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About Columbia Gorge news. (The Dalles, OR) 2020-current | View Entire Issue (May 5, 2021)
Columbia Gorge News www.columbiagorgenews.com Wednesday, May 5, 2021 COMMUNITY Protect Our Parks brings tee-pads to Morrison Park B1 WALLACE & PRISCILLA STEVENSON INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL Students of the Month Tomashpol ■ By For Tracey Protect Our Parks HOOD RIVER — Protect Our Parks Hood River, a non-prof- it parks advocacy group, is building tee-pads and removing invasive species to make Morrison Park a better place for disc golfers and others who enjoy the park. With donations from several local businesses and a lot of sweat equity, primary builders Devin Carroll, Josh Sceva, and James Ropner have built the first four concrete tee-pads for the disc golf course, with help from Jim Klaas and others. Disc golf is played like golf, using a plastic disc with players attempting to reach the target in the fewest throws. The tee pad is the designated area where the first throw for each hole starts. Before POP’s efforts, the park’s tee-pads consisted of com- pacted dirt. The group got the green light to build tee-pads for the nine-hole disc golf course in September 2020 from the City of Hood River and the Hood River Valley Parks and Recreation District. With the new construction, the tee-pads’ concrete pavers give golfers a safe surface for their initial disc launch. The tee-pads installed by POP Hood River also reduce wear and tear on surrounding soil and will require little future mainte- nance. POP Hood River expects to finish the remaining five tee-pads by summer. Disc golf participation has grown during the pandemic because players can maintain 6-feet of social distance while being outside with others. The cost to begin is minimal, with discs available for under $10, making it an ideal sport for people of any age or economic status. The sport is particularly compatible with the unique characteristics of Morrison Park, one of the city’s only urban forests. Miko Ruhlen, wildlife biologist and owner of Hood River Hobbies, appreciates the fact that “disc golf is a fairly low impact activity for wildlife.” She also pointed out that Korben Herman, Grade 4 Rye Schroeder, Grade 4 Nelson Shaw, Grade 5 Noe Orozco, Grade 5 Joshua Fortanel, Grade 6 Gary Serratos Jimenez, Grade 6 Devin Carroll and James Ropner pausing while working on Tee-Pad No. 4. POP expects to have all tee-pads installed by this summer. Tracey Tomashpol photo the disc golf course is integrated with the forest and riparian elements in the park, which “provide much better habitat for wildlife than large expanses of monoculture lawn.” The park still has invasive species like blackberries and poison oak. A long-time park activist and POP board mem- ber, Carroll has removed many blackberry bushes and hauled pounds of trash away. “Every time I visit the park, I take out blackberries and trash,” he said. Hood River resident and POP Board Member Linda Maddox said, “Morrison is a sort of ‘buffer park.’” With new housing types providing almost no green space, areas like Morrison Park provide accessible outdoor recreation, includ- ing disc golf and nature watching, all within easy walking distance of many homes. POP welcomes volunteers to help build the remaining tee pads. Contributors and native plant experts willing to help can get contact details on the group’s webpage at www. protectourparkshoodriver.com. SPONSORED BY Columbia Gorge News HOME and GARDEN 509-493-2266 1001 E Jewett Blvd White Salmon, WA Adventure | Design | Food | Real Estate | Trends Happy Kids, Healthy Smiles for a Lifetime Pediatric Dental Clinic Designed for Your Children Now offering dental laser technology anesthesia & pain free dentistry 1935 E. 19th St. Suite 200 The Dalles, OR 541-296-8901 © 2021 by Vicki Whiting, Editor Jeff Schinkel, Graphics Vol. 37, No. 23 For about as long as folks can remember, cowboys have been telling tall tales about the greatest cowboy ever known … Now, you won’t find Pecos Bill in history books … 419 State Street Suite 4 Hood River, OR 541-387-8688 Widowmaker was no ordinary horse. Instead of apples or carrots, he used to chomp on this unusual treat that Pecos Bill gave him. Cross out every other apple to reveal it. No, to find out about ol’ Bill, you just have to sit around a campfire and