Wednesday, June 14, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Oregon legislative
busy work
In 1927, when L.L.
Patterson was our governor,
the western meadowlark
[Sturnella neglecta] was
chosen as the state bird by
Oregon’s school children in a
poll sponsored by the Oregon
Audubon Society.
It’s a familiar songbird
of open country across the
western two-thirds of the
North American continent,
and it lives in Oregon on
both the dry and wet sides
of the Cascades, all the
way south to California,
east to Idaho and north to
Washington state. And yes,
it’s also the State Bird of
Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming,
Montana and North Dakota.
But so what — that shows
other Westerners also know a
sweet song when they hear it.
Governor Patterson,
following President
Coolidge’s inspiration gov-
erning the state in a finan-
cially conservative manner,
he streamlined agencies and
vetoed legislation which
would threaten balancing the
state’s finances.
By 1920, our state bal-
anced its budget for the
first time in its history!
Patterson’s administration
notably continued improv-
ing state roads and highways,
established the state’s system
of higher education and still
balanced the budget. He was
a popular and well-respected
figure by rivals and support-
ers alike, but he died in office
of pneumonia December 21,
1929.
It’s really too bad our cur-
rent legislators can’t follow
Governor Patterson’s lead
and quit wasting time unnec-
essarily changing our state
bird, and get to funding out-
door education instead. The
politicians who decided to
take on the time- and money-
wasting chore of changing
our state bird are a perfect
examples of those people
who can’t see the trees for
the forest.
Here we are without
enough money in the bud-
get to cover education for
the young people of our
state and we have a bunch
of legislators that think
changing the state bird is of
vital importance. Like we
need the osprey — a water
bird — instead.
The western meadowlark
was picked as our state bird
because it’s found every-
where in the state; osprey are
not. There is nothing more
beautiful to suddenly come
bursting into one’s ears at
the crack-of-dawn then the
song of the western mead-
owlark, whether you’re on
the Oregon Coast or wak-
ing up in the wild country of
Oregon’s outback.
The osprey is a water bird,
the meadowlark is not, there-
fore you have to be near a
body of water large enough
to support fish to find osprey,
the meadowlark’s habitat is
all the fence-post country of
our magnificent state.
There is nothing musical
about the call of the osprey,
unless you’re tone-deaf. The
meadowlark sings its melo-
dious song to tell us it’s a
beautiful day (especially if
it’s raining), while the osprey
is usually complaining about
something when it lets out
it’s whistling screech.
Come on, legislators, get
back on track, get to work
solving our financial prob-
lems and forget about the
Year-round
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contact Kiki,
541-549-9941
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Crest the Cascades Bike Ride
— Bjarne
j
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Sat., June 17
$40 registration fee
This ride offers some of the
most spectacular scenery
in Central Oregon!
For more information go to
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Youth Summer Camps
Registration Open for Ages 5-10
Weekly, June 19 - August 11 • 7 a.m. - 6 p.m.
At SPRD • $165 full-week/Drop-in $45
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PHOTO BY JIM ANDERSON
Oregon State zird: Wedtern Meadowlark. Pleade leave it that way!
sudden “busy work” neces-
sity of changing our state
bird. If you really want to
get immersed in the nature
of Oregon, find a way to
fund the outdoor school pro-
grams most everyone voted
so positively for. Give our
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Come in for our massage and
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and get moving again.
— Kindling —
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Back in Your Step!
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541-410-4509
young people the oppor-
tunity to spend a week at
outdoor school, and I’ll bet
they’ll hear, recognize, and
see a lot more meadowlarks
than osprey — and the folks
in Salem will be doing some-
thing more positive.
Sarah Conroy, Chiropractor
FIREWOOD
SALES
SISTERS
FOREST PRODUCTS
19
Est. 2002
st
Si ers Owned
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