Big T-Storm

 Big thunder storm at about 1:30 pm produced third of an inch of rain mixed with hail all within 2 minutes.  Rain gutters could not handle the down pour.  Pictures taken from the deck.  Might be more later as there are dark clouds to the south and thunder off in the distance.   

Much more lightning and rain, some may have hit the house or nearby and the power was off and on a few times.  Almost an inch of rain now.  Most excitement since the big snow storm.   

Kanipe Comments on Logging

 For what it is worth, these are my comments to ODF for the Notification to salvage log on Mildred Kanipe Park.   You are receiving this, in addition to members of the Friends of Kanipe Park board because of your past involvement and interest in this park.   There is a legitimate need to remove some trees damaged from the recent storm to protect park infrastructure, improvements and park users.   Many of us fear it is a green light to go beyond what is necessary to satisfy the BOC and their cronies, and recent activities at Whistler's Bend is an example.  

You are encouraged to send your own comments to ODF and the county parks department (note email addresses on the following).   Comments are due by 3/28/19.

There are 29 other parks that the county plans some sort of salvage operation on in addition to Kanipe. 

The following are my comments to the Notification of Operation submitted to ODF by Douglas County for salvage logging on Mildred Kanipe Memorial Park.  These comments are based on my observations of the recent storm damage while walking through the park on 3/16/19.

The oak savanna area of the park has scattered oak trees and branches that have fallen.  The Underwood Hill road/trail is blocked with oak and maple trees just beyond the Bachelor Creek bridge.  There is also a slump on this road where half the road bed has dropped down toward the creek.   Bachelor Creek has a fair amount of oaks and maples that have fallen into or across the creek.  This may enhance fish habitat and ODF&W needs be consulted prior to any operations in this riparian area.  The Fernwood road/trail has oak trees across it east of the bridge up to the clearing toward the open ridge top.   Much of the hardwoods blocking roads can be cut up as firewood or decked for firewood cutting by permit.

 Except for one large green fir tree in a side creek and a few pole size firs west of the bridge, I did not notice any large Douglas fir trees, dead or green that had fallen.  Most of the standing dead fir trees have died within the last 5 to 6 years from drought and/or insects.  Most have little merchantability, except maybe in the bottom log (12 to 34 foot).  The average height of these trees range between 60 to 80 feet.  Many are now serving the needs of wildlife.  There will be excessive breakage if these trees are felled due to rot creating much slash and fuel loading and in some areas creating a 1 to 2 acre patch cut (small clearcuts), since many smaller trees will be damaged from falling operations.  Most the trails in the coniferous forests have fir branches and small trees across them that can be cleared by hand or ATV.  In conclusion, I saw more damage in the day use area than the back country of the park.

Prior to any operations a logging plan either for a timber sale contract or a service contract needs to be made available to the public with the county's written criteria for what constitute a hazard tree and how they will designate such trees for cutting along with an estimated volume that might be removed as saw logs or decked for later removal or as firewood.   A slash treatment plan is necessary and a map showing how extensive the skid trail system will be along with location of spur roads and landings. 

History has proven that the public must be informed and involved when dealing with this park and others in Douglas County.

Sincerely,

Mike Burke

USFS-Ret.

Timber Sale Contract Admin.

Oakland, OR 

Storm Damage

 Could take a day or two to clean this up.  Picture taken on lower 10 acres below the road to cabin.

Snowmeggeden week

 A week ago clearing 16 inches of heavy snow from roof rated at 25lbs/sq ft. and not losing more sleep thinking of the unthinkable.  Me and Kasey Hovik.

Snowmageddon Week

 It took two days to plow the driveway open with my 4 foot blade attached to the DR 15 hp unit in order to get to Wildflower Lane where a neighbor with his tractor opened it up to the highway.   At this point there was not much to go to since the local towns had lost power too and most businesses were closed, including gas stations, restaurants, fast food joints, banks, ATM machines, etc.   The Shop Smart grocery store was open in Sutherlin where one had to shop with a flash light, write the price of the product on each item as the scanners did not work and no diary, meat or perishable products were available due to the loss of refrigeration and pay in cash only.

This all started the night of February 24th with the flickering of our lights.  In the 12 years we have lived here power outages only lasted 1 to 2 hours, so we thought everything would be up and going by morning.   The next morning we woke to no power, a cold house, six inches of heavy wet snow as it continued to fall and the sound of crack, snapple and pop of tree branches breaking from the weight of the heavy snow.  My first fear was how would I grind my morning coffee beans.  My old used $50 generator saved the day.   The wood stove was fired up and operated 24/7 until the power was restored at 8 pm March 4th putting a good dent in our dry wood supply.   It became our center of life in addition to cooking some of our meals and boiling water.  My old Coleman camp stove was also put to use on our back deck.   After talking to neighbors and friends on the cell phone we started to realize the extent of the damage.  Miles of power lines had been damaged or destroyed and many roads were closed from falling trees throughout southern Oregon.  It was declared a disaster area by the state and help was on the way by utility crews, tree service companies and loggers to clear trees from roads and restore power lines.   Another storm hit us on February 27th dumping another 6 inches of snow giving us a total of 16 to 20 inches.   Our manufactured home is only designed to take 25 pounds per square foot on the roof, so I starting to lose sleep thinking the unthinkable.  Two of our friends, Janice and Kasey came to our rescue and helped clear the snow off the roof, they also brought us a care package of Costco goodies.   Our utility company, Douglas Electric CoOp informed us it could be another two week before power was restored and my old generator was not doing the job.  A call to a friend in Oakland, landed us with a generator from a man living there and he let us borrow it.  

