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About Cottage Grove sentinel. (Cottage Grove, Or.) 1909-current | View Entire Issue (July 16, 2020)
Cottage Grove Sentinel Community & Lifestyle B1 THURSDAY | JULY 16, 2020 • CONTACT SPORTS REPORTER NICK SNYDER AT 942-3325 OR NSNYDER@CGSENTINEL.COM Yoncalla schools prep for uncertain fall By Nick Snyder nsnyder@cgsentinel.com F ODFW R ECREATION AND F ISHING R EPORT www.dfw.state.or.us/RR BEST BETS FOR WEEKEND FISH- ING Anglers are spoiled with choices right now. Trout, bass and salmon are all on the list. • With the cooler, wetter spring, fishing for stocked trout continues to be good in several areas. • This is a great time of year to visit Oregon’s hike-in lakes for a day of trout fishing. • Resident coastal cutthroats are on the bite in most coastal rivers and streams. • Where water temperatures are warming, fishing for bass and other warmwater species is improving. Now is a great time to target these fish before aquatic weeds grow enough to make fishing challenging. • Ocean salmon season is open, and some Chinook are also being caught in coastal rivers. BIG GAME HUNTER: HAVE YOU BOUGHT YOUR POINT SAVER? If you didn’t put in for the draw this year, you have until Nov. 30 to purchase a point saver and add to your preference point totals. LAKE, PONDS, RESERVOIRS With the onset of summer-like temperatures, trout stocking in most valley-level lakes and ponds has ended for the season. Water temperatures have gotten too warm to support a trout fish- ing, but also warm enough to support excessive aquatic vegetation. However, trout anglers can continue to find good fishing: • At places like Henry Hagg Lake, Detroit Reservoir and Foster Lake that have deeper, cooler waters for trout to retreat to during the warmer parts of the day. 6/24/20 • In higher elevation lakes in the Cascades. This include popular drive-to locations like Trillium and Harriet lakes, as well as hike-in opportunities. where water temperatures are cooler. 6/24/20 4 RIVERS AND STREAMS TO FISH THIS WEEK: • Little Clatskanie River. This small tributary has access from state lands. Native cutthroat trout are abundant but small. Find a pool with some depth and you may catch a larger fish, as in one over 8 inches. Artificial lures and flies only. Spinners are most effective with a short casting distance. • Scappoose Bay Marina. This is a hot spot for panfish. Fish are caught from the bank and by boat. Night crawlers are the go-to bait. • Breitenbush River and the North Santiam above Detroit. These higher elevation streams are stocked regularly, including several times this spring, and water conditions should be good for trout fishing. • Willamette River. Excellent small- mouth bass fishing between Salem and Albany, and trout fishing is excellent from Corvallis upstream to Eugene. our months after the initial shutdown due to corona- virus concerns, plans for the reopening of area schools are starting to come into focus. While much is still up in the air as the debate rages national- ly over the safety of reopening schools come fall, Yoncalla School District (YSD) has begun finaliz- ing its initial plan for a restart in late August thanks to the work of the YSD Reopening Committee, formed in late May and made up of parents, teachers, principals, the superintendent, custodians, the maintenance supervisor, the bus company, food service coor- dinators and representatives from the health department. “We are trying to come up with a plan,” said Brian Berry, Yoncalla School District superintendent and principal of the high school. “The nice thing about Yoncalla is we’re small.” Small, in this case, means that schools in Yoncalla will — as it stands now — be able to operate at a level much closer to normal than schools with larger student bodies. The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) guidelines re- quire that in indoor spaces, each person must have a minimum of 35 square feet of personal space, a requirement that Yoncalla is able to meet at the elementary, mid- dle and high school levels, having room for about 25 students per classroom on average. Where districts like South Lane have been forced to divide their students into “A” and “B” cohorts, each attending school two days per week, Yoncalla’s size will ten- tatively allow students to attend school Monday-Thursday for their normal hours, though Berry stressed the ongoing shakiness of the plans. “This could change tomorrow and that’s been frustrating for all of us,” Berry said. “We did a parent survey and [parents in Yoncalla] overwhelm- ingly want their kids back in school and that doesn’t really sur- prise me. But, my job is to make sure everyone’s safe and some of the things that are going to hap- pen to ensure peoples’ safety, some people may not agree with, so then obviously they’ll have a choice as parents on what they wanna do.” Students who do attend in-per- son classes will be organized into cohorts based on math level at the high school and based on grade at the elementary level. The cohorts will remain together throughout the day with teachers rotating classrooms. However, there are sure to be many parents who don’t yet feel comfortable sending their children back into a school envi- ronment and Yoncalla is prepared. “We’re going to have a distance option which obviously will be much better than it was in March when we didn’t have a clue. We were just thrown into it,” Berry said. In YSD’s distance-learning model, students will be able to check out district computers from their respective schools and, once set up, will be able to access their classroom lessons online. Stu- dents who choose not to attend on-site classes will also still be See YONCALLA 2B Summer staycation: trails to outdoor fun COURTESY PHOTO One option for would-be recreators is the 2020 Oregon Gran Fondo bicycle ride which will take place on July 25. The course is 42 miles beginning in Cottage Grove and heading west to the Siuslaw and Smith River Watersheds. Lane County offers more than 4,700 square miles of approachable and enriching outdoor experiences for people of all ages and abilities, so there’s no reason to let COVID-19 spoil your family adventures this summer. Outdoor activities are the safest way to rec- reate during COVID-19, so let’s take a tour of trails in the Eugene, Cascades & Coast region. Hiking - Finding a trail to hike doesn’t re- quire driving miles to a trail head or climbing thousands of feet. Nearby opportunities are all around us and include short hikes like Skin- ner Butte, medium length hikes like Spencer Butte or the Thurston Hills Natural Area (also provides mountain biking trails) or a variety of longer hikes at the Howard Buford Recreation Area/Mt. Pisgah. However, if you’re feeling like hiking to a waterfall, reaching a summit that provides views of the Cascades or Coast Range or stop- ping by bubbling hot springs, then we’ve got something for you too. Iconic trails, like the McKenzie River Trail, Pacific Crest Trail and Salt Creek Falls, provide enchanting experi- ences, but can also be crowded. The good news is that there are ways to avoid the crowds along these iconic trails by checking our hiking page or giving us call. There are many beautiful and easily accessible trails that will provide you and your family a secluded trail experience. For those who just want to show up and hike, Travel Lane County has partners like Cascades Outdoor Center who provide guided hikes, as well as shuttles for cycling. Cycling - Paved paths welcome cyclists of all ages, while gravel and mountain biking options are plentiful for thrill-seekers looking See TRAILS 2B Commission adopts new climate, ocean change policy The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission adopted a Climate and Ocean Change Policy today on a unanimous vote, making them the first state fish and wild- life commission in the nation to adopt such a measure. The policy approved today will be the framework under which ODFW will evaluate the impacts of climate change on the resources under its stewardship, adopt man- agement practices to safeguard those resources and minimize the impacts to communities that de- pend on these resources. The Poli- cy also includes an ambitious goal for ODFW’s operations to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century. “I am proud that our agency is out front with this. We’re leaders. It’s causing other states in the U.S. to look at us in developing their own climate brought to you by: change plans,” said Cottage Grove Sentinel Commissioner 116 N. 6th • (541) 942-3325 Greg Wolley during the hearing and tes- timony portion of Friday’s meeting. The policy aligns the Department with direction from Governor Kate Brown’s Executive Order 20-04, Di- recting State Agen- cies to Take Actions to Reduce and Reg- ulate Greenhouse Gas Emissions.The Policy provides high level guidance on how climate Week of July 16th Winner is: 822 S. 8th Street change will be con- Yards will be selected each week by nominations. sidered in planning, To nominate a yard you can call City Hall (942-5501) budgets, invest- ments and policy or Chamber of Commerce (942-2411) Yard of the Week COURTESY PHOTO ODFW workers perform tidal surveys while practicing social distancing. making decisions as required by the Executive Order. Throughout the past two years, ODFW staff drafted the current policy and submitted multiple drafts for public review. Staff con- sidered public comments to help shape the policy and conducted multiple listening sessions both in person and virtually to gather feedback. During and in advance of Friday’s meeting, the Commis- sion heard from constituents in support of the policy; many were anxious to see the principles of the Policy implemented by the Com- mission. The adoption of a climate change policy by a state fish and wildlife commission is a first in the U.S. that ODFW is aware of. “Our fish and wildlife are al- ready feeling the impacts of cli- mate and ocean change. The folks that hunt, fish or depend on healthy populations for their livelihoods are already feeling the impacts,” said Curt Melcher, Di- rector, ODFW. “There is a lot we can do to minimize the impact of climate and ocean change in Oregon and this policy lays out our strategy to do the work needed. The good news is that by taking actions to protect fish and wildlife, we also protect clean air and water for all Oregonians and the natural resources that many other indus- tries depend on. We are all in this together,” added Melcher. During their meeting today, the See OCEAN 2B
