SERVING CURRY COUNTY SINCE 1946
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FRIDAY, JULY 30, 2021
Brookings, Oregon
County to help fight sudden oak death Knox Keranen The Pilot
The Curry County Board of Commissioners is assisting forest officials in their battle against an outbreak of sudden oak death in Port Orford, some of which falls on county property. After a researcher with Oregon State University discovered a patch of dying tanoaks near Highway 101 in Port Orford in April, concerns about the fungus-like plant pathogen in Curry County have escalated. Even more troubling, the strain of SOD they discovered there was previously unknown to wildlands in North America — NA2 — and the outbreak is much larger than forest officials initially thought, as reported by the Pilot. In fact, they found nearly 400 acres and hundreds of trees have been infected, including some on county property at the Port Orford Transfer Station, which is
operated by Curry Transfer and Recycling. At a board meeting on Wednesday, Sarah Navarro, forest pathologist with the U.S. Forest Service, discussed ODF’s plans for treating the infected site with the commissioners. After cutting down the infected tanoaks, forest workers plan to haul the infected debris to the nearby transfer station, where they will use a high-tech incinerator called an air-curtain to burn it, hopefully decreasing the possibility of airborne spread. According to Navarro, ODF will rent the incinerator, which can consume up to 20 cubic yards of debris per hour. Before doing so, ODF needed permission from the board to use the county-owned transfer site, which they received on Wednesday. Commissioner John Herzog,
More County, Page A2
Photo by David Rupkalvis/The Pilot
Curry County Commissioner John Herzog gets a close look at a tanoak tree dying from sudden oak death. County commissioners agreed to help fight the tree pathogen last week.
Working to protect salmon on the Rogue Effort Watershed to cap council road fund hopes to spending keep juvenile salmon alive defeated Knox Keranen
Knox Keranen
The Pilot
The Pilot
As a coordinator with the Lower Rogue Watershed Council, Kelly Timchak is doing what she can to protect salmon in the Rogue River. In 1997, Coho salmon in Southern Oregon and Northern California were declared a threatened species, and they continue to maintain that status today. Earlier this week, Timchak and the watershed council completed a two-week, roughly $430,000 salmon habitat restoration project, which aims to improve juMore Salmon, Page A11
Photo contributed by Kelly Timchak
An excavator neatly places a pin-log into the interlocking salmon habitat structure. Pin-logs help to keep these structures stable and upright when the river is in high flow. A total of 400 pieces of wood were used during the project
Firefighters stop Redwood Fire at six acres Knox Keranen The Pilot
The Redwood Highway Fire near Selma, Oregon is mostly contained. Nevertheless, fire officials are calling for increased caution and vigilance in extremely dry conditions. Around 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, a 9-1-1 caller driving along Highway 199 reported a small fire burning near the road south of Selma. The caller said the fire was burning uphill toward the surrounding forested area, according to Jeff Gavlik, deputy chief with the Illinois Valley Fire District. Immediately, firefighters with multiple agencies responded, beginning to contain and knock down the fire. Highway 199 was then temporarily closed Saturday night to allow firefighting ground More Fire, Page A11
Contributed photo
Firefighters with multiple agencies work to extinguish a six-acre wildfire, which was caused by a faulty catalytic converter Saturday.
Coos-Curry Electric re-opens all offices County residents to receive WIC services AT CURRYPILOT.COM
Commissioner Court Boice is trying to set a cap on spending the county’s road fund reserves. The historically wealthy road fund reserve currently has a balance of about $29 million. Oregon state law allows some counties, including Curry, to use road fund reserves to cover budget shortfalls in other departments, such as the sheriff’s office. At a Wednesday board of commissioner’s meeting, Boice suggested disallowing non-departmental spending of the road fund, should the reserves drop below $20 million. An advocate for decreased county spending, Boice said this move would force departments to take a harder look at their budgets. “We’ve got to roll up our sleeves, that’s how I see it here...It’s money that we need to guard fiercely, especially until we get our spending under control, and our spending is not under control,” he said. During the last budget session, the county appropriated $2.2 million from the road fund to balance the budget in the sheriff’s office. However, those funds would go back into the road fund, if the sheriff’s office does not spend them during this fiscal year. Commissioner Chris Paasch was also in favor of saving the road fund reserve, but said setting a cap would More Spending, Page A12
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