News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 201 - 225 of 734
Four days before Christmas - the day it was raining cats and dogs - you may have noticed a few very wet people with binoculars and spotting scopes wandering around Sisters Country stealthily looking into forest, field, and people's backyards. They were participants in the annual 2014 Christmas Bird Count (CBC). Tom Crabtree, Teresa Wicks (a graduate student at Oregon State University-Bend), and Courtney Jett - all of East Cascade Audubon Society - were the ring-leaders that... Full story
This is the story of a very, very rare occurrence: the chance discovery of a marked bird. Of the millions that have been marked over the years since bird-banding began in the U.S., Canada and England, Russia, not many have ever been heard from again. I've been banding birds-or as it is known in Canada and England, "ringing"- since 1962, when the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service issued my banding permit. Ten years earlier, in 1952, I began looking into great horned owl, golden... Full story
Earlier this month, Sue and I went wandering around between Phoenix and Las Vegas, visiting family and enjoying the wild things of the Southwest. In our travels so far, nothing can hold a candle to the trip over the Colorado River, near Marble Canyon in northern Arizona. Preparing to leave Phoenix for Vegas, we called Grand Canyon National Park to ask about the whereabouts of California condors along the route. (Grand Canyon's South Rim has a condor-viewing area all summer.)... Full story
It was a long way for my son Ross from sitting in the back seat of our 1946 Piper Cub in the early '60s - hauling the stick back and forth to cause the nose to go up and down - to becoming the commanding officer of the 926th Air Force Wing at Nellis AFB last week. It was a momentous occasion when master of ceremonies Major Mckay Kingry - after the introductions of family and Air Force dignitaries was carried out - introduced General Lindberg, who then introduced Ross to the... Full story
Rima Givot, Sisters High School science and Spanish teacher, doesn't let any grass grow under her feet - either at school, at home in Oregon, or in Costa Rica. It's not her nature to stand still very long, and she's started working on her master's degree to continue her education and as a science teacher in Oregon's public schools, and all teachers are required to become more advanced in their fields. "With my master's project, I hope to inspire my students, community members,... Full story
Maggie Saslow is one of those people who wants to know. She is curious about everything that sneaks, crawls, fly, jumps, slithers, runs, hops and otherwise is associated with her little plot on planet Earth. Her emails are always filled with things to think about, things that need names. She sent me a photo last week that really made my day titled, "Translucent amber legs, striped abdomen ?-inch long, xoxs, Maggie." I had a hunch solpugids were here, as I've seen them out on... Full story
This tale of a mouse-in-the-house was started my good friend and fellow airman, Vern Goodsell. He sent me an email a few weeks back with a photo of a dead mouse in a Victor snap-trap, and asked: "OK. What did I catch? Never saw a mouse with such big ears and a slight bush at the end of his tail." I took one look and said to myself, "No way!" That looks like a pinyon mouse, but they don't live here" - and proceeded to forward the email to my good friend and National Park... Full story
Angela Sitz loves her work. For about four years now, she's been collecting data from state and federal agencies, college wildlife students' research, and private land-owners - particularly ranchers - on what they are seeing in the world of the sage grouse. Everything she and other U.S. Fish & Wildlife (USFW) biologists can learn about the species will, when combined with data from all over the West, determine whether or not sage grouse are placed on the Endangered Species... Full story
Last week, 60 IEE juniors from Sisters took to the banks of Whychus Creek for a day of restoring the riparian area in Creekside Park. The City of Sisters saw the need to heal over part of the creek's banks adjacent to and within Creekside Park, and provided about 300 plants - alder, wood rose, dogwood and snowberry. SHS teachers Glenn Herron, Samra Spear, and their IEE (Interdisiplinary Environmental Expedition) team saw this as an opportunity to put the junior students to... Full story
The Deschutes Land Trust - well known for the stewardship projects they conduct in Sisters Country- presented two Central Oregonians with Volunteer of the Year awards at its annual open house on October 22. Eva Eagle and Ginny Elliott were honored for their dedication to conserving land in Central Oregon. Eva Eagle has been a DLT volunteer since 2005. For nearly 10 years she has collected and analyzed bird sightings submitted by volunteer birders on land trust protected... Full story
It's possible a whole bunch of Sisters Elementary School (SES) fourth-graders may have lost out on learning about the native plants they live among if it wasn't for Sisters High School (SHS) biology teacher Rima Givot's freshmen and sophomores taking the time to teach them. Earlier this month, 75 fourth-grade students piled out of two buses at the SHS athletic field were they were met by several students from Givot's biology class, primed and ready to take the younger... Full story
A lone cougar came wandering though the Sisters Country, found one of Kathryn Godsiff's small goats to her liking - more so than a mule deer or turkey - killed it and carried it off earlier this month. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) policy says a cougar that kills a domestic animal - no matter what for and where - must be killed. Godsiff called ODFW, and they instructed her to call a USDA Wildlife Services biologist/hunter who hunted down a female cougar. In an... Full story
