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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (June 25, 2016)
Page 8C OUTSIDE East Oregonian Saturday, June 25, 2016 International professionals descend on Eastern Oregon forests BLOOMIN’ BLUES East Oregonian Photo by Bruce Barnes Wood nymph Look down for small wood nymph lowers By BRUCE BARNES For The East Oregonian Name: Wood Nymph or Single Delight Scientiic name: Moneses unilora This small plant is closely related to the two plants in last week’s article, and in fact it once was included under the same genus, Pyrola, instead of Moneses. It coincidentally is blooming just a few feet from those two Pyrola plants. They can all still be seen blooming within 3-4 feet of each other in Emigrant Springs State Park. From the sign board by the ranger’s ofice that is by the parking area to the left from the entrance, they are about 50 feet uphill along the trail. For the Wood Nymph, look for the small white spots near the ground. The Wood Nymph is found throughout Alaska and Canada, and south to California to New Mexico in the west, and as far south in the east as South Dakota to Ohio, to Maine. The genus name “Moneses” is from the Latin “mono” which means single or alone, referring to the single lower on each plant. The species name “unilora” also means one lower, so one could say it’s scientiic name is a bit redundant. Unlike the other two plants, which are up to a foot high, the Wood Nymph is about 3 to 4 inches tall. The plant has only a single lealess stem, which is bent over at the top so the single lower is facing downward. At the base of the plant, are 3 to 4 round leaves usually laying lat on the ground, with toothed edges. The lowers are about ¾ of an inch wide, with spreading petals. As with the other two related plants, they are best left in place, as they will usually die if picked, and cannot be transplanted. Moneses unilora has had several speciic medicinal uses, especially with the more northern Indian tribes. Several tribes used this plant to treat boils, abscesses, and blisters. They were also used to treat colds and coughs, and were applied to external pains. One tribe used it speciically for relief of sore throats. Camping limit aims to reduce squatters MEDFORD (AP) — Toni Davis pulled her SUV and utility trailer into her favorite pullout next to Carberry Creek Thursday to set up a camp that will become her latest temporary home, this time next to two other long- stay campers a stone’s throw away. Just as Davis set up her elaborate camp, the other campers broke theirs but left the place a dirty, dangerous mess. “Not only did they leave their garbage, they left a sleeping mattress and they left their ire going,” says Davis, 59. “Not smoldering. Burning. I almost had kittens over it. “Took me four buckets of water to put it out,” she says. “It irks me that they do this.” Squatters like these also have irked Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest oficials enough that they have enacted a new two-week maximum camping stay in large swaths of forestland covering both developed and undeveloped campgrounds as well as unoficial spots like beaches and meadows. The new 14-day limit for camping within a 45-day period inside these “short- stay corridors” is designed to reduce the environmental degradation of areas associated with squatting, as well to keep people from hogging the best swimming holes and camping spots. The corridors encompass a half-mile on each side of long sections of the Rogue, Illinois, Elk and Coquille rivers, as well as areas around the Ashland watershed, Applegate and Squaw lakes and several inland spots. These areas have been identiied as popular, easily accessed, unmanaged camping areas where long-term use has risen signiicantly in recent years, leading to damaged soils and vegetation as well as the dumping of human waste and garbage. “It would prevent people from just creating a long- term camp to stay by the river when it gets hot,” says forest spokeswoman Chamise Kramer. “You can still stay longer than 14 days on forest land,” she says. “You just can’t stay in the same spot.” Enacted Monday, the new rule means even nomads like Davis can spend just 14 days of any 45-day period within any one of the zones. They must then move out of all the zones completely until the 45-day window expires, says Julie Martin, the forest’s program manager. For instance, hunters who set up camps along Forest Road 64 between Prospect and Union Creek would have to pull up stakes after two weeks and head outside the corridor, Martin says. “There’s probably a lot of dispersed camping that can be found outside the river corridor,” Martin says. “It’s not a matter of availability, it’s a matter of preference.” A similar rule expired in 2011, and since then oficials have seen a growing misuse of dispersed camping areas not suitable for long-term stays, Kramer says. Other areas included in the restriction are around Briggs Creek and Eden Valley, Bear Camp west of Galice, the entire lower Rogue, the Elk River and Coquille River corridors in Curry and Coos counties, and in some of the forest’s more remote locations. The restricted areas will be signed, and visitors can call the Forest Service about speciic sites at 541-618- 2200. A group of eight natural resource specialists from around the world gath- ered June 15 on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest to learn about how restoration projects are making Northwest forests healthier and more resilient to ire. The visitors came from India, Nigeria, Taiwan, Malaysia, Spain, Poland, Nicaragua and China to see irsthand how the Eastside Restoration Strategy — which aims to increase the pace and scale of forest thinning in the Blue Mountains — is improving conditions in the Blue Mountains near La Grande. “We have a unique responsibility to manage the public’s land for all of the resources and services it provides,” said Bill Gamble, La Grande District Ranger. “Our job is to sustain the natural resources and habitats, while providing our communities forest products and continued opportunities to enjoy their national forests.” The group was hosted by the World Forest Institute through its Interna- tional Fellowship Program. Members arrived in Portland for six months to learn about forest management. Rick Zenn, senior fellow with the World Forest Institute, said meeting with experts in the ield is an important part of the program. Contributed photo. A group of eight international natural resource professionals gathered June 15 on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest near La Grande. “Also, hands-on, ield-based experience is always