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ALSO: ECLECTICCOWBOYPLAYS SATURDAY MORNING AT MAX SQUARE ARTS AND LEISUREMAGAZINE
SERVING UNION AND WALLOWA COUNTIES SINCE 1896
• Blaze 16 miles : :• Fire along Snake River southeast of Baker City primarily being fought burns vital grazing land : :'from the air with support 'fromjet boats : By Devan Schwartz
DeAguero, district ranger for the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area. DeAguero said the fire is mainly burn ing in grass. The
Baker City Herald
keep the fire from moving north or west onto private land. The fire is bound on the east by the Snake River and Cache Creek Road to the south, which is closed. DeAguero said the first air attack was at 10:30 Tuesday morning. The fire is mostly being fought from the air with U.S. Forest Service photo A aerial view Tuesday provides a bird' s-eye look at the support from jet boats on the Snake River. A Central Oregon Type II Cache Creek Fire that is burning in the Hells Canyon SeeCache / Page 3A National Recreation Area.
The Sardine fire swept across 6,070 acres of Baker County range land onSunday night and Monday. The fire, which was started by lightning Sunday afternoon near Love Reservoir, about 16miles
Sardine
f it e. I Q7Q aCreS
south eastof
Baker City, was 50 percent contained as of Tuesday afternoon, according to the Oregon Department of Forestry. A few structures were threatened on private land, though each was saved. However, several local ranch ers had private rangeland burned where they had planned to run cattle this fall. Kent Justus estimated that 1,500to 1,800 acresofhisland was scorched. The fire also damaged long stretchesoffence. "Now we' re trying to figure out how to get through the winter," Jus tus said."I've gotideasbutIdon't like any of them." Rancher Bob It gave us a Harrell figured
CaChe CreeK strategy Tuesday afternoon was to f/t r
e 5 QQQ
acres
By Katy Nesbitt The Observer
Duringa Monday evening storm, observers in Riggins, Idaho, watched as lightning struck and immediately started a wildfire that has now con sumed 5,000 acres. The fire was reported at 7:40 p.m. Monday. Within 18 hours the fire had grown to 2,500 acres. This morning's es timate is double that, according to Mary
Off in a cloud of dust :i lar
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he'd probably lost
Winds were switching
a thousand acres, and a mile or more of fence. " uckily we' d already grazed
minutes and
th e main field this
there were
spring," Harrell
I g-to I2 foot said."It could've „been worse,
flame heights.' could've been bet — Ga Timm Baker County Emergency
Management
ter. It is what it is." Otheraffected ranchers included Cu r t Jacobs, Mike Widman and Jeff
Phillips. By Monday afternoon, hand and engine crews worked the perim eterofthe blaze,and a helicopter dropped water on hot spots. "We worked crews through the night," said incident commander Al Crouch, of the BLM's Vale Dis trict. "And we got a lotofboots on the ground today iMondayl.a Most crews had worked 14- to 16-hour shifts, he said. Others had worked a full 24 hours straight, not uncommon for the initial attack on a blaze. Crouch said firefighters are moni toring nearby sage grouse habitat, as well as patches of medusahead — an explosive fuel and noxious weed with the ability to be spread by vehicles' tires. As mop-up activities continue, Crouch recommended the public avoids the Love Reservoir Area, not ing anumber ofpeoplewho came out during the initial attack. "It gave us a heck of arun," said Gary Timm of Baker County EmergencyManagement. c Winds were switching every 45 minutes and there were 10- to 12-foot flame heights." Timm pointed out spirals of dust in the hills. "Clear skies and dust devils aretwo signsofunstable atmosphere. And unstable SeeSardine / Page 3A
Katy Nesbitt /The Observer
Lisa Morgan of the Grouse Creek Ranch in lmnaha races in as the clear winner of the horse race at the Wallowa County Stockgrowers Rodeo on Saturday at the fairgounds in Enterprise. See Wallowa Life, Page 10A for story, more photos.
BicycliststrucK 'meet and greet' with forest chief dy car listedin stadia condition Road concerns addressed at
Wallowa County and the Wallowa-Whitman National Forestare back atthetable, hashing out their differences on how to manage forest roads within the county. Acting Forest Supervisor Kevin Martin joined the forest's travel management team Tuesdaymorning for a meeting with county representativesand a "meet and greet" with the public at the Wallowa County Fairgrounds' Cloverleaf Hall. Martin, a former wildlife biologist with the Wallowa Whitman stationed in Enterprise, isthesupervisor of the Umatilla National Forest and was appointed the interim supervisor after Monica Schwalbach left the forestfora research position in Portland. Schwalbach released the long awaited forest travel management plan in March.
INDEX Business ........1B Classified....... 4B Comics...........3B Crossword..... SB Dear Abby ...12B
WE A T H E R Horoscope.....SB Record ...........5A Lottery............2A Sports ............SA Movies...........2A Sudoku ..........3B Obituaries......5A Wallovva Life..10A Opinion..........4A Wondervvord... 3B
F Rl DAYI 0 ~6005 • 0 •
"I'm getting to know
By Katy Nesbitt The Observer
Fu l l forecast on the back of B section
Tonight t
r
public's concerns as well as the policy and regulations with which the forest is aligning itself. timber, range, minerals Martin said he'd been on the forest a week and is management and making the rounds to the everything else. I want different districts. "I'm getting to know folks to listen to you all and get my arms around the on the forest, travel planning, vegetation, tim ber,range, work that you've done minerals management and and chart a course to everything else. I want to listen to you all and get my moveforward." arms around the work that — Kevin Martin, you' ve done and chart a Wallowa-Whitman National coursetomove forward,"said Forest acting supervisor Martin. Within a month the plan was The county's Natural Re withdrawn due to pressure source Advisory Committee's from the public and all three subcommittee on roads put of Eastern Oregon's congres togethera listofquestions sional delegates. and concerns to discuss with Martin has met with the travel management team on road management and its county commissioners from Baker, Union and Wallowa affect on fish, wildlife, and counties, with district rang public use. Members of the team ex ers,and has cancelled public meetings previously sched plainedthat some roads were being managed more uled until he can become better informed of both the SeeRoads / Page7A
folks on theforest, travel planmng vegetation,
',~ 48 bOW Clear and cool
Thursday
82/43 Sunny and warm
By Bill Rautenstrauch The Observer
A 24-year-old La Grande man who was hit Thursday night while riding his bicycle on Cove Avenue is listed in stable condition today at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise. According to La Grande Police Department re ports, the man, Alden Russell, sustained serious leg injuries after he was struck by a car driven by KendrahMarie Snyder,30,ofLa Grande. Subsequent to the incident, Snyder was charged with hit and run. Lt. Derick Reddington of the police depart ment said that according to the investigation, Russell was riding his bike into the sweeping curve in front of the city fire hall at Cove Avenue and Pine Street when he was hit. A child was a passenger in the car. Allegedly, Snyder, got out of the vehicle, looked at Russell, then took her child from the vehicle and started walking away. Before she went far, she was detained by a Union County SherifFs deputy who arrived on the scene. According to Reddington, Snyder told police she wasgoing to take the child toa relative's house, then return. Russell was taken first to Grande Ronde Hospital and then flown to Boise. No other charges have been filed in the incident.
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Issue 145 3 sections, 46 pages La Grande, Oregon
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