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In this Issue of C.O. Local BUZZ…

🤔Local Trivia Question

🌄Bend, OR Weather

📅 Lots and LOTS of Events

🍺🥃🍸The Little Woody - Bend Aug. 30th -31st

🏍️🎶HOT PIPES MOTO SHOW!

🎉New Event Calendar! Central Oregon Local Live!

📰Local News - What’s a Happening?

🐕🐔Deschutes County Sees Rise in Animal Complaint Calls in 2024

🛣️Crater Lake National Park’s North Entrance Road to reopen temporarily for Labor Day weekend visitors

🏗️OSU-Cascades latest building, the Student Success Center, is nearing completion

📰Business News

🗻Local group explores buying Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort

📰Regional News

🏗️🌊Final Dams on Klamath River Removed, Restoring Salmon Path

🚫🦉Killings of invasive owls to ramp up on US West Coast in a bid to save native birds

Central Oregon Fire Info

Updates of Oregon Fires

🚧 Road Closures & Construction

🔥⛑️Fire & Rescue News

💥Fatal Collision on HWY 20 in Jefferson County Claims One Life

🧗‍♀️Injured Climber Rescued After Fall Near Ochoco Reservoir

🚨 Crime News

👮‍♂️Bend Police investigating report of shots fired in area of NE Second Street

🏍️💥UPDATE - Motorcyclist Cited for DUII in Parkway Crash

 📰 Community News

 Got some news or know of news for our Community News Segment - share it with C.O. Local Buzz!

😁 MEME of the Day

🌆 On going Events

📲Sponsors & Partners

What inspired the name "The Little Woody" for Bend’s annual craft beverage festival?

A) The festival’s original location near a wooded area
B) The small wooden barrels used in aging the beverages
C) The founder’s nickname
D) The mascot of a local brewery

👉Find the Answer in Tomorrow’s Newsletter👉

BEND

Events Sponsored By

Enjoy Bend Life Real Estate

What’s Up Central Oregon 

Friday, Aug 30, 5-10pm

Saturday, Aug 31, Noon-10pm

VIP Admission begins at 4pm on Friday

The festival is free to attend. Purchase a tasting package to sample beer, cider and wine.

The Little Woody is a whimsical festival held in Bend, Oregon, celebrating craft beverages with a delightful gnome-themed atmosphere. Taking place on the lush grounds of the Deschutes Historical Museum, the event offers a rich array of experiences from beer, cider, and cocktail tastings to non-alcoholic options. Set for Labor Day weekend, the festival's hours are from 5 PM to 10 PM on Friday and from noon to 10 PM on Saturday.

This festival goes beyond mere tastings by featuring live music, a gnome costume contest, and interactive art activities, enhancing the enchanting experience. For those interested in unique spirits, there's a special whiskey tent with limited availability selections offering rare and aged spirits which are only available while supplies last.

Children are welcome during specific hours, making it a family-friendly event during the day, while evening sessions are reserved for attendees 21 and older. It's important to note that pets are not allowed, except for service animals as per ADA guidelines.

For further details on the event lineup, ticket purchasing, and more, you can visit their website The Little Woody.

August 31st 2PM - 10PM

HOT PIPES MOTO SHOW!

This is THE BEST MOTORCYCLE SHOW in Bend Oregon on August 31st, 2024 at 220 NE Lafayette Avenue. We're gonna turn this thing up to 11 and show what Bend and the surrounding areas have to offer in custom and vintage motorcycles. We'll be showcasing chopper culture customs, antique collectibles, vintage racers, and all out speed demons. The show will also feature art from some of central Oregon’s premier artists as well as vendor booths with pinstriping, denim daddies, jewelry mavens, food, bevvies from Boneyard Beer, music by Portland punk band The Shitfits, and much more. Don't miss out on seeing all of these major west coast builders, tattoo artists, photographers, and local business owners all in one spot! Don't dilly dally! The first 250 tickets sold come with an official Hot Pipes poster + sticker pack with wicked graphics by our own Brian Zager @bkzgrfx.

Be there or be square!

Hot Pipes is a family friendly event

Kids under 12 years of age enter for FREE

NO dogs

NO outside alcohol

NO cuts or colors

Deschutes County Sees Rise in Animal Complaint Calls in 2024

The Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office (DCSO) has reported a significant increase in animal-related complaints in 2024, particularly involving dogs that are chasing, injuring, or killing livestock. This uptick in incidents has led to more citations issued to dog owners, highlighting the importance of keeping pets under control.

