Applegater Fall 2014 Applegate Valley Community Newspaper, Inc. U.S. Postage 1 P.O. Box 14 Paid Jacksonville, OR 97530 Non-Profit Permit No. 91 Grants Pass, OR 97526

Photo by Mikell Nielsen www.applegater.org FALL 2014 Applegate Valley Community Newspaper Postal Patron Volume 7, No. 3 Serving Jackson and Josephine Counties — Circulation: 10,500 Big changes coming to Grape Talk: Cantrall-Buckley Park! What does the future hold by tom carstens and david laananen for Applegate Valley wines? We’re well on our way to making even more improvements to our lovely Cantrall-Buckley Park! Now that we’ve completed our new campground restroom, BY debbie tollefson our state-of-the-art wastewater treatment system, and our road-repaving project, The Applegate Valley is attracting your Park Committee is ready to begin work on a new playground and restroom high-caliber winemakers who are serious facility in the picnic-swim area down by the river. about creating the finest wines possible New playground using the best farming and growing Plans are shaping up for replacing most of the old playground equipment. All practices. That makes Kara Olmo, of new modern equipment (see photo below) has been selected and sourced. It’s going Wooldridge Creek Winery, enthusiastic to be a safe, fun facility for our kids and accessible for those with disabilities—and about the future of the Applegate Valley will incorporate natural elements into its design. A big thanks to the Applegate wine industry. She is certain that with moms who helped with the design! continued active marketing and the Purchase and construction will be a total community project, with donated development of national and international funds and labor. Cost of the project will be around $50,000. We’re looking to fund markets (Valley View wines are now sold in this with a combination of grants and donations. Rogue Community College is Japan), as well as the increase in the quality helping out with intern and administrative support. The target for donations by and quantity of great wines coming from the Applegate community is $30,000. The new playground should be in by fall our region, the future is bright. of next year. This optimism is backed up Kara Olmo of Wooldridge Creek Vineyards gives high marks to Applegate Valley wines. See CANTRALL-BUCKLEY, page 2 by the statistics I found in the 2012 wine census for the state of Oregon compiled by sou.edu/envirostudies/faculty/jones.html), the Southern Oregon University Research and whom we interviewed for one of our Center (SOURCE). Until 2012, vineyard previous Grape Talk articles. Greg was census reports were conducted by the US charged with getting precise information Department of Agriculture (USDA) and about Oregon’s wine industry such as were pretty inaccurate. In 2011, to ensure varietals grown and tonnage crushed more accuracy the USDA turned over the throughout the state. task to the states. In Oregon, the winery The 2012 report shows a total and vineyard census is overseen by Dr. vineyard count for the state of 905, up Greg Jones, a Southern Oregon University from 870 in 2011; the planted acreage professor who “specializes in the study in 2012 was 25,500, an increase of 25 of climate structure and suitability for percent from 20,400 acres in 2011. The viticulture, and how climate variability yield per acre changes from year to year and change influence grapevine growth, depending on many variables, but the price wine production and quality” (http://www. See APPLEGATE VALLEY WINES, page 17

daughter rural” and took to cattle because Peter Agriculture in the Applegate— “couldn’t find any good steaks here.” The Alionises the valley’s pride came to the Applegate for by diana coogle “better soil, better water, From the days of the first settlers while others have introduced new crops, and good neighbors,” all in the Applegate, sheep and cattle have like the lavender grown in vast fields of of which, they tell me, grazed the area’s green pastures and hay sweet-smelling purples by Sue and Derek they found. has grown on its wide fields. From pioneers Owen on their English Lavender Farm. Agriculture in the to newcomers, from cattle and sheep to Although we no longer see large turkey or Applegate, however lettuce and lavender, agriculture in the rabbit farms here, Eldon Snyder and Alan beautiful and fulfilling, Applegate is the valley’s pride. Wall are still raising hogs commercially, rarely provides a living. These Soay lambs at Saltmarsh Ranch, owned by Priscilla and Frances Decker raises sheep and more llamas, alpacas, and goats than Maud Powell, of the Steven Weaver, are about six weeks old. At birth they weigh from on land her father bought in 1934. In other previously roam the pastures. Where Southern Oregon four to five pounds—about the size of a bag of sugar. cases, old farms have new owners. Priscilla tomatoes were once abundant, now a major Research and Extension and Steven Weaver raise Soay sheep on the crop is grapes and, in at least one case, on a Service, points out that the lack of a big pound. Blame synthetic fibers. old Saltmarsh Farm up Little Applegate farm off Hanley Road, pumpkins. urban center coupled with an increase in Nonetheless, agriculture can Road. Their neighbor, Peter Salant, raises The appeal of being a farmer in the number of vegetable and seed producers be commercially viable in the cattle on the old Kleinhammer Ranch that the Applegate varies widely. Mike Lapan has resulted in a glut on the local vegetable Applegate. Whistling Duck Farm once covered 2,000 acres. Mary and Vince started growing hay in the ‘70s because, he market. Salant says a commercially viable provides the sole income for the Alionis Alionis established their Whistling Duck says, “I like playing around on my tractor.” cattle herd would be 250 head, but, for family, and, if the 800 cars on this year’s Farm on what used to be the Sakraida’s The Weavers’ fascination with heritage economic reasons, he cut his herd to 25 lavender tour are indicative, lavender dairy farm. animals led to their breeding and selling mother cows and 20 to 25 yearling steers. promises rewards for the Owens, who sell Some farmers, like Mike Lapan, raise the genetically unique Soay sheep. Peter As for raising sheep, 30 years ago wool not only plants but also lavender oil and a the oldest crop of the Applegate—hay— Salant and his wife came here “to raise our sold for $25 an ounce. This year it’s $20 a See AGRICULTURE, page 12 INSIDE THE GATER Back in Time: Crossing the Applegate River...... page 6 Applegate forests: A product of human tinkering...page 10 The scoop on CSAs and farmers’ markets...... page 8 Introducing the Paragon pear...... page 12 2 Fall 2014 Applegater Thank you to everyone who made our 20th Birthday Bash such a success! Photos by Greeley Wells

CANTRALL-BUCKLEY FROM PAGE 1 New picnic area restrooms Applegate businesses be properly acknowledged in the park for project, so your money will go directly to Jackson County Parks will take the We’re going to start with all of our your good work. A receipt for donated in- this fund. A receipt acknowledging your lead in designing, funding, and building valley businesses. We’ll be visiting you kind labor will be immediately sent to you. tax-deductible contribution will be sent to new restrooms in the picnic area down by with a detailed proposal and site design Citizen contributions you. We will publicize our fund status so the river. Oregon Parks and Recreation and asking for your help. All businesses A grand raffle is in the works. Some everyone can see how we’re doing. Private will assist with funding. Construction will that make a contribution of $1,000 or prominent businesses will be offering donors who contribute $100 to $1,000 begin in fall 2015. Cost of the restroom more will be permanently recognized for valuable prizes. You’ll start to see volunteers will be prominently recognized in the park. project will be around $200,000. their contribution in a prominent place at several of the local growers’ markets and Remember: All donations support a Community support at the park entrance. If you’re a business other public locations around the valley nonprofit 501(c)(3) community project As you all know, our park is funded and owner and you’d like to get ahead of the selling chances to win. and are tax-deductible! supported by the Applegate community. curve, feel free to jump in right now. We’ve We’ll be holding a couple of fund- Want to join a great team? Your user fees and donations have been 100 already started a playground bank account raisers in conjunction with the project. The Park Committee is really excited percent dedicated to park maintenance and and all funds will be deposited there. Planning has begun; more on this later. about this project. If you like our ideas and improvements. Because of your support, All donated monies are tax-deductible. And finally, we’re looking for think you might be able to help out, we’d the park has been putting money in the The Greater Applegate Community individual and family donations from our love to have you join us. This invitation bank. But a lot more will be needed to Development Corporation (GACDC), a residents. Cantrall-Buckley Park is virtually also goes out to regular park users—you get these projects off the ground. We’ve 501(c)(3) nonprofit, will immediately send our only public access to the beautiful really know what’s needed! already identified several foundations that you an IRS-friendly receipt. Simply mail Applegate River. Improvements to the park If you’re as enthusiastic about this will work with us. The kicker—they all your check to GACDC, PO Box 3107, benefit us all. We’d all like to avoid a mail as we are, please go to www.gacdc.org to require some level of community financial Applegate, OR 97530. campaign (besides being really annoying, sign up. and labor involvement before they’ll fork If you’re in the construction business, it’s hard work and very expensive), so we’d What a terrific opportunity to pitch over the big bucks. you can also expect a call. From you, we’ll be just as happy if you could mail in a check in and give your community a helping Target: $30,000 be soliciting help with the site preparation, to help us get going. Write your check to hand. Thank you! So, we think $30,000 is a reasonable ground material, and construction for the GACDC and mail it to PO Box 3107, Tom Carstens • 541-846-1025 goal for us to raise locally. The remainder playground. This will come later in the Applegate, OR 97530. We have a special Dave Laananen ($20,000) will be made up with grants. year. Construction contributors also will account set up dedicated to the playground [email protected] Tom Carstens joins the Applegater editorial committee Tom Carstens has been writing articles for the Applegater for Like us on ten years, so it seems only fitting that he should join the ranks Facebook! of the Applegater’s editorial committee. This committee makes the final decisions about whether articles are appropriate for Just go to our publication, makes sure that no questions are left unanswered, clears up ambiguities, and, when called upon, can fine-tune with website at the best of them. www.applegater.org Tom has volunteered for other organizations in the valley, having served as a volunteer firefighter, a board member of the and click on Greater Applegate Community Development Corporation, a board member of the Applegate Trails Association, and a volunteer “Find us on Facebook” with the Britt Music Festival. Tom currently is on the Cantrall- or search Buckley Park Committee and is vice president of the Northwest Rafting Association. “Applegater Newspaper A retired Marine Corps aviator, these days Tom gets his thrills on Facebook.” motorcycling, dirt biking, skiing, and white-water kayaking. He is a recent graduate of Southern Oregon University’s Environmental Studies Program and believes that his conservative values are a good fit with the conservation ethic of the Applegate Valley. He and his wife Kathy built their energy-efficient home on Billy Mountain. Applegater Fall 2014 3

WHO WE ARE The Applegate Valley Community A huge THANKS to the generous donors Newspaper, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) corporation dedicated to who recently contributed to the Applegater. the publication of the Applegater newspaper, which, we feel, reflects the heart and soul of our community. PATRON Bob & Marly White, Janis Mohr-Tipton and Paul Tipton, Our Mission Anonymous Grants Pass, OR Jacksonville, OR Evelyn Williams, Jacksonville, OR Scott and Jody Traina, The nonprofit Applegate Valley SUSTAINER Mary & Robert Wolk, Murphy, OR Jacksonville, OR Community Newspaper, Inc. (AVCN), Anonymous, Grants Pass, OR Mary Yturriaga, Williams, OR provides the many rural and diverse Chris Kane & Stan Long, communities of the Applegate Watershed Help us ensure that we have the ongoing SPONSOR with a communications vehicle, the Murphy, OR support needed to publish the Applegater. Applegater newspaper, free of charge Kate Manning, Grants Pass, OR Anonymous, Grants Pass, OR All contributions are tax-deductible and to all watershed residents. Our quarterly CONTRIBUTOR Teri Auker Becker, Applegate, OR receive recognition in the Applegater. paper presents constructive, relevant, Wanda Billings, Littlefield, TX Anonymous, Applegate, OR Patron $1001+ educational and entertaining reports Dan & Patty Buren, Chris Bratt, Applegate, OR Sustainer $501 - $1000 on a wide variety of subjects such as: Grants Pass, OR n Greeley Wells, Jacksonville, OR Contributor $201 - $500 natural resources Jan Buur, Santa Barbara, CA n ecology and other Supporter $51 - $200 SUPPORTER science information Gene & Melody Crane, Sponsor $5 - $50 n historical and current events Anonymous, Applegate, OR Williams, OR Please make your checks payable to n community news and opinions Anonymous, Grants Pass, OR Jeanne Fletcher, Applegate, OR Applegater Newspaper and mail to: Don & Julie Hoskins, AVCN encourages and publishes Anonymous, Jacksonville, OR Applegater Applegate, OR differing viewpoints and, through the Hidden Valley Market, P.O. Box 14 Kathy Kliewer, Williams, OR Applegater newspaper, acts as a Murphy, OR Jacksonville, OR 97530 clearinghouse for this diverse community. Ana Hall & Rauno Perttu, Karen Markman & Tom Mitchell, Donors: We strive to ensure that We are dedicated to working together Applegate, OR Applegate, OR our donor list is accurate. Please with community members to maintain Joan Peterson, Applegate, OR Janeen Sathre, Applegate, OR contact us if there are errors or and enhance the quality of life that is Don & Debbie Tollefson, David & Karen Tallha, unique to the Applegate Watershed. omissions. Applegate, OR Grants Pass, OR Acknowledgements The Applegater Newspaper is published quarterly by the Applegate Editorial Job Opportunity Valley Community Newspaper, Inc., and is funded by donations from our loyal readers Calendar The Applegater newspaper needs a and advertisements for local businesses. Special thanks to Diana Coogle, ISSUE DEADLINE self-motivated advertising salesperson Haley May, Margaret della Santina and Paul Tipton for copy editing; Kaye Clayton, for Jackson County. Generous commission. WINTER (Dec-Feb)...... November 1 Diana Coogle, Kathy Kliewer, Mikell Email [email protected]. Nielsen, Paul Tipton, and Debbie and Holiday / Arts Don Tollefson for proofing; Beate Foit for bookkeeping; and webmaster Joe Lavine. SPRING (March-May)...... February 1 Commerce / Board of Directors Community Diana Coogle, Chairperson FROM THE EDITOR Debbie Tollefson, Secretary Chris Bratt, Treasurer SUMMER (June-Aug)...... May 1 Dear Readers, Environment/ Barbara Holiday Welcome! In this, our fall edition, the themes are J.D. Rogers Fire / Recreation Don Tollefson agriculture and wine. Our board members sought the lowdown Greeley Wells FALL (Sept-Nov)...... August 1 on both areas, so be sure to read their articles on pages 1 and 8. Editorial Committee Agriculture / Wine Our 20th Birthday Bash at Red Lily Vineyards was a Chris Bratt tremendous success. Enjoy some photos on page 2 taken by our Tom Carstens Barbara Holiday, Editor esteemed board member, artist Greeley Wells. Thanks, Greeley! And, once Rauno Perttu Personal mailing label! again, thanks go out to our sponsors—Applegate Valley Realty, Cowhorn Sandy Shaffer One year: $14.99 Vineyard, Fields Home Center, Hidden Valley Market, Quady North, Red Greeley Wells Two years: $24.99 Lily Vineyards and Lithia Toyota—and to the fabulous Swing State band and All articles, stories, opinions and Mail us a check or pay online Elements Tapas Bar. We couldn’t have done it without you! letters that appear in the Applegater at www.applegater.org. are the opinion and property of the Also on page 2, we officially welcome Tom Carstens as our newest author, and not necessarily that of member of the Applegater’s editorial committee. Inducted at this issue’s the Applegater or the Applegate Masthead Valley Community Newspaper, Inc. photo credit editorial committee meeting, he passed with flying colors. Mikell Nielsen of Williams Applegate School and Applegate Valley Trails Association are holding PROTECTION OF captured the adorable face of Jackpot benefit dinners in September—see articles about both on page 4. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL the alpaca, who keeps company with her And if you like opinion pieces (who doesn’t!), you can feast on an Any and all materials submitted for publication must be original family’s goats, Dizzy and Louis. abundance of them in this issue—too many to list! (no reprinted articles, please) We hope you enjoy our latest edition and, as always, feel free to send and the intellectual property of the Photo Specs author unless otherwise credited. us your comments. We listen. To be printable, all photos submitted Barbara Holiday must be high resolution (300 dpi) or “large All articles submitted to the Applegater [email protected] are subject to edit and publication at the format” (e.g., 30” x 40”). newspaper’s discretion.

