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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (June 30, 2021)
Appeal Tribune | WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2021 | 1B OUTDOORS Brice Creek Trail is a wonderland of wildflowers in Willamette Valley Bobbie Snead Special to Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK I n my years as a nature educator, I’ve had children ask me some great questions. Kids wonder about everything from Why is the sky blue? to Where does sand come from? Every year during wildflower season, I think of a group of second graders who joined me years ago for a nature hike in Salem’s Bush’s Pasture Park. A little girl named Marta held my right hand while her classmate David grasped my left. As we walked, Marta asked why plants have flowers. Before I could take advantage of this teachable moment, David said, So they can make seeds and grow new plants. He was spot on! Our group spent the next 20 minutes investigating the fawn lilies on the east side of the park – noticing their petals and pollen and discussing how insects pollinate flowers as they search for nectar. I recall how each child reverently cupped a blossom with gentle hands and pretended to pollinate the flower with a soft touch of the nose. I feel that same child- like joy each time I hike a wildflower-lined trail in the woods. A wonderful place for this is the Brice Creek Trail, not far from Cottage Grove in the southern Willamette Valley. An almost imperceptible mist falls as my friends and I leave the paved road at a bridge over Brice Creek. The trail, part of which follows the origi- nal route traveled by 19th-century gold miners on their way to mines in the surrounding hills, parallels the north side of the creek. Some people still pan for gold in this section of Brice Creek, but we see no fortune seek- ers this morning, only a series of green pools interrupted by rocky rapids. Bunches of Oregon iris, arrayed like perfect bouquets, grow in dappled light near the trail. We stop to admire one of the flowers up close: three pale petals stand upright, surrounded by three wider downward-arching sepals (petal-like structures); all are the color of fresh cream. Dark red lines embellish the sepals. Called nectar guides, these lines point visiting insects toward nectar in the flower’s center. Pollinating insects can’t sense the nectar they crave until their taste receptors make contact with the sugary liquid. Flowers assist the insects See BRICE CREEK, Page 3B Hatcheries are a great place to visit Fishing Henry Miller Guest columnist I’ve been to a wondrous place recently where the trout are as long as your arm. It was the first opportunity to visit since the beginning of Oregon’s pan- demic restrictions, and you can go there, too. More than a year after the imposition of the lockdown in March 2020, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife hatch- eries are open to public visits. Until the ban was lifted June 18, only fishing-access parking was allowed at state hatcheries such as South Santiam just east of Sweet Home, Cedar Creek near Hebo and Salmon River near Otis. “We were always open for fishing, just not for visitors,” said Michelle Dennehy, the department’s communications coor- dinator. The grand reopening does come with a few caveats, and a few exceptions. Group tours and visits by large groups aren’t being offered. And some facilities such as picnic areas, drinking fountains, the interiors of hatchery buildings and outdoor areas too small to allow for so- cial distancing remain off-limits at hatcheries open to the public. Klamath Hatchery near Chiloquin and Rock Creek Hatchery in Idleyld Park remain closed because of fire damage, and the Trask River Hatchery is closed temporarily for construction. But for hatcheries newly open for visi- tors, the fish are on full display in all of their colorful, speckled glory, from trout as long as your arm (or at least a kid’s arm) to clouds and swarms of smaller ju- venile salmon and steelhead. “It’s nice to have visitors back so they can enjoy the hatcheries,” said Tyler Le- bard, the manager at Roaring River Hatchery near Scio. Lebard, clad in chest waders, was in the process of doing the regular Monday cleaning of the runs and raceways at the facility. “We don’t have a ton of visitors right off the start. I don’t know if people real- ize that it’s open yet,” he added. “I think it will slowly pick up, especially during the summer season. I’d say the bulk of the visitors come during the summer.” See MILLER, Page 3B
