The independent., October 01, 1997, Page 2, Image 2

M9HR
Page 2
n.
-,
...-I .... - - - - .»
,< .
>
The INDEPENDENT, October 1,1997
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.
► ... çAA K£ s
**
:CO MM UNITY--
4U.
e?» tai * 1-
Does anyone really
want information?
One week ago, a town hall meeting was held in Ver­
nonia to discuss county jail problems, including over­
crowding, and to seek any solutions residents might
offer.
Among those who came, prepared to answer every
question asked, were Columbia County Commission­
ers Jack Peterson, Joel Yarbor and Tony Hyde;
Judges Berkeley Smith and Rod McLean, Sheriff Phil
Derby, Sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Oviatt, county jail manager
Jim Gibson and corrections officer Lee Rigdon; coun­
ty director of finance Paul Downey, Chris Iverson
(chairman) and Sam Patrick, who have been studying
the situation as part of a county-wide citizen’s commit­
tee; Cliff Multanen from Community Corrections (pro­
bation and parole), St. Helens Police Officer Mike
Cocklin; Dave Hanlon, a Scappoose resident who was
construction manager of the new Tillamook County
Jail, and Dennis Liebert, president of Liebert & Asso­
ciates, a correctional planning and design firm based
in Boulder, Colorado.
Vernonia area residents in attendance were Hyde,
McLean, Oviatt and this reporter (One other local per­
son was there briefly, but she had attended the meet­
ing the prior night at Mist.).
How county government operates has an effect on
county residents. How the county jail operates will af­
fect all of county government. Among other, more tan­
gible problems, it is a lawsuit (or another lawsuit) wait­
ing to happen.
It is bad enough that ordinary citizens don’t want to
know about the potentially huge expenditure facing
everyone in the county—though they’ll whine later that
“nobody told us anything about it”— but even worse, in
fact totally unfathomable, is that no one in city govern­
ment wants to know, either.
There wasn’t a single representative of city govern­
ment...no councilors, no administrators and no one
from the police department.
There were no representatives from the business
community, neither the chamber of commerce nor the
downtown business association, though they always
say they want to know what their taxes are being
spent for.
There were no representatives from the school dis­
trict...no board members, no administrators, no teach­
ers... though they are affected by the amount of tax
money used for any purpose (It all comes from the
same pot.) and they would be expected to have ques­
tions about how juvenile corrections will be handled,
but apparently that isn’t important.
“As citizens of this democracy, you are the rulers
and the ruled, the lawgivers and the law-abiding,
the beginning and the end. ”
Adlai Stevenson, 1952
If Stevenson had seen the kind of citizenship dis­
played here, he would have stricken those words.
They don’t apply to people who have the opportunity
to learn...and refuse to do so.
*
«.
* -«T » -
V
r '* '
» #
►it*/-
'
r ' -.\
5=-
a
i
&/ a
You bdvF
X
'•{'A
6 o T T A
/
p o < r <C ô h P u ^« zu
oA. G o
you
o v T • 1 J
Sy David Michael Jones, member
Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter
PUBLIC COMMENT SOUGHT ON
PROPOSED RULES FOR MANAGE­
MENT OF STATE FOREST LANDS
‘The proposed rules will clarify statutes that
authorize the Oregon State Forester to secure
the greatest permanent value for almost
800,000 acres of state forest land, most of which
is located in Northwest Oregon. The proposed
rules also cover the purpose of the lands, the
stewardship policy for state-owned lands, forest
management planning, and land base designa­
tion and classification."
The preceding paragraph and the headline
are from a dept. of forestry release that I
received because I have been writing to them
with concerns over landslides into streams and
onto public roads throughout the state. Most of
these landslides originated from clear cut slopes
above the stream or highway. Many were on pri­
vate land and not on state land so the rules per­
haps won’t apply here; but I think the people
whose houses were destroyed and the fish that
have died wouldn’t be concerned with those dis­
tinctions.
Written comment regarding these rules
should be sent to Jeri Chase, Oregon
Department of Forestry, 2600 State Street,
Salem, Or. 97310. I would suggest that anyone
writing also send a copy of their letter to
Governor John Kitzhaber, M. D., State Capitol,
Salem, OR 97310, and I hope that a lot of fish­
ermen and fisherwomen take a moment to write
in with their concerns. Many people don’t realize
that not only these 800,000 acres are their prop­
erty, as citizens of the State of Oregon, but that
the water and the fish are also the property of
the people of the state and not the exclusive
property of those who are fortunate enough to
own land adjacent to the streams. In the past,
the State [public] owned lands have been “man­
aged” as tree plantations for income to the state
and the timber industry and, it seems, the
Oregon Dept. of Forestry wants to continue this
way forever.
This greatly concerns me as a fisherman
because it is not a coincidence that the fish in
the greatest danger (including those facing
extinction)—sea-run cutthroat trout, Coho
salmon and the mighty steelhead—are those
that stay in fresh water for at least a year, and
some as much as three or four years, before
»
v / oa / t
oiaj • I
they smolt and go to sea. Fish can’t read a map
and will die whether they are abused on public
land or private land, so it won’t hurt to ask that
logging companies be required to be more
responsible for their actions on private land, too.
By sending copies of your letters to the gov­
ernor’s office, we are attempting to increase cit­
izen input into the processes that affect their
public land and water. To make it easier for
those wanting to get involved, I will finish this
column with some proposals for changes in the
Forest Practices that are fish and people friend­
ly; this way, perhaps we can prevent more of our
fishes from dying.
Under current laws a culvert can be used to
“kill” a stream and the timber companies are
rewarded by being allowed to log the area
upstream of the culvert because now that it no
longer has fish in it, it has become an “N”
stream. Vegetation retention and riparian zone
protection are not required for small N Streams
in the Coast Range or the Westen Cascades.
This N designation also allows the headwaters
of a fish bearing stream to be logged when there
are no fish in that area of the stream. This area
of the stream often is the cool spring origin, or
birth place of the stream, which sends cool
water into the whole system. When it is logged,
there is no shade left to protect the water and it
heats up. Our readers probably remember the
importance of cool water, which holds more oxy­
gen than warm water. Warm water kills
salmonids, too. The area downstream is further
compromised by silt and sediment that smothers
the eggs of fish in the gravel, hides food from
newly emerged fry, cause clubbing on the gills
[making it hard to breathe] and fills in the back
eddies that smaller fish need to hide in off the
main current. We need to eliminate the type N
designation from the rules and protect a//waters
of the State.
Steep slopes above homes, streams and
roads should not be clear cut and should be har­
vested very carefully, if at all. If stumps or logs
end up in someone’s living room, they should be
compensated. There should be a serious fine for
any landslides into streams and those landslides
should be planted with a quick growing grass to
hold the slope and prevent the stream from fill­
ing up with mud. When stumps end up on pub­
lic roads like they did all over Western Oregon,
the company that logged above the road should
pay the wages and all costs for the clean-up by
reimbursing the county and state road crews
Please see page__