one of the best communication tools,” Zenn said. “We had a great day.” During the Eastside Restoration Strategy tour, Gamble brought the group to several sites where work has recently been completed, including the Sandbox timber sale in the Catherine Creek drainage. Bill Aney, Eastside Restoration Coordinator, said the professionals were intrigued by the ways the Forest Service is accelerating forest restoration in Eastern Oregon and Washington. “Fire is really what the Forest Resil- iency Project is all about — preparing our national forest landscapes so that we can better manage with ire, instead of by ire,” Aney said. Fading ishermen: A historic industry faces a warming world By PATRICK WHITTLE Associated Press SEABROOK, N.H. — The cod isn’t just a ish to David Goethel. It’s his identity, his ticket to middle-class life, his link to a historic industry. “I paid for my education, my wife’s education, my house, my kids’ educa- tion; my slice of America was paid for on cod,” said Goethel, a 30-year veteran of these waters that once teemed with New England’s signature ish. But on this chilly, windy Saturday in April, after 12 hours out in the Gulf of Maine, he has caught exactly two cod, and he feels far removed from the 1990s, when he could catch 2,000 pounds of the ish in a day. Fishing along the coast of the North- east still employs hundreds. But every month that goes by, those numbers fall. After centuries of weathering over- ishing, pollution, foreign competition and increasing government regulation, the latest challenge is the one that’s doing them in: climate change. Though no waters are immune to the ravages of climate change, the Gulf of Maine best illustrates the problem. The gulf, where ishermen have for centuries sought lobster, cod and other species that thrived in its cold waters, is now warming faster than 99 percent of the world’s oceans, scientists have said. For the ishermen of the north- eastern U.S., whether to stick with ishing, adapt to the changing ocean or leave the business is a constant worry. WAVING THE WHITE FLAG Robert Bradield was one of the East Coast’s most endangered species, a Rhode Island lobsterman, until he pulled his traps out of the water for the last time about a decade ago. He now works on a pilot boat, guiding larger ships in and out of the harbor. He is glad he’s still on the water, but he misses lobstering and the community of ishermen he used to see in Newport. “Of all the guys I ished with, I was a lobsterman for 30 years, and there’s maybe three left,” he said. The number of adult lobsters in New England south of Cape Cod slid to about 10 million in 2013, according to a report issued last year by an inter- state regulatory board. It was about 50 million in the late 1990s. The lobster catch in the region sank to about 3.3 million pounds in 2013, from a peak of about 22 million in 1997. Bradield, a father to three grown children, said his decision was more about economics than science. He is glad he left the business, as painful as it was to leave a piece of his identity behind. “There’s a saying: Behind every successful isherman is a wife with a good job,” he said. HANGING ON, GETTING BY David Goethel has spent most of his life ishing for cod, and he doesn’t want to stop now. “I could catch the entire quota for the Gulf of Maine in eight days,” Goethel AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty In this April 23 photo Elijah Voge-Meyers carries cod caught in the nets of a trawler off the coast of New Hampshire. AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty In this April 23 photo David Goethel returns to the harbor in Hampton, N.H. Fishing is in Goethel’s blood. He paid his way through Boston Uni- versity by taking thrill-seekers out on ‘party boat’ ishing trips in Boston Harbor, and segued into commercial cod ishing in 1982. said in a bit of bravado he swears is not an exaggeration. “I wouldn’t break a sweat doing it.” He operates a trawler that leaves from New Hampshire. But the catch these days is different; with cod in jeopardy and catch quotas at all-time lows, he tries to eke out a living by supplementing cod with just about anything else. Retirement isn’t in the cards for the 62-year-old Goethel — at least, not soon. The challenges climate change have brought to commercial ishing are perhaps most noticeable in New England’s cod ishery, which has dwin- dled from more than 1,200 boats in the 1980s to only a few dozen today. In that time, the catch of cod has plummeted from more than 117 million pounds in 1980 to just over 5 million in 2014. Goethel, also a marine scientist, doesn’t bemoan the ocean’s changing temperature as much as the rules he must play by. Because of tight quotas, he must avoid ishing around areas where cod live, he said. The changes have been dificult emotionally for Goethel, whose sons, Daniel and Eric, are a isheries biologist and a tugboat captain. Old traditions are hard to part with. “Eric would get rolled out of bed to go ishing,” Ellen said. “He did the same thing to me.” ADAPTING, COMMUTING Michael Mohr harvested surf clams for almost 30 of his 55 years, and his desire to stay in the business takes him far from his family. About 10 years ago, he started commuting from Mays Landing, New Jersey, six hours each way to the former whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He has also switched clam species; he got his start ishing for Atlantic surf clams but now pursues the ocean quahog. “We’re inding clams in deeper water instead of inshore water, where we used to work 25 years ago,” Mohr said. Whether Mohr can make holidays like Thanksgiving is “hit-and-miss,” said his wife, Melanie. Mohr is undaunted. Clamming has been good to him, and if he has to spend more time on the road as he nears 60, so be it. “It’s just a way of life,” Mohr said. “You’ve got to go where the money is at, and you’re happy. Right now, I’m happy.” New recreation fee permit proposed for boaters on Snake River The Wallowa-Whitman National Forest is proposing a new recreation permit fee for boaters on the Wild and Scenic Snake River. A series of open house meetings will be held July 5-8 to discuss the proposal. The forest wants to collect a fee of $5 or $10 per-person, per-trip, depending on public feedback. The proposed fee would be subject to the Snake River from Hells Canyon Dam to Cache Creek Ranch, spanning roughly 70 miles. All new fee proposals go before the John Day-Snake River Resource Advisory Committee. Public meetings are July 7 in Clarkston, Washington; and July 8 in Joseph at the Joseph Community Center. All meetings run from 6-8 p.m. For more information, contact Lubera at 541-426-5581.
