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The INDEPENDENT, July 3, 2008
The
INDEPENDENT
Published on the first and third Thursdays of each month by
The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064.
Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410.
Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net
Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net
Mentor Noni Andersen
Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes
Opinion
Loss of “County payments”
means loss of vital services
Before you continue this opinion, you need to under-
stand that the federal government pays no Oregon tax-
es, although it pays about $1.5 million in lieu of taxes.
Also, the federal government owns more than 50 per-
cent of the land in Oregon.
That is why 23 Oregon counties have traditionally re-
ceived payments based on federal timber harvests.
The Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Deter-
mination Act of 2000 was approved for four years, and
renewed in 2007 for one year at reduced funding.
Those counties have known since 2006 that major re-
ductions were likely in the compensation formula. Nev-
ertheless, this fiscal year was a shock, not because of
reductions, but because of a total loss of about $255
million to offset federal impacts. The loss hits the coun-
ties in varying amounts, with some up to as much as
69 percent of their General Funds.
It would seem that Columbia County, which will lose
$2.2 million, about 23 percent of the discretionary
amount in their General Fund, hasn’t been hit as hard.
Not quite, perhaps, but rose-colored glasses won’t
hide the damage; we will feel it.
Columbia County is not a big spender in comparison
to most other counties, and the discretionary part of
the General Fund is what pays for basic services, in-
cluding law enforcement. Now, as employees retire or
leave their jobs, they probably won’t be replaced. Even
with this strategy, about 10 employee positions will be
eliminated.
Like everyone else, every piece of equipment the
county uses operates on high priced fuel. Supplies will
be reduced, services will be reduced and fees will be
increased. Ordinary citizens will now pay at the coun-
ty/local level for our national obsession with Iraq and
petroleum.
A recent attempt by Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR) for
Continued on page 3
We’ve heard this song before
The newest termination date for the contract of erst-
while Interim Administrator/City Administrator, now Fi-
nancial Manager M.R. “Dick” Kline was June 30, 2008,
but he’s still here. Vernonia still hasn’t been de-Klined.
Stay tuned for the next chorus.
Ike Says…
By Dale Webb, member
Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League
Well, are there some
long faces in your house-
hold? Yep, the annual big
game draw is over and the
winners and losers know
who they are. I was really
banking on drawing an an-
telope tag this year, but it
looks like it will have to be
next year. That is too bad,
since this year’s antelope bucks should grow
some exceptional horns. The wet, late spring
should produce above average forage in the
desert this year and antelope horn growth is di-
rectly related to forage conditions.
It is time to discuss Blacktailed deer again,
many of you painfully know that deer hunting in
our region is poor. I bring this up because
ODF&W is currently going through the process of
adopting a Blacktailed Deer Plan. You can go on
line at ODF&W’s website and review this docu-
ment. There is some very good data presented in
the plan, with some new research numbers com-
ing from a study in southern Oregon. But the
plan fails to mention data that was gathered in
our local area during the antlerless deer morato-
rium study conducted in the ‘90s. While the plan
does accurately address the issues that Black-
tailed deer face and provides a plan of action that
would help determine the effects of some of
these issues, there is no proposal in the plan on
how these goals would be funded. Without fund-
ing, there will be no research and without the re-
search, the goals will simply not be met or will be
based on suspect interpretations. If we fail to an-
swer some of the basic questions about habitat
carrying capacity, effects of predation, Doe har-
vests, herbicide spraying and diseases, we will
simply fail to manage Blacktailed deer in the
manner that they and you deserve.
Included in the draft Blacktailed Deer Plan is a
proposal for ODF&W to shift away from spotlight
counts and towards a population estimation tool
call Sex-Age-Kill or SAK. SAK is a system for
gathering harvest data and age structure from
hunters’ kills, then reconstructing the Blacktailed
deer herd from what this data tells the biologists.
By looking at both the percentages of each age
group within the harvest and at the declines be-
tween age groups, determination can be made of
the annual recruitment rate of deer and the
amount of loss each year between age groups.
This data can then be used to reconstruct the
herd and give a population estimate, something
that we currently do not have. In order to accu-
rately conduct a SAK analysis, yearling bucks
will most likely have to become legal game dur-
ing all seasons. Currently the regulations for
Blacktailed deer are forked horn or better, with
the exception that spikes are allowed during
antlerless hunts. While this development may not
be welcome by most and will most likely lead to
more antlerless deer being accidentally killed, it
may be a requirement to get accurate data. SAK
Please see page 3