PRESORTED STANDARD
U.S. Postage Paid
Vernonia, OR 97064
Permit No. 37
Vol. 20, No. 19
“Voice of the Upper Nehalem River Valley”
Public help needed to combat
knotweed in Nehalem watershed
Pumpkin Fun
A lot of youthful energy and concentration was expended
on carving those pumpkins just exactly right. More
Salmon Festival photos may be found on page 24.
Superintendent resigns from 47J;
Kingsley is acting superintendent
The resignation of Vernonia
School District Superintendent
Michael Funderburg was unan-
imously accepted by the dis-
trict’s Board of Directors at an
emergency meeting on Friday,
September 30. The resignation
became effective on October 1.
When
board
chairman
Randy Hansen requested a
motion to appoint an acting su-
perintendent, Dick Brunsman
nominated retiring administra-
tor Anne Kingsley. The board
October 6, 2005
appointed Mrs. Kingsley by a
vote of 3 to 2, with Kim Wallace
and Angie Taylor joining Brun-
sman. Cari Levenseller and
Debbie Brown opposed the ap-
pointment and Hansen ab-
stained. Board member, Tim Ti-
tus, was not present.
Kingsley was scheduled to
retire from 47J district on Octo-
ber 1. She will serve while the
board works through the
process of hiring a new super-
intendent.
The Upper Nehalem Water-
shed Council needs the pub-
lic’s help to identify locations of
Japanese and Giant Knotweed
infestations and to assist in
plant eradication to the greatest
extent possible.
Japanese and Giant Knot-
weed are invading Washington,
Columbia, Clatsop and Tillam-
ook County’s Nehalem River
and streams. It spreads quickly
and grows fast. A patch can
double in size every year. Once
it starts growing, it shades out
all other plants, leaving bare
ground underneath. Knotweed
dies back in the winter leaving
bare soil on river and stream
banks that can easily erode.
Because it overshadows all
other plants, even blackberries,
it is impossible to get native
plants re-established in a
knotweed patch. Eventually the
knotweed will displace native
vegetation and new riparian
trees and shrubs will be unable
to establish themselves along-
side this highly aggressive non-
native specie.
The result will be a signifi-
cant decline in streamside
forests that naturally provide
shade, habitat and forage for
native fish and wildlife, stream
temperatures will continue to
rise and salmon will continue to
decline.
Since the 1996 flood, the
knotweed infestation has ex-
ploded in the Nehalem River
and surrounding basins…
such as Scappoose Bay and
Lower Columbia watershed
basins. Numerous small patch-
es exist in Timber, Vernonia,
Mist, Birkenfeld, Jewell and
Elsie. Downstream of Elsie the
infestation becomes continu-
ous on both sides of the Ne-
to stop this threat to the natural
ecosystem.
The Upper Nehalem Water-
shed Council extensively sur-
veyed and inventoried knot-
weed patches on the banks of
the Nehalem during April, May
and June of 2004 and 2005.
The survey has given the coun-
cil a general idea of the extent
of the infestation and how
much time, money and effort is
Japanese
halem and explodes out onto
the Nehalem Bay and North
Fork Nehalem flood plain.
Knotweed was able to colonize
in areas scoured out by the
flood waters and continues to
spread. Action is needed now
Knotweed
needed to eradicate this nox-
ious weed.
In late June of 2004 and
2005 the council began treating
smaller patches close to the
water. A licensed herbicide ap-
Please see page 4
Emergency responders now have
updated mobile wireless system
Vernonia High School athletic fields looked like a hive of big bumblees, September 16, when
tents were erected for 2,000 Cycle Oregon participants and support personnel.
Columbia County’s first re-
sponders are now using a wire-
less mobile data system, an im-
portant new communications
tool made possible through
Homeland Security grant
awards.
The new system, built upon
the Columbia 9-1-1 Communi-
cations District microwave
backbone, provides public
safety call information to law
enforcement patrol vehicles
and to fire and emergency
medical apparatus via wireless
data transmission.
“The system provides impor-
tant supplemental communica-
tions to the countywide voice
Please see page 5