New West Network

My Page: Joseph Friedrichs

Outdoor Column

In a never going to happen, total waste of time innovative idea, an Oregon legislator suggested to ban single-use plastic bags from the state’s checkout stands.

A man who visited Missoula once said: The Earth didn’t know how to make plastic. Could it be the only reason we are here? Could be the answer to our age old philosophical question of why are we here; plastic!

Anyhow, the measure being led by Sen. Mark Hass, D-Beaverton, would still allow paper sacks, but is aimed at getting people to use reusable bags.

Notes From The Road

There are a few rational explanations for why some human beings have difficulties operating a motorized vehicle, and we at NewWest.Net think they’re all bunk.

According to three people with whom we’ve been in constant contact, today seemed to be a monumental day for lousy navigating. Drivers zoomed in and out of lanes for apparently no reason. Men with white beards smoking cigarettes cut off controlled drivers. Semis bore down on cars in the slow lane doing 55. Twits speeding in school zones. Egomaniacs indulging in pure aggression behind the wheel.

Is it seasonal affective disorder? Could it be a traffic accident on a nearby major highway? Maybe it’s National Drive Like a Goon Day?

We decided to dig a bit a deeper into the problem of morons on the road.

Column: Sunday

With the finest of intentions, I spent Sunday morning cleaning up trash in Boise. I would be lying if I said it was for the purpose of keeping the planet and community clean. I did it to generate good karma for the Minnesota Vikings.

A Minnesota Vikings fan since my youth, I will remain so until my hair is either gone or gray.

The first collection of rubbish I came upon was scattered on the side of the road. It was a hideous mess of crushed and empty Coors cans. Also mixed with the rubbish were several pieces of mail, an empty bottle of Ensure and some plastic bags containing absolutely nothing.

Where had this mess come from? There’s no evidence to prove this, but I’ll bet the trash was left by two people: an idiot, and another idiot. 

Notes From The Steps

The folks were friendly. Both men and women alike shared grace and seemed very supportive of the general cause. What the cause was, nobody really knew. And therein rested the problem.

I spent about an hour Monday morning near the front steps of the Idaho Statehouse, where an estimated 350 members of various conservative groups came together for a long rally with speeches from legislators, religious leaders, and Republican candidates for office.

It was a fine event and nothing remarkable happened to the masses other than hearing routine speeches and words being tossed around like rag dolls. What happened to me is that I had the fear of God slapped into my guts.

The bodies of two people and a small plane registered in Boise were discovered Monday morning in Oregon.

Searchers found the wreckage of the airplane that was missing on a Sunday afternoon flight from Newport to Corvallis.

According to the pilot’s flight plan, the Cessna 182 was due at the Corvallis Airport around 4:00 p.m. Sunday, but did not arrive.

Outdoor News

The Obama administration announced Wednesday it wants five western states to limit access and usage of wastersheds to protect the bull trout, a native, wide-ranging fish in the West.

“It means that we’re going to use the scientific recommendations rather than the political recommendations to determine what’s best for critical habitat for bull trout,” said Jack Williams, senior scientist for the conservation group Trout Unlimited.

The bull trout is nothing more than a fish. The spotted owl is nothing more than a winged-eating machine. Does it make sense to pile millions of dollars into protecting these creatures?

If approved, bull trout critical habitat would go from 3,780 to 22,679 stream miles and 110,364 to 533,426 acres of lakes and reservoirs in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada and Montana. The Forest Service, meanwhile, estimates the increased consultation will increase its workload by 10 to 15 percent during reviews of proposed actions in the Northwest alone. In case you were wondering, that means more jobs and more hours. And yes, more money spent protecting the environment.

By the way, it would come at a cost of between $100 and $140 million over the next 20 years, the government said. 

Outdoor News

A number of states in the West could be impacted by a proposal announced Thursday from the Environmental Protection Agency regarding stricter health standards for smog, replacing a Bush-era limit that ran counter to scientific recommendations.

The new limit will likely put hundreds more counties nationwide in violation, a designation that will require them to find additional ways to clamp down on pollution or face government sanctions, most likely the loss of federal highway dollars, according to the EPA.

The new standards could impact counties in Idaho, Oregon and Nevada, among numerous others states for the first time based on EPA data. The tighter standards will cost tens of billions of dollars to implement, but will ultimately save billions in avoided emergency room visits, premature deaths, and missed work and school days, the EPA said.

Outdoors Column

Five days after a nasty snowboard accident, Olympic hopeful and top-notch snowboarder Kevin Pearce remains in critical condition Tuesday at a Utah hospital.

Pearce, 22, was hoping to qualify for next month’s Winter Games in Vancouver when he mislanded a complicated jump on Thursday in a halfpipe at Park City, Utah.

Pearce was completing a twisting double back flip when he caught the front side of his snowboard and landed on his head. He was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident.

Snowboarding has been an Olympic sport since 1998. Each year, and seemingly with each competition more extreme moves are attempted. For example, how many people on this planet could perform a twisting double black flip? If you’re not sure, let me clue you in - there aren’t many.

Column: Wildlife

The first time I crossed the path of sturgeon it scared whatever wits I have straight out of me. It happened several years ago while I was boating on Oregon’s Rogue River. The giant creature sprang from the cool water and my heart skipped a few beats.

And then the freakish fish swam back to the trenches from which it came.

Not all species of sturgeon are rare in Western waters, although news from the federal government this week is white sturgeon in the Kootenai River are facing extinction.  Efforts to save North America’s largest freshwater fish - they can reach 19 feet in length and weight more than 1,000 pounds - continue as officials hope to stave off extinction by sending more water down the river so the fish can spawn in the wild.

Weather limits search efforts

Although no official report has been issued, it is unlikely that the two climbers missing since Friday on Oregon’s Mt. Hood are alive, according to Portland Mountain Rescue.

An authority on mountain survival spoke with family members of the missing climbers Tuesday and told them that the possibility of Katie Nolan, 29, of Portland, Ore., and Anthony Vietti, 24, of Longview, Wash., surviving conditions on the 11,249-foot mountain for this many days is exceedingly slim.

Rescue workers are still on standby, but whiteout conditions and the risk of avalanche made any search effort impossible Tuesday and unlikely in the coming days.