Letters to the Editor cannot be more Advertisers! than 450 words. Opinion pieces and articles We can help you reach your What's Inside the Gater cannot exceed 750 words. Community market. The Applegater is the calendar submissions must be brief. only newspaper covering the entire Behind the Green Door: Consider community...... p. 21 Applegate Valley. All photos submitted must be high Bird Explorer: Wild owls and sustainable agriculture...... p. 11 With a circulation of 10,500 and resolution (300 dpi) or “large format” Butterflies to enjoy before winter...... p. 13 (e.g., 30” x 40”). Any questions, email a readership of over 20,000, we cover [email protected]. Jacksonville, Ruch, Applegate, Williams, Dirty Fingernails and All: Unsolved mystery in the hen house...... p. 9 Murphy, Wilderville, Wonder, Jerome Opinion—Climate crisis: A symptom of underpriced fossil fuels...... p. 20 All submissions for our next issue Prairie and areas of Medford and Grants must be received either at the address Pass. Opinion—Here we go again…BLM’s Nedsbar Timber Sale...... p. 20 or email below by the deadline. For more information, contact: • Jackson County—Valorie Tintinger Opinions—National Wilderness Act after 50 years...... p. 23 Applegater c/o Applegate Valley 541-450-2983 Opinion—River Right: Where flows collide...... p. 19 [email protected] Community Newspaper, Inc. Opinion—The rape of North Applegate Road...... p. 18 P.O. Box 14 • Josephine County—Amber Caudell Jacksonville, OR 97530 541-846-1027 The Starry Side: Falling back into the night sky...... p. 7 [email protected] Email: [email protected] Wildfire: Everyone has a role (but are they doing it?)...... p. 14 Website: www.applegater.org Next deadline: November 1 4 Fall 2014 Applegater Community Calendar Benefit dinner and wine auction Alcoholics Anonymous. Open meeting Grants Pass Nordic Ski Club meets on the for Applegate School every Wednesday at 7 am at the Williams first Thursday of the month, November Community Church Fellowship Hall through April, at Elmer’s, 175 NE Agness Proceeds benefit Music, Art and Farm Programs on East Fork Road in Williams. This Avenue, Grants Pass, at 6 pm. Ski outings meeting is open to those who have a are on Saturdays. Listings are on the Friends of Applegate School drinking problem and have a desire snow phone at 541-592-4977. Harvest Dinner and Wine Auction to stop drinking, and also to anyone interested in the Alcoholics Anonymous Greater Applegate Community Sparkling Wine Reception program of recovery from drinking. Development Corporation meets the second Wednesday of January, April, Authentic Shrimp Boil by Fulcrum Dining featuring local farms American Association of University Women July and October at 6 pm at Applegate Live music (AAUW) Grants Pass Branch meets Fire District Station 1, 18489 North monthly September through May, Applegate Road. For more information, • usually Thursday evenings or Saturday go to www.gacdc.org. Wooldridge Creek Winery mornings at Bethany Presbyterian Saturday, September 6, 2014 Church. Membership is open to those Josephine County Soil and Water Six o’clock in the evening holding an associate of arts degree or Conservation District (SWCD) higher from an accredited college or meets Thursdays at 6 pm. For meeting Suggested Attire: Summer Festive university. Contact Susan Riell at riells@ information, call 541-474-6840. • sbcglobal.net or 541-956-2159, or Linda Limited tickets available at $75 per person Rahberger at [email protected] or Ruch Library is open Tuesday from 11 am 541-659-4669. Visit grantspass-or.aauw. to 5 pm, Thursday from 1 to 7 pm, and ($50 of each ticket goes directly to Applegate School) net, Facebook and Pinterest. Saturday from 12 to 4 pm. Storytime is RSVP to [email protected] or 541-951-5273 Tuesday at 11 am. 7919 Highway 238. Applegate Christian Fellowship. For service Annual Event: Friends of times, call 541-899-8732 24/7. Sanctuary One is open to the public for farm Harvest Shrimp Boil Applegate School tours every Wednesday and Saturday, Applegate Fire District Board of Directors 10:30 am to noon. Minimum donation Applegate School is the current Friends of Applegate School meets on the third Wednesday of each is $10. Reservations are required. recipient of funds raised at this annual (FOAS) was formed to bridge the gap of month at Station 1, 18489 North Call 541-899-8627 or email info@ event. The dinner and wine auction disintegrating school budgets by fund- Applegate Road at 7:30 pm, except for sanctuaryone.org. are made possible by donations from raising to support music, art and agriculture March, April and May, when meetings are held at Headquarters, 1095 Upper Siskiyou Audubon Society (free program) Applegate wineries and farms. The first in our small rural school. FOAS played a Applegate Road. For more information, meets the second Tuesday of each month, event in 2009 raised enough money to pivotal role in rescuing our 101-year-old call 541-899-1050. September - June, at 6:30 pm at Grants fund the Strings Program at the school, historic school building by assembling a Pass High School cafeteria (Room 611), including the purchase of 10 violins, 15 committee of dedicated people to write Applegate Food Pantry, located behind 830 NE 9th Street, and features expert Ruch School, is open most Mondays birding scientists and bird biologists. guitars, and instruction for that year. a Non-Matching Seismic Retrofit Grant. from 11:30 to 1 pm. Call Arlene at Refreshments served. More information: The event has continued every year, We were awarded a grant of $826,000 and 541-951-6707. John Taylor 541-476-9846. entirely funding the Strings Program and the retrofit began in September 2011. The Applegate 4-H Swine Club meets on Southern Oregon Beekeepers Association supplementing several others, including retrofit was completed and students moved Tuesdays following the third Wednesday meets the first Monday of each month the Garden Club and Art after School. We back into the 100-year-old schoolhouse of every month at 7 pm. For more at 7:30 pm at the OSU extension. are now considering adding new programs in 2012. information, contact Charles Elmore at For more information, please contact to the list, such as robotics and tablets for Friends of Applegate School is a 541-846-6528 or Barbara Niedermeyer [email protected]. at 541-846-7635. the classrooms. The efforts of FOAS can part of the 501(c)(3) Josephine County T.O.P.S. (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) meets exist only with the help of the community. Educational Fund. Applegate Friends of Fire District #9 every Monday morning at Applegate meets on the third Tuesday of each Church, 18960 North Applegate Road month at the Fire Station at 1095 Upper (at the corner of Highway 238). Weigh- Applegate Road at 6 pm. New members in starts at 8:30 am; the meeting starts at are welcome. For more information, call 9:00 am. Come join us! Your chance to wine Bob Fischer 541-846-6218. Williams Creek Watershed Council meets Applegate Library is open Tuesday and the fourth Wednesday of each month at Friday from 2 to 6 pm and Saturday from 7 pm at the Williams Fire Station. The and dine with ATA 10 am to 2 pm. Storytime is Tuesday at public is welcome. For more information, 2:30 pm. 18485 North Applegate Road. call 541- 846-9175. Do you like: Eating good food in a beautiful place? Applegate Neighborhood Network (ANN) Williams Grange Pancake Breakfast, Buying great items at good prices? meets the last Wednesday of every month second Sunday of each month, 8:30 to at the Ruch Library. All interested 11 am, followed by the Bluegrass Jam, Hearing a good speaker? persons are welcome to attend. ANN 11 am to 1 pm. Closed July and August. Supporting good causes? is a community organization dedicated 20100 Williams Highway near Tetherow Then you’ll surely want to be at the Applegate Trails to protecting, preserving, and restoring Road. For more information, call 541- Association’s (ATA’s) fund-raising dinner and silent auction on the Applegate watershed. For more 846-6844. information about ANN, call Duane September 20 from 6 to 9 pm. Here’s why: Bowman, 541-899-7264. Williams Grange #399 Business Meeting, • Beautiful setting—lawns, flowers, river—at Red Lily Vineyards second Tuesday of each month, 7 pm. • Food by Quality Catering (Yum!) Applegate Partnership and Watershed 20100 Williams Highway near Tetherow • Good wine Council meets the fourth Thursday of Road. For more information, call 541- the month at the Applegate Library. For 846-6844. • Atmospheric music by Larry Koskela more information, call 541-899-9982. • Auction items and a raffle you won’t want to miss Williams Library is open Tuesday, • Speaker Michael Kauffmann, author of Conifer Country, on “Citizen Applegate Valley Community Grange meets Wednesday and Saturday from 1 to 5 Science: An Exploration of our Relationship to Natural History” the second Sunday of each month for a pm. Stories, crafts and skill-sharing every potluck and a business meeting. Call Tuesday at 3:45 pm and Saturday at 2 • A chance to help fund ATA’s dream of building a hiking trail from Grants 541-846-7501 for times. 3901 Upper pm. All ages welcome at free programs Pass to Jacksonville. The expenses are many: for environmental assessments, Applegate Road. by local volunteers. Free Wi-Fi 24/7. trailhead improvements, trail-building, etc. 20100 Williams Highway. For more Applegate Valley Garden Club meets at information, call Danielle Schreck at Tickets are $65 each and include dinner, a complimentary glass of wine 1:30 pm on the third Wednesday of the 541-846-7020. or raffle ticket, Kauffmann’s talk, and a chance to bid on silent-auction items. month from September through May. Purchase your tickets by September 15 through [email protected] or For meeting locations and programs, call Williams Rural Fire Protection District the ATA website at www.applegatetrails.org. Or call Josh at 541-846-0738. Sandra King at 541-899-9027 or Betty meets the fourth Wednesday of the Lou Smith at 541-846-6817. month at 7 pm at the Williams Fire Come join ATA for a great evening and a great cause! Department. Diana Coogle Food & Friends Senior Nutrition [email protected] Program invites local seniors (60- Women Helping Other Women (WHOW) plus) to enjoy a nutritious, hot meal meets the second Tuesday of the month served at 11:30 am Monday through at 10036 Highway 238 (Gyda Lane) at Friday at the Jacksonville IOOF Hall 6:30 pm for a potluck meeting to plan at the corner of Main and Oregon work parties at each other’s homes. Streets. A donation is suggested and New members welcome. For more appreciated. Volunteers help serve meals information, call Thalia Truesdell at or deliver meals to homebound seniors. 541-899-8741 or Sioux Rogers at 541- For information about volunteering or 846-7736. receiving meals, call Food & Friends at 541-664-6674, x246 or x208. Wonder Neighborhood Watch meets the second Tuesday of each month, 6:30 pm, Friends of Ruch Library Board of Directors Wonder Bible Chapel, 11911 Redwood meets on the first Thursday of each Highway, Wilderville. month at 6:30 pm at Ruch Library. All are welcome. 541-899-7438. Send your calendar information to [email protected]. Applegater Fall 2014 5

land alliance from Roseburg to Ashland. Local women’s land celebrates 40 years We have been courageous advocates for feminism, lesbian and gay rights, domestic- by BILLIE MIRACLE violence awareness and activism, and This summer I was invited to attend motel and gave ourselves a week to find communications skills, and spirituality. educational opportunities for people in the 20th anniversary of the Applegater at Red some land. We met a 70-year-old woman In our countless meetings we worked generational poverty. Lily Vineyards. I offer my congratulations realtor who showed us several places, one hard at learning how to share resources And now, 40 years later… to the staff and everyone who has kept of them up a dirt road in the Murphy area. and consequently developed a sense of how did our lives change? One the community newspaper vital for two She told us that the road was impassable community. Each of us had been brought woman became a naturopathic physician, decades now. in the winter. Of course, that seclusion up in a two-parent home with traditional one a social worker, one went to Rogue 2014 is also the 40th anniversary felt perfect to us. She also said there was religious and political beliefs; all of that Community College and then became a of the founding of WomanShare, a enough good wood in the two old houses was up for question. Nontraditional landscaper for the City of San Francisco, women’s land community here in the to build one new one. This was a little family structure, shared living spaces, another worked in construction. When Applegate Valley. In 1974 some friends and daunting because we didn’t know how to and techniques of communicating were some of these founding members left, I decided to travel west to find a place to build anything at that point. Forty years challenges that we took on. Like many others arrived to continue the work of start a women’s commune. As young and later one of those houses is still standing as idealistic young people, we thought that we building WomanShare. I stayed in the idealistic feminist political activists who the main house for the commune. could influence cultural transformation on valley and have been an educator—doing had gone to Canada during the Vietnam The most important a monumental scale, starting from a small work similar to those workshops we started War, we believed that it was time to return characteristic of this new life was the community model that we were certain so long ago, and thus helping people to the U.S. and be part of the political/ social/communal aspect. As we settled in would change the world! change their lives. social transformation that was happening we realized that we had few country skills, Through the years we have Forty years have passed in the blink of at the time. but gradually learned how to use chainsaws built five cabins, created a huge an eye, and the Applegate Valley has given As we drove through the Applegate and grow a garden and eventually gained garden, and contributed a safe, women- much to everyone in this local region. I Valley in 1974, the beauty of the snow on the skills to build our own cabins. Knowing only space for many women. We have offer my gratitude to the Applegater for the mountains above the forested, green that we had to make our land payments, participated in local politics, worked with bringing us all together. valleys captivated us. This is where we we developed workshops on art, music, our neighbors, held events and gatherings, Billie Miracle wanted to live. So we pulled into a local country skills, social-class awareness, and helped to develop a strong women’s [email protected] BOOKS & MOVIES Diogo Cão’s discovery in the 1480s was later described as finding the mouth of the — Books — Congo River to be so violent and so powerful that sailors were amazed to come across Stringer: A Reporter’s Journey in the Congo fresh drinkable water 200 kilometers out into the ocean. [According to Wikipedia, Anjan Sundaram Diogo Cão was a Portuguese explorer and one of the most notable navigators of the Age of Discovery, who made two voyages sailing along the west coast of Africa to Namibia Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart in the 1480s.—Ed.] Tim Butcher Maniema is a town at the northern curve of the sickle, which missionaries and NGO (non-governmental organization) workers, unlike Butcher, reach only by plane. For good reason: “Maniema’s reputation for cannibalism, which Stanley [of the famous “Dr. Livingstone, I presume” greeting—Ed.] noted repeatedly in his writings, continued to the modern era. In the 1960s it was in Maniema that 13 Italian airmen of the United Nations were killed and eaten, their body parts smoked and made available at local markets for weeks after the slaughter” (Blood River). Sundaram writes of warlords and roving militias, groups that force horrors such as self-cannibalism on their victims. There is a charming Congo myth that God, growing tired from creating the world, rested by setting his bags of diamonds and gold and other treasures down in the Congo. Each of these books details the very uncharming modern scramble for the Congo’s amazing riches in lumber, gold, tin, cobalt, copper, diamonds, uranium, and rare earth minerals. Sundaram tells of illegal uranium mining, the “yellow cake apparently being excavated with bare hands for exportation to North Korea and Iran.” Each author provides details about how money for the country’s coveted resources goes not to benefit the Congolese people, but, rather, to enrich terror groups and unspeakably corrupt Here are two superb nonfiction books about the Congo, books for armchair government officials. adventurers. Both books are shocking, chilling stories of bravery, danger, and high Why bother with harrowing books about the Congo when we have the Middle adventure. The books are: Stringer: A Reporter’s Journey in the Congo by Anjan Sundaram East and Afghanistan and Ukraine and a rumbling Russian bear on the news every day? (Doubleday, 2014) and Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart by Tim Butcher Africa is a huge part of the world, and the Congo is a huge part of Africa. I like to be at (Random House, Great Britain, and Grove Press, US, 2007). Among other glowing least marginally informed, and it’s important to know that many in the industrialized reviews, John le Carré called Blood River a masterpiece, and the American Booksellers world are very aware of what the Congo contains and are busily extracting that country’s Association named Sundaram’s book one of the best debuts of 2014. valuable resources posthaste. The history of the Democratic Republic of the Congo can be considered in three Plus, there’s that spirit of adventure—armchair adventure. parts: hundreds of years of slavery perpetrated by the West, followed by colonization Julia (Helm) Hoskins • 541-899-8470 in what was called the Belgian Congo, presented to the world as a “modern” state, but [email protected] it was a state in which native Africans died in the millions, worked to death, forced to Ed. Note: The reviewer is the author ofShe Caves to Conquer, a book about a young toil on rubber tree plantations where they often had their hands chopped off for not woman who escapes the Midwest, moves halfway around the globe, and finds caves that have producing enough rubber. Baskets of severed hands were brought to the overseers at the been occupied for nearly 4,000 years. end of each day. Then the independence revolution in 1960 resulted in brief joy with democratically elected Patrice Lumumba. However, 35-year-old Lumumba, after less — Movie — than three months in office, died under mysterious and brutal circumstances associated with our American CIA and the Belgians. “Lumumba’s mistake was to hint at pro- Earth to Echo Soviet sympathies. The mere possibility of the Congo, with its huge deposits of copper, Reviewer rating: 3.5 Apples PG; Action/Family 1 Apple—Don’t bother uranium and diamonds, falling into the Soviet sphere of influence during the Cold War 5 Apples—Don’t miss was too much for the Western powers…so Brussels, with the connivance of Washington, Opened: July 2014 engineered Lumumba’s arrest, torture and transfer to the capital of Katanga…His body A Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture was never found” (Blood River). Hi! The movie I chose to write about is Earth to Chaos and the most extreme corruption have been the lot of the Congo ever since. Echo, which is about a group of friends who have to move Both authors, Butcher (British) and Sundaram (East Indian-American), each a away from each other because of a highway being built news reporter, look at this horribly troubled history as they tell of their modern treks through their neighborhood. near and on the great Congo River. Butcher was determined to follow Henry Morton One day all of their phones “barfed” and a strange Stanley’s 1870s route from beginning to end along the Congo. He is met with constant shape appeared on their phones. After a while of studying disbelief that he would attempt such a thing, bureaucratic refusal, warlords and other their phones, they found that the strange shape was a dangerous characters—along with native kindness and their often capable assistance map. After following the map, they found a robot. I’m in the forests and in navigating the river. He makes the trek on foot, on the back of not going to say anything else so I don’t spoil it. sputtering motorbikes where available, and in dugout canoes when such is the only So, overall the movie was worth three and a half possible passage. The Congo is the world’s deepest river and has the world’s second- apples because in the beginning it was kind of confusing. highest volume of water. The river is shaped like a sickle, with the point of the “blade” Well, thanks for listening to my opinion! beginning in the southeastern part of the vast country, curving north and west, then Carlen Nielsen, Age 10 south, with the “handle” emptying into the Atlantic Ocean past Kinshasa, the capital. Williams 6 Fall 2014 Applegater

