Paul Snoey

A photo of juvenile Coho Salmon in Allen Canyon Creek taken August 2nd.

Allen Canyon Creek has lost most of it’s aquatic life in the last few years.  We have experienced an increased summer heat and drought since 2014.  In the past, when flows diminished, fish and other aquatic organisms could stay in a few pools until late summer or fall rains could restore flows.  In recent years even those pools dried up.  In the past, these pools contained Coho fry, bluegill, sculpins, shiners, and a species of asian loach.  However after the creek went dry in 2020, Allen Canyon Creek had almost no fish.  

This year has been different.  We had plenty of rain last winter and flows were high at the beginning of summer.  Earlier this summer, I thought I saw a few fish near our incubator site but was not able to get a view.  The slighest movement would send them into hiding.  Earlier this week, I set a camera that could take time lapse photos underwater.  Setting the camera up and leaving would allow the fish to come out of hiding and hopefully get a photo that would I.D. them.

When I put the photos in my computor, I was surprised to see a pool full of juvenile Coho Salmon.  The state has not given us eggs since 2019.  So, these little Coho must be the offspring  of adult salmon that have returned from the Pacific.  That is the best news about this creek in some time.  I’ve done a bit of walking downstream and have found several other pools and each has many Coho. 

This year is the first year that there is still some flow on the creek this late in the year, but it is just a trickle now.  We need a little bit of rain soon if these fish are going to survive.  

By Paul Snoey

Ridgefield has not had a serious mosquito infestation for several years.   We have been in a drought for the past several years.   This year we have had a very wet spring.  We’ve had almost 15 inches of rain since the beginning of April.  The nortwest has also had an above average snow pack.  The Columbia River has been near flood stage the past few weeks.  It has put much of the refuge underwater and is now beginning to recede.

Flood mosquitos lay eggs on dry ground in areas likely to flood later.  If it doesn’t flood, the eggs can be dormant for years, emerging as larvae when it does flood and when conditions are right.  After a week or so, the larva pupate for a few days and then emerge.

The mosquito presence this spring was  light.  However, during the last few days, they have made  a strong presence.  They are especally bad near Gee Creek.  They are numerous in Abrams Park  if you are near the creek.  They are most aggresive in the late afternoon and evening.

With the July 4th celebration this weekend visiters to the park need to be prepared.      Mosquitos like bare skin.  But even uptown, mosquitos are going to be present.  

In years that mosquitos have been especially bad, they were around for much of July with decreasing numbers in August.  Flood mosquitos aren’t much for carrying diseases so that’s good.  They are just a nuisance. In years they are bad, and this may be one, they can drive people away.

By Paul Snoey

Pioneer Street at the Gee Creek Bridge Monday Morning
It’s unusual to have snow in April.  After all, we are several weeks into spring.  It was really unusual that there was so much snow. It was a very wet sticky snow too.  Since many trees were full of new leaves and blossoms, the snow overloaded many trees, breaking branches.  Some trees, however, came down, and some damaged property.

Damaged Trees on Heron Ridge Drive

A Tree came down on 304th Street and blocked the road

The View at NW 71st Avenue and 289th Street

By midmorning, there were lots of emergency responders on city and county roads.  There were police, fire, public works, volunteers, and Clark Public Utilities.   What’s left now is an enormous cleanup.

by Paul Snoey

On the first day of spring, the sunset is due west all over the planet

The vernal Equinox is at 8:32 AM today. The sun is on the equator and for the next six months will be north of the equator. It will mean more sunshine and warmer days.  A week ago, we began daylight saving time by moving clocks ahead by one hour.  With DST, sunrise in Ridgefield is 7:15 AM and sunset is 7:21 PM today. Last week the US senate passed a bill making daylight saving time permanent. The bill passed unanimously and now goes to the house of representatives. If it passes there it will go President Biden.  If President Biden signs it, it will take effect in November of 2023.   There is statistical evidence that the shift to daylight saving time is disruptive. There are more strokes, heart attacks, and more accidents following the shift.

