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About Vernonia's voice. (Vernonia, OR) 2007-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 8, 2013)
8 community january8 2013 UNWC Improves Watersheds continued from front page wood recruitment potential. UNWC has identified many more areas in the Pebble Creek water- shed that would benefit from some form of restoration and is currently working with Weyerhaeuser to identify resources Contracting, LLC from Portland, who helped finish the Pebble Creek job. “Their operators are very experienced and live in the area,” says Peyton. “They have many years of restoration experi- ence and are very skilled at building tainable community endeavors to create natural and edible landscapes in the Ver- nonia area. Peyton gave special mention to grade school principal and Vernonia Rural Suitability Center leader Aaron Miller for his unfaltering dedication to initiating meaningful education projects that the students and staff, watershed council and the community can be proud of and that set an excellent example for the world to follow. Peyton also acknowledged that the good work of the UNWC is made possible by the competent leadership of the executive board, her staff, the con- tractors, the natural resource agency technicians, local government, academia and dedicated volunteers. Peyton wished to extend a debt of gratitude to the following individuals, businesses and agencies: UNWC Board: Jason Busch – Chair, Cory Colburn – Vice Chair, Lee Klingler – Treasurer, Rachel Wilcoxen – Secretary, Aaron Miller, Vic Dykstra Sorbets, Crew Leader – Greg Mustola, Crew – Andrew Mustola, Christopher and Joshua Buzzell. Contractor’s: Aquatic Contract- ing, LLC, Quality Excavation, Carex Consulting, Siegmund Construction, Triangle GIS, Bio-Survey’s LLC, Carex Consulting, Jones Consulting, Schlosser Consulting Natural Resource Agency per- sonnel: OWEB - Tom Shafer, ODFW – Chris Knutsen, Michele Long, Bryan Swearingen, Dave Plawman and Troy Laws; DEQ – Bruce Apple, York John- son, Jennifer Purcell and Colleen Foster; BLM – Kurt Heckeroth, Roy Price and Matt Walker; USFWS - Amy Horst- man and Janine Castro, NRCS – Emily Phife, Don Melhoff, Roslyn Grey and Sara Tanavasa; OSU – Chip Bubl and Amy Grotta; Columbia SWCD – Kari Hollander, Tyler Joki and Nathan Herr; Clatsop SWCD – Wendy Agalzoff; Academia: Vernonia School District, OSU, PSU, Western Oregon A new bridge built by Siegmund Construction on Pebble Creek. for continued work in the area. UNWC has developed a good working relation- ship with Weyerhaeuser. “They are OK with the concepts we are proposing, they’re alright with us working on their land and they trust us and our contrac- tors,” says Peyton. Currently they are working on the logistics that would en- able the UNWC to place as many as 800 trees into streams in the basin, which would make it the largest project of this type the UNWC has ever undertaken. Peyton says she is especially pleased with the contractor, Aquatic complex in-stream structures by weav- ing the logs into the existing stream side forest, down and across the stream. It was a great working with them!” UNWC worked with ODFW and Aquatic Contracting on another project this past summer, placing 107 logs into Beneke and Gilmore Creeks on the Jewell Wildlife Refuge. The UNWC has also been very supportive of service based learning projects with the Vernonia School Dis- trict including Salmonwatch, Natural Resource Education Day, stream side reforestation projects and water qual- ity monitoring with the forestry class, nature-scaping of the school campus and the establishment of a native plant nurs- ery. Currently UNWC is involved in the construction and operation of a green- house on the Vernonia School campus which will be used to grow plants for their reforestation projects. The green- house will be a learning tool for students as well as provide trees and plants for the UNWC to use in their projects. The greenhouse will also be available for the community garden project and other sus- Owned and Operated by Don & Kim Wallace Aquatic Contracting was building salmon habitat on Pebble Creek this past summer. and Gil McLean. Special mention to volunteer Jo Zettler for her expert fa- cilitation of the organization’s strategic plan. Honorable mention to founding members: Bill DeJager, Dennis Nelson, Jim Buxton and Lauren Jacobsen for their continued support of the civil soci- ety creation process. UNWC Staff: Marie Knight – Bookkeeper, Executive Assistant – Steve Vernonia’s Voice is changing publication dates! Starting in February we will publish twice each month on the 1st and 3rd Thursday. Our next issues will be January 22, February 7 & 21. Mariolino’s Pizza & Grill Open for breakfast, lunch & dinner University. The Nature Conservancy for the facilitation of the development of the Nehalem Conservation Action Plan. The mission of UNWC is to fos- ter better stewardship and understand- ing of the Upper Nehalem Watershed and its resources, to address issues in advance of resource degradation, and to ensure sustainable watershed health, function and use. Their vision is a bal- anced ecosystem that supports a healthy watershed, contributes to a strong eco- nomic base, and encourages viable com- munities. For more information go to unwc.nehalem.org. g WiFi n i vid et & o r P tern In SL D aga s COMPUTER & INTERNET SERVICES We have ice cream! Serving Vernonia since 1970 721 Madison Avenue, Vernonia (503) 429-5018 503.429.TECH jeff@agalis.net
