Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2016)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, APRIL 1, 2016 It’s spring season for the exciting sport of botany here was a particular willow-stud- ded meadow along the Sweetwater River where columbines and Rocky Mountain irises rippled in the grass like delicate pastel asteroids zipping in a ver- dant emerald sky. T Family rock-hunting expeditions often paused there as my dad and uncle made cer- tain it was safe to ford the snow-fed stream in lumbering four-wheel-drives. There was time to wander around picking wildÀ owers — ostensibly for mama, though truth be told, I just liked them. Botany, zoology and geology were our fam- ily sports, so by age 6 I knew irises are less inno- cent than they appear. “Roots were ground by the Indians, mixed with animal bile, then put in the gall bladder and warmed near a ¿ re for several days. Arrow Matt points were dipped in Winters this mixture, and it is reported by old Indi- ans that many warriors only slightly wounded by such arrows died within 3 to 7 days,” my uncle¶s 63 3eterson ¿ eld guide reminds me. 3oisonous or not, wildÀ owers pumping with life force before plucking always swiftly wither into pathetic victims, becoming limp corpses within minutes of being picked. As I would eventually learn about fashion mod- els, they are best cherished in their native hab- itat. (Jim Harrison, a literary hero of mine who died last week, amusingly observed: “If you’ve known a lot of actresses and models, you return to waitresses because at least they smell like food.”) Bloom season begins ome wildÀ owers on :ashington’s outer coast are running a few days behind last year. It’s been comparatively warm, but heavy overcast denied plants the ambitious head start they got during 2014-15’s bizarrely sunny winter. As of¿ cial astronomical spring began March 20, some local rain gauges pushed above 6 feet for the “water year” that started Oct. 1 — 2 feet more than our recent normal. Any sensible wildÀ ower can’t be blamed for S I recommend the sport of botany — and all sciences — to everyone. Knowing a little about our incredible world will make your life far richer. Matt Winters/EO Media Group A trillium was backlit by the evening sun on a ridge just above the Pacific Ocean this week. A sacred medicinal species that can live to a greater age than the trees sur- rounding them, local trillium started blooming a little early this year. feeling a little washed out and depressed. :ake-robins, better known in these parts as trilliums, may be an exception. They’ve been in bloom on the forest À oors for the past 10 days, while in 2014 they weren’t feeling very enthusiastic until almost mid-April. They are crawling with little insects, pos- sibly a species of pollen beetle, though I don’t know my bugs. Northwest plant gurus Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon note trilli- ums are mostly noted for a relationship with ants, which relish their seeds. After eating an oil-rich appendage on these seeds, ants carry them to rubbish piles, where new tril- liums spring up. “This is a reasonably effec- tive mechanism for seed dispersal, especially for plants of the dim, becalmed forest À oor,” the experts write. Older than the trees n March 24 in southern Oregon, Umpqua National Forest issued a plea for people to leave trilliums alone. Picking the À owers this early in the season means that the plant is stripped of its ability to make more energy to store in the root, the U.S. Forest Service said. The depleted root then lacks nutritional reserves necessary for next year’s showy bloom to appear. “The interesting thing about trillium is they can grow to be very old,” said Umpqua National Forest botanist Richard Helliwell. “There are trillium in the Siskiyous that are greater than 80 years. In some cases, the tril- lium can be older than the trees surrounding the plant.” Like many native plants, trilliums were O much cherished by traditional healers. They contain a uterotonic, which induces labor and reduces postpartum hemorrhaging, giv- ing rise to a folk-medicine name of birth- root. “King’s Medical Dispensatory” of 1898 (tinyurl.com/AmericanDispensatory) attri- butes many additional bene¿ ts to trillium roots, including treating “tumors, indolent or offensive ulcers, anthrax, buboes, stings of insects, and to restrain gangrene.” Good to know, I suppose, if you’re ever stranded in the wilderness. I recommend the sport of botany — and all sciences — to everyone. Knowing a little about our incredible world will make your life far richer. (Closing with a personal boast, my uncle Tom Bell who helped spark these interests in me and his many students, will this spring be presented an honorary doctorate from our alma mater, in company with similarly inspi- rational science writer John McPhee.) — MSW Matt Winters is editor and publisher of the Chinook Observer and Coast River Business Journal. Open forum Disastrous lawsuit his past month Oregon suffered the ignominy of being the only state to lose federal grant money to the tune of $1.2 million for failure to