Fire and Rebirth

Fire and Rebirth

By Kris Grant

I’ve traveled to every state and I’ve always considered our neighbor to the north to be one of the most beautiful.

Oregon’s Willamette Valley in particular is a land of scenic beauty, filled with covered bridges, vineyards and farmlands.

But in September 2020, while most of us were hunkered down during the pandemic, fire and wind raced through the eastern mountains of this valley. Here’s how a community and tourists came together, and continue to do so, to help Mother Nature get back on her feet.

Stretching from the crest of the Cascade Mountain range to the crest of the Coastal Range, the Willamette Valley is the largest river valley in the Pacific Northwest. Its northern tip is about an hour south of Portland International Airport; the town of Cottage Grove, near Eugene, marks the southern border. It’s an area of ample rainfall and cool weather. More than 170 crops, ranging from wine grapes and berries to Christmas trees and hazelnuts, are grown in the area. Not surprisingly, farm-to-table restaurants abound in the area. One of note is Sybaris Bistro in Albany. Chef/owner Matt Bennett, who has cooked at the James Beard house, comments, “We change our menu monthly. It just depends on what our local farmers have.”

The Willamette Valley is also Oregon’s leading wine region, containing two-thirds of the state’s wineries and vineyards more than 600 wineries. The long, gentle growing season and mild maritime climate provide near ideal conditions for grow -

ing the cool climate grape for which Oregon is best known: Pinot Noir. Wineries also produce Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, Sauvignon Blanc and many other varietals.

Outdoor recreation is huge in the valley. Bordering forests, single-track trails (trails that are only as wide as a mountain bike) abound. The McKenzie River is a 90-mile tributary of the Willamette River in western Oregon. It drains part of the Cascade Range east of Eugene and flows westward into the southernmost end of the Willamette. Along the McKenzie River, outfitters like Alyssa and Gary Brownlee, owners of the Horse Creek Lodge, lead raft adventures. Visitors also find spots to paddleboard, float in inner tubes or kayak.

Trouble hit this idyllic setting on Sept. 7, 2020 when a devastating fire – the Holiday Farm Fire – broke out. Strong winds pushed the flames and over the next few days 173,094 acres were burned. Along a 30-mile stretch of the McKenzie, the

communities of Vida, Blue River, Mohawk, McKenzie Bridge, Leaburg and Waterville were all evacuated.

The Brownlee’s lodge in McKenzie Bridge, like almost all visitor facilities, is located along Highway 126, the only corridor connecting them to the Willamette Valley below and the towns of Sisters and Bend to the east.

Alyssa Brownlee remembers how she and Gary quickly went into survival mode.

“We’ve been through emergencies before – severe flooding and windstorms. We felt fortunate that we had our whole family. We knew we had to quickly evacuate; time was of the essence. The winds were intense, so Gary and I grabbed a couple of chain saws and the whole neighborhood followed us out. We cut trees out of the way, drove through Sisters and sheltered that night in the parking lot at Hoodoo ski resort. The wind was blowing at over 100 miles per hour, but we were in the middle of a huge parking lot and felt pretty safe.”

The fire ultimately missed their immediate area, and for the first few months in its aftermath, the Brownlees housed FEMA personnel and locals who had lost their homes at their lodge.

“After the fire, it was post-apocalyptic,” Alyssa said. “But this place is extremely resilient. The flora is greening back up. And tourists and business has returned. People want to be out here, they’re curious and they want to help our community get back on its feet.”

Horse Creek Lodge, into the forest between the McKenzie River and Horse Creek, includes four cabins that house from four to 16 people each, plus 12 campsites for small RVs and tent campers. “We’re busy all year round,” said Alyssa, who, with Gary, bought the circa-1960 lodge in 2011. “Some people come for fishing and hunting, others for mountain biking, rafting and just getaways.”

More recently, Horse Creek was the lodging site for a new type of tourism adventure: regenerative tourism.

The McKenzie Regenerative Travel Project: Where Stewardship and Tourism Meet

Dawnielle Tehama is the executive director of the Willamette Valley Visitor Association. The native Oregonian oversees 33 DMOs (destination marketing organizations) throughout the valley. She notes that “Oregon has always been a real thought leader on the sustainability front of tourism. We had some time when we were shut down during the pandemic to do some in-depth thinking and discussion on the topic.”

Tehama explains that the core of sustainable tourism involves looking at how to improve long-term residents’ wellbeing. “It’s so much more than leaving less of an environmental footprint,” she said. “It’s about making sure that the small farmer, in seven generations to come, is still able to harvest the hazelnuts on their family farm. It’s making sure we have small businesses that take care of their destination and don’t feel they’re over-visited by massive amounts of people. It’s making sure we’re keeping our people employed. And we want to ensure our environment is protected, all at the same time.”

