Bird Of Paradox

Available now at Amazon: Bird of Paradox: The Seasoning of Birdie McInness, a coming of age story set in Portland, Oregon.

The story follows the adventures of Robert Cameron McInnes, known as "Birdie" to friends and family.

Birdie learns the ying and the yang of life itself, a balance on a pendulum between the poles of providence and misfortune. Herewith is a taste of the narrative from the prologue:

Robert Cameron McInnes was basically just like every other kid growing up Catholic in 50s and 60s America. Yet, in many ways, he was unique. The nuns called him “Bert,” but everyone else knew him as “Birdie."

The eldest in a family of five, Birdie attended grammar school at Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow (0LPS) parish, just like all the other Italian-American and Irish-American youth in his neighborhood. The “parish” was an all-inclusive term that meant priests, nuns, clerics, congregation, school and staff.

These young Christian soldiers were – by and large – serious about their schooling, and many were actively involved in other traditions and rituals of the Roman Catholic Church. Some, like Birdie, were altar boys – those young servers who assist the priest in conducting Mass while attaining a certain degree of proficiency in the lost language of Latin.

At OLPS (bottom photo), Birdie experienced his first taste of the type of draconian discipline administered by the Catholics. Brother Gerard, the parish advisor for the Altar Boy Society, like other members of the Franciscan Order, subscribed to the twin Catholic concepts of distributing guilt and.when necessary, corporal punishment.

The altar boys were an ambitious lot. Many were also members of the Boy Scouts of America, which was in its heyday at the time. Many played sports and some, like Birdie, had newspaper delivery routes as well.

In addition to serving Mass at the parish church every morning, they assisted parish priests with Mass at an earlier service at a monastery nearby at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. Sometimes it seemed if only the cloistered nuns, who were basically imprisoned at the monastery, and a few devout senior citizens, attended. 

One morning, Birdie overslept and, having to choose between serving Mass and delivering the morning edition of The Oregonian, he chose the latter. “It’ll be okay,” he reasoned to himself uncomfortably, assuming the other server would pick up the slack.  Big mistake. At the next meeting of the OLPS Altar Boy Society, retribution would be swift and brutal.

“McInnes, stand and follow me,” barked Brother Gerard at the very beginning of the meeting. Birdie’s heart leapt into his throat. What followed was the most serious upbraiding Birdie had ever yet received from an adult in a position of authority, at least up to that point in his life.

Brother Gerard had Birdie reduced to tears for the serious offense of missing the early Mass, and altar boys on the other side of the door could hear every word. When it was over, Birdie asked Brother Gerard if he could clean up a bit before facing the others. “No,” growled the sadistic cleric, firmly. “Get back in there and sit down.”

Birdie returned to his seat, eyes red and swollen, and his ego shattered more by humiliation in front of his peers than anything Brother Gerard had said. The stout, muscular cleric had accomplished two tasks at once: he had disciplined an errant altar boy and sent a clear message to all others in the room who might be so careless as to miss a scheduled Mass: “Don’t even think about it.”

It wouldn’t be the last time Birdie experienced Catholic justice. They didn’t refer to these clerics as “soldiers of Christ” for nothing. But the altar boys, at least the errant ones, would nonetheless have their payback behind the scenes, munching on communion hosts and sipping cheap Thunderbird wine surreptitiously in the sacristy after hours.

EVs Transform Auto Industry

Increasing instances of forest fires, heat waves, floods, hurricanes and melting glaciers are all symptoms of climate change resulting from greenhouse gases, with the biggest single source being gasoline-powered vehicles that produce more than a quarter of the country's total emissions.

The world's scientists warn that catastrophe is nigh and that we are close to a point where climate change will become irreversible. It's clearly time to stop debating with those who would ignore the facts and take action to dramatically cut greenhouse gas emissions immediately.

One way to begin reducing carbon dioxide levels is to increase the number of hybrid and all-electric vehicles in the marketplace as soon as possible. The new administration has set an ambitious goal for the transition to electric vehicles. By 2030, half of all vehicles sold in the U.S. should be electric.