confront coastal water pollution, pri- marily from logging. Although the law regulating clean water went into effect over 25 years ago, the response to warnings from the feds by the Ore- gon Board of Forestry this past year was, “:e’re working on it.” That was followed by a let- ter in February from Richard :hit- man, Gov. Brown’s natural resource adviser, indicating that the remain- ing problems would be addressed through voluntary measures. That’s a lot like letting the fox oversee the welfare of the hens in the chicken coop. The lost grant money would have gone to coastal counties for water quality improvement proj- ects. That money could certainly be well used in places like Rockaway Beach, where clear cutting and aerial spraying of herbicides have fouled the local water supply; or in Siletz, where massive clear cutting has pol- luted ¿ sh bearing streams; or Curry County, where aerial over-spray sickened numerous people and left T doubts about the safety of water. The Oregon Board of Forestry, appointed by the governor, is ulti- mately responsible for interpret- ing the Oregon Forestry Practices Act (OFPA), which controls log- ging on state and private property. The problem is that the three of the seven members of the current board are from the timber industry. Is it any wonder that a reading of the OFPA reveals many industry-favoring regulations? For example, the regulation that stipulates that there must be two trees left on every clear cut acre to accommodate indigenous “birds, bats, squirrels and many other ani- mals.” That’s a very crowded tree. Less laughable are the rules to protect wetlands. In practice it is now permitted to clear cut a wetland on private property. So much for sensitive species habitat. Given the instances of water pollution, and the federal ¿ ne, it’s obvious that the reg- ulations concerning streams are not adequate, and those in place are not being enforced. The misguided lawsuit being brought by Linn County, which is being ¿ nancially backed by the Koch brothers and the timber indus- try, will bring increased clear cutting and aerial spraying in a poorly reg- ulated and under-supervised theater of logging operations that will ulti- mately be disastrous for Oregon. Citizens need to tell our local county commissioners to opt out of the lawsuit, and demand compre- hensive reform of the Oregon Forest Practices Act. ROGER DORBAND Astoria Dropped hen I approached Medicare age three years ago, I called my doctor of many years and asked the receptionist, “Are you going to drop me, now that I’ll be going on Medicare?” She replied, “Oh no; because you have been one of our patients, we’ll keep you.” A couple of months ago, my wife was on the phone to make an appoint- ment. The receptionist informed her that I had been dropped as a patient because I was over the age of 60, and hadn’t been in for over three years. My wife asked, “:hy didn’t you inform us?” The receptionist responded, “:e W just don’t have time for that.” It did occur to me that my vet has the time to remind me, twice a year, to bring my cats in for their vaccinations. DALE FLO:ERS :arrenton Vote for Goldthorpe am proud to support David Goldthorpe for Clatsop County Circuit Court Judge. David guides the district attorney’s participa- tion in retiring Judge Phil Nelson’s drug court, assists in child support enforcement, and is a skilled trial lawyer for a wide variety of cases, from impaired driving to armed assaults. In all these areas, David has exhibited some of the strongest qual- ities attributed to “judicial temper- ament” that I have witnessed in the many ¿ ne lawyers whom I have hired as deputies — compassion, fairness, commitment to equal jus- tice, decisiveness. It is an elusive but critical quality for a judge. Judges run for election every six years on a non-partisan basis. Even the most dedicated voter may not mark the ballot for a judgeship, I because it can be hard for those who haven’t worked with a particu- lar lawyer to assess their skills as a judge. I have a unique view of all three of the current candidates, since all three applied for and were hired as deputy district attorneys. I admire them all, and respect their differing strengths. Those concerned about whether a former deputy district attorney might not be even-handed when dealing with the district attorney’s of¿ ce don’t give the candidates enough credit for separating personal feel- ings from professional ones, some- thing that the women and men of law enforcement and the justice system do several times every day. David is endorsed by treatment providers, his co-workers, the Sea- side Police Association, Sheriff Tom Bergin and many others who have worked with him or know him and his family. All point to the belief that “Dave” will make a fair and unbi- ased judge for the people of Clatsop County. I urge you to vote for David Goldthorpe. JOSHUA MARQUIS Clatsop County District Attorney STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager • CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager • DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager Founded in 1873
