A native fungus that weakens Douglas fir trees has taken a toll in some areas of Oregon, prompting landowners to the south to take note, especially as climate change alters the conditions in which the disease can thrive.
County opts not to join dam removal agreements [Daily Triplicate]
Supervisors seek ‘political leverage’ by not signing on
Del Norte County will not join two agreements to remove four dams on the Klamath River and use a basin-wide approach for restoration.
After months of considering whether to become a party to the agreements — which have already been signed by several stakeholder groups in California and Oregon, including tribes, irrigators, fisherman and government agencies — the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday opted not to join the collaborative effort in exchange for a chance to change the scope of what’s included in the dam removal package.
McKINLEYVILLE — The U.S. Coast Guard evacuated a 28-year-old man from a fishing boat off of Cape Mendocino on Thursday. At around 8:45 a.m., the Coast Guard received a distress call from the 34-foot fishing vessel Oregon 350, saying they had
Weather dependent, baseball game is today [Daily Triplicate]
If the weather cooperates, the Del Norte High varsity baseball team will take the field today at home.
Originally, the Warriors (4-2) were set to face Brookings-Harbor at home on Wednesday.
While the weather cleared up, head coach Pablo Lorenzi said the field was still too wet to play.
He hopes things will improve today. The game is scheduled for 4 p.m. at the high school baseball field. On Tuesday, rain canceled an away game at Hidden Valley, Ore.
The junior varsity baseball team ends its season today at Brookings starting at 4 p.m.
Also, the Del Norte High varsity softball team travel up to Oregon to face Gold Beach today, weather dependent.
U.S. Forest Service rescuers Nick Meyers, left, and Eric White, center, pack and weigh gear at Weed Airport while awaiting an attempt to locate Oakland climber Thomas Bennett.
The Siskiyou Sheriff’s Office has confirmed that a search and rescue team has found the body of Thomas Bennett, the 26-year-old climber who was last seen alive Saturday near Mount Shasta’s summit.
Bennett’s family today was at a Siskiyou County airport where rescuers assembled for their ascent of the 14,162-foot mountain.
Rescuers flew up the mountain in a powerful California National Guard Chinook helicopter, a heavy-lifting chopper with twin rotors, which arrived at the small airport near the town of Weed on Wednesday.
On board the Chinook were six Air National Guard soldiers, three U.S. Forest Service rangers expert in climbing and four Siskiyou County search-and-rescue personnel.
The Chinook was supposed to land in a snow field near the summit about 100 feet from where Bennett was last seen. Five rescuers were on board — the three Forest Service rangers and two Siskiyou County search and rescue personnel — to climb to where they believe Bennett took refuge.
On Wednesday, cloud cover near the summit forced two lighter helicopters to return to the rural landing strip along Interstate 5 that is serving as a rescue base.
Rescue personnel waited there Wednesday for breaks in the weather. With no indoor gathering place, they stood in the cold or sat in vehicles.
The massive volcanic peak loomed over all, its upper reaches veiled in clouds.
“I have a great respect for this mountain,” said Eric White, the Forest Service’s lead climbing ranger on Mount Shasta, who is participating in the rescue effort.
Bennett, a chemical engineer from Oakland, fell ill Sunday near the mountaintop. He had reached the summit Saturday with climbing partner Mark Thomas, 26, a structural engineer from Berkeley.
On the peak, they were surprised by an approaching storm and took shelter for the night behind boulders at about 14,000 feet.
Thomas told his father that the pair made it through the night in warm clothes and sleeping sacks and were in good spirits Sunday morning as they prepared to descend.
But Bennett collapsed while he was putting on his crampons and within 45 minutes was unresponsive, Jay Thomas said his son told him. Mark Thomas’ efforts to revive the man were unsuccessful, his father said.
After putting Bennett in a snow cave with food and water, Thomas started down the mountain Sunday afternoon and on Monday was picked up by rangers on snowmobiles.
He told authorities he believed Bennett was suffering from severe altitude sickness and might have died.
Experts in high-altitude medicine said Wednesday that altitude sickness was an unlikely cause if Bennett suddenly collapsed and quickly slid into unconsciousness.
“That’s not the way acute mountain sickness is,” said John Severinghaus, a retired professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and a prominent researcher in high-altitude medicine. “It’s a slow onset process with lots of symptoms first. It begins with headache and nausea and vomiting and feeling terrible.
“If it gets bad enough, it could turn into cerebral edema (a swelling of the brain tissue),” he said. “You can’t stand. You’re dizzy. You complain like crazy. It occurs over many hours.”
