Page 13
Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, OR 97523, February 5, 2003
OSU says streams not so ‘dam’ good
Tuesday, Jan. 28
*12:35 a.m. Medical as-
sist: 1000 block Naue Way.
*1:29 p.m. Illegal open
burn: 1300 block Rockydale
Road.
*2:32 p.m. Medical assist:
400 block S. Junction Avenue.
Wednesday, Jan. 29
*2:08 p.m. Medical
standby: 681 Caves Hwy.
Thursday, Jan. 30
*3:20 p.m. Public assist:
200 block Raymond Drive.
*4:21 p.m. Motor vehicle
accident: Old Stage Road/E.
River Street.
Friday, Jan. 31
*515 a.m. Flue fire: 200
block S. Old Stage Road.
*10:59 a.m. Public assist:
200 block Idlewild.
Saturday, Feb. 1
*1:05 a.m. Medical assist:
800 block Logan Cut Drive.
*6:17 p.m. Medical assist:
2700 block Caves Hwy.
Sunday, Feb 2
*7:25 a.m. Public assist:
400 block Crooks Creek.
*8:42 p.m. Medical assist
1400 block Rockydale Road.
PUBLIC NOTICE
TO WHOM
IT MAY CONCERN
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN
that the Josephine County Com-
missioners will conduct informal
meetings with public officials,
county department heads and
employees, and other citizens,
every legal day, Monday through
Friday, with the exception of
Wednesday, between the hours
of 9:00 A.M. and 12:00 P.M. and
1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M., in Room
154 of the Josephine County
Courthouse. On Wednesdays,
the office hours are from 8:00
A.M. to 12:00 P.M. and 1:00 P.M.
to 5:00 P.M. A daily schedule of
all prearranged meetings will be
posted each morning beginning
at 8:00 A.M. from the Executive
Secretary of the Board of Com-
missioners. The purpose of these
meetings will be to gather infor-
mation, discuss issues, and delib-
erate toward decisions concern-
ing matters of public policy and
concern. All interested persons
may attend said meetings except
those designated as “Executive
Sessions.” In addition, notice of
advisory board and commission
meetings are also posted in the
Commissioners Office.
DONE and DATED this 22nd
day of Jan. 1997.
JOSEPHINE COUNTY
BOARD OF
COMMISSIONERS
Jim Brock, Chair
Harold Haugen, Vice Chair
Frank Iverson, Commis-
sioner
Approved:
Steven Rich
Josephine County
Legal Counsel
PUBLISH ONCE A MONTH
Elementary Schools Menu
Sponsored by
‘Illinois
Valley News’
321 S. Redwood Hwy.
592-2541
THURSDAY, FEB. 6
Chicken noodle soup &
pretzel, cheeseburger,
pepperoni pizza, ham &
cheese wrap, garden salad
FRIDAY, FEB. 7
Nachos, hamburger,
Hawaiian pizza, turkey &
cheese roll, American
Caesar salad
MONDAY, FEB. 10
Rib-B-Q sandwich, ham-
burger, cheeseburger,
peanut butter and jelly
sandwich, chef salad
TUESDAY, FEB. 11
Teriyaki dippers,
cheeseburger, pepperoni
pizza, ham & cheese roll,
garden salad, fortune
cookie
WEDNESDAY, FEB 12
Hot diggity dog,
hamburger, cheese pizza,
chicken pita and
Cobb salad
Please Don’t Litter!
A group of studies by an
aquatic entomologist at Ore-
gon State University (OSU) in
Corvallis suggest that at least
some of the problems facing
streams in the American West
may relate to their loss of ex-
treme water flows, ranging
from severe drought to flood.
The same dams that have
tamed the violent or extreme
nature of these streams may
also be disrupting aquatic eco-
systems that depend on such
events to favor native species,
keep out invasive plants or
animals, and maintain a natu-
ral ecological balance that
evolved over millennia, re-
searchers say.