It's been a long road to the development of electric vehicles. In the 1960s, Eugene Water & Electric Board received an electric vehicle, a Renault, as a demonstration project. By the 1990s, the utility was operating an electric Ford Ranger and two smaller vehicles called "Gizmos" (below).

Today, however, both hybrids and all-electric vehicles, such as the Tesla, are catching on as charging stations begin to proliferate in this country, allowing the vehicles to "refuel." A rapid shift from fossil fueled engines to electric vehicles will be an essential step in mitigating climate change.

Diminishing Season

Once upon a time, backcountry aficionados could anticipate summers of wandering the wilderness areas of the West in search of peace, solitude and perhaps a few photographs. No more. That was 20 years ago now, as climate change has led to perennial forest fire smoke obscuring the atmosphere.

This year, the Bootleg Fire in Southern Oregon spotted by a USFS lookout on Calimus Butte, primed by months of drought and a record heat wave, has become the largest in the U.S. this season, burning over 400,000 acres of forests as a towering cloud of smoke reaches airliner heights.

Talk about apocalypse now. Heat waves are becoming more prevalent, and forests are incinerating everywhere, from California to Siberia. Summers that seemed unusually hot are becoming the norm. That alone is reason enough to to move quickly to reduce greenhouse gases now.

But there's so much more. Unprecedented floods in Europe, devastating monsoons in India, lethal "red tide" killing marine life off the coast of Florida, leaving dead fish reeking on beaches, and an iceberg nearly the size of Puerto Rico has broken off from Antarctica.

The situation is drastic; the greater our emissions of heat-trapping gases, the higher the temperatures and the greater the health risks. Last year was the warmest on record. The atmosphere is reacting to the weakening of the jet stream, causing increasingly uncharacteristic weather conditions.

Yes, it has been hot, and scientists expect if will get even hotter unless drastic action if taken to deal with greenhouse gases. How hot will depend on what is done to affect climate change. Meanwhile, backcountry adventures will be limited by forest fires, and Mother Nature is incensed.

Sandford And Company

As one of many denizens of the Aldo Leopold Society, I was hired by the godfather of the Lake Wenatchee Ranger District, Paul Sandford (top row, third from right). Paul, the longest-serving employee on the district at about 40 years, passed away June 5 from the effects of Parkinson's disease.

Born in Manchester, New Hampshire on December 31, 1939, Paul grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and married Zona Odegard in 1962. Paul for numerous employers, including the Boeing Corp., in the Puget Sound region before applying for a position on the Wenatchee National Forest.

As lead Recreation Technician on the Lake Wenatchee Ranger District starting in the early 1960s, he helped establish many new campgrounds with campsites and trails on the district. He was also the snow survey ranger and developed numerous snowmobile trail systems and off road vehicle trails.

Early in his career, Paul helped with maintaining trails, along with wilderness management, on both sections of the Glacier Peak Wilderness and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness residing within the Lake Wenatchee Ranger District. He also worked in fire prevention and suppression and fall burning.

Literally a jack-of-all-trades, Paul assisted in various wildlife management activities with osprey nest surveys, wood duck nest boxes and common loon nesting platforms on Lake Wenatchee, as well as helping staff locate and assess cultural sites of the Wenatchi band of the Yakama Nation.

Paul had a great work ethic, worked well with people and loved the outdoors. Most importantly, he was a great mentor to many of his younger colleagues and being a friend to one and all. He resided for 30 years in Plain, Washington and worked for the USFS for 37 years.

Two among many of my favorite stories of Paul: After four trees had collapsed on a hunter's trailer in Riverside Campground in November, 1978, killing all four people inside, Paul was instructed to fall all potentially dangerous snags within 100 feet of each district campground.

That job would fall to me and a colleague, but Paul -- an expert faller -- would first demonstrate for us how to cut down a large but dead tree in the Grouse Creek Campground on the lower Chiwawa River. The tree with a dead top was 38 inches in diameter at its base, and Paul administered the cut.

Once the face cut was complete, Paul started the back cut, with his trusty assistants applying wedges to help the dead fir fall in the right direction. What nobody anticipated was a rotten core as the tree started to "barber-stool" off course, smashing the outhouse into smithereens.

