Restoring Opal Creek: What comes next for beloved burned forest, popular recreation area? yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
GILLIAN FLACCUS and ZACH URNESS
Associated Press and Statesman Journal
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OTIS Wildfire smoke was thick when Tye and Melynda Small went to bed on Labor Day, but they weren t too concerned. After all, they live in a part of Oregon where ferns grow from tree trunks and rainfall averages more than 6 feet a year.
But just after midnight, a neighbor awakened them as towering flames, pushed by gusting winds, bore down. The Smalls and their four children fled, leaving behind 26 pet chickens, two goldfish and a duck named Gerard as the wind whipped the blaze into a fiery tornado and trees exploded around them.
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The Detroit area is taking another small step toward normalcy this month with the reopening of six campgrounds around the popular reservoir east of Salem that burned in last September s Labor Day fires.
The largest campground in the area, Detroit Lake State Park, reopened last month. The Forest Service has added to the overnight options by gradually reopening its collection of smaller sites around the lake and on the upper North Santiam River including:
Santiam Flats Campground, on the southeast side of Detroit Lake, open now
Cove Creek Campground, on the south side of Detroit Lake, open now