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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (June 8, 2016)
A8 WEDNESDAY June 8, 2016 Imnaha Chinook fi shing opens June 15 RUN, RIBICH, RUN Moderate run of salmon expected, ODFW says Wallowa County Chieftain Courtesy of Jenny Reinheardt Hector Del Castillo/Chieftain archives David Ribich cruises to a fifth-place finish in the 1500 meters at the NCAA Division II championships. In this 2008 photo, David Ribich and his father Mike Ribich share a moment with the gold medal David won at his first competitive race in Elgin. ALL-AMERICAN ACCOLADES KEEP ROLLING IN FOR ENTERPRISE GRAD DAVID RIBICH By Steve Tool Wallowa County Chieftain he boy was small. He wandered around the Elgin High School cross-country course as fellow competitors explained the lay of the land. The T seventh-grader recently had opted for cross-country as Enterprise schools stopped offering competi- tive soccer beyond the sixth grade. The boy didn’t really even understand what he was doing. Suddenly a gun went off and he ran, winning the race. The win gave him confi dence, and he kept He now runs both track and cross-country as a sophomore at Western Oregon University in Monmouth. Ribich’s mother Jenny Rein- heardt remembers him as an active boy. running — and winning. That boy was David Ribich, a 2013 Enterprise High school graduate. “I just kept running because I didn’t want to get beat,” Ribich said. “It was pretty cool to win my fi rst-ever competitive race when I was in seventh grade.” See RIBICH, Page A16 The silky-voiced, ground-nesting Meadowlark BIRD- WATCHING EH Van Blaricom I got a chance to take a trip out to Buckhorn Springs a few days ago. I hadn’t been out there for about 10 years, but things hadn’t changed much since I was there last. Perhaps the road was in better condition than it used to be. The only people we saw were bear hunters on their 4-wheel- ers as the spring bear hunt was on. Outside of the spectacular scenery, it was a bird watcher’s paradise. There were dozens of meadowlarks sitting on fence posts singing their notorious songs. Meadowlarks are not truly a Courtesy of EH Van Blaricom The melodious meadowlark. lark as they belong to the family of blackbirds and orioles. Besides their songs, they also can be identifi ed by their fl ight pattern, which is several yards of fl apping followed by gliding. The thing that I have always thought was the most clever survival tactic was their nesting habits. Mead- owlarks are ground-nesters, and they build their nests under a canopy of tall grass that cannot be seen from the air and have a tunnel leading up to it so when danger approaches they escape for 15 or 20 feet before they fl y. And when they come to feed their young they light several yards from the nest. Most of this is a protection from magpies and ravens who will wipe out their eggs and/or their nestlings. If a human walks close to their nests they won’t fl y until they are almost stepped on. Our western meadow- larks nest from southern Canada to Baja California and Mexico. The young meadowlarks leave the nest long before they can fl y and scat- ter out to where their parents have a hard time keeping track of them. The adult meadowlarks are like robins and bluebirds, and sometimes they come back too soon even here in Wallowa County and get caught in snowstorms where they have to spend the nights under a snowdrift and fi nd it diffi cult to fi nd food. I’m sure that everyone who reads this column knows that the mead- owlark is our state bird. And it is a well-chosen candidate for their beau- ty and their song, to say nothing of the thousands of grasshoppers and beetles that they consume. If anyone wants to see them, it’s less than an hour drive out the Zumwalt Road. Be sure to shut off your motor and roll down the windows and you will get to hear their most pleasant songs. The Imnaha River will open June 15 for hatchery spring Chinook fi shing from the mouth upstream 45 miles to Summit Creek Bridge. Anglers may retain hatch- ery spring Chinook adults and fi ve adipose fi n-clipped jacks per day, with two daily jack limits in possession. Chinook jacks are salmon between 15 and 24 inches in length. An- glers do not need to record jack catch on their combined angling tags, but it is illegal to continue fi shing for jack Chinook once the adult bag limit is met. Wild fi sh must be released immediately and unharmed. A valid Columbia Basin Endorsement is required for this fi shery. “We are expecting a rela- tively modest return of salmon to the Imnaha River this year, just enough to provide harvest opportunities”, said Jeff Yan- ke, ODFW district fi sh biolo- gist in Enterprise. “Depending on how good fi shing is, anglers should be prepared for sudden fi shery closures”. ODFW will conduct reg- ular fi shery monitoring to de- termine how catch and harvest compares to annual sport fi sh- ery quotas. Much of the area open to fi shing is bordered by private lands, and anglers are remind- ed to obtain permission before entering private land and to pack out any trash. Anglers also are asked to be respectful and provide adequate space for any tribal members they may encounter who are fi shing for Chinook using traditional methods. Correction A May 25 article about the state track meet in Eu- gene listed an incorrect ros- ter for the Enterprise girls 4x400 relay. Eliza Irish ran the fi nal leg of the relay. Drawn to beauty at Alpine Meadows T wo months into the golf season and Alpine Meadows is looking good. Management inside the clubhouse and on the course has been working tenaciously to help golfers get the most from their seasonal membership and to make local and out-of-town guests feel welcome. The group effort seems to be working well. “We got our fi rst taste of the tourist season,” Clubhouse Manager Jimmy Bivens said. “We had our biggest day of the year on Sunday, May 29. All golf carts were rented throughout the Rochelle Danielson day, and the golf course was full of happy, happy people.” AMGC is a happy place, buzzing with life and color. Hanging baskets of fl owers and large planters adorn the entryway to the clubhouse and the patio out back. Snap dragons bloom along the No. 1 tee box, and now with warmer weather and less chance of a freeze, the fl ower beds at each tee box have been weeded and replanted with an array of perennials. Inside the colorful clubhouse hap- piness abounds, too. Always smiling and helpful, Jimmy B will take your money and an aproned Sherri C, cooking up a storm, will take your order. Check out the decorative metal bench situated near the main door to the pro shop. The bench and plaque is in honor of the late Gayle Beck, who truly loved Alpine Meadows and golf. For the clairvoyant and those who had the privilege of knowing Gayle, pause a moment and you’ll surely hear Gayle’s laughter. Also, check out the new bridge across Trout Creek. It is sturdy and trustworthy. The greens crew did a great job of engineering the project. Here’s the list of winners from the Triple 6 Tourney (6 Holes Best Ball, 6 Scramble, 6 Chapman): • 1st Low Gross, John Decker/ Lance Homan; 2nd Low Gross, Dean Duquette/Harlan Menton; 1st Low Net, Dan Cornett/Howard Talbot; 2nd Low Net, Jerry Cornett/Dick Ander- son. Twenty-two entrants, 11 teams and fun had by all. A BIG thanks to Terry Lamb for processing entries and numbers, along with new course marshal Jerry Hook. “Jay Butts and James Johnson LOOOOVE the Chapman format — not really,” said Bivens. Scotchball winners: Carol and Gary Marr and Mac and Nancy Huff. Rochelle Danielson is an Alpine Meadows member who resides in Enterprise.