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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 4, 2003)
Page 2 The INDEPENDENT, December 4, 2003 The INDEPENDENT Serving the upper Nehalem River valley. Published twice monthly, on the first and third Thursdays of each month, by Public Opinion Laboratory Ltd., 725 Bridge Street, Vernonia, OR 97064, as a free newspaper. Publishers, Dirk & Noni An- dersen. Editor, Noni Andersen. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410, e-mail: noni@vernonia.com Display Advertising, Clark Mc- Gaugh, 503-429-9410, e-mail: clark@vernonia.com Opinion City, Museum dropped from Historical Society law suit The Columbia County Historical Society got one thing right: It was unreasonable to sue either the City of Vernonia or the Vernonia Pioneer Museum for wanting to keep donations from Vernonia residents in the Vernonia museum. The historical so- ciety wants to fight Columbia County over who has ownership of the collections, but neither the City nor the Museum organ- ization claims ownership. The City owns the building that houses the museum, not the artifacts. The museum associa- tion acts as caretakers. City Attorney Julie Coontz-Steffen was right on the mark when she wrote: “This lawsuit does a terrible disservice to the members of our community who donated their cherished items as histori- cal artifacts to be viewed in Vernonia and appreciated by the members of this community. To attempt to remove them…is a malicious and malevolent ripping away of the heritage of Ver- nonia’s citizens…” Of course, none of this has answered the question about what happened to the native American artifacts that disap- peared from the Vernonia museum when it was locked up at the behest of the society. Those irreplaceable items are still missing. Santa, tree lighting event are missing In years past, the Vernonia Chamber of Commerce sched- uled a visit from Santa Claus for all the kids (and parents) who wanted to whisper in Santa’s ear. Then, a few years ago, one merchant said he could do a better job, so the chamber ac- quiesced. Now that merchant has dropped it, but didn’t bother to mention to anyone in the chamber. So, parents who want to get a picture of their children with Santa should take them to the Christmas Bazaar at Washington Grade School, either Saturday or Sunday, Dec.6-7. Also missing is a tree lighting ceremony with a choir and sing-along. Vernonia Pride took over that event from the chamber a few years ago, also, but have dropped it this year because attendance declined. There will be a tree lighting, but no music to accompany it. There are plenty of musicians in Vernonia so next year, perhaps, another old-fashioned sing- along can be arranged. Probable rescheduling for Town Hall It isn’t definite, but the second phase of the Town Hall for economic development will probably be postponed until Janu- ary. Too many participants will be unable to attend in Decemb er. Watch for future announcements. Ike Says… By Dale E. Webb, Member Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League This year’s hunting sea- son in the local area was both a bust and a blast. The Blacktailed deer sea- son was the bust and the Roosevelt elk season was the blast. Deer hunting in the Sad- dle Mountain and sur- rounding units has been on a steady decline. I finally got my hands on some data from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife regarding hunting in the Saddle Moun- tain unit for 2001 and 2002. Rifle harvest has declined from 712 bucks in 1999 to 374 bucks during the general season in 2002. Reports from local hunters indicate that this year’s harvest was low, again. Small bucks were also scarce in the harvest this year, this bodes lower buck har- vests in the future. Some real nice bucks were taken, as has been happening in the last few years, but I get the sense that we are just har- vesting the last remaining mature bucks. Future years will almost certainly get leaner as long as the Hair Loss Syndrome continues to raise hav- oc with deer herds. While hunting elk this year, I noticed that deer numbers were real spotty, with some areas having a lot of sign and other areas having very little sign. Elk season this year was very good for rifle hunters, with the second season seeing a lot of bulls taken. Archery hunters suffered with a hot and mostly locked out season this year, although it seems that a fair number of bulls were taken, regardless. The first rifle season saw normal har- vests, but the second season really caught on fire with arrival of wet, windy and snowy weath- er. The rifle elk season in the Saddle Mountain unit has had some major changes in recent years and this may have led up to the big second season harvest. In 2000, hunter numbers in each season were limited to 1500 tags, which resulted in nearly 1000 fewer tags sold in the two seasons, combined. The following year, the sea- son length was shortened to the old four-day first season and seven-day second season. The re- sults of fewer tags and shorter seasons were clearly observed in the harvest. In 1999, 465 bulls were harvested during the two seasons. In 2000, the first year of tag reductions, the harvest fell to 309 bulls and in 2001, the first year of shorter seasons, the harvest was 299. The har- vest climbed slightly in 2002 to 321. This year, my guess is that we will see a harvest close to 500 bulls. While cutting hunter numbers and season length will reduce harvest under normal circumstances, as the bull population rises, the odds of bagging a bull increase and, with this year’s weather during the second season, the odds went up even further. I learned a lesson this year while elk hunting. A hunter’s boots are one of his most relied upon assets. I have two sets of boots that I use, a set of caulks and a set of knobbys. Both are the leather-upper and rubber-lower type of boot. They have served me well and I usually come home each night with dry feet. This year I hap- pened to grab hold of my son’s boots, which look just like mine. I even thought they might be his but, since we both wear size 10, I didn’t worry. Please see page 21
