By Melissa Wagoner “The question – what happens after a fire? – is an important question,” retired US Forest Service Fire Ecologist Jane Kertis said when asked about 2020’s Beachie Creek Fire. It, along with the Lionshead Fire, burned through the Santiam Canyon last Labor Day leaving many favorite parks still closed for recovery. Kertis thinks the question of how […]
By Melissa Wagoner “Helping is easy. Being on the receiving end is difficult.” Sheila Zervas Nielsen, a teacher at Silverton High School and resident of Gates, knows what she is talking about. She, along with her husband Steve, also a Silver Falls School District employee, and their three sons, evacuated from their home on Sept. 7 escaping wildfires whipped up […]
By Melissa Wagoner In the midst of a global pandemic, with civil unrest in the streets, a new catastrophe has come knocking. On Sept. 7 unusually high summer winds joined forces with three decades of drought to ignite fires across Oregon. “We are currently facing a statewide fire emergency,” Gov. Kate Brown, said during a press conference on Sept. 9. […]
