ELC continues
to grow, mature
By Kari Gassaway
Of The Print
.^FISH REAW4&«*4éftrTY
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Artist sketch of fish rearing tanks
Courtesy of Environmental Learning Center
Student fights blaze on birthday
By J. Dana Haynes
Of The Print
Some people spend their
birthdays with parties and
presents. Some take the day
off from work and relax.
For Clackamas Commun-
tiy College student Duane
Hiersche, this year’s birthday
was spent fighting a fire.
Hiersche, 20, is one of 29
volunteers for the Gladstone
Fife Department.
Last
Wednesday, Hiersche and the
rest of unit 103 (one of three
fire trucks the town owns)
responded to a fire at 160 Fair-
field in Gladstone. The blaze
burned till 5 a.m. and gutted a
house before the department
brought it under control.
When asked why anyone
would spend the early morning
hours of his birthday risking his
life, Hiersche shrugged and
replied, “I don’t know. It’s
fun.”
Hiersche has been with
the fire department since last
summer, and has responded to
an average of five alarms a
month. He is a photojour
nalism major and a member of
The Print staff, and has no in
terest in pursuing a career in
firefighting.
Gladstone Fire Marshall
Wayne Hauck is the only paid
employee in the department,
which has operated on a
volunteer basis since 1928.
“It’s not all that dangerous
using volunteers,” Hauck said.
“We get two hours of drill every
week, and we’ve already put in
18 hours this month at a
‘demonstration house’ in
Gladstone.”
Hauck said the depart
ment receives an average of 15
calls per month, but only 10
percent of those are for fires.
“It’s pretty exciting,”
Hiersche said. “This is the big
gest fire I’ve worked on so far.”
Hiersche estimates that
next year’s birthday will be less
eventful.
The John Inskeep En
vironmental Learning Center is
continuing its effort to return to
nature with the development of
a fish rearing facility.
The facility is like a fish
hatchery, but is a more natural
procedure because it allows the
fish to be returned to the wild
much faster than hatchery fish
are. The rearing facility, a
renovated waste water storage
from the days when Smuckers
Berry Processing plant oc
cupied the Learning Center
site, will “allow people to learn
the uniqueness between man
and salmon by bringing salmon
back to Newell Creek (the
creek which begins on the
center site)” Jerry Herrmann of
ELC said.
Salmon used to spawn in
the Newell Creek area. “Up to
20 years ago people were be
ing arrested for poaching
salmon with a pitchfork.” Herr
mann said. Today, due to the
damage of their habitat, the
salmon have nearly vacated
the creek.
ine first rehabilitation of
the creek, Charles Puckett of
ELC explained, took place
when Jerry Barney, chief study
director of the Global 2000
program was a little boy.
Construction of the cur
rent fish facility began the sum
mer of 1982. Volunteers from
the Clackamas County Com
munity Service-Work Program,
the Federal Comprehensive
Employment Act and the
Training Act Program helped
with the majority of the work.
The old storage tank will
be used for salmon in the fry
stage (young fish). A pole and
plank platform is beina built
around the tank. “Two thou
sand feet of plank decking is
needed to finish the project .ft
Puckett said.
The fish rearing facility
should be finished in the Spr
ing. “I feel salmon are an in
dicator of the future of our
planet. When they become af
fected, it means we soon will be
too. Thats why keeping their
habitat up is so important. By
getting people interested and
involved by seeing the facility
or participating in things like
‘Adopt a Creek,’ the project is a
step in the right direction,”
Herrmann said.
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\__ _________
Wednesday, December 8, 1982
Snow Phone - 224-9221
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