Not shifting time may be a good thing.  However, if we are on permanent DST, winter mornings will be very dark.   With DST, the latest winter sunrise will be 8:52 AM on January 2nd.  That’s very late.  It will mean streetlights will be on at nine AM and cars will be driving with their headlights on.  People will be taking their morning runs or walks in the dark. Children will be walking to school or waiting for the bus in the dark.  Considering that it is often cloudy on winter days, it will be even darker.  

Not shifting time should be considered but perhaps permanent standard time would be better than permanent DST.  Businesses, schools, and others can always schedule their own time.  Many people have trouble with the dark of winter and having a little light in the morning helps with that. It is likely that permanent DST will be approved.  The first winter will be a test.  If it is problematic, it can always be changed.  Rather than going back to going on and off with DST, let’s have permanent standard time.  

     ~ Contributed by Paul Snoey

A thicket of knotweed, blackberries, and nettles:  Laspa property, 4 years after treatment.                      

The City of Ridgefield has had two grants for removal of Japanese Knotweed on Gee Creek.  In 2005, the city had a $12,500 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for cutting brush and removing knotweed from the stream bank on public and private properties. City employees cut brush to expose knotweed stems and hired a crew of AmeriCorps workers to inject stems with an herbicide. They worked on most public and private properties from Pioneer Street to North Main Avenue. It was a two-year program, but on the second year, the AmeriCorps workers cut brush and did not treat knotweed. 

I made the first complaint to the city that I was seeing a lot of knotweeds remaining.  In the following years, I made repeated complaints to the city and to the Gee Creek Committee that knotweed was coming back in a big way.  In 2009 the knotweed was back worse than in 2005, and in addition, it was deeply embedded in blackberries and nettles. It was now impossible to get near the streambank in many places.

The Gee Creek Committee, led by Lynn Cornelius, suggested the city do a volunteer effort.   Many of the property owners were so angry about the 2005 effort they refused permission.  Two efforts were done by volunteers in July and the first week of August for properties we had permission to treat.   The volunteers were mostly members of Gee Creek Committee:   Me, Rhydian Morgan and his sons David and Ryse, Lynn Cornelius, and Tevis Laspa. Even with the two efforts, we had barely made a dent.  I continued the effort as a single city volunteer for the next two weeks cutting brush, and injecting knotweed stems.  It was overwhelming and little progress was made.

I asked for a meeting with Clark County Weed Management and met onsite with Casey Gosart.  I said injecting was too difficult and slow.  Nettles and blackberries made it a slow and painful process.  Also, cutting brush disturbed bald hornets and yellowjackets.  Casey suggested switching from injecting to using a spray.  He recommended which chemicals to use and how to work with property owners.  Tevis Laspa purchased the chemicals, and we began spraying on his property and his neighbors.

Then, in 2009, Lynn Cornelius found an ecology grant which the city applied for and won.  It was a $10,000 Terry Hussman grant.  The city was selfish and used the grant for Abrams Park only.  They used AmeriCorps workers to inject stems.  There were two passes with regular injection and cut stem injection and then the workers were left unsupervised to remove ivy.  There were still hundreds of knotweed plants deeply bedded in brush that were untreated.  After a couple of confrontations with the public works employee in charge, I finally said I would do the work.

For the next week or so I cut brush and flagged the remaining knotweed plants.  When the AmeriCorps workers came back, I worked with them to locate and treat plants.  A month later, along with Tevis Laspa, Lynn Cornelius, and Gary Bock, we sprayed as a follow-up on public and private properties on the creek.  Finally, the four of us made one more pass in infested areas in the autumn.

For the next few years, in Abrams Park, I would work with a single public works employee treating knotweed.  I did work with other volunteers treating other properties.  Again, it was Tevis, Gary and Lynn.  Tevis and I continued to work together on his and his neighbor’s properties.  The work has been difficult and even now there is enough knotweed that if ignored will come back.  For the city, it has been long forgotten.

In reading the press releases and newspaper articles about Japanese knotweed on Gee Creek, one would believe that it was a city success story.  The success of removing knotweed has been done in spite of the city’s badly done effort.  Me?  I am an unnamed and unknown volunteer.   The second part of the city’s claim is that after removing knotweed and other weedy species, the city was restoring the streambank with native trees.  I will write about that next.

Laspa property now (same view):  A decade of hard work 

By Paul Snoey