Make the McKenzie Connection!
Make the McKenzie Connection!
Sorted by date Results 126 - 150 of 1879
The Oregon Department of Forestry is getting help from the state's general fund to pay its bills after a record wildfire season. The Legislative Emergency Board voted Wednesday to send $47.5 million to the forestry department to help cover the costs of the 2024 wildfire season. Spending on wildfires this year has topped nearly $250 million, about 2.5 times the amount budgeted for the forestry department and the State Fire Marshal's Office for wildfire response. "The Department of Forestry has...
An Emergency Response Team of scientists and resource specialists began field surveys and assessments this week for the burned areas of the Boulder, Chalk, Coffeepot, Ore, and Pyramid fires in the Willamette National Forest. The Boulder Creek Fire is 523 acres in size and 51% contained. The Chalk Fire covers 5,996 acres, the Coffeepot Fire is 6,203 acres, and the Pyramid Fire totals 1,312 acres and is also contained. These four fires resulted from lightning strikes and continued to smoke within established lines. The Ore Fire, which is 3,484...
VIDA: Devon Lawson, a McKenzie High School student who planned to run for the McKenzie School Board in 2025, has withdrawn from the race and opted instead to enlist in the Army National Guard. Following graduation, he will begin Basic Combat and Advanced Individual Training. After completing his military training, Lawson plans to attend college in Vermont and pursue a commission as an officer in the Army National Guard, serve for eight years, and enroll in law school. “This decision was not e...
Salmon that began their life in gravel beds along the McKenzie River are now homing in on their native streams. Surveys have found up to 22 redds across the Finn Rock Reach, and others have been observed in the area’s tributary streams. Volunteers have also returned to take students upriver to witness the natural phenomenon. The Salmon Watch program returns every fall, as watershed councils across the state partner with schools for field trips centered on salmon ecology. It’s a special les...
Highway 242 remains closed to all traffic between the junction with Highway 126 and the Dee Wright Observatory (Milepost 55 to 75). Travel there has been impacted by the 1,309-acre Linton Creek and 62-acre 374 fires, both of which are 0 percent contained. Officials report that both showed scattered heat but were adjacent to natural barriers and previous fire scars. This week, the 1,312-acre Pyramid Fire, east of Middle Santiam Wilderness, has been 100% contained. Seven miles northeast of Blue...
The purpose of a Stand Down is to reach out to local veterans and their families. Stand Down is a military term used when combat troops are pulled out of action and sent to an area of relative safety to get medical attention, clothing, and other supplies. It will be held on Friday, September 27th at the Lane County Events Center, Wheeler Pavilion, and Auditorium, 796 W. 13th Ave. in Eugene. Gates will open at 6 a.m. followed by breakfast at 7. All veterans are welcome as well as reservists, acti...
Oregon public health officials are asking Oregonians to take steps to protect themselves and others from the slew of respiratory illnesses likely to emerge again this winter. COVID-19 is not the only culprit – other respiratory illnesses include influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, along with measles and whooping cough. Public health officials on Thursday encouraged people to get vaccinated and use other strategies to avoid getting sick, like hand-washing, avoiding indoor c...
EUGENE: This month the Lane County Board of Commissioners added their support for improved area communications by authorizing a $500,000 transfer to the Lane Council of Governments to support the McKenzie Broadband Intergovernmental Agreement. A staff report on the proposal noted that land-based internet service is already available on utility poles above ground that are exposed to disruption from natural hazards common in the Cascades such as snowstorms, windstorms, and wildfires. The report went on to add that “an added benefit of this p...
BLUE RIVER: Rain showers provided some welcome relief on Sunday by reducing fire activity. The wetting rainfall helped remove danger levels in areas east of McKenzie Bridge that had been at Level 1. While Hwy. 242 remains closed to traffic, one lane of Hwy. 126 is open to traffic following a pilot vehicle, east of its intersection with the Old McKenzie Hwy. In that area, the 511-acre Boulder Creek Fire remained 0 percent contained while crews dealt with fire-weakened trees along the highway...
RAINBOW: “There wasn’t a major tribe that lived here but there were people who came through,” this may not have been what people had hoped to hear but it was David Lewis’s honest appraisal of Native peoples’ involvement with the McKenzie River Valley. Speaking at the Upper McKenzie Community Center earlier this month he went on to add that those interactions were most likely to have involved late summer visits for fishing or berry picking, rather than establishing any permanent villages...
The Eugene Water & Electric Board is offering residential and commercial loans for backup power systems. Residential electric customers may qualify for up to a $5,000 zero-interest loan Commercial customers may qualify for a four percent interest loan, with the loan amount based on project details and eligible costs. Purchasing a backup power system can help increase safety and resiliency in a power outage. Our Backup Power Program assists customers with the purchase and installation of a...
