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The INDEPENDENT, April 5, 2000
Tho
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. Phone/Fax:
(503) 429-9410.
Opinion
;
Vernonia attracting
the right attention
More than 400 walkers and bike riders registered for
last Saturday’s Volkswalk in Vernonia, sponsored by
the Cedar Milers of Beaverton. Everyone appeared to
have a good time and there were rave reviews from
visitors about the friendly and helpful people in Ver
nonia.
Does anyone think 400 visitors would have gone for
a walk in Vernonia 15 years ago? 12 years ago? No,
not even 10 years ago.
' ■
Iks Says. . .
By Dale E. Webb, member
Izaak Walton League, Nehalem
Valley Chapter
Judy Ferguson, left, of Keizer, leads the way for Donna Carver,
of Salem.
The Linear Trail started it; continued improvements,
especially a paved path around the lake, have in
creased the attraction. Streetscaping has done won
ders but, most important of all, are the efforts of both
citizens and local government to keep the town look
ing well-cared-for.
It wasn’t always like this. There was a time when the
town was run down from simple neglect; eyesores
were ignored, it was not a pretty sight. It would be
easy to become complacent and let things slide again
but, if we care enough, that won’t happen.
Independents may vote
in May 16 Demo primary
Voters who are registered as “non-affiliated” can
cast ballots in all of the Democratic primary races ex
cept for president. That selection is reserved for party
members. It won’t happen automatically, however. If
you are registered as non-affiliated, you must request
a Democratic ballot from your county elections office
no later than April 25.
The Oregon Republican party has not opened any
of its primary races to nonaffiliated voters.
Being registered as “independent” is not the same
as nonaffiliated. Independent voters may not partici
pate in the Democratic party primary race.
The Feds are coming! The
Feds are coming! No, that’s not
the cry of whiskey bootleggers,
but the cry of watershed coun
cils across Oregon. A review of
the 4-D rules recently released
by the National Marine Fish
eries Service (NMFS) makes
apparent that they view water
shed councils as a threat to the
very salmonid species the
councils are dedicated to sav
ing. In fact, the councils have a
two-year window of grace to
obtain an approved Watershed
Conservation Plan (WCP) or
their activities may be consid
ered a “takings” under the En
dangered Species Act.
For the life of me, I cannot
imagine how planting riparian
trees and constructing fences
to exclude livestock can be en
visioned as a threat to
salmonids, but someone in
NMFS apparently has astigma
tism. Those two activities were
specifically mentioned in the 4-
D rules. The state of Oregon
has responded with comments
to NMFS that were scalding, to
say the least. The Oregon plan
is the best vessel of hope to
save the salmonid populations
in this state, yet NMFS indi
cates they may torpedo the
ship. If this rule is imposed, co
ordinators of the 85 watershed
councils in Oregon will have to
scramble to comply with this
still undefined requirement.
This will be an impossible task
for watersheds that do not yet
have an assessment of their
watershed in progress or com
pleted. Instead of emphasizing
real, on-the-ground habitat
restoration, watershed coordi
nators will spend their time try
ing to navigate this new flood of
paperwork.
The proposed 4-D rules also
will torpedo the use of large
equipment in streams, elimi
nate the use of cable and rebar
to stabilize large woody debris
and will preclude timber com
panies from placing large
woody debris in streams during
forestry operations. Are the
people at NMFS brain dead or
what?!? These are some of the
most valuable tools in the
salmon restoration arsenal. It
appears that somebody at
NMFS has a vision of large,
old growth timber falling across
streams to provide all the need
ed large woody debris. I hope
that person can live another
150 years, because that's how
long it will be before it happens.
In the meantime, we must sup
plement the recruitment of
large woody debris whenever
the opportunity presents itself.
Also apparent in the 4-D
rules is that NMFS will target
fish hatcheries operated by the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife (ODF&W). In fact,
certain fall fisheries may be in
jeopardy this year, due to a
very short-time line for ODF&W
to document the fish runs in
Oregon streams, although
most of the fish in hatcheries
are hatchery fish. Don’t be sur
prised if hatchery production
across the state is dramatically
scaled back.
Recently ODF&W has come
under attack for clubbing
salmon at some of its Coastal
hatcheries. Some have even
theorized that ODF&W is killing
fish just to keep populations
down and thus have control
over private property rights.
This is pure hog wash! Let me
assure you, as slick as some of
ODF&W personnel are, they
aren’t that slick. The clubbing
of salmon has been going on
for decades, it's nothing new,
and is a purely logistical re
sponse to successful hatchery
operations. All streams have fi
nite resources to sustain fish
eries - just as a farmer can
only raise so many cattle on a
farm. Hatcheries cause an im
balance in the natural scheme
of things by increasing the
number of fish produced in a
river system. In order to effec
tively accomplish this, most of
the rearing and growth of
young fish occurs in the hatch
ery until they are ready to
smolt, then they are released
into the stream and go immedi
ately to the ocean. At this point,
the impact of the additional fish
from a hatchery is thought to be
minimal since they spend very
little time in a river system.
However, if the returning adult
hatchery fish were allowed to
spawn back in the wild, they
could overwhelm the available
feed and cause a collapse in
the river system fish popula
tions. Consider the situation
this way: A local cattle rancher
had a big feed lot operation
with lots of cattle and very little
pasture land. If, in the summer,
he released his cattle into the
surrounding hills then, when
winter came, he discontinued
his feed lot and let the cattle
graze only in the pasture, what
do you think would happen to
the cattle? This is what could
happen in a hatchery stream.
There are also concerns about
cross breeding of hatchery and
wild fish and whether hatchery
fish may outcompete wild fish
due to their earlier spawning
period. I agree with some of the
protesters that more informa
tion and involvement should
have been provided to the pub
lic before some of the manage
ment decisions were imple
mented.
In mid-March, I accompa
nied our district big game biolo
gist, Herman Biederbeck, on
the annual deer spotlighting
counts. We observed 12 deer,
which was three more than last
year, yet still woefully shy of the
low thirties of previous years.
Please see page 20