THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM
WEDNESDAY EDITION | DECEMBER 30, 2020 | $1.00
Yachats annual Peace Hike goes virtual
The 11th annual Peace Hike along Amanda’s Trail begins Friday
Community
&
Lifestyle
ODFW REGIONAL
FISHING REPORT
www.dfw.state.or.us/RR
Local Lakes and Ponds:
North Coast lakes are done
with trout stocking until next
spring, but many lakes have
holdover trout from earlier sea-
son’s stockings. Warmwater fish-
ing should be over for the year as
water temperatures are too cold
to keep those species active.
Mid-coast lakes will receive
trout stockings the first couple
weeks of February. These lakes
include: Cleawox, Munsel, Alder
and Dune lakes. Wild coho fish-
eries in Siltcoos and Tahkenitch
lakes are open and provide a
unique opportunity to catch a
coho in a coastal lake.
SIUSLAW RIVER: Winter
steelhead
Winter steehead fishing on the
Siuslaw has been blown out with
the recent high water. Expect the
first good push of fish to be
around when the river drops
back into shape this weekend
and next week. The Whitaker
Creek area is the best place to
target returning hatchery fish.
Hatchery fish are also planted in
Lake Creek and are released into
Green Creek. These returning
See
Each year, the Yachats
Trails Committee conducts
its Annual New Year’s Day
Peace Hike.
The hike traditionally hon-
ors the memory of a blind
Native American woman
known as “Amanda,” who
was forced to leave her young
daughter and march barefoot
through rocky terrain to the
Alsea Sub-Agency intern-
ment camp in Yachats in
1864.
The hike, which general-
ly follows the Amanda Trail
from the Yachats Commons
to the Amanda Statue south
of town has grown steadily in
attendance and importance
over time.
This year however, there
will be no traditional large-
group hike as in the past, due
to the Coronavirus pandem-
ic and the Trails Committee’s
focus on participant safety.
Instead, people can experi-
ence the Amanda story vir-
tually, starting on New Year’s
Day, by viewing a video of
COURTESY PHOTO
A sign points the way to the Amanda Trail in Yachats, which
is the location of the annual Peace Hike.
Miluk Coos Tribal member
Patricia Whereat Phillips,
linguist, Confederated Tribes
of the Coos, Lower Umpqua
and Siuslaw Indians (CT-
CLUSI) narrating the Aman-
da story on line.
Participants can view the
video from the City of Yach-
ats (www.yachatsoregon.org)
Yachats Chamber of Com-
merce
(www.yachats.org)
and View the Future (www.
viewthefuture.org) Websites.
Following that, communi-
ty members are encouraged
to explore their own goals
and rituals for manifesting
peace in their hearts and in
the world.
Feeding a community need
FISHING 3B
Tide Tables
Entrance Siuslaw River
High Tide
Low Tide
Dec. 30
12:40am / 6.4
11:30pm / 8.2
5:45am / 3.6
6:40pm / -0.8
PHOTOS BY MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS
Dec. 31
1:19am / 6.5
12:08pm / 8.1
6:25am / 3.6
7:17pm / -0.9
Jan. 1
1:59am / 6.5
12:46pm / 8.0
7:05am / 3.6
7:56pm / -0.8
O
nce again this year, Florence Elks Lodge #1858 offered a free Christmas Day
Community Appreciation Dinner on Friday, Dec. 25, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Adapting the model used earlier this year by the Kiwanis Club of Florence and its
Thanksgiving Dinner at the lodge, the Florence Elks prepared to serve 800 people who
drove — or walked — in line to receive packaged dinners at the lodge. The Elks’ pre-
cooked dinners include turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, mixed vegetables, a roll,
cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie — packaged into aluminum containers which can then
be put in an oven to reheat. In addition, special guest Santa Claus was there to hand out
candy canes. Every child also received a stuffed animal from the Elks. Twelve people pre-
pared 30 turkeys — or 650 pounds — for the Christmas Day event.
