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Newspaper Archive of
Shelton Mason County Journal
Shelton, Washington
October 29, 2020     Shelton Mason County Journal
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October 29, 2020
 
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I l Page A—4 Shelton-Mason County Journal — Thursday, Oct. 29, 2020 TIMES Sex and death in the creek “The know on March 19, the come Capistrano.” —— George Carlin ( jhum salmon are fish- tailing it up Kennedy Creek again, and the human who will be present while the chum court, fight, mate and die will follow too. This mid-autumnal fish migra- , tion is one of the largest chum runs in Puget Sound and watching it has become a November ritual for thousands of humans. The leading edge of the tens of thousands of returning chum en- tered the creek from Oyster Bay, near the Mason-Thurston county line, in the past couple of weeks, a little earlier than usual because of this fall’s rainstorms. The run of humans starts next weekend when the South Puget Sound Salmon En— hancement Group opens the gate to the Kennedy Creek Salmon Trail, a place where visitors are encouraged to contemplate the chum. It seems a bit indecent, this chum-watching show. After a nice fall drive, you walk amid the shifting kaleidoscope of fall colors to watch another species battle and scar each otherto win the right to fertilize eggs. You might even get the rare glimpse of chum couples mating in a milky slurry of splashing tails and quivering flesh. If you come late enough in the season, you can even see, and smell, spawned-out salmon lining the riverbank and whirling lifelessly in creek eddies. This raw drama draws about 5,000 visitors a year to the nature trail _-—- the event clearly exerts an attraction on many humans. Maybe it’s a primal desire to be in the pres- ence of a species that predates hu— mans by millions of years. Maybe it’s the visible affirmation of the seam- lessness of life. Maybe it’s a good excuse to get outdoors. Or maybe it’s to witness the mar- . vel of the Puget Sound chum migra— tion. “They have a verystrong genetic push to reproduce,” said Lance Wi- necka, executive director of the South Puget Sound Salmon En- chancement Group. “It’s an amazing migration. They’re born in Kennedy Creek and spend three to four years in the ‘cold waters of Alaska and then they make their way back to the ex— act creek they were born in.” Slultwmasoumntg llonmnl USPS 492-800 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 Telephone: 360-426-4412 Website: www.masoncounty.com Periodicals postage paid in Shelton, Washington. By KIRK ERICSON I went to Kennedy Creek last Saturday. The gate was closed, so you walk a mile from Old Olympic Highway to the viewing area, which -is a series of trails cut through the woods near the creek channel. I sat by the creek bank, near a stretch of some graveled creek bed, and watched. Five chum ap— peared within a minute, and they remained in front of me, clumped together, snout to the cur— rent, like gulls on the beach facing the wind, like a basset hound lean- ing out a car window. ‘ At the moment when I stood to leave after 45 minutes, all five dart- ed upstream. They were watching me watch them. , After a while, I grew a bit famil- iar with the actions that the salmon repeated. The largest one seemed less agitated than the other four as it repeatedly maneuvered next to another fish that was a tail shorter. The other three trailed a foot or so down current, making occasional for- ays against the big one. One repeat- edly head-butted the biggest chum at midships, to no apparent effect. The three down—current chum would occasionally turn on each other, nipping with their jutting and jagged teeth, the kind of teeth that nightmares are made of. They ap— peared, if I had to put a human emo- tion on it, frustrated. The biggest one was likely a male, .salmon group director Lance told me, and the one he was protecting was likely a female. The others were “sat- ellite” males males that swoop in after the dominant male has fulfilled its role in the fertilizer business. “Several males will key on one female,” Lance said, and the domi- nant male will have to prove himself by chasing off others. That male is the one that remains closest to the female, crossing over her back to dis- play his supremacy, thus preventing any intruder from stealing his girl. The act of the female releasing eggs triggers the dominant male to act, Lance said. The male fertil— izes the eggs and leaves, and