BACK IN TIME Crossing the Applegate River by evelyn byrne williams with janeen sathre At one time the trails and eventually the east side near what is now the Jackson the main roads in the upper Applegate Campground. area were on the east side of the Applegate I don’t know when the swinging River. People living on the west side had to bridge (photo 4) was built across from find ways to cross the river to reach trails my home, about a mile up river from the and roads. Most of the time you could Beaver Creek School. I remember it being ride a horse or wade across the river at a there in 1930 when our home was built ford where the water was shallow and slow near it on the west side. My family was moving, but when the river was flooding happy for a shortcut to go visit my McKee 1 it would be impossible to cross anywhere. grandparents who lived across the river. Thus many forms of bridges sprang up The bridge was used all the time by my along the river. family and visitors, going to school, work, One of the most interesting and just because. bridges was the “swinging” footbridge In crossing a swinging bridge made with fence wire, cables, and really (photo 5) we encountered many snazzy planks of wood placed along obstacles, especially while carrying a the bottom. This contraption would be lunch pail and some books on the way to anchored on large trees several feet above school. We had to steady ourselves with the river where winter floods could not a hand on the wire cable to keep from reach. Photo 1, from around 1891, shows stepping off the 12-inch-wide boards. And, one of these bridges with some children of course, it was called a swinging bridge from the Watkins School (which was on for a very good reason—it could start the east side of the river, but is now under swinging the minute you put your feet on Applegate Lake) standing on it. I am it. It was extra scary when there was snow guessing that the Watkins School District or ice on the boards. Dad would shovel the paid for the bridge so the children could snow off and I would put some of his wool get to school. I do know that the bridge socks over my shoes, which helped to keep was widely used for taking supplies, mail it from being so slippery. and visitors to the west side. After the main road to the upper 2 The Collings family, living on the Applegate crossed the river in several places west side, had a walk-across bridge made of by well-built bridges for lumber (photo 2) just a few feet above the wagons and cars, the old way water. This was used when the river was at of crossing was no longer its lowest. They would remove it when the needed. Many of those old water started rising and find other ways to bridges became dangerous, cross to the west side. Now these areas are and one by one were taken all under the Applegate Lake. down. The last time I saw When the Beaver Creek School the swinging bridge by my was first organized in 1898, a box- home was in 1960. It had type conveyance (photo 3) was built so become somewhat of a that children living on the opposite side tourist attraction. So many of the river from the school could get to people were stopping to school. This box was held above the river look at it and walk on the by cables and the occupants would hand- bridge that it, along with the pull themselves across. The school was on other old crossings, became the west side and was sometimes called a footnote back in time. the McKee School because most children Evelyn Byrne Williams attending the school were from the McKee with Janeen Sathre families. In 1913 a new school was built on 541-899-1443 Photos: 1—Bridge to Watkins School. 2—Collings bridge. 3—Beaver Creek 3 bridge. 4—Byrne bridge near the author’s home. 5—Swinging footbridge. Photos provided by Evelyn Byrne Williams.

5 4 Applegater Fall 2014 7

THE STARRY SIDE Falling back into the night sky BY Greeley Wells A very exciting event is approaching: moon, and the eclipse would not be seen. A pinpoint projector is easy to make their daughter, the second eclipse of the current lunar People often refer to a lunar eclipse with a bit of aluminum foil, a large piece Andromeda; tetrad. A lunar tetrad is a series of four as a “blood moon” because of the reddish of cardboard, and some white paper. and the hero lunar eclipses, spaced six months apart. color the moon takes on. This happens First, cut a playing-card-size opening in Perseus. They Greeley Wells This eclipse will last roughly an hour, because refracted light from the sun must the cardboard. Cover this with one or cover the north-northeast sky with their peaking in the very early morning of pass through very dense parts of our two pieces of aluminum foil. Next, with story, which I’ve related many times. (A October 8 at approximately 3:15 am. atmosphere. The shorter wavelengths are the tip of a pen poke a hole about three quick Google search will bring it all back A lunar eclipse occurs when a scattered or dispersed by air molecules, millimeters wide in the aluminum foil. to you.) They are all nicely mixed in with full moon passes into earth’s shadow. This but red, the longest wavelength, travels With the sun to your back (so that the large square of Pegasus, whom Perseus can happen only with a “syzygy”—an exact more easily through these pockets of dense you are not looking at it!), lay the white rides in to save the day. Pegasus is the signal alignment of the sun, earth and moon. atmosphere, coloring the moon. piece of paper on a flat surface. Without constellation of the season. Big and almost We can see light in the moon during If you’d like more than a lunar eclipse, looking directly at the sun, prop or hold overhead, he’s easy to find. He drags up an eclipse because of the refraction you’re in luck! You’ll also have a chance up the cardboard so that the sun shines winter constellations from the east and of sunlight. Refraction occurs when to witness a partial solar eclipse on the through the pinhole and onto the white pushes summer ones down into the west electromagnetic waves, in this case light, day of the autumn equinox: October 23, paper. Play a little with distances to get the as the season progresses. deviate from a straight line due to changes at approximately 2 pm. Unlike the lunar image on the white paper large enough to If you are interested in learning more in atmospheric density. If we had no eclipse, it’s not safe to look directly at a see clearly. Enjoy the show! about the night sky and eclipses, check out atmosphere, the light would not be able partial solar eclipse. I recommend using Autumn constellations these excellent websites: earthsky.org and to “bend” around the planet and reach the pinpoint projection. The Summer Triangle is sinking into MrEclipse.com. the west and is still quite apparent. What’s Greeley Wells Illustration: Guy Ottewell’s Astronomical Calendar 2014. new is Cassiopeia; her husband, Cepheus; [email protected] Greeley’s Sky Calendar The planets Jupiter has become a dawn “star” after years in the evening sky. Jupiter gets higher and higher as the fall season progresses. At the end of September, Jupiter replaces the beautiful Venus all alone in the dawn. Venus is still an early riser in September, gracing the morning dawn. She’s north-northeast less than a degree of Regulus the morning of September 5. (A degree is as wide as a finger on a fully outstretched hand and arm.) But Venus slips into the sun and disappears by month’s end. In late November she slowly rises to grace the sunset till August 2015. Mars is in the southwestern quadrant most of the season. It’s near the red Antares on September 28. Saturn is pretty much invisible in the sun or sun glare. Mercury may be visible only low in the November dawn as it rises from behind the sun. Other events of note If you are a lunar aficionado, make sure to observe the full moons that will occur on September 9, October 8, and November 6. Mark those calendars! The Leonids meteor shower will grace us November 16-17.

Siskiyou Field Institute fall classes cater to fungi fans Siskiyou Field Institute (SFI) in Selma will offer three fall mushroom classes geared to all levels of interest. On Sunday, October 19, Mike Potts will lead a family-friendly mushroom identification hike. “Edible Mushrooms of the Southern Cascades” will start in north Medford and proceed east for an afternoon field trip. Tuition is $35. Sunday, October 26, Mike will teach “Edible Mushrooms of the Siskiyous,” which begins with a classroom session at Deer Creek Center at 1241 Illinois River Road in Selma and ends with a field trip in the Cave Junction area. Tuition is $55; pre-registration is required. Mike has studied southern Oregon fungi and their habitats since 2007. He is an expert in field identification and a passionate photographer of mushrooms. His photos can be found in the Audubon Mushroom Field Guide iPhone app and on his website at mikepottsphotography.smugmug.com. Mike has been helping with mushroom identification and leading hikes in the Ashland area for the last several years. For those who want an in-depth look at the entire kingdom of fungi, SFI offers the three-day “Forest Mushrooms of Southwest Oregon/Northwest California” taught by US Forest Service botanist David Lebo. The class begins Friday afternoon, November 7, at Deer Creek Center. What the heck is this, you ask? On Saturday, November 8, students will explore mushrooms and other fungi in the Smith River Find out at one of the three Siskiyou Field Institute mushroom classes offered this fall. Canyon of Northern California and end up in Brookings for the night. Sunday morning’s foray takes Photo by Dasja Dolan. place along the coast. Class tuition is $155; pre-registration is required. Find out more about these and other fall Siskiyou Field Institute classes by visiting www.thesfi. org or calling 541-597-8530. 8 Fall 2014 Applegater with the goats and llamas in the pasture, or microwave and gorgeous views of the Free-range fun—try a Farm Stay! relaxing with a shy cat in our cat cottage. garden and farm. Additionally, you can enjoy hands-on We encourage our visitors to by caroline milleson time in the garden to learn about hot explore the beauty and attractions of Fall is a busy and beautiful time here each day assisting with farm and garden composting, sheet mulching, vermiculture the Applegate Valley. Just two miles up the at Sanctuary One, a 55-acre care farm in tasks. You can also join educational tours, and permaculture principles. By caring for road, the Applegate Lake Recreation Area the Applegate Valley where people, animals walk the labyrinth and even take a hike up animals, tending the earth and connecting is a great place to swim, hike, bike and and the earth come together for mutual Mule Mountain. with staff, visitors and volunteers, Farm boat. We’re also perfectly positioned on the healing. Our gardens are thriving and our Farm Stay Volunteers have the chance Stay Volunteers can engage in all facets of Applegate Valley Wine Trail, featuring such animals seem to appreciate the long sunny to meet our animal residents and assist in care farming. wineries as the award-winning Cowhorn days. Cucumbers and squash are ready for their care, from walking a dog to socializing Our Farm Stay Suite consists of an Vineyard and Garden. Nearby Jacksonville, harvest, and sunflowers tower above us. air-conditioned home to the popular Britt Festival, provides Lisa, Lulu and Jigsaw, our trio of rescued and spacious plentiful dining opportunities as well as the Yorkshire pigs, cool off with dips in the private Jacksonville Woodland Trails with over 20 pond in the company of wild and domestic bedroom and miles of trails to explore. ducks and geese. Rusty the beagle and little bath, as well as a This is a superb opportunity for Gabe the poodle look forward to hikes up shared kitchen, singles, couples and families alike. If you’ve shady Mule Creek Trail. The surrounding dining room, always been curious about Sanctuary forest is alive with birds, bees, berries and living room One, or you’d simply like to connect with animal life. and back patio. animals, nature and some really great Sound like a setting you might The suite can people, we invite you to come stay with us! like to experience? It’s all available accommodate For more information, please contact for you to enjoy when you reserve a night up to four us at [email protected] or 541-899- or more in our Farm Stay Suite. Our people and 6895. We hope to hear from you soon and Farm Stay Program provides a unique includes a can’t wait to have you visit! opportunity to support and connect with full-size bed, Caroline Milleson • 541-899-6896 the daily operations of Sanctuary One. As a sleeper sofa, Operations Assistant, Sanctuary One Farm Stay Volunteer, you spend some time Sanctuary Farm Stay guest, Jess, with Sanctuary goat, Curly Sue. mini-fridge, [email protected]

• Barking Moon, Applegate Pacific Highway, Medford). Thursdays The scoop on CSAs and farmers’ markets • Dancing Bear Farm, Williams 8:30 am - 1:30 pm, March through by don tollefson • L and R Farm, Williams November. • Mama Terra Micro Creamery (goat • Medford Saturday Market (6th and What is a CSA? farmers’ markets that Blue Fox attends. dairy), Williams Barnett Streets). Saturdays 9 am - 1 pm, Community Supported Agriculture You also receive a 5 to 15 percent discount • Rise Up Artisan Bread, Applegate Valley May 11 through November 2. or CSA is a link between consumers depending on how many bucks you buy • Seven Seeds Farm, Williams • Farmers’ Friday Market (alternates and local producers of food. As a CSA for the year. For $95, you receive $100 in • Sun Spirit Farm, Williams between Selma and Cave Junction). supporter you contribute to the farm’s bucks; for $225, you receive $250 in bucks; • Wandering Fields, Little Applegate Fridays 4 - 7 pm, July through September. yearly operating budget by purchasing in and for $440, you get $500 in bucks. • White Oak Farm, Williams For specific locations, go to http:// advance a designated share of that season’s Whistling Duck (certified organic • Wolf Gulch Farm, Little Applegate www.localharvest.org/farmers-friday- harvest. By committing ahead of time, produce and seeds), 12800 Williams Farmers’ markets market-M21495. you become a shareholder in the future of Highway, Grants Pass. (In spite of the The above CSAs and Siskiyou • Pennington Farm (11341 Williams the farm, helping finance seeds, supplies Grants Pass address, the farm store Sustainable Cooperative sell at these local Highway, Grants Pass). Open daily year- and labor as well as water and equipment is actually in the Applegate, closer to farmers’ markets: round: Mondays through Fridays 10 am - 5 maintenance. Then when the harvest Murphy.) • Growers’ Market, Grants Pass (4th and pm, Saturdays 10 am - 4 pm, Sundays 11 comes in, you, as a shareholder, get your Siskiyou Sustainable F Streets). Saturdays 9 am - 1 pm, March am - 3 pm. share of the harvest throughout the farm’s Cooperative (www.siskiyoucoop. through November. • Whistling Duck Farm (12800 Williams growing season. com). In 2002 a group of farmers in the • Jacksonville Farmers’ Market (5th and Highway, Grants Pass). Open daily year- Local CSAs operating in the Applegate Applegate and Williams Valleys decided C Streets). Sundays 10 am - 3 pm, June round: Mondays through Fridays 10 am - 5 Valley include: to join forces and form a marketing and through September. pm, Saturdays 10 am - 4 pm, Sundays 11 Blue Fox Farm (certified organic), business cooperative. The farmers had • Williams Farmers’ Market (held at am - 3 pm. Applegate. Blue Fox Farm’s CSA program previously been loosely affiliated through the Williams Grange, 20100 Williams Take advantage of the abundance of is a little different from the classic program. the Applegate Agrarians group. They Highway). Mondays 4 - 6:30 pm, mid May produce offered by local farmers in this You still pay in advance for your share became a legal entity and currently have through October. beautiful valley. of the crops, but you receive Blue Fox a number of organic farms in their CSA • Rogue Valley Growers’ and Crafters’ Don Tollefson “bucks” that you can use at any of the program, including: Market (Medford Armory, 1701 South [email protected]

Let our advertisers know that you saw their ad in the Applegater. Applegater Fall 2014 9 DIRTY FINGERNAILS AND ALL Unsolved mystery in the hen house by sioux rogers This is a tough write—emotional and ran back to the duckling to administer growing and walking minimally pigeon- (Oregon State with an inconclusive ending. the “remedy.” Moments later, ducky was toed. Just when we thought the entire University Sioux Rogers The story began last winter as dozens walking around as though nothing ever emotional, frustrating—not to mention Veterinary of poultry and “buy me” catalogs began happened. Go figure! fatiguing—ordeal was over, after five weeks Diagnostic Laboratory). All were as arriving. I said, “Oh honey, wouldn’t it be This scenario repeated itself over little Choo-Choo became symptomatic. befuddled as we were. The autopsy report great to have baby ducks and goslings?” the next five weeks, but with less than Back to round-the-clock Ducky Nurse done by OSU on three of our ducklings Strangely enough, Honey agreed and we acceptable results. Sadly, we ultimately lost 101. Today, Choo-Choo can hop almost and one gosling was long, but inconclusive. ordered eleven ducks and five geese. Even 50 percent of the flock. as fast as the big girls can run. However, After a very extensive conversation with the though we have been raising backyard When a duckling or gosling was because she is way undersized, tires easily kind pathologist from OSU, the verdict poultry for nearly 25 years, we are always affected, she was put in a safety pen. To while getting around on her deformed leg, was, “Sometimes we just don’t know.” A very excited expectant parents. This time keep her from getting lonely, the pen and may never reach full growth, I sent friend two valleys to the west of us had the we planned the arrival during the time our was placed with the rest of the flock. In her to a “safe” home where she won’t be same experience with her ten ducklings. grandsons would be visiting. addition to Rescue Remedy, and since I competing with larger geese. This was a She had a 90 percent mortality rate with a Despite everyone’s nor anyone, including the hatchery, had decision I happily made for Choo-Choo. different type of duck but from the same bewilderment at my love of geese, any clue as to what was happening, I gave For almost every question hatchery. The bottom line for me is blank. I really do adore them. I actually like the entire flock a green smoothie powder in that is popping into your head, I I did not learn anything from this summer- everything everyone proclaims to dislike: their drinking water, sprinkled it on their very likely have a response. I was queried school experience. their stench, their loud “bark,” and their food, and, with the aid of a homeopath, by the hatchery (who actually has a good Dirty Fingernails and All aggressive nature. I also love to eat goose added two remedies that could do no harm reputation and has been in business for Sioux Rogers • 541-846-7736 eggs. Some of the geese we bought are but just might help. Every morning was a years), two aviary veterinarians, and OSU [email protected] “weeder geese.” When they were about five frightening and emotional trial as I did not days old, we started feeding them the weeds know how many bells would toll. Total loss we want them to seek in the orchard when was 8 of the original 16. they are large enough to roam. One duckling, “Choo-Choo,” and As for ducks, well I just like to watch one gosling, “Mother Goose,” were under them waddle since they waddle so much my constant watch, which they probably better than I do. And, oh yes, duck egg considered torture, but they did survive. whites are bakers’ numero uno choice. As soon as Choo-Choo and Mother While I am an awful baker, I must say that Goose showed some muscle tone in the attempting a perfect meringue with the affected limbs, I started them on physical whites of a duck egg made this daunting therapy. To translate, this meant putting culinary creation a cinch. them in a big galvanized tub to exercise. Onward to the rest of the story For incentive, I added cut up pieces of as a mystery unfolds. When the goslings lettuce, weeds and kale for them to dine and ducklings were about two weeks old, on while they were paddling around. I hubby mentioned that one duckling had believe this might be equivalent to lying a slight limp, which was barely noticeable on an inflatable mattress in a swimming to me. However, a few moments later the pool and drinking a beer. Say what? duckling was down for the count with a One day during therapy, Mother very flaccid leg and zero muscle tone. I Goose jumped out of the pool. That was Gosling “Mother Goose” during her “physical therapy” session, ran to the house for Rescue Remedy and the end of her therapy, and she is now complete with fresh greens to keep her paddling around.

