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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 3, 1996)
^INDEPENDENT Serving the upper Nehalem River valley. Published twice monthly on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, by Public Opinion Laboratory Ltd., 725 Bridge Street, Vernonia, OR 97064, as a free newspaper Editors and Publishers, Dirk & Norii Andersen (503) 429-9410. ' ’ W hich p h ilo s o p h y will benefit Oregon? Oregon has become accustomed to the benefits of havl" 9 *¿;S: sena,ors with a lot of seniority, a situation which will change when Sen. Mark Hatfield retires In the January primary to replace Sen. Bob Pack- wood, voters may opt for Ron Wyden, a six-term con gressman, or for Gordon Smith, who is in his second term as a state senator. Gordon Smith is conservative, though not radically so; perhaps he should be described as semi-conser- vative He supports the Oregon Health Plan, but it's difficult to tell where he stands on issues of national importance because he has no national record. It’s obvious that he cares little about the environ ment, regardless of what his ads say. It isn’t simply that pollution from his own frozen food factory killed all organisms (not just fish) in a small stream, it’s his record of continued environmental violations, includ ing some in 1995. Of course, he modified the major problem at his frozen food processing plant with an By D avid M ichael Jones, member Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter environmental improvement grant of nearly $800 000 The grant means he doesn’t have to pay back the Oregon has five species of salmon that are axpayers’ money, but in his ads he tells how “he native to the coastal waters; the Chinook, saved an Oregon business’’. No, folks, your tax dol- coho, sockeye, chum and pink. Anglers have lars saved that business. long known of the coho, or silver salmon, as a Of h H 'h S VOIeS in the S,ate sena,e have loed ‘he line great sport fish that comes into our streams of b g business, not surprisingly, since he benefits with the fall rains. I grew up on a stream that most from measures that benefit big business. There had a run of native coho that supplied our family with some much-needed protein while I reason to think that will change in Washington, was growing up. Coho jack salmon (jacks are UC. He certainly will support continuing subsidies to early returning males) provided many an hour agriculture, especially subsidized irrigation water. If of angling pleasure and a number of meals for more salmon are killed, that’s okay by Smith, but a large, growing family on the Oregon coast. loans 7 °u y° Ur k'ds 9eltin9 9overnment-backed We called the fish silvers and I took my first loans for college and forget about grants-in-aid for one, a jack, on a red and white daredevil, rie n tf6 ,Staden,s: Remember, grants for college stu while I was in grade school. The stream I grew up on did not have a chinook run; I had to wait dents interfere with subsidies for millionaires. 'S llberal’ th0U9h not radically so, per haps he is best described as sem i-liberal. He’s a strong supporter of necessary social programs has m enu ?r re,Orm that includes w° rk require- 21®"’® ab ®'b° d,ed recipients and has worked ha d to keep the Oregon Health Plan from being de- railed at the federal level. ® m,m»v dar"'n9 ° f the environmental com- S 7 9 he may be endorsed hy s°m e envi ronmental organizations as being the lesser of two evils. He has not signed on to repeal the salvaqe-log- ging rider that allows ciearcutting of healthy trees along with dead and dying trees, nor has he given any indication that he intends to do so Wyden supports increased financial aid to educa- ion, including more loan and grant programs for col- ege students. He has voted for a balanced budqet (again, in spite of what Smith’s ads say), just not for the political game-playing that Hatfield couldn’t stom- ach, either. With the loss of seniority for Oregon in the senate Wyden s experience in Washington, D.C. will certainly be of more use to the state than Smith could be for several years. When it comes to philosophy, do we need to subsi- dize millionaires? No; Ron Wyden is a better choice. I grew up on down in Coos County, the cn was only a few miles long from w hen drained out of the lake and into the Pac Ocean and there was not a rock in it thi know of. So how did the coho spawn and produce their young, you might ask? Th would go up Tenmile Creek and Eel Cre and into the lakes and seek small tribute streams that drained into the lakes from t surrounding forests. In those small streai the coho, or silver salmon, would spawn in t fall, and later the other species of fish usi the system, the steelhead and the coastal ci throat, would spawn. In the late 1970s I organized a citizer group down in Lakeside to try to do somethii about the weed problem in the system. The was so much concern among the local peop for the declining coho runs that the weet were not the main issue. One positive thir that came out of those meetings was a loc involvement in the Salmon Trout Enhance ment Program and citizen awareness of tf decline of our salmon populations. Now, yeai later, the coho are in serious trouble statewic and a lot of the coastal towns in Oregon thi depend on the tourist trade and the coho sun mer ocean fishing have had serious drops i visitors. One good book on the salm on is F ie l Guide to the P acific Salmon, by Robei Steelquist, published by Sasquatch Books £ 1008 Western Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104 The phone number is (206) 467-4300.1 pick© up my copy at Powell’s in downtown Portlanc The book is actually a viewing guide and als< has a lot of information on the biology of thi fishes and is written in such a manner that it ii an easy and enjoyable read. Another bool that is well worth reading is Cosmos, by Car gan, and for those of you who are tired o hearing about fish, it w ill be a refresh ™ change, for it is about much larger things. until I was much older to take my first chinook down on the Elk River by Port Orford. The Elk has a run of chinook that comes in the month of December and I know of fresh fish coming into the system in the month of January. This is quite different than, say, the fall chinook of the Sandy River or of Tillamook streams, which are usually October fish. This is an example of the genetic diversity that makes many of our river systems and fishes unique. The fall chinook come into the river systems and are ready to spawn almost im mediately, unlike the spring chinook that come into the system in April, May and June and lay over to spawn in September and October. The oils and body fats that the “springers” have in their bodies help them survive through the summer months and are also the reason they make such good eating. One run of Columbia River springers that is lost for all time are the fabled “June Hogs” that were re ported up to sixty pounds. When the Grand Coulee Dam was built without fish passage, they were unable to get to their spawning grounds. The fish we have spawning in the Nehalem and Rock Creek in the fall are con I sidered spring chinook. These chinook and Lea9 u® meetings are the fall chinook are main stem spawners, that I ’ he third Wednesday of each month, is, they spawn in the big streams while the . .Vernonia nubile Library at 7:00 p.n¿ coho usually spawn in the smaller streams. The p ubtfc is welcome In the Tenmile Lake and Creek system, that