A sanctuary for stargazing in Oregon is the largest in the world and is set to get even bigger. In eastern Oregon, the organization DarkSky International declared 2.5 million acres of the Oregon Outback International Dark Sky Sanctuary in the first phase of its process in March. It plans to increase the sanctuary to more than 11 million acres in the next few years. Damon Motz-Storey, director of the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club, recently visited the area. “Anybody who’s visited it on a cle...
One year after a wildfire burns in a forest, the U.S. Forest Service assesses the damage. What the agency finds at this one-year mark informs its post-fire restoration efforts, including how many trees foresters are required to plant to replace ones that died due to the fire. However, according to a growing body of research, one year just isn’t enough time to determine how many trees have died following a wildfire. Two recent studies, created independently of each other, that examined the e...
MCKENZIE BRIDGE: A Level 1 (Be Ready) evacuation notice remains in effect for areas North of McKenzie Highway from the East end of Drury Lane East to the Clear Lake Cutoff. Residents have been encouraged to sign up for emergency alerts at www.LaneAlerts.org On September 8th an emergency closure order was issued for the Linton Creek Fire, expected to extend through January 1st, unless rescinded or modified sooner. The fire, caused by a September 6th lightning strike on the McKenzie River Ranger...
The Willamette National Forest has issued an emergency closure order for the Linton Creek Fire, Boulder Creek Fire, and other new fires resulting from the lightning storm on Sept. 6, 2024. With widespread fire suppression occurring across the McKenzie River and Middle Fork Ranger Districts and fire growth occurring on multiple fires, the expanded emergency closure area is needed to ensure public and firefighter safety. The closure order rescinds the previous Linton Creek Fire order. A short stretch of the McKenzie River National Recreation...
BLUE RIVER: “Lane County will be working once again with the community to determine the feasibility of constructing a separated bike/ped bridge that would support emergency vehicles and withstand an earthquake,” according to senior planner Becky Taylor. The study, she says, “will explore two alignment options and develop design concepts. The goal will be to develop a community-preferred design concept that completes the gap in bike/ped connectivity from the school to the downtown and improves th...
WALTERVILLE: The Eugene Water & Electric Board plans to start generating electricity from the Walterville Hydro plant as soon as possible, “but we need to ensure it is done safely and by Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC’s) dam safety requirements.,” according to utility communications specialist Adam Spencer. EWEB dewatered the Walterville Canal in February after receiving an automated alert from a water seepage monitor. The detector, near the Walterville Powerhouse, monitor...
Oregon is in the upper echelon when it comes to the number of women in higher office. Four of the five statewide elected positions in the state are held by women, including Tina Kotek in the governor’s office. It is a rare achievement. Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women in Politics, said the national average for women in statewide elected offices is about one in three. However, the number of women in the top positions in Oregon is guaranteed to go down in November, with m...
Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan reports that on Sunday, September 1st, dispatch received a report of an injured backpacker at Duffy Lake. The patient was a 16-year-old male from Portland who sustained a broken leg. The patient’s mother had sent a nearby backpacker to hike out and call 911. The good Samaritan made it to Maxwell Butte Sno-Park and contacted Linn County Dispatch at 4 p.m. Duncan said the Linn County Sheriff’s Office Search and Rescue (SAR) immediately began to mobilize a ground...
VIDA: Passports affirming visits to over 40 countries have helped Tiff and Scott Haugen record some memorable moments. Both spent years as teachers in Alaska and Indonesia - before settling down where they grew up - in Walterville. Both have shared their experiences in books and videos since then, developing full-time careers in the outdoor industry. Last Saturday, Scott detailed some of the action behind the scenes of those stories during a slide show at the Vida McKenzie Community Center....
As Oregon heads into another hot weekend, Oregon House Republicans are calling on the state Legislature to reform forest management and logging policies they say would prevent large fires from starting and spreading. In a letter sent Wednesday, Republican Reps. Jeff Helfrich of Hood River, Ed Diehl of Stayton, and E. Werner Reschke of Klamath Falls said lawmakers should roll back regulations and conservation plans to allow more logging on state forests, limit liabilities for volunteer...
LEABURG: “Our goal is to educate several generations to become stewards of the river,” was the message Gene Jones delivered at the August meeting of the McKenzie River Chamber of Commerce. He went on to explain that the McKenzie River Discovery Center (MRDC) would not only be “an education destination but also a stepping stone for economic development.” Located on the curve around Leaburg Lake, proponents of the MRDC received good news last Monday when the county okayed a special use permit...
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reminding people their Willamette Valley reservoirs are once again asking for your (emotional) support – they miss you and want to see you. According to the Portland District’s chief of reservoir regulation and water quality (so, basically, the smartest person in our district when it comes to reservoirs), the Willamette Valley reservoir levels are “fantastic” this year for recreation while also meeting objectives for endangered species-listed fish. And, th...