Now get your own personal mailing label! Live outside of our mailing area? Post Office not always delivering the Applegater to you? Want to send the Gater to friends or family outside the area? Get a personal mailing label for One year: $14.99 Two years: $24.99 Great gift idea! Mail us your check or pay online through PayPal at applegater.org. Don’t miss a single issue!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 10 Fall 2014 Applegater Applegate forests: A product of human tinkering BY JAKOB SHOCKEY

My work with the Nature and denser trees so hot that Conservancy this summer has helped me nothing survives. Old-growth see the difference between forests of pre- trees no longer scar in today’s white settlement and those resulting from fires—they die. fire exclusion. Standing under a thick grove This valley’s ridges of medium-size Douglas firs in the cool are not the only ecosystem shade of a northern hillside in Star Gulch, that we have dramatically I find the massive rotted stumps of oaks, altered—our waterways, too, madrones and pines that once covered have changed. Our free-flowing the same hillside when stands had fewer, cobbled creeks used to be a Fire suppression of a 2013 lightning strike on bigger trees more resistant to fire than the saturated system of beaver ponds Humpy Mountain. Photo by Jakob Shockey. ones we see now. There are remnants of and shifting stream beds. Diverse old-growth fir, too, but in pre-settlement communities of maple, ash, cottonwood, lifetimes influences what we think a forest times most of their prolific saplings would willow, elderberry, cascara, yew and or creek “should look like.” This is our have regularly burned in low-intensity fires. conifers have given way to red alder, the baseline, from which we call “old-growth” Without these wildfires, dense fir saplings riparian tree that heals disturbed areas. stands healthy and “clear-cuts” unhealthy. have grown and shaded out the old-growth Blackberries and reed canarygrass have We are used to our forests being thick and oak savannas. The forests became thicker, pushed out native shrubs, and finer young, just as we are accustomed to this more combustible, and younger, as most of spawning gravels have been washed away in new version of a stream without beaver. Yet the large sugar and ponderosa pines were less complex streams that flow faster than even as I write this, the Oregon Gulch fire logged long ago. While our forests may they historically ever did. is turning a forest into a moonscape and still look natural, they are the product of Much of this change is because our valley’s creeks and ponds have gone dry human fire suppression. we trapped out the beaver. That one earlier than many remember. In the face Big trees often scar when a simple human action, like fighting fires, of climate change, our rudderless ship is low fire sweeps through, burning past has caused the ecosystem to pitch forward being drawn into a dangerous storm, and their bark on the uphill side of the trunk into something it never was. Much as a we are all aboard together. The question and leaving a blackened triangle. Cutting Roman arch holds up around a keystone, becomes, how best do we guide our ship into any old fire-scarred snag on a ridge, these wild places were dependent on these through the storm? I find chronological scarring for every ecosystem “keystones”: beaver and wildfire. Jakob Shockey • 541-890-9989 year a fire came through—every decade Like a ship without a rudder, these Riparian Program Manager or so. Many of today’s stands haven’t seen places still look whole and functional at Applegate Partnership & fire in over a hundred years. When a fire a glance, and they are familiar. What we Watershed Council starts, it burns the accumulated “fuels” see right now and over the course of our [email protected]

Old–growth madrones—watch for fairy rings Conifers have coevolved with wildfire, building up impressively fire-resistant bark. Madrones, in comparison, seem shockingly ill prepared for a fire with their nude trunks and gently peeling bark. Yet they, too, have a strategy for living through wildfire. Much as willows and cottonwoods re-sprout after a beaver cuts them down, madrones will re-sprout in a tight ring around the fire-killed trunk. This ring of sprouts grows from the same roots as the dead stem—they are the same tree. As the old trunk decays, these new stems become a “fairy ring” of trunks. In the next wildfire, this ring of stems will die, and the cycle repeats with a new set of re-sprouts, thus expanding the circle’s diameter. The wider the fairy ring, the older the tree, the more wildfires survived. Oaks have the same strategy, and we can’t really know how old some of these trees are. So next time you’re out cutting firewood, pay attention—you might be taking down a tree many hundred years your senior. —Jakob Shockey

Advertisers! We can help you reach your market. The Applegater is the only newspaper covering the entire Applegate Valley. With a circulation of 10,500 and a readership of over 20,000, we cover Jacksonville, Ruch, Applegate, Williams, Murphy, Wilderville, Wonder, Jerome Prairie and areas of Medford and Grants Pass.

For more information, contact: • Jackson County—Valorie Tintinger 541-450-2983 [email protected] • Josephine County—Amber Caudell 541-846-1027 [email protected] Next deadline: November 1 Applegater Fall 2014 11

BIRD EXPLORER Wild owls and sustainable agriculture BY peter j. thiemann This is a story about a very special owl this was pretty amazing! find them on the forest floor. The mom Two platforms for family that raised its young on a ranch high Harry and I visited shortly after owl was there to guard the little guy as I Willow-Witt are up in the mountains a little east of Ashland. the phone call and found a very peaceful visited the next day. Although it appeared in the planning Peter J. Thiemann I knew about Great Gray Owls (GGOs) setting with the female GGO brooding the owlet was nearby, I could not locate it. stages with from sightings in Applegate during the her two young. We could see that the old The female GGO was sitting low on a tree more to be located on Bureau of Land summer of 2012, then during 2013, and raven nest was much too small with little branch and—a first time ever for me—I Management (BLM) land. Donations again this spring. I documented the lives space for the growing owl family. For a was dive-bombed by her—directly over are coming in and the future of GGOs at of several families at Howard Prairie Lake week we monitored the nest as both adults my head! I’m glad I was wearing my hat. It Willow-Witt looks bright—research from in the Cascade Mountains. were caring for the young and the male was a clear message to stay away—the owlet northeast Oregon, Canada and Finland Late this nesting season also doing all the hunting for meadow was probably still on the ground nearby. has shown that this owl species will readily came a call from Klamath Bird voles. He would bring the prey and give it So I left and the owl family was never seen accept nesting platforms. We will destroy Observatory president Harry Fuller, to the female, who then would feed their again, not by the ranch owners or anyone. what is left of the old raven nest at Willow- who was notified that the owners of young. I had hoped that we could observe We will never know what happened, but Witt in order to discourage the owls from Willow-Witt Ranch near Grizzly Peak another GGO nesting success as I had hopefully the female GGO was able to returning next year. had located an active GGO nest with two seen the previous two years at Howard move the owlet into the protection of the In the Applegate we will young owlets on their property. The owlets Prairie, but I was wrong. Soon, one owlet forest and eventually coax it to safety on research the Ferris Gulch area appeared to be only one to two weeks old in disappeared. Maybe it fell out of the nest some tree. What we do know is that the for a nesting platform location on BLM June and could be seen with the female owl or was kicked out. Strangely it was the owls at Willow-Witt Ranch need our help. land. Anyone interested in supporting in a very small old nest, probably a raven’s. older, larger owlet that was lost. Anyway, The two GGO nesting successes these projects can send a donation to Owls don’t build their own nests and rely we never saw it again. at Howard Prairie Lake that I observed Rogue Valley Audubon Society, GGO on used hawk or raven nests or sometimes Then we heard a report that the in 2013-14 were in nesting platforms Conservation Fund, PO Box 8597, broken-off tree snags. remaining owlet had jumped from installed by a landowner. Earlier this year Medford, OR 97501. All birders and Willow-Witt Ranch is a certified the nest and was down on the forest floor. I initiated a project to install more nesting others are encouraged to visit Willow-Witt sustainable goat ranch that offers farm It is normal for young owls to leave the platforms, with one completed in March Ranch at the base of Grizzly Peak off Shale stays in a B&B, camping, birding and nest before they can fly. Then they crawl at Little Hyatt Lake. Building on that City Road, a half hour east of Ashland. special events. This GGO nest was in the back up a tree snag and learn to fly. But success, and seeing the need at Willow- Peter J. Thiemann campground not far from ranch buildings. this owlet was very young and could not Witt, we have now organized a much larger [email protected] This species normally nests in remote get back up. This is the most vulnerable effort, with Rogue Valley Audubon Society Peter J. Thiemann, mountain areas far from civilization, so time for young owls as predators may (RVAS) handling the donation paperwork. Flickr photo stream

Female Great Gray Owl at Nesting platform with female Great Gray Owl Great Gray owlet on snag before Female Great Gray Owl with two young Willow-Witt Ranch near Grizzly Peak. and her young at Howard Prairie. learning to fly at Howard Prairie. in raven nest at Willow-Witt.

PHOTO CREDIT All bird photos courtesy of Peter J. Thiemann, Flickr photo stream. Please support our advertisers! Shop local; keep our dollars local.

7200 Williams Highway Murphy, Oregon 541-862-7001

DOUBLE AD WEDNESDAY! Every Wednesday, 1 day = 2 weeks of advertised savings!!! 12 Fall 2014 Applegater Notes from a Rogue entomologist released. We call it the Paragon, and it lives up to its name. It is a rather unassuming pear—its looks much like its Bartlett Introducing the Paragon, a pear parent, but like its Comice parent, it is a glorious eating experience. Unlike Comice, born and bred in southern Oregon the skin is thin and very palatable. When ripened it will melt in your mouth and the by RICHARD J. HILTON flavor washes over you like a wave at the I have now been working good taste and red skin color. Oregon coast. with pears for more than a quarter Many crosses were made, At SOREC, a pear tasting has of a century, and I will be the almost always with Comice been held annually since 2008. first to say that pears can be a as one parent and often In recent years participants have rated tough sell. There’s an old French with a red Bartlett pear as the cultivars they taste, with Paragon saying, “You eat an apple when the other. Three red pear consistently receiving the highest overall you are ready. You eat a pear when cultivars were released from rating (see chart). This cultivar was it is ready.” Or, as Ralph Waldo this program: the Reimer overlooked for so many years because Emerson put it, “There are only Red in 1961, Rogue Red its appearance is so ordinary, but it is no ten minutes in the life of a pear in 1969, and Cascade in ordinary pear. With the release of this when it is perfect to eat.” Needless 1985. While these pears cultivar our hope is that some grower will to say, in a world where the were planted locally to some champion it. But if that does not happen, demand for instant gratification extent and the Cascade was at least it will be available to the public becomes ever more resounding, patented and planted more to plant and enjoy. To quote Thomas the elusive secrets of the pear seem widely, they never really Jefferson, “The greatest service which can further and further remote. caught on. be rendered any country is to add a useful In order to ripen a But from the breeding plant to its culture.” The Paragon, a cross between Comice and red Bartlett, is literally European pear correctly, you program in southern Oregon, Richard J. Hilton • 541-772-5165 a Comice in the skin of a Bartlett. must store freshly picked fruit in a two cultivars were selected Senior Research Assistant/ cool place for an extended period of time. unripened or crisp and crunchy. One such not for their appearance, as they had no Entomologist The exact amount of time varies with the pear, called Gem, which I have sampled, red color, but for their eating quality. One Oregon State University cultivar and the storage temperature. For is being developed by the US Department was planted by Mike Thorniley, a local Research and Extension Center instance, a Bartlett can be held for as little of Agriculture and is being tested in orchardist, and he dubbed it BestEver. It [email protected] as a week while an Anjou must be stored for Hood River. Being partial to fully ripened is now grown over a month. After this period of cooling European pears, I was quite prepared to and marketed Annual SOREC Pear Tasting 2013 the pear is placed at room temperature dislike Gem, but it was very nice with a by Meyer Average Rating (Scale of 0 to 5) for up to a week. You know that a pear is good pear taste. Orchards in 5 * ripe when the flesh near the stem yields There are those (one of my sons Talent and ** to gentle pressure. Some cultivars, like among them) who prefer their pears has been such 4 * * * * * Bartlett, will turn yellow as the fruit ripens. crunchy; however, I do not think the pear a good seller 3 * If the fruit has not been cooled for long can beat the apple at its own game. So in that more 2 enough then it may never ripen. But a order to promote pears, we need to educate acreage has perfectly ripe pear is a wonder, sweet and folks on how to ripen pears properly. I have been planted. 1 juicy, with a melting texture. The pear found that kids love sweet ripened pears And 0 cultivar that is universally acknowledged when they are provided. We also need to this brings as the premier eating pear is the Doyenné develop good quality pear cultivars. The me to du Comice, better known locally as Harry Southern Oregon Experiment Station (now the final and David’s Royal Riviera. part of the Southern Oregon Research and selection But the difficulty in ripening Extension Center or SOREC) conducted from the pears has led to the development of an extensive pear-breeding program until breeding * = offspring of Comice Underlined cultivars developed at SOREC some newer varieties that can be eaten the 1960s that focused on two key factors: program to be agriculture from page 1 variety of lavender products, from lotions farmer, since the Applegate does not have 4-H: Youth development for 100 years and soap to culinary delights. a large Hispanic community or access to Applegate producers sell their goods other labor pools. Water is only a problem The earliest record of 4-H activity in Josephine County, to local restaurants, at farmers’ markets, for Applegate agriculturists depending on Jackson County comes in 1913 under the is “assist youth in on-site stores, and to friends. Lark’s location and crop. Sue and Derek Owen name of the Industrial Club. Members in finding their restaurant in Ashland buys lambs irrelevant use drip irrigation from a well, but they took part in local projects, the state fair, passion and equip to the genetic pool from the Weavers are lucky (or wise in their choice), for and the Panama Pacific International them to become and beef from Peter Salant. Morning lavender is not a thirsty plant. Whistling Exposition in San Francisco. Two of healthy, confident, Glory in Ashland, the C Street Bistro in Duck Farm is on the Applegate River, so Oregon’s ten delegates to the Exposition competent, caring Jacksonville, and New Sammy’s in Talent water is no problem. came from Jackson County. and contributing also buy Salant beef. Mike sells hay by word Farm work repeats itself. Soay In 1914, Congress passed the members of their family, community, and of mouth, the Owens’ store is on their sheep need new pasture every four days. Smith-Lever Act, expanding vocational, society,” a goal that is voiced in the 4-H farm, and Whistling Duck sells produce Whistling Duck crops are rotated yearly. agricultural, and home demonstration pledge: “…for my club, my community, at the Medford and Ashland growers’ In a good summer, Mike cuts alfalfa four programs in rural America through land- my country, and my world.” markets, in the Ashland Co-op and Food times. Peter needs six days every two weeks grant universities. By 1916 the program Now as from its inception, 4-H uses 4 Less, and at the on-site store, now fully to flood the pastures for the good grass was being called 4-H and had extended agricultural and other projects to “hook” staffed in a new building. that makes the good milk that makes the into Josephine County. In 1921, 4-H youth. “Then, with the assistance of Cougars, bears, and coyotes big calves. exhibited for the first time at the Josephine many volunteers and using research-based can be a problem for livestock in the All in all, whether the farmer is County Fair. (The 4-H emblem, patented materials, we help youth develop life skills Applegate. But, Peter says, “The predators raising livestock or growing crops, the in 1924, is still a green four-leaf clover with that they can use in many areas throughout were here first,” so the farmer pursues Applegate is a pretty good place to be. a white “H” on each leaflet, symbolizing their lives,” Sue says. Anne Manlove, of prevention. Dogs are valuable guardians Sheep, cattle, hogs, lavender, vegetables, Head, Heart, Hands, and Health.) 4-H in Jackson County, enumerates some of livestock. Hay farmers are plagued by hay—everything thrives under good care The organization languished during of those skills: how to use time wisely, how unexpected summer rain, and labor (not just like the rest of us in the Applegate. the lean years of the early 1930s, but in to keep records and fill out forms, how to bugs, which, Mary says, just come and Diana Coogle 1935 club work picked up. In 1939 a make good decisions, how to interact and go) is the main problem for the vegetable [email protected] new organizational plan led to increased communicate well. Projects like raising activities including, in Jackson County, steers—having to get up every morning a skits festival, a countywide picnic, and and take care of that animal—teach kids the first annual leaders’ banquet. Energy good work ethics. slowed during World War II, when the The agricultural career choice shortage of tires and gasoline meant fewer is only one part of 4-H. Students who raise meetings. After the war, activities picked koi are learning the same kinds of things up again. as those who raise hogs and cows. There is Today the 4-H mission is the also a foods component, horticulture, and same as it was when 4-H started: youth expressive arts. All of it works towards the Sue and Derek Owen grow fields of Peter Salant raises cattle on development. The most significant thing same goal: positive youth development. lavender on their English Lavender Farm. the old Kleinhammer Ranch. 4-H does, says Sue Hunt, a leader of 4-H in —Diana Coogle Applegater Fall 2014 13 Butterflies to enjoy before winter by linda kappen Blue Copper I will still be looking for this species The Blue Copper (Lycaena heteronea) in early fall when on outings, hoping to see is of the butterfly family Lycaenidae. Its their beauty one more time before winter. habitat is open mountain meadows to The fun part is they can be seen almost higher elevation ridges and slopes. Blue anywhere in our Siskiyou mountains. Coppers can be seen flying as early as Milbert’s Tortoiseshell May through September with July usually Milbert’s Tortoiseshell (Nymphalis Blue Copper male on lupine the peak of their flight. In our local milberti) is of the butterfly family Siskiyous I have observed them through Nymphalidae. With its flame-colored during the coldest winter late September. bands, deep mahogany middle and bright months. The Blue Copper butterfly is blue crescents on the edges, this butterfly Seeing a Milbert’s one of the larger lycaenids with the is unique in color and stunning beauty. Tortoiseshell as it sits male having a bright blue color on open With these markings, it is also known as on the ground with open wing. The wings have a thin black border the Fire-rim Tortoiseshell, although in wings is almost like fringed with white edges and veins outlined southern Oregon I have heard it referred discovering your favorite in black. This arrangement makes for a to only as Milbert’s Tortoiseshell. You will semiprecious stone. (On simply beautiful butterfly indeed. Males find it throughout the Pacific Northwest. closed wing it resembles bark.) will flitter about patrolling for females This butterfly hibernates Most likely, you will do a while visiting flowers and mud. through winter in tree holes, hollow double take, then watch it On open wing, the female Blue logs, under bark and in barns and other for as long as you can if you Copper shows a soft dark tan color with outbuildings. Like the Mourning Cloak, are lucky enough to find one Blue Copper female on host plant eriogonum black spots and a very white-fringed some individuals can live up to 10 or 11 willing to sit around. Late border. Both males and females will rest months and can be seen flying almost any last summer I was able to sit on with wings open revealing their beauty. day of the year during warm spells. a rock in the middle of a patch of The host plants for this butterfly are The host plant is stinging nettles dogbane while some butterflies different species of Eriogonum, commonly where eggs are laid in large clusters under and Milberts nectared, carefully named buckwheats. Females have been leaves. Up to 900 eggs have been recorded capturing as many photos as I observed ovipositing (laying) eggs on the in clusters. These butterflies can have up could of this rare occasion. I will flowers of the host plants rather than on the to two broods. be sure to return soon to capture stalks or leaves. Eggs will diapause over the In spring, Milbert’s Tortoiseshells can even better photos. winter, producing one generation. be seen on wing at lower elevations of the Linda Kappen In their mid to high-mountain Applegate Valley, then at high mountain [email protected] habitats, Blue Coppers like to nectar on elevations in summer where they live Ed. Note: The author earned their larval host plants and other plants nectaring on coyote mint, asters, dogbane a naturalist certification from such as asters, yarrow, rabbit brush, fiddle- and others. Then, as fall approaches, they Siskiyou Field Institute and hosts necks or milkweeds. descend to lower elevations to hibernate two-day butterfly courses there. Milbert’s Tortoiseshell on dogbane flowers

