Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 17, 1960)
SUNTMV, JANUARY 17, 1960 PAGE TR'O HERALD AND NEWS, KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON , 4?4J e ft THIS SCENE IS TYPICAL of the 1,434 snow courses in the western states end British Columbia upon which two-men teams will male surveys this winter to determine the snow depth and water content. Water supply forecasts, which are f great importance to agriculture, industry, cities and Bonanza Man. Roger Reid, To Attend Snow Survey Course Held On Slopes Of Mount Hood Hew mixi water win be avail able or use by tanners, ranchers, cities, industries and others Ltais year? This if the question that Roger Rejd. coiiMTvation aide. Soil Con servation Service, Bonanza, will help to answer. Since much of the water m the West comes from njfrftjLg snow, A is necessary to make surveys to determine the depth and wa'er eoDienJ vi sun is the mountains i order to rtite water supcOy forecasts. Reid has be selected to re ren e snow vjzi ey training at the West wide See Saney Training Conference to be hek) at Mount Hood, Oregon, January U-22. Purpose of tr Mount Hood con lerence win be to train around 6 employes of the Soil Conservation Service and cooperating agen cies in making the most efficient snow surveys with the utmost safe ty. During the conference at Mount Hood, trainees will be separated into five groups. During the fore Boons the groups will attend gen eral instruction sessions together. They will be instructed in the theory and practice of snow sur veying, travel equipment, prepara tion for winter trips, snow survey Bote keeping, first aid, survival in rperation, and other phases of the work. Id the afternoons, each group will receive field training on dif ferent phases of snow surveying. While one group is learning to sample and d?termine the water content of snow, another will be learning to travel by skis and snow shoes, a third will be trained in over-snow vehicle travel, the fourth will study first aid and res rue methods, and the fifth will be instructed in winter survival. Then each night one group will go op on the Elopes of Mount Hood for a night of bivouac to learn winter survival methods. The trainees, attired in heavy winter clothing, will dig boles in the snow, Hne them with boughs, spread their sleeping bags, craw and bed down for the sight Sow surveyors learn to work as teams. Once a month during the winter and early spring they load their over-snow machine on a truck and set out for the snow course high in the mountains. The truck goes as far as possible, then the over-snow machine is unloaded, and the journey is continued un til the machine can go do farther. Then the two men take to skis rod saows&oes. They are equipped wxa a keg bvliow tube made of sxud, aa urja and a half in di atryaer. and wiuj sharpened saw :. at ne end, which they use iz sampling the snow courses. A snow course is a permanently eaabiisbed series of It stations in line and 106 feet apart so that the snow is measured in exactly the same place each month and each year. A few are at low elevations, but the majority are located in high remote mountain areas where tney are protected from drifting snow, foreign ponded water, inter ception and exposure to snow melt. The surveyors carry with them plenty of warm clothing, skis, snow- shoes. Don-freezable Army rations any article of food or clothing that is needed for survival. Arriving at a course, they drive the metal sampling tube straight down until it reaches the ground at each of the 10 sampling points. As the tube sinks, it fills with snow. The depth of the snow then is measured in inches graduated on the outside of the tube. The tube and snow core is then with drawn and weighed to determine the amount of water in the snow. The average of these 10 sampling points gives snow depth and water content for that course and the ad joining area. This information, collected by the Soil Conservation Service and co operating agencies, is correlated and monthly reports are issued. Around mid-April the SCS issues a forecast of the amount of water that will be available from snow melt. Water users in the West base their plans for the year's opera lions on this forecast. other water users in the west, are based on this information. Around 60 men will be trained in snow surveying at Mount Hood during the Westwide Snow Survey Training Con ference to be held January 1 8-22. Present north star is Polaris. The star Gamma Cephej will be the pole star for people on earth I.O00 years from now. I Mm mm-1 IP MARCH OF DIMES The wistful child on the March of Dimes poster is Mary