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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 1995)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, July 26,1995 ^INDEPENDENT Serving the upper Nehalem River valley. Published twice monthly on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, by Public Opinion Laboratory Ltd., 1206 S ta te A ve nu e, V ernonia, OR 97064, as a free new spaper. E ditors and P ublishers, D irk & Noni Andersen, (503) 429-9410. |T3 a ifT IfJ S Sportsmanship trophy more important than win The Vernonia Youth Summer Baseball Association has, since its inception, been great for local children. It has given them a safe recreational activity while helping them develop some physical skills at levels appropriate to their ages. Any program that includes young people from age four through high school is ambitious, indeed. VYSBA is successful, too. Now all those who have so diligently volunteered their time and efforts have received an outstanding gift from a team of nine and ten year-old ball players. It’s not just because the American Midgets played skillfully enough to go to state play-offs; that’s not the most important part of VYSBA. The gift was earning the state trophy for Sports manship. Team members may be too young to appre ciate it, but their coaches, parents and all the adult supporters of VYSBA have reason to be very proud and happy. Congratulations to all of you. Public hearing may as well have been in private Complaining is always easier than doing something to solve a problem, a truism that has been proven again, this time by the citizens of Banks. When city officials get frequent complaints about a problem, it’s only natural for them to respond with an effort to solve that problem. In Banks, those com plaints are about inadequate law enforcement, so part of the effort included a public hearing that would allow the subject to be reviewed, poked and prodded in public. Two citizens attended. Lack of funds prevents obtaining law enforcement services in Banks at this time, but it will escape en tirely without local input and support. It takes more than complaints to reach a goal. If the citizens don”t care, why should anyone else? County should first try to eliminate frustrations Many normally calm people have expressed con siderable frustration over “politicizing” the relationship between Columbia County’s gravel mining industry, their detractors and county officials. But one state ment was used repeatedly at the hearing on whether the county should relinquish its responsibilities for surface mining regulation to the state. “I have always supported local control, but...” The next part of the sentence varied, depending on the speaker’s point of view, but the idea came across loud and clear: The county’s response to problems that have developed between the mining industry and citizens disturbed by that industry, has been inade quate. Not all of the complaints are valid, but that isn’t the point. It is important that the Board of Commissioners seek common ground and eliminate the frustrations. vvn; v — I HAD to PARK ___ 1 f Wit. >'v' By David Michael Jones, member Isaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter Som e fis h e rm e n aske d me about the worms they were seeing on trout from the Ne- helem system this year. Their comment was that this is much earlier than normal; usually the worms appear in August and September when the water is warmer. I contacted a biolo gist and was told that the worms are a normal occurrence and might be earlier this year be cause of our warm May. They probably pose no hazard for either humans or the fish, al though the worms can weaken the fish. There is a possibility that the worms, combined with low oxygen in the warmer water can weaken and stress a fish. The fish will seek cooler wa ter if it is available. On to more pleasant fishy news! The Ikes are again organizing a Fishing Derby at Ver nonia Lake during the Vernonia Friendship Jam boree and Logging Show com ing up soon. This is open to children and there will be prizes. I was able to add to the prizes recently with a very generous donation of a Sage six w e ig h t yo u th fly po le from- K a u fm a n n ’s Streamborn in Tigard. Kaufmann’s is both a retail and mail order fly fishing store and can be contacted at (503) 639-6400 if you want to request a catalog, get directions to the store, order some gear, and/or get fishing informa tion. Their staff is quite knowledgeable and helpful. By the way, they also included a reel, fly line and backing for a complete youth fly fishing outfit. I had to string the pole and make a couple of casts in my backyard and can tell you th a t is one nice pole. I w o n d e r...if I shaved my beard if I could pass for fourteen? Probably not. Anyone who would like to do nate som e fis h in g prizes for the children please call me at 503-429-9251. We would be happy to accept donations from any individual or business. I’ll probably tie up some woolly worms and such, that could be used for bass and maybe some streamer flies for trout. It is possible to fish flys with a spinning outfit. A bubble or bobber and a length of leader to a dry fly and one can cast it quite well and take NMMRaPMMI «• . • f • ’ 4 i * * fish. With a wet fly it is just a matter of a small split shot on the line ahead of the fly. Being a fisherm an all of my life, I enjoy sharing the knowledge and information my ex perience and, more often, my reading and re search bring me. There is an author named Roderick L. Haig-Brown whose books I have been reading the last year or so and I find his books to be filled with down-to-earth fishing lore and a love for Nature. He has a book for the seasons; i.e., Fisherman’s Spring, Fisher man’s Summer, Fisherm an’s Fall, etc. A l though I haven’t read any of his other books, I plan to and can certainly recommend the au thor. I recently picked up a book at K auf manns called Fly Patterns o f Roderick Haig- Brown, by James Lingren, that lists a number of patterns developed for the trout, salmon, and steelhead of the west coast. This year, I hope to bring a summer steelhead to hand on a dry fly of his called the Steelhead Bee. In my last column I mentioned some very good fishing over on the Deschutes River; anyone heading that way may want to pick up a copy of Fishing in Oregon’s Deschutes River, by Scott Richmond. Keep tight lines and release Natives! Another excellent book for the outdoor per son is Plants o f the Pacific Northwest Coast - Washington, Oregon, British Columbia and Alaska, by the British Columbia Forest Service and at least ten contributing authors. This is one of the best plant books that I have seen. It contains both Latin and common names, color plates and, one thing that I found quite interesting, the use that the Native Americans had for the plants. I plan to do another column on recycling but would like to include a larger area in the col umn. Anyone within the readership of The IN DEPENDENT who has information to share on recycling can mail it to me to be used in that column. The address is 12865 Keasey Rd., Vernonia, OR 97064. Thank you! Izaak Walton League meetings are the third Wednesday of each month, Vernonia Public Library at 7:00 p.m. The public is welcome