The surge in citations may be linked to a recent amendment to the Deschutes County Code, which broadened the definition of livestock to include free-range chickens and turkeys. This change, which took effect on February 1, 2024, has brought more cases under the purview of the Sheriff’s Office.

Dog owners are reminded that it is their responsibility to prevent their pets from causing harm to livestock. When such incidents occur, affected livestock owners can file a complaint with the DCSO. In response, the dog owner may face a public nuisance citation, and their dog could be impounded. Owners have the option to request a hearing before the County’s Dog Control Board to contest the citation.

If the Dog Control Board finds the complaint valid, the dog owner could be fined between $250 and $1,000 per violation and be required to pay impound fees. In some cases, the dog may not be returned to the owner.

As of this year, there have been 13 Dog Control Board hearings related to livestock complaints, with six of these cases involving free-range chickens. This marks a noticeable increase from 2023, when only five hearings were held, and just one involved free-range chickens.

To manage the growing number of animal complaint calls, the Sheriff’s Office has hired an additional Animal Control Technician. This addition allows patrol deputies to focus on other community issues while ensuring that animal control concerns are effectively addressed.

Sergeant Jason Wall, who released this information, urges dog owners to take their responsibilities seriously to prevent further incidents and protect the safety of both livestock and pets.

Crater Lake National Park’s North Entrance Road to reopen temporarily for Labor Day weekend visitors

Crater Lake National Park will temporarily open the North Entrance Road for two-way travel beginning 7 a.m. Saturday through Monday, Sept. 2, to accommodate visitors over the busy Labor Day Weekend.

However, park officials said Wednesday that long lines and waits of up to two hours should be expected throughout the holiday weekend at both entrance stations.

The South Entrance Station will be especially busy on Friday, as it will be the only entrance into the park. Arriving before 10 AM or after 3 PM may reduce wait times. If the park is not your destination, officials suggest you "please consider avoiding Highway 62 and taking an alternative route." 

"Please be advised that fire operations may necessitate temporary closures or delays along the North Entrance Road at any time," they said.

Beginning at 6 AM Tuesday, September 3^rd, and continuing until further notice, the North Entrance will again be closed to all traffic to allow for hazard reduction work related to the Middle Fork Fire to resume.  During this time, access to the park will be limited to the South Entrance.  

OSU-Cascades latest building, the Student Success Center, is nearing completion

Oregon State University-Cascades announced its latest building project on the Bend campus will be finished in a few months. The 22,500 square foot Student Success Center has been under construction for the past year. It will be the second sustainable geothermal building on campus.

"There's a lot of excitement around campus form students. They're really anticipating this space being kind of a student union for them. Student unions are very popular on other university campuses. There are places where students can find resources, where they can gather, where they can have a coffee, where they can go to career services, (and) find academic advising," said Christine Coffin, director of communications at the university.  

The total cost of the project is almost $20 million. Student fees contributed $5 million in funding, along with $14 million from the state Legislature. The building is expected to be open January 7th.

Local group explores buying Mt. Bachelor Ski Resort

Brooke Snavely, Reporter Central Oregon Daily News

Less than a week after the announcement that Mt. Bachelor is for sale, a local effort is emerging to buy the ski resort.

POWDR Corporation announced last Thursday it was listing Mount Bachelor for sale, along with several other ski resorts it owns around the country.

Central Oregon Daily News met a couple of locals Wednesday who are researching ways to buy and operate Mount Bachelor for the benefit of locals. But it’s a big ski resort with a correspondingly large price tag.

"The two methods we are looking at are a non-profit or possibly a trust but, really, returning the mountain to local shareholders so they have control," said Chris Porter.

"The effort is to bring it back into local ownership of the community," said Dan Cochrane. "It’s the original foundation of the town and the vision of Bill Healy. We would love to return it to the great ski hill that it once was."

Porter and Cochrane are organizing a meeting Thursday night with “people around town, some government representatives and private investors.” They say step one is a feasibility study to crunch the numbers, which they expect are in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Whatever Bachelor’s ownership status, the Powder House Ski & Snowboard Shop on Century Drive is already preparing it’s ski rental equipment for the coming season.

"I remember when Bill Healy used to own it. He lived here. Knew what was going on, heard from the locals. I think it would make a difference and I would like to see that happen," said Todd McGee, Powder House owner. 

"We spearheaded this effort just this last Saturday, hit the ground running and everyone’s excited about it," Cochrane said. "Everyone I’ve spoken to, they are all on board and everyone just can’t wait to see what happens."

