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About The independent. (Vernonia, Or.) 1986-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 5, 2011)
Page 2 The The INDEPENDENT, October 5, 2011 INDEPENDENT Published on the first and third Wednesdays of each month by The Independent, LLC, 725 Bridge St., Vernonia, OR 97064. Phone/Fax: 503-429-9410. Deadline is noon the Friday before each issue. Publisher Clark McGaugh, clark@the-independent.net Editor Rebecca McGaugh, rebecca@the-independent.net Printed on recycled paper with vegetable based dyes Opinion “Occupy Wall Street” is a recognition of inequity When 200 young people gathered on Wall Street, with signs opposing the stranglehold on our economy by bailed-out bankers who are still paying themselves huge bonuses with taxpayer money, few people no- ticed. When the crowd reached about 500, some news outlets did little articles about the leaderless group and their lack of a specific demand. They didn’t notice the demonstrators’ outstanding use of social media such as twitter and Facebook. When the gathering expanded to a couple thousand polite, nonviolent people who were camping out in a public park, traditional media started wondering what was going on. They didn’t really pay attention until a police department supervisor used mace or pepper spray on some of those nonviolent young people. Since then, all ages have joined in the still polite demonstration, and groups in other cities have begun to develop their own gatherings. The young adults have led the way, and one of the signs explains why: “That we’re young only means we have the most to lose by standing idle” They’re right. Wage inequality is worse than it’s been in modern history. Everyone except the top 10 percent is being harmed, whether by loss of jobs, fore- closure, unaffordable health care, or reduced income, but young people have the most to lose. For example: With each 1 percentage point increase in the unem- ployment rate, there is an initial wage loss of 6 to 7%. That will impact young people for years to come. The recent 2010 Census’ American Community Sur- vey showed that employment among young adults be- tween the ages of 16 to 29 was at its lowest level since the end of World War II. Just 55 percent were em- ployed, compared with 67 percent in 2000. Additional- ly, many of them are saddled with debt from education loans, for which banks earn interest even with govern- ment guaranteed loans. Don’t be surprised if you haven’t seen much about this. Because of nearly total corporate ownership of media outlets, much information is marginalized, or even blacklisted in our traditional media. The Occupy Wall Street demonstrators understand that change begins with perception. And you don’t change things by asking. You change them by acting. Ike Says… By Dale Webb, member Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League Summer is over, the rains are back and so are the salmon. I did a few spot checks on the water temperatures this year. We actually had a pretty cool summer and when we did finally get a stretch of hot weather, it was too late in the year to have a harmful effect on local streams. The angle of the sun in rela- tionship to the river has a significant effect on how fast a river heats up, and the lower in the sky the sun is, the more shadows are cast from streamside trees. That is why streamside trees are so critical, and the taller the better. This year the highest temperature that I found was in the main stem Nehalem below the green bridge, here in town. The temperature was 68.1 degrees on September 10th, and was taken when I have usually observed the highest temperatures of the day, the 7:00 pm hour. During the week in September that we had the higher temperatures, I was checking the riv- er in three locations, the green bridge and at the confluence of Rock Creek and the Nehalem. On one of my back-to-back days of checking tem- peratures, I was greeted with a young lady hold- ing a dead Chinook salmon, at the confluence of Rock Creek and the Nehalem River. It was quite obvious that it had been dead for a while, due to rigor in the salmon’s body. I went ahead and took the stream temperatures and, while doing so, noticed a spawning bed that this female salmon had probably built on the Rock Creek side of the gravel bar that separates the two rivers. Then I noticed the small fire ring and empty beer cans scattered around where the previous night’s occupants had a party. While nobody can be sure, I suspect that the nighttime partyers probably had a hand in the female salmon’s demise. What a shame to have beaten the odds of hatching from an egg, surviving all the predators in the Nehalem and the ocean, surviving all the commercial and sports fisher- men and getting 90 miles back up a low Ne- halem River to — get clobbered with a rock in the head, and with her eggs still in her abdomen. What a shame! Archery hunters had their season interrupted by another fire season, which had local private timberland operators shutting their lands to ac- cess. Archers really do have to be versatile; they must have a back up to hunting private industri- al forestlands on the west side of our state, or they must head east to the national forests. A fire closure is just about a given every year, it is the nature of the beast. The weather leading up to rifle deer season appears to be a mixed bag, but enough rainfall is expected to keep the private timberlands open for hunting. Check with local timber companies as to their access policy and which areas will be open to drive-in or walk-in-only areas. With local deer populations being as depressed as they are, the incentive for the timber companies to Please see page 22