Press Clips

Skyline Forest talks progressing

Karyn Verzwyvelt — 2011-11-22T17:25:00Z

Please note: Each winter the Tumalo Winter Range Cooperative Closure closes Skyline Forest to motorized vehicles from December 1st through March 31st. Learn more here.

While the wait to buy the Skyline Forest west of Bend continues for the Deschutes Land Trust, the group’s leader said he isn’t worried that a timber company might swoop in and buy the once-productive property.

“Frankly, there is no timber market for it out there today, and there aren’t other developers looking to buy it at this time,” said Brad Chalfant, executive director of the Bend-based land conservation group.

Fidelity National Timber Resources, a subsidiary of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National Financial, owns the 33,000-acre property between Bend and Sisters. The state passed legislation in 2009 that allows the company to sell most of the land while keeping a piece of it for residential development.

“The idea is that the land isn’t getting locked away,” he said.

While trails would cross the forest and some timber would be harvested each year to repay loans, Chalfant said the land trust’s ownership of the forest would protect 30,000 acres from development.

The legislation gave the possible sale of the land a five-year window, which is now about half closed, Chalfant said. A $4 million federal grant for the purchase, channeled to the land trust through the Oregon Department of Forestry, also hinges on Fidelity making a deal to sell the land in the next couple of years.

“We hope to put together a deal soon ...” Chalfant said, “but that’s all according to their timeline.”

The company is in negotiations with the land trust, said Nancy Craven, vice president of Fidelity National Timber Resources.

She said she couldn’t offer a timeline for the deal.

“It all takes time,” she said.

The company owns the land through Cascade Timberlands LLC, which has offices in Bend and Portland.

Craven said conversations between the company and the land trust are going well and appraisers are still evaluating the property.

As part of the Skyline Forest legislation, Fidelity National Timber Resources would keep 3,000 acres in the northwest corner of the forest, Chalfant said. Of that, 1,200 acres would likely be developed into about 280 home sites.

Craven said the residential development – which wouldn’t have a golf course, per the legislation – would have a road connecting to U.S. Highway 20.

While the talks continue, the forest is open to the public, although roads through it are closed from Dec. 1 to March 31 to avoid disturbing wintering deer.

The Bull Springs Creek Trail, a 4-mile loop, is already drawing hikers and the forest has “huge potential” for more trail development, Chalfant said.

While people might not recognize the Skyline Forest by name, he said they likely would by sight.

“It’s the green hills below the high Cascades (above Bend),” he said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7812,
ddarling@bendbulletin.com

Whychus Canyon Preserve entices: Canyon near Sisters offers jaw-dropping views

Karyn Verzwyvelt — 2011-11-17T18:35:00Z

After a mellow mile and a half of wandering through open meadows and stands of gnarly old-growth junipers, the path that parallels the southern edge of the Whychus Canyon Preserve leads to a jaw-dropping, expansive viewpoint.

From the viewpoint on the rim, the canyon tumbles down to Whychus Creek. Upstream, or westward, snow-covered North Sister emerges from the forest beyond the canyon. Downstream to the northeast, we can see grassland meadows bordered by cave-pocked rock walls.

It would be a stunning spot to eat lunch, but my mom, who joined me on this outing, wasn't interested in sitting in the blast zone of freezing wind whipping down the canyon. Like the creek, the wind came straight from the glaciers in the Three Sisters Wilderness.

The trail leading to the viewpoint, an old road, sits far enough off the rim that it lacks creek views most of the way. An adventurous explorer armed with a keen sense of place or a map and compass could scramble down into the canyon from different points along the edge, but wear sturdy boots and expect a steep, rocky hike.

If I come back to the Whychus Canyon Preserve, I will try a loop hike by scrambling down the bank to walk along the creek for one half of the loop. But last week, we opted for an out-and-back trek along the edge of the 450-acre preserve, for what I'm guessing was about a four-mile hike, including a few short side explorations to look for views into the canyon. In the morning hours when we wandered, we saw no one else.

The preserve straddles about two miles of Whychus Creek, just downstream (northeast) of Sisters. Owned by the Deschutes Land Trust, the land is targeted for restoration and trail development, but at this point trail signs are lacking. To get to the viewpoint the way we did it, (see “If you go”) start at the trailhead kiosk and walk to the right until you come to an opening in a gate across the road. The path is closed to vehicles but is easy to identify as a former road. These trails should be accessible until serious snowfall reaches low elevations.

Some laminated paper signs indicate when you pass in and out of the preserve boundary, and at one point, on federal Bureau of Land Management property, there's a tangle of old roads where it'd be easy to lose the path. (The road to follow is slightly to the right, or the east.) The road starts to lose elevation, crosses back onto preserve land, and soon abuts a huge volcanic rocky outcropping on the left, worth climbing on for a view.

Back on the path, just past the rocky outcropping, the trail wraps around behind the rocks, closer to the creek. The open spot would be an amazing place to pitch a tent if camping were allowed, but it's not. Other rules for this land: no horses, bikes or motorized vehicles. No hunting. Dogs must be on leash. Catch-and-release fishing allowed with barbless hooks only.

My mom and I also explored past the viewpoint to the northeast a bit further, on BLM land where the path leads down to the creek and my dog could take a dip in the water. From this low-lying point along the creek, we could see some intriguing canyons on the rock walls across the grassy meadow, but the creek was far too cold and swift to even consider fording last weekend.

Instead, mom and I called it a day, walked back out and hit the Bendistillery tasting room on Pinehurst Road, on the road back to Bend. The views of the mountains from this tasting room are also stunning, and the indoor temperatures more to my mother's liking. The samplings of vodka and gin were also far superior to the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we ate along the trail.

Reporter: 541-383-0304, aaurand@bendbulletin.com

If you go

Getting there: From Bend, drive northwest on U.S. Highway 20 for about 13 miles. Turn north on Fryrear Road and continue 5.5 miles to the intersection with state Highway 126. Turn left on Highway 126, travel 1 mile, then turn right on Goodrich Road.
Follow Goodrich Road for about 1.5 miles until the paved road turns sharply right, but keep going straight at the curve and follow the gravel road about 1.3 miles. Continue going straight where a sign says “Turin.” Keep going straight north for another .4 mile to the trailhead signs. Park and walk .3 miles down the dirt road to the right, entering the preserve at the gate.
Difficulty: Easy if you take the old road as described in this story, difficult if you choose to scramble down the canyon.
Cost: Free
Contact: www.deschuteslandtrust.org; 541-330-0017

Big step for Sisters meadow

Sarah Mowry — 2011-11-08T16:24:11Z

SISTERS — For the second time in three years, heavy machinery is rumbling through a serene meadow northeast of Sisters for the sake of salmon and steelhead.

