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The INDEPENDENT, May 19, 2011
Between the Bookends
by Nancy Burch, Librarian
Vernonia Public Library
Summer is fast approaching and plans
are being finalized for an action-packed
summer for youngsters and adults. Crafts
and stories reflecting the theme of “One
World, Many Stories” will take place at the
library on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. beginning
June 28 and ending July 26. Special
events, including presentations by the
Knights of Veritas, Hart’s Reptile World,
Washington County Historical Society and
storyteller Chris Leebrick, will help make this an eventful summer
for youngsters. Complete schedules and registration information
will soon be available in the library.
Adults will be exploring a few of Vernonia’s businesses, learn-
ing some its history and touring the water plant. A theme of “Nov-
el Destinations” will lead participants to France and Australia, via
movies filmed in these countries. During planning for these
events, discussion led to the realization that it would be enjoyable
to visit some places of interest outside of Vernonia, including the
Tillamook State Forest Center, Valley Art Gallery in Forest Grove
and The Rice Rock Museum. These excursions would be extras,
with the goal being to simply enjoy the outings as a group. Any le-
gal or personal responsibility, including transportation, fees, food,
etc., would necessarily be placed on participating individuals. The
first outing will be to the Tillamook Forest Center and will take
place on Wednesday, June 1st. Anyone wishing to join the group
for this trip needs to leave a name and contact information in the
library to ensure that they will receive information regarding the
outing.
Both the after school program and the preschool story time will
cease at the end of May so youngsters can take part in the sum-
mer reading program, and to allow for family vacations. Both pro-
grams will resume after the start of school in the fall.
New acquisitions for your summer reading enjoyment include
The Bride’s House by Sandra Dallas, 44 Charles Street by
Danielle Steel, The Peach Keeper by Sarah Addison Allen, Dead
Reckoning by Charlaine Harris, The Wedding Shawl by Sally
Goldenbaum, A Turn in the Road by Debbie Macomber, Buried
Prey by John Sandford, Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks,
and Those in Peril by Wilbur Smith. For the reader who prefers
reality, a remarkable memoir of the Holocaust entitled The Seam-
stress by Sara Bernstein, and a chronicle of wild Alaskan life in the
first half of the last century entitled On the Edge of Nowhere by El-
liott Huntington, are available.
A recommendation by Robin Cody prompted the purchase of
Sam McKinney’s book, Reach of Tide Ring of History. McKinney
was Cody’s boatbuilder friend who gave him “The Turtle”, the flat-
bottomed wooden boat on which he wrote most of the reflections
he recounted in Another Way the River Has — Vernonia’s Com-
munity Reads for 2011. McKinney has written a “big short” book
about what a river is – how life on the Columbia River has
changed since Lewis & Clark, how it hasn’t changed and how it is
still alive with possibilities. If you enjoyed Robin Cody’s book, be
sure to read this one by Sam McKinney.
Youngsters and young adults will also find that bright, exciting
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new books await them as they visit the library. Young adult read-
ers will enjoy Behemoth (second in the Leviathan trilogy) by Scott
Westerfeld, and The Scorch Trials (sequel to The Maze Runner)
by James Dashner. New picture books, including Three Hens and
a Peacock and It’s a Book, should delight even the youngest chil-
dren.
Remember, the library is here for you. Keep that in mind as
summer approaches and you are looking for entertainment for
your family. All of the programs and materials are selected with the
goal of bringing both pleasure and information to our community.
Vernonia Public Library: 701 Weed Avenue
Hours: Mon., Wed., Fri. 10 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.
Tues., Thu. 1:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Sat. 10 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Preschool Story Time: Mondays, 10:30 a.m. when school is
in session.
Phone: 503-429-1818
New invasive species database
After two years of surveying
scientists and land managers,
and engaging the help of part-
ners across the United States,
Oregon has launched iMapIn-
vasives (http://www.imapinva-
sives.org/orimi/map/), an on-
line, GIS-based invasive spe-
cies reporting and querying
tool. iMapInvasives, developed
through a partnership between
The Nature Conservancy, Na-
tureServe, the New York Natur-
al Heritage Program, Florida
Natural Areas Inventory, and
the Oregon Biodiversity Infor-
mation Center, will help land
managers, regional planners,
and others who are working to
prevent, control or manage in-
vasive species to accurately
and quickly record and track
where all types of invasive
plants, animals, fish, and dis-
eases are found.
