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The INDEPENDENT, January 7, 2010
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
Opinion (January 30, 1986)
Newspapers have come and gone in Vernonia with a reg-
ularity that inevitably breeds a sense of futility. Pessimism
abounds. Doomsayers convincingly point to numerous past
failures as proof of future failures.
But wait! In your hands at this moment, you are holding
The INDEPENDENT “Voice of the upper Nehalem Valley”, –
fresh off the press! Volume 1, Number 1, January 30, 1986,
published monthly on the last Thursday of each month.
A press run of 200 will be delivered FREE to outlets from
Timber, on the upper Nehalem, including Manning and Bux-
ton, to Vernonia, Mist, Birkenfeld and Jewell.
There is a new determination in this venture! There is no
expectation that a fortune can be realized by publishing a
newspaper in Vernonia. To the contrary. It is a resolve, root-
ed in the growing awareness of a desperate community
need. It is substantiated and nurtured by increasing re-
quests and urgings by those who deplore scuttlebutt, rumor
and gossip as their primary source of information; or no in-
formation at all.
We agree. The community cannot survive as a political
and/or social entity without a newspaper of its own; without
reliable, effective communication. Cohesion, consensus and
community progress decline in its absence.
We are also encouraged. We have been listening, and we
have been overwhelmed by the expressed good will and
support extended us as we have worked with the Vernonia
Jamboree publications and, again, with our Christmas in
Vernonia tabloid. The response to all of these has been
most gratifying. So, in the gathering gloom, we propose to
provide an insignificant, flickering flame.
We must emphasize that The INDEPENDENT is a “free”
newspaper. What that means, quite literally, is that the ad-
vertisers are providing it for YOU at no cost to you. They, in
turn, most assuredly deserve your support.
What can you do?
We ask you to give it a careful reading; invite you to help
us with your suggestions; give us your input; feed us news
items, tips for stories, calendar items, letters to the editor.
Support our advertisers.
Opinion (January 7, 2010)
We continue to be amazed at the level of community sup-
port we experience. People often stop us on the street to tell
us to “keep doing what we’re doing.” Many residents have
never known a community newspaper other than this one.
We remain committed to the ideals that originally started
this paper. We will continue to provide you with information
about your community and your community government. In
return, please support our advertisers.
Ike Says…
By Dale Webb, member
Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League
Last elk season start-
ed with a bang in my hunt
area, unfortunately it end-
ed up with six people get-
ting tickets. It is amazing
how one event can snow-
ball and overtake others
that aren’t even involved
in the original event. This
story starts with a spike
bull being taken on the
morning of opening day, in the Saddle Mountain
unit hunt, which is 3pt. or better. The people in-
volved thought they were in the Scappoose unit
and were not being deceptive about their har-
vest. Soon my hunting partner discovered their
mistake and had made a phone call that led to a
phone call to the Oregon State Police tip line.
Soon, three separate OSP pickups were con-
verging on the scene. The culprits were appre-
hended and, while travelling into the gated area,
OSP discovered other hunters who were hunting
without proper tags, or any tags at all! One offi-
cer I talked to after the event said, “I thought
there were more people in here hunting without
tags than legal hunters.” Unfortunately, I believe
his observation is accurate. One thing my hunt-
ing partner and I observed, after the dragnet,
was that all the other hunters disappeared. I
guess they figured out that a gated system is not
an outlaw refuge! We plan on having the Troop-
ers sweep the area again next year, so be
warned.
It amazes me how people continue to make
mistakes. Take the couple that shot the spike
bull: they stated that they had hunted the area for
years and that it was the Scappoose unit. A
quick read of the unit boundary description made
it is easy to understand that these two people
were almost three miles from the boundary and
across a definitive boundary road for the unit.
We will let the judge decide whether this was a
mistake or intended.
It is understandable, though, why some
sportsmen have a hard time keeping up with new
changes in the game laws. There are usually a
few new ones every year, and there are those
that are poorly written or tend to lend themselves
to varied interpretations. For instance, consider
the regulation about carrying a center fire rifle
during certain control hunts, without a valid tag
for that season. You could ask 100 different
hunters whether they could continue to carry a ri-
fle after they have punched their tag and you will
get four different answers. Yep, nope, maybe,
and I have a constitutional right. Well, ODF&W
has changed that rule a little further for this com-
ing year. Starting this year, you can continue to
hunt with a center fire rifle in controlled hunt units
after you have punched your tag. Now don’t
misinterpret this as meaning you can you can
continue to hunt the species for that controlled
hunt, but instead you can now continue to be in
the field hunting bears and cougars if you have a
valid tag for them. The way the new
See Ike Says, page 21