STATE
Blue Mountain Eagle
A8
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
La Pine teens prep for fi re season
By BRYCE DOLE
The Bulletin
LA PINE — The students gritted
their teeth as they pushed and pulled
the crosscut saw through a log in the
fi eld behind La Pine High School on
Wednesday, April 13. Wood shav-
ings fell to the snow-covered ground,
mixing with the mud beneath their
boots as they worked hard for the
day’s fastest time.
Nearby, other students hurled
axes at targets. Even more were high
up in nearby trees, using logging gear
to ascend.
The students — Central Oregon’s
only active team of Future Natural
Resource Leaders — were preparing
for their upcoming competition in
Sweet Home. Students will go head-
to-head in forestry-based events,
from cutting through trees to identi-
fying wildlife.
But for some students and the
group’s leader, Cameron Salvitelli,
this program meant much more.
As concerns loom over poten-
tial wildfi res this year amid multiple
consecutive years of record-setting
drought, La Pine High School’s for-
estry and natural resource program
is teaching students about caring and
preserving the forests that encompass
their town. And at least six of the pro-
gram’s students are using the pro-
gram to help them prepare for their
summer as wildland fi refi ghters.
“We’re very focused on fi re as a
whole, because fi re aff ects La Pine
immensely,” said Salvitelli, who has
taught a variety of career and techni-
cal education courses at La Pine like
the forestry course, including man-
ufacturing, construction technology
and wood shop.
Looking out at his students as
they raced each other over logs and
up trees, Salvitelli refl ected on the
logging heritage that has been the
backbone of communities across
Oregon. He sees his class as a refl ec-
tion of this industry, which has fueled
La Pine’s economy and employed the
families of several of his students.
“We want to do our best to pre-
serve and honor those traditions here
in La Pine,” he said.
Now, as fi re becomes a yearly part
of life in La Pine, Salvitelli says that
it’s more critical than ever for kids to
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Tiernan Ashcraft practices the crosscut saw with a classmate while preparing for upcoming Future Natural Resource
Leaders competitions at La Pine High School on Wednesday, April 13, 2022.
understand the complexities of for-
est management and environmen-
tal issues. He wants them to know
how, and why, they should care for
the land.
Landen Roggenkamp, an 18-year-
old senior from La Pine, came to love
the forest through hunting, fi shing,
building forts and riding horses in the
woods around La Pine. But in recent
years, he has grown concerned about
the fi res that surround his town, say-
ing, “some summers, you can’t even
breathe.”
That’s in part why Roggen-
kamp wanted to be a part of Salvi-
telli’s team: to learn how he can play
a role in preserving the forests he
loves. He aspires to a career in nat-
ural resources and land management
for the Forest Service, and he said he
was proud to be on a team of students
who care for the land as he does.
“If they can fi nd the passion, they
can be the change to keep forests
around for generations to come,” he
said, adding: “This is the future, right
here.”
Salvitelli’s program provides les-
sons on tree identifi cation, fl ora and
fauna, map reading, timber cruis-
ing, and the Future Natural Resource
Leaders team provides hands-on les-
sons in ax throwing, crosscutting
with old whipsaws, pole climbing
and choker setting. It even has les-
sons that examine the complicated
opportunity costs between producing
timber and enhancing biodiversity,
an issue that has proven controver-
sial in communities throughout the
Pacifi c Northwest.
But one of the program’s central
focuses is fi re. Students learn about
tree thinning and other practices in
fi re resistance and protection. And
it provides the training needed to go
on and connect with private contract-
ing companies that will get them out
fi ghting fi res in the summer.
Some of Salvitelli’s students are
already gearing up for their summer
fi ghting fi res.
Among them are Blayze and
Blaire Buell, from Gilchrist. The
brother and sister duo come from
a family of fi refi ghters, with their
father, uncle and grandfather running
things over at Walker Range Fire
Patrol. The 14-year-old Blayze said
he’s been around fi refi ghting since he
was 5 years old. As a volunteer with
the family business, he’s taken on a
number of roles, most often using
“the hose.” This summer, he’ll be out
working from when school gets out
in June until it’s time to go back in
the fall.
Blaire, 16, agreed that fi ghting
fi res is part of her family’s tradition.
She called the adrenaline rush of
fi ghting fi res “a blast,” adding that,
only a few days prior, they had been
out on a trailer fi re. Though she said
she recognizes the inherent danger of
being around fi res, she feels a certain
responsibility to help her community
stay safe.