listen as someone tells you the tale. Have a friend give you each type of word to fill in the blanks. Then read the story aloud! Pecos Bill once traveled to _______________ to help build an ____________ __________. People came from miles around to see this _________________ How many cactus plants can you find on this page? It was said Bill could ride anything. No horse could throw him. He even rode a mountain lion once. So when Bill was the youngest of 17 kids. When Bill was just a baby, he fell out of his folks’ wagon out on the Texas prairie. And, naturally, he began to cry and howl as the wagon traveled out of sight. His howling attracted a pack of coyotes. They joined in howling with Bill, but after a few hours, their voices were gone. They decided that Bill must be a coyote at heart, and they adopted him into their pack. Find t h coyot e that is e differe nt. cowboy in person. the biggest cyclone anyone had ever seen blew into town one day, Pecos Bill jumped right on it, riding it for days and days. The cyclone got frustrated and started crying big, salty tears around Utah. Today that pool of tears is known as the: Bill picked up a huge stack of Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Follow simple written directions. _________________ and some _________________ and got to right to work. Widowmaker The cyclone mixed up the letters. Unscramble them to reveal the name of this famous body of water. That poor cyclone had never met a cowboy like Pecos Bill and after trying to shake him loose from Texas to Arizona, it gave up and decided to turn to rain. That rain flowed and flowed and created one of the wonders of the natural world: The Grand Canyon! During a __________ drought, Pecos Bill needed to get water to his _______. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so he got himself a big ol’ stick and ___________ it across the Texas desert to the Gulf of __________. And that’s how the _________ called the Rio Grande was born! Replace the missing words. was named Pecos Bill’s horse cause no cowboy be er ak m ow m. id W attempt to ride hi could survive an uld, of course, and But Pecos Bill co d Bill became the Widowmaker an best of friends. Create a Tall Tale Lots of cowboys know how to make a lasso out of a rope. But Pecos Bill invented the first lasso and he did not use a rope. Lasso every other letter to see what he used. Standards Link: Reading Comprehension: Read a variety of genres including tall tales. The fun of a tall tale, like Pecos Bill, is that the story gets a little taller and more outrageous with each telling. Find a sports story in the newspaper and start adding silly, strange and larger-than-life details to it to create a new tall tale. Standards Link: Writing Applications: Write stories with a setting, main characters, beginning, middle and end. WIDOWMAKER PECOS COWBOY E T A R E G G A X E DROUGHT R S A X E T D W H Y CYCLONE TEARS I A P L T H L D O C RANCH H O I E C G I B W P HORSE O W A N C U W B L A EXAGGERATE R R A E N O L C Y C TEXAS S R O Y C R S B I K PACK E L S R E D N O W L WONDERS WILD R E K A M W O D I W HOWL Standards Link: Letter sequencing. Recognize identical RAIN words. Skim and scan reading. Recall spelling patterns. carried ___________________ __________________. At lunchtime, Pecos Bill poured _________________ and black pepper on his chili. Suddenly, he felt a sneeze coming on, so everyone began to ___________! Pecos Bill sneezed so hard that ________________ ended up in _________________________. Houses rolled like tumbleweeds, and a large _________________ landed in a ______________. It took Pecos Bill more than a Action Language year to ___________ everything Read today’s newspaper and highlight each of the following examples of active writing: • A sentence that commands or directs action • One or more exciting verbs • The shortest sentence you can find Standards Link: Grammar: Use nouns, adjectives and verbs correctly in writing; understand the meaning of words from context clues. Standards Link: Grammar: Identify different kinds of sentences. Write about a special day or a special experience you had with your mom (or a special lady in your life). back to where it belonged. Complete the grid by using all the letters in the word PECOS in each vertical and horizontal row. Each letter should only be used once in each row. Some spaces have been filled in for you.