All butterfly photos by Linda Kappen.

3.7 acres near Murphy with pond and fruit trees $359K Buyers are coming and PENDING properties are selling. Visit our website to see all our 3bd/2.5 bath with large bonus room in Central Point current listings. $299k PRICE REDUCED www.applegatevalleyrealty 3+ acres on Humbug creek with 3bd1ba and shop and .com studio with bath $369K PRICE REDUCED We would love to visit 7+ acre vineyard and home on the Applegate River your home and give you a $1395,000. SOLD current market analysis of your property. More listings www.applegatevalleyrealty.com

Don-541-973-9185

Debbie 541-973-9184

Hard working and Professional Office in the Town of Applegate

Also New Office in Murphy! 14 Fall 2014 Applegater providing funding for implementation and Wildfire: Everyone has a role updates of those fire plans? Fire-Adapted After 15 years in the Applegate, I’ve Community (but are they doing it?) learned that this work is never ending— (FAC) trees, weeds, grass, towns and communities by sandy shaffer The various components all grow! Once fire season is over we all of an FAC are: The map below shows the top two out and the courts let them) and they can also need to start preparing for next year, no of all 417 counties in our 11 western states provide external community fuel buffers. matter what our FAC role is. Fuel reduction with respect to the percentage of private The feds also participate in cooperative fire Given this map, we can’t stop Forest management homes (displayed in red) within a half mile agreements, as do our local fire districts. cleaning gutters (those darned pine Cooperative fire agreements of federal land. Fire districts can help with fuels reduction, needles), funding CWPPs (pay attention Community fire plans Yes, a recent study by Headwaters education/outreach, evacuation planning, counties!), or reaching out to new residents Defensible space Economics found that Josephine County and defining local internal and external to help assist in preparing their homes. We Internal safety zones is number one, and Jackson County a close safety zones. However, I recently heard can’t be too busy to attend collaborative External fuel buffers second. We Applegaters may not be very one local fire chief (not ours!) say that wildfire committee meetings (some federal, Evacuation planning surprised with those top rankings; after promoting FACs wasn’t part of his job! state and local agencies think they are). Local capacity all, we live with this “checkerboard” daily. What the heck?! We can’t cut funding for fire prevention Codes/ordinances It’s why the Jackson-Josephine county The Oregon Department of Forestry or lower home safety building codes for Education and area has been a front-runner in natural plays a lead role in forest activities, those who’ve lost their home to a wildfire prevention efforts resource and wildfire issues for decades. especially out in our rural Applegate. (like a town in Colorado did!). Helping It’s also why we’ve collaborated with our They set standards for the management of agriculture shouldn’t mean allowing a dry I say we’re all in this together, federal land managers, and have mutual private forests and regulations for activity crop next to private homes to be mowed and we need every partner to keep up their aid agreements and our own Community on forest lands. They also fight wildfires on on a 100-degree afternoon during high share of the workload here in southwest Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). And private and Bureau of Land Management fire danger! And, Congress and the GAO Oregon. Doing nothing will be very costly, it’s why we were named one of the first lands. And, they help with fuels reduction, (Government Accountability Office) need so please help by putting more pressure on Fire-Adapted Community (FAC) “hubs” forest management and public education/ to allow the US Forest Service to stop all of our partners to continue our local in the nation last year. We know we have outreach. borrowing from fuels reduction funds to fight FAC efforts! to work together. So, what are the roles of county wildfires! Duh,so counterintuitive (not to Sandy Shaffer As one of the very few people and city governments? Certainly they mention they had an agreement)! [email protected] in the Rogue Basin who helped to define should provide a fire-adapted community as part of the building codes/ Private homes within a half mile National Cohesive Strategy for Wildland ordinances for Fire Management, I recognize (and preach) safe, defensible of federal land in that our checkerboard landscape dictates homes and access Josephine and Jackson Counties lots of overlap of responsibility for most routes. Also, Map by Jim Wolf of the components of FACs. (See the box weed abatement for a reminder of those components.) laws, emergency I also realize that just because we’re preparedness now an FAC hub doesn’t mean that all and notification of our communities are “fire-adapted” systems, and and that we can rest on our laurels! Quite maybe evacuation the contrary: while I know that we are far procedures? And ahead of most areas in the west, I would since Oregon say that very few of our communities are decided that really fire-adapted. And given that map, the we would have current drought and recent wildfires in our county-level area, this is very concerning. community To me, FAC roles and wildfire plans responsibilities start with across the state, homeowners: we do our part pretty we have CWPPs well with defensible space, fuel reduction, for both Jackson forest management, family evacuation and and Josephine emergency planning. Federal land managers counties in place. do their part with forest management and Maybe counties fuels reduction (when Washington, DC, are responsible for They also have no statement on rbST a unique partnership with Groupe GMO Yogurt: How does your use, or a bovine growth hormone used on Danone, with company co-founder Gary cattle, so it is possible that these substances Hirshberg remaining Chairman and the favorite brand stack up? are used. They use cultured grade A non- company remaining true to its health and fat milk, though fruit varieties include environmental mission. From GMO Inside Blog at gmoinside.org additives such as fructose, modified corn Nancy’s. Nancy’s is another USDA starch, and other products. organic certified Greek yogurt company While GMO Inside believes the artificial coloring, or rBST, but there is no Stonyfield. Stonyfield is an all owned by Springfield Creamery in Eugene, “Precautionary Principle” to be the best organic variety available. organic yogurt company started in Oregon. Nancy’s does not add any approach when it comes to developing Yoplait. Yoplait Greek is owned 1983. Its yogurt is sold in natural food thickeners or pectins and strains off the and consuming GMOs, we know that by General Mills and is the second most stores, national supermarkets and large whey during production. They say they consumers may care about a number of popular overall yogurt company in the retailers across the country. All of their use all organic fruits from the Northwest factors when it comes to choosing food US, the first being Chobani. Yoplait Greek products are USDA Organic certified region. On their website they describe their products. Here is some information on promotes the health aspect (including Stonyfield Greek milk sources, stating they are from local your “favorite” brands of yogurt: of their product, advertising and YoBaby); therefore, dairy farms, mostly within a 50-mile radius Fage. Fage is a close second in the the high levels of calcium, they are audited throughout of their creamery in Eugene. They do not Greek yogurt market, holding 14 percent vitamin D, and protein, the production process to use pesticides, antibiotics, or synthetic of the market in 2011. The positives especially for their kids’ ensure that they use no growth hormones, and their product is to Fage brand yogurt are that no milk products, as well as claiming pesticides or herbicides, USDA certified by Oregon Tilth. Their concentrate is used (like Yoplait, see below) their product can help with GMOs, antibiotics, or website does not directly say that they are and they do not add extra thickeners to weight loss. However, their growth hormones. They are GMO free, but their organic certification their plain varieties, though they are most website does admit to using currently in the process of prohibits GMO use. likely added for their flavored yogurt. On aspartame (artificial sweetener), carmine being approved by the non-GMO Project, Wallaby’s Family. Wallaby’s yogurt their website, they highlight the healthy (red coloring), gelatin, and milk protein which will test their animal feed for GMO company is based out of Napa Valley, benefits of Fage, including statements concentrate in their Yoplait Greek Parfait contamination. They formally state that California, and was influenced by a trip saying it is beneficial to vegetarians and cups. There are no organic options they believe GMO products should be to Australia by the co-founders, who were diabetics, and gluten free for those with available. In 2012, General Mills spent labeled to guarantee consumer safety and inspired by the sweet, amazing flavor of the gluten allergies or preferences. However, over $1 million to oppose GMO labeling they were a founding company of Just yogurt. They use organic milk from nearby there is currently no organic option. in California. Label It, a nonprofit advocating for GMO farms in Sonoma and Marin counties. They Greek Gods. Greek Gods was Dannon. Oikos is Dannon’s Greek labeling. Groupe Danone (which also are organic certified by Quality Assurance founded in Seattle, Washington in 2003 yogurt brand. It is not certified as USDA owns Dannon) is the parent company International (QAI) and the USDA. Due and is now owned by Hain Celestial. They organic and does not mention “natural” or of Stonyfield, owning 85 percent of to their organic certification, they are also do not add milk protein concentrate, “non-GMO” products on their website. the company, yet Stonyfield maintains GMO free. Applegater Fall 2014 15 Williams Branch Library: The hub of the community

The Williams branch of Josephine Community Libraries is at the heart of the — Applegate Library — Williams community, both in location and services provided. Children’s programs, With the passing of the Library of Billy and Kani, and on July 19, Ellen a wide selection of books and other District Measure in May, it’s been a busy Levine presented a program with readings materials, educational programs for all three months for the Applegate Library from her novels and short stories. ages, a nonprofit meeting space, and free and the other libraries in the Rogue Valley. The Applegate Poets, a recently public-access computers make our library We all worked very hard to back the new, formed group of poets, held a reading a resource that is growing in demand. Wi- independently funded district and nearly in the meeting room of the Applegate Fi use, available 24/7, has doubled this 55 percent of the voters supported us. Library on July 27. On August 2, Willy year and our desktop computers will be The library will now have its own district, Whitefeather offered a program on survival upgraded soon thanks to a grant from the with the accompanying levy operating and in the wilderness for children. Four Way Community Foundation. Hours paying for all libraries in Jackson County. We’re planning a crafts fair to be held have been extended thanks to Herb Pharm With stable backing, libraries will no at the library on November 8. The hand- and many other community donors. longer have to endure the seesaw budgeting knitters are again making hats for sale, and The libraries in Josephine County caused in large part by reductions in federal many other crafts from the Applegate and closed on May 17, 2007. Four months funding related to timber harvests. Williams Valleys will be available. Read later, committed community members Young patron making solar lantern The Applegate Library sponsored more information in the box below. formed Josephine Community Libraries, during the Summer Reading Program. several library programs with a literary The next Friends of the Applegate Inc. (JCLI), a nongovernmental, nonprofit money order made payable to “Josephine bent, beginning in May with six local Library meeting will be on Tuesday, organization dedicated to ensuring long- Community Libraries” to P.O. Box authors reading from their work, including October 14, in the meeting room of the term library services for every county 1684, Grants Pass, OR 97528 or make a prose, poetry and essays. On July 12, Gay Applegate Library at 5 pm. Come join us resident. By December 2009, JCLI had secure donation on the website at www. Bradshaw gave a reading for the Summer and help us out with our programs and reopened all four shuttered locations. josephinelibrary.org. Reading Program from her new book activities. Over the last five years, the libraries have Keep Our Libraries Open (KOLO) entitled The Elephant Letters, The Story Joan Peterson • 541-846-6988 seen incredible growth in usage with an is a registered Oregon political action average of 350 new library cardholders committee (ID #14922) made up of a every month. As the libraries continue to group of citizens dedicated to passing a — Ruch Library — operate thanks to generous donations and library district measure on the November the heroic contributions of 360 volunteers 2014 ballot. If you would like to get We are happy to announce future in the Applegate). Through the end of annually, they are also working to form a involved with the library district effort, send events at Ruch Library! Thank you, September there will be a community special library district to meet the ever- an email to info@keepourlibrariesopen. Applegate Valley voters, for approving the display of food preserved by local residents. increasing demand for library services in com. Those interested in donating can Library Special District and for assuring us Stop by and see some of the beautiful and Josephine County. Citizens will have an send a check or money order payable a secure future. mouth-watering canned, smoked, pickled, opportunity to vote on the library district to “Keep Our Libraries Open” to 106 If you would like to be more dried and otherwise preserved food from on the November 2014 ballot. NW F Street, No. 258, Grants Pass, OR connected with this “library with a local kitchens. How you can get involved 97526, or make a secure donation at www. future,” we welcome you. We are in need The Friends of Ruch Library will be Anyone interested in getting involved keepourlibrariesopen.com. of volunteers on Thursdays and Saturdays having their annual Big Tent Book Sale with the library effort can send an email Danielle Schreck • 541-846-7020 for a couple of hours each day. We have on October 11. to [email protected]. Those Williams Branch Library Manager special projects, books to shelve, bulletin A new series of free computer interested in donating can send a check or [email protected] boards to decorate, files to organize... classes begins in October with Basics II, something for everyone. Please speak to a introducing word processing, digital photo staff person if you are interested. Volunteer processing, file management, and graphic Hats off to Applegate Library sale Barbara Krack has created a magnificent design. Classes will be held each Thursday Saturday, November 8 scrapbook showing the 30-year history of from 1 – 3 pm, October 16 through The Friends of Applegate Library is pleased to invite you to join us on Saturday, the Ruch Library, and we urge you to come November 13 at Ruch Library. Call now November 8, 2014, from 10 am to 4 pm for our very first annual Holiday Craft Fair in and enjoy it. to reserve your space for these classes. and second annual hat sale. We will be ringing in the holiday season at the beautiful We had an exciting three months with Earthquake Preparedness is the Applegate River Lodge, 15100 Highway 238, in the heart of Applegate. the Summer Reading Program. Fifteen theme of a program featuring Mark Prchal Our vendors are all local crafters selling unique handmade items. There will be teens and 55 children signed up and spent on October 25. Contact Ruch Library for jewelry, upcycled bags and totes, hand-thrown pottery, gift cards, herbs and salves, the summer devouring books. “Science” more details. paracord bracelets, hand-knit hats, scarves, shawls and bags, children’s clothing, was the theme, and the kids (and adults) Please join us for Preschool Story aprons, leather bags and purses, hand-etched wine glasses, teddy bears and much more! were able to attend six exciting programs Time on Tuesdays at 11:30 am, usually Vendor fees for the craft fair and 100 percent of the proceeds from hat sales will and participate in a variety of activities. followed by a craft presented by one of our help fund Applegate Library programs. Hats will be on display inside the library for Thanks so much to the community wonderful volunteers, and for Lego Fun on the entire month of October. members who shared their knowledge and the first Saturday of each month at 1 pm. Come shop local and support your community! Many thanks to the Davis enthusiasm with the children. See you at the library! family at Applegate River Lodge for their support and generosity in hosting our events! Preserving: Our life in the Thalia Truesdell For more information, contact Carol Hoon at 541-787-7261. Applegate (while preserving our life 541-899-7438

Be sure to visit www.applegater.org for a complete list of advertisers.