A more likely cause, doctors said, was a stroke or a pulmonary embolism — a blood clot that develops in the legs and moves to the lungs. Hours of exertion and huddling in the cold at high altitude could have caused it, they said. Then, as Bennett was putting his crampons on, the clot could have broken free and blocked the arteries going to his lungs, doctors said.
People who experience the condition “spiral downhill very rapidly,” said Thomas Dietz, an emergency room physician in Oregon who for years treated climbers for altitude-related illnesses at a clinic near Mount Everest’s base camp. “Over a period of minutes, maybe an hour, the person slides into a coma. If that’s what happened, there’s nothing you could do on the mountain.”
Officials have continued to operate on the assumption that Bennett could be clinging to life on the wind-scoured pinnacle of ice and rock. The summit has experienced sub-zero temperatures, snow and gale-force winds in recent days.
At about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, rescue teams were hopeful they could take advantage of a break in the weather to reach Bennett’s location, but deteriorating conditions forced a California Highway Patrol helicopter to return to base.
A few hours later, at about 2:40 p.m., a larger Super Huey helicopter sent by the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection made a reconnaissance flight but could ascend only to about 12,000 feet because of cloud cover.
“We were looking for that weather window, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to get it,” said Tom McConnel, a veteran pilot with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The Chinook arrived, and rescuers agreed to try again this morning.
Forest Service climbing ranger Dan Tower, in red, thanks Highway Patrol pilot Bob Stetser after their landing Wednesday at Weed Airport.
Ranger Eric White gets a hug from an unidentified friend of missing climber Thomas Bennett.
U.S. Forest Service rescuers Nick Meyers, left, and Eric White, center, pack and weigh gear at Weed Airport while awaiting an attempt to locate Oakland climber Thomas Bennett.
Rescuers plan to make another attempt today to reach Thomas Bennett, a 26-year-old climber stranded since Saturday near Mount Shasta’s summit.
This time they intend to use a powerful helicopter that left Mather Field on Wednesday.
The California National Guard Chinook, a heavy-lifting helicopter with twin rotors, arrived at a small airport near the Siskiyou County town of Weed on Wednesday, just before 3 p.m.
Cloud cover near the summit forced two lighter helicopters to return to the rural landing strip along Interstate 5 that is serving as a rescue base.
Team members from the U.S. Forest Service, Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department and other agencies waited at the airport Wednesday for breaks in the weather. With no indoor gathering place, they stood in the cold or sat in vehicles.
The massive volcanic peak loomed over all, its upper reaches veiled in clouds.
“I have a great respect for this mountain,” said Eric White, the Forest Service’s lead climbing ranger on Mount Shasta, who is taking part in the rescue effort.
Authorities said they would make another push today at about 7 a.m. – when they hope skies will be clear and winds will be light – to reach Bennett.
The chemical engineer from Oakland fell ill Sunday near the mountaintop. He had reached the summit Saturday with climbing partner Mark Thomas, a 26-year-old structural engineer from Berkeley.
On the 14,162-foot peak, they were surprised by an approaching storm and took shelter for the night behind boulders at about 14,000 feet.
Thomas told his father that the pair made it through the night in warm clothes and sleeping sacks and were in good spirits Sunday morning as they prepared to descend.
But Bennett collapsed while he was putting on his crampons and within 45 minutes was unresponsive, Jay Thomas said his son told him. Mark Thomas’ efforts to revive the man were unsuccessful, his father said.
After putting Bennett in a snow cave with food and water, Thomas started down the mountain Sunday afternoon and on Monday was picked up by rangers on snowmobiles.
He told authorities he believed Bennett was suffering from severe altitude sickness and might have died.
Experts in high-altitude medicine said Wednesday that altitude sickness was an unlikely cause if Bennett suddenly collapsed and quickly slid into unconsciousness.
“That’s not the way acute mountain sickness is,” said John Severinghaus, a retired professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and a prominent researcher in high-altitude medicine. “It’s a slow onset process with lots of symptoms first. It begins with headache and nausea and vomiting and feeling terrible.
“If it gets bad enough, it could turn into cerebral edema (a swelling of the brain tissue),” he said. “You can’t stand. You’re dizzy. You complain like crazy. It occurs over many hours.”
A more likely cause, doctors said, was a stroke or a pulmonary embolism – a blood clot that develops in the legs and moves to the lungs. Hours of exertion and huddling in the cold at high altitude could have caused it, they said. Then, as Bennett was putting his crampons on, the clot could have broken free and blocked the arteries going to his lungs, doctors said.
