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. Installed iron bars on the
Page A-4 Shelton-Mason County Journal — Thursday, April 16, 2020
(M
TIMES
Thinking in thefuture tense
thought has been ping-
' pongingin my brain since
the beginning of the Great
Isolation (name patent pend-
ing): If we could be transported
six months into the future, what
will we have wished we had done
today to prepare for the
world to come?
Six months from now,
will we have wished we
had bought 25 pounds of
lentils six months earlier?
Fled to British Columbia?
windows? Started read-
ing the collected works
plans to ease or eliminate the ef-
fects of those problems.
I don’t mind paying taxes.
What I’m doing with my taxes is,
besides paying for admission to
the movie, is paying the govern-
ment to plan, which I'do not what
to do. I want government
to take money out of my
paycheck and give it back
to me when I’m retired
so I can plan less; I want
government to plan how
to preserve natural re-
sources; and I want the
government to plan how
to lessen the effects of any
of William Shakespeare? By KIRK highly contagious and
Ensured that the old ERICSON lethal viruses that infest
couple across the street our people.
had enough food? Climbed
Mount Ellinor?
How about food, ammo and toi-
let paper? '
I have no clue. Preparing for
the future is hard, kind of like
imagining meeting your daugh-
ter’s first boyfriend. Talk about
your uncertain times
While the future can be misty,
an effective way to approach the
unknowingness of the future is to
imagine multiple possibilities and
then prepare for each one. For
instance, in last week’s Shelton-
Mason County Journal, county
Auditor Paddy McGuire wrote a
column about what his office has
done to prepare for the April 28
special election — the county’s
first since the coronavirus shut us
down. '
“Election ofiicials prepare
and plan for things to go wrong,”
McGuire wrote. “We think about
the weather, things like bliziards
and flooding. We think natural
disasters, earthquakes, and since
we’re in Washington, volcanoes.
' We think about Backhoe Bob and
what happens if we lose power
a or internet connectivity. And we
make plans to deal with those is-
sues so that we count your ballots
accurately no matter what.”
The county auditor’s office
didn’t plan for the coronavirus,
he wrote, but “... our planning is
very useful in that we know what
resources are available and know
how to adapt to changing circum-
stances.” '
What McGuire did is precisely
what we need government work-
ers to do. We want government
employees to be smart enough
and insightful enough to imagine
future problems and then have
Journal
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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Shelton-Mason
County Journal, PO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584.
Published weekly by the Shelton—Mason County Journal
at 227 W. Cota St, Shelton, Washington.
Mailing address: PO. Box 430, Shelton, WA 98584
Telephone: 360-426-4412
Many of our federal
politicians and state governments
clearly didn’t plan for that last
one. Being No. 1 in the world for
COVID-19 deaths is all the evi-
dence we need for a conviction,
and the loud, proud and viral
. ignorance of some of those politi-
cians elevates their negligence to
a crime in the first degree. Kings,
queens, pharaohs, presidents and
prime ministers have lost thrones
and heads for less.
What we needed — and still
could use — is someone who had
the authority, foresight and com-
passion to overprepare us for this
virus, not someone who would tell
us the problem would disappear
like magic. Even if the virus magi-
cally did peter out, which it magi-
cally did not, overpreparing still
was the right move.
For instance, much time and
money was spent building that
field hospitalin that Seattle sta-
dium, the one where they used
to play professional football, to
handle any overflow of COVID-19
cases. The overflow cases didn’t
materialize and the hospital was
dismantled, but that doesn’t mean
it was wrong to build that field
hospital.
It’s better to have a field hospi-
tal and not need it than to need a
field hospital and not have it.
Back in the 1970s, being a
“futurist” was kind of a hip thing
to be. Futurists were people who
contemplated what humans
. needed to thrive in the future.
One such futurist was Edward
Lindaman, who was the president
of Whitworth College in my home-
town of Spokane from 1970 to
see TIMES, page A-5
nal is a member of the Wash-
ington Newspaper Publishers
Association.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES:
$52 per year ($43 for six months)
for Mason County addresses and
$75 per year ($55 for six months)
outside of Mason County. '
v Owned and published by
The Shelton-Mason County Jour—
Adam Rudnick, editor in chief '
ing about COVID—19, here’s a palate
cleanser — the osprey have returned
to nest.
