The independent., March 03, 2005, Page 2, Image 2

The
INDEPENDENT
Serving the upper Nehalem River valley. Published on the
first and third Thursdays of each month, by Public Opinion
Laboratory Ltd., 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064, as a
free newspaper. Publishers, Dirk & Noni Andersen. Editor,
Noni Andersen. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410, email: noni@
the-independent.net Display Advertising, Clark McGaugh,
email: clark@the-independent.net Classified Advertising,
Rebecca McGaugh, email: rebecca@the-independent.net
Correction: Last date to file
for district boards is Mar. 17
While urging interested people to file nomination papers for
school and fire district boards, we dropped a number. The last
day to file is March 17, not March 1.
Because of our error, however, some candidates have filed
without waiting until the last minute - which is appreciated by
elections office personnel.
Mist-Birkenfeld Fire District incumbents Bill deJaeger, Trish
Wright and Troy Horton have filed for re-election.
Frank Cieloha, who was appointed to a vacant Vernonia
Fire District seat, has filed for election to Position 1.
D. William Moore has filed for Banks School District Posi­
tion 2, currently held by Willis Meeuwsen.
Vernonia School District incumbent Cari Levenseller has
filed for re-election to Position 5. Three new candidates are
seeking seats, as well: Angela Taylor has filed for Position 1,
Leslie Barnes for Position 4, and Kim Wallace for Position 6.
These positions - 1 , 4 and 6 - are presently held by Ed Buck­
ner, Gienah Cheney and Jim Krahn, respectively.
The Vernonia School Board is of interest to many people
for many reasons, but one organizational situation that is par­
ticularly annoying to residents who try to attend board meet­
ings is their frequently changing meeting dates. The board
adopted the second Thursday of each month for their regular
meetings, but changes the schedule frequently. The March
meeting, for instance, will be on Tuesday, March 8, and April’s
“regular” meeting will be on the first Thursday, April 7.
While this board obviously feels no compunction at chang­
ing meetings for their convenience, it is very rare for most
boards. The five-person Vernonia Fire Board previously had
some problems, when they had too many members going
hunting at the same time, but it didn’t happen more than twice
in two years. Except for legal holidays, the five-person Ver­
nonia City Council hasn’t changed meeting dates more than
twice in four years. Yet the seven-person school board
changes meeting dates if the chairman can’t attend, or if they
aren’t sure of a quorum, or if it would be more convenient.
Emergencies happen, but these aren’t emergencies and they
don’t meet the spirit of “regular'’ meetings.
People who want to be involved on public boards must
also be committed to the requirements of those boards. Mak­
ing the time available, each month at the same time, is one
of those requirements, and it is done for the convenience of
the public, not the board members.
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YEAR. ¡ 7
ably better off with the clear and cold weather
than the cool and wet weather of a normal win­
ter. Hair loss is still with us, the reason people
Have any of you no­ seem to not be seeing so much of it is because
ticed the river this winter? there just are not a lot of deer left. I went almost
It sure is low. I checked two weeks, driving back and forth from work re­
the current river readings cently, without seeing a deer. A friend and I went
at Foss as I prepared this out coyote hunting a few weeks ago and spent
column and the gauge most of the day in the field and never saw one
showed the Nehalem flow­ deer, we did see two bull elk though! While out, I
ing at just under 800 cubic noticed how few deer tracks were imprinted in
feet per second (CFS), the the roadsides, yet elk sign was quite visible. I
average for this date over think I may have seen more coyote tracks than
the last 64 years is around 4,500 CFS. Now that deer! Nope, no coyotes, either!
is scary.
It sounds like the Wolves are coming to Ore­
So what effect is this low water having? That’s gon. You want to talk about a contentious issue!
a hard question to answer, but it surely is having Recently, the Oregon Department of Fish and
an impact on the amount of habitat available to Wildlife (ODF&W) adopted a plan with which to
salmonids. With the water flow being less than a manage the inevitable return of wolves to Ore-
fourth of what is normal, the pools are not as .gon. Many people in Eastern Oregon and a lot of
deep and the river edge is not up into the side sportsmen are not real happy with the idea. The
river habitat, which makes up most of the refuge livestock industry is understandably unhappy,
habitat for small fish. With the lack of cover habi­ since wolf predation on livestock is a given and
tat, fish will be more exposed to predation from the funding of payment for loss is questionable
birds. Fishermen have also noticed the effects of and onerous to prove.
low water. Steelhead fishing up and down the
Sportsmen are also unhappy with the
coast has been noted as slower than usual. Low prospect of adding another predator onto the
water also makes drifting rivers with boats hard­ backs of valued deer and elk herds. Predation by
er or more dangerous. Hopefully, we will get bears and cougars currently is at high levels in
some rain, but it will take a tremendous amount Eastern Oregon, and deer and elk herds are suf­
now to get us in shape for the summer.
fering, especially in the Northeast corner of the
The lack of rain may be helping big game state. Predation seems to be increasing in a
populations, since it usually means more sun, southwest direction from the northeast corner of
which starts new growth of vegetation with good
Please see page 21
protein values. Also, deer with hair loss are prob-
By Dale Webb, member
Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League