An excavator, a bulldozer and dump trucks this week are finishing the construction of a meandering channel to carry Whychus Creek through Camp Polk Meadow, said Amanda Egertson, stewardship director for the Deschutes Land Trust. A number of side channels will spread water around the 145-acre preserve, which the nonprofit group bought nearly 12 years ago.

“It is fun to walk around the side channel and imagine what it will be like to be a fish,” Egertson said.

The new route avoids straight lines as it weaves through the meadow, zigging and zagging its way around clumps of new creekside plants.

The curves will create calm waters where young fish can rest, said Brad Chalfant, executive director of the Deschutes Land Trust.

This contrasts with the creek’s current incarnation as a swift-moving straight line skirting the south edge of the meadow. Chalfant describes the stretch as “one continuous riffle.”

Whychus Creek’s straight course through Camp Polk Meadow has been a problem for fish managers and other officials who’ve attempted in recent years to restore ocean-going salmon and steelhead to the upper Deschutes River, into which the creek flows. Storm flows quickly wash young fish released into the creek downstream to Lake Billy Chinook, where they’re easy prey for larger fish, Chalfant said.

“That’s the reason we are trying to put the kinks back into the creek and the creek back into the meadow,” he said.

The Army Corps of Engineers designed the creek’s straight course after a flood in 1964, Chalfant said, eliminating its natural turns through the meadow. U.S. Forest Service hydrologists and fish and biologists have been involved with the redesign, taking hints from the creek’s own history.

Those hints are found in “relic channel scars,” or remnants of old creek courses, aerial photos from the 1940s and ’50s and studies of similar streams, said Cari Press, a hydrologist with the Deschutes National Forest. Planning the creek’s construction started in 2005.

The first phase of the project occurred in 2009, when tractors etched the new lines of the creek, Egertson said. The meadow then remained free from heavy machinery for a time, allowing replanted willows, dogwoods and other streamside plants — 200,000 in all — to grow into their new home.

The restoration project also involves the placement of 700 logs and 5,000 cubic yards of rock to fortify the creek, Egertson said. The heavy work should be done at the end of this week or early next week, and a trickle of water will be diverted into the new channel to prime it for next spring.

In March, there will be one last construction project in the meadow using the big equipment — plugging the creek’s current straight course and routing the creek into the new run.

Chalfant said it will be the culmination of a dream that started in 1997, when the Deschutes Land Trust started negotiations to buy the property. The purchase took place in 2000 with the help of Portland General Electric.

“There is a lot of time and energy that went into this before we ever brought a bulldozer out to the meadow,” Chalfant said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7812,

ddarling@bendbulletin.com

Skyline Forest beckons

Karyn Verzwyvelt — 2011-10-27T17:30:00Z

Skyline Forest, a 33,000-acre former logging area between Bend and Sisters, represents a spectrum of the Central Oregon experience: It's been a timber farm, a rich part of our region's history and economy; it provides wildlife habitat; and it's rife with recreational opportunities.

Described as a wildland-urban interface — the transition zone between a vast ocean of national forest and Bend's developed western fringe — Skyline Forest looks and feels a whole lot like public land. But it's not.

It's owned by Florida-based Fidelity National Financial and it's enmeshed in an ongoing, convoluted land-use deal with the Deschutes Land Trust, a local land-protection organization. Part of the ongoing negotiation includes a clause that allows the public to use the land until the deal is settled. The Land Trust, which plans to eventually acquire and protect the land from development, leads occasional tours through the forest. I joined one last week led by a volunteer naturalist named Karen Parker.

There are no trail markings or signs. The forest is crisscrossed with old logging roads, most of which haven't been driven any time recently. The trails are dusty and soft and would be a challenge for mountain biking right now, but they're perfect for a hike. Trails show heavy evidence of equestrian use. The pop of occasional shots in the distance is a reminder that hunting also happens on this land — so wear bright clothes and make some noise.

Aspens, exploding with vibrant color this time of year, highlight the approximately 4-mile loop on Bull Springs Creek trail, which is pretty easy to find and follow if you're a semiconfident backcountry hiker (see “If you go”).

Park by the aspens and scramble down the slope on an obvious singletrack. Keeping the creek on your left, stroll upstream along a gentle grade among ponderosa pines, native bunch grasses, huge manzanita bushes, bitter brush and junipers.

Parker, the guide, kept the pace slow and restful for all abilities of hikers. She inserted lessons about aspen forest habitats, the risks to species from habitat fragmentation, and fire science. She discussed issues that plague the wildland interface, such as cougars living too close to housing developments and being tempted to eat domestic pets, and domestic cats living too close to the forest and being tempted to eat wild birds. She stopped to point out evidence of Douglas squirrels, and to poke at some scat, concluding that it was probably from a coyote.

At the turnaround of the Bull Springs Creek trail loop there's an obvious, wide-open camp area with some huge fire pits and a pooled part of the creek. Just upstream from this site, Bull Springs gurgles out of the ground. Here you'll see a small footbridge crossing the creek so you can hike back down on the other side.

Beyond the Bull Springs Creek trail, solo exploration is not recommended for the directionally impaired. Without a guide, there's a strong possibility of getting lost out there, unless you have some healthy navigation skills and a good sense of adventure. But Parker led her small group farther so we could see another water source called Snag Springs. We turned at many intersections of old logging roads, and took short cuts across a few barely visible trails. When asked what direction we were hiking, Parker pulled out her compass and said, “West.” That's about as much as I can say about how to get to Snag Springs from Bull Springs.

Snag Springs is a tiny puddle emerging from beneath the roots of a massive alder patch. The spot is surrounded by rocky cliff walls punctuated with fall-colored growth. Here the group stopped for peaceful lunch before heading back.

Toward the end of the Bull Springs trail loop, when we were almost back to the cars, the group took a slight diversion up a small incline to a ridge that offered peek-a-boo views of the Cascades.

Staring over thousands of acres of the forest that stretches from the city limits to the Cascade mountains, I was reminded how unique Bend is, to have this accessible wildland interface. I appreciated how easy it is to escape Bend, to experience the very thing that makes it special.

— Reporter: 541-383-0304, aaurand@bendbulletin.com

Getting there:

From Bend, take Shevlin Park Road west. After passing Shevlin Park, take a left on the paved Bull Springs Road. In less than a mile, where the pavement ends, turn right on a dirt road. Continue about 3.7 miles on that dirt road to a grove of aspens on the left. A small single-track trail drops off the road near the aspens, just past an ephemeral pond.

(Road signs along the way indicate that the road is closed, but it's the property off of the road during this section where you must not trespass.)

Difficulty: Easy, if you don't get lost. Occasional tours are available. Information on free, guided Deschutes Land Trust hikes: www.deschuteslandtrust.org/events

Cost: Free
Contact: Deschutes Land Trust, 541-330-0017

More about the plans for this land: www.deschuteslandtrust.org/protected-lands/current-projects/Skyline_Forest

Winter range closure notice: Each winter, the Skyline Forest is closed to motorized vehicles from Dec. 1 through March 31 because it's a winter deer range.

Mission and Work of the Deschutes Land Trust

bnye@deschuteslandtrust.org — 2011-11-01T16:30:00Z

The Deschutes Land Trust was founded in 1995 to provide community-based land conservation within the Deschutes Basin. The Land Trust’s mission is to “cooperate with landowners to conserve land for wildlife, scenic views and local communities.” While the Land Trust founders had specific conservation needs they wished to address, our main focus in the early years was building awareness of the organization. Few people in our service area were familiar with land trusts or conservation easements, and good project opportunities were relatively few. As a result, the criteria we used to screen and pursue projects were fairly general in nature.

Over the years, awareness of the Land Trust has increased, conservation opportunities have grown in number, and our work has become increasingly strategic. Now, instead of simply responding to opportunities, the Land Trust proactively identifies and cultivates conservation projects that address the region’s greatest conservation needs. Like many other land trusts of our size, we employ a variety of tools that extend beyond the standard land trust approach of accepting tax-driven conservation easements or donated properties. Because the ultimate measure of success in conserving vital natural resources includes objectives outside our specific niche, we also devote greater energy to collaborating with other conservation groups.

One example of this type of collaboration is the Deschutes Collaborative (the “Collaborative”). This collaboration, which includes the Land Trust, the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, the Crooked River Watershed Council, and the Deschutes River Conservancy, supports the once-in-a-lifetime effort to reintroduce salmon and steelhead to the upper Deschutes River. Salmon and steelhead have been absent from the upper river since 1968, when efforts to pass juvenile fish downstream through the newly constructed Pelton-Round Butte hydroelectric project, having met with little success, were abandoned.

In the late 1990s, Portland General Electric (PGE) and the Warm Springs Tribes filed applications for a new federal license to operate the dams. The two entities began the relicensing process as competitors, but eventually joined forces as partners in the ownership of the project. As a condition of the new license, PGE and the Tribes committed more than $100 million to restoring fish passage through the project.

This commitment to restore fish passage at the dams brought heightened focus on the condition of fish habitat within the proposed reintroduction area. Habitat was already in poor condition by the time Round Butte Dam was completed in 1964, but the Christmas flood that occurred later that year set the stage for a new level of degradation. In response to the flood, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers straightened many project-area streams. From a fisheries perspective, these streams now looked more like ditches, with few of the pools and slow-water areas that our native fish depend on for survival and reproduction.

Habitat studies completed during the relicensing process had confirmed that many of the stream reaches proposed for reintroduction were in poor condition. Although the Tribes and PGE had committed a certain amount of funding for habitat restoration, no entity had stepped up to lead the restoration effort. Recognizing this, the Land Trust launched its Back to Home Waters program and hired a project manager to conserve land along project-area and to rally other local groups around the cause of restoring habitat to support the reintroduction effort. Our acquisition of the Camp Polk Meadow Preserve—widely regarded as providing some of the best historic habitat on Whychus Creek—was our first land conservation project completed under this new program.

Ten years and dozens of projects later, the Land Trust, the Deschutes River Conservancy, the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, and the Crooked River Watershed Council are engaged in a formal collaboration focused on protecting and restoring habitat throughout the reintroduction area. These four groups began work on a formal collaboration because of natural ties between their areas of expertise and service areas. It took more than two years of regular, and many times heated, discussions to agree on how the group would function, and we wouldn’t have reached agreement without the gracious help of staff from two outside entities, the Bonneville Environmental Foundation and the National Forest Foundation.

As part of these partnership discussions, each participant was required to confirm its organizational priorities and clarify its role within the reintroduction effort. A natural result of this clarification was the identification of restoration needs (e.g., screening irrigation diversions to prevent entrainment of juvenile salmon) that fell within the natural purview of one of the groups, even though the group lacked the capacity necessary to address the need. One of the Collaborative’s first priorities was to jointly help develop resources to meet these individual needs.

The organizations within the Collaborative operate primarily in four basic areas: land conservation, water conservation, stream restoration, and fish passage. The Land Trust permanently conserves and manages important properties, the Deschutes River Conservancy works with irrigators and irrigation districts to improve efficiencies and keep more water in streams, and the Watershed Councils restore stream habitat and remove fish-passage barriers. The four organizations meet regularly to identify, prioritize, fund, and implement the highest priority conservation and restoration projects in the reintroduction area.

The Collaborative has become a model for collaborative ecosystem restoration and drawn great interest from public and private restoration funders. For example, the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Oregon’s largest restoration funder, has contributed more than $8 million to the Collaborative’s work over the past four years. We are currently working to expand our funding base to a national level so that we can better meet the funding requirements of the sustained effort it will take to provide sufficient high-quality habitat for the reintroduction effort. While the Collaborative took significant energy, sacrifices, and trust to develop, and continues to require those investments today, the ecological returns to date have more than justified the effort. We invite you to visit us and our project sites to learn first-hand about the Deschutes Land Trust, its partners, and our collaborative approach to watershed restoration.

———-
Brad Nye is Conservation Director of the Deschutes Land Trust.

For more information, visit these websites:
http://www.deschuteslandtrust.org

http://www.deschutesriver.org

http://www.restorethedeschutes.org

http://crookedriver.deschutesriver.org

The Virtue of Patience in Land Conservation

Karyn Verzwyvelt — 2011-08-16T23:40:00Z

Patience is a virtue, or so the saying goes. In fact, there are many quotes and clichés which talk about patience. American theologian Lyman Abbott claimed, “Patience is passion tamed.” Journalist Ambrose Bierce was more cynical in his view, declaring patience a “minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.” Whether your view of patience is something to admire and strive for in a complex and busy world or something akin to delay and procrastination, it’s clear that patience and perseverance have key roles in the world of land conservation. The Deschutes Land Trust can only work at the pace of landowners—and conversations with landowners (whether private or public) take time.

“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow. That is patience.” - Anonymous.

Fifteen years ago the notion of salmon and steelhead returning to the upper Deschutes and its tributaries was merely a dream, and the skeptics outweighed the believers. In 1997, the Deschutes Land Trust began an ambitious conservation program with partners such as Portland General Electric and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs to protect land for returning salmon and steelhead. Many believed in restoring crucial habitat, yet were unsure if these magnificent sea-run fish would ever return to the rivers and creeks of Central Oregon to reestablish one of the Northwest’s most unique and notable fisheries. And yet, back in May, a four-year-old male Chinook that was spawned at the Round Butte Hatchery in 2007 calmly navigated his way back up the Deschutes and became the first upper basin fish to do so since dams blocked migration in the mid 1960’s. With patience, hard work and community support, the “steelhead stronghold” the Deschutes Land Trust is creating along Whychus Creek will soon tell similar success stories.

