Category: Almeda Fire

I realized the other day that I have given short shrift to Phoenix. So, I made a point going there intentionally to take pictures and not just driving through today. I think most of us in the Rogue Valley have seen the iconic photos of Puck’s donuts and the Phoenix Motel. The stark contrast of the colorful sign in front of Puck’s and the burned-out building and the umbrella by the swimming pool at the motel are quite striking.

In fact, the damage in the downtown area where these businesses were located was quite spotty. A building here and there burned but once again I was surprised to see how many were left standing. It was the north side of town that bore the brunt of the devastation, along with the Bear Lake Estates east of town which was a high-end 55+ mobile home village. Nearly 150 homes were lost in that development alone.

I could not get a good angle on the Phoenix Plaza, a shopping mall of sorts which always seemed to have a few vacancies. But here is what’s left of my favorite Thai restaurant, just across the highway from there. The Jack-in-the-Box in front of it was spared but the two square blocks of townhouse apartments behind are gone. Going north on 99 several mobile home

parks on both sides of the highway were wiped out along with the Umpqua Bank (whose vault is notably intact), the Harley Davidson dealership, some storage units and my State Farm Insurance agent’s office. I’m just so grateful they were able to save the Genealogy Library, not much further up the road.

Chain link fences are being built around many of the damaged or destroyed properties. Signs are also popping up all over offering to buy lots, perform

excavation and rebuild homes. But so too are signs just saying Hope, saying Phoenix strong, and we will rise from the ashes. The toxic waste cleanup is set to begin next week. The thing I hear mentioned most often to be removed are propane tanks. Looks like they will have easy pickin’s here at the Dun-Rov-N RV park.

It’s just a 5 to 10 minute walk from my house down to the Bear Creek Greenway. I kind of consider the stretch from Suncrest north which loops around behind the rest area then reconnects to parallel the freeway my personal walking path. I have put in a lot of miles there in all seasons, worn out a few pairs of walking shoes, learned my local birds, and taken countless photographs.

Yesterday I decided to take the walk again and assess the damage. It wasn’t until I got back home that I decided to do a before and after comparison. Some of the before pictures were taken during my Lensbaby project so they may appear out of focus but were intentionally that way for artistic purposes.

So first up, as I turned off Suncrest onto the Greenway I would see some old barns with a patchwork of rusty tin roofing.  The barns did not survive.  If you look closely you can see the white plastic bucket hanging on a fencepost in both photos. In fairness, the blackberries in the before picture had already been removed before the Almeda fire struck. Along this stretch of the path I often saw Tree Swallows, Black Phoebes, and Acorn Woodpeckers who stored their acorns in one of the poles seen in the before picture. The pole burned but is still standing. I don’t know if they can eat roasted acorns. I did spot one woodpecker shopping for a new home in the remains of the poplar stand that lines this pasture on the Suncrest side.

Next up is my favorite oak tree. I have photographed it many times from near and far. I have also had the property owners come after me a couple of times only to decide I was probably harmless. Sadly, their home was lost in the fire. I hope the tree survives, it doesn’t look too badly damaged

After crossing the bridge over the irrigation canal I would enter a densely vegetated stretch lined with blackberry bushes. Here I most often saw spotted towhees and the odd Robin.

At the end of the forested stretch is a broad meadow. Here I often saw lesser goldfinches and there was one tree where in spring there would always be a hummingbird surveying the area. Acorn Woodpeckers also frequented this stretch and once in awhile a Scrub Jay made an appearance.

At then end of the meadow is mile marker 14 and here I entered another stretch of forest where I often saw more Spotted Towhees, Robins, and Scrub Jays. Once in a great while a bevy of California Quail would skitter out of the undergrowth. These next photos show the trees at the edge of the forest where there was also a large expanse of blackberries. Hawks could often be seen resting in the tall trees. And it was just between the blackberries and the trees that I always found the best California poppies to photograph.

Sometimes I turned around at milepost 14 and sometimes I went on to the freeway. On the way back there was one place where you could just get a glimpse down the creek through the underbrush. Here if I was very lucky, I might spot a Great Blue Heron or a Belted Kingfisher.

I suspect come spring that this area will be alive with new life. It will never be quite the same but I hope I will again be able to count up to 20 species of birds on my morning walks.

 

 

 

 

The Bear Creek greenway is a roughly 20 mile bicycle and walking path that parallels Bear Creak from Ashland through Talent, Phoenix and Medford and into Central Point. The path and the creek also parallel Interstate 5 and Highway 99 through the valley.

The origin point of the Almeda Fire was near the Ashland Water Treatment Plant just off Almeda Street in the Quiet Village Neighborhood in Ashland which is also very close to the southern terminus of the greenway. The winds that day were perfectly aligned to carry the flames up the greenway and into the dense vegetation along the creek. But in the mean-time it took out many homes along Eagle Mill Road and in the Valley View area as well as the Burger King at the Valley View Interchange. From there it was a hop, skip and a jump into the south end of Talent and up Highway 99.

I borrowed this image from the internet to give a better picture of the extent of the fire.

And this map I created to show more specifics on the neighborhoods burned, especially in Talent where I live. It’s only meant to be a rough approximation so please don’t take it too literally.

I’m still not convinced that there were not multiple origin points along the Greenway but officials have, understandably, been playing the investigation pretty close to the vest.  I am quite certain that when I evacuated at 2pm there was already a column of black smoke ahead of me in Phoenix while the column of black smoke behind me had not yet made its way into Talent. Still, it was a wind driven fire and embers can carry a very long way.

Though initially closed in the wake of the fire I was pleased to read that as of yesterday the Greenway is now open north of Suncrest Road. My favorite walking route is from Suncrest north to where the trail intersects with the freeway as it loops around a rest stop and is (or was) somewhat sheltered from the freeway noise. I’ll try to feature a walk through that stretch in a future blog. The Greenway remains closed south of Suncrest due to safety concerns but I observed a number of bikers and a few walkers on the section south of Lynn Newberry Park yesterday. Might be safer on the Greenway than riding or walking the shoulder of 99 at that.

One of the many sad things about this fire is the loss of wildlife habitat. I saw a great blue heron flying over the neighborhood looking a little lost the other day, or maybe just looking for some place green to land. These Mallards I spotted on Bear Creek the other day seemed content. If you didn’t know the golden leaves reflected in the water were from fire damage this might be a pleasant autumn scene.