Page 14
The INDEPENDENT, April 16, 2009
Johnson wants geese task force
Should you serrate or not serrate?
On April 2, the Oregon Sen-
ate approved passage of SB
622, creating the Task Force on
Geese Control. Geese over-
population has become a seri-
ous problem for the agricultur-
al, recreational, and aviation in-
dustries throughout western
Oregon.
“Hundreds of thousands of
geese are wreaking havoc
across Oregon,” said Senator
Betsy Johnson (D-Scappoose),
sponsor of the bill. “They are
significantly damaging valuable
crops, befouling parks and golf
courses, and pose a serious
threat to air traffic.”
The recent emergency land-
ing by a passenger plane on
the Hudson River is attributed
to a flock of geese colliding with
the plane. In recent years, the
goose population in Oregon
has exploded, as many of the
By Murray Carter
once migratory birds have de-
cided to claim Oregon as a
year-round home.
Johnson also pointed out the
droppings left behind by geese
can spread disease to the point
that some public beaches have
been closed because of con-
tamination. “The number of
these animals that we’re talking
about creates a real public
health risk,” she said.
In the last thirty years, the
number of geese in Oregon
has grown from about 25,000 a
few months a year, to over
200,000 that stay year round.
The Task Force is charged with
studying the issues raised by
these numbers and studying
various methods of population
control. The Task Force creat-
ed in SB 622 will be comprised
of volunteer members and will
receive no funding.
May Day Customs
May Day, on May 1, is a time to celebrate the onset of
the month that sees the Earth preparing itself to
burgeon to its maximum capacity. Since the ancient
days in England there has been a custom of "bringing in
the May". On May Day people would go to the woods
in the early dawn to pick flowers and lop off tender
branches to decorate their houses.
As many of you may have
noticed, our local Head Start
organizes many fund raising
activities to supplement their
Parent Fund budget. One of
these upcoming fund raisers
will be “1/2 Price Knife Sharp-
ening” by Vernonia resident
and Master Bladesmith Murray
Carter. Because I expect to en-
counter a fair number of serrat-
ed blades, I am providing the
following information.
Serrated knives are very
common, and as such, are not
given much thought. The cut-
lery industry has duped the
consumer into believing that
serrated knives are normal. In
actuality, serrated knives are
inferior in many ways to
straight-edged knives, the de-
tails of which I’d like to discuss.
There are many criteria for
good performing blades, such
as edge-holding ability, edge
sharpness and durability, but
the most important criteria is
“sharpenability” or, articulated
another way, how easy the
knife is to sharpen. Even a
April 6 phone
outage caused
by digging
Verizon lost phone service
on Monday, April 6, from 8:20
a.m. until about 6:00 p.m. in all
lines between Hillsboro and
Vernonia. The outage was
caused by a construction crew
at 10th Ave. and Baseline St. in
Hillsboro working on a turn
lane. The crew cut a Verizon
fiber optic line that was only
eight inches below the surface
of the road instead of the stan-
dard depth of 30 inches. Veri-
zon quickly fixed the line, but
then had to move the line down
to the standard depth. 1,443
lines in Vernonia were affected
by the outage.
Mariolino’s
blade forged from the best steel
in the world will dull through
use, and being able to quickly
and efficiently sharpen the
edge back to it’s original sharp-
ness is a great asset.
Serrations are typically
added to knives of inferior met-
allurgy to make them cut more
aggressively, or are added to
pocket knives to make them
look “cool” or intimidating. How-
ever, they greatly complicate
the sharpening process. Quick
and efficient sharpening is no
longer possible on a serrated
knife.
As for the cutting applica-
tions of serrated knives, here
are the only two tasks which
serrated knives will out-perform
a properly sharpened straight-
edged blade:
• Cutting bread straight out
of the oven (only if you bake
bread at home because after
20-30 minutes all bread crust
becomes softer, and is best cut
with a non-serrated blade)
• Cutting steak or other
meats on a ceramic plate.
Despite what you have seen
on “Ginsu” commercials or read
or heard in urban legends,
there are no other cutting tasks
which are not performed better
with a properly sharpened
straight-edged knife.
So what is a properly sharp-
ened blade? It is a blade that
has appropriate edge geometry
for the cutting task at hand, a
blade that will shave hair from
the arm AND have microteeth
that will slice into either a toma-
to skin or fibrous material (like
rope) with abandon.
So when you respond to our
Head Start Parent Fund fund
raiser for 1/2 Price Knife Sharp-
ening and bring your knives in
to be sharpened, be sure to in-
dicate whether you want me to
grind the serrations off your
knife or whether you want to
keep them.
For more information about
what to do with serrations, pur-
chase my Advanced Knife
Sharpening DVD., available to
Vernonia residents for only $25
(regularly $35). See more at
www.cartercutlery.com or call
direct at 503-816-6556.
Wolves topic of Zoo talk
From page 12
trapping and poisoning pro-
grams to make the state safe
for livestock. They are now
spreading back into the state
from Idaho, where the federal
government released wolves in
1995 to launch a species re-
covery program.
The number of reported
wolf-sightings in Oregon has
steadily risen over the past
several years. Last year more
than 140 sightings were report-
ed. However, only one wolf
pack with a breeding pair has
been found in Oregon so far.
In his lecture, Morgan will
discuss several conservation
and protection plans to help
wolves thrive as they colonize
portions of Oregon. Included in
those plans, the Oregon De-
J OIN US FOR P RIME R IB
S ATURDAY N IGHTS
To the Blue House Crew:
Sam, Eleonora & Richard
Welcome to our community
721 Madison Ave.,Vernonia • 503-429-5018
partment of Fish and Wildlife
has set a goal of placing at
least four wolves each in east-
ern Oregon and western Ore-
gon.
An Oregon native, Morgan
graduated with a bachelor’s de-
gree in Wildlife Science from
Oregon State University in
1986. He has been employed
by the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife since 1987.
Morgan was the district wildlife
biologist in Heppner, where he
worked with a variety of wildlife
species for more than 16 years.
Currently, he is serving as the
wolf coordinator and Northeast
region wildlife diversity biolo-
gist in La Grande.
The zoo opens at 9:00 a.m.
daily and is located just off
Highway 26. The zoo is also
accessible by MAX light rail
line. General admission is
$9.75 (12-64), seniors $8.25
(65+), children $6.75 (3-11),
and infants 2 and under are
free. A parking fee of $2 per car
is also required. Additional in-
formation is available at
www.oregonzoo.org or by call-
ing 503-226-1561.
Also, see related picture on
page 24.