Please support our advertisers! They help make this paper possible. 16 Fall 2014 Applegater The Tuxana corn story by jonathan spero

You may have read “The Top Hat corn story” a couple of issues back. It described how I selected Top Hat corn from a Voices of the Applegate single hybrid parent (Tuxedo) and selected for sweetness by begins a new session picking the last kernels to commence to wrinkle. Top Voices of the Applegate will begin Hat corn is growing at Oshala another session of four-part harmony Farm in the Applegate Valley music directed by Blake Weller on this summer and seed should Wednesday, September 3, in the Ruch be available next year for sale. Library at 6:30 pm. Rehearsals will be To create corn with new or different attributes, I needed to secondary ears on the two-eared plants and held from 7 to 8:30 pm every Wednesday introduce something more variable, with flagged about 500 as sweeter than average. evening at the Ruch Library from some genes that more modern corn lacks. The primary ear from the chosen plants was September 3 until November 19. In 2003, I again grew Tuxedo. This time left to mature on the stalk. When the corn Two concerts will be presented this I planted 16 rows, every other row across was dry, I chose the 300 nicest looking of season: the first one on November 21 at a field. In each of the 15 alternate rows, the 500 ears and shelled these individually I planted a different multicolored corn. into paper bags. 7:30 pm in the Old Presbyterian Church Most were old or ancient varieties, and What I wanted to find out is on California Street in Jacksonville, and all had red or blue as well as yellow or which of these 300 ears makes the best- the second one on November 23 at 2 pm white kernels. I de-tasseled all of this looking and best-tasting corn. So I planted at the Applegate River Lodge. multicolored corn so that all of the corn a sample of the seed from each ear and kept was pollinated by the Tuxedo. Tuition this year is $55, which covers track of which parent ear it came from. I The next year I grew a row of each saved back the rest of the seed from each all of our costs, including our music. of these 15 crossed lines. With Tuxedo ear, now with a number on the bag, so that Come to the first rehearsal and fill providing the pollen, an Anasazi corn I can plant seeds from only the best ones out your registration form. Everyone is tended to produce vigorous plants with next year for the improved crop. welcome, even if you have never sung in large ears and large kernels. This Anasazi x I made a grid of 300, 10-foot rows Tuxedo cross led to the white corn Tuxana and planted 20 seeds from one parent a choir before. If you can sing in tune, as well as to the Ana Lee (yellow) and ear in each row. I rated the rows for you’re in! Festivity (multicolor) varieties you will see germination and seedling vigor at about in future years. 21 days. Later, when the corn was ripe, a With the more variable Anasazi crew of three came through and rated each corn as the seed parent, picking out the row for general stand quality, productivity, For more information, call Joan Peterson at 541-846-6988. last-to-dry kernels did not lead to gains in appearance of shucked ear, sweetness and sweetness as it had in the Top Hat corn. I flavor. We looked at, tasted and rated suspect that variation in some other trait ears from each mini-row and made rating in the Anasazi corn has a larger impact on decisions as a group of three. We used a kernel wrinkling than does sugar content. tablet computer to field-enter data into a I got big, robust kernels, but not sweet spreadsheet and chose the 100 best overall. ones. Time for a new plan. I switched from I then separated the 100 numbered kernel selection to ear-to-row selection. bags of seed from the rows we liked best. Ear-to-row selection (also called Seed from only those 100 chosen parents mother-daughter or half-sibling evaluation) was combined and is being grown in 2014. is a classic method for improving open- Once again, we will be comparing about pollinated crops. It improves on mass 2,000 plants with the goal of picking the selection (saving the best plants) in that it 300 best to repeat the ear-to-row selection allows evaluation of a plant by the qualities process in 2015. Ear-to-row selection in of that plant’s progeny, and it allows the Ana Lee corn is ongoing in 2014 here at elimination of pollen from inferior plants. Lupine Knoll Farm, 1225 Messinger Road, In 2012 I grew about 2,000 plants Grants Pass. of Tuxana f5 (5th generation) selected Jonathan Spero for white kernels. We taste-tested the [email protected] Applegater Fall 2014 17 Humbug and Iron Creek: OWEB small grants make big impacts BY BARbara summerhawk Two in-stream projects being carried APWC on applying for a small grant out by the Applegate Partnership & from OWEB. With the grant, the work Watershed Council (APWC) underscore will be done over a few days when in- the importance of small streams in stream activity is permitted by the Oregon the larger scheme of ecosystem health. Department of Fish and Wildlife, usually According to Geoff Becker, chair of the in late summer when no fish are present. APWC Aquatic and Riparian Committee, “If we get the excess cobble out, the stream these streams used to be key components will be less likely to go subterranean during of the habitat of the endangered coho the critical spawning season,” says Geoff. salmon, but have largely been taken out Debris from the high water event of the equation. of 2005 created a dam at the Highway One of the projects funded 238 overcrossing that resulted in a through a small grant from the Oregon considerable amount of material piling Water Enhancement Board (OWEB) will up in the immediate vicinity. The Oregon remove reed canarygrass and excess cobble Department of Transportation (ODOT) from Humbug Creek near Applegate. removed much of the cobble, but the The location of this photo, taken in March 2014, is downstream of the Highway 238 bridge Reed canarygrass is extremely invasive southeast bank of Humbug Creek was at Humbug Creek. The grass in the middle of the channel is reed canarygrass (Phalaris and has cemented the cobble so it won’t eroded. Some erosion control using logs arundinacea), which is highly invasive and can choke out streams. wash downstream into the Applegate will also be completed at this site. Jerry River. According to Geoff, he and another Voight from ODOT will donate truck by strategically placing boulders and large Landowner awareness of the landowner noticed in February that time to the project, which involves three woody material in the stream. These pools role that small streams play in Humbug Creek, for the first time in at least landowners and the various agencies. will allow fish easier passage and places to the overall health of the watershed is 25 winters, went subterranean about 50 Another APWC project involves spawn. Unlike Chinook salmon, which of great significance. The Humbug and feet on either side of the bridge at Highway Iron Creek, a tributary located right begin their migration to the sea in the first Iron Creek projects being carried out by 238 and Humbug Creek. below Murphy. The spark for in-stream spring after hatching, coho spend around the APWC together with landowners They also found a dead, spawned- work to protect steelhead and coho 14 months in the stream in which they and agencies help all of us enjoy a richer out female salmonid and a dead juvenile (an endangered species) came from a are born. Steelhead spend somewhat less Applegate environment. steelhead. After consulting with Steve landowner who noticed fish stranded than a year in fresh water. This makes coho For more information on projects of Barzier, a fish biologist, and Chris Parks, in pools because they were unable to go much more susceptible to the degradation the APWC, check out the home page at a hydrologist, both from the US Forest up or downstream. He contacted the of these smaller tributaries. Joseph Vaile www.applegatepartnershipwc.org. Service, they recommended removal of the APWC, who then initiated the process with Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center Barbara Summerhawk aggrading cobble and the reed canarygrass. for a grant to create step pools, plunge has also emphasized the importance of APWC Board Member Thereafter, Geoff worked through the pools and deposits of spawning gravels these smaller streams. [email protected] applegate valley wines from page 1 per ton in 2012 increased 19 percent and, region on anyone’s radar. Their goal was Its mission was not only to create a Dick Braden, co-owner of Serra Vineyards, in combination with greater production, to make the Applegate Valley a viable wine destination out of a quiet valley and Padre Properties on North Applegate resulted in a 42 percent increase in total wine destination, which meant adding and become a resource for ideas and and Highway 238 will increase the acreage crop value. This census shows that the more tasting rooms and more commercial equipment, but also to share ideas in order planted in the Applegate by hundreds of largest varietal in acreage statewide was vineyard setups. There was no competition to elevate the quality of the wine produced acres, but that all of these plantings are Pinot Noir, with Pinot Gris second and and lots of cooperation. They didn’t want in our valley. under long-term contract with a northern Chardonnay third. In the Rogue Valley, the valley to be solid vineyards because that In the last decade, Barney Smith Oregon winery and will not oversaturate Pinot Noir was still first and Pinot Gris makes it more difficult to grow grapes and of The Academy, Herb Quady of Quady the Applegate Valley market. In fact, these second, but Syrah was third. According to harder to maintain the pest and predator North, Kara Olmo and Greg Paneitz of new vineyards may use local wineries the census, Oregon grapes stay in Oregon balance. “Here we have natural boundaries Wooldridge Creek Winery, Mike and Mark to create juice for transport to large and Oregon winemakers buy very few [mountain terrain] and BLM lands, and Wisnovsky of Valley View Winery, the commercial operations farther away. grapes from other states. those, coupled with crop diversity, keep Martin family of Troon Vineyards, and Liz It benefits the entire community to Kara Olmo is one of the new pests and predators in balance to help Wan of Serra Vineyards—to name a few— have farmers and grape growers working generation of leaders in marketing maintain the health of all the valley’s have helped brand the area, attracting more side by side to develop the land in our and promoting the wine industry in the agricultural endeavors,” emphasized Kara. people to select southern Oregon as their valley in the best possible way. Applegate Valley. She said that when When Kara and Greg Paneitz came wine destination. This helps not only the The future of Applegate Valley wine Ted and Mary Warrick planted the to the valley in the early 2000s there was vineyards with tasting rooms, but also the does indeed look bright. Wooldridge Creek vineyard back in the only one tasting room—at Valley View economic stability of the entire area. Debbie Tollefson 1970s, they were part of a core group Winery. The development of a marketing Kara said that the large plantings by [email protected] that included Frank Wisnovsky, Roger plan for the valley was part of the job of and Barrie Layne, and Dick Troon, who the Applegate Valley Oregon Vintners collaborated on getting their new wine Association (AVOVA), formed in 2006. BORED? Check out our online calendar jam-packed with events all over southwest Oregon. www.applegater.org Sunday, Nov. 23 Classified Advertising Enjoy 18 wineries, A-frame Bookstore. Tues. and Sat. 12 - 4 pm, 1964 Dorsett boat with trailer. Trailer in appetizers, tastings and Thurs. 1 - 5 pm. 7919 Highway 238, Ruch. good shape. Boat not running. $300 firm. For info, call Gerrie at 541-846-9602. Williams. Call Nate at 541-660-8954. fun at this self-paced Place a classified ad! barrel tour event. $12 for three lines of text (approximately 110 characters and spaces). Advance payment Purchase your tickets online at required (payment accepted online at www.applegater.org). Contact: Jackson County—Valorie Tintinger at [email protected] or 541-450-2983. Josephine County—Amber www.applegatewinetrail.com Caudell at [email protected] or 541-846-1027.

DISCLAIMER The Applegater reserves the right to edit, categorize, revise, or refuse any classified advertisement. In addition, Applegater has the right to terminate any ad at any time for any reason. Parties posting ads are responsible for the accuracy and content of their ads. Applegater will not be liable for any damages arising out of errors or omissions. 18 Fall 2014 Applegater

OPINIONS The rape of North Applegate Road Rogue energy consciousness by kristi cowles by alan journet This past year, we Applegaters have have easily scooped up 350 acres—with The Intergovernmental Panel on This study also concluded that witnessed one of the most heartless nothing to prevent them from bulldozing Climate Change, the Oregon Climate increasing our energy efficiency could have atrocities since I moved here seven years everything they bought. I’ve also heard Change Research Institute, and the US a far greater impact than all these renewable ago: the devastation of a huge portion of through our Applegate grapevine that Department of Agriculture Climate energy generation techniques combined. what once was a beautiful, pristine winding the intention is to purchase at least Change Program released reports recently While increasing energy use efficiency does green forested road. Corporate agribusiness another 750 acres along our river. I sure underlining the conclusion that climate not generate energy, this analysis suggested has entered the Applegate Valley and it’s hope that’s not true! Acres upon acres change is happening here and now, we that increasing efficiency could reduce not going to stop until these soulless, land- of barren, flattened, brown, dusty, ugly are responsible, and it is destined to our fossil fuel consumption (currently 2.1 grabbing billionaires are allowed to gobble terrain, with long deer-proof fences next compromise the livability of our planet million MWh) for electricity by a little up all the available land they can possibly to the road, have replaced green pastures, for future generations unless we address over a third. Furthermore, if we added acquire here. That is their goal. It appears beautiful stands of trees and lush, wild it promptly. Collectively, they confirm the renewable energy generation potential that the state and counties have no laws greenery. Even trees standing near the road conclusions that could be disputed only by suggested here, we could reduce the fossil in place to stop them from destroying have been chopped down, for absolutely someone ignorant of science or exhibiting fuel electricity need by 43 percent. North Applegate Road’s scenic landscape! no reason except to make it easy for miles malicious intent. On this issue, it is Since electrical energy generation Huge, tall old trees have been hacked down of fencing to go up in their place. Devoid impossible to be too alarmist. accounts for about 18 percent of our carelessly. Long rows of high fences have of any conscience whatsoever, eschewing Rogue Valley residents should regional greenhouse gas emissions, been constructed that prevent our wild consultation with our community as understand what we are doing to cause undertaking these steps could reduce animals from getting to the Applegate a whole, they have but one obvious goal climate change and how we might reduce our emissions by 43 percent of that 18 River for shelter and water. The rest of what in mind—huge future profits! our contribution. percent, or nearly 8 percent overall. While they bought has been basically flattened, A disaster of this magnitude should One 2011 analysis revealed that not all of us can install solar or wind with barriers dangerously close to the never have been allowed to occur and Rogue Valley greenhouse gas emissions generation to substitute for fossil-fuel- already narrow North Applegate Road. will likely cause flooding during the originate from three general activities: generated electricity, we should do it if Just beyond our Applegate Library, rainy season—putting our Applegate Fully 44 percent result from materials we can. However, we all can address what one sees nothing but wasteland—a dust Library in jeopardy. Obviously much we buy that are produced elsewhere and is called “the low-hanging fruit,” namely, bowl where grapevines will be planted stiffer zoning laws in both Jackson and shipped here, the energy cost of making increasing our energy-use efficiency. and no doubt sprayed with Roundup and Josephine Counties are necessary to them and shipping them to us being The most effective ways to enhance our other chemicals, the runoff polluting our prevent this unscrupulous disruption from assigned to us. The famous Earth Day individual residential energy-use efficiency Applegate River. These new corporate ever happening again. Our gentle way of motto, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle,” is are (in rank order): improvements in owners have shown no sign of becoming life in this valley, not to mention all of germane here; the less we buy, the more space conditioning (heating, ventilation members of our rural community—nor southwestern Oregon, has clearly been locally made materials we buy, the fewer and air conditioning or HVAC) such have they even shown any interest in threatened. I’ve always loved driving past emissions we cause. as improved insulation with reduced who we are! The higher-ups will probably the small vineyards and wineries, owned Our transportation in private or leakage, followed by water heating, and never even set foot in our valley, or, if they by local people who care, who are involved commercial vehicles and public transit consumer electronics. These are followed do, it will be to ogle their new kingdom, members of our community, and who have along with the transport of locally made by enhancing home office equipment, boosting their already humongous egos. chosen to really live here! materials results in 32 percent of our increasing home lighting efficiency, and Word on the street out here is that almost This greedy action raises a emissions. Reducing our fossil fuel-based improving refrigeration. all of the harvested grapes will be shipped quintessential question: Is sweeping travel and employing more energy efficient Meanwhile, in the industrial/ out of this valley. corporate agriculture what we want to see modes will reduce this component. commercial arena, the most effective A leisurely Sunday drive along North happen throughout the Applegate? Finally, energy production results targets for improving energy efficiency are Applegate Road will reveal what these Kristi Cowles in 24 percent of our emissions. About lighting and HVAC, followed by office amorphous elites are up to—so far they [email protected] three quarters of this (equaling 18 percent equipment, food processing, external of total emissions) is public utility or lighting, and refrigeration. industrial power plant production of While these residential and electricity consumed in our residences and commercial efforts certainly require businesses. It also includes natural gas we investment, ultimately they all save money. use for heating. Any reduction in our use What each of us does individually of utility-generated electricity will reduce will not make a colossal dent in saving our carbon emissions. the planet for future generations. Even if Another 2011 report evaluated how regionally we all do the maximum we can our region might increase reliance on do, the impact will not be sufficient. But, clean energy while reducing our reliance we are all, individually and collectively, on electricity generated from fossil fuel confronted with a serious moral and sources. Focusing on Jackson and Josephine ethical challenge. Should each of us take Counties, this study indicated that we the moral high road and do the maximum used about three million megawatt hours we can do to protect this planet for future (MWh) of electricity in 2005. Of this, less generations, or should we do nothing and than a third was derived from renewable just contribute further to the problem? sources (largely hydropower), leaving The same question applies collectively at over two million MWh derived from the city, county, state, and national levels. carbon polluting fossil fuels. The study The US should not be lagging, but should also concluded that using a combination be leading the world to solve this problem. of increased biomass burning, wind, solar, Alan Journet hydropower, and anaerobic digestion could 541-301-4107 reduce our fossil fuel needs, and thus our [email protected] greenhouse gas emissions by an additional Co-facilitator 229,000 MWh. Southern Oregon Climate Action Now Applegater Fall 2014 19

