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The Nugget Newspaper
Sisters, Oregon
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The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

Walden surveys fire's impact
By Jim Cornelius

Republican Congressman Greg Walden, fresh from a fact-finding expedition to Iraq, turned his attention to the condition of Sisters in the wake of the B&B Complex Fire.

Walden toured the fire area and the Sisters downtown district on Monday afternoon, October 13.

Local business owners told him how the fire affected their operations. Some suffered significant losses, though most said they were hanging in there pretty well.

Jean Wells of The Stitchin' Post said her business was off 35 percent for the third week of August. Her husband's restaurant, Bronco Billy's Ranch Grill and Saloon was off 70 percent that week due to the fire and highway closure.

Steve Wilson of the Mountain Man Trading Post said he also notices some lingering effect of two fires in two summers discouraging tourists from coming to town.

"This is one of those things where once you lose momentum it's hard to get it back up," he said.

As a long-time advocate of "healthy forests" legislation, Walden did note the effects of active thinning and treatment in the forest he toured.

"It's evident that where we've done treatment work on the forest the fire is less intense," he said. "In cases where you haven't done the treatment it's total devastation."

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