Fair, but don’t
forget about the Grant Coun-
ty Fair Parade at 10 a.m.
Saturday, Aug. 13 — it trav-
els north from Grant Union
Junior-Senior High School
on South Canyon Boulevard,
with a small detour onto
Southeast Dayton Street, and
then west on Main Street. For
more events, check out the
See FAIR, Page A18