OPINIONS River Right: Government and climate Where flows collide change issues by tom carstens by alan voetsch

The other day I was kayaking on the law]. Jurisdictions that have enacted laws I was rather surprised by some articles obviously has no real clue what science California Salmon River near Somes Bar legalizing marijuana…and that have I read in the Spring issue. Apparently, the is. Science is a method of inquiry. It uses where it joins the Klamath River. When also implemented strong and effective agenda (resent the wealthy, but expect experiments that should have repeatable two rivers collide, lots of interesting stuff regulatory and enforcement systems… them to support us anyway) of the results when the same parameters are used happens. The water clarity and temperature [are] less likely to threaten the federal national media has landed locally and we’re within the experiment itself, no matter can change dramatically, for example. [enforcement] priorities.” supposed to reap the benefits of what other who performs the experiment. I’ve been Water currents also become jumbled up in The memo lays out a baffling set of Americans have earned. This is not the an amateur astronomer most of my life unpredictable ways. Kayaks are inherently criteria that federal prosecutors should use America I grew up in, and if that attitude and have always loved science. I want and unstable so these swirling waters can be a in prosecuting marijuana cases, especially continues this country will continue to expect truthful, rational discourse on this problem. I have to complete a turn into where the state government has legalized it. fade away. If you want something, you need and all subjects of interest to my country. the main stem current of the Klamath It’s tough to follow, but it basically leaves to work to achieve it. Don’t expect Uncle Scare tactics and refusal to hear opposing while the tributary flow is pushing me in the decision to prosecute up to the local Sam to hand it to you; that attitude sets all points of view are not science. Attacking a different direction. Conflicting surface district attorney. You can read it yourself: of us up for failure down the road. anyone who disagrees with your message waves and underwater currents join in the Google “DAG Memo 8-29-13.” If you Ask yourselves this: what does is not scientific. jostling. Confusing? It’s rough and tumble, understand it, give me a ring. government produce? The answer: folks Please read The Greatest Hoax by and I have to be careful as I edge into The DEA isn’t buying any of it. with their hands out. US Senator Jim Inhofe. He has worked the turn. Eventually, though, the mighty In April, the head of the DEA vowed Smaller and leaner is better than fat on this issue for a long time and explains Klamath overpowers the smaller Salmon, to Congress that she would fight back and bloated. My opinion: less revenue to why the Little Ice Age and Medieval and I go where it shoves me. against lax marijuana enforcement. The Washington, DC; more revenue locally Warming Period are very important to this This is a bit how I feel when I DEA’s chief of operations has called and regionally. We know better where it’s conversation. If you don’t know what the take a look at another one of our ballot states’ legalization efforts “reckless and needed than the career politicians 3,000 UN’s IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on initiatives coming up in November. irresponsible.” And, as we know here in miles away. In fact, let’s vote them out Climate Change] is and what its agenda This one would legalize recreational the Applegate Valley, the DEA is more and install term limits. Actually, to be is, you need to read this book. If you marijuana use in Oregon. On the surface, than willing to team up with the sheriff to fair, I prefer a 12-year limit: two terms for don’t know how big the tax increases will this doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. A run a raid or two. senators, six terms for representatives. be to combat climate change, who the recent poll shows that a slim majority of But wait, there’s more! Did you I attended Senator Wyden’s town revenues will go to, and how little would be Oregonians supports this next step in the know that the US Securities and Exchange hall meeting in Medford several months accomplished by those trillions of our tax decriminalization of pot. But not so fast— Commission has suspended trading ago with one of my daughters and was dollars, read this book. If you don’t know doesn’t this fly in the face of federal law? with marijuana-related companies? And shocked at the large representation of what the “Summary for Policymakers” is, The US Controlled Substances Act still just this past May, the US Supreme folks who attended as organized groups read this book. If you are not aware that lists marijuana as a “Schedule I Drug” with Court unanimously declined to make an to protest against any kind of energy China is putting hundreds of new coal- some pretty significant penalties. Article exception for even medical marijuana. development and of course wanting to fired power plants on line every year but VI of the Constitution still says US law Many local jurisdictions in Oregon are present their agenda of stopping climate would not be subject to the UN’s climate predominates over state law. To me, this resisting medical marijuana dispensaries change. If that showed who we are as a agreement, you need to read this book. resembles the big daddy river overpowering even though they’re legal by state law. community then apparently 75 percent I guarantee that, finally, you will hear a the teeny tributary. Local officials question the propriety of of us are environmental activists. I am rational, intelligent discussion of what we What about our sister state, issuing a business license that violates deeply concerned by what I see and hear are up against. Washington—they’ve legalized pot, haven’t federal law. In an attempt to clarify, the nowadays on this subject. Much climate Left Turn by Tim Groseclose is a book they? Yes. But. There are a number of Oregon Legislative Counsel issued this “information” is just plain crap and that details why the media is out of control. federal cases pending against growers guidance last November: “We conclude presented entirely out of context with I think you’ll be surprised with the amazing there. Just last May, for example, the Drug that while a municipality may not be the intent of scaring us. The lies and detail he uses to document his findings. Enforcement Agency (DEA) raided ten required to violate federal law to comply manipulations by the climate alarmists are Starts boring, but hang in there. rural pot growers near Kettle Falls. The with a conflicting state law, a municipality legendary. Any side that tries to tell me that Alan Voetsch eastern Washington district prosecuting may not act contrary to state law merely “the science is over” or “the debate is over” [email protected] attorney is charging each of them with six because the municipality believes that the felony counts. A federal judge overseeing action will better carry out the purposes Have you seen the Gater’s online calendar? the case has ruled that they cannot use and objectives of federal law.” www.applegater.org state law as a defense. The Department Say what? of Justice has already spent $3 million on To me, the whole thing looks a lot Send your events to [email protected]— this case, which is expected to top $13 like the colliding flows of the dominant we’ll post them on our Facebook page too! million. Whoa! Klamath and the little Salmon: federal Confused? In an attempt to law overpowers state law and we end up clarify federal policy, the US Deputy getting jostled around. Attorney General issued a memo a year And guess what? The next change in ago to all federal prosecutors, which administration could be like a big storm included the following: “Marijuana brewing upstream, plunging us into a is a dangerous drug and...the illegal flood of federal prosecutions. I don’t want distribution and sale of marijuana is a to paddle in those waters! serious crime. The Department of Justice See you on the river. is committed to enforcement of [federal Tom Carstens • 541-846-1025

OPINION PIECES AND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Opinion Pieces and Letters to the Editor represent the opinion of the author, not that of the Applegater or the Applegate Valley Community Newspaper, Inc. We are a community-based newspaper that receives diverse opinions on different topics. Letters should be no longer than 450 words, Opinion Pieces should be no longer than 750 words. Both may be edited for grammar and length. All Letters must be signed, with a full street address or P.O. Box and phone number. Opinion Pieces must include publishable contact information (phone and/or email address). Individual letters may or may not be published in consecutive issues. Address Opinion Pieces and Letters to the Editor to: Applegater c/o Applegate Valley Community Newspaper, Inc. P.O. Box 14, Jacksonville, OR 97530 Email: [email protected] 20 Fall 2014 Applegater OPINIONS Here we go again… BLM’S Nedsbar Timber Sale by chant thomas The Bureau of Land Management canopy stands with higher moisture (BLM) is again planning Nedsbar, another retention, it tends to underburn slowly, enormous “landscape” timber sale in the as the wind cannot penetrate far into a Little Applegate and Upper Applegate closed canopy stand. When wildfire moves watersheds. Judging from attendance for into tree plantations or opened stands, it BLM’s “open house” at the Jacksonville tends to blow up and burn intensively as Library in July, the several dozen Applegate it rapidly consumes the higher volumes of residents who made the journey over drier fine and small fuels, driven by winds Jville Hill to the dinnertime meeting are that penetrate the opened stands. Such concerned about this second largest non- fires are often quickly drawn up through salvage timber sale ever planned for BLM canopy openings like chimneys, where they Applegate forests. Locals’ concerns are then begin to spread through the canopy. continuations of those from BLM’s largest Such fires generate strong winds and often such timber sale, Bald Lick, that covered burn so erratically with elevated flame much of the Nedsbar area and that failed lengths that it becomes unsafe to place fire to sell in 2005 and 2006. Many locals crews near the fire. Such fires often eject cited Bobar, an earlier logging project that firebrands that start new fires, especially in covered much of the Nedsbar and failed to opened stands that have prematurely lost sell in 2003. their moisture content. Some locals mistakenly believe BLM’s Locals are concerned that proposed position that their logging prescriptions BLM logging would stoke future forest will reduce fire danger in the Applegate. fires with more fuel and make thinned Yet more locals are learning that the forests more susceptible to wildfire. opposite is true. Forest stands, logged Local residents also are perplexed as to by BLM’s typical thinning, will suffer why the BLM would locate an enormous decreased fire resistance as new canopy logging project right in the core of an area openings admit increased sun into the considered special enough by Senator forest understory and floor, evaporating Wyden to deserve specific protective essential moisture earlier in the summer designation. Wyden’s proposed O&C and extending fire season by lengthening legislation, which would double logging the amount of time the fine fuels are tinder on BLM Applegate forests, also proposes designations such as Wilderness Areas, areas and still dependent on traditional dry. Fuel loads will increase, in addition to protection of significant Applegate National Parks and Monuments, Wild extractive industries suffer from economic the untreated logging slash, as increased wildlands as Primitive Backcountry Areas and Scenic Rivers, and PBAs are beneficial stagnation and out-migration. sunlight stimulates rapid growth of shrubs, (PBA). In addition to Wellington and to local economies. They’re familiar Locals will be watching to see if the grasses and other fine fuels on floors of Mungers Buttes, the largest area is the with research that discovers how rural BLM’s proposed Public Involvement Plan the opened stands. Between increased fine 21,200-acre Dakubetede PBA (see map), western counties with the most acreage of for the Nedsbar Timber Sale will make and medium fuels and stands prematurely which includes the spectacular Little designated protected areas exhibit greater any difference, remembering that Citizen drying out, fire hazards will increase Applegate River Canyon (home of the economic growth, job diversification, and Alternatives for Bobar and Bald Lick were dramatically over pre-logging levels. popular Sterling Mine Ditch Trail system) increased personal and investment income. “eliminated from detailed study” in the Professional fire ecologists understand and nearby areas. Conversely, the research shows that rural Environmental Assessment process. that when wildfire moves into closed Locals understand that protective western counties with little or no protected Chant Thomas • 541-899-6906

history. It’ll take all of us—every engineer, a carbon tax is the most cost-effective way Climate crisis: A sympton of every investment banker, every vintner— to fight climate change. It costs society abating fossil fuels in the way that makes less to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by underpriced fossil fuels the most sense for him- or herself. It’s taxing carbon than it does to subsidize solar by camila thorndike and dan golden not the role of government to make panels. The highest priority of the 2015 “I just can’t understand the solar tax thermal systems. So, when the weather gets sustainability profitable; rather, it’s the Oregon legislature should be to adjust credit. Why photovoltaics?” cold, Mark turns on the electric heater at job of the business to make their profit the price of carbon energy to reflect its We were talking with Mark Wisnovsky, a cost of $400 per month. sustainable for the planet. true costs to our health and communities. a local vintner and owner of Valley View It’s tempting to conclude that Buckminster Fuller once said that a But it would be a mistake to squander the Winery. Mark, like so many entrepreneurs renewable energy incentives need a little problem adequately stated is very nearly revenue on inefficient subsidies. in southern Oregon, is constantly searching fine-tuning—consolidate here, simplify a problem solved. Mark is the victim of It’s time that we trust Oregonians for ways to simultaneously green his there, and expand eligibility to include a misstated problem. The climate crisis to make the decisions that work best for business and improve his bottom line. solar thermal systems. But what about all is not a symptom of inadequate clean themselves, by redistributing the revenue Over the past 15 years, he’s reached out the other alternatives? Who decides which energy, and it’s certainly not a symptom evenly among all voters. Then, if a vintner to the US Department of Agriculture, investment is best among solar thermal, of expensive solar panels. The climate crisis decides to invest in that new solar thermal Pacific Power, and a handful of other state wind and biomass? Is there ever a case is a symptom of underpriced fossil fuels. system, he’ll have the resources to do it. If and federal agencies, trying to navigate when the government would know better The hidden costs of coal, oil and gas are he decides not to, that’s his prerogative too. our complex kludgeocracy of tax credits than Mark which technology is best for not reflected in the products and activities But if he’s looking out for his bottom line, and subsidies for clean energy. “It’s like Valley View? that burn them. If Mark’s electricity bill he’ll have to look out for the climate too. a puzzle, with all the different grants and If we were serious about creating a included the costs of hurricanes, floods and Camila Thorndike and deadlines and incentives. I need one person green economy, we could hardly do better wildfires, he’d probably invest in that solar Dan Golden to help me manage it all.” Mark could than write blank checks to small business thermal system, subsidy or not. 541-951-2619 hire a specialist if Valley View was a larger owners. But with no strings, who would It comes as no surprise that the Co-founders of Oregon Climate operation, but he can barely justify solar invest in clean energy technology at all? overwhelming majority of economists say [email protected] panels as it is. “We’re at the point where it And for that matter, who’s to say anyone would make sense if we get 80 percent of should? Mark points out that it’s hard to it covered. As best I can tell, 70 percent is justify photovoltaics anywhere in the Pacific more realistic.” Northwest: “Why not build a solar farm Burn reminder “All the winemakers I know really in a state like Arizona and feed that energy just want solar thermal systems to keep into the grid? If it’s clean, I don’t care where Before burning outdoors any time of year, their fermenters warm in the winter,” says it comes from—we share the same earth, check with your fire district to make sure Mark. Solar thermal is a relatively simple the same air.” that day is an official burn day technology that concentrates sunlight It’s a fool’s errand to weigh the relative on a heating medium, usually water and benefits of new energy technologies. The and not a NO burn day. propylene glycol. It comes at a price tag of world’s brightest engineers couldn’t even $10,000—roughly one-fifteenth the cost describe a totally sustainable world. To Jackson County • 541-776-7007 of a comparable photovoltaic system, but free ourselves from fossil fuels is probably Josephine County • 541-476-9663 (Press 3) there are no tax credits available for solar the most ambitious transition in human Applegater Fall 2014 21 MY OPINION FROM BEHIND THE GREEN DOOR Consider community by chris bratt We residents of the Applegate live limits on the innovation, creativity and on our public lands and thereby weakening use” timber in a unique and inspiring place, but far collaboration of the public. the protective provisions of the Northwest cutting) with our greater community involvement and As I reported in the last Applegater, Forest Plan, which calls for “multiple use” local agencies. action on our part will soon be required two extreme legislative proposals have been management by the federal agencies. We are in danger Chris Bratt to protect the beauty, natural diversity introduced in Congress. One bill exempts Most of these planned BLM rewrites of losing this and environmental health of the public BLM forest plans from judicial review (no rely on very risky forest management cooperative mandate provided by our forests that surround us. Presently some appeals of any timber sales), and the other actions that have never been tested. They federal designation as the Applegate disturbing actions and trends stand in bill gets rid of the BLM entirely by dividing represent just a few of the obstacles our Adaptive Management Area (AAMA). the way of continued development of our its forest lands between the US Forest community will be confronting from This special area allows our community, community well-being and threaten our Service and a private trust (clear-cutting now on. The irony is that none of these the BLM and the US Forest Service to ability to participate as a public voice in allowed for sure). Passage of either bill will outlandish proposals or actions will jointly seek innovative strategies and future forest management decisions. Our ability dramatically increase logging and reduce guarantee enough logging revenue to actions that are most responsive to social to work together with the local public public participation on these BLM lands. come anywhere near funding the budget and resource issues. land management agencies to help develop In addition, the BLM has recently shortfalls of “timber-dependent” counties. From my perspective, our community the future conditions we need for our resurrected that part of the 1937 Oregon All of these stumbling blocks efforts over the past 20 years in working watersheds is being curtailed. If we don’t and California Act that governs their reflect attempts by Congressional cooperatively with the federal agencies in act to sustain our public forests, we won’t interpretation of sustainable timber representatives, timber-dependent the AAMA have paid off for all parties. be able to sustain our communities. production. Consequently, once again the counties, timber interests and the BLM There is no justification for now pressuring Most of the forest management BLM is dictating that timber production itself to weaken the public process for the BLM into changing our present AAMA problems our community is now (volume) is the “primary purpose” and citizens to influence agency decisions. “multiple use” management direction, facing derive from the impasse over “dominant use” of our public forest Many people living in the Applegate don’t especially in this increasingly polarized a series of complex Bureau of Land lands. Also, with new BLM Resource realize that the BLM’s present Resource political arena. We in the Applegate expect Management (BLM) issues. The BLM is Management Plans (RMPs) in the making Management Plans (1995) granted our better. We need better long-term forest- under intense political pressure to supply (2015) and in response to a recent federal community extraordinary opportunities management solutions. Anything else more money for distressed counties and court order, the BLM is planning to double to “develop and test new management would be a travesty. more logs to the timber industry. This timber sale volumes on all the forest lands approaches to integrate and achieve Let me know if you expect better. can be accomplished only by loosening they manage. It is apparent that the BLM ecological and economic health and Chris Bratt environmental regulations and imposing is abandoning science-based management other social objectives” (not “dominant 541-846-6988

