-Headline News

Chester High School students finish their opening night production of “Oz” on April 26 with an inspiring performance of the song “Home.” Photo by Samantha P. Hawthorne (Go to the end of the article to view photo gallery.)

Samantha P. Hawthorne

  Dorothy and her friends skipped down the yellow brick road through the Land of Oz and all the way to the Chester Elementary School gymnasium April 26 and 27 to perform in a Chester High School musical.

  The combined cast of more than 40 drama and music students collaborated to perform “Oz,” a musical adaption of the timeless tale “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.”

  The young thespians provided plenty of entertainment and wit, keeping the audience on the edge of their seats in amusement. During several scenes, the cast even engaged audience participation by dancing with select spectators, and choosing others to conspire with the Wicked Witch of the West, played by Annie Sylvester.

This mix of pine and oak on Jeff Obenland’s Chandler Road property is considered a threat to Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative power lines across the road. Those with yellow ribbons will be cut down, while the oaks with red ribbons will be trimmed back. Photo by Debra Moore

Debra Moore

  “If I could, I would cut less trees,” said Bob Marshall, the general manager of Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative.

  Marshall said he sympathizes with Chandler Road residents who don’t want their trees cut down, but his chief concern is fire and the electric company’s liability.

  The cooperative plans to remove hazardous trees along the length of Chandler Road to prevent them from toppling into power lines and igniting a fire.

  The Chips Fire “burned” more than 75,000 acres of land in a little over a month last summer. The number of acres burned is misleading, however, as the terrain encompassed within the Chips Fire boundaries experienced varying degrees of burn severity.

  Just 20 percent of the area was severely burned, according to Mike Donald, Mount Hough District Ranger, in what foresters call a “mosaic burn.”

  The Chips Fire burn area contains millions of board feet of salvageable timber. Efforts are currently underway to harvest some of it.