The Gales Creek Overlook in the Tillamook State Forest. File photo: Chas Hundley//Banks Post
The Tillamook State Forest is closed to the public, as are other forestlands protected by the agency in northwest Oregon due to extreme wildfire danger and limited firefighting resources.In an alert issued Wednesday afternoon, the agency said that the order applied to the Tillamook, Clatsop, and Santiam State Forests, as well as scattered tracts of forestland under ODF’s purview in Polk, Lincoln and Benton counties. “Anyone currently in these areas needs to leave right away,” the notice read. The Santiam will remain closed until further notice; other forests may reopen Sunday, September 13 at 11 p.m.“We can’t really staff anything beyond initial attack with any force, and can’t really get any help from the larger system. Just a couple more days everyone,” said a joint email from three ODF district foresters tasked with protecting the Tillamook State Forest just before midnight Tuesday.
The 2022 wildfire season in Oregon has been among the mildest in the last decade, with human-caused fires down nearly 20% from the 10-year average, according to state data.
Humans
Discovered Friday evening, the Fishhawk Loop Fire has grown to an estimated 120 acres in Clatsop County near the Fishhawk Lake community that straddles the Columbia and Clatsop County line.
More than a hundred teachers and staff from Banks' three public schools gathered in the Banks Elementary School cafeteria Aug. 19 for a breakfast with their peers and school officials as another school year began. With construction, new security, and a cell phone ban looming, many changes await staf
A crash in Glenwood snarled Labor Day weekend traffic for up to three miles and resulted in minor injuries to at least four people, Forest Grove Fire & Rescue said Saturday.