A famous Turkish proverb states, “Patience is the key to paradise.” This is where the Land Trust’s extensive membership program kicks in. Partnerships with our more than 1,200 members across the world allow us to stay the course, develop plans for eventual stewardship, and simply stated, keep us at the negotiating table with landowners. Our members appreciate the inherent virtue in a patient and thoughtful approach, and in many instances ‘paradise’ is indeed the result. Take a hike or Land Trust sponsored tour along the recently conserved Whychus Canyon Preserve and you’ll probably agree. And realize the acquisition of Skyline forest will only happen with patience and perseverance, and members’ support keeps us at the negotiating table.

We go to China for our next quote: “With time and patience the Mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.” The current restoration project at Camp Polk Meadow, one of the largest streamside restoration projects in the Northwest, is a perfect example. Begun in 2000, the restoration work is now in its 11th year. The preserve contains roughly 1.4 miles of Whychus Creek, including wetlands, meadows, aspen groves and ponderosa pine stands. It is also a birding hotspot. Partnering with the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, Deschutes National Forest, Deschutes River Conservancy and countless others, the Land Trust’s goal is to return the creek to its original meandering path through the meadow. (After the great flood of 1964, the Corps of Engineers pushed the creek to the south, creating a narrow and straight channel that effectively eliminated important fish, bird and plant habitat.)

To date the project has included digging the restored channel, planting more than 180,000 native plants, and continual invasive weed removal programs, along with educational tours open to the public. The water table in the meadow is already five to six feet higher than when the project began, signifying the return of cold groundwater which will release into the creek, especially important in late summer to help cool the stream. Early next year we’ll “pull the plug” and reunite the creek with the meadow, as nature originally designed. “Adopt the pace of nature, her secret is patience,” famously advised Ralph Waldo Emerson.

To be sure, protecting more than 8,200 acres took the Land Trust more than 15 years to accomplish, and we’ve demonstrated that a little patience can protect some amazing places for wildlife, scenic views and the vitality of our local communities. Land Trust supporters also subscribe to a Greek proverb about patience: “One minute of patience, ten years of peace.” And while that formula might not be exact in all applications, it is true that a few years of patience in conservation equals lands protected forever.

Zak Boone is Associate Director of the Deschutes Land Trust. You can reach him at: zak@deschuteslandtrust.org

Butterfly hikes in Metolius Preserve: Guided tour relaxing and educational

Karyn Verzwyvelt — 2011-07-29T20:55:00Z

By David Jasper / The Bulletin

"I was born with an interest in butterflies,” explains Sue Anderson as she leads a group hiking along a trail in Metolius Preserve. “I've just loved them ever since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I love butterflies.”

For several years, Anderson has shared that love by leading family-friendly butterfly hikes such as this one for Deschutes Land Trust, a conservation organization that preserves places such as this. For a good while longer, some 21 years, Anderson has been leading annual butterfly counts both here and in the Ochocos.

On Saturday, my family and I joined Anderson as she led the butterfly hike in Metolius Preserve — 1,240 acres of fir and ponderosa forests peppered by flowery meadowsnurtured by Lake Creek, whose waters flow through three miles of the preserve on an eastward journey from Suttle Lake to the Metolius River.

It was in those meadows, Anderson promised, that we'd find the butterflies.

However, before we could hoof it to any meadows, we'd first have to make it out of the parking area at South Fork Kiosk, which was proving a challenge.

Anderson had thoughtfully filled her car with butterfly nets, donated to the cause of catch-and-release butterfly observation by the shop Play Outdoors. Normally, she uses only binoculars, but opts for nets when the butterflies stubbornly refuse to alight upon a leaf or flower.

Let's just say that while they were being stalked by kids from age 5½ up to about 12, the local butterflies spent a lot of time in the air.

In fact, there wasn't a whole lot the slower moving adults — who ranged up to 84 in age — needed to do. The nine kids present were perfectly capable of chasing down the fluttering insects despite their seemingly random flight paths, and the adults were perfectly incapable of corralling the children or getting them to pause in their constant pursuit.

Every time the group inched closer to the trailhead of Becky Johnson Nature Trail, one kid or another would come running excitedly from the adjacent meadow shouting, “I got one!” At one point, someone joked about grabbing chairs and skipping the walk, letting the kids bring the butterflies to us.

Anderson would then gently remove the insect from the net, holding it by its closed wings, which she explained doesn't harm them — contrary to my dubious education. She'd then identify it as a Zerene Fritillary, a Western Sulphur or Wood Nymph and let it go.

In a few cases, she would take a butterfly and place it on a kid's nose, where it'd perch a while.

There are more than 150 types of butterflies in Central Oregon, Anderson says, and they start emerging as early as March. Butterfly season has already peaked, but don't let that deter you: Deschutes Land Trust will offer another of these popular hikes Aug. 6. Visit www.deschuteslandtrust .org to learn more about these and other guided hikes, star parties and more.

Eventually, our group did make it down the trail and through the woods to various meadows — a casual walk led by Anderson and her husband, Jim Anderson, the most charming octogenarian naturalist you're likely to find roaming the woods. At one point, Jim was seen kneeling on the ground, face pressed close to the dirt, urging the kids to find him an ant to drop in one of the many ant lion sand traps dotting an old forest road.

Along the way, Sue kept the group moving, kindly and patiently indulging kids' requests for her to identify the butterflies in their nets. Ever the forest teacher, Sue knows a teachable moment when she sees one.

“Remember what we call those?” she asks.

A silent pause while the kid thinks.

“Sulphurs.”

“There! Great! It's a sulphur.”

I like to get out in the outdoors, for the most part, to get away from people. I presume many approach their recreation similarly. Sure, we'll nod or say “How's it goin'?” when we pass on trails, but the last thing I normally seek to do is bond with strangers in nature.

That perspective shifted a bit on this hike, attributable to the like-minded purpose of our outing, the easy camaraderie and the shared focus of our being there — not to mention the beauty of Metolius Preserve. I was even a bit sad when we reached our last meadow and Sue said it was time to turn around and head back; the three-hour tour was drawing to a close.

However, there was still one more butterfly to be found. Near the parking lot, a boy named Trapper finally netted a Tiger Swallowtail for the group to see. Jim shouted encouragement as he scampered up the trail: “Good going, Trapper! Be very careful, and don't hurt it.”

A moment later, as his wife approached the group, Jim called out to her with as much enthusiasm as one of the kids, “Look at this, Sue!”

David Jasper can be reached at 541-383-0349 or djasper@bendbulletin.com.

