NEWS
MyEagleNews.com
Wednesday, July 28, 2021
A7
Earlier, hotter, bigger and faster fires are fueling historic fire season
By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
Oregon is experiencing
August-like fire danger condi-
tions in mid-July, creating the
likelihood of a historic fire sea-
son for the second year in a row.
Nearly 500,000 acres have
burned from nearly 1,000 fires
this year, said Doug Grafe, chief
of fire protection for the Oregon
Department of Forestry during a
Tuesday press call on current fire
conditions.
Most fires are caught at under
10 acres, but each has the poten-
tial to become a major blaze, fire
officials said.
Gov. Kate Brown and state
fire response officials warned
that conditions were extreme for
fire danger that would last for at
least three more months. Oregon
residents in nearly every point
in the state needed to prepare
now for how to handle a wildfire
emergency, they said.
“Last year’s historic fire sea-
son taught us that being pre-
pared can truly be the difference
between life and death,” Brown
said.
Brown said the state was fac-
ing two big public health chal-
lenges this summer, as it had
last year: fires with smoke and
COVID-19. She said the fires
and a recent uptick in COVID-
19 infections driven by the new
delta variant would not change
her plans to have county health
officials be the front lines on the
pandemic.
A lack of rain and searing
summer temperatures have offi-
cials scanning the state for new
sparks.
Severe drought conditions
cover 90% of the state, with 19
counties under drought emer-
gency declarations. The calendar
for fire season was accelerated
by the record-breaking tempera-
tures at the end of June that hit
117 in Salem and 118 — a state
record — in Hermiston.
As of 1 p.m. on Tuesday, the
state reported 22 active fires and
a total area burned this season of
405,567 acres.
Oregon is fighting the larg-
est wildfire in the nation, the
387,000-acre and growing
Bootleg Fire in {span}Fre-
mont-Winema National Forest
in {/span}southern Oregon.
The flames have destroyed
67 residences and 117 other
buildings. Only one injury has
been reported.
The Bootleg Fire is 30%
contained, with protection of
towns a top priority. But fire offi-
cials said it is possible that up to
100,000 more acres could burn.
“The fire is going to be on the
landscape for a long time,” Grafe
said.
If it hits the top end of that
estimate, the Bootleg Fire would
join two other Oregon fires that
have burned over 500,000 acres
this century.
Contributed photo/Oregon Department of Forestry
This photo provided by the Oregon Department of Forestry
shows a firefighting tanker making a retardant drop over the
Grandview Fire near Sisters on Sunday, July 11.
The Long Draw Fire in Mal-
heur County in 2012 burned just
over 550,000 acres in 2012. The
Biscuit Fire in the Rogue River–
Siskiyou National Forest burned
just over 500,000 acres in 2002.
Other current blazes around
the state remain dangerous, but
firefighters are getting the upper
hand.
State Fire Marshal Mari-
ana Ruiz-Temple pointed to the
Grandview Fire north of Sisters
in Deschutes County that has
burned 6,000 acres as an exam-
ple of how the state hopes to
contain fires early.
An infusion of state fund-
ing and updated strategic plans
for deploying forces around the
state allowed for the pre-posi-
tioning of firefighting units and
equipment.
The call for a surge of addi-
tional resources from local and
regional firefighting units kept
the blaze away from populated
areas.
The fire is now 72%
contained.
“This is a success story,”
Ruiz-Temple said. “The threat
to the community was pretty
significant.”
Grafe said he was also confi-
dent that firefighters will be able
to control the battle against the
Elbow Creek Fire Fire in Wal-
lowa County in the northeast
corner of the state.
Though it has burned over
16,400 acres, the fire is 15%
contained.
“They are feeling a bit more
confident,” Grafe said. “The
next 48 hours will be a turning
point.”
Progress has also been made
on the Jack Fire in southern
Oregon, though it would likely
burn for a long time because of
the location and the ability of
firefighters to get to the flames.
Commanders on the scene
feel “comfortable moving in the
right direction,” Grafe said.
A smaller burn causing con-
cern is the 156-acre Bruler Fire,
near Santiam Canyon. The ter-
rain is very steep, making
access to the flames difficult.
One firefighter was hit in the
helmet by rolling rocks, but was
not significantly injured. The
fire is 10% contained.
“I think this one will also be
on the landscape for a while,”
Grafe said.
Grafe said the fire season
had an abnormally early begin-
ning with the Bull Springs Fire
near Bend in March.