Tour operator and ecologist Kieron Wilde was also taking time during the pandemic to reassess where he wanted to take his Port-

land, Oregon-based company, First Nature Tours, which develops private tour products in the Pacific Northwest and selected international destinations. Before he established his company in 2007, Wilde had been a restoration ecologist with the U. S. Forest Service, the North Cascades and the Bureau of Land Management.

In short order, he teamed up with Willamette and Lane counties and secured a grant from Travel Oregon to set up a regenerative tourism program along the McKenzie River.

“The saying used to be ‘take only photos, leave only footprints,’” Wilde said. “Regenerative tourism takes it up a notch, where tourists leave a net positive impact on the environment. It’s about diving in and engaging with stewardship activities in a meaningful and impactful way.”

Over the course of a typical three-day regenerative tourism weekend, participants combine fun experiences with work projects. Wilde and his crew pick up visitors from either the Portland International Airport or Eugene Airport in a 15-passenger bio-fueled Sprinter van, and transport them to a destination, such as Horse Creek Lodge,

which was the site of the first regenerative program last spring. Over dinner, the 11 participants met the Brownlees and learned about the history and special characteristics of the area. The next morning, the group set out on a reforestation project, planting trees in a backcountry area not likely seen by most visitors. After a hearty lunch, the afternoon featured a rafting trip down the McKenzie. That night, another dinner at the lodge was followed by a marshmallow roast and guitars ‘round the campfire. Sunday morning, the group spent three or four hours planting more trees, with the lodge providing sack lunches. Then they returned to the hotel, checked out and were escorted back to the airport.

As far as the work component of the weekend goes, it is often the most fun, rewarding, and memorable because it builds camaraderie and is filled with purpose. “It might sound like work, but it’s more like a ‘work party,’” said Wilde, who is currently designing more regenerative tourism programs in the McKenzie region that include trail and watershed restoration, along with some kayaking and biking adventures. And he’s planning a similar program for the Olympic Peninsula that includes salmon habitat restoration. Programs will be offered yearround, including the rainy winter season, because, he said, “You need to plant in the rainy season because it promotes a higher survivability level for the trees.”

He believes corporations and service clubs will be interested in participating in future programs.

“We need programs that give people hope,” he said.

Tehama agrees. “The more people recognize this is a movement, the more it will gain in popularity in other areas. Speaking for myself personally, I want my kids to be able experience blueberry picking and harvesting hazelnuts.”

More fun in the Willamette Valley

After visiting the McKenzie River, I journeyed back down into the heart of the Willamette Valley for a little sightseeing on my own. I wasn’t disappointed.

Covered Bridges

What is it about covered bridges that I find so appealing? I guess it’s the history and nostalgia connected with so many of these edifices, which were built in large part by the Works Progress Administration, an ambitious employment and infrastructure program created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, during the bleakest years of the Great Depression.

It’s also the clippity-clop sounds and feel of car tires rolling across the thick wooden beams. Or, if you walk across the bridge, you’ll hear echoes of your voice or passing cars bouncing off the interior rafters. There’s also the joy of looking out the side windows to creeks or rivers below; the windows providing a lovely frame to a view that likely hasn’t changed one iota since the bridge was first constructed.

Covered bridges existed even earlier than the days of the Depression. Pioneers armed with simple hand tools began building covered bridges in Oregon during the 1850s; the more standardized designs came from

the Federal government in the 20th century. At their height of usage, there were more than 700 covered bridges throughout Oregon. Today, only 49 remain, but there is a concerted effort to keep these remaining beauties.

Most incorporated “the Howe truss” invented by William Howe in 1840 that incorporated chords, verticals and diagonals that, working together, provided a good blend of tension and compression. The abundance of Douglas fir and the shortage of steel during the two World Wars continued the use of these materials well into the 1950s.

Bridges were covered to keep the huge truss timbers dry. A covered bridge could last 80 years or more, while an uncovered bridge would deteriorate in about nine years, states the Covered Bridge Society of Oregon.

A case in point is the Thomas Creek Shimanek Covered Bridge, currently undergoing a $2.9 million reconstruction in which the entire bridge is being lifted off its decaying timbers, which will be reinforced with steel. At 130 feet, it’s the longest bridge in Linn County and the fifth bridge to be constructed on the site. When construction is complete, it will conform to the design of the bridge that was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

I toured a few bridges along the Scio “Five Bridges Bicycling or Driving Tour.” Scio is a blink of a town in Linn County that was incorporated in 1866. It sits astride Thomas Creek, a year-round stream, and bills itself as “The Covered Bridge Capitol of the West.” Most of the townspeople are employed in agriculture, including growing vegetables and grass seed, along with raising sheep. Each year on the third weekend in May, the Linn County Lamb and Wool Fair, which has such activities as a pie-eating contest, sheep dog trials, a fleece-and-fiber marketplace, tractor show and parade. Sounds like fun; I might go back!

