P ag e2T h elN D E P E N D E N T , Nov. 8,1995
The
INDEPENDENT
Serving the upper Nehalem River valley. Published
twice monthly on the second and fourth Wednesdays of
each month, by Public Opinion Laboratory Ltd., 725
B rid g e S tre e t, V ernonia, OR 97064, as a free
new spaper. E ditors and P ublishers, Dirk & Noni
Andersen, (503) 429-9410.
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Charter, 47J facilities
meetings important
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It seems that everyone is busy, but even busy peo
ple need to understand the importance of two studies
currently underway in the area.
Tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Lincoln Grade School, citi
zens will have the opportunity to ask questions about
facilities in the Vernonia School District and express
what they feel should be given top priority in consid
ering improvements.
This will affect your pocketbook, but more than that,
it will impact the education of our children. Whether
you have children in the schools is not important.
What is important is that the community be involved
in the decision-making process.
Columbia County government will be the topic of a
meeting Monday night, Nov. 13, at 7:00 in the Wash
ington Grade School cafeteria. This will be the first of
five public meetings to find out what form of county
government citizens want-and to explain how a home
rule charter may make your ideal possible.
Home rule charters can take many forms so you
need to know why the charter review committee is
recommending some specific changes and asking
your opinion about othere potential changes.
Team disappointed
but did a great job!
In a first for Vernonia High School, the varsity vol
leyball team dominated league play, won at the dis
trict level and hosted the first round of state playoffs.
The team is, naturally, disappointed at their loss in
that first round.
Nevertheless, they have reason to be proud of their
efforts. They did a great job with hard work and good
sportsmanship. Four team members received All-
League honors and team captain Tarah Pond was
named League MVP.
Coach Dan Foss was honored, too, as his fellow
coaches named him Coach of the Year. Anyone who
has observed the concern, time and effort that Foss
expends, knows he earned that title.
Congratulations to all of you.
If you want to vote for
Packwood’s successor,
you must be registered
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The primary election to pick nominees for the Ore
gon senate seat vacated by former Sen. Bob Pack-
wood will be held Dec. 5. In order to be involved in
those choices, you must be a registered voter.
The last day to register for the Dec. 5 election is
Nov. 14, just six days away. This will also be the first
mail election for a federal position. It will be nice if
enough people take the time to open their envelopes,
mark their choices and return the ballot in time to be
counted. It’s not hard. Try it...it could become a habit.
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By David Michael Jones, member
Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter
As Dale Webb indicated in the last Ike col
umn, the salmon count Izaak Walton members
did for the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife (ODF&W) in the upper Nehalem and
Rock Creek was much better this year than
last year. In the area that I counted, I saw only
one fish last year and thirty-five this year. I
didn’t see any redds (redds are depressions of
cleaner gravel in the streams where salmon
lay their eggs) last year and saw over ten this
year.
The question I have for our biologists is
“Was this a better year throughout the Ne
halem drainage for the salmon count on this
spring Chinook or did the fish just come higher
in the drainage because of the wet spring and
summer we had?” A long time resident of the
Rock Creek Valley, Beulah Maiken, tells me
that there are always a lot more salmon fol
lowing wet summers. Beulah also told me of a
stream that was “full of salmon” when she was
a child. These were probably coho salmon,
which spawn in smaller streams. The stream
in question no longer exists, for all practical
purposes, for it is pretty much filled in with sift.
According to an informational leaflet revised
in 1980 called Salmon o f Oregon, the Chinook
salmon female may deposit eggs in several
redds and the number can be from 3,000 to
7,000 eggs with an average of 5,000. Many of
the young go to sea the first spring and sum
mer but some remain in the streams at least
one year. In a phone co n v e rs a tio n w ith
ODF&W biologist Walt Weber the other day,
he said that the female (chinook) will remain in
the area of the redd until she succumbs to her
natural end, dies and drifts off down stream.
All Pacific salmon die after spawning but the
steelhead, a seagoing rainbow trout, will often
live, return to the oceari and come back to
spawn again. Walt also said that steelhead will
leave as soon as the eggs are laid. My con
versation with Walt regarded a number of
questions about spawning chinook salmon. I
was curious about the fish remaining on the
redds and have observed the fights between
the maies while females prepare the redds by
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using their tails to dig a hole and clean the
gravel. The usually brighter female will lay on
her side in the water and thrash her tail up
and down to move the gravel. The males, on
the other hand, will often chase and bite each
other in the area of the female. Another ques
tion I had was if the fish could tell where there
was a redd by the cleaner gravel and the de
pression in the bottom. Walt said there is a
possibility of the fish superimposing on a redd
if all available gravel is taken. This is an excel
lent reason to leave the gravel in the stream
or perhaps even add gravel to a system that
has been depleted over the years.
The spawning activity is quite interesting to
watch and Oregon Trout and others have a
spawning watch and salm on feed on the
Sandy every year with thousands of people at-
te n d in g . The salm on th a t are e a ten are
Alaskan Coho, not Oregon fish which are in
serious trouble. Here would be an opportunity
for Vernonia to have a tourist draw that would
help local businesses and educate the public.
In the direction of education, I would like to
caution those wading our streams to be on the
watch for the redds because the eggs can be
“killed” while in the gravel.
A book I would like to recommend is Moun
tain in the Clouds, A Search fo r the W ild
Salmon, by Bruce Brown. The publisher is Si
mon and Schuster in New York and I under
stand it is to be reprinted soon, or already has
been. You can check with your favorite book
store and perhaps order it.
In closing, I would like to thank Longview
Fibre and Cavenham Forest Products for leav
ing some of their gates open for the public. At
the same time, I want to caution everyone to
treat private land with the respect and care
that we would take of our own.
Also— all of Tillamook County is barbless
for fishing— let’s do it statewide.
Izaak Walton League meetings are
the third Wednesday of each month,
Vernonia Public Library at 7:00 p.m.
The public is welcome