Forest Road 39, also known as the Wallowa Mountain Loop and part of the Hells Canyon National Scenic Byway, is open.

The paved, two-lane road, which connects Highway 86 east of Halfway with Wallowa County, usually is blocked by snow until late May or early June.

Maintenance crews are removing rocks and debris, which could cause delays of five to 15 minutes.

Due to an unseasonably warm and dry spring, many forest roads are open earlier than usual this year. Forest Service officials encourage drivers to be careful and watch for rocks and other debris. 

For more information on the WWNF and the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, please visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/wallowa-whitman/. You can also follow the forest on twitter at:  @WallowaWhitman.

By Jayson Jacoby

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Baker County has been adding jobs over the past year, and the average pay per job has risen as well.

Average pay in 2012 was $31,242 — an increase of 3.2 percent from 2011, according to the Oregon Employment Department’s Eastern Oregon “Labor Trends” newsletter.

That’s a bigger jump than for Oregon overall, where the average pay went up by 2.8 percent in 2012.