Going to Camp Tamarack at Dark Lake when Outdoor School is running is like going back in time. The squeals of happy kids fill the air, the silly sounds and antics of college-age instructors goad them on to keep the spirit of learning about the nature of our Earth in the out-of-doors fun. This is Outdoor School 2014 - very much like it was when it first appeared in the mid-'60s. Last Monday morning, 31 fifth-grade students from Seven Peaks School in Bend - along with Principal... Full story
"Here comes a couple of TVs ... and oh, yeah, over near the big pine on the right I can see a red-tail soaring!" exclaimed a person looking through a spotting scope. "Whoa! Whoa! Look over there," shouted a woman with binoculars, peering over the trees to the north. "Right by the ridge to the north there's an aerial battle going on!" Everyone started looking through their binoculars at the faraway ridge and then a voice spoke: "Yeah, it looks like a red-tail and a Cooper's... Full story
Summer is the time to be working in the garden, and no one knows that better than Audrey Tehan of the Sisters Seed-to-Table project. Perhaps the most important production she and her crew achieved was the 150 pounds of squash, salads, kale, snap peas and the like that they delivered to the Sisters Kiwanis Food Bank. Then there was the 3,000-plus student-hours she helped get going, and the four-days a week she was teaching Sisters High School interns, who were busy helping elementary school kids learn the art and science of... Full story
One of the really neat things about living in Sisters Country is we have two wild bird rehabbers who work from both ends of the size-of-birds spectrum. Gary Landers works with eagles, the biggest of our birds, while Elise Wolf works with hummingbirds, the smallest of our birds. Both are authorized by the the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which takes a lot of bookwork and studying to make sure they're doing it right. Gone are the days when someone would find an... Full story
All it takes is one smelly fish in the barrel and the whole thing has to be tossed out. That's what happens when people get to discussing the role of ATVs in our treasured wild places. When one of the ilk goes off on a killing spree, most people think all ATV drivers are all the same - which they are not. The outlet of Cold Springs is a mess today - all because one person driving one ATV violated the motor-vehicle off-load management plan and drove into a place it should... Full story
Last spring, City Manager Andrew Gorayeb and Public Works Project Coordinator Nicole Montalvo came up with a wonderful idea: Put up a bluebird trail throughout the City of Sisters. With that in mind, Nicole got John Gerke, one of Sisters' premier birders, and yours truly to help pick out the habitat for bluebirds - both Western and mountain - that would use nesting boxes. The project will also provide the opportunity for willing residents of Sisters to help monitor and clean... Full story
Members of Sisters Country servicemen were present at the Sisters Veterans of Foreign Wars and American Legion Veterans Memorial Stone in Village Green Park last Saturday at noon to take part in placing their departed veterans' names on the stone. The names of Harold Mulligan - U.S. Navy; Stuart Marshall - U.S. Army; Robert "Bob" Baker - U.S. Marine Corps; Carl Newport - U.S. Air Force; and William Henry Duehren, Jr. - U.S. Army were placed on the memorial stone by Lance... Full story
The Sisters High Desert Chorale, under the leadership of Irene Liden, is coming back to life for the sixth season. This recent email from Irene went out to all the past chorale members and other musicians: "Have I given you all enough time off?" "I am ready to begin, if you are." "First rehearsal will be September 8 at the Lutheran Church - 6:30 p.m." "Bring all your friends and we will decide when a pot-luck get-together will be." That's a lot of good news in four short... Full story
Last Saturday, 16 dedicated volunteers met at Creekside Park in Sisters to learn more about the health and welfare of Whychus Creek, which flows through Sisters Country. The goal is to monitor aquatic macroinvertebrates - the aquatic life stage of familiar arthropods such as stoneflies, caddisflies, and mayflies, all excellent indicators of stream health. On Whychus Creek, where extensive restoration work is taking place to improve habitat for returning steelhead and salmon,... Full story
When I was a kid - back in the mid to late '30s - fumigating food from foreign lands was unknown. "Things" came to us in our banana shipment. One of those things was that sporty-looking spider above, the infamous Brazilian wandering spider. If you want to freak out on spiders, that's a good one to start with. Leave all those huge "Charlottes," the colorful orb weavers on your porch and garage, to do their thing - they capture and eat pesky insects and are harmless. But that... Full story
Back in the mid-'60s I had the honor and great fortune to be employed by The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in the big city of Portland. It was a time of awakening as to the impact of lead on wildlife and our environment. In addition to my work with the sciences and kids at OMSI, I got involved in many of the wildlife projects going on at Sauvie Island Game Management Area, located between the Columbia and Willamette Rivers at Portland. As I was removing... Full story
The Deschutes Public Library System (DPLS) "family" got together in the Community Room of the Sisters Library last week to talk about library services. There were representative from many of the library branches at the family gathering - made up of library board bembers, Library Foundation, and various branch "friends" - to hear DPLS Director Todd Dunkelberg talk about a variety of library functions and subjects. Dunkleberg began the meeting by talking about how DPLS is... Full story
Gary Albertson and Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer Jay Mather will have their work on display at Sisters Library for all the month of August. Albertson's work on the Metolius River and around Central Oregon will be featured, while Mather will have images of his photojournalism work in Cambodia, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Central Oregon and the Cascades - along with images capturing Gary doing his work. As a photographer who has serious problems with deteriorating eyesight,... Full story
