FARRER ERP ESRAE KTR HATE REAR Ree Rte Pareto c be Fs Edauas CHRISTIANA WIENS. SKEENA ANGLER ROB BROWN Saving the creek ¢ cruised down 4 Kalum side chan- nel, the one that flows east to the Caltonwoods in the low water of winter and west when the river is up in summer and fall. We swung out into the Skeena. Bruce opened the throttle, Aaron and I put our hoods up and zipped oul jackets to the ‘| top. I slipped my stinging hands in my pocket and ‘| leaned against the console to stay upright as we '| bounced over the shallow riffles. Even with glasses, tears welled up in my cyes and spilled down my checks; even with sunglasses clipped to those glasses, the brilliant facets atop those riffles forced me to squint. I wondered how well Bruce, who wasn’t wearing eye protection, could sce. ' “Hey, you want me to let yon out here?”” he asked as we jetted over the New Remo Riffle. “You could wade right across... be the only man to say he’d waded the Skeena,”’ You could cross there too, without going very far over your knees. I wondered if anyone had waded the Skeena before; then I wondered how a river that looks so big and brown and formidable when the giant chinooks are pushing and rolling up it toward the Kalum in summer could be so emaciated when ‘| the first of the later winter steclhead are hiding in :| its spills.: There were more shallow riffles below the island that sits in the middle of the channel that leads a large part of the Skeena away from Old Remo then separates it into three smaller big rivers then fillers those into dozens of crecks that spill over the Amsbury Islands past Ron Cote’s Mill before gathering together and rejoining the main stem a kilometer or so above Delta Creck, The Skeena hadn’t opened its eyes yet. The bars were snowfields that tumed to ice shelves at the river's edge, To fish the Skeena well an angler ‘| needs to break it down into small pieces. Fish movements are necessary for this analysis; without them there is simply to much prospecting to do; the fishing becomes aimless and tedious. But, we hadn't planned to fish here, The road to the mouth of the Lakelse River hadn’t been ploughed and the narrower confines of that river is good place to look for fish in spring. In minutes we were there, The river was low and brown. “Tvs out,’? Bruce shook his head. ‘‘I can’t be- lieve it.’ For rivers, low and coloured is a very bad sign. I told Bruce and Aaron that when I first fished the Lakelse River only the short section of river would colour up when a ooding Skeena pushed through ‘| the side channel below the logging bridge. This was ‘| before Coldwater Creek and the area know as ‘| Thunderbird had been extensively logged. The late John Hipp once said that not one stick '| should have been taken from the Lakelse Valley. John grew up in Terrace. He'd seen the rough treat- ment that rich little river had received at the hands of Columbia Cellulose and the other modem day lumber barons. You could tell it bothered him a lot. John was absolutely right. He knew that the fisheries values within those scant 11 miles far out- weighed the short-term benefits of forest mining, and he understood that the diverse and abundant fishery of the Lakelse drainage demanded an intact valley. Angling is an important part of our culture; the cultural importance of the Lakelse River to this comer of the northwest is great and growing. Peeled cedar trees and flat clearings indicate that the Lakelse River Valley is also important for the culture of First Nations. Some foresters may argue that part of the Lakelse Valiey can be logged without doing too much mis- chief to fish and wildlife, but nobody can convince me that logging the Thunderbird is defensible. The trees in Thuaderbird grow out of the clay left by the glacier that once covered the area and land where the airport sits today. Once the area around Mink Creek was defoliated it sloughed, Experts tell us that clay is carried away because it is suspended in water. Finc, but not all of the sedi- ment is clay. Below Mink Creek many of the inter- stices between the rocks are choked with silt. This is bad for aquatic invertebrates, and what is bad for those creatures is bad for fish. The pollution from Mink Creek has also ruined the spring fishery on the lower Lakelse for long pe- riods of time. Despile the troubles with Mink Creek, a new road has been cut