YAKIMA VALLEY’S HAUNTED CORN MAZES SCARE UP FAMILIAR FACES / LIFE, PAGE 1D DESPITE MUGGY CONDITIONS, IKE’S MAHONY, ZILLAH’S REDFIELD SHINE AT SUNFAIR /SPORTS, 1C 509Classifieds .............. 1E Advice .......................... 5D Celebrations ................ 4D Crosswords .................... 9E Deaths ...................... 5-6B Home Front................... 1B Horoscope ................... 5D Life in the NW .............. 1D Movies ......................... 5D Opinion ..................... 2-3D Sports .......................... 1C Weather ........................ 2A Argh, ye scalawags! See a story, photos and video from Saturday’s Pirate Plunder Adventure Race on Page 1B and at yakimaherald.com. © 2014 Yakima Herald-Republic Inc. Vol. 111, No. 337 /6 sections, 62 pages 81 TODAY 48 TONIGHT Y AKIMA H ERALD R EPUBLIC Y AKIMA H ERALD R EPUBLIC SUNDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2014 A DAILY PART OF YOUR LIFE $1.50 WWW.YAKIMAHERALD.COM WILDFIRE PREVENTION GORDON KING/Yakima Herald-Republic Ken McNamee, with the Washington state Department of Natural Resources, walks through a forest near Ellensburg on Wednesday. The Snag Canyon Fire swept through the area this summer and burned all the trees in the heavily wooded area on the right, while the trees in the thinned area on the left survived mostly intact. E LLENSBURG — In an intense wildfire, trees can practically melt as needles and small branches become fluid enough to bend and then “freeze” as they cool and re-solidify. It’s a sign of serious heat. So it’s surpris- ing that just 10 yards from a contorted tree whose limbs appear to be hugging a blackened trunk are other trees with green crowns that look barely touched by the fire. It’s as if some invisible line separated life and death. This summer’s Snag Canyon Fire burned across 12,600 acres of brush and forest north of Ellensburg, but the intensity of the fire and resulting damage varied dramatically across the ridge slopes. Sometimes, it’s hard to know why one island of green inexplicably survived a wild- fire, but Ken McNamee knows exactly what created this invisible line — logging. “In the dense, untreated stands, the fire moves from tree top to tree top and that’s not good for anybody,” said McNamee, a division manager for the state Department of Natural Resources. “In this logged area where the remaining trees stand far apart, all the tree tops are still green, the fire scorched some small bushes and seedlings, but it’s not all black.” In the face of increasingly destructive fires, cutting down some trees may be the only way to save our forests from themselves. T his summer was Washington’s worst fire season ever. Ignited by lightning, driven by hot, windy weather on bone- dry rangeland and tinderbox forests, flames ripped across 567 square miles, destroying at least 336 homes and costing close to $200 million to fight. The Snag Canyon Fire was mild in comparison to other fires, but McNamee says it’s a prime example of how commercial logging and thinning treatments designed to improve forest health can reduce fire severity. “Some folks still think when we talk about logging that we are clearcutting, but that’s not how we do business anymore,” he said. Indeed, the area logged by Boise Cascade a decade ago, before the state acquired the land, still has 35 or 40 large trees on each acre. Saplings and bushes grew in those spaces, allowing the fire to move fast and low to the ground where it didn’t get hot BY KATE PRENGAMAN YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC Damage from Snag Canyon Fire demonstrates how cutting down some trees can save forests from devastating blazes Supporters: I-594 closes ‘loophole’ in gun laws Opponents say background check is overly burdensome, first step toward gun registry RIDGEFIELD — The long guns and pistols here at the Clark County fair building spill across folding tables and stack up on portable racks. The customers, mostly older men, have come to the Vancouver Gun and Knife Show to check out weapons with classic brand names like Winchester, Remington, Browning and Ruger. These gun shows are also where someone barred by federal law from buying a gun — a felon, say, or someone who had been committed for a mental illness — can purchase a gun at one of the tables manned by a private seller. That anomaly in the law — critics call it a “loophole” — has put gun shows like this in the center of the debate over Initiative 594 on the November ballot. Under current federal law, back- ground checks are required only for sales by licensed firearms dealers. I-594 would expand those background checks to private transfers or sales, like some of the transactions at gun shows. If the measure passes, Washington would have one of the strictest back- ground-check laws in the nation. Just six states and the District of Columbia require such checks for all gun sales and transfers. I-594 is also the state’s highest-profile campaign this fall. Several wealthy donors — Bill Gates, Jr., Nick Hanauer, Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer — donated millions of dollars to the pro-I-594 advocacy group Washington Alliance for Gun Responsibility. The group has so far raised $7.6 million, including a $1 million donation from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s advocacy group, Everytown for Gun Safety. The initiative’s backers, like Snohomish County Prosecutor Mark Roe, say that expanding background checks would make it harder for crimi- nals or people with severe mental illness to get guns. “There were plenty of guys I spent my time prosecuting, where you make it a SEE FIRE PAGE 6 A BY JOSEPH O’SULLIVAN THE SEATTLE TIMES The case for logging SEE INITIATIVE PAGE 8 A Roslyn seeks 15 more minutes of fame KAITLYN BERNAUER/Yakima Herald-Republic The film crew works on a scene with actor Luke Kleintank, on phone, during the filming of a television pilot for “The Man in the High Castle” in downtown Roslyn on Thursday. The show is an adaptation by a novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick. ROSLYN — This small Upper Kittitas County town has been Cicely, Alaska, for nearly 25 years, and now it’s going to be Canon City, Colo. It was the fictional city of Cicely in the cult-classic TV series “Northern Exposure,” and fans still make frequent pilgrimages to pose for pictures in front of The Brick Saloon or the Roslyn Cafe. And now it’s a stand-in for the 1962 version of Canon City in a new adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s novel “The Man in the High Castle,” which is being executive- produced by Ridley Scott, whose work includes “Blade Runner,” “Thelma & Louise,” “Gladiator” and “Black Hawk Down.” “The Man in the High Castle” is a Hugo Award- winning novel Scott has been working to adapt for years. It is set in an alternate universe in which the Axis powers won World War II, leaving Germany and Japan as superpowers that control North America. Much of its appeal to Dick fans — a group known for their fanati- cal devotion — stems from its metaphysical themes and the questions it raises about the authenticity and “real- ity” of any universe. For now, the crew in Roslyn is just shooting scenes for an Amazon.com- produced pilot. In addition to Scott, the names associ- ated with the production include “X-Files” producer Frank Spotnitz, “Lost” producer Jean Higgins and actors Alexa Davalos, D.J. Qualls, Rupert Evans and BY PAT MUIR YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC Famous for setting of ‘Northern Exposure,’ city officials hope new Amazon show pilot being shot in town brings economic boost SEE ROSLYN PAGE 7 A “We lost this habitat that critters need by not managing it. We need to find a way to protect this habitat we need to have so we don’t lose the whole thing.” KEN MCNAMEE Division manager, Department of Natural Resources ‘THE MAN IN THE HIGH CASTLE’ 2014 ELECTION H eat is on