Beth Pyron, 214, who was bom with an open spine. She symbolizes all the handicapped children who may benefit from the national foundation's expanded pro gram to prevent crippling diseases. Current Of Sea Studied OREGON STATE COLLEGE - An age-old sailor's trick of toss ing bottles into the sea to carry messages ashore is being .used to chart the pattern of ocean cur rents off Oregon. At present', little detail is known of currents close to the Oregon shore. The project is a cooperative ef fort of the Oregon State College department of oceanography and Scripps Institution of Oceanogra phy, LaJolla, Calif. Started in June, it has already shown great shifts in the Oregon ocean currents. Twelve bottles are dropped each month at points 5, IS, 25, 35 and 45 miles off Newport when the OSC oceanographers make their regular readings of water tempera ture and salinity. The bottles car ry a letter that briefly explains the project and a siwi.il rorrt that the bottle finder is asked to send to Scripps Institution, which has similar projects underwav nff California. OSC oceanographers are map ring the bottle recoverv sites snH thus, piecing together the picture oi now tne currents shift from month to month. June bottle recoveries, for ex ample, were between the Umpqua and Cape Blanco, showine a southern movement of the cur rents. Soon July recoveries were made at Newport but below Coos Bay. August recoveries ranged trom Jsewport to Grays Harbor, Wash., while the Kr,t. ber recoveries were near Newport, indicating that the surface currents were coming almost straight in at the time. 'Decisions' Program In Oregon Set Anyone interested in learning more about America's foreign pol icy will have ample opportunity during the months ahead. Many Oregon librarians are al ready gathering books relating to foreign policy topics that will be discussed by Great Decisions study groups in February and March. Co-chairmefl of Oregon's Great Decisions program are Mrs. Mabel Mack, assistant director of Oregon Slate College extension service, and Dr. Charles Dean, Great Deci sions representative for the Insti tute of International Affairs, gen eral extension division, state sys tem of higher education. They report that although local discussion groups are just now be ing formed in each county, librar ians are getting ready early in anticipation of requests for mate rial about the eight discussion top ics: Communist Timetable for I960; Divided Europe; Red China on the March; Chances for India's Middle Way; Hope for Stability in the Middle East; Goals for Africa's New Leaders; Cuba's Revolution; zni U.S. Global Strategy. The organization behind Great I"ecisions, which has been offered nationally for the past six years, is the Foreign Policy Association FPA), a 42-year-old national edu cational agency. Its purpose is to help people understand critical in ternational issues facing the Amer ican government and people. FPA is nonpartisan, nongovernmental and nonprofit. It is supported main. ly by contributions and foundation grants. The FPA prepares fact sheets for participants. In Oregon, Great Decisions is co sponsored by Oregon State College extension service and the general extension division of the state sys tem of higher education in cooper ation with the FPA, the state de partment of education, state li brary, and some 25 statewide or ganizations. Further information about the 1960 Great Decisions program is available from county Great Deci sions chairmen and county exten sion agents. 4-H Planning Rifle Club Free instruction in safe, sensible use of guns is offered Oregon youths in a new 4-H club project recently developed by Oregon State College extension service. The Rifleman 4-H Club project is aimed at helnine youngsters de velop ability and responsibility in handling guns safely, says Andrew Landforce, OSC wildlife specialist, who wrote the project outlines, ine 4-H project supplements the Ore gon Hunter Safety Training pro gran sponsored by the state game iConimission. The 4-H leaders also hope to dis courage "gun totin' " and the pop ularized TV "fast draw" which cause many needless accidents and deaths each year in Oregon. Youngsters 12 years of age and o'.tler, may choose from three proj ect divisions the Pro-.Marnsman, i ho u,ri,nii and the Hunter depending on age and ability. All the 4-H gun lessons empnasue s. sportsmanship, respect for private, public and personal prU(:..j, and wildlife conservation. More information about the project available at all county extension offices. it :: in hp annexed to the United States and was voted permission in -1898. Now it state of the Union.