Wine Country

As I mentioned, there are more than 600 wineries throughout the Willamette Valley. I only visited a couple, but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wine, and the friendliness of the people who greeted me. These Oregonians are happy to be living in the Willamette Valley and even happier to greet visitors.

Award-winning wines

Many of the wineries throughout the Willamette Valley practice sustainable farming, such as Benton-Lane, which grows estate Pinot Noir, and ages the wine 10 to 15 months in carefully maintained new and used French Oak barrels. The vines were planted in 1988 by Steve Girard, who ventured north from Napa where he had founded his namesake winery. Girard planted the vines on a former sheep ranch, located on a sweeping ridge below the Coastal Mountain range. Over the years, he consistently farmed sustainably, relying on the natural rainwater to reach the deep roots and practicing biodynamic and organic practices. In 2018, Girard sold the winery to Huuneeus Vintners.

I very much enjoyed my visit to this picturesque winery and its newly expanded visitor center (there’s also attractive outdoor patios) and my visit with Bethany Reed, the winery’s hospitality manager. She presented me with a wonderful plate of small bites that featured Willamette specialties, including hazelnuts, blueberries, cherries and lo-

cal cheeses, a perfect accompaniment to Benton-Lane’s silky smooth Pinot Noir and luscious Chardonnay.

Compton Family Vineyards is located in the small town of Philomath, the site of a former women’s college, 10 minutes from Corvallis and at the base of Mary’s Peak, the highest point of the Coastal Range. Philomath means love of learning and the 5,000 or so town residents pride themselves on education and hard work. Such is the case of Compton Family Vineyard owners Matt and Tabitha Compton.

That “love of learning” proved fortuitous for Matt Compton, who at age 22, went to work for Oregon State University, managing a research farm for wine grapes. After establishing another winery, he created the first vintage in 2003 of Compton Family Wines. Over the years the winery, which uses regenerative agricultural practices, has garnered many awards and recognitions, including ratings of 93 and above; selection as Best Buy and Top 100 Wines of the World by Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast magazines. The Comptons plant three main varietals, Chardonnay, Albarino and a rare German varietal, Müller Thurgau, a cross between a Riesling and a lesser-known Madeleine Royale. I found it crisp, with mild acidity, and a bit of a melon finish. I would drink this wine ice cold on a hot summer day. Have you ever had wine from an egg?

Compton’s Chardonnay is pressed and placed in an unusual holding tank: a concrete egg where it ferments and ages. With no corners, the wine is free to circulate naturally during fermentation. Concrete can take the heat or the cold. It’s a natural insulator and will stabilize the temperature of whatever is inside of it. “This stability makes for a smooth and gradual fermentation, which increases the flavors,” explained Tabitha Compton. “As it ages, the lees (leftover yeast particles) settle down the lower sides of the egg resulting in a creamier mouth feel.” I sampled the 2018 vintage and found that to be true, plus I enjoyed notes of white peaches and vanilla. Very nice!

Have a little extra time?

You might want to visit the town of Sisters, named for a trio of peaks to its west, at the crest of the Cascade. This is a charming artsy community where the buildings in its downtown sport a 1880s western motif. I went there over the second weekend of June during the annual Sisters Rodeo, the day before the annual parade through town with floats, bands, antique cars, equestrian teams and rodeo stars. The rodeo grounds are located just three miles southeast of town on the main highway.

The town also hosts the world’s largest outdoor quilt show, the second Saturday of July each year.

Passing Sisters, you then drop down into Bend. Smack dab in the middle of the state you’ll find this growing metropolis with a population of 99,178 according to the 2020 census. It was half that in the year 2000 and I’ll bet it has added at least 5,000 since the last count, as people have left the bigger metropolises in the wake of Covid. I stopped by a realty firm and chatted with a local agent who said homes were being sold the day they were listed for way over the asking price, noting that this was due mostly to Californians. I winced a bit, noting I was one of those Golden Staters. The town, located on the eastern edge of the Cascades, is named for a bend in the Deschutes River that winds through it. The weather gets hot in the summer, and visitors and locals alike cool off in the river, many coasting along on large colorful inner tubes. Before I leave Bend, here’s one more factoid: it is home to the last standing Blockbuster Video. Visitors often take selfies before the blue-and-yellow logo, or buy a “Be Kind – Rewind” T-shirt.

Elk!

Throughout Oregon, I saw highway warnings of “Elk” but never saw a single animal, not even a deer. That is until I passed Grant’s Pass, as I headed back to California, and glanced out the passenger window to behold an entire herd grazing in a field. Quick as a wink, I braked and swerved onto to the gravel shoulder. It was early in the season and the male’s antlers were mere sprouts. But they were ever alert, with several giving me the evil eye, and I think there may have been a calf in the background, shielded from view by the larger critters. They held their ground and I held mine. Soon I was back on the highway, thanking them all for the big send-off.