It was a warning that the
state would be in for a pro-
tracted battle a year after wild-
fires burned over 1 million
acres and destroyed thousands
of homes during the Labor Day
fires of 2020.
“We are facing a long, diffi-
cult fire season,” Grafe said.
Brown said she wasn’t con-
sidering major changes in her
June 30 decision to transfer deci-
sion-making on COVID-19 pol-
icy and abatement to counties.
“We are moving to a more
localized, traditional approach,”
Brown said.
The Oregon Health Author-
ity reported late Monday that
COVID-19 cases statewide
were up 30.8% for the period
covering July 4 to July 17. The
number of cases per 100,000
resident rose to 77.6 from 59.3.
The percentage of positive tests
rose to 3.8%, up from 3.1%.
Most of Oregon’s 36 coun-
ties showed an increase in infec-
tions on the state’s risk manage-
ment website.
Counties showing a drop
in infections included Baker,
Curry, Gilliam, Hood River,
Jefferson, Polk and Union.
Wheeler, Grant and Harney
stayed the same.
Some of the highest numbers
were in Umatilla County, with
the rate of cases per 100,000
rising from 202.5 to 279.8. The
positive test rate of 12.4% was
more than three times the state
average. Only neighboring
Morrow County had a higher
positive test rate: 14.7%.
Brown said OHA would
monitor hospital capacity to
ensure no area is strained with
COVID-19 patients. State offi-
cials are working with local
agencies to ensure they have the
resources they need.
“The best tool we have for
fighting this virus is vaccina-
tion,” Brown said.
Authorities said to monitor
oralert.gov for the latest emer-
gency updates. Information is
also available at wildfire.ore-
gon.gov.
Removal of barred owls slows Rapidly replicating delta variant’s
decline of iconic spotted owls impact not equal across Oregon
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By Gary A. Warner
Oregon Capital Bureau
The highly contagious
COVID-19 delta variant has
caused a steep increase in the
number of infections in Oregon
— but with different impacts
across the state.
“Oregon is open, but the
pandemic is not over,” said Ore-
gon Health Director Pat Allen
during a press call Thursday.
COVID-19 infections by the
delta variant have doubled in
the past week, leading to a new
spike in total numbers. OHA
reported the number of delta
variant cases had risen 25%
between Wednesday and Thurs-
day alone.
The delta variant now
accounts for over half of all
COVID-19 cases in Oregon
and is likely to rise, mirroring
the national average of 80%.
The statistics were rolled out
at OHA’s first high profile press
briefing since Gov. Kate Brown
ended statewide COVID-19
restrictions June 30.
The rise in cases comes as
vaccinations in the state have
slowed to a trickle. While
about 2.4 million residents have
received at least one shot of vac-
cine, Allen said the latest daily
number of new inoculations
was about 2,000. That’s down
from a peak of over 50,000 on
some days in early April.
Allen said COVID-19 cases
are surging, up tenfold in the past
week. The delta variant spreads
up to 75% faster than the original
virus that first appeared in Ore-
gon in February 2020.
The spread of the virus is
not evenly spread throughout
Oregon as in earlier spikes,
OHA reported.
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Salem would not issue
edicts, but advice.
“Take action now,” Allen
said of counties with lagging
vaccination rates.
Allen pointed to state statis-
tics showing that 15 out of 36
counties had started vaccinating
less than half their adult popu-
lation. Statewide the number is
about 70%.
Dean Sidelinger, the state
health officer and chief epi-
demiologist, said the jump in
infections should be a “red
alert” for those who have not
been vaccinated.
“You are at higher risk now
than you were earlier in the
pandemic, and you are putting
the people around you at risk,”
Sidelinger said.
Not moving to increase vac-
cination levels would mean
the shadow of the pandemic
would continue in communi-
ties, schools, workplaces and
gatherings.
“The virus looms large,”
Sidelinger said.
OHA again said it was hop-
ing for increased persuasion
and for local influential individ-
uals and political leaders to take
action. There were no plans
for new mandates, or to tell
employers they should require
vaccinations.
Citing the “highly political”
nature of the COVID-19 debate,
Allen said efforts to increase
vaccinations had to come from
trusted local sources, including
civic and faith leaders, as well
as political officeholders.
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Allen singled out Umatilla
County, which reported 70 new
cases but has vaccinated just
under 43% of eligible adults.
The 2020 population of the
county is just under 78,000.
In contrast, Washington
County, near Portland, reported
43 new cases and has vacci-
nated 75% of eligible adults.
It’s 2020 population is just over
620,000.
“The pandemic is fading
for those that are vaccinated —
they can resume activities with
relative peace of mind,” Allen
said.
While significantly more
contagious, the delta variant has
not been shown to be any more
virulent or able to break through
vaccines that have been widely
available since spring.
While infections and hospi-
talizations are rising, the num-
ber of deaths is expected to be
capped well below levels seen
last winter when the virus was
rampant and no vaccines were
available.
Allen said that, despite
Thursday’s press call to pub-
licize the extent of the delta
variant, there were no plans
for Brown or OHA to step in
and exert control over local
decisions.
While OHA was ready
to help with additional vac-
cine and other supports, it is
up to county health depart-
ments to take a measure of the
local impact of the virus and for
county commissioners to decide
what should be done.
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S252786-1
that concluded removal of
barred owls, coupled with
conservation of old forest,
could slow or reverse popula-
tion declines of spotted owls.
The research outlined in
the study expanded the pilot
project to cover a much wider
geographic range and a lon-
ger time period. The new
research showed that barred
owl removal had a strong,
positive effect on survival
and population trends of
spotted owls that was con-
sistent across all five study
areas.
The conservation and res-
toration of old forests, which
has been a chief focus of
recovery strategies for the
northern spotted owl, is a
major source of controversy
in the Pacific Northwest.
The barred owl invasion has
exacerbated this issue, plac-
ing an even higher premium
on remaining old conifer
forests.
“While suppression of
barred owls can be difficult,
costly, and ethically challeng-
ing, improvements in vital
rates and population trends
of spotted owls, and perhaps
other threatened wildlife, can
be expected when densities of
barred owls are reduced from
current levels,” the research-
ers write in the paper. “Alien
predators are considered to
be more harmful to prey pop-
ulations than native preda-
tors, and the dynamic inter-
actions between invasive and
native predators can lead to
profound changes in ecosys-
tems, often with considerable
conservation and economic
impacts.”
S252141-1
139101
A 17-year study in Ore-
gon, Washington and Cali-
fornia found that removal of
invasive barred owls arrested
the population decline of
the northern spotted owl, a
native species threatened by
invading barred owls and the
loss of old-forest habitats.
The conservation and
management of northern
spotted owls became one of
the largest and most visible
wildlife conservation issues
in United States history
after the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service listed the spot-
ted owl as threatened under
the Endangered Species Act
in 1990 because of rapid
declines in the owl’s old-for-
est habitats. Four years later,
the Northwest Forest Plan
was adopted and reduced the
rate of logging of old-growth
forests on federal lands.
Despite more than 30
years of protection, spotted
owl populations have con-
tinued to decline, with steep-
est declines observed in the
past 10 years. Long-term
monitoring of spotted owl
populations across the spe-
cies’ range identified rapid
increases in the population
of invasive barred owls as
a primary reason for those
declines, the researchers
said.
The study published this
week in the journal Proceed-
ings of the National Acad-
emy of Sciences by scien-
tists at the U.S. Geological
Survey, Oregon State Uni-
versity and several other
entities is the first to look
at the wide-scale impact of
barred owls on populations
of spotted owls in the Pacific
Northwest.
The study focused on two
sites in northern Califor-
nia, two in Oregon and one
in Washington and found
that spotted owl popula-
tions stabilized in all study
areas where the research-
ers lethally removed barred
owls (0.2% decline per year
on average) but continued
to decline sharply in areas
without removals (12.1%
decline per year on average.)
The findings in the new
paper inform future man-
agement decisions about the
spotted owl population.
“This study is a prom-
ising example of success-
ful removal and suppression
of an invasive and increas-
ingly abundant competitor,
with a positive demographic
response from a threatened
native species,” said David
Wiens, the lead author of the
paper who is a wildlife biol-
ogist with the USGS Forest
and Rangeland Ecosystem
Science Center in Corvallis
and a courtesy faculty mem-
ber with Oregon State’s
Department of Fisheries,
Wildlife, and Conservation
Sciences.
As a species native to
eastern North America,
barred owls began expand-
ing their populations west-
ward in the early 1900s. The
newly extended range now
completely overlaps that of
the northern spotted owl.
While barred owls look
similar to spotted owls, they
are larger, have a stronger
ecological impact and out-
compete spotted owls for
habitat and food. This com-
petition exacerbated spot-
ted owl population declines,
which were historically trig-
gered by loss of old-forest
habitat.
Mounting
concerns
about the threat of barred
owls prompted a barred owl
removal pilot project from
2009 to 2013 in California
S252140-1
By Sean Nealon
Oregon State University