MORE TALES FROM THE WORLD OF
WILDLIFE
We last heard from W ashington State Fish
and W ildlife enforcem ent agent M ike Mercer
during the m ayhem of Elk season in the
fo o th ills of M t. St. Helens. A t tha t time, we
discovered that deer and Elk have som ehow
adapted w ell to industrial forest land. We
learned that fall is the tim e w hen all great
killing com es to a head. W e w itnessed fair
am ounts of big game and even more men
and w om en w h o w an ted to kill som ething,
some badly enough to do heinous crimes to
satisfy the urge.
The o p p o rtu n ity to observe the w ildlife
enforcem ent process recently presented
itself to me again. This time, e ffo rts would
be turned to w a rd fishm g a ctivitie s on the
C olum bia River. A State jet boat would take
agents M ercer, Bob Powell, M ark Hart, and
me from Vancouver east to M ultnom ah
Falls.
"W e 'v e taken the finest salm on stream in
N orth A m erica and turned it into a storm
dram ," M ike told me as we left for the
patrol. As early as the turn of the century,
we w ere w arned that the salmon runs on
the Colum bia were in peril. A ny m oron w ith
an ounce o f foresight could have
ascertained tha t the in te n sity w ith w hich we
rem oved salmon from the Colum bia River
w ould be short lived. We n o w kn o w that
over fishing shares the blame for the
salm on's dem ise w ith hydroelectric dams,
logging, agriculture, and a m ultitude of bad
regulation, or no regulation at all.
Sport fishing and the rod and reel have
replaced com m ercial fishing and the gill net,
but even sport fishing is no w quite lim ited
on the Colum bia River. Still, many people
seek the fish ou t. "O ur job is centered on
tryin g to pro te ct som ething that d o e sn 't
e x is t," agent M ercer com plains. He later
adm itted that the enforcem ent presence is,
none the less, very im po rta nt. W ith o u t it.
poaching and fraudulence w ould be rampant
on every bend in the river. M ike w ould like
to be o p tim istic about the eventual fate of
salm on in the Columbia River but maintains
tha t w e have finished them . Real solutions
are not possible Is is not likely that the
dams w ill be removed, that forests w ill
replace tree farms, or that Hanford
contam inants w ill not leach into the river
Instead, we w ill continue to squabble and
com prom ise until the last great "Jun e Hog"
inches its w ay tow ard Idaho, only to find
itself alone on a trek that once involved
m illions of its kind.
Unlike my last patrol w ith these agents, this
day was calm and largely uneventful. Aside
from having to retrieve a freshly w ritte n
ticket that ble w aw ay in the transfer from
agent to vio lator, the day presented no real
challenges. M ark Hart captained the boat.
Banter and personal slander echoed through
the cabin o f the boat as Bob Powell and
M ike M ercer took shots at one another on a
va rie ty of fronts. W hen the green cop y of a
ticke t w hipped out of M ike ’ s hands and
landed in the river, Bob said that w e should
hu rry to retrieve it before it sunk. "It w o n ’ t
sink, you id io t," Mike told him, " it's made of
w o o d ." A discussion then ensued about
u n iform s and foot attire. M ike noted,
"These black m ilitary style boots are playing
havoc w ith my gout, eve ryth in g is form over
fu n ctio n w ith this o u tfit." Bob had just
returned from a d o c to r's check up. Mike
was particularly interested in Bob's
experience w ith being probed for prostate
cancer and repeatedly made inquiries about
the process. Bob refused to lend details.
"A person your age should have that done
every other w e e k ," M ike told him.
The pilings that once supported huge fish
wheels are scattered along the shores east
of Prmdle Island. Today, they make shelter
for squaw fish, a b o tto m feeder tha t eats
salmon and steelhead sm olt. The Bonneville
Power A dm inistration (BPA) pays fisherm en
$ 3 .0 0 per squaw fish in an e ffo rt to
expunge the species. There were as many
people fishing for squaw fish on this day as
there w ere fishing for sturgeon or steelhead
tro u t. Perhaps people are concerned about
the Environm ental P rotection A gency (EPA)
w arnings that fish from the low er Colum bia
River have high concentrations of
contam inants in them . Or, perhaps the
prospects for fishing are sim ply too
discouraging. A t any rate, fishing is an
ancient and p o w e rfu l passion. M ost serious
fisherm en are forced to spend more tim e
and money to go to a place w here fish still
exist Such places, of course, are
them selves feeling the strains of popularity.
