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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (June 5, 1996)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, June 5,1996 »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 & Noni Andersen, (503) 429-9410. Who is serving whom? Members of West Oregon Electric Cooperative understandably resent being treated as faceless, nameless “consumers”, because they know they are member/owners of the utility. Even the letterhead sta tionery of WOEC emphasizes that fact with the slogan “Owned by the members we serve’ . Given that situation, the board of directors is to be commended for making tentative efforts to do what the slogan says. It is helpful to courteously provide infor mation requested by members, without having to be reminded that WOEC is neither a private utility nor a little fiefdom. Autocratic behavior has no place in a cooperative endeavor of any sort. A similar situation exists in the administration of the Vernonia School District. Here is an important endeav or that is paid for by the people who use it. but who are seldom consulted about operations. A case in point is a letter n this issue of The INDEPENDENT that ques tions why the district office was the first p!ace repaired after the flood. Why wasn't priority given to teaching'earning space, instead? The question is valid and a response should be forthcoming. It s time, too. for the school administration to stop acting as though its a terrible chore to provide meet-ng agen das. meeting minutes, or other information requested by residents of the district. Here, as in the case of West Oregon, people of the district are not consumers, they are. in fact, called "patrons’ by the d,strict and. as patrons, they provide most of the income that Is used to operate the district. The board of directors here. too. is working to tum things around. That’s good, but here is one sugges tion: Involve more of the community when you are considering important administrative procedures, h r- tng a orincioal. changing a policy or whatever. Remember, cooperation goes two ways: to get it. you have to give it. Minority rule is great, but only for the minority Shoud every- acult citizen of the Unted States be a «cwec to vote? The va tofty of this hasn’t been questioned snce — norites and women won the nght to vote some qjesdons a e now beng raised about ba »ots cast r a ma etocton, by beopie who can neither make t to the polls nor request an absentee ba tot when the election conducted by m a t question that cones to m nd is. Who is actus y casting a those ~ a - r Pa c t s ’’ Wflh a record tow turnout for Oregon r the May pri- ~ary—*ust over 37 percent of registered voters Poth ered to cast a bafot—non-voters obvousy have deeded that minority rule s ust xne with them And the ~ norip who vote ce ria n y ha ye no reason to ob«eet tc me power awarded them by default Instead of oorrvertng a eechons tc ~ a - r Paftot- n c ft may be wiser tc reoure that a A re -c a n s of vot ing age pass a test of T n r u r competency. Tne nfoi— a to r i— «grants have tc earn r ome’ to become U S citizens m ight be a pooc place tc start I W e ! thought we weae in GOOD H A N D S Sy Da e H are ~ie~£>er zaa\ IVafo- ieegue Ateha/em Valley Chapter By the time you read this article, the second weekend of stream trout season will have passed I talked to some of the people that toed the Nehalem River and Rock Creek dur ing the last two weeks and the news sounds pretty good. One friends stated “It was the best fishing in recent years’ Their boat caught around 80 fish in a six mile drift. Another re port. from two fishermen drifting down Rock Creek, was of about 50 fish apiece, one a 16 inch cutthroat and an unconfirmed report of a steelhead: boy. I bet that was a tussle on light trout rigging. Of course there was a lot of catch and re ease fishing going on since the trout - mrt is 5 fish. Everybody was claiming to have caught nice see fish.too, ranging from 10 to 16 inches. Water cordftions were the best in the last decade The Nehalem looked like it might be too high and muddy for the opener but cleared .»us: in time, thanks to a let-up in the relentless so-ng rams we have been experiencing. The rivers were a little high and many boaters re ported having a hard time troBmg large spin- ners with a worm trailer and that they flew through the holes too fast to cover them ade quate^ Some of the better fishing was done from noats that anchored and fished the side wate-s w£h sm aler sptnner and worm combi nations A gar anchonng to some of the better holes was hard to do because of the strong currents -s h n g s h o jd continue to be good until the nvws drop n e o * Poacmg levels After that it w il be a che st wader show and should be good fishng until the rvere warm up and the fish - w e o u of the m a r “»»ere Anglers oeec v use caution when planning a drift tnp especial»» ? you're new to the area ~*rere w ere re p o rts of tre e s a c ro s s Rock Creek, reghe- up and there is a tree across the Nehalem at me pnoge about a mde north of t o w •«toch was nassao*e ounn- high wa le ’ but nee pe as the rever drops) C-heck w»it- = o c a r the ares that p a ^ to fish to melee sure r s passable Most of the -v e t be- •ow V e rn o n « seems Tc be wnoe open; above tow»- is prx»ac»k arothe* mane* Ausc he caretj where you pare vour vet>- c*e Uare tro p e s are usee as a u n c h n c and landing sites and if your vehicle is parked in the way, it could get dragged around by some body’s winch. The wide spot just downstream from the green steel bridge, here in town, is a launching site. To avoid problems, please do not park on the west side of the highway for it impedes boaters from winching their boats up from the river. I haven’t had any reports from fishermen in the smaller streams and would be interested in knowing what you are finding in the way of fish. Small tributaries of the Nehalem River re main good fishing throughout most of the sum mer, but require different tactics than the big water. Drifted worms or crawdad tails work good, as do rooster tails and assorted other small lures. Flies also are excellent choices for drift fishing, although a long fly pole can have its drawbacks in a vinemaple patch. Small creek fishing is a stalking game, one must keep a low profile while approaching the holes and then gently lower his bait or lure into the head of the pool and drift it back to the waiting fish. Pay particular attention to undercut banks and roots, these tend to hold good fishing. Also use a large piece of bait, for this will usu ally discourage sublegal size fish from getting hooked deep, which means unnecessary fish kills. My favorite bait is a whole crawdad tail fresh from the stream and peeled from its shell. I fish this on a #8 or #6 hook with no weight, the #6 hook will reduce hooking mor tality while catching mainly bigger fish. 4 to 6 pound test line is required for keen sighted cuts. It is also wise to keep tabs on what the fish are eating by looking at the stomach contents of some of your first keeper fish, if they are eating a lot of insects maybe the fishing would be better with the fly pole. Cutthroat trout fishing in our area may be to doubt due to concern abut the sea-run species of cutthroat trout There are proposals in front of the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife (ODF&W) commissioners to end the cutthroat fishery’ until the sea-runs rebuild It would be a shame to have this happen to such a tremen dous fishery. but may be unavoidable Sea-run c utthroat trout look the same as resident fish and the juveniles stay instream until they are about 10-12 inches in length That's where the problem is - we are probably harvesting a lot Please see page 7