Those who experience the condition “spiral downhill very rapidly,” said Thomas Dietz, an emergency room physician in Oregon who for years treated climbers for altitude- related illnesses at a clinic near Mount Everest’s base camp. “Over a period of minutes, maybe an hour, the person slides into a coma. If that’s what happened, there’s nothing you could do on the mountain.”
Officials have continued to operate on the assumption that Bennett could be clinging to life on the wind-scoured pinnacle of ice and rock. The summit has experienced sub-zero temperatures, snow, and gale-force winds in recent days.
At about 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, rescue teams were hopeful they could take advantage of a break in the weather to reach Bennett’s location, but the weather forced a California Highway Patrol helicopter to return to base.
A few hours later, at about 2:40 p.m., a larger Super Huey helicopter sent by the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection made a reconnaissance flight but could ascend only to about 12,000 feet because of cloud cover.
“We were looking for that weather window, and it doesn’t look like we’re going to get it,” said Tom McConnel, a veteran pilot with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The Chinook arrived, and rescuers agreed to try again this morning.
Meanwhile, Bennett’s relatives and girlfriend, and surviving climber Thomas, were reported to be gathering in the area, awaiting news and preparing for the worst.
They could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
MOUNT SHASTA Experts said that altitude sickness was an unlikely cause if climber Thomas Bennett collapsed suddenly and quickly slid into unconsciousness. A more likely cause is a stroke or a pulmonary embolism, they said.
Forest Service climbing ranger Dan Tower, in red, thanks Highway Patrol pilot Bob Stetser after their landing Wednesday at Weed Airport.
Ranger Eric White gets a hug from an unidentified friend of missing climber Thomas Bennett.
Celebrating a ‘miracle’ [Daily Triplicate]
Searchers provide account of how they found girl, 4
Four-year-old Zoey Dorsey, who was found alive Thursday after two
days and one night in the mountains near Brookings, was listed in good
condition Friday and expected to return home from the hospital today.
“We’re just so happy that she’s alive,” said Carrie Knudsen, Zoey’s great aunt.
On Friday, Zoey’s parents, Brooke and Chris, were with their
daughter at the hospital at the Oregon Health Sciences University in
Portland, where she was transferred after first being taken to Sutter
Coast Hospital.
A single-car accident near Crescent City Tuesday afternoon left two Oregon residents hospitalized with minor and moderate injuries. Young Min Kwon, 39 of Redmond, Ore.
Oregon Institute of Technology
Sixteen Oregon Institute of Technology Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences students who enrolled in a 400-level course visited Arcata Marsh and Humboldt State University’s associated research facilities March 6 and 7, 2010. The students were accompanied by two OIT faculty members: David Thaemert, Civil Engineering, and Andrew Ray, Environmental Sciences. The extended field trip both complemented and summarized OIT’s new cross-listed Civil Engineering and Environmental Sciences course called “Treatment Wetlands.”
Horizon Air today announced several changes to its summer schedule. The new schedule increases service in several markets while refining others to meet shifting summer demand.
The summer schedule focuses on increased service in the states of Montana, California and Idaho as well as the cities of Reno, Nevada and Portland, Ore. Below is a market-by-market listing. All changes take effect on June 6, unless noted otherwise.
Increased Service
Reduced Service
Horizon serves 48 cities throughout Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Baja California Sur (Mexico), and British Columbia and Alberta (Canada). Together, Horizon Air and Alaska Airlines serve more than 90 cities and are subsidiaries of Alaska Air Group, Inc. (NYSE:ALK).
Bigfoot creature spotted the evening of February 24th by driver traveling from Eureka to Grants Pass, Oregon. Frightened witness comes forward.
Oregon Daily Emerald
Other groups who have taken a stake in the debate include the Yurok, Klamath, Karuk and Hoopa Valley Tribes; Oregon and California farmers;
The world’s largest river restoration and dam removal effort kicked off in a spirit of celebration inside the grand rotunda of Oregon’s Capitol Feb. 18.
Keith Richcreek had been missing since last Sunday
After nearly a week of searching, authorities found 85-year-old Crescent City resident Keith Gerald Richcreek’s body on the side of a road in a remote part of Douglas County, Ore., on Friday.
He was located about a mile from his truck, which was found on Thursday and appeared to have gotten stuck when he tried to turn around on a secluded Bureau of Land Management road about 15 miles from Interstate 5 near Myrtle Creek south of Roseburg.
There were no signs of foul play, according to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, and a medical examiner will likely rule on Richcreek’s cause of death early next week.
A century-old fight in California and Oregon over water from the Klamath Basin ended Thursday with signed agreements that assure farmers water and power to keep their crops green, and lay out the removal of dams that have blocked salmon from hundreds of miles of spawning grounds.
