The independent., August 23, 1995, Page 2, Image 2

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Tl»INDEPENDENT, August23,1985
».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 tate A venue, V ernonia, OR 97064, as a free
new spaper. E ditors and P ublishers, Dirk & Noni
Andersen, (503) 429-9410.
fiSTBW
School will start soon,
so please drive carefully
School will be starting very soon and a reminder
may be in order that children are not always careful
when they walk (or run) to school. Sometimes they
are busy talking with friends, sometimes they just
aren’t paying attention. In other words, sometimes
they act like children. Let’s try to remember that and
drive alertly and cautiously whenever children are
around, not just in school zones.
School buses will soon be on the road, too. Re­
member, it is illegal to pass a school bus when its red
lights are flashing. Schoo, buses must make a lot of
stops and they don’t travel very fast on our narrow
country roads. Fortunately, most bus drivers are very
courteous and pull over whenever they can to let oth­
er traffic by. If you must be on the road at the same
time as the buses, just start a little earlier. Impatience
won’t help anyone and may do some harm.
Speaking of school......
There seemed to be an increasing number of par­
ents in Vernonia last year who expressed frustration
at the bullying going on at the grade school, or with
the communication (or lack of communication) be­
tween themselves and their children’s teachers.
The specific complaints are not important. What is
important is that the situations causing the frustra­
tions be alleviated before they get out of hand.
A Letter to the Editor in this issue of The INDE­
PENDENT suggests a desire on the part of a parent
for an active parent-teacher organization. This is one
avenue through which better communications and
more understanding can be built.
Another avenue would be for the school to use
more community people in its site councils or other
committees where volunteers can be of help. True or
not, it is the perception of too many people that both
the administration and the school board have deliber­
ately built walls to keep parents, teachers and other
members of the community from looking at decisions
and policies that will impact their children. It is up to
the board to change that perception, if it is wrong.
Sensible for council to
know city facilities better
Any citizens who were late getting to the Vernonia
City Council meeting last Monday missed the whole
meeting, it seems.
Actually, what happened is that the council con­
vened half an hour early, then recessed early for a
joint tour of the City’s water treatment and sewage
treatment facilities. This had previously been dis­
cussed and approved in open meeting.
Because the councilors must deal with all parts of
the city’s operations, it was a sensible decision. The
better they understand these vital functions in public
works, the better they can deal with any problems
that may arise. It is always a good idea to understand
your job.
By Dale Webb, member
Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter
This has been a very disturbing year for
conservationists. In no other year (in many of
our lifetimes) has there been such a blatant
attack on our natural resources as is occurring
in our state legislature and in congress. Many
of the new legislators and congressmen ran
on platforms of government reform, but are
now trying to totally abolish regulations that
protect our water, air and animals.
In what should make taxpayers even mad­
der, is the way they’re trying to sneak in the
back door. A recent vote in congress cut fund­
ing for the EPA, a strategy designed to reduce
the EPA’s ability to enforce environmental pro­
tection laws, rendering the agency powerless.
Other targets of congress this year are the
Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act
and the infamous Endangered Species Act. I
don’t think any of us want the Willamette River
to regress to the condition it was in, in the six­
ties, but there are people in congress who re­
ally don’t care.
We can all understand the pressure exerted
by big money lobbyists and how that might in­
fluence votes. In the cases of the Clean Water
Act and the Endangered Species Act, it is ru­
mored that the lobbyists are actually rewriting
the laws that regulate their bosses’ industries.
There are frequent reports that science is be­
ing removed from the laws. I can envision a
law that states, “If a person can swim in a river
for an hour and not go into convulsions, the
level of pollution is tolerable and, therefore,
permissable.’
One particular concern in the Clean Water
Act is the 404 section, dealing with wetlands
protection. If congress is successful in their at­
tempts to gut this section of the act, it is calcu­
lated that the U.S. duck population would drop
by at least 50 percent in the next ten years.
Duck hunting in America is a $1.8 billion in­
dustry and will experience an equal decline in
employment and revenues. This is really a
shame, for the duck population has been re­
stored to somewhere between 83 to 90 million
birds, and is reaching for the 100 million goal
set by the Fish and Wildlife Service and con­
servation groups.
Another program at risk is the Conservation
Reserve Program, which seeks to set aside
marginal agricultural lands from production by
reimbursing farmers for doing so. This pro­
gram has been a great success; it not only
took marginal grounds out of production, it
greatly increased wildlife by providing habitat
for nesting and survival. The CRP has been a
major player in the turn-around of America’s
duck population. It is feared that the CRP will
fall victim of the budget axe.
Congress is also proposing to turn our na­
tional forests over to private landowners and
transfer ownership of most national parks and
wild life refuges to the states.
In Salem, our state legislature was not
much better than congress. Legislators were
hell-bent on giving away water resources; they
wanted to pay landowners for not polluting our
waters. They even wanted to curtail any future
environmental regulations for situations we
don't yet know about. Luckily, we have a gov­
ernor who does not want Oregon to become a
dried up, polluted place where people can
only sleep, eat and work. I would rather eat,
sleep and go fishing.
There was a big surge of “property rights”
proponents this year, people who believe it is
their right to do whatever they want on their
land. Well, I agree—as long as what they do
doesn’t affect someone else.
I hope that those who advocate absolute
property rights will consider what that could
mean. I’m sure they would be the firs t to
scream when the fallout from someone else’s
coal-fired generator killed their trees. The fact
is, we have all been living under government
regulations for a long time, many of which are
necessarily environm ental in nature. Many
studies show that when animals become over­
crowded, they become increasingly antisocial
and territorial and, if the crowding continues, it
results in chaos, if we want to curb the rising
tide of regulations, we will have to seriously
consider the increasing population o f our
country and state.
It appears that many congressm en and
state legislators make decisions that are un­
duly affected by big money lobbbies. Let’s put
these issues to the people, along with the re­
alities of each issue. Let us decide whether
we want an Oregon with natural resources for