Safety was our first concern, one slip on the snow which would freeze during the night and would be over with it.  I did suffer burned finger tips when I slipped while refueling the DR and catching myself on the hot muffler.  The snow saved me from much pain throughout the day, and the tips of those finger on my left hand are like leather now.  

All this makes me think of how our ancestors survived in the "good old days" cooking on woods stoves, oil lanterns, candles, no stores to go to, etc.  The only features we did have to deal with was the outside outhouse in the dead of winter as our water supply did gravity flow into the house and would refill the toilet tanks.  

A word to the wise--Be Prepared!

Celia & Mike

Happy New Year

 Last sunset of 2018.  Windy and cold.

Happy New Year!

The Marvels of Aging

 Now that we are advancing in age we want to share the following to let you know what to expect in your golden years.  

These thoughts come to us in the heat of the afternoon while sitting in our favorite chairs or after that nightly pee when going back to sleep is a big challenge.   Some of this is implanted in our brains from catalogs and other literature we receive in the mail these days.   They offer the latest devices for aiding the elderly in the bathroom or keeping our fronts clean while eating, or helping us move from our chairs via ejecting seat cushions, or touting the latest vitamins and ointments to keep us young.   We wonder how they know our age, or have our children given them our mailing address? 

 

One thing to look forward to, if it hasn't already happened because of rock concerts you attended, is a decline in your hearing.  We have been tested and hearing aids have been recommended. One of us purchased some and finds hearing improved (though not perfect--nothing is ever perfect).  Some of our friends have hearing aids, but still seem to ask us to repeat ourselves or can't hear when there is too much background noise. Or do we really want to hear what our spouse is saying during those serious conversations?   Do some of us not want to make the investment with rumors of our social security and medicare being cut?  And, when it comes down to it, does our government view us just as old bodies using up oxygen and taking up valuable space?

Older men can have deep intimate thoughts about their facial hair.  They especially ponder how long would those nose and ear hairs get if not trimmed?  Has any man just let them grow to find out?  Could Mike be the first, or would it be too traumatic for Celia to appear in public with him? And can we solve the mystery of why a man's perfectly normal body hair suddenly migrates to one's back after the age of about 50, and women's arm flesh sags downward as if being drawn by an invisible magnet.

If nothing else these types of thoughts distract us from all the politics and uncertainty of the world today and maybe soften our grasp on reality so that we can continue to find happiness in being alive.

 These may be great questions for you to ponder as the years go by.  

Crisis at the movie

 

While attending a movie yesterday afternoon with some friends an alarm goes off in the theater.   In addition to the sound of the alarm white lights are flashing on the walls.  My first thoughts is this some kind of drill, a joke or is there some person with a gun shooting people in the lobby.   Then a voice comes over the speaker telling us there is a fire in the building and please exit outside.  Slowly people make their way to the exit as the movie continues to play.  Before we depart I reach for the bottle of water we purchased in the lobby thinking it might come in handy in extinguishing any flames that we might encounter on our way out.  Everybody makes an orderly exist, including the elderly and a few disabled people.  Once outside in the parking lot we all mill around in disbelief not knowing what to expect next.  I look around for raging flames or a column of smoke, there is neither.   We notice an usher waving for us to return through the main entrance, so we make our way back into the theater as a fire truck arrives.   As we enter into the lobby fireman dressed in boots, yellow jackets and fire helmets stand guard and look as mystified as the rest of us.   The fireman do offer a sense of security by just being there.   There is a peaceful feeling that the fabricate of our society is still held together by some level of government that still functions properly.   While making our way through the lobby we  hear an usher say that some person had been smoking in a rest room which set off the alarm.   We find our seats, the movie is reset to where we left it, life returns to what we expect it to be and at that moment we are not sure what that is any more.    

NEPA

 Dear Chief Tony Tooke,

As a Timber Sale Contract Administrator from 1975 to 1995 on four National Forests, including the Six Rivers, Plumas, Siskiyou and Umpqua Forests, I saw first hand the need for NEPA and public input in the planning process of timber sales.   Even back then many environmental and ecological concerns slipped through the cracks causing damage to the ecosystem, especially to the watersheds and fishery resource.  

Attached is a letter to Congress on my thoughts in regards to short-cutting the NEPA process through HR 2936.