As they have since2017 the first
year Mason PUD 3 discovered an osprey
nest on top of one of the utility’s power
poles — osprey are nesting, cackling and
taking in the views.
But the osprey do not fear electro-
cution from the nearby power lines
anymore because PUD crews installed
a 90-foot pole and a 4-foot-by-4-foot nest-
ing platform nearby so the large birds
have their own space 30 feet higher than
their previous nest. Staff hoped it would
keep the birds off PUD structures, and
so far it’s worked.
It’s worked so well, that PUD 3 in- ,
stalled two webcams for the public to
watch the osprey, which the US. Fish and
Wildlife Service lists as a protected spe-
cies under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
Osprey are fish-eating raptors that
are found along shorelines .and open
marshes in coastal regions, according to
the Fish and Wildlife Service. They usu—
ally nest on navigational structures, but
now use cell towers, transmission lines,
cranes and other manmade structures.
Osprey are perhaps best known as be-
ing the unofficial mascot of your favorite
local team, the Seattle Seahawks.
Since 2018, PUD 3 has tracked os-
In case you’re getting tired of read-
prey in the nest. It’s posted when the.
male and female arrive each year, when
they mate and nest, and when they
Turnyoureyes to theskies
leave the nest each year.
At a.m. April 5, the male os-
prey, named Griffin, made his first
appearance of A week later, the
female, Penny, arrived just in time for
Easter Sunday.
Typically adults arrive at their nests
from their wintering seasons during
March, according to Fish and Wildlife
Services. Egg laying and incubation
takes place in April, and rearing of
young happens from Maythrough June.
Fledging — or birds developing wing
feathers and learning to fly —— takes
place in July and August, with birds
migrating to Central and South America
by September. . .
That schedule suits the local osprey
as ,well, according to PUD 3. The utility
tracks those details, and offers resi-
dents alive glimpse at the birds via two
webcams on its website www.pud3,org/
osprey. ‘ '
On Tuesday, the two birds, cackling
back and forth, sat in the nest as the
wind ruffled their feathers in the mom-
ing sun.
It’s tough to experience nature right
now, with so many local, state and fed—
eral lands closed due to the coronavirus.-
But nature is still out there —— since
it’s a little harder to see these days, we
recommend turning up the volume and
watching the birds for a few minutes.
It’s a reminder that life —— as well as
the natural world around us will go
on after COVID-19.
Mason PUD 3 designed this special platform attached to a 90-foot pole to be
used as an osprey nest after an osprey nest was found on a power pole.
Crews
erected a 90-foot pole and built the platform, and osprey moved their nest
to
the nearby platform. Screen shot from Mason PUD webcam
Journal Letter Policy
The Journal encourages original letters to the editor of local interest.
Diverse and varied opinions
are welcomed. We will not publish letters that are deemed libelous or
scurrilous in nature. All
letters must be signed and include the writer’s name, address and phone
number, which will
beused for verification purposes only. All letters are subject to editing
for length, grammar and
clarity. To submit a letter, email adam@mascncounty.com or mail it to PO.
Box 430, Shelton, WA
98584. Until further notice, please do not drop off letters at the Journal
office.
Publisher: Tom Mullen Front office:
Dave Pierik, circulation and
Advertising: classifieds manager
John Lester, general manager
Theresa Murray, ad representative Delivery:
Jon Garza
Newsroom: David Olson
Niel Challstrom
Gordon Weeks, reporter
Justin Johnson, sports/outdoors editor
Kirk Ericson, columnist/ proofreader
Lloyd Mullen, photo editor technical support
All regular editorial, advertising
and legal deadlines are 5 pm. the .
Monday prior to publication.
To submit a letter to the editor,
email adam@masoncounty.com.
Composing room:
William Adams, advertising and
Website: www.masoncounty.com Shelton-Mason County Journal, lnc.
Periodicals postage paid in Shelton, Washington.