Studies ranging from the
unusual evolution of a giant
waterbug in high mountain
streams of Arizona to the
mysterious disappearance of
cottonwoods on river banks
across much of the West all
point to the same conclusion -
- that streams and rivers in the
West have evolved with regu-
lar floods, droughts and every-
thing in-between, and any dis-
ruption of those patterns may
pose a risk to native ecosys-
tems.
"Right now in the Ameri-
can West there are more than
15,000 dams," said David
Lytle, an OSU entomologist.
"They remove the extreme
flow events that used to exist,
preventing both the major
floods and the extremely low
flows during summer months.
But the increasing level of
knowledge we're gaining
about these extreme distur-
bances suggest they are criti-
cal to many native ecosys-
tems.”
The concept is not new,
Lytle said. But its implications
are
significant.
Just as forest scientists have
discovered in recent decades
the critical role of fire in
maintaining healthy forest
ecosystems in many areas, so
too are stream ecologists now
learning more about the nature
and extent to which streams
have been disrupted by efforts
to tame their extreme events.
Many other natural distur-
bances -- windstorms, insect
outbreaks, terrestrial droughts
-- may also have similar ef-
fects.
But recent research con-
ducted by Lytle and his col-
leagues in this area, published
in several professional jour-
nals including “Ecology” and
“American Naturalist,” is re-
vealing what he calls the
"footprint of evolution" in
some stream systems, in
which certain species are fully
adapted to extreme events and
may even depend upon them
f o r
s u r v i v a l .
In one mountain stream
system in Arizona that is peri-
odically blasted by flash
floods, caddisfly larvae are
almost completely scoured out
of the stream by the floods.
About 96 percent disappear.
But through generations of
evolution, a significant
amount of the insects meta-
morphose into their flying
adult phase during a period
that's timed exactly with the
most common flood season,
keeping them out of the
stream while the waters sweep
b
y
.
Research has been per-
formed on cottonwood trees
that once grew thickly along
the banks of many western
streams and rivers, providing
shade, nutrients and woody
debris that further aided the
health of the ecosystem. These
trees can experience some
mortality due to floods. But it
has also been learned that cot-
tonwoods need bare, mostly
scoured banks, the types of
conditions common after a
flood, to germinate their seeds
and reproduce. And cotton-
woods are now in serious de-
cline in many areas.
In the Colorado River,
loss of flooding following
construction of the Glen Can-
yon Dam has caused a whole-
sale shift in fish and fauna,
allowing invasive species to
displace native ones. The
problem is bad enough that
"simulated floods" have been
attempted with rapid water
releases -- so far with mixed
ecological results.
"We've seen the ecology
of many western streams
change dramatically," Lytle
said. "Some fish species have
declined or disappeared, pos-
sibly relating to the change in
flow regime or other factors.
And the removal of these
floods and droughts, which
native species could handle
but many others cannot, opens
the door to a whole range of
new, invading competitors."
Lytle's research docu-
mented another interesting
example of adaptation to ex-
treme conditions which ap-
pears to go back 150 million
years. There are species of
giant waterbugs that thrive in
some desert streams. During a
major rainstorm of the type
that can cause flash floods,
Lytle and his colleagues once
observed these water bugs in a
mass exodus from the stream,
literally marching up the can-
yon wall for protection just
before a flood burst through
the area.
They came back within a
day. Later, in a controlled ex-
periment that simulated heavy
rain, the scientists were able to
trigger the same behavior. The
insects thought a flood was
coming and headed for cover.
"If you look carefully for
adaptation to extreme events,
you tend to find it," Lytle said.
"This includes adaptation by
plants, insects, fish, trees, all
the components of a stream
ecosystems.”
SISKIYOU MARKET
Septic Tank Pumping & Cleaning
Family Owned & Operated
*Free Phone Estimates
*Residential & Commercial
*Licensed *Bonded *Insured
Serving Josephine County
7 days a week
592-6307
Shawn Elmer - owner/operator
P.O. Box 2122, Cave Junction, OR. 97523