December 10, 2017

To:  Oregon Congressional Delegation

Re:  Resilient Federal Forest Act (HR 2936)

 We are experiencing catastrophic wildfires for the following reasons:  (1) suppression of fires for the last century (2) decades of even-aged management producing overgrown plantations prone to fires, and (3) drier and warmer summers due to a changing climate.  We don’t want to repeat past management practices that got us into this situation, in addition to the declining fisheries, landslides, loss of wildlife habitat and degradation of our watersheds.   In many ways we are still paying for decades of mismanagement of our public forests.

Categorical Exclusions (CE) have their place where there are no environmental concerns.  But placing an upper acreage limit for using a CE (for example, allowing up to 10,000 acres for salvage logging without an environmental analysis with the excuse that there are no environmental concerns in that size project area) is ludicrous.  What about the effects of any new road construction, reconstruction, watershed analysis and other resource protection needs?  Using a CE in this way is a prescription for disaster and destroys the public’s trust.   A CE should not be used to appease the timber industry with mass production of timber sales which could lead to speculation, as in the 1980’s, or to supplement the overcutting of their own timber lands and/or the export of those private logs to China.

There is a need for separate funding for wildfire suppression through FEMA and more appropriated funds to land management agencies for:  fire prevention by thinning, prescribed burning, development of fuel breaks, and harvest prescriptions for controlling insect and disease infestations. 

Please keep me informed on the status of this act as it progresses in the Senate.

 

Mike Burke

855 Wildflower Lane

Oakland, OR 97462                          

 farmhand.mike@gmail.com

Kanipe Fundraising

 Friday night we had our last big fundraising event for the construction of campgrounds at Mildred Kanipe Park.  It was a five-course gourmet dinner at $65/plate with a different wine for each serving. Many local artists and authors offered their works for sale, with most of their profits going to benefit Kanipe Park. The event was held at the Umpqua Valley Arts Association's lovely building in Roseburg from 6 to 9 pm.  Most of the food and all the wine was donated, and the food was prepared by a very good caterer who also donated her services.  Mike and some others served as waiters, white napkins on trays and all.  Between servings the waiters ate and drank wine in the kitchen.  By 8 pm everyone was happy, waiters included. 

Celia was to give a brief talk thanking the community for their support, but due to her glasses mysteriously disappearing, her friend Jenny graciously offered to read it for her.  When it was all said and done, members of the Friends of Mildred Kanipe Park had to help wash the dishes, which reminded Mike of KP duty when he was in the Army.  It was an assembly line type of production with people washing, rinsing, drying and putting away.  The floor became wet due to drainage problems, but not a dish was broken, and the wine continued to flow freely until the job was done.

Our agreement with Douglas County was to raise $65,000 in six months. The County would match it with funds from Mildred's trust to construct campgrounds on the park to help make it self sufficient, making it unnecessary to clearcut 20 acres on the park to fund this project.  In less than three months the community raised almost $71,000, including a $10,000 grant from an old timber family in the County.  (see attached picture of board members)

Cheers!

Celia & Mike 

Happy New Year

 A new day, a new year, but the same old fog.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Celia & Mike

Cougar

 The deer have made themselves scarce lately.  The neighbor down the road with the horse reported six deer within the horse pastures yesterday morning, most likely because they feel safe there.  While cutting fire wood near the cabin, I notice deer nearby, probably to come feed on the foliage from the cut trees after I leave or maybe knowing it is secure around friendly humans.  Our cats have that cautious look when walking around the place, only a few are bold enough to venture off into the forest.

 

The cougar is gone for now.  I wonder how many times I have walked through our forest with the cougar watching me and doing me no harm.  The neighbor at the bottom of the hill reported a cougar just sitting in the open about 20 feet away from him, while he was piling brush near his house.  He started up his chain saw to scare it away.  He said the cougar just slowly walked off.  Cougar sightings are common in this county and the local newspapers always have reports on sightings.  The government trappers are provided by the USDA Wildlife Services, a branch of the Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service.  Their primary job is to protect humans, livestock and wildlife when possible.  Like the local dog catcher their job can be most unpleasant.  This morning there was nothing in the trap and hopefully never will be.  For me, walking through our forest will never be the same. 

...

Trapper visits

 Government trapper showed up this morning with hounds to track down cougar.  Dogs immediately picked up scent and off they went toward the west, trapper followed using GPS, soon dogs stopped, so we thought they had it up a tree, but a few minutes later the chase was on until dogs reached the highway and trapper called a halt.  He returned to the site of the dead deer, which had been buried and set a trap.  My job to monitor it and report what happens.  Saw some interesting places to the west of here, especially the property west of Charlie's--place looked like something from the old movie Deliverance.  Even the trapper was shocked, and he has seen many ugly places in the county.

Spring 2013 at home

 Here are a few recent pictures of the place.  In the last two weeks we have received most of our rainfall for May, now at 2.04 inches.  The cutting of scotch broom is a big priority now before it goes to seed.  On our recent trip to Canada, we noticed it has spread up the Olympic peninsula and onto Vancouver Island, BC.