Image provided by: Morrow County Museum; Heppner, OR
About Heppner gazette-times. (Heppner, Or.) 1925-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 27, 1979)
5 IV!ft3iaS)S!tWSi.ifc'. .il u or ORE NEWSPAPER LIH c .. t- -.- o Si. C, 7 4 ' The Heppner Morrow County's Award-Winning Weekly Newspaper Donald F. Gilliam, official Hi Low weather observer for Hepp- Tues., Sept. 18 88 50 ner, reports the following high Wed., Sept. 19 85 59 and low temperatures for the Thurs., Sept. 20 87 52 past week, starting Tuesday, Fri.,Sept.21 80 48 Sept. 18. There was no Sat., Sept. 22 76 44 measurable rainfall for the Sun., Sept. 23 79 43 same week. Mon.,Sept.24 81 46 VOL. 97 NO. 39 20 cents 12 pages THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1979 HEPPNER, OREGON The hunters are coming! About 109000 expect "H mm of cteer season weelie nd The hunters are coming! About 9,000 to 10,000 hunters are expected to invade the Heppner area for the begin ning of the deer hunting season Sept. 29. Glen Ward of the Fish and Wildlife Department, said that is the number predicted to hunt in the Heppner unit which includes parts of Morrow, Grant and Umatilla counties. The Heppner unit takes up 950,000 acres. Another 600 hunters are expeced to hunt in the Columbia Basin unit which includes the northern half of Morrow County. Ward said the deer crop is down 15 per cent this year from last year and the buck production is down because of the lower fawn production. He predicted about 20 per cent of the hunters will be successful in the hunting season. "The hunters will probably harvest about 2,500 bucks in the Heppner unit," Ward said. "In the Columbia Basin unit, about 150 bucks will be taken. The Columbia Basin unit is mostly on private land so it is hunted mostly by families and friends." The season is short in both units. It lasts only until Oct. 10. Hungarian and chukar partridges hunting season also starts Sept. 29 but that season does not end until Jan. 13. "The crop for those birds is excellent this year and the limit is eight per day," Ward said. Today is the last day for hunting grouse, the hag limit is three, and Sunday is the last day to hunt dove, with the bag limit for those birds being 10. Bow hunting season ended yesterday. East Oregon phea sant and quail season opens Oct. 13 and lasts until Nov. 18. 1 1 ;i -""u " 1 1 , , ... -' "b .-, MX YE OLDE LONDON BUS Christian Bookshop .--" 3 ttW-, -, 1 t f , l : . In i- turf 1 "rnt't EL. Ai f The deadline to buy deer lags for the season is tomor row night at midnight. The deadline to buy Rocky Moun tain Elk tags is Oct. 26 and the last day to buy tags to hunt Roosevelt Elk is Nov. 9. "The hunting conditions are dry and stalking will be difficult," Ward said. "Be cause of the low buck produc tion, spike hunting is illegal. We want to protect the spikes and there will be a fine from the justice of the peace if anyone is caught with a spike. Only two-point or better for ked horn bucks can be taken." Ward said most of the hunters will probably be in the foothills but more deer are in the higher elevations this year and the bigger bucks are up in the heavy timber. "A word of caution to hunters is a new law which states that anyone trespassing on private land with a gun can be fined up to $500 and lose his hunting license for up to three years," Ward said. "The hunter must obtain permis sion from the private land owner before hunting on his property. About half of the Heppner unit hunting area is on private land and almost all of the land on the Columbia Basin unit is on private property." Ward said the reason the hunting season is so short is because all the bucks are being killed off. He said there are more hunters all the time and that a ratio of 10 bucks to 100 doe should be maintained for proper breeding so the season is shorter to lessen the take. "There will be no late bull hunting season in December," Ward said. "The season is longer on the west side of the Cascades because we are trying to keep people over there." Ward said hunters should check wherever they hunt to be sure they are not in a safety zone. Some roads are also closed to hunters but they can still hike in to hunt. Ward said the upland bird hunting should be excellent this year. He said there was a lot of concern that the baby fowls would not survive be cause there would not be enought grasshoppers for them to eat because of the grasshoppers being sprayed. There was a lot of food left for the young birds, apparently, because the production and survival of the birds is the best its been in years. Although most indications are that more hunters are going out all the time, two area stores that sell hunting equipment may not agree. Jo Pettyjohn, of Pettyjohn's Farm and Builder's Supply, said