“I feel like I need to go,” she said.
Those were among the reasons
Blaire wanted to be part of the for-
estry program. That, and: “It’s really
fun to be outside and throw some
axes with somebody.”
The students gathered around a
large fi re in the back of the school,
roasting hot dogs. To fi nish the day,
they took turns racing each other in
setting chokers, an activity that is
meant to simulator cable logging.
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Landen Roggenkamp practices the
pole climb while preparing for up-
coming Future Natural Resource
Leaders competitions with fellow
classmates at La Pine High School on
Wednesday, April 13, 2022.
They sprinted down a small hill, leapt
over a log while simultaneously toss-
ing a choker chain underneath, pulled
the chain through and around the log,
and pulled it tight as they sprinted
back to the start.
The students are competitive, and
everyone laughed as they fell repeat-
edly over the log and into the dirt.
Meanwhile, the Buell children’s
father, Wesley Buell, rolled up in a
company truck. He said he’s glad to
see the kids involved in the La Pine
program. He said he’s not concerned
about his kids being out fi ghting fi res
this summer, but conceded that, in
recent years, wildfi res have gotten
more extreme.
“They instantly take off ,” said
Buell, protection supervisor for
Walker Range Fire. “You’re looking
at 100 to 1,000 acre-fi re in a few min-
utes. It’s just so dry.”
Storm adds little to snowpack in Oregon
By ALEX WITTWER
EO Media Group
LA GRANDE — Despite
the sudden and unexpected
April snowstorms, snowpack
levels aren’t quite back on
track to where they need to be.
Snow has been falling
since early this week, break-
ing records across the state for
the latest snowfall in Oregon’s
history with 1.6 inches falling
April 11 on parts of the Port-
land-metro area, according to
the National Weather Service
in Portland.
And while snow isn’t
unheard of this far into spring
in the Blue Mountains — the
latest snowfall recorded at
Pendleton was April 20, 1963,
according to the National
Weather Service — it is a
hopeful sign for a region still
gripped by drought. However,
the recent snowfall might not
be enough to put municipal-
ities and agriculturalists at
ease.
Scott Oviatt, a hydrolo-
gist and snow survey supervi-
sor at the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Natural Resources
Conservation Service for Ore-
gon, said while the recent
addition to the snowpack is
welcomed, it won’t fi x the
rapid melt-off that started in
late March.
“We’ve started the process,
and it’s really not going to
stop,” he said. “We’re adding
to the snowpack, of course,
adding water content to it,
but eventually it’s going to
warm up, and it will melt out
rapidly.”
remain below normal until
later in April.
Because there isn’t enough
time for gradual melting of
the newly acquired snow and
overnight freezing to take
place, snowpack levels won’t
become as dense, according to
Oviatt.
That means what fell over
the week will likely melt
quickly without the chance to
develop glacier-like pockets
of moisture content.
“We’re almost too late to
make up the defi cit we have,”
he said. “This didn’t solve our
problems. It just delayed it.
Obviously the additional water
content is good, but I don’t
think it’s going to come out
in terms of additional volume
that’s of use to municipalities
and agricultural uses.”
the state, including the south-
east region encompassing
Harney, Grant and Malheur
counties, have experienced
drastically reduced snow
water equivalent levels, hav-
ing dropped below 40% of the
median value for early April.
The current water con-
tent in the snowpack for the
Grande Ronde-Burnt-Pow-
der-Imnaha region remains at
76% of median as of April 12,
while the Umatilla-Walla Wal-
Alex Wittwer/EO Media Group la-Willow region is at 93% of
A dusting of snow covers the mountain range near Cove and median values. Nearly 90%
Mount Fanny on Wednesday, April 13, 2022. April snowstorms of the state remains under
won’t be enough to rectify the region’s dwindling snowpack lev- drought conditions as of April
els, according to experts.
12, according to the U.S.
Drought Monitor.
The snowpack had been at in March — between March
Oviatt said that despite
healthy, above-average lev- 22-31, the Grande Ronde Val- the rapid melt-off , chances
els for January and Febru- ley region lost nearly 25% of of fl ooding are unlikely as
ary before rapidly declining its snowpack. Many parts of temperatures are forecast to
Shawna Clark, DNP, FNP
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