Paint-out celebrates Sisters Country

Karyn Verzwyvelt — 2011-07-27T20:25:00Z

Bright and early last Saturday morning, over 30 artists gathered at Indian Ford Meadow Preserve to begin four hours of plein air painting in some of the most beautiful country Central Oregon has to offer. The Third Annual Plein Air Paint-Out was hosted by the National Forest Foundation (NFF) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS).

The timed competition challenged artists to paint and then frame a piece on-site. Some of the artists were able to complete several pieces, all were judged and some were chosen to represent the NFF and USFS as a poster. The poster will be used to recruit volunteers for the National Public Lands Day, which is Saturday, September 24. Some of the paintings will be used by local conservation organizations to express the unique splendor of the Metolius and Whychus areas in marketing materials and other public displays. The images may also appear on T-shirts, reports and other promotional materials.

The event invited participants to offer an artistic eye to the conservation efforts of the "Tale of Two Rivers," a conservation campaign to restore the Whychus Creek and Metolius River watersheds. Artists chose inspiring locations along the Metolius River and surrounding properties. The Indian Ford Meadow Preserve is an important wildlife refuge, and Indian Ford Creek is a tributary of Whychus Creek, which is undergoing fish restoration efforts.

Organizer Karly Hedrick was pleased with the turnout and the quality of the pieces produced in such a short period of time. "It's very interesting, because we'll have 35 painters but see 35 different visions of the same meadow." The community preserve is protected and owned by the Deschutes Land Trust.

Before the awards were announced, Sisters Ranger District Ecologist Maret Pajutee thanked The Roundhouse Foundation and Kathy Deggendorfer for providing the Sisters Art Works building to display and judge the art. Deggendorfer's foundation provided funding for a youth paint-out class taught by Clay Warburton through Sisters Park & Recreation District.

Warburton spent Friday and Saturday working with art students and introducing them to plein air painting.

"We learned about plein air painting yesterday so that the kids would be comfortable today when they were out painting. They did a great job. We had six students painting today, ranging in age from 7 to 11 years old," said Warburton.

Artists came from as far away as Chicago; many came from Portland, Bend and Sisters. Out-of-town artists were amazed at the beauty of the area, the perfect weather and the camaraderie among the creators. The general consensus was they all planned on returning for next year's event.

The awards were announced after judges had a chance to look over all the paintings. Youth Honorable mention went to Mieke Schmidling; Youth Best of Show was awarded to Colton Seymour; Artist's Choice went to Lisa Hoffman-McCabe; the People's Choice went to Norma Holmes; the Poster Award went to Patricia Gifford; Adult Honorable Mention went to Janice Druian; and Judge's Choice went to Nathalie Equall.

Plein air originates from the French term "en plein air" which translates to "in full area." It describes the act of painting while being surrounded by the scenic outdoors. Tying together art and an appreciation of the natural world around us was the main focus of the event. The artists who participated wanted to assist the efforts of the land-use agencies by creating works of art that captured the beauty and rarity of the land around Sisters Country.

The Whychus Creek and Metolius River watersheds were chosen by the NFF as one of five current sites to be part of their national Treasured Landscapes, Unforgettable Experience conservation campaign. As part of this campaign, the NFF will support restoration efforts and work to reconnect Americans with our National Public Lands.

Sisters Art Works, located at 204 W. Adams Ave., will display the paint-out pieces from September 24 to October 6. The opening coincides with opportunities for volunteers to take part in conservation work on National Public Lands Day, Saturday, September 24. Images of Indian Ford will be at the Sisters Harvest Faire on October 8-9.

For more information contact Karly Hedrick at 541-549-0251 or khedrick@nationalforests.org.

Lake Creek Trail: Easy new trail near Camp Sherman and Suttle Lake

Karyn Verzwyvelt — 2011-07-07T19:35:00Z

Summer is the perfect, and perfectly fleeting, time of year for outings.

Conditions are ripe: It's sunny and generally warm, or at least mild enough that you don't need a lot of gear to have a good time. You don't need several layers of wicking undershirts, polyester outer shells and long underwear, not necessarily in that order. Nor do you need polarized goggles, wool socks, waterproof gloves, ski masks, those beanies with pigtails, blah, blah, etc.

This time of year, shirt, shorts, shoes or sandals, sunglasses and sunscreen suffice. (Bug spray, too, but I didn't want to ruin an alliterative moment.)

You know what, though? It seems summer only just began, yet by my count, there are only nine weekends left before Labor Day. Loosely translated, that means if you're prone to procrastination and don't get off your keister soon, you're going to miss out.

Last week, I headed to the relatively new Lake Creek Trail, a splendid, 4½-mile stretch of former forest roads that connect Camp Sherman and Suttle Lake. The trail opened last year and parallels Lake Creek, which flows out of Suttle Lake and into the Metolius River.

Along for the ride was occasional outing enthusiast Map Guy, whose true identity is concealed for reasons I don't actually know but happily go along with, just as he happily goes along with me even though I don't know what I'm doing half the time.

We met up in Tumalo, loaded his mountain bike aside mine, and made haste to Camp Sherman. Shortly after passing the Camp Sherman Community Hall, we found the trailhead on the left, with just one other vehicle parked there.

The day was cloudy and unseasonably cool at first. Map Guy, as usual, was better prepared for the cool temperatures, riding his bike in jeans. I have a rule against wearing long pants while I ride a bike, so I opted for shorts and goose bumps, at least till the sun came out later in the day.

The beginning of the trail passes through old-growth pine forest, where we passed a family out for a hike. Being that it's constructed from old roads, much of the Lake Creek Trail is doubletrack, as in two side-by-side ruts. As you enter a two-mile stretch where horses are allowed, signs direct bicyclists to use one rut, horses the other. Since we were, for the most part, alone out there, Map Guy often opted to use the designated horse path.

The trail's middle section also passes through about a two-mile long portion of Metolius Preserve, a 1,240-acre Deschutes Land Trust Community Preserve in the forest west of Camp Sherman.

Says Carol Wall, a Sisters-based Land Trust volunteer who leads hikes on Lake Creek Trail, it's a great year-round destination, with cross-country skiing opportunities in the winter months, and colorful larch needles that are bright green in the spring and glow brilliantly yellow-orange in the fall. There are also wild strawberries and a rare plant called the Peck's penstemon, she says.

The last bit of the trail, heading west from Forest Road 12 west to Suttle Lake, is “a tremendously diverse area botanically, because it gets a lot of spillover from west of the mountains,” Wall says. These plants include oceanspray, which she describes as “big bushes with white flowers all over them.”

Wall will lead several informative hikes on the trail later this year: Sept. 13, Oct. 14 and 29. Mark your calendars, and visit the Land Trust website for more information (www .deschuteslandtrust.org).

“It's an easy hike, as you know from riding. There's nothing challenging about it,” Wall says of the Lake Creek Trail. (Tell that to Map Guy, who walked his bike up a couple of hills, and by “up a couple” I mean “up every hill we encountered.”)

