Peninsula Daily News for Friday/Saturday, October 21-22, 2011
Commentary
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Dances with beasts and chinook By Mitch Luckett THIS YEAR’S END-OFSUMMER Quilcene Fair, besides having a flashy parade and nifty carnival rides, sported many a strange bipedal beast. Over the years, while playing music at various functions, I’ve seen a wide variety of costumed critters and vegetables. I once danced — at a Luckett salmon festival — with a 6-foottall chinook. It was awkward because of the slippery grasp of her adipose fins. She was, however, an excellent fox-trotter and no half-bad conversationalist, if you overlooked her thin lips and nonstop diatribe against dams.
dating and, owing to cool weather, my fingers seemed flummoxed and fumbling, so I’d hoped, with Who knew migratory fish were minimal distraction, he’d trot on so opinionated? by my little booth. Once at a harvest festival I He came to a heel-scraping — was kissed — between “The Wind hoof-scraping? — stop in front of That Shakes the Barley” and me. “Barlow Knife” — by a flirtatious His snout sniffed for offensive carrot. spoor, as if some foul beast threatI was single at the time but ened his territory. didn’t have the heart to tell her. His globular eyes settled on I’ve never been attracted to me. root-crops with orange, rubbery Got to confess, I lost my conskin and green, punk-rock hair. centration and missed a beat. My booth at the Quilcene Fair His thick neck rolled back and was next to the Antler Show. forth, and wind whistled through I played banjo, guitar and har- his impressive rack. monica and had for sale my novel, This rack was the real thing — To Kill a Common Loon, and CD, not a papier-mâché imitation — “Tall Tales and Bluegrass.” and boasted a Boone and Crockett I was deeply engrossed in pick- Club Trophy score of 270, outdoing, on banjo, an intricate tune ing the record Alaskan-Yukon called “Whiskey Before Breakfast” moose’s by nine points. when a bull moose charged out Leaning those hard blades the double door of the Antler down not 2 feet away from me, as Show. if in attack mode, he let out a Truth be told, he was intimibloodcurdling yell, leapt mightily
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into the air and came down, hooves ablaze, doing as fantastic a hoe-down jig as ever I’ve seen any man do, let alone moose. A clog-dancing ungulate was a definite show-stopper for restless fair-goers who gathered, clapping on the downbeat. This was too much for an elderly gentleman in starched overalls who’d been dozing on a nearby bench. His eyes flew open, and his head snapped up so briskly his long, white beard flew up, flicking his hook nose. He heaved himself off the bench, shuffled over and commenced dancing a jig — easily matching the moose in grace and agility. The boogying beast and bearded man did a few do-si-dos and allemande lefts and rights together, then simultaneously stopped. I took my cue and ceased picking.
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The moose adjusted his dancedislocated rack, politely bowed to me and ambled into the crowd, no doubt on a foraging mission for fair food. The old man returned to his bench and dozed again. The crowd dispersed, and I continued my ol’ timey tunes, fingers no longer flummoxed and fumbling, mind buoyed by the brief but stimulating community connection brought on by banjo. Hard to shake the feeling Grandpa Jones’ ghost had come to visit a little “re-intarnation” on me.
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Mitch Luckett is a Brinnon musician and storyteller. See “Have Your Say” below on how you can write a Point of View column for the Commentary page. Martha Ireland, our regular Friday columnist, is off this week.
