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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