^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.
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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