A silent, leisurely glide swells and starts to hiss. A chattering riffle becomes a roaring rapid. A small cascade turns to raging falls. A tiver in flood is an ‘awful thing. The havoc starts with some rain falling where and when it shouldn’t — high on the flanks of the mountains, late in fall. Rain on snow it is called, an event hitherto unknown but now familiar with the onset of globally warmed winters, ~ Just when they are settling in- ” to the smaller, ice-bound con- fines of winter, the small moun- tain creeks fill up with runoff and start acting as if it was spr- ing freshet. As they grow, the little tributaries tear. away at their banks, their bottoms are set in motion, and rocks are sent _ hurtling downstream with logs, toot wads and other debris. Inevitably the creeks meet a road. They cannot be contained and need room to expand, but where there is a well-intenttoned culvert they have none, The metal pipe plugs up and the road blows out in a cascade of mud and rock. In other cases the creek water overflows the ditches and the . roadway becomes a creek bed. All the creeks meet the main river, increasing its fury, Everything in the mainstem mir- rors what is going on in its tributaries but on a much larger scale: boulders the size of com- ‘pact cars are pulled from the stream bed and hurled downstream as if they were weightless, large chunks of the river bank are sheared off, cot- tonwoods, old spruce arid alder loose their grip, crash into the torrent and hurtle downriver. After the flood the river is scarred and: transformed. Where there were well-known and ‘established runs there is bare rock, New channels lack the definition of the old. Old ‘udos to company f The Skeena Angler by Rob Brown .log piles are gone or reduced, and new jams, made of bright reddish logs newly stripped of their bark, lie on newly exposed gravel bars. The small resilient alders have a:downstream set, their leaves and stems covered in fine silt, For the -angler, a flood- ravaged river stirs feelings of melancholy and : excitement. The fish will be found in new places, producing new challenges and new surprises. But floods take their toll ex- pecially the ones triggered by rain on snow in the late fail. By that time the chinook have spawned and their eggs are in- cubating in the gravel. Those spawning beds undergo massive reorganization during floods. Eggs can also be buried under the tonnes of silt deposited dur- ing spates. And, it’s hard to im- agine that the small fry. could have survived such a cataclysm unscathed, Shorter, lake-headed rivers like the Lakelse keep their shape quite well during a flood, Longer systems like the Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 19, 1991 — Page C1 Zymoetz fare poorer, In recent times the latter has seen its ar- chitecture drastically altered by devastating floods in 1974, 1978, 1980, 1988 and again in 1991, Poorly built roads are a threat to rivers at the best of times. During floods they great- ly add to the devastation. Building a-road is not a simple ‘thing, nor is it inexpensive. This country is criss-crossed: with miles.and miles of poor logging roads. — notably many of the old ones. . There are many well-built roads too...One. of the best pieces.of road I’ve seen is one recently built in. the Treasure Creek. area of the Zymoetz under contract to. Skeena Cellulose. - Wherever possible within the confines of the narrow valley, the road has been built on rock. The ditches are wide and deep. There are silt traps, wide |-built road — culverts mostly made of cedar — a much better material than metal in most settings — and the road has been built with a slope away from the river, The bridge across Treasure Creek has massive footings, is set welt above the creek and easily withstood this year’s flood. Dan Tuomi, Archie Mac- Donald and the other SCI employees involved in the pro- ject deserve much credit for listening to the concerns of the fishermen who frequent the area, for consulting with B.C. Environment, and for having the foresight to see the advan- tages of a well-built roadway in a sensitive environment. A few miles of road has cost millions of dollars, but as Bud Southgate of SCI noted, in the long run it will save money as it will. not require frequent repairs. Thumbs up to Skeena Cellulose on this project. Northern Winter Games Oates WINS. curling gold TERRACE — Terrace athietes returned last week with a gold and two silver medals from the ‘Northern B.C. Winter Games in Fort Nelson. ~ Leading the way with one of the four gold medals that this zone took was the junior boys’ curling team. Skip Kevin Oates led teammates Chris Oldham, Brian Cox and Tyler Robinson “sto-victory-on the ice. ‘The silver medals belonged to Terrace cribbage duo Judy Lambright and Judy - Clarke. The two Judys nabbed the silver ‘medal in adult doubles action, while in solo competition, Clarke also came up with a se- cond place finish, ' Terrace’s bantam hockey squad failed to hit the medals. . But some of the region's other athletes made.it to the medal podium. Kitimat’s Anita Hauki won gold in the cross country skiing women’s masters event, while teammate Ruth Mills took the bronze. Meanwhile, Adele Thorne took a gold in the midget. girls cross-country ski- ing event. Katie Mills, also of Kitimat, captured a silver in the midget girls division, Erica Eisenberg added another silver . in the juvenile girls division. The Kitimat team as a whole finished second for a silver in the cross-country skiing mixed Telay.. Low rink captures title TERRACE — A week of drama finally reached a climax Friday morning when leading rinks from: Kelowna and Coquitlam clashed in the B.C, Senior Ladies Provincial Curling Championships. Undefeated Leila Johnston (at 6-0) was unseated by Co- quitlam’s Bessie Low 9-5 in the - seventh. draw. . Johnston's critical