In addition to vendor booths, this This event will certainly boast Harvest Fair to be held event will have educational programs something for everyone, and we hope to with agriculturally based themes such make it a true gathering place for all ages of in October at the Grange as beekeeping, beer making, noxious our community. If you would like to be a by janis mohr-tipton weed eradication, and more. Nonprofit part of this great gathering and fair, contact educational booth space will be available Janis Mohr-Tipton or Paul Tipton at 541- Greetings! We want you to mark your of the community to participate as at no cost if nothing is being sold. 846-7501 or email us at applegategrange@ calendar for the next community event! vendors, volunteers, sponsors/supporters, We will also have a children’s gmail.com. We will be featuring vendors, The Applegate Valley Community Grange or fairgoers. Let’s create a true celebration area with crafts and games, and we intend musicians, sponsors and activities in our is planning to hold a Grange Harvest Fair of the harvest in the Applegate Valley! to have live music. We are looking for promotional materials for this event, so on Saturday, October 18, from 10 am to Vendors of prepared foods, musical groups or individuals to perform. let us know at your earliest convenience 4 pm in the hall and on the grounds. We locally grown produce, food and agricultural We will need volunteers from about your participation so that we can would love to have the community join us products, arts and crafts are all welcome to the community to help plan, prepare include you. for this festive event. set up a booth to sell their wares and shake and set up for the event, and help with We look forward to hearing from you. As you know, for the past two years hands with their community. Booth spaces activities at the fair. Anyone who would Janis Mohr-Tipton • 541-846-7501 we have had a very successful Harvest (indoors and outdoors) will be 10 feet by like to sponsor or support any of the fair Harvest Fair Vendor and Brunch at our Grange. This year, instead of 10 feet at a cost of $20. Vendors are to activities is encouraged to contact Janis Nonprofit Booths Coordinator brunch, we would like to invite members provide covers and tables. Mohr-Tipton for details. [email protected]

Update from the I fear the day that technology will surpass our human Applegate Food Pantry “interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” by arlene and claude aron —attributed to Albert Einstein Good news! (June 13) we received only about half Thanks to the plea we made in the of them back. We appreciate everyone last Applegater, we now have a new regular who has participated and donated food, driver for the food pantry. Richard Mikula but we could really use some additional has generously stepped up to help in this participation from the community. If you capacity. Thank you, Richard, for your have taken a bag and for any reason cannot service to our community! continue to participate, please return it Schedule Update: Our summer to the Applegate or Ruch stores so that hours are Mondays from 9 - 10:30 am. someone else can use it (we have to pay On October 6, we will revert to our regular for the bags). And please consider joining schedule, which is Mondays from 11:30 this program if you can afford to do so. am – 1 pm. We will be closed on Monday, One hundred percent of the food donated September 1, and Monday, September goes directly to the Applegate Food Pantry, 29. If there are any further changes to our located behind Ruch School. Just pick up a hours, we always post notices at the Ruch bag at the Applegate or Ruch store—there and Applegate stores. are instructions in each bag. As we announced in the last The remaining dates for Applegater, the Applegate Food Pantry has dropping off bags are October 10 begun distributing all the food collected and December 12. If you can’t make through the Neighborhood Food Project those exact days, that’s okay—we will directly to local residents rather than check the stores a couple of days before merging it with the Medford Food Project. and after those dates. We were encouraged by the initial response Questions? Call us at 541-951-6707. in which almost 50 participants took Arlene and Claude Aron green bags to fill, but on our last pickup 541-951-6707 Happy Columbus Day! 22 Fall 2014 Applegater ‘Kitsch’ not to miss: Applegate and Williams Schools Annual Reedsport Chainsaw welcome Principal Darrell Erb Jr. “I must say I am very pleased to join Sculpting Championship the team at Applegate School. There exists a quality staff focused on teaching, learning, and by julia hoskins continual improvement. What an opportunity to work with a bunch of great folks!” Some call it kitsch, I suppose because Sculpting Championship, held in June on With these words, Darrell Erb Jr. of the tools used. I say that the eye and Father’s Day weekend, included carvers expressed his enthusiasm for his new position hand that can carve a statue such as from Germany, England, Canada, Russia, as principal in the Three Rivers School this one—of the classical subject of the Japan, and Italy, along with entries from District, where both the Applegate and Archangel Michael stabbing the devil— all over the Pacific Northwest. Bob King Williams schools will be under his watch. could carve a sculpture of any material of Washington was the well-deserving With 18 years of experience in education, and equal the best sculptures in the town winner with this archangel/devil sculpture. he has taught in the Brookings-Harbor, Gold squares and museums of Europe. That All were excellent, and it’s a marvel to see Beach, and Sheridan, Oregon, school districts. spear is carved one-piece with the rest the carvings completed in the four-day He spent the last five years at Three Rivers: of the sculpture. (The wings are carved time limit. There are both professional four years as dean of students at Lorna Byrne separately; it’s the devil’s tail curving up and semiprofessional competitions. A side Middle School in Cave Junction, and a year as behind the archangel’s wings.) The devil’s bonus: terrific seafood dining in Reedsport assistant principal at Fleming Middle School horns and other small details are blackened and Winchester Bay! New Applegate and Williams principal in Grants Pass. with a blowtorch. Julia Hoskins Darrell Erb Jr., during a family visit Prior to his employment with Three The Annual Reedsport Chainsaw [email protected] to Yaquina Head Lighthouse Rivers, Darrell spent seven years as an in Newport, OR. executive and senior program associate with nonprofit organizations focused on sustainable community development. That work took him to many wonderful places in North and Central America, Europe, and Asia. He says he’s happy to be back in education and especially pleased to be the principal at Applegate and Williams schools. “I join a team of people committed to providing a high-quality, dynamic, and engaging school for all our students,” said Darrell. Welcome to the Applegate, Principal Erb!

Local artist Terry Ahola has taken first place at Reedsport Terry Ahola had been “carving” for about 12 years when he decided to enter his first competition, choosing the 2008 Reedsport Chainsaw Sculpting Championship—and as a professional, no less. Right out the gate, he won not only First Place honors, but also the People’s Photo, left: This first-place archangel sculpture was created by Bob King of Washington. Choice and Carver’s Choice Awards. Photo, right: Another intricate sculpture that was entered at the annual Reedsport chainsaw carving competition this year. Terry also competed in the Reedsport Photos by Don Hoskins. event in 2012 and 2013, where he won Fourth Place, and at the Albuquerque 2008 Echo Carving Series, taking Second Place Reedsport, Father’s Day Sonnet as well as being tops at an auction for the Archangel Michael has the devil down. They fly from ’round the world to “Make A Wish Foundation.” A giant bear sits on a log to play carve their art: Unable to get to Reedsport in 2014, His mighty saxophone: spruce swirls Japan and Netherlands, Russia he says he may compete again one day. as sound. and more. Heaven’s at war, and eagles soar, Buyers anticipate the final mart. this day. Earplugs are free; we tolerate the roar. Bullwinkle reads the Bible in his hand. Blowtorches burn some black, and Dolphins, mermaids stare at wolves light’s incised. and horses, Four days is all to sculpt a form This sculpture, “Bear Cub, Raccoon, Beaver Bison plod, too late, across the land. that’s prized. Concept,” was Terry Ahola’s triple-winning Here tree trunks come alive at saw’s entry at the 2008 Annual Reedsport forces. —Julia Hoskins Chainsaw Sculpting Championship. Terry Ahola at Boatnik in Grants Pass. See more at terryaholaswoodsculptures.com.

Please support our advertisers! They help make this paper possible. The Gater thanks you. Applegater Fall 2014 23 OPINIONS: NATIONAL WILDERNESS ACT Happy 50th Birthday, Celebrating 50 years National Wilderness Act of wilderness by JOSH WEBER by luke ruediger The autumn of 2014 marks the name through the Sierra Nevada range. September 3, 2014, marks the to occur while prohibiting mechanization celebration of 50 years of the Wilderness Aldo Leopold (1887-1948) is the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. and other damaging human activities. Act. This successful landmark decision forefather of the wildlife conservation Lyndon B. Johnson signed this landmark Our own Red Buttes Wilderness, has kept in perpetuity 110 million acres movement and an early spokesman of conservation bill into law in 1964, creating located at the headwaters of the Applegate of pristine, intact wilderness across the wilderness preservation shortly after the US the National Wilderness Preservation River, was designated wilderness in 1984. United States, where, as stated in the Forest Service’s founding. He introduced System (NWPS). Initially the NWPS Unfortunately, because of politics and legislation, “the earth and its community a new concept, his “land ethic,” which set aside 9.1 million acres of wilderness; pressure from extractive industries at the of life are untrammeled by man...” and “enlarges the boundaries of the community however, with the support of the American time, much of the roadless, wild terrain where “undeveloped Federal land retains its to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, public, Congress has added over 100 surrounding the Red Buttes was left out primeval character and influence, without or collectively: the land…and affirms their million acres over the past 50 years. of the officially designated wilderness. permanent improvement or human right to continued existence and, at least in The Wilderness Act of 1964 states, The Red Buttes Wilderness is on the small habitation.” spots, their continued existence in a natural “In order to assure that an increasing side, encompassing only 20,234 acres. The Applegate watershed has been state.” Throughout his life, he ceaselessly population, accompanied by expanding Extending from the forested flank of the blessed with our own unique wilderness wrote and spoke on this philosophy and settlement and growing mechanization, Middle Fork of the Applegate River and area, the 20,796-acre Red Buttes many others as laid out in his landmark does not occupy and modify all areas within south to the Siskiyou Crest, the wilderness Wilderness, and many other surrounding book, A Sand County Almanac. the United States and its possessions, encompasses the Butte Fork drainage, the unprotected roadless areas. Bob Marshall (1901-1939) was a leaving no lands designated for preservation headwaters of Carberry Creek’s Steve Fork, These primitive lands have the passionate, engaged conservationist, a and protection in their natural condition, and the dark forests of the Right Hand potential to provide for whatever the voracious explorer of high country, and it is hereby declared to be the policy of Fork of Sucker Creek. Richly endowed individual who braves the wild may seek— a driving force behind the vision that the Congress to secure for the American with ancient and diverse forests, the they inspire the artist and form the temples resulted in the Wilderness Act. He wrote people of present and future generations region is defined by the rugged summits for quenching spiritual thirst. They provide a policy-changing book on the need for the benefits of an enduring resource of the Siskiyou Crest, including the area’s recreation and physical outlet for hikers, reform of national forest management and of wilderness. For this purpose there is spectacular namesake, Red Butte. equestrians, and mountain climbers. In penned hundreds of papers promoting hereby established a National Wilderness Large sections of adjacent wilderness my opinion, wilderness provides an ethical wilderness, civil rights, and education. Preservation System to be composed were excluded from the Red Buttes in base for humans to emulate if we slow His efforts towards preservation resulted, of federally owned areas designated by 1984, including miles of ridgeline and ourselves to notice the pace of nature, posthumously, in the 1964 act’s formation, Congress as ‘wilderness areas,’ and these large areas of ancient, uncut forest. At the where all creatures live in harmonious which included 1,009,356 acres of shall be administered for the use and time of wilderness designation, the entire balance as part of a greater whole. northern Montana wilderness, named enjoyment of the American people in such Grayback Range—containing vast tracts There was a remarkable transition in after this legendary character. manner as will leave them unimpaired of productive forest—was left unprotected America, over a couple hundred years, from The creation of the law in Congress for future use as wilderness, and so as and was later impacted by US Forest a burgeoning colony viewing wilderness as took nine years, 65 rewrites, and 18 public to provide for the protection of these Service timber sales such as China Left and a dark and sinister land of serpents needing hearings, but its journey began long areas, the preservation of their wilderness Sugarloaf. This area, known as the Oregon to be tamed, to an era, in the first decades before that and continues today. With character, and for the gathering and portion of the Kangaroo Roadless Area, of the 20th century, when wilderness was passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964, dissemination of information regarding or the Grayback Range, exists today as a seen as a place of renewal and inspiration Americans chartered a course to preserve their use and enjoyment as wilderness.” 31,778-acre island of forest, meadow, high that urgently needed protection. The some of our country’s last remaining wild Howard Zahniser, former executive peak, and wild mountain stream. Also left outspoken views of heroic historical leaders places. Fifty years later, the legacy carries director of the Wilderness Society, drafted unprotected were large portions—some helped form the path to the preservation on. In our beautiful Oregon alone, there the bill in 1956 with the intention of 60,000 acres—of the Kangaroo Roadless of these lands. are 47 wilderness areas to visit. Local protecting the nation’s last remaining Area in California, dropping to the banks John Muir (1838-1914) is our nation’s organizations contribute time and labor wildlands. Sadly, Zahniser died just of the Klamath River. foremost mountain man; he brought the to keep trails accessible, while ceaselessly months before it was signed into law. In this era of seven billion people issue of preservation to the forefront of the advocating on behalf of wild lands. Although he never got to see his amazing and climate change, it is more imperative minds of his fellow countrymen following To get involved, contact any of these and lasting legacy, the American people than ever to protect native ecosystems. In rapid expansion after the Civil War. He groups: Williams Community Forest Project will benefit for generations to come. celebration of the 50th anniversary of the was a co-founder of the Sierra Club, one (www.williamscommunityforestproject. The NWPS today includes more than Wilderness Act, it is time to push for new of the most influential environmental org), the Applegate Trails Association 750 wilderness areas, 109,511,966 acres of additions to the Red Buttes Wilderness groups lobbying on behalf of wilderness. (www.applegatetrails.org), or the protected wilderness, and a wilderness area and further protect the roadless wildlands His legacy carries on through his numerous Siskiyou Mountain Club (www. in all but six US states. Wilderness areas of the Applegate River watershed. books, often-replicated quotes, and the siskiyoumountainclub.org). represent the nation’s highest form of land Luke Ruediger spectacular 215-mile trail that bears his Josh Weber•[email protected] protection, allowing for natural processes [email protected]

Map, left, shows the Red Buttes Wilderness Area in dark green. The medium green areas are “inventoried roadless areas,” and the light green designates US Forest Service land. Photo above is Echo Lake. Located at the top of the Horse Camp trail, the lake was left out of the Red Buttes Wilderness and remains unprotected. Photo and map provided by Luke Ruediger. 24 Fall 2014 Applegater

Look who’s reading the Gater Take us with you on your next trip. Then send your favorite “Reading the Gater”photo to [email protected] or mail to Applegater, P.O. Box 14, Jacksonville, OR 97530. Photos will appear as space allows.

Photos, from top to bottom: — John Gerritsma attempts to read scintillating stories in the Gater to Hans Christian Andersen in Copenhagen, Denmark. — Chant Thomas and the Applegater were warmly received by the Bureau of Land Management in Washington, DC, when they recently dropped by uninvited.

Keep those articles, letters, opinions and “Reading the Gater” photos coming in. You are the Gater!

The Applegater Board

JOB OPPORTUNITY WITH THE GATER

SEE PAGE 3