Wall says the birding is pretty interesting along Lake Creek Trail, as well.

“It's an area that the pileated woodpecker uses as habitat, so you will occasionally hear this wild, loud drumming that comes only from the pileated. They will chunk things off of trees that are like pieces of kindling; they're 3 and 4 inches long. They're just amazing, there's just no question about it,” she says. Trail users may also see white-headed woodpeckers, she says.

Map Guy and I didn't see too many of our flying friends, but we did spy a pair of deer that crossed the trail as they headed south in the forest. And shortly before reaching Suttle Lake, we saw a raccoon ambling under U.S. Highway 20, under which the trail passes right alongside the creek. More technically proficient riders may be able to ride on this rock-strewn portion, but we opted to walk the bikes under the road.

Either way, watch your head here, as clearance is only about 5, 5½ feet. Much of the trail heading west to Suttle Lake has a slight incline, not enough to deter a ride or hike, but enough to make it a treat on the way back should you make it a round trip.

As a bonus, Map Guy and I decided to ride the Suttle Lake Loop Trail, adding another three miles to our ride. We went counter-clockwise around the lake, which we later agreed had been the right way to go: It's the less spectacular side of lake, very close to U.S. Highway 20 and its vehicular noises, and we were riding into the wind.

After a break for snacks (provided by Map Guy) at the far end of the rectangular lake, we then rode back toward Lake Creek along a path lined with vine maples, with the wind at our backs.

Though the elevation remains much the same around the lake, making for a fairly easy ride or hike, be aware of technical sections around exposed roots and large rocks.

Just before we reached Lake Creek Trail, a gentleman with a Scottish brogue stopped us to ask if we'd just arrived from the Camp Sherman end. Turned out he recognized us from a couple of hours earlier; he was with the family we'd passed early in our ride. His wife, child and a 90-year-old in the party had decided to make the hike to Suttle Lake, while he drove the SUV to the lake to meet them.

He was just shy of being worried about their party, as it had been 2½ hours since he'd left them on the trail. We offered to take his cellphone number and report back to him should we see them on our ride back to Camp Sherman, but he declined.

I'm happy to report that maybe a couple of hundred yards after we'd left the man, we found his group not far down the trail, just out from under U.S. Highway 20 and approaching the lake.

However, the 90-year-old had tripped at some point in their hike, and sported a nasty scrape on his arm, which he was happy to show us.

So be careful and watch your step. Even on an easy hike, rocks, roots and ruts can conspire to wreck your day — and maybe even your alliteration.

David Jasper can be reached at 541-383-0349 or djasper@bendbulletin.com.

Deschutes Land Trust Receives $20K From FootZone

Karyn Verzwyvelt — 2011-07-01T18:45:00Z

BEND, OR -- The Deschutes Land Trust announced Wednesday a gift from the FootZone of $20,450, thanks to this year's Dirty Half Marathon. Brad Chalfant, DLT Executive Director, told KBNW News these funds will be used for a host of projects throughout Central Oregon, but mainly for continued work on Skyline Forest.

"This funding helps us stay at the table, working with a private landowner, and ensure that we are there to make those projects happen and conserve the places that are so special to Central Oregon."

Chalfant said over the past seven years, DLT has received more than $120,000 from FootZone. He added they would not be successful in keeping Central Oregon lands beautiful if not for the help of a supportive community.

"If the public is not supportive of the projects that we're doing and does not get involved, we're not going to be successful. And so, it's important that we get the public out to see these lands."

The Deschutes Land Trust is completing its 15th Anniversary Campaign, which resulted in the creation of the 450-acre Whychus Canyon Preserve outside of Sisters.

Land Trust Dedicates New Preserve

Sarah Mowry — 2011-06-21T18:15:00Z

The Deschutes Land Trust has dedicated a new preserve in Central Oregon.

Saturday's dedication of the Whychus Canyon Preserve represents 16 years of work.

The land comprises several kinds of ecosystems. The Whychus is fed by glacier melt on Brokentop Mountain, running through forests and the town of Sisters until it ultimately joins the Deschutes River in a desert landscape.

Brad Chalfant is the Land Trust's executive Director. "This is the longest stretch of Wychus Creek, which is the most important stream in the Upper Deschutes Basin for the production of steelhead, which is really the iconic species in the Deschutes River," Chalfant said.

Chalfant says some of the existing preserve needs restoration work. The Trust has a long term goal of expanding the preserve over a ten-mile area. Some of that would be open as public land. Chalfant says the Trust had to raise two-point-eight million dollars to secure the existing preserve.

Dirty Half Marathon benefits Land Trust

Sarah Mowry — 2011-06-14T22:13:31Z

The weather was nearly perfect Sunday for Bend's 10th annual Dirty Half Marathon, and for year No. 10, the course changed -- but the attitudes didn't.

Starting and finishing at the Breedlove Guitar Company by Summit High School, the Dirty Half Marathon welcomed its maximum of 800 enthusiastic runners.

Foot Zone started the Dirty Half back in 2002 with just 150 participants, and it's since grown into a local favorite.

Sunday's event also featured beer from Deschutes Brewery, food and drink stands, and runners of all levels who came out to enjoy the trails through Bend.

"We get really positive feedback, just to the race itself, because it's really got something for everybody," said race Director David Thomason.

"We've got fast people out there," he said. "Obviously, there's a championship this year. We have some of the fastest people in the country out there. And then, in the third wave, I just did a survey of hands, and over half the people had never run a half-marathon before. So it's really got a large appeal."

All proceeds from Sunday's race are donated to the Deschutes Land Trust. Over the past ten years, the Dirty Half Race has raised more than $100,000 for the cause of protecting lands and streams for future generations.

Deschutes Land Trust introduces preserve to the public

Karyn Verzwyvelt — 2011-06-09T15:10:00Z

Over the last several weeks, the Deschutes Land Trust (DLT) has begun introducing the public to the newest acquisition in its lineup of protected conservation lands in the Deschutes Basin.

Since it was established in 1995 to accommodate the donation of a 145-acre portion of Indian Ford Meadow, the land trust has been responsible for the preservation of 8,200 acres of land in Central Oregon - with even more planned.

The new Whychus Canyon Preserve is a previously unprotected 450-acre parcel straddling a two-mile stretch of Whychus Creek. The land trust recognized that this was the largest single private landholding of Whychus Creek frontage and had been working for some time to preserve the area.

Amanda Egertson is the stewardship director for the land trust, and the creation of this new preserve has had special meaning for her:

"Whychus Canyon Preserve has been 10 years in the making! And now I have the fun job...of exploring every inch of it, discovering and documenting what is out here, planning restoration projects, conceptualizing hiking trail layouts, collaborating with the BLM and other partners, and getting to know our new neighbors. It's a very exciting time and an exceptionally beautiful property, and we encourage folks to come join us at our newest community preserve!"