sales at that store seem down this year. "We probably will have guns left over," she said. "We are down in gun sales, hunting licenses and all supplies but that may be misleading be cause the people may be going somewhere else. .We usually have a lot of last minute business but we still will be down." Dick Sargent of the Coast to Coast store, said he feels sales at that store are about the same but they have been more spread out than in the past because of the separate bow and gun seasons. "There were more bow hunters, by far, this year," he said. "We may have less gun hunters because you can only hunt with a bow or a gun and not both. Sales today and tomorrow should pick up because we get a lot of people from Portland coming in " v- jr. m.-fm- .... L M Hunters donate animal hides Umatilla administrator accepts hospital post From London to Heppner The local Elks Lodge, is sponsoring a program for hunters who want to donate the hides of the animals they kill. Barrels will be set up in towns in the area for hunters to put the hides in. The Elks will then turn in the hides to the tannery in Sherwood. The tannery will process the hides and keep one and donate one to the Veter an's Hospital Rehabilitation Physical Therapy Center. Last year, the program collected 350 hides in the donation effort. A 1952-vintage red double-decker bus that once rolled through the steets of London stopped in Heppner last week in its present role as a bookstore on wheels, an unusual sight for Main Street. Democratic committee looks for new judge Legion serves hunter's breakfast The Morrow County Demo cratic Central Committee is frantically looking for a candi date to replace Judge D.O. Nelson, who announced his resignation rather suddenly last week. But Paul Jones, chairman of the Morrow County Demo crats, is not worried about coming up with a replace ment. "We have a lot of possibilities already," Jones .said. Jones said the committee Nelson announced his resigna tion, which becmes effective Oct. 15, to discuss names of those who possibly could take over the position. "We (the committee) re quest that anyone interested in the position of Morrow County Court judge come to the courthouse Oct. 4 with a resume," Jones said. "We would prefer that a sponsor introduce the candidate. All candidates should be regis tered Democrats for a reason able length of time. Jones said the Democratic Central Committee will make its recommendation for the new judge to Gov. Vic Atiyeh Oct. 5. Atiyeh has the option of appointing the candidate of the committee, choosing one of the other applicants or even making his own choice on who should fill the position. "We will try to pick the best person, and I emphasize person, for the job," Jones said. "I know some women who would make excellent judges." The Heppner American Le gion Post No. 87 and Auxiliary are again serving their annual Hunter's Breakfast in the old Ford Garage building across Main Street from the First National Bank. The public is invited to come and enjoy hotcakes, ham and eggs, milk or coffee, all for $2.50. The breakfast will be served all night tomorrow from 4 p.m. Friday until 6 Saturday morning. A.K. Felt, from Umatilla, has accepted the job as administrator of Pioneer Me morial Hospital. Felt was offered the job last week and he accepted it the next day. Felt has been the adminis trator at the Umatilla Hospital and will soon be moving to Heppner and will officially begin his new job Nov. 1. Felt first came to the Umatilla Hospital four years ago when the hospital there was financially troubled. He has brought new doctors into the area and has made the hospital very successful. Morrow County Hospital Board chairman Fred Martin is hoping Felt can be just as successful in Heppner. The Pioneer Hospital has had trouble in the past financially with the passing of bonds. Ullman visits east Oregon next week Congressman Al Ullman, D-Ore., will be visiting in eastern Oregon next week, with dates in Ontario, Baker, La Grande and Pendleton. He will be in the college theater of Blue Mountain Community College at 5 p.m. Oct. 5. and attend a Democra tic coffee hour in Pendleton the same day at 7 p.m. About 70 residents attend Oregon Forum Workshop Gayla Dahlke injured in gun accident Gayla Dahlke, 13, went back to school in Heppner Tuesday after going through a trauma tic experience Sunday. She was accidentally shot when a gun went off while she was next to a truck and the blast shattered the metal of the truck and particles lodged into her left shoulder. She was taken to Pioneer Memorial Hospital and treated by Dr. Joseph Gifford. Dr. Gifford decided not to try to take the particles out because there are too many and some of them are very small. Hopefully, they will work out by themselves