Burned area susceptible to invasive species The scorched hillside from last summer’s Rendezvous Fire looms above the Rendezvous neighborhood north of Winthrop. About 175 acres of shrub-steppe — a mix of sagebrush, bitterbrush, bunch grass and other native forbes — burned when a fire that started on private property spread into Washington Department of Fish […]
New horse camp opens at Loup Loup Pass
Years of effort behind North Summit facility The Methow Valley Back Country Horsemen (MVBCH) celebrated the grand opening of the North Summit Horse Camp at Loup Loup Pass on Oct. 5. Mary Pat Bauman first had the idea for a horse camp at the Loup when she was a ski patroller for the Loup Loup […]
Highly moto-vated
Dirt bike school for women fills a niche Donni Reddington has been drawn to motorcycles since she was a little girl. Her uncles built a dirt bike track at her grandfather’s place near Tacoma and would ride 1970s Hondas and Yamahas over homemade jumps. Little Donni was too short to ride the bikes so her […]
Julie Hensley lost her sight, but not her love for horseback riding
Julie Hensley’s body gently echoes the rolling motion of her horse, Hot Rod, as she lopes in tight circles around her arena. She stops him suddenly and then, as one, horse and rider pivot 180 degrees and take off at a lope in the opposite direction. Ten yards later they do it again. Stop, roll […]
Small miracle
How a miniature horse named Trusty became a beloved therapy animal Trusty may be the smallest horse in the Methow Valley, but he’s also the most well-known. The miniature horse stands right around hip height and weighs in at a whopping 220 pounds. You may have seen him marching in the Fourth of July parade […]
Personal discoveries in the face of fire: a reporter’s notebook
I am pouring myself a drink, now that I am done doing the dishes and looking out my window as the planes and helicopters keep shuttling back and forth from the nearest waterbody, their bellies and buckets full, to the fire that has been burning all afternoon in the sagebrush about one-quarter mile behind my […]
A walk in the forest
Wildfire scientist assesses Crescent burn’s effects Perhaps unlike most people, Susan Prichard has fond memories associated with the smell of burned trees. As a young researcher, the University of Washington wildfire scientist spent a lot of time in the woods studying the aftermath of fires — or “which trees died and which ones lived” — she explained recently while […]
Sagebrush under siege
Invasive, fast-burning cheatgrass is pushing out native plants It may seem, to anyone who has driven long stretches of highway in Nevada, Utah, California and even here in the Methow Valley, that there is plenty — maybe even more than enough — sagebrush. Sagebrush once covered 250 million acres of western North America but today that ecosystem is half the […]
Fire, drought & high anxiety
Dry conditions this spring have put many people in north central Washington on edge Editor’s note: As wildfires become more frequent and intense, the disappearance of snow now ushers in a season of higher anxiety for those who have experienced the destruction of wildfire. And this spring feels particularly ominous, with water levels in ponds […]
Taking the reins
Let ’Em Ride helps kids help themselves with life’s challenges Autumn Rose Edwards struggled with reading and writing in school. In third grade, her special education teacher asked her if she’d like to participate in the “Let ’Em Ride” program of Methow Valley Riding Unlimited (MVRU), a nonprofit that operates out of Moccasin Lake Ranch […]
