News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sorted by date Results 226 - 250 of 734
For 28 years, my wife, Sue, our family, and her team of volunteer helpers have been counting butterflies in Central Oregon for the North American Butterfly Association (NABA). The season begins with the Ochoco count in late June, when the team conducts a day-long search in a 15-mile circle that includes Big Summit Prairie, east of Prineville. In July comes the Metolius count. Three of the main goals of NABA's Butterfly Count Program are to gather data that will monitor... Full story
There are about 200 species of insects in this part of the country that make life on Earth very difficult for other insects: Ambush bugs. They have that very descriptive name because they wait silently and unmoving for their prey to get close enough to grab them. And they blend in so perfectly with the places where they wait that they are all but impossible to see. If you look at the photo to the right long enough, you'll make out the head and front legs of an ambush bug... Full story
This is it! All you Sisters Country residents that live in fear of woodpeckers pounding holes in the side of your houses, this is a cure that works. Honest! Don Rowe, long-time resident of Sisters; retired USFS firefighter and technician; master woodcarver; grandfather, has created a cure for woodpeckers doing damage to houses: A life-sized carved and painted pileated woodpecker decoy. Because pileateds are beautiful, Don decided to add one to his menagerie of bird carvings at... Full story
Each year sees more and more mule deer wandering around Sisters. And each year sees more and more residents making virtual pets out them. This has created problems, with does aggressively defending their fawns from a perceived threat even by leashed dogs. Such encounters do not end well for the dog. Wildlife professionals say that if you see a mule deer with a fawn, do not go near them. Leave them alone; the doe knows what she's doing, even when she leaves her fawn on your... Full story
Joshua Samuel Close Erskine of Sisters was awarded the Boy Scouts of America's Eagle Scout Badge at Cascades Academy in Bend last week. Several of Joshua's uncles - all holding that special rank of Eagle Scout - were there to cheer him on, to take part in what they believe was one of the most rewarding things they accomplished in their younger years. One of Joshua's uncles, David Close, a retired Episcopalian minster living on Whidbey Island on the Puget Sound, feels that gain... Full story
The information spreading across the nation about, "OR-7," a gray wolf (Canis lupus) that was captured, examined and equipped with a radio transmitter in Oregon, don't tell us "the rest of the story." The accompanying picture does tell the story of the evolution of Man's attitude regarding wolves. No one would have the slightest idea of the wanderings of "Journey" AKA OR-7, without the federal endangered species ruling on the release of wolves in Wyoming in 1995. To... Full story
Some 200 young, eager and exceptionally talented students from the IEE (Integrated Environmental Education) program in Sisters, Black Butte School, REALMS school in Bend, and Cascades Academy attended the seventh annual Watershed Summit put on by Kolleen Yake, education director for the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council (UDWC), on Tuesday, May 13. Yake started the Watershed Summit and Students Speak program seven years ago. "We created the Watershed Summit as a way to give... Full story
The Sisters schools' Seed-To-Table program, begun by Audrey Tehan, Sisters Science Club, and Sisters School District is - in spite of the demise of the middle school greenhouse - alive and well. The plan got underway last January when SSD Operations Director Leland Bliss, Assistant Nutrition Services Director Terri Rood, volunteer Amber Dean and Seed-To-Table Director Audrey Tehan put a menu together to integrate more local, nutritious foods into school lunch menus, including... Full story
In the field of Scouting, achieving the rank of Eagle Scout is the premium achievement. Ben Johnson, a junior at Sisters High School, is a member of Boy Scout Troop 188 in Sisters, and he's going for the rank of Eagle Scout. He has earned 26 merit badges, including all of the mandatory merit badges to earn the rank. His Eagle Scout project accomplished the rehabilitation of an outdoor chimpanzee enclosure at the chimpanzee sanctuary, Chimps Inc., located in Tumalo. Johnson... Full story
What a honey of day it was in Sisters last Saturday! Approximately 400 people from throughout Central Oregon descended on the Liddell Honey Bee Yard in the industrial park like a swarm of bees. In fact, that's what they were in town for: to learn about bees, buy their bees and get going as bee-keepers. Five-year-old Addie Severson from Tumalo showed up at the yard, eager to see what she was buying with her own money and what she could learn to get into the honey business.... Full story
Master blacksmith Jeff Wester, his son, Hayden, and smith Alex Cretsinger had plenty of irons in the fire last Sunday afternoon as they put on a blacksmithing demonstration at the Sisters Library. About 70 Sisters residents were there to watch, ask question, inspect the wrought steel pieces both Jeff and Alex created with their smithy skills. This was the final Friends of the Sisters Library (FOSL) program for 2014. They are put on each winter and spring as part of the Diane... Full story
Last Tuesday was one of those special days that Sisters High School students will remember for a long time to come. They had the opportunity to spend most of the day listening, feeling, and watching the nature of Whychus Creek as they participated in IEE studies. IEE is the acronym for "Interdisciplinary Environmental Expedition," a nontraditional approach to education and the arts. The program has been ongoing for over 14 years at SHS. Sisters students study the water and... Full story
