Reporter's Notebook: Did fish sense the rains were coming?

Steelhead trout might make good weathermen. It’s too early to call the evidence anything but anecdotal, but it seems that throngs of steelies start heading upriver right before a storm starts, said Jesse Nolan, a biologist who works with the DIDSON sonar fish counter at the Fred Haight boat launch.

That salmon and steelhead migrate upstream when the river’s flow is high is well documented, but on Wednesday, Nolan said there was a larger group of fish that moved upstream right before the rains came.

Perhaps the fish sense a change in the barometric pressure and start moving toward upstream spawning grounds before the rains actually start, Nolan said.

“It's a stretch to say such a thing, but in objective terms, there does appear to be an increase in migration right before a storm,” said Zack Larson, who heads the DIDSON project.

— Adam Spencer

Think this was bad?

Longtime Del Norter Chuck Blackburn recorded 18 inches of rain in Big Flat from Tuesday through Friday afternoon, but he said the flooding that occurred in this round of heavy rain was nothing compared to 1964.

Blackburn recalled how the December 1964 flood turned the entire plain between Lake Earl and the Smith River into one body of water.

“All those ranches were completely underwater,” Blackburn said.

—Adam Spencer

Successful coat drive

Nearly 500 coats and other pieces of clothing were given out to babies, children and adults last weekend.

At the Family Resource Center, 499 coats were distributed to local families along with 35 other pieces of clothing after a months-long campaign by Bicoastal Media to collect coats for those in need this winter.

Chetco Federal Credit Union, Recology Del Norte, Lucky 7 Casino and Crescent City’s Les Schwab Tire all helped promote the largest coat dive on the Wild Rivers Coast. Coats were distributed from Port Orford to Klamath.

At the coat giveaway last Saturday, families were surveyed and here’s what they said about themselves:

• 35 percent were Hispanic, 26 percent Caucasian, 17 percent American Indian and 12 percent responded “other.”

• 66 percent spoke primarily English, 19 percent Spanish and 12 percent marked “other.”

• 68 percent said their household income was less than $10,000 annually and 23 percent earn between $10,000–$20,000.

• 42 percent said they have health insurance, 38 percent receive Medi-Cal and 15 percent don’t have insurance.

—Kelley Atherton

No money, no charge

A Pelican Bay State Prison inmate facing a charge of manufacturing a weapon was released of criminal responsibility after it was discovered he froze his prison trust account four years ago.

The District Attorney’s Office was seeking fines against the inmate, but upon learning his account had been inactive for the span and he only had $27, the office moved for dismissal of the case.

Del Norte Superior Court Judge William Follett expressed dismay at the motion, considering the inmate, already serving a  life sentence, was willing to plead guilty to the charge.

“I don’t know how much we spent on taxpayer money to get this far,” said Follett.

—Anthony Skeens

Ed options still open

The District Educational Leadership Team and Associates (DELTA) is still working on the new model of education for Del Norte schools.

Of the two national models the team has been studying, Professional Learning Community  (PLC) and Re-Inventing Schools Coalition (RISC), elements of both are still on table.

Educators have been talking a lot about the benefits of PLCs, where teachers and administrators  consistently collaborate on how to best teach students. But, many are also interested in the basic element of RISC: students have to demonstrate proficiency in a subject before advancing grade levels.

The ultimate reform model will be designed specifically for Del Norte children. Dubbed the Del Norte Engaged Learning Model, there are elements of both, but DELTA is still figuring out the details.

Implementation is planned for next school year. A progress report will be given to the School Board on Thursday.

The team is also taking into consideration what the community at large wants in its public schools.  Comments from 458 people at community engagement meetings held in conjunction with Building Healthy Community at local schools late last year are still be readied for a presentation at the Feb. 9 board meeting.

Meetings are being scheduled for the coming weeks to hopefully get twice as many people involved in reforming our school system, so stay tuned.

For more information on DELTA’s work, go to www.del

norte.k12.ca.us and click on “DELTA” in the middle of the page.

—Kelley Atherton

On dismantling Dungeness

On Tuesday, I cooked, cleaned and devoured my first Dungeness crab. A co-worker bought it from Alber Seafood for $5 per pound — the highest price she had ever seen.

To Del Norters, the sweet treat of Dungeness is nothing new, regular as rain. To a Midwest man like myself, the experience is amazing. I was wide-eyed and grinning ear to ear, strolling through the harbor while thousands of crabs poured out of boats, then I took some of the squirming creatures home in a cardboard box, boiled them and contemplated what it would be like to die by being cooked alive.

I found the experience of ripping apart the little bugger much easier than cleaning a fish, so I didn’t understand why some people were deterred from taking home live crabs. I liked the barbaric nature of dismantling a Dungeness. It may be the most savage consumption of meat that is socially acceptable in the Western world. And I loved it.

Happy crabbing, Del Norte. 

— Adam Spencer