Recent FANtastic Activities

FANs of the Deschutes Canyon Area hosted a booth at Crooked River Ranch's Independence Day Celebration in June 2018.  Lots of local residents stopped by to learn more about native plants and our public lands.
Our Ring in Summer Member Party was great fun, as we celebrated local public lands conservation successes this year.
FANs of the Deschutes Canyon Area volunteers weeded around one-year old showy milkweed plants at Steelhead Falls Monarch Way Stations in May 2018.
Author and hiking guru William L. Sullivan returned to Crooked River Ranch in May 2018 to present "New Hikes in Oregon."  A crowd of 50 hiking enthusiasts listened carefully, with many taking notes about future hikes to plan.
In April 2018, Marilynne Keyser shared a slideshow of native plants in the Deschutes Canyon Area to 36 participants.  The group then visited the Native Plant Interpretive Garden at Crooked River Ranch.
To celebrate Earth Day 2018, twenty four volunteers came together to pull invasive mullein and Scotch thistle at Horny Hollow Trailhead near the Lower Crooked River.
In April 2018, FANs hiking leaders, Jeff Scheetz and Eric Hansen, and photographer Tom Iraci, shared the beauty of the canyons near Crooked River Ranch and discussed safe hiking essentials with an audience of more than 50 outdoor enthusiasts.
An audience of 65 people, in March 2018, learned from Gail Snyder about the importance of collaboration and complex problem solving to restore the health of the Upper Deschutes River.
In February 2018, Jerry Freilich demonstrated to an audience of more than 50 people that bees are extremely difficult to identify even to the family level (let alone species).  Most native bees in Central Oregon are ground nesters.
In November 2017, Paul Bannick shared with a captive audience his multimedia presentation on the lives of owls.   Paul emphasized the importance of preserving and managing our diverse public lands to support healthy owl populations.

Upcoming Events and Projects

FANs of the Deschutes Canyon Area's
2018-2019 Lens on Learning Series:
Bringing Speakers on the Natural World to Crooked River Ranch
Space is limited and registration opens one month before each event.

Whychus - Rebirth of a Forgotten Creek
Presented by Brad Chalfant, Executive Director of Deschutes Land Trust
January 19, 2019, 2:00 p.m.
Juniper Room at Crooked River Ranch

Whychus Creek flows into the Middle Deschutes River just to the west of Crooked River Ranch.  Deschutes Land Trust's Executive Director Brad Chalfant will describe the geography and history of Whychus Creek, including how it came to be a "forgotten creek," how it was rediscovered and how it has come back to life.  Along the way, Brad will talk about future challenges and opportunities with respect to Whychus Creek.

Brad Chalfant has been Executive Director of the Deschutes Land Trust since 1997.  Prior to that, Brad was co-founder and first Board President for the Land Trust and served as the County Lands Manager for Deschutes County.  While working for Deschutes County, Brad acquired, sold, exchanged and managed extensive land holdings, including public facilities, commercial/industrial sites and natural resource lands on behalf of Deschutes County.  A resident of Central Oregon for over 30 years, Brad briefly practiced law in Portland, specializing in real property, bankruptcy and debtor/creditor work.

Registration for this event opens here on December 19.
Deschutes-Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area:
Public Lands Worth Protecting

Summary of President Marilynne Keyser's Testimony Before Senate Committee, August 2018
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FANs is a local stewardship organization based at Crooked River Ranch (CRR) that was started six years ago by neighbors who love the incredible river canyons bordering CRR and believe in the importance of local involvement in managing public lands. 

With our nearly 400 members and an additional 600 participants and volunteers our mission is to preserve and restore the wild landscapes of the Whychus-Deschutes area, which includes the Deschutes Canyon-Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area (WSA) that will be impacted by HR 2075.

FANs has long recognized the need to implement fire risk reduction measures on both public and private lands in and around CRR. 

FANs worked for over a year with others in the community, including the fire chief, the homeowners association board President, and the appropriate federal agencies, to develop a collaborative concept that would ensure CRR is better protected from wildfire while also resolving the status of the entire WSA, one of the most scenic, wild places in Central Oregon.

A concept emerged that is a true win-win solution. This approach would result in fire risk mitigation activities in the form of fuels treatment on BLM lands adjacent to CRR, wilderness protection for certain qualified public lands, and release of certain lands from WSA status. 

Our organization is not opposed to WSA release. In fact it was FANs representatives on the working group that introduced the idea as a part of the collaborative process. But we have several serious concerns about the approach of HR 2075.
  1. Removing 832 acres from the WSA alone will not insure that necessary fuels reduction to reduce fire risk will take place and the fragile rim habitat will be protected. FANs believes that the released lands should be designated as a special management area to prioritize fire prevention and define appropriate and responsible recreation for the area.
  2. Abandoning the local stakeholder process, HR 2075 simply adopts a single recommendation while ignoring the remainder. FANs believes that this action ignores Oregon’s long history of balanced and locally-driven legislation that enjoys broad support.
  3. The bill does not resolve the status of the public lands currently managed as the Deschutes Canyon-Steelhead Falls WSA. FANs believes that the land that would remain after the release of the 832 acres should be permanently protected as wilderness.
  4. The bill does not address protection for lower Whychus Creek, a tributary of the Deschutes River. Many organizations are working to preserve this Central Oregon jewel including the Deschutes Land Trust that has acquired much of the private land holdings. FANs believes that the lower reaches of Whychus Canyon need to be permanently protected as either wilderness or a wild and scenic river.

Although the public lands impacted by HR 2075 are located in our backyard at CRR, Whychus-Deschutes contains outstanding recreation opportunities, one of the highest concentrations of cultural sites and artifacts in our region, and critical habitat for native plants, fish and wildlife. All of these resources are currently threatened by illegal off-road vehicle abuse, recreation overuse, and vandalism. Certain public lands in this area need and deserve permanent protection. 

Finally, we need to ensure land managers have the direction and the resources to tackle these complex and serious issues. We believe a comprehensive solution based on true local collaboration is possible for this area. I urge the committee to expand this bill to address the concerns of all the stakeholders of this incredible wild landscape.
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​CLICK HERE to read Marilynne Keyser's HR 2075 written testimony.
Tom Iraci, photographer and FANs board member,  created a slideshow titled "Beauty in the Canyons,"  featuring images from the Deschutes Canyon Area.  Click the blue button below to view this spectacular slideshow.
Guide to Common Native Plants of the Deschutes Canyon Area
by Marilynne Keyser, Friends and Neighbors of the Deschutes Canyon Area President

This field guide includes the most common native plants on public lands near Crooked River Ranch in Central Oregon.  This guidebook is small (8.25 x 4.5 inches) and durable, so you can take it on your hikes to identify native shrubs, bunchgrasses and wildflowers on the many trails around Lower Whychus Creek, the Middle Deschutes and Lower Crooked Rivers.  Organized by bloom time, this field guide is especially helpful in February through September.

FANs of the Deschutes Canyon Area member price is $10 and non-member price is $12.  Your purchase helps support FANs projects that preserve and restore public lands in the Deschutes Canyon Area.
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CLICK HERE to learn more and order Guide to Common Native Plants of the Deschutes Canyon Area.
Friends and Neighbors of the Deschutes Canyon Area
fansofdeschutes@gmail.com
P.O. Box 2127, Terrebonne, OR  97760
541.771.FANS (3267)