Dreaming of spring? The Sunriver Nature Center provides ideas and opportunities for plantings. Page 8
INSIDE THIS ISSUE SROA News ................... 4 Calendar ..................... 13 SHARC News ............... 22
Public Safety ............... 27 Classified .................... 38 Letters to the Editor .... 39
A new website provides owners and visitors information on being prepared for an emergency. Page 12
S U N R I V E R
S C E N E A NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE SUNRIVER OWNERS ASSOCIATION
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Introduction to ladder fuels and ladder fuel reduction in Sunriver DEEP CLEANING
& TRAINING
CLOSURE June 2, 2O19 All aquatics: • hot tub • indoor aquatics • outdoor aquatics
will be closed for the day.
READ MORE, PAGE 15
By Claire McClafferty, SROA Natural Resources If you ask Sunriver owners and visitors what makes our community so special, the health and beauty of the natural environment is a common response. Preserving and enhancing Sunriver’s natural environment is so important to owners, it is part of the mission statement of the Sunriver Owners Association. Factors impacting forest health and wildfire risk in Sunriver – and in all forest environments – include overcrowded tree stands and the build-up of combustible materials. An overcrowded stand increases competition among trees, stressing the trees and making them more susceptible to beetle death and disease. Overcrowding also creates a higher fire risk for the landscape as fire rapidly spreads in a dense canopy. “Fuel loading” refers to the accumulation of combustible materials in the forest and “ladder fuels” refer specifically to the collection of such materials that link the ground to the tree canopy. Ladder
fuels include live vegetation such as bitterbrush and manzanita, dead material on the ground or “blowdown,” live and dead tree limbs, and tree seedlings. Without intervention, overcrowded stands and fuel loading can be disastrous to the health of the forest environment. In a pristine forest, wildfires perform the
T R, SUNRIVER SCENE SUNRIVER OWNERS ASSN. VOLUME XLV • NUMBER 4 P.O. BOX 3278 SUNRIVER, OR 97707
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North Pool design options created
New recycling center plans moving forward SROA NEWS – After several years of negotiations and ironing out details between the Sunriver Owners Association, Deschutes County, Cascade Disposal and their respective legal counsels, plans are moving forward to construct an expanded recycling facility in Sunriver. An arrangement between the entities resulted in the creation of a five year lease with Cascade Disposal to reimburse SROA for the entire cost of construction. “And, after that five year period, (SROA) will own the entire property and the structure,” said SROA General Manager Hugh Palcic at the March 15 SROA Board work session. “Should the recycle center ever go away, SROA can repurpose the facility for equipment bays or whatever...”
cleansing task. However, in an urban forest environment such as Sunriver, burning is impractical and dangerous. Manual ladder fuels removal, clearing and tree thinning are highly effective when applied throughout wildland ur-
inches between Feb. 24 and Feb. 28. The storms were cheekily dubbed “treepocalypse” and “snowmageddon.” February’s total snow accumulation was 58 inches – what we generally would receive in an entire winter season. Sunriver’s historical February snowfall average is 11 inches. The snow shut down much of the
SROA NEWS – Mackenzie, an architecture firm hired to design and oversee the North Pool renovation project, has created a couple of conceptual design options resulting from owner feedback. “The North Pool is quite a challenge. We heard ‘wow us, but don’t wow us’… I think we’re doing a good job walking that line,” said SROA General Manager Hugh Palcic. “I like where we are with this process.” Depending on the option owners choose, new features may include: • Leisure pool extended to 25 meters long for lap swimming • Drop off driveway and additional ADA parking • Hot tub • Graded, “parklike” landscaping with more lawn and lounging areas • Shade trellis • Zero entry
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February ‘snowmaggedon’ shut down the region By Susan Berger, Sunriver Scene The year began with a bang after the area was hammered by late winter storms barely a month apart from one another. First came a windstorm on Jan. 23 – knocking down some 1,800 trees in Sunriver that blocked roads, pathways and damaged property. A month later, the community was buried under a record-breaking snow dump of 43
PRSRT STD. U.S. POSTAGE PAID BEND, OR PERMIT NO. 213