Thus far, public access has been limited to guided tours conducted by the land trust for relatively small numbers of registered guests; but that all changes in just a few days. On Saturday, June 18, DLT will be hosting a "grand opening," which will include a dedication ceremony, immediately followed by a series of guided hikes and nature walks. From that time on, the preserve will be generally open to the public.

Following the dedication ceremony, Egertson herself will lead a difficult five-mile hike - billed as the "Whychus Canyon Extreme Hike" - into the heart of the canyon and preserve; but that is only one of at least eight hikes and walks that will be offered.

Other hikes will range on down to an easy nature walk of less than a mile, designed for children. Others vary from one to four miles and will feature mountain and canyon views, wildflowers, Santiam Wagon Road history, geology and fish.

The fish hike will be led by Forest Service representative Rod Bonacker. The land trust is one of several organizations leading a longstanding effort to restore salmon and steelhead runs to the Deschutes Basin, and acquisition of this preserve is considered a key step in reaching that goal. Bonacker will explain the restoration goals and process as he leads visitors on a difficult hike down to the creek, where the fish spawning and rearing habitat will be seen firsthand.

There is no charge for attending the dedication ceremony or any of the tours, but DLT is asking visitors to register beforehand in order to manage what is expected to be a big turnout for the event.

After the dedication, the preserve will be officially open to the public; and a temporary information kiosk and maps will be available at the public entrance. All of the land on the eastern edge of the preserve borders public lands operated by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The entrance to the preserve is actually located on BLM land, and the BLM has worked closely with the land trust to help develop the site.

Following the dedication, DLT will continue to offer tours. "Folks who want to explore Whychus Canyon Preserve are encouraged to sign up for one of the land trust's many free guided tours," said Egertson. "The tours provide a great introduction to the property, and the leaders offer insight into local flora, fauna, and the historic wagon road along the way. Beginning June 18, the preserve will open for independent exploration as well."

"After June 18, the land trust invites you to enjoy the property on your own," said Sarah Mowery, outreach manager for DLT. "The preserve is open to all foot traffic, including dogs on leash. Other rules of use and maps of the property are available at our temporary kiosk...."

Egertson explained that a trail system has been generally conceived, and a permanent plan is expected by fall. In the meantime, however, routes have been temporarily laid out and marked. Visitors are encouraged to stick to the marked routes in order to limit habitat impact.

"Be sure to stop by the kiosk and grab a map before you set out on your adventure," Egertson said.

The entrance to the preserve is located at the end of Goodrich Road, which is 4.5 miles east of Sisters on the way to Redmond. After turning left (north) onto Goodrich Road, continue 1.5 miles to where the pavement makes a 90-degree right turn. Goodrich Road, however, turns to gravel and continues straight from this point. It is another 1.6 miles to the road's end and the information kiosk on BLM land.

Those wishing to attend the grand opening or participate in any of the day's guided tours should register in advance by going to www.deschuteslandtrust.org and clicking on the events button. Scroll down to the June 18 dedication in order to RSVP for the ceremony or any of the related tours. Further information may also be obtained by calling 541-330-0017.

A chinook returns to cheers

Sarah Mowry — 2011-05-28T07:00:00Z

A 4-year-old spring chinook has sent ripples of excitement through Central Oregon’s community of fish biologists.

The salmon is the first to return to the Pelton Round Butte dam complex, the result of a decade-long, more than $100 million effort to restore runs of salmon and steelhead in the Upper Deschutes basin.

“It’s a beautiful fish,” said Brett Hodgson, Deschutes district fish biologist with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Looking at the pictures, it appears to be about a 15-pound male, in very good condition.”

Jim Bartlett, a fish passage biologist with Portland General Electric, got the news Wednesday morning that one of the fish entering a trap had its right maxillary bone clipped — a unique marker indicating that as a young fry it swam in Upper Deschutes tributaries.

Bartlett immediately grabbed his waders, found a big net, and jumped into the holding pond where the inaugural spring chinook was swimming with regular hatchery fish.

“I sorted through the 300 fish so I could find him, and pulled him out,” Bartlett said. “We’ve been working on this for a long time. It’s pretty exciting.”

He took pictures of the fish, naming him “Lucky” and “Lone Ranger,” since “it was the first one that made the gauntlet.”

And he sent out an e-mail to others involved in the effort to return fish runs, joking that the first fish likes smooth, open waters and anchovies, but dislikes sea lions and barbecues.

Ryan Houston, executive director of the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council, said it was fun to open the e-mail and see a full-sized adult that had left the Upper Deschutes, made it down the Columbia River, swum around in the Pacific and then returned safely. The Bend-based watershed council has restored habitat along creeks and streams to help create healthy spawning and rearing areas for salmon and steelhead.

“It’s symbolic more than anything else, but it’s exciting,” Houston said. “Because 10 years ago this whole idea was just a concept, and a lot of people thought it was crazy and it wouldn’t work. But it’s at least worked once.”

The effort to return salmon and steelhead to the Upper Deschutes and Crooked River basins started around 1995, when PGE and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs had to renew the federal license to operate the dams. One condition of the relicensing was to develop a way to get salmon and steelhead safely around the three dams in the Pelton Round Butte complex. The dams had been blocking the migration route of runs since the dams were constructed in the 1950s and ’60s.

So engineers drew up plans for a fish passage facility that would draw in water and fish from Lake Billy Chinook, sort them, and allow migrating salmon and steelhead to be trucked around the dam complex. Construction started in 2007, but was set back two years later, when the 270-foot tower connecting the fish passage structure with the bottom of the reservoir snapped, sections of it sinking to the floor of Lake Billy Chinook. Crews fished the pieces out, rebuilt the tower and in December 2009 the structure was up and running at Round Butte Dam.

The spring chinook caught last week probably spawned at Round Butte Hatchery in September 2007, said Don Ratliff, senior aquatic biologist with PGE.

It was one of the thousands of chinook that biologists and volunteers released into tributaries including the Metolius River in February 2008, and then in the spring of 2009 started to migrate down to Lake Billy Chinook.

Because the tower had broken at that point, PGE crews used traps to catch about 700 of the migrating fish and truck them around the dam. All of them had their right maxillary bone, or upper jaw near the hinge, clipped to identify them if they return. Most of them were outfitted with a tag inserted into their bellies that can be scanned by monitoring devices to identify where the fish came from — although the chinook that returned last week did not.

The first chinook also could have been one of the test fish that biologists used in trial runs to ensure the fish passage facility worked, before it was completely operational, Bartlett said. Or, it could have been one of the 240 or so fish that made it through the facility shortly after it was finished and up and running in December 2009.

