I've been riveted to online news since Monday afternoon after the Taylor Bridge wildfire between Cle Elum and Ellensburg broke out and started its destructive path.

I've spent so many happy hours and days over the last several years driving the roads around Cle Elum and Ellensburg for bird watching and scenic photography, so I feel very connected to the area and find myself just heartbroken over how this wildfire is ravaging it all. I hate to think of beautiful areas like Manastash, Taneum, Teanaway, etc. potentially being so resolutely changed after this. Ancient homestead buildings lost forever. The landscape so changed. I feel an attachment to so many homes and ranches I've driven past (or parked alongside as I've scanned for birds, lol), so am feeling sad in an intimate way about how all of this is affecting people's lives and memories there. The probable loss of livestock and other animals, wild and domestic, makes me cry. Also I think of the loss of so much bird habitat and want to cry again (even knowing that burned out areas create new woodpecker habitat). What is happening to the beloved Burrowing Owls around Cle Elum?! :(

From being part of the birding community, I've come to feel a part of the extended community of Cle Elum, Ellensburg, and the surrounding areas. My thoughts are with everyone there as they go through this crisis. No one had mentioned it here yet but I'm sure I can't be the only one with this on my mind, so thought I would post it. Slightly off topic but not totally so. I know many birders here enjoy the area, and some maybe even live there and are in the midst of this crisis right now.

If you wish to lend your support to the area, check out the Kittitas Community Connect page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/KittitasCommunityConnect/ where a massive coordination of relief and assistance is underway. Also the Holiday Inn Express in Ellensburg is taking donations of all sorts of goods on behalf of the American Red Cross to help victims, and Sahaptin Outfitters is apparently coordinating donations of items like Gatorade, bottled water, power bars, etc. for the firefighting crews. Donations are also needed for many types of animal supplies, and there are calls for assistance in fostering displaced livestock and pets, lists of items needed to support displaced families and animals, etc. and more on the Facebook page.

Christy Jobe
Kenmore
christyrj at hotmail