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The
The INDEPENDENT, November 2, 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
Veterans Day, November 11
Veterans Day is November 11 and is not one of
those holidays that have been moved to the closest
Monday to make for a long weekend…that was tried
for a couple of years, but it didn’t take. Veterans Day
started as a celebration of the armistice between the
Allied nations and Germany that stopped the fighting in
World War I, called “The Great War” or “the war to end
all wars”. That war actually ended on June 28, 1919,
when the treaty was signed, but the armistice went into
effect at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the
eleventh month, or November 11, 1918. In 1954, the
83rd Congress changed the name from Armistice Day
to Veterans Day.
Veterans Day is set aside to display the flag and to
be dedicated to the cause of world peace. It has also
become a day to honor veterans for their patriotism,
love of country, and willingness to serve and sacrifice
for the common good.
People tend to confuse Veterans Day with Memorial
Day. Memorial Day (in May) is set aside to honor serv-
ice members who died in service to their country, or as
a result of injuries received during battle. Those veter-
ans are included in the Veterans Day remembrances,
but Veterans Day honors all veterans who served,
whether in times of war or times of peace.
Veterans of any of our wars or conflicts, may want to
consider participating in the Veterans History Project,
which preserves Veterans’ personal accounts. Those
accounts are accessible so future generations can
hear directly from veterans to better understand the re-
alities of war. This project was created by the U.S.
Congress in 2000. Civilians who actively supported
war efforts, such as USO workers, medical volunteers,
flight instructors, and the like, are also invited to share
their stories. For more information on this project, go to
http://www.loc.gov/vets/ .
This year, the eleventh hour of the eleventh day will
fall on November 11, 2011, or 11/11/11. It is a good day
to thank our Veterans for their service and for the sac-
rifices they have made to keep all of us safe.
It is also a good day to think about how world peace
would make those sacrifices unnecessary. So thank a
veteran, and remember. It seems particularly pertinent
with our troops coming home from Iraq at the end of
this year.
Thank you, Veterans.
Ike Says…
By Dale Webb, member
Nehalem Valley Chapter, Izaak Walton League
Well I knew it was go-
ing to be tough and I was
certainly right. So far this
year hunting Blacktails
has been a walk in the
woods, which isn’t so
bad, but I can do that
any time of the year. My
count so far is nine deer
in eight days of hunting,
with most of those days actually being half days,
in the morning. I’m just not a big fan of sweating
in the hot afternoon sun. The weather this year,
while offering up some rain early on, has not giv-
en us some nasty Blacktail hunting weather. I
have been basically watching some prime clear-
cuts and snooping around areas with higher
deer traffic, which I observe from tracks. When I
say high traffic, please remember this terminolo-
gy is relative to the basic lack of tracks in much
of the area that I am traveling through. To say
the deer population is low is an understatement.
It sounds like ODF&W is finally starting to get
the message in regards to our Blacktailed deer
situation. ODF&W staff (Salem) has proposed
eliminating the harvest of female deer during
archery season, and also eliminating the harvest
of deer by disabled hunters in the Saddle Mt.,
Scappoose, Wilson, Trask, Stott Mt., Alsea and
Siuslaw units. These harvest cuts, along with
cuts that have already been made to antlerless
rifle tags, should go a long way towards taking
the pressure off of the deer herds. Whether or
not it will make any difference will remain to be
seen. Frankly, my belief is that it is too late; the
deer herds are so far down that the local preda-
tor populations are keeping them there. I justify
this belief by the fact that much of the area that
I hunt is in road closure areas that see little, if
any, Doe harvest, yet the deer numbers in my
hunt areas are just as low as areas that do see
some antlerless harvest. While that may sound
like the antlerless harvest then has no effect, it
really does not behoove us to continue to ham-
mer on the obviously distressed antlerless pop-
ulation.
One of my buddies got a first hand look at the
local predator situation. He was high up glassing
a clear-cut that had a road at the bottom of it. He
noticed something on the road and put his glass-
es on a Bobcat walking up the road. He thought
that was neat to see and continued glassing the
clear-cut when, once again, he noticed some-
thing on the road that was going in the opposite
direction from the first bobcat that he had seen.
It was another Bobcat, soon followed by three
more Bobcats. Evidently the second group was
a female with semi-grown young. Later in the
day, he was watching another clear-cut just be-
fore dark and decided to move around to anoth-
er vantage point where he thought a buck might
be hanging out. On the way to the new spot he
looked down a spur road and noticed something
near the end of the spur. Putting his binoculars
on it, his first thought was a raccoon, then he no
ticed a dark tip on the tail
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