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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 15, 1999)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, December 15,1999 tx . INDEPENDENT UBA 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. Phone/Fax: (503) 429-9410. ( 1 ( 1 / \ I LLENNlUn V - ' 4 c< £ Emergency plans ready for whatever happens Some people are concerned about problems that may occur at the end of 1999, when clocks on many, many computerized functions roll over to 2000. Others are concerned about problems that may occur as a re sult of flooding or other natural disaster. People in the upper Nehalem Valley have already learned - the hard way - that it’s only sensible to be ready for whatever may happen. Because of that experience, Vernonia’s emergency response team met at the end of November to review procedures and look for any potential problems that may have been missed. Included in the meeting were representatives from Vernonia Rural Fire District, Co lumbia County Sheriff’s Office, West Oregon Electric, City of Vernonia administration, police department and public works; Red Cross, Vernonia Amateur Radio Klub, Metro West Ambulance and Columbia County Emergency Management. Others who are part of the team but weren’t able to attend, have been briefed on the meeting. Residents of the area can be assured that if any emergency arises, the response will be both prompt and appropriate, including procedures to keep the public informed of any danger. While phones, water, electricity and gas are expect ed to function in the normal manner, emergency per sonnel will be on duty New Year’s Eve in case they are needed. As Vernonia Mayor Art Parrow said, “ ...better to be prepared for a disaster that doesn’t happen, than not be prepared for one that does happen.” In brief, have fun on New Year’s Eve - don’t drink and drive, or shoot weapons into the air at the stroke of midnight - just enjoy the community fireworks dis play at midnight. They will be be set up behind Ver nonia High School. Weather records? What are they? Columbia County’s Emergency Response Action Plan includes Y2K Hazard Analysis, complete with charts, organizational charts delineating the line of command for both normal and expanded operations and, on Attachment No. 3, Page 30, expected weath er at the year’s end, but not for here because: “The temperatures at Vernonia and Mist are not tab ulated but are always several degrees colder because of the higher elevation and other factors.” Gee, who wiped out those 50-plus years of Vernon ia weather records? Someone from the courthouse? — NOTICE — The INDEPENDENT is published on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. There are five Wednesdays in December, so there will three weeks between this issue and the first issue in January. Deadlines for the Jan. 5, 2000, issue will be Dec. 31, 1999, for both news items and display advertis ing, and Jan. 3 for classified ads. The INDEPENDENT will be closed during the week of Dec. 20. It will re-open Dec. 27, 1999. ■ *;• .<***•.• £ X T € A /C > 6 X > — AR EA æ ^ 5 â £ - - ; -------------------------------- 1 IH I By Dale Webb, member Izaak Walton League, Nehalem Valley Chapter It feels like I have been hunting for the last two months. Deer season took a while to get started, due to high fire danger, but finished with a bang! I spent a week hunting elk in Eastern Oregon in October, then came home to finish my deer hunting. Then I spent a lot of time with my son, trying to help him find a buck. He came close, but made the right decision when he had a buck standing about forty yards away, broad side and wide open. The problem was, the buck was looking straight at us and we couldn’t find forks in the dimming evening light. Sometimes not pulling the trigger is the only ethical decision you have in a difficult situation. I think the buck was a forked horn, but am not absolutely sure. Then came the first west side elk season. I didn’t have a tag, but scouting for my friends, the King brothers, was a lot of fun. I didn’t help their luck much, but we enjoyed the hunt. Then it was time for another week of vacation and six days of scouting/guiding my son for elk. Of course I also scouted on the days that Michael was in school. Mike never got the opportunity to squeeze the trigger on a bull, but I’m sure he learned a lot about how his father and grandfather hunt elk. Mike is learning how to hunt the brush, to track elk and think like an elk. He also learned, on Thanksgiving day, that being totally drenched by the rain is not the end of the world, that it just takes a shift in the state of mind to find out it re ally isn’t unbearable. At the end of the season, he remarked that the hills didn’t seem as steep as they did at the beginning. We both dreamed of how strong our bodies would be if we could just hunt elk for a living. I suppose the timber falt ers and chokerdogs in the woods know. The deer season this year was definitely slowed by the late fall fire danger, but it finished with a lot of bucks being taken. Both elk seasons were slow by all accounts, though there were some very nice bulls taken. Poaching and illegal kills were, by Oregon State Police accounts, some of the lowest they have seen in recent years. The only black mark on this year’s season was the discovery of two poached buck deer lo cally. One deer was found with just the horns cut off; on the other, the horns, back straps and quarters were taken. The latter buck was thought to have been killed during the second elk season. Oregon State Police are also report ing a growing problem with people who are recreationally spotlighting during big game sea sons. While it is not illegal to spotlight as long as ' a lethal weapon is not present, it causes a loss of valuable time and resources for OSP when they have to chase down these people. OSP uses both aerial observation and ground pursuit vehicles to apprehend suspected poachers. The North Coast Game Association pur chased signs that were put up this year on main access roads in the Saddle Mountain Unit, mak ing clear that it was a 3-point only area. Some body apparently had an affinity for these signs. Perhaps they make good wall decorations, or maybe would-be illegal hunters hated seeing a reminder that they were in the wrong unit. In any case, a lot of the signs disappeared and, at a cost of $4 per sign, this is quite offensive to an organization that paid for those signs with a $10 membership fee. I talked to a law enforcment of ficial about how to deal with an individual who is caught with one of the signs. We both agreed it would be best dealt with by two big Swedes from Astoria. So, if you have one of these signs, I wouldn’t put it up on the wall, because we will find out about it eventually. The Wilson/Trask hunt this year created a lot of confusion, not only for hunters, but within the ODF&W. For some reason, a lot of people thought they could hunt both the October season and the November season. It also became ap parent that some of the confusion originated from within ODF&W. Apparently an official at the Portland office was giving out incorrect informa tion. To exacerbate the problem, the tags this year did not have dates printed on them like all of the rest of the tags in the state. According to Herman Biederbeck, our District biologist, this problem will definitely be taken care of next year. Results of the new hunting format in the Wil son/Trask unit are not yet available, but prelimi nary results seem to indicate a lower overall bull harvest, with one exception; there seemed to be a higher than usual large bull harvest. Talking with North Coast Game Association people and checking the bulls I saw in town, we came up with a 17-7 branched antlered to spike bull count in the October season. This is almost a total about face of the harvest ratio that would occur in a November first season. This may be a rea son for concern, but we will not know until we can review the final bull harvest statistics. The hair loss syndrome in Blacktailed deer is expected to show up again this winter, and one case has already been reported near Astoria. Washington State University has been investi gating this deer-killing syndrome and has rea sonably concluded that the lung worm/lice infest- Please see page 3 rr ?• A, ..7,*• 7 r< «e M