If the functional beauty of hand-forged iron sparks your soul, come to the Sisters Library, Sunday, May 4, 1:30 p.m. as the smiths of Ponderosa Forge & Ironworks demonstrate the art of blacksmithing. Jeff Wester, master blacksmith and owner of Ponderosa Forge, will be there with smith Chris Corcoran. They'll have the portable forge fired up on the library's community room patio - and the sparks will fly. "I really enjoy the design work," Wester says. "I love to see the... Full story
Wednesday, March, 19, 2014: That was the day that the turkey vultures, aka buzzards or TVs, appeared over the horizon, winging their way north from their long (and very wise) winter stay in the southern climes. The official birding world acronym is TUVU. TUVUs, like many Sisters Country birds (and retired homo sapiens, known as snow birds) must obey the sun. The length of day, the position of the sun in relation to the horizon are two components of daylight that trigger the... Full story
If you find yourself trying to make sense out of the all-too-familiar news flashes about high-profile sports figures using performance-enhancing products, come to The Belfry on Thursday, April 17, where COCC Assistant Professor of Exercise Science John Liccardo will present: "Physiology, Doping and Ethics in Sports." Doors open at 6 p.m.; lecture starts at 7 p.m. With advances in nutritional technology, scientists synthesizing and manufacturing nutrients, and many of their met... Full story
Fourth-grade teacher Clay Warburton decided he wanted to bring his students into knowing how we humans fit into and share space with other animals inhabiting this wonderful old Earth with us, and did so in the most creative way. He began by illustrating all the animal kingdoms and families on a sheet of legal paper, which in itself was a major accomplishment. Then, with the aid of the school's Prezi app, he created a spectacular computer presentation explaining how scientists... Full story
The telescope, camera, and web equipment sending images of the golden eagle nesting over the Wolftree property on lower Whychus Creek is about to go back online. Leslie Lawrence now owns the home and camera site. Those who enjoyed watching the eagle family raise their youngsters from eggs to fledglings last year recall what fun it was to have the opportunity to be that up-close without causing any stress to the eagles. Now it's almost ready to be repeated - but there are... Full story
Pygmy owls can kill anything the size of a pigeon, and eat it - right then and there. When a pygmy owl shows up in my yard, even the robins run for cover, and you can't find a junco, or finch for love-nor-money; even the chickadees - who thumb their noses at a bird hawk- run for cover. Nothing seems to frighten a pygmy owl. Last fall when we were cutting wood out on the other side of Camp Sherman, I heard a pygmy yelling at my power saw to shut up! Every time I'd shut down the... Full story
What was crushed by snow will rise again - and it may be much grander in scope and scale. Audrey Tehan, Leland Bliss, Carol Packard, David Hiller, Mark Thompson, Jim Golden and Bob Collins visited the crushed remains of what was once the Sisters Middle School (SMS) greenhouse on Tuesday, February 18. In its glory days - before the Big Snow of 2014 - the greenhouse was the site of great dreams to bring homegrown food to the students of the Sisters schools through the Farm-To-Ta... Full story
About the time the last bus pulls away from Sisters Middle School, loaded with kids going home, music begins to flow - sometimes haltingly - from the art classrooms. It's the Americana Project in action. Megan Ellsworth, sophomore, and junior Madison Slicker are teaching 11 fifth- and sixth-graders guitar after school. After being at it for only a short time, Ellsworth said, "I feel this (Americana Project) class has been going so well. All the kids are very talented and I am... Full story
All of those guys in the photo have received The Order of the Eagle from Oregon State Parks for the outstanding conservation work they have done with golden and bald eagles. Robert Marheine is a wildlife biologist with PGE, currently working on collecting data from radio-tagged eagles, and has been involved with PGE and eagles for over 20 years. Frank Isaacs is the man who saved the bald eagle in Oregon. When he began researching bald eagles (near extinction) through the OSU... Full story
If anyone says to you, "Sisters is for the birds!" you can believe it. Every time there's ice and/or snow on the sidewalks around City Hall there is a sudden influx of seed-eating birds. Why? Because the city doesn't believe in using salt, sand, or environmentally unfriendly anti-skid/snow melt stuff on the sidewalks. The public works people use just plain old black sunflower birdseed. Now I know there may be those people in Sisters Country right at this moment who are exclaim... Full story
Last Friday evening the Sisters Library saw more people coming and going than it has since its opening in January of 2006. In addition, it was probably the first time so many people coming in could be heard saying, "I wonder who will get first for photography," and the people going out saying, "Boy! Wasn't that a show! I thought the hare and the tortoise rocker was really something!" In the midst of the crushing crowd of over 200 people from throughout the Sisters community,... Full story
In the event you're wondering how Grace the trumpeter swan is doing, don't feel alone. Rehabber Elise Wolf is wondering as well. Grace has been released back to the wild, not to Summer Lake Wildlife Management Area as planned, but in Bend with other swans on the Deschutes River below Pioneer Park. "She had to go back to the water," Wolf said. "Swans are floaters, not pedestrians, and even though she's underweight because of her injuries, her feet were beginning to show wear... Full story
The Sisters community is invited to come to the Sisters Library and enjoy the most exciting and charming Friends of Sisters Library (FOSL) Annual Art Exhibit yet. In the eight years the FOSL Art Committee has been putting on the exhibit, the more-than-178 pieces of art this year represent the most unique and diverse exhibit ever. The beautiful wood working of local craftsman Mark Thompson has brought to life the tale of Aesop's, "Tortoise and the Hare" in the form of an... Full story