into Hai Lake to ac- cess one of the few remaining stands of timber in the valley. The road builders have side cast the clay into a little creek that feeds Mink Creek and cov- ered it with a dusting of gravel. Two things can correct the Mink Creek problem. First, Mink Creck could be captured in some kind of open culvert and transported over the clay. Ideal- ly, the companies responsible for logging the Thunderbird should foot the bill for this, but since that is unlikely, the project would be an excellent one for Fisheries Renewal B.C, Secondly, all log- ETEBBSSERTRSS PERF EC TPTRER STAM EFS Re ging in Thunderbird should cease immediately. -TERRAC TANDARD . _~SPORTS Local wrestler wins The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, April 21, 1999 - BS silver at nationals The Medal Count PAM HAUGLAND knows how to grapple on the mats against some of Canada’s top junior wrestlers and she has the medals to prove it. The Grade 12 student’s wrestling career att Caledonia High School fea- tured seven provincial and national placings. And, she admits, she has a drawer of regional and ‘inter-school medals at home. Haugland placed second in the 80-kilogram weight class, losing only to Camp- bell River student Sophie Sewid. The silver medal is Haugland’s second in two years at the national level and she was hoping to finish first in her last high school competition. “T was only happy with it because I scored on her, and not a lot of people do that,’ said Haugland, who had un- successfully battled Sewid at the provincial competi- tion, In her three other matches . 1996 Provinclal 5th National at nationals, Haugland managed to pin all her com- pelitors within the first few minutes, She said one of the hardest paris of wrestling at nation- als is battling the unknown. “You don’t really know where [other competitors] weaknesses are,’’ she said, Even though this was Haugland’s third trip to na- tionais (she placed first in 1997), she hasn’t lost ber pre-match jitters. “7 get nervous all the time,’’ she said. ‘I’m really bad.” She can still remember joining the team mid-season after her Grade 9 gym teacher suggested she should try out for the team. She won fifth at the provincials that year. 1897 1998 1999 2nd = 3rd 2nd ist 2nd 2nd She said wrestling has given her self-confidence and physical fitness qualities she says she never had in her early tecns. “So many kids don’t make the team in basketball of volleyball and they don’t do anything,’’ she said. ‘I didn’t do that.’’ With her straight-A aver- age and experience on the national wrestling stage, Haugland may be one of Caledonia’s best hopes in winning an athletic scholar- ship. But Haugland says she’s not interested. “T don’t know if I want to continue wrestling,’ she said, adding it may be time for her to focus on her aca- demic carecr, She plans to eam a science degree at U.B.C., where she sd Pam Haugland hopes to go on an academic scholarship. If she doesn’t get in there, she says she may wrestle at the University of Alberta in Edmonton — which, she says, has a great wresiling team. Who knows, this may not be the end of her wrestling career affer all. Dancers compete to win at festival STRIKE A POSE: Cydney Rusch, 13, demonstrates a ballet pose from her award . winning classic solo performance. Rusch was one of four dancers fram her studio to win gold medals at the Pacific Northwest Music Festival here last week. Out-of-town riders win season's first cycling race TWENTY-TWO northwest cyclists battled bitter cold and snow at Shames Mountain Hillclimb April 10. “Tt was snowing fairly heavily after the second bridge,’’ sald organizer Mike Christensen. ‘‘By the time we gat to the top there was a good twa or three inches on the ground,” The 13.4 kilometre trek from the Shames highway turnoff to the gate at the top was one of the first racing events of the northwest cycling season, And, so far, the racing season looks competive. Racers finished three or four seconds slower than last year despite the snow. “Considering the conditions there were some very fast times,’ Christensen said. All ‘Season’ 8 Jon Lambert and Brandon Smoley fi Finished first in just under 46 minutes. Christensen finished third in 49:17 minutes. Paul Grantin of Smithers came in a close fourth just 19 seconds later, He was the first junior rider to finish the race, Christensen sald Team