draw for one in the sixth end came up short and Low stole two, The win put the two teams even at 7-1. That’ set the stage for Low to ~ grab-a one-win advantage over Johnston with a 10-5 win over Fort St. John’s Evelyn Hosker rink: while Johnston fell to 6-2 in a 9-8 loss to Judy Merrett of Duncan. . - In:the final round, Johnston surged: back ‘from an_ early deficit’“in her ‘game against North Vancouver's, Glenda‘ Engemoen to grab the lead but ‘eventually fell: 11-9, -But Low “made na. mistake, | “burying. Prince George’ § Pat Black: rink. 4 Morgan Fischer, of Kit- wanga, tussled to a wrestling gold medal in the 41-kilo novice division. Two more Kitwanga wrestlers finished in the medals, with Tyler Johnson snagging silver in the. 45-kilogram open event, and James Morgan tak- ing another silver in the 38-kilo open, And Terrace’s Rockie Doane, competing with the Kit- wanga wrestling team, captured: a bronze in the 84-kilogram Novice division. Kitimat dart duo Simard and Galema took a bronze in men's doubles darting action. As expected the Terrace medial tally was down substan- tially from last year’s, when the Northern B.C. Winter Games were hosted here. 1991 saw Terrace collect 68 golds, 54 silvers and 54 bronzes. The three medals taken this year were, of course, a reflection of the huge travelling distance to Fort Nelson, This year, therefore, was the northeast’s turn. The host Fort Nelson zone took 41 golds, 35 ‘silver and 25 bronze — pretty much neck-and-neck with both Prince George and area and the Peace River zone. The Kitimat-Stikine zone col- lected four gold, seven silver and three bronze, with Kitimat athletes responsible for half of those medals. TAKING A SHOT: Wheelchair basketball alayers from here will be in Vernon at the end of the month for the B.C. Winter Games. Terrace chair enthusiasts Olivier Poissoneau, John Reid, Silas. Clayton, David Pereversoff, Tony Humphrey and Terry Reinert will combine with several Kitimat players to put a Terrace-Kitimat team on the court there. KELOWNA’ 5 Leila Johnston was on 1 Bessie Low 5 “heels throughout the Senior Ladies Provincial Cham- plonships here last week, but couldn't force her opponent to make a mistake. 9-4, Prince Rupert's - Jean Billing rink finished. ninth at. 3-6... - Selected game results are aS follows: : L. Besste Low (Bel): 7-2. over. 3. -Engemoen, -9.4+ over. Merrett, SAG over Marshall, BA to Pickering, 9-7 over - Wiggins, AL-5.: over: Billing; 9-5 = over ~ Johnston, , 10-5 over. Hosker, 4 “over, Black... 10- 9 over Hosker, 9:7 over et Mar aie ‘uly Meret ‘@unean) shall; 9-7. over Merrett, 10-5 over Wiggins, 5-9 to Low, 8-9 to Merrett, 9-11: to Engemoen. -. .§./ Jean Billing (3-6): 16-6 over ‘Hosker, 7-9 to Marshall, 5-6 ,to Black, 11-3 over Merrett, : 9-5 7.9.10 Johnston, 5-11 to Low, ver: Pickering. 9.5 aver Black 7-6. over- Engemoen, Pld, to Buck to at provi TERRACE — pro Greg Buck will represent the city at the provincials this weekend in Vancouver, Buck was one of several Ter- race wrestlers competing here at the zone wrestling playoffs two weekends ago. Several wrestlers qualified for the Feb. 21-22 provincials, hosted this year by Carson Graham Secondary School in Vancouver. Secondary school coach Warren Wilson said Buck — who wrestled his way to a gold medal in the 63-kilogram division — is the only wrestler the school can afford to send, Clarence Michiel Elementary wrestler. Peter: Robinson took . the gold in the 38-kilogram class... Skeena’s Shayne. Wilson was a silver medalist in the 4 kilogram. division. In the 57-kllo” division, Ter- race's Parm’ Atwal picked up a bronze. Lakhbir:-Jaswal ‘captured the gold medal in. the 60-kilo divi- . sion,” - But Skeena~ Jr. Meaiwhile~ Skeena’s Hendry reaches 3,000 JERRACE — Terrace women’s basketball star Michelle Hendry was expected to score her 3,000th career point in a game last night at home against: Seat- tle University. - . The Simon Fraser. University Clan’s centre had 2,969 follow- ing her 21 points ‘in last Thurs- day’s Clan win over the Central Washington Wildcats. , She fell short of the 31 paints she needed in Friday's 104-78 “Clan~ road’ win “over Lewis Clark. (SFU athletics. officials indicated she would be héld back in that game to allow her to reach the milestone in front of the home crowd.) . But last night’s total should have easily put her over the top. Hendry becomes only the 14th woman in North American women’s basketball to break the 3,000 point barrier. Only four other women in the NAIA have ever reached 3,000. And SFU officials are counting nine NCAA women as having reached 3,000 even though NCAA officials only count four. (The other five are based on school records. because they came before official NCAA record-keeping. was ‘put in place.) Meanwhile Hendry’ 3 partner on the court, Andrea Schneider, hit 17 assists in Friday's game — a new school record — to give her - 876 . carcer assists, breaking the’ NAIA record in that department. ° wrestle . incials Caledonia’s Jim Throw finished second to Buck in the 63-kilogram division for a silver, Skeena’s Matt Kerby took the gold in the 74-kilo classifica- tion.. And Eli McMillan was first in the 78-kilogram division. _ “The thing that killed us was not having enough _ kids,’* Wilson said of the: zone tourney, noting Smithers and Rupert wrestlers were. un- contested in several weight divi- sions. * ; ~ He said Buck has- potential to go far in the sport.’ “He’s a really talented wrestler,’’ Wilson: added. ‘He has good balance and a good sense of the sport, He’s ag- gressive and strong for his weight.” As acity, Terrace finished se- cond. in the tournament. Smithers and Prince Rupert wrestlers tied for first overall, - " Wilson said Terrace wrestlers showed’, “marked” -improvement ‘this year, They all wrestled very well and showed'a lot of develop- ment thls season.”