State Officials say the timber harvest this year is slowly increasing, following last year’s near historic low.

The Oregon Department of Forestry said Friday the 2009 timber harvest was 2.748 billion board feet, the lowest since the 30’s. Last year was also 20 percent lower than 2008.

The state is blaming the economy.

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The Oak Flat fire has consumed more than 1,700 acres as of late Friday, but firefighters are optimistic. The recent arrival of a low pressure system has lowered temperatures and broke the inversion layer allowing more helicopter water drops.

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Two Merlin men who were involved in another man being shot there in June have each been sentenced to three years in prison.

56-year-old Robert Garner and 52-year-old Wayne C. Glasby each received the sentence after they tried to oust a roommate from a home.

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Two Eagle Point-are women were arrested by Oregon State Police troopers just after midnight today after a chase on Interstate 5 that reached speeds of more than 100 miles per hour.

38-year-old Belle-Linda M. Walker and 20-year-old Kortnie Rae Snyder were spotted driving a 2006 Kia four-door southbound on I-5 at 96 miles per hour north of Glendale.

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A Grants Pass woman was taken to the hospital after she was the apparent victim of a Felony Hit and Run case at the intersection of the Grants Pass Parkway and Northeast Beacon Drive just after 5 p.m. yesterday.

59-year-old Verna Webb was treated and released at Three Rivers Community Hospital following the accident.

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A cat trapped under the seat of a burning car on Interstate 5 can thank the Grants Pass Fire Department for saving one of its nine lives yesterday.

Firefighters responded a fire coming from the engine compartment of a small car parked at milepost 58, the north Grants Pass exit, at 3:45 p.m.

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The Swanson Group is closing its Glendale sawmill and scaling back operations at its Roseburg stud mill.

The Glendale based company blames the government for a short supply of federal timber and says the market has been deflated by lumber from Canada.

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U.S. Forest Service spokesman says the Oak Flat fire has grown to 1,700 acres and currently there are 1,110 people fighting the blaze.

Spokesperson Don Ferguson says there is some good news, “We have completed our perimeter work, meaning the large box that we anticipate that fire will eventually fill. All fire lines are prepared and today most of our work is improving those lines.”

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The U.S. Treasury doled out $105 million yesterday to 180 financial institutions serving struggling communities across the country. $1.64 million came to Oregon and all of it was awarded to four Portland institutions. None came to Southern Oregon.

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Josephine County Sheriff’s deputies responded to cries for help in the 9000 block of the Williams highway, and after traversing the Copeland Gravel pit area on foot, discovered three people stranded on an island in the Applegate River.

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