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Aid tank might be sufficient for a while. If projections for Port Angeles’ population and IN RECOGNITION businesses show significant OF this weekend’s start of increases, then it should be the voting period for the obvious to all concerned Nov. 8 election, letters that the proposed storage relating to the candidates tank will be very tempoappear on a bonus Comrary indeed. mentary page today, Page Continuing to contamiA10. nate the city with sanitary waste should not be an option. PA sewer project Has City Engineer Mike Puntenney heard of dividThe Oct. 13 Peninsula ing expensive projects into Daily News (“PA: $40 Million For Sewage Spill Fix,”) affordable, timed phases? highlighted the costs to And how exactly does he rectify a serious Port Ange- know 40 percent of the les municipal problem, i.e., overflows come from underwhether to put a tempoground seepage and manrary “Band-Aid” (a five-mil- holes? lion gallon storage tank, During the rainy sea$40 million) on the subject son, the combined sanitary sewer system, or to correct sewage and stormwater the problem for posterity probably overwhelms the by separating the two city’s waste treatment syssewer systems (as they should have been originally tem. It would seem unconconstructed), one for saniscionable to perpetuate the tary waste and one for current system. stormwater runoff, estiLesson: How come there mated to cost $180 million. is never enough time (and A few questions should money) to do it right the be answered before either first time, but there’s project begins: plenty of time (and more Is the population and money) to do it over and business growth of Port over and over again? Angeles expected to be Richard Hahn, stagnant or decline in the Sequim future? We asked Port Angeles If yes, then the Band-
Saving Bruiser
City Engineer Mike Puntenney for a response. Here it is: The city is bound by an agreed order from Washington state under the auspices of the federal Clean Water Act that mandates completion by Dec. 31, 2015, thereby limiting the ability to phase this over a longer period. Combined sewer overflow volumes and flow rates are mostly driven by storm events. Since we no longer allow
A growing movement to save sharks JAWS, AN ODE To humans’ fear of the sea, is still a cultural icon. Yet, slowly but surely, cultural attitudes toward sharks are changing, and changing thanks to a genuinely ecological view of their role in the ocean. The truth is that humans are far more dangerous to sharks than they are to us. More than 70 million die each year, killed for their fins, which end up in soup. At that rate, nearly a third of all shark species may soon be threatened with extinction. The loss of those predators would have an enormous effect all the way down the marine food chain. One country at a time, there are growing restrictions on finning — cutting the fin off a shark and leaving it to die — and, increasingly, shark fishing. Last month, Mexico announced that it would ban shark and stingray fishing beginning next year. This would affect Mexico’s exclusive fishing zones in the Pacific Ocean and
in the Gulf of Mexico. Several island nations — Micronesia, the Maldives, Palau and the Marshall Islands — have already created shark sanctuaries. There is hope that Honduras and Colombia will follow suit, perhaps creating a protective corridor reaching to the Galapagos Islands. The United States has not banned shark fishing, but it has banned finning since 2000 and, in January, President Obama signed a law requiring that sharks be brought to port intact, with their fins in place. Several states, including California, Washington, Oregon and Hawaii, have also banned the sale of shark fins. These are welcome steps toward keeping the ocean in balance by leaving its top predator in place. Other countries cannot control the growing passion for shark-fin soup in newly affluent China and East Asia. But they can deny them the raw material. The New York Times
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stormwater connections to our sewers and due to improved pipe material used today, the solution is generally not sensitive to future changes in population. Even then, the city will be in a much better position after the CSO project for small source control adjustments should they be needed. Infiltration is leakage of stormwater into sewers from defects or degradation that occurs over time. It is an inherent reality of every sewer system, not just Port Angeles. It is determined by modeling and analysis of flow measurement in the collection system both during the wet and dry weather seasons. The city maintains 115 miles of city sewer mains, and there are about 60 miles of additional privately owned sewer laterals, some approaching 100 years old. If installed today, the mains alone would cost $300 million. To rehabilitate the entire system for infiltration would cost upward of $100 million and solve only a portion of the CSO problem. Rather, infiltration is commonly managed over time through long-term monitoring and maintenance. As envisioned, this project presents the least cost and also the most enduring solution for the city, enhancing our environmental situation and meeting our commitment to the Clean Water Act.