over a period of time. Gayla is taking anti biotics to control infection in the area. The accident occurred Sun day at 9:45 a.m. when Gayla's brother, Timothy, was show ing his hunting rifle, a .308 Winchester, to a friend. He put the gun in the gunrack behind the back window of the truck and a bullet discharged from the gun and it exploded into the back of the cab. The explosion sent metal flying everywhere and appro ximately 20 small fragments hit Gayla, who was next to the truck, in the left shoulder. Close to 70 local residents gathered together last Satur day for a forestry workshop on "Elk Management in Timber Country." The workshop was spon sored by the Oregon Forum and funded, by the National Science Foundation. The purpose of the workshop was to get public input on the problems which confront pro fessional foresters and wild life personnel who manage the public lands in the Blue Mountain Region. The profes sional people feel they alone cannot make the decisions but ,the people of Oregon, who use and benefit from the resour ces, should have a say in determining policy regula tions. Loggers, mill workers, ranchers, hunters, hikers, teachers and wilderness advo cates went to the Oregon Forum workshop. The topics discussed concerned this wide variety of people and they tried to work out the best possible compromise for all the people. Of course, no one idea was decided on but many ideas were brought out. Some of the questions men tioned were: Should Oregon's forests be managed inten sively for timber production, left in a totally natural wilderness or somewhere be tween the two extremes? If some of each, how much and by what means? How much timber should be cut and left in which areas? How many roads should be opened in a certain area? How many domestic animals should he allowed to graze in these areas? These questions are valid and decisions must be made or we may not have any trees or wildlife anymore or maybe soil erosions and flooding will be the major problem. Michael J. Sweeney, chair man of the Heppner Chamber of Commerce Watershed Com mittee, welcomed everyone to the Heppner High School cafetorium to open the work shop. William Hunter, direc tor of Oregon Forum, ex plained the workshop proce dures and introduced the main speakers. Warren W. Aney, regional supervisor of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Region IV, (North east Oregon) was the first speaker. He talked about "Managing Elk in Northeast Oregon." Dr. Jack Ward Thomas, chief research biologist of the United States Forest Service, Range and Wildlife Habitat Laboratory in La Grande, Ore., spoke on the "Manage ment of elk in the managed forest." James O'Donnell, executive vice-president of the North eastern Oregon. Next came Beryl Stillman, a freelance wildlife ecologist and president of the Elk Foundation. His topic was elk in the unmanaged forest. Raymond French, first vice president of the Oregon Cattle mens' Association, discussed the relationship between elk populations and the ranch lands and hunter-rancher re lations. After a short break, the Forum resumed as the partici pants were broken up into 10 groups. The groups talked about "timber supply, elk population, rangeland and roadless areas" and what would happen to the other areas if the land management people decided to maximize the land use for one particular area. An example would be what would happen to the elk if the timber supply was maximized to its fullest? They would probably be killed off or migrate to another area. The group discussions led to more questions and Hunter conducted a panel discussion with the groups asking ques tions of the main speakers. One question was "How can we improve the quality of hunting?" Dr. Thomas said, "We would have to have fewer hunters so we could say a hunter could hunt only every three years. There is no way to have fewer hunters unless we have fewer hunters." Aney added "Can we conti nue to let there be unlimited hunters? We can do it two ways. We can either impose government regulations on the number of hunters or we can let it get so crowded that the hunters won't like it and they I .... kT i 'i ( V II If JT will stop going out Most people just want the chance to go hunting." Orville Cutsforth brought out a concern he had about only two bull elk in a herd of about 130 elk on his land. "Will there be a breeding problem?" he asked. "There is no ratio known on that but they do seem to get the job done," Dr. Thomas said. '"11 i ' I i 'Si HFAft i r it y f uu4 The speakers at the Oregon Forum were (l-r): Warren W. Aney, James O'Donnell, Dr. Jack Ward Thomas, Raymond French and Beryl Stillman. Orville Cutsforth is in the foreground. 5 ' t. ! H .. . 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