Spanning the State: Lightning does the work, Edition

Carla Axtman

We are fortunate to live not only in a very beautiful state, but a very geographically diverse state as well. The western side of the Cascades tends to be lush and green, while the east side tends to be arid and dry high desert country. Each area of Oregon has its own allure. I happily spent a few days last week around Prineville and Mitchell, taking in the scenic beauty of the Ochocos and the rugged, colorful Painted Hills. It's amazing to me that we can drive just a few hours to find mountains or ocean or desert or forests.

Hopefully you're able to take advantage this summer of what Oregon has to offer. It's well worth your time.

And now...let's Span the State!

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"Thunder is good, thunder is impressive, but it is lightning that does the work."--Mark Twain

It's been a tough week for residents of the John Day area. Lightning in the region set off a number of fires near town, threatening homes and burning over 12,000 acres. One such lightning strike was captured in this photograph by John Day resident Teri Corning (photo used with permission):

The fires are under now under control and contained, but more lightning laced storm cells are expected this week.

The Central Oregon Agricultural Research Center in Madras is experimenting with plots of sunflowers, prairie coneflower and other plants to determine ways to provide honey bees with supplemental nutrition at the end of the season. Bee colonies have been collapsing around the world. Some scientists hypothesize that one of the causes could be poor nutrition stemming from the colonies having just a single pollen source. If researchers can determine a good nutrition-boosting crop, that crop could potentially be planted around the holding yard or farm to give the bees additional sources of pollen as the main crop dwindles.

Building Healthy Families of Enterprise is being recognized nationally for an innovative education program they've developed. Ralph Smith, senior vice president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation was in town last week to laud the organization for it's program designed to improve reading skills at the 3rd grade level. Smith noted that the BHS entry was “one of the strongest in the country” from among 124 submissions made to his foundation.

The school board in Klamath Falls is considering whether or not to put a bond measure on the ballot to revamp or rebuild Klamath Union High School. The KUHS building was constructed 85 years ago. Most of the schools in the Klamath district were built around that time. Voters rejected a 2006 levy aimed at rebuilding the school, which would have cost $48 million. It's estimated that it will now cost about $70 million to replace the structure.

By Carla Axtman Aug. 12, 2013