People interested in learning about the local effort to purchase Mount Bachelor can email [email protected]

"As the great philosopher Warren Miller once said, 'There’s multiple ways to slide down a hill. Some of them are more graceful than others,'" Porter said.

Video Here

Final Dams on Klamath River Removed, Restoring Salmon Path

Workers breached the last dams on a key part of the Klamath River, allowing salmon to swim freely through the watershed near the California-Oregon border for the first time in over a century. This milestone marks the near-completion of the largest dam removal project in U.S. history, aimed at restoring natural river flow and salmon habitats. The project, expected to cost $500 million, is part of a national movement to remove dams and restore ecosystems. The Yurok and Karuk Tribes, who have long advocated for this restoration, are hopeful about the return of salmon to their historical habitats, though it may take time to see full recovery.

Full Story Here

Killings of invasive owls to ramp up on US West Coast in a bid to save native birds

U.S. wildlife officials beginning next year will drastically scale up efforts to kill invasive barred owls that are crowding out imperiled native owls from West Coast forests, under a plan finalized Wednesday that faces challenges from barred owls returning after they’ve already been removed.

Trained shooters will target barred owls over 30 years across a maximum of about 23,000 square miles (60,000 square kilometers) in California, Oregon and Washington. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service goal is to kill up to 452,000 barred owls and halt the decline of competing northern spotted owls and California spotted owls.

Killing one bird species to save others has divided wildlife advocates and is reminiscent of past government efforts to save West Coast salmon by killing sea lions and cormorants, and to preserve warblers by killing cowbirds that lay eggs in warbler nests. The barred owl removals would be among the largest such effort to date involving birds of prey, researchers and wildlife advocates said.

Native to eastern North America, barred owls started appearing in the Pacific Northwest in the 1970s. They’ve quickly displaced many spotted owls, which are smaller birds that need larger territories. An estimated 100,000 barred owls now live within a range that contains only about 7,100 spotted owls, according to federal officials.

The newcomers’ arrival also threatens to decimate frog and salamander species that barred owls prey on.

“It’s not just one owl versus one owl,” said David Wiens, a U.S. Geological Survey scientist who led a barred owl removal study that ended in 2020. “Because of their predatory behavior, they are basically eating anything in the forest and this includes amphibians, small mammals, other bird species.”

Government officials say 15 years of killing barred owls experimentally, including on Northern California’s Hoopa Valley Indian Reservation, shows the controversial strategy could halt the decline of spotted owls. Yet researchers warn that few spotted owls remain in some areas, and it could take years to turn the tide on the barred owls’ aggressive expansion.

Former Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Kent Livezey said the mass killing of barred owls was ill-advised and could cost hundreds of dollars per bird. Livezey has documented more than 100 bird species that expanded their range in recent years.

“We should let nature take its course,” he wrote in an email. “Birds (and all animals) move. Competitions arise. Should we be stepping in and killing mass numbers of them like this?”

The wildlife service would designate government agencies, landowners, tribes or companies to carry out the killings. Shooters would have to provide documentation of training or experience in owl identification and firearm skills.

“We’re still going to have barred owls in the West. This is really just about trying to prevent the extinction of spotted owls,” said Fish and Wildlife Service Oregon state supervisor Kessina Lee. She declined to give a cost estimate and said that would depend in part on the willingness of other government agencies and land managers to participate.

Northern spotted owls are federally protected as a threatened species. California spotted owls were proposed for federal protections last year. A decision is pending.

Barred owls arrived in the Pacific Northwest via the Great Plains, where trees planted by settlers gave them a foothold, or via Canada’s boreal forests, which became warmer and more hospitable as the climate has changed, researchers say.

Their spread has undermined decades of spotted owl restoration efforts that previously focused on protecting forests where they live. That included logging restrictions under former President Bill Clinton that ignited bitter political fights and temporarily helped slow the spotted owl’s decline.

Wayne Pacelle with the Washington D.C.-based advocacy group Animal Wellness Action said the government’s plan was a distraction from the threats of logging. He said federal officials were misusing the term “invasive species” at a time when animals are migrating to new areas because of global warming and other human-caused changes.

“It’s ludicrous to think animals are going to stay in some historical range,” Pacelle said.

Barred owls are highly territorial, which makes killing them relatively straightforward, according to researchers. Shooters use megaphones to broadcast recorded owl calls at night and lure the birds close to roads where they are killed with shotguns.