News Department Main office: 305 W. First St., P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362 ■ Leah Leach, managing editor/news, 360-417-3531 ■ Brad LaBrie, sports editor; 360-417-3525 ■ Diane Urbani de la Paz, features editor; 360-417-3550 ■ General information: 360-417-3527 or 800-826-7714, Ext. 527 News fax: 360-417-3521 Email: news@peninsuladailynews.com Sequim office: 150 S. Fifth Ave., Suite 2 (98382) ■ Jeff Chew, Sequim/Dungeness Valley editor, 360-681-2391; jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com Port Townsend office: 1939 E. Sims Way (98368) ■ Charlie Bermant, Jefferson County reporter, 360-385-2335; charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com
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Native fishing Native Americans do not need to be reminded of the declining natural resources in our country. To accuse them of being the cause of the problem is ludicrous. When the tribes were the sole “stewards of the land,” the animals flourished. Since 1492, the vast numbers of salmon and other wild animals have been greatly reduced. In fact, the buffalo was nearly made extinct by non-Indian fur traders who simply slaughtered the animals for their hides. In the mid-1800s, local tribes entered into treaties with the U.S. government and gave up vast amounts of land. They agreed to live on small reservations in exchange for being able to continue to hunt and fish in their “usual and accustomed” areas. Though the Boldt decision is often viewed as a victory for the Indians, it can also be realized that the decision took away 50 percent of what was theirs to begin with. The Northwest tribes spend millions of dollars working with the state and federal agencies to co-manage the fishing industry. The skewed thinking of a few individuals such as the writer of the Oct. 12 letter, “Tribal Fishing,” need to be reminded that a huge price was paid by the Native Americans to keep a portion of what was once all theirs. John Haupt, Sequim
PDN columnist Martha Ireland’s Oct. 14 Commentary page column [“Moderation — Even In Critter Rescue”] is a sad commentary that she values the worth of some animals over others. To declare that, “cattle are livestock, not pets” and “steers exist to provide meat” is simply self-aggrandizing prejudice. All captive farm animals have value in and of themselves, not because they are useful to us, but because they exist. Like us, they are sentient beings, physically and mentally unique with a will to live and a fear of death. To criticize a group of “dedicated volunteers” who were “trying to re-home a steer” as “an aberration” reveals the aberration of her uncaring and indifference. Martha should have learned the facts about Bruiser. Bruiser was raised from a calf by his owner and was an outdoor pet no different than Martha’s pet dogs, cats and horses. His owner showered Bruiser with affection, and he grew into a gentle giant. Bruiser followed him around in his enclosure, licking him whenever he could. Recently the owner died, and the love and closeness they had for each other would never return. I visited Bruiser, who was despondent, but after soothing words with him, he finally rose and looked forward to my visits and rubbing noses with me. Many of us applaud Peninsula Friends of Animals for the kindness and compassion to save Bruiser and Center Isle Sanctuary for making the commitment to provide long-term care for Bruiser. Most important are the decision-makers who controlled the ultimate fate of Bruiser and chose life over a mouthful of flesh. Ralph Turner, Sequim
Have Your Say ■ Rex Wilson and Paul Gottlieb, commentary editors, 360-417-3536 We encourage (1) letters to the editor of 250 words or fewer from readers on subjects of local interest, and (2) “Point of View” and “Teen Point of View” guest opinion columns of no more than 550 words that focus on local community lifestyle issues. Please — send us only one letter or column per month. Letters and guest columns published become the property of Peninsula Daily News, and it reserves the right to reject, condense or edit for clarity or when information stated as fact cannot be substantiated. Letters published in other newspapers, anonymous letters, personal attacks, letters advocating boycotts, letters to other people, mass mailings and commercial appeals are not published. Include your name, street address and — for verification purposes — day and evening telephone numbers. Email to letters@ peninsuladailynews.com, fax to 360-417-3521, or mail to Letters to the Editor, Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362. RANTS & RAVES for the Sunday editions can be recorded on the Rants & Raves hot line at 360-417-3506 or sent to the above addresses and fax number.