Opinion
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2021 Oregon Legislature wrap up: Wildfire policy and new resources
The 2021 Oregon Legislature convened in early February. Among its first orders of business was the formation of two wildfire committees; one in the House and one in the Senate. The House Committee was a “special” committee, with its only charge w...
Moving forward
As many of you know the Upper McKenzie Community Center hosted the relief center, our version of a free community store, just after the Holiday Farm fire last September until March, helping our neighbors who had suffered so much get through the winte...
Thanks for Buch
At midnight on Labor Day, I joined a caravan evacuating the Holiday Farm wildfire which destroyed more than 500 homes and devastated 174,000 acres. Our lives were forever changed that night, never to be the same. Yet, the incredible support from...
Ridin' the Rapids
“Looking good!” People have been telling me while delivering Reflections to stores and restaurants for the last two weeks. That’s because they liked seeing color photos rather than the print edition’s normal black & white front-page images....
To the communities around the Fires of 2020
Last year was the worst wildfire season for western Oregon and the Willamette and Mt. Hood National Forests in decades. As for the Forest Supervisors of these National Forests, we saw firsthand how the fires affected the lives of our communities, emp...
It Seems to Me….
r Day night 2020; nine months since the Holiday Farm Wildfire devastated more than 170,000 acres and destroyed more than a thousand structures and five-hundred homes in the McKenzie Watershed. Three seasons (Fall, Winter, and Spring) since thousands...
Chambers Foundation backs VMCC
The Board of Vida McKenzie Community Center is pleased to announce receipt of $13,000 from the Chambers Family Foundation to support the rebuilding of the Center’s facilities, destroyed in the Holiday Farm Fire. With the addition of this grant...
Need more diverse meat production
Earlier this year, President Joe Biden signed an executive order calling for strengthening vulnerable agricultural supply chains and encouraging production here at home. In the past 18 months, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural...
Kendall backs VMCC
With underwriting from Kendall Auto Group’s Hope Project, Vida McKenzie Community Center is holding a family friendly BINGO Drive-Thru Fundraiser on July 10th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The entry cost is only $25 per person and includes one Bingo card...
Grant helps to rebuild VMC center
re, the Oregon CommunityCredit Union Foundation formed a Fire Relief Fund to support fire relief efforts in the region. At the suggestion of a neighbor, Mandy Jones, the Vida McKenzie Community Center applied for a grant to help cover some of the...
Spring cleaning
The McKenzie Community Track and Field in Blue River is making an appeal for people power to help with a spring clean up at the Blue River facility. The track was fortunate and received only minimal damage during the wildfire. The track was a...
MEF Imagination Library
The McKenzie Education Foundation has been providing free books to all pre-schoolers up to age 5 who live in the McKenzie School District. We know many families haven’t been able to return to the river since the fire and we would like to help you...
McKenzie Green
The Holiday Farm Fire 2020 drastically changed the environment throughout the McKenzie corridor, clear to all who live and travel through the watershed. The blackened and burnt landscape, still in early phases of cleanup and restoration, is...
Local Stars
in Blue River was a huge success and the Blue River Bottle Boys would like to thank all those who joined the brigade to help our cause. In conjunction with the OBRC (Bottle Drop, ) we collected Blue Bags to deposit during Earth Week in order to...
Vote Yes On Bond
Look at our beautiful school and the heart of our community. We are all so grateful it survived the fire. But now as we rebuild our community let’s not forget the needs of our school. For the past 2 years a committee of staff, community members...
Greetings and Happy Earth Week!
We write to inform you of our community celebration on Earth Day, this Thursday, April 22, at 11 am in Blue River. The celebration will focus on the benefits of the Oregon Bottle Bill adopted some years ago by a very forward-thinking legislature and...
Have Lots of Fun! Do Lots of Good!
cover and rebuild. The Coronavirus made for a challenging river season for not only our rafting business but for all of the businesses along the McKenzie River. Making it worse, the Holiday Farm Fire started on Labor Day and ravaged much of our...
NOAA to release updated U.S. climate data that will establish new climate 'Normals'
NOAA will soon release a much-anticipated update of U.S. climate data for placing recent weather conditions—such as heat waves and flooding rain—into historical context. Climatologists from NOAA NCEI are currently compiling and reviewing 30...
November 7, 2013
“Congratulations! We do hope that many of us older folk won’t lose the comfort of the printed page, held in the usual manner between a late morning cup of coffee and a cozy fire. The internet provides many things to many...
35 years of publishing
How do you get your news? By reading this we know you’re among the 1,800 people who keep up with what’s happening in the McKenzie River area by picking up a copy of River Reflections. For many years that’s been the best way to gain...
August 15, 2013
With Post purchase, Bezos has chance to remake newspaper model By Gene Policinski Jeff Bezos made it clear in founding Amazon.com that he can compete in the marketplace. We’ll just have to wait and see if he can, and will, do the same thing in...
What are our "Top 10?"
If a visitor asked you to name the 10 top "must see" attractions in the McKenzie River area, how would you respond? Some that come to mind include the Dee Wright Observatory, Clear Lake, Proxy Falls, the Goodpasture Covered Bridge, the...