Jan. 2
2:39am / 6.5
1:29pm / 7.7
7:51am / 3.5
8:36pm / -0.6
Jan. 3
3:19am / 6.7
2:18pm / 7.3
8:43am / 3.3
9:17pm / -0.2
Jan. 4
4:01am / 6.8
3:14pm / 6.7
9:44am / 3.1
10:01pm / 0.4
Jan. 5
4:46am / 7.1
4:23pm / 6.0
10:52am / 2.7
10:48pm / 1.1
For those who want to in-
corporate them, Cedar sprigs
will be available in outdoor
areas near the Yachats Com-
mons.
Anyone who has used this
opportunity to watch the
Amanda video (from any-
where) is invited to stop by
the Yachats City Visitor Cen-
ter or the Yachats Chamber
to pick up a commemorative
button.
Alternatively they can
send an email request to
yachatstrails@gmail.com. If
requesting by email, be sure
to include your name and
mailing address with your
request.
This year’s button was
created by Morgan Gaines
Quuiich (Lower Umpqua)
Tribal Member, CTCLUSI.
The Yachats Trails team
wishes the community a
happy new year to come and
hopefully the return of the
Annual Peace hike — and
See
HIKE 2B
SOS statistics reflect
sobering increase in
local hardships
In comparing statistics to
the full 12 months of 2019,
Siuslaw Outreach Services
(SOS) has seen, as of Dec. 1,
a 47 percent increase in num-
ber of individuals experienc-
ing domestic violence (325
in 2019 to 478 in 2020), a 100
percent increase in number of
sexual assaults (19 in 2019 to
40 in 2020), a 100 percent in-
crease in number of individu-
als being trafficked (5 in 2020
to 10 in 2020), and an 80 per-
cent increase in the number
of households receiving rent
assistance (64 in 2019 to 115
in 2020).
“This is such a sad indict-
ment on humanity and dis-
heartening
representation
of what is going on behind
closed doors in our commu-
nity, yet it magnifies the need
for, and success of, SOS,” said
Bob Teter, executive director
of Siuslaw Outreach Services
(SOS), the local nonprof-
it dedicated to serving local
victims of domestic violence,
sexual abuse, sex trafficking,
and unplanned homelessness.
“We still have a month to
go. December has been trag-
ically busy,” he added.
“The stress of the holi-
days boosts these kinds of
numbers, especially in the
COVID-19 age,” Teter ex-
plained. “We estimate that
the stress of the pandemic
and government restrictions
on activity have been a major
contributor to the upswing in
numbers in the Siuslaw re-
gion. We are hearing that oth-
er agencies in Oregon are ex-
periencing similar increases.”
Teter said it is tough to esti-
mate the exact severity of the
area’s need right now because
of the constantly changing
challenges due to COVID-19.
“Caring for our clientele, es-
pecially with this year’s grow-
ing numbers and the expected
growth into next year, comes
with an increasing cost.”
So far, SOS has provided
nearly $600,000 in direct aid
in 2020 — a record for the
See
SOS 2B
Happy New Year 2021! Looking back,it was quite the year and something I don’t want to repeat world wide. It was something we have
never experienced and seemingly don’t know how to handle. I just hope it is soon that Florence will get vaccines, although it looks like
Spring before that will occur, but we can only hope. Weirdly enough, it was a great year for real estate. We’ve had almost a record year for
sales, and if inventory hadn’t been so low, it would have been out of this world. Interest rates are the lowest we’ve
had in years which helped. Looking forward I’m not sure there’s a prediction out there that tells us what the New
Year will bring. Let’s just look for the positive.
I just hope everyone continues to wear a mask and stay safe and let’s put this in the rear view mirror!
100 Hwy. 101, Florence, OR • 541.997.7777
Lynnette Wikstrom
Broker
“We’re next to the Bridge.”
lynnette@cbcoast.com · Cell: 541.999.0786
COAST REAL ESTATE