“Any way you look at it, it’s really a cool scenario,” he said.

Ratliff added that because the test fish were released after the typical migration period, and the December fish were early migrants from the 2010 batch, it’s most likely that the chinook was released in the Metolius and caught in a trap.

And more fish could be on their way — three chinook that grew up in the Metolius and were trucked around the dams in 2009 were identified by an automated tag reader, as they swam up the Bonneville Dam fish ladder in May. Those could reach the Pelton fish trap in the next several weeks, Ratliff said.

No one really expected to get an adult fish back this early, said Hodgson, with the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

“There were not a lot of fish that were transported to the lower river in 2009, and to get one of them back, it’s pretty exciting.”

The adult chinook is now in a holding tank at Round Butte Hatchery, where it’s tagged with a special marker. Once it matures and is ready to spawn, biologists will use its sperm to fertilize eggs so that the next generation of chinook will get some of the genes that allowed the fish to make it to the ocean and back.

“The fact that he made it through the tributaries and was released into the lower river and came back — its genetic material is uniquely valuable,” Hodgson said.

After the chinook spawns, it will die just like fish would do in the wild. Dead fish from the hatchery are typically dropped in a pit, some scavenged by coyotes or other animals.

But it’s exciting and surprising to get a fish back already, said Bobby Brunoe, natural resources general manager with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.

“It kind of caught me off-guard a little bit, but this is cool, it’s amazing,” he said.

The fish not only survived predators and ocean conditions, but made it through all the fishermen out along the Columbia and Lower Deschutes, Brunoe said, joking that it slipped by him this weekend as well.

And even though it’s only one fish for now, it’s a good sign and an indication that the effort seems to be on track, he said.

“Hopefully there’s a lot more than just the one,” Brunoe said.

Kate Ramsayer can be reached at 541-617-7811 or at kramsayer@bendbulletin.com.

"Green Fire' ignites Sisters Country

Sarah Mowry — 2011-05-24T07:00:00Z

Almost 100 years ago, a man killed a wolf and was unexpectedly transformed as he stared into the dying wolf's green eyes. Last Thursday night a crowd of over 100 people gathered to hear the story of how the death of a wolf gave life to a new era of holistic stewardship at the Central Oregon premiere of "Green Fire" at Sisters Movie House.

The documentary film recounts the continuing influence of conservationist Aldo Leopold, best known as author of "A Sand County Almanac," and shows how his ideas are still fueling a groundswell of community-based solutions to environmental challenges, like the collaborative efforts going full-speed in Sisters today.

The gathering, sponsored by the National Forest Foundation and Movie House owner Lisa Clausen, was also the premiere of the first keg of "Water of Life" altbier, brewed with local mountain waters by Wade Underwood of Three Creeks Brewing Co. to benefit conservation projects on Whychus Creek and the Metolius River (see related story, page 9). As people gathered for the show, they voted with their wallets, pronouncing the mellow dark German ale extremely tasty. Lisa Clausen kept busy pouring and exclaimed, "People bought a lot of beer!"

Sisters District Ranger Bill Anthony introduced the movie, thanking the two businesses for their support of local watershed restoration and the National Forest Foundation for their leadership in facilitating public land stewardship. He challenged the audience to think about how the idea of a "land ethic" applied in Sisters, where long-lost fish runs are being restored and public lands are subject to society's changing values, including our appetite for recreation. In contrast, early Forest Service Ranger Leopold dealt with soil erosion during the Dust Bowl years, overgrazing, and game management as his ideas about how to heal the land evolved.

Some in the crowd confessed they hadn't read Leopold's work since high school, while others had barely heard of him. A group discussion after the movie explored the realities of wolf management in Oregon, how to find common ground in a politically divided country, and the importance of leaving no child inside in order to grow the next generation of land stewards. But why the thoughts of a man who died in 1948 should still resonate so strongly in today's world was no mystery to many of the conservation leaders in attendance.

Eric Sorenson, a founder of the rock climbing group, Central Oregon Rocks, Inc. said, "Although I have read a lot of Muir and Thoreau, I've never read his works. They are now on my short list!"

Sorenson explained, "Aldo Leopold never lost sight of the huge part that mankind plays in the web of life, and he saw that it can be for better or worse. He knew that the health of the land required the cooperation of people from all parts of the community, and strove to spread awareness and understanding of the fabric of nature with which we are interwoven. Whether we value Whychus Creek for climbing, hiking, hunting, or just breathing in the rustic solitude, we still have a part to play in its protection and care."

Former Friends of the Metolius president Gregory McClarren noted that people continue to fight change in constantly changing ecosystems:

"Early on in the movie I was reminded of the fact that we humans are part of the ecosystem, yet we act like we are beyond the forces that effect change in systems. I was struck by how "nouveau' Aldo's thinking was nearly a century ago. The concepts are timeless and the simplicity of them works to this day even as other forces urge us to be ever more complex."

Sisters resident Mary Crow felt an emotional connection to Leopold and his family members featured in the movie, including his 91-year-old daughter, who still carries on Leopold's work, carefully noting the dates of the arrival of various bird species and flower blooms as a way to track climate change.

Crow said, "This documentary was about passion to me. Since seeing the movie, that word keeps coming to mind. When we pursue our passions and interests to seek new understandings, and join that knowledge with nature, remarkable results can take place! The Leopold family has demonstrated this for generations, as Green Fire shows so beautifully." Crow works to inspire stewardship by leading tours for the Deschutes Land Trust: "Just imagine a world where everyone understood that we are the stewards of our planet, put here to protect and preserve, not hurt and consume. Leading tours for the Land Trust is my way of inspiring people to act, and I've seen the sparkle in someone's eye when they finally understand they have a responsibility."

Restoration ecologist Karen Allen who helped plan and implement the Deschutes Land Trust's massive revegetation of restored steam channels at Camp Polk, appreciated Leopold's ecological eloquence. "Leopold's words, "A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community' just echo in my being after watching this film. I'm grateful to be part of carrying Leopold's land ethic forward through community stewardship and habitat restoration efforts that do just that - preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community of which we are all a part."

Longtime conservationist Phil Blatt remembered, "Since I was a kid seventy years ago I have dreamed of the wilderness world that Aldo Leopold lived and worked for. He knew the world was an ecological community in need of all species and habitats to live in balance. Today in Central Oregon, we can see his ethic being put into action with, I hope, an ever-increasing effectiveness."

Jan McGowan, who has led and counseled non-profit groups for many years, summed it up saying, "This inspirational movie gives me hope that we are on the right track in our efforts to restore our local environment. I see kids and adults, all kinds of business owners, ranchers and artists, professionals and volunteers, all loving the land and contributing their time and resources to making it better."

To learn more about Aldo Leopold and the Green Fire movie visit http://www.greenfiremovie.com.