Wildfire season winds down
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 3 years AGO
The Delabarre fire, one of four in Olympic National Park, burns on Sept. 16. The fire covered 4,168 acres but has stopped spreading, according to the U.S. Forest Service.
COURTESY PHOTO/USFS
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | October 5, 2023 5:47 PM
MOSES LAKE — Most of the wildfires that flared up in Washington this summer are out, according to information from the National Interagency Fire Center.
Fire activity diminished last week in the Olympic National Park fires — Low Divide, Delabarre, Martin Lake and Eagle Point — due to precipitation and cool temperatures. Smoke production was observed in down and standing deadwood. Those four fires, combined with three other, much smaller ones, burned a total of 4,795 acres, according to the NIFC. They were listed as uncontained but further spread was expected to be minimal.
The Airplane Lake, Dome Peak, Blue Lake, Kindy Creek and Sourdough fires in the north Cascades have also stopped spreading, according to the NIFC. Between them they total 17,094 acres, and costs for all of them were estimated at $30,440,000.
The 30-fire Cowlitz Complex that cropped up in Gifford Pinchot National Forest on Aug. 25, was still 39% contained Thursday, according to the U.S. Forest Service. Western Washington Incident Management Team 3 left the site Sept. 30, turning the remaining work over to a small on-site team. Prescribed burns will begin this weekend in the eastern part of the forest near Mount Adams and will continue until Oct. 21.
Eleven more prescribed fires were burning in Okanogan, Ferry, Stevens and Pend Oreille counties Thursday, according to the NIFC, for a total of 2,660 acres.
Editor’s note: This will be the last regular fire report for this year’s fire season. We will continue to cover local fires as they occur. Despite cooling weather and reduced fire risk, we encourage our readers to be extremely vigilant in regard to fire safety.
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Endless battle
Noxious Weed Control Board works to keep invasive plants under control
MOSES LAKE — Some of the nastiest plants in Grant County were the topic of a class led by Jay Johnson, a consultant with the Grant County Noxious Weed Control Board, Tuesday. The Noxious Weed Control Board, as its name would suggest, is tasked with keeping weeds under control in Grant County. That’s not a small job; the board’s website lists 129 species of noxious weeds that are found around Grant County. A noxious weed is defined as an invasive, non-native plant that threatens agricultural crops, local ecosystems or fish and wildlife habitat, according to the Noxious Weed Control Board. Washington state law requires that these weeds be identified and their spread kept to a minimum, if not completely eradicated. “We’re one of those agencies a lot of people don’t really understand,” Johnson said. “We’re a county office and … our funding is tax-based assessment. When you get your tax bill and you look down at all the expenses that you pay for, there we are.”
BASIN EVENTS: Oct. 16-24
COLUMBIA BASIN — Whether you feel like shopping, crafting, learning or seeing a show, there’s something happening for you this week in the Basin. Oct. 16 ‘My Family (Mi Familia)’ screening Spanning three generations, “My Family (Mi Familia)” is a heartfelt drama that follows the Sánchez family as they build their lives in East Los Angeles. Through love, hardship, triumph, and sacrifice, the film explores the immigrant experience, the strength of family bonds, and the traditions that connect one generation to the next. Lowrider show and taco truck before the screening. Sponsored by Columbia Basin Allied Arts, EDUBS C/S and the Moses Lake Creative District. $12 per person. Doors open at 6 p.m., film begins at 7 p.m. at the Moses Lake Civic Center Auditorium, 401 S. Balsam St. Tickets and info: www.cba-arts.org.
Moses Lake author encourages women to look beyond church culture norms
MOSES LAKE — A Moses Lake author’s book, “A Christian Woman Striving to Live Her Faith in a Man-Controlled World,” takes aim at the role to which many churches relegate the female half of their congregations. “It’s to encourage women in the faith,” Linda Curran said. “A lot of churches say, ‘Teach Sunday school, do this, do that, but don’t (evangelize.)’" In her book, Curran recounts a time when she moved to a new community and joined a church there. She was surprised to learn that, as a new female member, she had been automatically assigned church cleaning duties. When she questioned it, she wrote, she was met with condescension and her objections were brushed aside. In other churches, she said, women who were capable of teaching were relegated to “women’s ministry.”