then the satellite males move in for their shots. Those males then wander off too, but the mother chum remains with her future brood, doing what females do: Protecting her young to her dying respiration. After about two weeks, the mother dies and see TIMES, page A—6 The Shelton-Mason County Jour- nal is a member of the Wash- ington Newspaper Publishers Publisher: Tom Mullen General Manager: John Lester coLuMM L’ost romance of election night lection night in Shelton E used to be an all—Amer- ican experience full of drama, anxiety, pride, pathos and triumph. , People from all over Mason County swarmed the court— house_and climbed the stairs — or took the rickety elevator — to the courtroom on the sec- By JEFF GREEN 0nd floor. There they’d pack the wooden pews or stand in the back and along the side walls. Not long after the polls closed at eight o’clock, poll workers from vari— ous precincts started to arrive carry- ing10cked wooden boxes full of bal- lots. Election department employees would unlock the boxes and prepare ballots for counting by a machine set up right in the midst of the court— room. Between ballot counts, every hour ' or longer, people chatted, moved around or tried to divine meaning through their pocket calculators. ‘ As the evening moved along, the courtroom grew hotter and stuffier from body heat and the ancient steam radiators whose regulators had long ago been stripped and no longer worked. ' The courtroom’s largewindows were thrown open and the chilly No— vember night air cooled the stifling courtroom by two or three degrees. It was great to stand near the windows and feel the cool air. After the machine spit out each count, the county clerk would write the ballot sub-totals on butcher paper affixed to blackboards. The room qui- eted and you could hear her marker squeak as she wrote the numbers for each candidate. Supporters cheered or groaned depending on how the num- bers fell. Most people were therefor the 10- cal races. Some races were settled early as one candidate would pull away and keep in— creasing his or hervlead. ’ But the best races were l those where the lead changed back and forth —— and back ,again — during the night. That was when election watchers were in their ele- ment; their nerves frazzled, their pulses racing. And then, it was an- nounced the final count was being tal— lied on the machine. Sometimes that was well after midnight. The room fell silent. Most held their breath as the clerk wrote the totals on the boards. Sometimes the courtroom exploded in whoops and cheers from the back- ers of winners while those-favoring the runners-up sighed and started putting on their coats. , Eventually, everybody went home in the late-night or early morning cold. It was always exciting, always a spectacle, always electric to’ watch the returns roll in. ‘ In today’s vote—by-mail era, there are no precinct workers. Gone are the wooden boxes, the butcher paper, the buzzing of the vote-counting machine. The courtroom is dark and empty on election night. These days, printed results are handed out to the few who show up at the county commissioners’ chambers and posted online shortly after 8. The process is fast and accurate but mechanical. All that’s missing is the humanity and emotions and pulse—pounding atmosphere on elec- tion night of years past. I Jeff Green covered Mason County for the Shelton—Mason County Journal and The Olympian for 19 years before retiring in 2007. He lives in the com- munity. .PICK THE SUPERPIERO .. __ ,_ u_____._ -M.M. Front office: Association. Advertising: Delivery: SUBSCRIPTlON RATES: Theresa Murray, Ad Representative Jon Garza $62 per year ($43 for six months) David Olson for Mason County addresses and $75 per year ($55 for six months) outside of Mason County. Owned and published by Shelton—Mason County Journal, Inc. Newsroom: . Justin Johnson, Editor Gordon Weeks, Reporter Kirk Boxleitner, Reporter Kirk Ericson, Columnist! Proofreader Isabella Breda. Reporter/Social Media Niel Challstrom'v Composing room: Dave Pierik, Office Administrator Karen Hranac, Customer Service William Adams, Advertising Design and Technical Support Design: Lloyd Mullen, Creative Director i All regular editorial, advertising and legal deadlines are 5 pm. the Monday prior to publication. To submit a letter to the editor, email editor@masoncounty.com. EL We effo tur bee in 2 hee pect tion peo- beh of p lon: Day you Our am. and stat : Fre u this Day com canc even eve 202! me I. Chic wa : blac iceb n kitc ble drab hope gone pres ‘ the way