Winter snows finally arrive in Sisters

"Let it snow" is the mantra chanted by woodsmen, sportsmen, farmers - and the folks in the cities. Snow is the elixir that makes living in Central Oregon possible. It is the lifeblood of many businesses and the water supply for thousands as it feeds streams and recharges aquifers.

As the month of December started, the snowpack was well below a comfortable depth for Central Oregon.

"The snowpack was only about 40 percent of what we consider normal just two weeks ago. Now, it is good, not up yet to where we would like it but is certainly close at 94 percent of norm. We had a lot of room to make up just two weeks ago and I am really happy that we have had so much in the last few days," said Kyle Gorman, the Deschutes County Watermaster.

The heavy snowfall in the last two weeks, with more predicted, is bringing hope that this year will at least match last year's levels. The current level is short of last year's level which reached 114 percent of average by early December.

The snowpack is a critical factor for irrigation in the High Desert, which depends upon snow melt in the spring and summer to meet the irrigation needs of the ranchers in the area. The snowpack usually reaches its maximum depth around the first of April.

When snowpack is low, irrigators worry.

The Three Sisters Irrigation District, which services the Sisters area, has been piping its canals in order to conserve water and return more of the original flow to Whychus Creek so that recently introduced fish can thrive. A sub-normal snowpack creates a crisis for both Whychus Creek and area ranchers who depend upon the irrigation water that is diverted from the creek.

Snowpack is also critical to the area's winter economics. Without a snow base, ski areas do not attract the tourists that fund the winter economy that is the backbone for Sisters businesses in the winter.

The snowpack at Hoodoo Mountain Resort is now doing very well and even deeper than at Mount Bachelor.

"Our ski conditions have been the best they have been pre-Christmas in six years," Hoodoo's Chief Executive Officer Chuck Shepard said.

The only time in recent memory that the snow depth was better was in December 2001, according to Shepard, who was looking forward to more snow.

"It has snowed here every day since December 18," Shepard said, "and we have had record numbers of visitors this year - although I am not sure that it is because of the snow."

Snowmobilers also keep an eye on the snowpack and on the weather forecasts.

"We lost a bit of snow to the rain that fell in the last couple of weeks, and actually we are down a little from where we were two weeks ago," said Bill Rice, chairman of the Trail Grooming Committee for the Sisters Sno-Go-Fers.

Rice observes the snow throughout the region daily as he grooms the trails that are used by cross-country skiers and snowmobilers in the Sisters area.

"Two weeks ago we had so much powder snow, it was hard to groom. We lost a lot to the rain, but it is building again, and the forecasts are for a lot more over the next few days," he said.

Good snowpacks are also critical for the health of the forests and are necessary to keep the forests from becoming even more of a tinderbox than normal during the dry and hot fire season that descends on the Sisters area during the summer. Summer rain also plays a key part in fire risks, but the effect of a good snow pack on forest health is often underestimated.

"People often forget the importance of a good snowpack for forest health and the water supply that it provides to places like Bend and Sisters. Without healthy forests and the good snowpacks, the water supplies would be severely limited," said Sue Olson of the U.S. Forest Service.