McBike’s 1999 focus will feature rider development as 15 to 20 juniors will make the team. Team McBike riders regularly compete against All Sea- sons, Smithers and Kitimat all year. Christensen says riders like Lambert and Smoley will make All Seasois the team to beat this year. TERRACE DANCERS took four first place medals at the Pacific Northwest Music Festival last week, a per- formance that marks dance’s return to the music festival stage. The dancers train at CJ Dance Studio in Terrace and are coached by studio owner, Carole Anderson, Anderson — a former dancer hersclf -—- teaches jazz, tap and ballet at her studio which opened the studio in September 1998, Her student, Angela Beaupre competed for a $1,000 scholarship at the Northwest Music Festival Friday night after a gold medal, She performed a solo jazz number to Madonna’s song, Frozen. Just two weeks earlier, Beaupre won the 17 and up age category at the Lakes District Festival Association competition in Burns Lake. Judges gave her a mark of 92 out of 100 for her control and facial expression. They also commented on her in- credible strength and confi- dent, mature attitude, Other Pacific Northwest medal winners include, 13- year-old Orie Shiga placed second in the classical solo aid first in the demi- character ballet per- formances. Younger sister Hikari Shiga placed first in the demi-character ballet. See dance, B16 Snow hampers Shames cyclists Hillclimb results Juniors: Paul Granlin, Smithers Vincent Drovin, Terrace Chris Walker, Terrace Michael Jordan, Smithers Kristlan Gaugh, Terrace Lance Pierce, Terrace ” Tyler Sheasby, Terrace Jeff Myers, Terrace Nathan Park, Terrace Oliver Drovin, Terrace Lanny Scott, Terrace Jesse Sheasby, Terrace Mark Billey, Terrace Seniors: John Lambert, Terrace Brandon Smoley, Terrace Mike Christensen, Terrace Philip Horwood, Kitimat Adam Spensiey, Terrace + Mark Gutknecht, Kitimat Kurt Grabinsky, Terrace Robert Campbell; Kitimat George Gough, Terrace Rod Myers, Terrace 49:36 Team McBike 50:16 Team McBike 52:59 | Team McBike 56:38 Team McBike 57:42 Team McBike 58:43 Team McBike 59:53 Team McBike 1:00:54 Team McBike 1:02:42 AT! Seasons 1:06:42 Team McBike 1:16:51. Team McBike 1:30:12 Team McBike DNF Team McBike 44:59 All Seasons 45:55 All Seasons 49:17 Team McBike 55:17 — Action Sports 57:02 Team McBike 1:00:16 1:01:45 1:16:40 1:30:12 « DNF __ 638-7283 Golf cou re opens today THE SKEENA Valley golfand country club hopes to open its greens today. The club, which had scheduled to open Satur- day, April 17, has been swamped with calls from avid northwest gol- fers, "We're getting an aw- ful Jot ot calls,’’ said course staff Kevin Jef- fries. He owed the delay to lingering wet patches and lack of warm weather that temporarily stunted grass growth. Last year, he said, the club opened April 1 due to unusually warm weather and lack of snow. The average open: ing day however, hovers around the middle of April. **We're about a week behind schedule,”’ he said. The major change to the course this year in- cludes a lack of driving range. The back nine is scheduled to open June, 2000. Sports Menu Friday and Saturday, April 23-24 Soccer shoe exchange at the Christy Park clubhut, 10 am. to 2 p.m. Sat- urday. Drop off runs Friday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, April 24 Spring dance and din- ner for the seniors games. at the Royal Canadian Legion Hall, 6:30 p.m. start. Door prizes, spot dances and entertainment. Call Bud at 635-9505 for more information. Friday to Sunday, April 23-25 B.C, Pistol Shooting Association Qualifiers at the Rod and Gun Club with nine-time champion Martin Gardner. Call Sarah at 635-7646 for more information, Thursday, April 29 Terrace Junior Tennis Club first meeting at the Halliwell tennis courts. The club will meet Mondays and Thursdays at the court until June 17. Call Gill at 635-7613, Friday, May 7 Kitimat Cross Country Ski Club annual general meeting at the Mount Layton Hot Springs, 7 p.m, start. Saturday and Sun- day, May &9 Nine ball tournament at Chalky's Billiards, Tournament starts Saturday at 12 noon. , Final game scheduled. tor 3 p.m. Sunday, Saturday, May 29 Senior Games playdowns for darts at the tegion hall. Cail the lagion for more in- formation. To get your game, event or meating. added to the Terrace Standard Sports Menu, fax us at 636- 8432, attn:. Sports menu, “