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43 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, October 10, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Rogue Valley's Finest EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend September 23, 2004 Takelma facilities finally get much-needed facelift Outdoor Notes By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune The best new boat ramp on the upper Rogue River is open for business by steelhead anglers floating the stretch downstream of Shady Cove. The new ramp, restroom and parking lot at Jackson County’s Takelma facilities is complete, the result of a $151,000 project aimed at revamping what was widely considered the worst boating facility on the upper Rogue. The facilities are three miles downstream of Shady Cove and the halfway point between Shady Cove and Dodge Bridge. It is a popular fall fly-fishing stretch for summer steelhead. The new ramp replaces an old one where the asphalt did not even reach water’s edge in most summer and fall water conditions. "It looks great," says Randy Hutton, facilities manager for the Jackson County Parks Department. "It’s quite a facelift for Takelma Park." Advertisement The new ramp plunges into the slack water just upstream of the old one. It is 20 feet wide, creating enough room for dual launchings and reducing conflicts involving people using poor boating etiquette by clogging the ramp. Concrete walkways link the ramp to the new parking lot, which also sports two vault toilets that replace a porta-potty that had been on site for several years. The Oregon State Marine Board paid two-thirds of the cost and the county picking up the final third, Hutton says. The project came in about $6,000 under budget, and the Marine Board will get two-thirds of the leftovers, Hutton says. Oregon’s unprecedented fall fishery targeting wild coho salmon, a threatened species, will resume next month on two Florence-area lakes that sport some of the Oregon coast’s strongest coho runs. NOAA-Fisheries biologists this month approved an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife proposed to open wild coho harvest in Siltcoos and Tahkenitch lakes Oct. 1, with fishing for salmon running through December. Federal biologists last year approved the fishery, setting a precedent as the first time and place sport anglers could target, catch and keep a threatened fish species. Federal biologists concluded that the lakes, which are attached to the Pacific by creeks, sport runs of wild coho that state and federal biologists deemed healthy and stable enough to host a light, heavily monitored fishery through December. Under the Endangered Species Act, harvest of wild coastal coho — called a "direct take" — had been illegal since they were listed in 1993. The ODFW, however, receives federal permits that legalize the "incidental" take of wild coho that die after they are accidentally caught and then released during seasons targeting other fish, such as hatchery coho. The ODFW asked for and received permission last year to take some of the acceptable loss The fisheries are based on a federally accepted state management plan that calls for sport angling during years when returns are above a minimal threshold. The season started in mid-December last year, and NOAA-Fisheries estimates that anglers caught and kept a dozen fish between the two lakes. "It was fairly popular last year," says John Spangler, the ODFW’s watershed council coordinator in the Siltcoos Lake area. "This year, there’s going to be a full season with lots of bright fish for people to fish on, so I expect it to be popular." The limits remain one adult and one jack salmon under 16 inches a day, and no more than five adults per year for anglers fishing either or both lakes. This year’s harvest is expected to be between 300 and 600 wild coho in Siltcoos, and between 200 and 400 fish in Tahkenitch, according to a NOAA-Fisheries report. Last Saturday’s fall Hunting Guide failed to give a cover photo credit to the Oregon Hunters Association. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. 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