Adams County Makes the News - Adams County Leader #35

The Adams County Leader        Published Weekly On Friday
Wm. Lemon Editor and Manager
Member State Editorial Association 
Member National Editorial Association
Official Paper of Adams County Price $2.00 Strictly in Advance

August 6, 1920 
WOULD CLOSE THE COUNTY’S STREAMS

In the latter part of the week, a petition was prepared for presentation to the State Game Department which asks that practically all trout streams in this county be closed for three years.  The petition included nearly all important streams except the main Weiser below Evergreen.  It is expected that the petition, which was signed by local nimrods in general, will receive favorable consideration.  From conversation with farmers, we predict that the move will meet with general favor.  During the past few summers, the great numbers of tourists that come into the county have been largely responsible for depletion of streams to the point where exhaustion is threatened.  Hence, unless action is taken, game fish hereabouts will soon be a thing of the past.

September 23, 1921
PREDATORY ANIMALS

Attaining the highest average since the inception of the work in 1915, nine hunters of the biological survey of the United States Department of Agriculture, working 247 days, killed 272 predatory animals in Idaho during the month of August, according to the monthly report issued Wednesday by Luther J. Goldman, inspector for Idaho.

February 10, 1922
MUSKRAT RULING

Roy L. Black, Idaho attorney general, recently made a ruling to the effect that muskrats are not to be disturbed while in their houses.  During the open season, traps may be set for them at any place except within their homes, but Mr. Black says the little animals are not to be disturbed after they have crossed their own doorstep.  It is also declared unlawful to break in to the house of the muskrat for the purpose of setting traps.

September 21, 1923
EXPERTS FIGURE

Experts figure that in 85 years there will be no lumber in the world at the present rate of destruction.  Reforestation is the only hope of averting this calamity, they assert.  By this means, forests may be made a permanent asset, they claim.

September 21, 1923
BERRIES

In Bear Creek, easily accessible from a good county road, there is a stretch of what forest officials state comprises four sections of the finest huckleberries in Idaho or any other state.  It is possible to drive an auto right into the patch and an ice-cold mountain stream flows through it, making it an ideal camping spot.  In fact, almost adjacent to the berry patch is a regular campsite, fixed up with tables and other camp conveniences.

This season the local forest service has practically forced the sheep men to pasture herds of sheep in this huckleberry patch.  In former years, the sheep men themselves have kept out, but this season it is understood that Superintendent Rice has told the sheepmen that if they do not graze the huckleberry section, a like amount will be cut next year from their grazing allotment, so they are practically forced to run their sheep in the huckleberry swamp.

We understand Mr. Rice is from Kansas, where they raise huckleberries only in barrels.  Mr. Rice seems to think that 12 cents a season for grazing sheep mounts up on four sections to huge sums, and he says that amount of land cannot be spared from the sheep to furnish a few thousand people with huckleberries and the incidental recreation of camping and picking them.

The Leader believes Mr. Rice is wrong.  Mr. Rice intimates that there is only one person interested in huckleberries, and that that one person is an ignorant faultfinder.  The editor wants to add at least one more ignorant faultfinder to the list.

August 24, 1925
HUCKLEBERRIES

Last season, considerable commotion was caused when a simple request went in that grazing sheep in a restricted area at Bear campground, where huckleberries grow luxuriantly, be stopped and the place reserved for campers and berry pickers.  The matter was of rather small consequence, but had merit, and the request was finally granted and two sections ordered so reserved, although not until a few persons had been wrought up somewhat and at least one man had lost his job or been transferred.

The facts are that the United States forest service invites and in every way encourages the public to travel through and camp in the forest areas.  This being true, the effort last season to keep campers out of, or at least discourage them from coming into, the Bear section was directly in opposition to the general policy of the forestry service, as is proven by the fact that Mr. Rice, a man thoroughly qualified no doubt in other respects, was transferred to another less desirable station because, it is rumored, of “friction between the supervisor and the public.”

July 26, 1929
MAY CLOSE IDAHO FISHING STREAMS
Lewiston, Idaho, August 11 

Idaho state game warden R. Thomas said tonight that the unusually dry summer had so depleted mountain streams in north Idaho that fish were in danger and that mountain streams may be closed to fishermen temporarily.  The Little Salmon River, he said, is the “lowest I have ever seen it, and the Big Salmon River is running little water.”  He said he had received many requests to close the Big Salmon to fishermen.

The state fish hatchery at Grangeville has almost lost its water supply and attendants are confronted with the problem of disposing of 800,000 fingerling trout in the hatchery’s tanks.  Thomas said he had not considered a successor to W. M. Keil, who resigned the post of state fish commissioner recently.  “We won’t fill that position for some time,” Thomas said. 

compiled by Eberle Umbach