“The birds will come right in. They’re very focused on this recording,” Wiens said. “If we go into a site and detect a barred owl there, we have over a 95 % chance of removing that barred owl.”

Other potential approaches — including capturing and euthanizing barred owls, collecting their eggs to prevent reproduction, or hazing them out of areas with spotted owls — were considered by the wildlife service but rejected as too costly or impractical.

About 4,500 barred owls birds have been killed on the West Coast since 2009 by researchers, according to officials.

That includes more than 800 birds from the Hoopa reservation, said tribal wildlife biologist Mark Higley.

Higley conducts the barred owl removals across 140 square miles (364 square kilometers) primarily by himself, working two or three nights a week from early spring until late fall.

“The problem has been we get like 60 to 100 new barred owls each year,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong; barred owls are magnificent species. I just would really like to go see them where they’re native and not invasive.”

Updates of Oregon Fires

Link to: Air Quality Index map

Another AQI Map

Link to: Northwest Large Fire Interactive Web Map

Fatal Collision on HWY 20 in Jefferson County Claims One Life

Jefferson County, Ore. 27 August 2024- On Tuesday, August 27, 2024, at 10:58 a.m., Oregon State Police responded to a two vehicle crash on Hwy-20, near milepost 82, in Jefferson County.

The preliminary investigation indicated an eastbound Tesla Model S, operated by Scarlett Jewell Felder (18) of Klamath Falls, crossed into the on-coming lanes and struck a westbound Jeep Wagoneer, operated by Michel Phillipe Sabourin (65) of Naples (FL), head-on. The operator of the Jeep attempted to avoid the collision by moving into the slow lane but was unable to do so.

The operator of the Tesla (Felder) was declared deceased at the scene.

The operator of the Jeep (Sabourin) suffered reported minor injuries and was transported for evaluation. Three other passengers in the Jeep; Stephanie Anne Warren (56) of West Linn, Parker David Warren (25) of West Linn, and Holly Skye Ross (24) of San Diego (CA); all suffered reported minor to moderate injuries and were transported for treatment.

The highway was impacted for approximately 3.5 hours during the on-scene investigation. Speed is considered the primary contributing factor to the crash.

OSP was assisted by the Deschutes County Sheriff's Office, Black Butte and Sisters Fire, Black Butte Police Department, and ODOT.

Injured Climber Rescued After Fall Near Ochoco Reservoir

Posted by KBND News

PRINEVILLE, OR -- A 49-year-old woman is reportedly in stable condition after getting injured while rock climbing near Ochoco Reservoir. The woman and a climbing partner were north of Highway 26E, Wednesday afternoon, when a rock fell and hit her in the torso. She was knocked off the wall to an eight-foot ledge about 30 feet from the valley floor. 

Crook County Search and Rescue was activated but unable to get to the woman, due to the steep hillside and loose rock. Deschutes County SAR's rope team was dispatched, but again, were unable to reach her. 

An Oregon National Guard Medevac helicopter deployed and arrived in Crook County just after 8 p.m. The helicopter team evacuated the woman and took her to St. Charles Bend.

Bend Police investigating report of shots fired in area of NE Second Street

Numerous police officers converged on an area near a northeast Bend intersection Wednesday afternoon on a report of shots being fired. Officers said no one was injured and a person of interest was detained, but asked people to avoid the area.

The report of shots fired was received shortly after 3:30 p.m. on NE Second Street near Franklin Avenue, Bend Police Communications Manager Sheila Miller said, resulting in a “large police presence in the area."

Miller said there was no danger to the community, and no word on any damage at this time.

Second Street was closed between DeKalb and Franklin avenues, as was Emerson Avenue between Third and First streets for the investigation.

Motorcyclist Cited for DUII in Parkway Crash

Bend, OR – A motorcyclist involved in a crash on the Bend Parkway on August 27, 2024, has been cited for driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII).

The crash occurred at approximately 7:26 p.m. in the southbound lanes near Reed Lane. Witnesses reported that the motorcycle rolled multiple times, ejecting the rider, later identified as 21-year-old Kyle Anthony Andre, off the west side of the Parkway and down an embankment.

Bend Police responded to the scene and provided medical care until Bend Fire & Rescue arrived. Andre was transported to St. Charles Bend with injuries but is expected to survive.

Both southbound lanes of the Parkway were closed for about 30 minutes, with one lane remaining closed until 8:56 p.m. Oregon State Police is conducting the ongoing investigation, which led to Andre being cited for DUII-alcohol.

The incident underscores the dangers of impaired driving, with authorities continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash.

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