We all laughed because of the outcome, but nobody, even an expert faller like Paul, could have predetermined the extent of the rot in the core of the tree. With a sheepish grin, Paul recovered from the incident and laughed along with the rest of us. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

On another assignment, we were instructed to bushwhack up the Napeequa River, a river system that lies entirely within the Glacier Peak Wilderness to locate and destroy a squatter's cabin on federal land. The forest was primeval and the going difficult, but Paul led the way.

Later, Paul provided a key recommendation that helped me secure a position as public relations coordinator at McKenzie-Willamette Hospital. Paul was always smiling, and a gentleman to be admired. I always felt better after spending time with Paul (second row, far left), and I will miss him.

The Last Season

The formidable Sierra Nevada mountain range, whose granite spires parallel the Pacific Ocean, runs north and south for more than 400 inland miles. The southern part of the range features the highest peaks, including Mt. Whitney (above) the tallest peak in the continental United States.

Few improved roadways cross the Sierra Nevada range in this vicinity, which has been set aside Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park. Wilderness areas occupy most of this park, which is essentially pristine roadless backcountry covering approximately more than 1,300 square miles.

Backcountry rangers patrol this remote wilderness area, a backpacker and climber paradise during the summer months. The Last Season by Eric Blehm tells the story of Randy Morgenson, a legendary ranger who patrolled the backcountry of the High Sierra for more than three decades.

The book is a story of a wild man with remarkable vision and devotion to protecting the wilderness. Well-known for his skills in finding lost souls in the High Sierra, he was involved in a number of search and rescue missions over his tenure. Then one day he went missing himself. Some excerpts:

"The average tourist might have pegged (wilderness rangers) as a mingling of mountaineers, dirt-bag climbers and aging hippies. But make no mistake. These were America's finest backcountry rangers -- special forces, if you will -- disguised as an army of misfits."

"Some held degrees in forestry, geology, computer science, philosophy or art history. They were teachers, photographers, writers, documentary filmmakers, winter guides, academics and adventure seekers who, for whatever reason, were drawn to the wilderness."

In the backcountry, they were on duty 24 hours a day as wilderness medics, law enforcement officers, search-and-rescue specialists and wilderness hosts. On good days, they were 'heroes' called upon to find a lost backpacker, warm a hypothermic hiker, chas away a bear or save a life."

"On bad days, they picked up trash, tore down illegal campfires, wrote citations and were called 'assholes' simply for doing their jobs. On the worst days, they recovered bodies. The park service often refers to them as 'the backbone of the NPS.'" Most "were college students or recent grads."

Part mystery, part biography and part Park Service procedural, the author probes the mysteries of Morgenson's disappearance while weaving in a story of the ranger's lifelong devotion to wilderness with a compelling account of the search-and-resuce efforts to find him. A must read for wilderness lovers.

Darkness Before Dawn

Back and forth we go into the "extreme risk category" in Lane County and throughout Oregon, just as businesses are starting to recover during a spring that promised the beginnings of a return to normalcy. Examples of frustration and resistance to state-mandated restrictions are pervasive.

With only one-third of county residents vaccinated, it's time for a greater percentage of the population to receive their Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccinations. In the interest of a return to some semblance of normalcy by summer, we must pull together for the common good.

Priority Earth

Earth Day, an annual event established on April 22 in 1970 to demonstrate environmental protection, has grown from a national event to an international event. U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson, Democrat from Wisconsin, is the founder of the event to create awareness of an environmental ethic.

In the 1990s, the city of Eugene and numerous other local agencies and organizations in Lake County founded Earth Day Oregon, which became an annual event held at the River's Edge Plaza at Eugene Water & Electric Board promoting environmental programs and practices.

In 2020, over 100 million people from around the world observed the 50th anniversary of Earth Day in what was described as the largest online mass mobilization in history. This year's focus is on climate literacy, responsible forestry practices and the benefits of environmental education.

Now, President Joseph Biden has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by nearly half by 2030. The United States is rejoining international efforts to fight global warming, after four years of climate denial by the previous administration, and is promoting conservation and renewable energy.