“This is a huge step forward
for Oregon,” said Northwest
Weed Management Partner-
ship Coordinator and Oregon
Invasive Species Council
member, Vern Holm. “There
are other tools that provide im-
portant functions for organiza-
tions such as ours, but iMapIn-
vasives provides a very com-
prehensive package to meet
the needs of public and private
land managers and citizen sci-
entists, and it’s exciting that
Oregon is one of the first west-
ern states to use the program.”
iMapInvasives
provides
trained users with their own in-
teractive GIS data base, where
they can enter and retrieve site
information, share data with
partnering organizations, and
plan for future activities. In the
future, iMapInvasives will also
allow users to record and re-
trieve treatment data.
The initial list of species in-
cluded in iMapInvasives was
developed from the Oregon
Department of Agriculture’s “A”
and “B” noxious weed lists, the
Oregon Invasive Species
Council’s 100 Worst Invaders,
noxious weeds listed in neigh-
boring states, and any species
that partner agencies are track-
ing. The tool has launched with
over 85,000 observations of in-
vasive species, and the list will
continue to grow as species
are recommended. The Ore-
gon Biodiversity Information
Center is managing iMapInva-
sives for the Oregon Invasive
Species Council. The Center
will review each species before
adding to the list to ensure the
species is invasive and its tax-
onomy aligns with Nature-
Serve’s standards.
One of the greatest benefits
to iMapInvasives is that, while
an organization can upload
large batches of information at
once, anyone with data entry
access can add observations
at any time.
“One of the reasons our or-
ganization provided financial
support to iMapInvasives is be-
cause of the many functions it
can provide,” said Sam
Leininger, WeedWise Program
Manager at the Clackamas Soil
and Water Conservation Dis-
trict. “…instead of using fifty-
plus databases to manage in-
vasives, we now have one cen-
tral location [to] input data,
share data with partners, and
have access to real-time infor-
mation.”
iMapInvasives leverages the
utility of the Oregon Invasive
Species Hotline (http://orego-
ninvasiveshotline.org/), the go-
to place for questions about
species people are seeing that
they think might be invasive, or
for those who have an obser-
vation to report but do not want
or need an iMapInvasives ac-
count. When a suspected inva-
sive is reported, Hotline ex-
perts for each county review
reports in their area to deter-
mine if the observation is in-
deed an invasive species.
Confirmed observations from
the hotline will be downloaded
twice yearly to iMapInvasives.
The public will be able to
view general distribution data
of invasive species, while
those who request an account
will be able to see point obser-
vation data, as well as detailed
assessment/treatment poly-
gons when this feature is
added later this year.
We’re…“pleased to have
played an important role in ini-
tiating a fundraising effort, and
doing the legwork to offer a
great product,” said Rian Hooff
of the Oregon Invasive
Species Council. “We look for-
ward to continued strong part-
nerships with groups through-
out Oregon that manage inva-
sive species.”
iMapInvasives will comple-
ment
WeedMapper
(http://www. weedmapper.org),
a collection of information
managed by the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture, on the
distribution of noxious weeds
in the state. Weed-Mapper fa-
cilitates identification, report-
ing, verification and early de-
tection and rapid response for
noxious weeds. An updated
version of Weedmapper will be
available the first week of May.
For more information about
how to use iMapInvasives, vis-
it Portland State University’s
Oregon Biodiversity Informa-
tion
Website
at
http://orbic.pdx.edu
/inva-
sives.html. The site contains
background information, fre-
quently asked questions, and
training videos.
The
Oregon
Invasive
Species Council was estab-
lished by the Oregon Legisla-
ture in 2002. Its mission is to
conduct a coordinated and
comprehensive effort to keep
invasive species out of Oregon
and to eliminate, reduce, or
mitigate the impacts of inva-
sive species already estab-
lished in Oregon. Members of
the council include both punlic
and private oranizations.