Upon pondering these questions, M ike
turned to the other w ardens and said, "Oh
w ell, you can live in a place w here the re's a
little bit o f w ild life , or you can m ove do w n
to w n and be annoyed by the starlings
sh ittin g on your d e ck."
6 imuntMistrTUttttm’»
On returning w est to w a rd V ancouver the
heat intensified and the river thickened w ith
water skiers and sail boats A jet ski shot
across our bo w shooting a ten fo o t rooster
tail of water "Dam ned m otorized, Japanese
w ater m aggots." M ike exclaim ed, "th is
w hole place is turning into one vast beer
com m ercial." Things cannot stay constant
for ever. The C olum bia's fate w as sealed
long ago. M ost people seem im m une to the
changes that have stirred the river over the
last century, stating that its m etam orphosis
is only the normal course of action. Perhaps
so. but as Bruce C ockburn says, "the
trouble w ith norm al is it alw ays gets
w orse " Many of us w ill never fondly or
blindly accept the degradation of the places
we hold in high regard.
K & D MAIN STREET BOOKS
tMF.n » R ARR.
\ I SL'AL
Dawn DeBemardi
(503) 648-9216
211 E. M ain Street, H ills b o ro . OR 97123
L_____________________________________________
Along the river, suburbia slithers deeper and
deeper into the rem nants of our w oodlands
and forested hills Some form s of w ild life
adapt. Some are pushed further out into
w hat remains of their habitat. O thers, in
time, sim ply cease to exist I accom panied
Mike on a cougar com plaint later in the day.
East and north of W oodland, we meandered
through the form er w ilds, finding small
subdivisions nestled in the hill tops and over
bottom s The com plaint included terrifying
accounts of tattered garbage cans and piles
of feathers from a neighbor's turkey pen.
Earlier this year. Mike was rousted from the
dinner table to respond to a call about a
c o u g a r near V a n c o u v e r M
■
'i s
surrounded by suburbia. The cougar was
darted, collared, and released in the W illapa
Hills. These are the kinds of conditions that
w ild life agents face today, w ild life
c o n flictin g w ith human a c tiv ity . We seem
to have little use for most w ild life species,
until such tim e that they are nearly
extirpated Mike sees this dilem ma as
p o te n tia lly ■
a
Human act *-ity
is everyw here and w ild life is going aw ay.
Soon there may be no co n flicts to m itigate
The job w ill be left to park rangers w ho w ill
patrol fenced roadw ays, keeping the camera
w ielding cro w d s from th ro w in g popcorn at
the m arm ots.
As we approached the dock at W ashougal, I
w ondered h o w the Columbia River w ould be
regarded today hao we made more
intelligent choices regarding ns use. The
scenario is alm ost too ridiculous to be given
serious th o u g h t, but most people w ho have
fond memories of the C olum bia River have a
bistoncel perspective "Finding a solution is
fu tile ," Mike told me about the salm on's
plight, "w a it un til the re's no fish and then
over react in a style that only the
governm ent could come up w ith My father
lived in the best tim e ," Mike w en t on, “ but
he d id n 't kn o w it. This is, of course, only
one person's v ie w but as far as the
Columbia River is concerned, M ike appears
to be correct The m ighty C olum bia "rolls
o n " in a w ay that nature no longer dictates.
The salm on's con dition is sim ply indicative
of the river's health and should not be
surprising to any of us.
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COLUMBIA RIVER GORGE
»2 7 IN THE
Obviously, everything depends upon your
perspective “ P reservationists are the
m in o rity ." Mike told me, hoping that I w ould
be irritated, "th e y see things d iffe re n tly but
alw ays w ith a perspective that spans tim e ."
Indeed. But they have historically been
ineffective w ith their causes. Only w hen
problems become so bad that even the blind
can see them do we react. A more com m on
perspective has forged the C olum bia's state
of being It was im m ortalized by folksmger
W oody G uthrie in 1941
You jus' w a tch this n v e r'n p re tty soon
E eve ryb o d y's gonna be cha ngin ' their
tune...
That big Grand Coulee *n Bonneville D am ’ ll
Build a thousand factories f'r Uncle Sam
Roll on, Colum bia, roll on.
Roll on, Colum bia, roll on.
Your pow er is turning the darkness to daw n.
Roll on, Colum bia, roll on.
Ron Logan
American Indian
Ì
Association of Portland
1827 NE 44th Suit» 226
Portland. OR 97213
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