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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 6, 1999)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, January 6,1999 to . 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. Edi tors and Publishers, Dirk & Noni Andersen. Sports Edi tor, Caren McGaugh. Phone/Fax: (503) 429-9410. Anniversary marks one million papers Though there are folks who try to avoid the num ber 13 in any context, it is an interesting benchmark in the life of The INDEPENDENT In December we completed our thirteenth year of publication and realized that, in those thirteen years, The INDEPENDENT has printed and distributed one million free community newspapers. A million newspapers isn’t significant to a large, daily newspaper but, of course, we don’t fit that cat egory nor have we any desire to do so. After starting as a monthly newspaper, The INDEPENDENT even tually moved to twice a month and— all too soon— it will be time to consider the need for weekly publica tion. But not now. At this time, we want to thank the many, many people who have helped keep The INDEPENDENT going during the past 13 years. There have been many volunteer writers who have kept the communi ty informed about a wide range of subjects, while other volunteers have helped with production and circulation. There would be no free community newspaper without the advertisers who realize there is a good market in this area and actively seek to reach that market. Our advertisers are both vital and appreciat ed. One more ingredient is also vital: YOU—the loyal readers who show your appreciation by taking your business to the advertisers who pay for your free community newspaper. In the past 13 years, we have tried to help our community by providing an open forum for your let ters, printing everything that is signed; by explaining what is happening in city or county government; by letting you know what is coming up and by being a booster for the good things that happen in our com munity. We may not always meet your needs, but the ef fort is worth it and we’ll keep trying for the following reason: Without communication, there is no community. By Dale Webb, member Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter Happy New Year! Yes, it is again time to think about a new year. What surprises await us? Well I don’t have a crystal ball so you are on your own. We can gain some insight from what has happened this year though. Hunting: I would not expect any major changes in hunting seasons or bag limits in the coming year. Exceptions are the Wilson and Trask Units which will be under an October first season for elk, with an any-bull tag, and a late November spike-only second season. How much snow the state receives will determine the number of available animals for this coming sea son. This mainly affects Eastern Oregon. The decision on antlerless deer hunting in Saddle Mountain Unit will most likely be made this June. Fishing: Oh boy! What a can of worms! We can expect just about anything to happen this coming year. Coho are now listed as a threat ened species up and down the coast, including our area. ODF&W does have some limited fish eries on fin clipped coho (North Fork Nehalem and Trask) in our area. It will be anyone’s guess though if they will be able to continue. The prob lem stems from the incidental catching and killing of wild coho that also exist in the streams. Under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) the department must have a permit for this inciden tal take. The problem will most likely come in a lawsuit from an outside group which will be op posed to such limited takings. I don’t forsee any changes in cutthroat trout regulations that currently restrict fishing to catch and release. I feel there is room for a consump tive fishery in the Nehalem but this would need to be proven scientifically first. There seems to Nearly one-third of the students at Vernonia High be no motivation within ODF&W to pursue this School were recognized for improving their grade point issue. Regardless, this is a tremendous fishery averages during the first quarter of the 1998-99 school and I would only expect the size and number of fish to increase. year, by at least a half-point (0.5) over their G.P.A. at Steelhead fishing will most likely not see any the end of the last school year. Students and staff are changes, with the possibility of an ESA listing being remote. Again, lawsuits could change this to be commended for their efforts. Equally commendable was the enthusiasm shown fishery. Chinook appear to be doing well. The US vs. by the remainder of the student body for their peers’ Canada fish wars have helped this fishery to achievements. The pep band played, cheer leaders some degree. This fishery is also a shining indi performed, students cheered and clapped as the hon cator that something is not right for fish that have orees were called to the front. It was every bit as much to stay in fresh water for more than half a year. Chinook migrate to the estuary by fall in the fun as a sports assembly. same year that they hatch. Steelhead and coho Academic excellence is a tough goal, but it’s the stay in fresh water for at least a full year and in right goal. It’s good to see it actually become important the steelhead’s case usually at least two years. VHS program spotlights academic achievements in the Vernonia School District. On a brighter note, there have been some in dications that ocean conditions are changing back toward favorable for fish. We need to take advantage of this to rebuild our fish runs so the next time the ocean turns bad we will have a cushion of fish with which to guard against ex tinctions. The Upper Nehalem Valley Watershed Coun cil continues to do good work in the form of fish restoration projects and stream monitoring. Stream fencing and riparian planting occupy a large portion of the Hire The Fishers program crew and they have done a magnificent job. I predict that in 10 years a lot of people will be amazed at the sight of all the new conifers they will see growing along river banks in our area. You can already see results, if you take a close look. A group of Wastershed Council members were trained by the DEQ to evaluate water qual ity using a PH meter, Dissolved Oxygen meter, and Turbidity meter. Maggie Peyton, watershed council coordinator, and I spent about a day and a half checking turbidity in our local streams. The turbidity meter we used is a very straight forward device that measures the amount of light that passes through a sample from a light source. There is a digital read out that displays a unit of measurement called Nephelometric Turbidity Units, or NTUs. We measured samples from various streams on December 10, 11 and 1 2 .1 anticipated a learning experience and I was right. Often I have looked at a stream and thought to myself that it looked muddy. Now we can actually measure just how “muddy" the stream is. What became apparent right away was that the depth of the water in a stream has a large bearing on our perception of how “mud dy” a stream is. A person has a tendency to de clare deeper waters muddier than a smaller stream where they can see the bottom. We have found this to be a big misconception. We have also found that the human eye is very sensitive in disinguishing a slight amount of turbidity dif ference where two streams meet, yet is relative ly lousy in judging just how turbid water is in some streams is. Maggie and I started guessing what the tur bidity reading would be before reading the sam ple. We missed some of the samples by a long ways. To give you a perspective of the range of turbidity that we found, here are some of the readings we discovered on 12/10/98: Tap water from my house = .28 (good job Public Works), Nehalem River at Hwy 26 = 5, at Please see page 3
