KWSO News Oct. 31, 2018

The Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), which protects roughly 16 million acres of private, state and federal lands, officially declared the end of fire season statewide yesterday, Oct.  29. For ODF, fire season is declared and terminated at the district level, based on local fire danger conditions. Of the Department’s 12 districts across the state, Central Oregon and Southwest Oregon Districts saw drier, warmer conditions early on, officially kicking off the season June 1. Over the course of the 2018 fire season, ODF and its forest protective association partners suppressed a total of 1,059 fires. An estimated 75,531 acres burned on ODF-protected land this year, more than doubling the 10-year average. Oregon’s coordinated wildfire protection system was successful under extremely challenging conditions this year. In spite of statewide drought conditions, ODF and partners again succeeded in keeping 95% of all wildfires to less than 10 acres with aggressive and successful initial attacks. More than 2,800 lightning strikes in mid-July ignited hundreds of starts, at least seven of which became large fires in southwest Oregon. Another lightning event in August with 2,335 strikes ignited hundreds of starts in central and eastern Oregon. Of these hundreds of starts, the majority were caught and contained in initial attack, with only eight large fires established in central Oregon.

In Boys Soccer action yesterday, Madras defeated Mac High 3-1 in the first round of the 2018 OSAA/OnPoint Community Credit Union 4A State Championship. They move on to a quarterfinal match up this Saturday in Madras against Newport/Toledo at 2:00. KWSO will again broadcast the game.

Election Day is next week – on November 6^th. One of the most talked about ballot measures in Oregon is Measure 105, which would repeal the law forbidding state resources from being used to apprehend persons violating federal immigration laws. State Lobbyist Michael Mason gives this explanation about the ballot measure and what repealing the sanctuary law would mean:

As of yesterday, nearly 600,000 Oregonians had turned in their ballots. Are you one of them? If not, don’t wait much longer to fill out and get your ballot in today.

The Chairman of the Yakama Nation was denied entry to the US Supreme Court Tuesday. Correspondent Emily Schwing reports: