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About The Columbia press. (Astoria, Or.) 1949-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 1, 2019)
February 1, 2019 T he C olumbia P ress Senior Moments with Emma Edwards After last week’s column, several of you mentioned how much you like tomato aspic gelatin salad. So I decided to check its history. Believe it or not, it dates to the middle ages, with recipes written as far back as 1375. Back then, making gela- tin was an incredibly time-in- tensive process that required boiling animal bones and hooves to extract collagen. Longer cooking turns it into glue. The broth had to sim- mer for several hours until it was “protein-rich and vel- vety.” Next it was clarified, cooled and eventually turned into gelatin as we think of it today. American industrialist Pe- ter Cooper patented a pow- dered gelatin in 1845. How- ever, it wasn’t until the 1950s that aspic recipes became popular. After learning about mak- ing gelatin, I will forever have a new respect for that amazing little box of Jell-O. And you don’t want to know what it takes to make today’s gelatin! But I’m still making tomato aspic salad for my next occa- sion. By the way, a recurring problem for us seniors is de- hydration. The simple cure is to drink more water. I wish it could be that simple, really! Actually, two common ail- ments diagnosed during trips to the emergency room for us elderly folk are dehydration and/or anxiety. Surprisingly, our daily habits and lifestyle can result in both dehydra- tion and anxiety. Some causes of dehydration are skipping meals, consum- ing too much caffeine, drink- ing alcohol and smoking. Oregon’s cougar management needs reworking b y J iM a kenson Good health is a few sips away A simple formula for ward- ing off dehydration is to take one-third of your body weight in pounds and drink the equivalent number of ounces of water daily. For example, a 150-pound person would need 50 ounc- es of water daily, or about six eight-ounce glasses of water. Most of us are pretty good about watering our plants and seeing to it that our pet’s water dish is full, but we ne- glect to water ourselves. And if we haven’t been drinking enough water, we need to gradually build our intake up to the recommend- ed ounces. There seems to be debate about whether we can count ounces of coffee as water, but in reading several pros and cons, this is the conclusion that makes most sense to me: Coffee is a diuretic, causing more trips to the facilities than necessary and so we need to drink more water to compensate. Of course, ask your doctor if you suspect coffee will affect you in the wrong way. There’s so much to learn and so little time. Voltaire is famous for this statement: God gave us the gift of life; it is up to us to give ourselves the gift of liv- ing well. 7 Oregon Hunters Association The fatal cougar attack on a hiker in the Mount Hood National Forest last year was a tragic thing. Evidence eval- uation indicated the cougar was a female in good health. Is this a surprise? Not really. Cougar numbers are at all- time highs for our state, and the distribution of these cats encompasses the entire state. What accounts for this cou- gar population expansion from an estimation of less than 3,000 in the mid-1990s to well over 6,000 today? Some of the answer is bi- ological, some is social, and much is connected to man- agement capabilities and practices. We need to find a way to return to this socio-bi- ological balance, and looking to the recent past might just be the best bet – back to a time when hound hunting was a legal and effective man- agement tool in Oregon. What are the consequences of so many cougars in Ore- gon? It affects prey animals, specifically deer, which relo- cate to human development areas to avoid a higher preda- tion risk. The relocation also draws in cougars that will go where the next meal can be found. Many hunters and state wildlife managers report that deer are now less abundant in the wilder mountain, high desert, and canyon regions of Senior lunch menu Monday, Feb. 4: Ham, potatoes au gratin, carrots, tomato soup, pumpkin pie. Thursday, Feb. 7: Shepherd’s pie, mashed potatoes, broccoli, navy bean soup, chocolate cake.. The Warrenton senior lunch program is at noon (doors open at 10:30 a.m.) Mondays and Thursdays at Warrenton Community Center, 170 SW Third St. Suggested donation is $5 for ages 55 and older; $7 for those younger. For more information, call 503-861-3502. In My Opinion Oregon De- partment of Fish and Wild- life removed this cougar that returned to the scene of a fatal attack on an Oregon hiker in Sep- tember. Courtesy ODFW our state. Meanwhile, Oregon cities are wrestling with the number of deer inhabiting city limits, and cougars are showing up in back yards and school yards. As cougars become more comfortable in human-al- tered landscapes, the proba- bility of negative encounters with humans, as well as pets and livestock, increases. So, what is the solution? Bi- ologically, it is plain and sim- ple – more intensive cougar management through vari- ous hunting techniques. With an estimated population of 6,400 cougars, and roughly 14,000 people hunting cou- gars and harvesting from 250 to 300 cats per year, this only equals a harvest rate of 4 per- cent, which is not enough to even flatten the ever-rising cougar population curve. According to the 2017 Or- egon Cougar Management Plan, the success rate for 2016 cougar hunters was 1.9 percent, with 13,879 people reporting that they hunted cougars. Contrast that with 1994 data, the last year that dogs were allowed in lim- ited-entry cougar hunting, showing 358 people hunted cougars and harvested 144 for a success rate of 40.2 per- cent. Bottom line: hunting effi- ciency with dogs is dramat- ically higher, and provides wildlife managers a reliable tool for maintaining the cou- gar population within its management objectives. Oregon’s cougar manage- ment and record keeping are divided into six zones, each of which is assigned a desired harvest quota to keep the population in balance with the varied activities of all Or- egonians. Employing the current lim- ited management methods, only one of the six zones has met the harvest quota in re- cent years. A criterion for quota establishment is com- plaint frequency. By far the most complaints about cougars are recorded west of the Cascades, includ- ing the coast. This is also where the bulk of the human population lives. Oregon does have a legisla- tively authorized agent pro- gram wherein highly vetted houndsmen are permitted to lethally remove cats to reduce human conflict and bolster deer and elk survival. These agents work closely with ODFW district biolo- gists. Even with this program in place, cougars are increas- ing. Jim Akenson is a wildlife biologist, book author and Conservation Director for the Oregon Hunters Associ- ation.
