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Show Thursday, July 31, 2008 ' OREM TIMES PreoHa v it.?, -A $ W 'C I NEWS AND NOTES FROM AREA ATHLETES Baseball 0 TIMPANOGOS Outfielder Taylor Lyons, an all-state member of the state champion Timpanogos baseball team this past season, has committed to join teammate Gentry Croft to play baseball for the College of Southern Nevada. Lyons, who was all-state in both football and baseball as a senior, also considered a preferred walk-on offer to play football at the University of Utah. 3 V ' V' Basketball i OREM Orem's hoops squad has been bolstered by the addition of Chilean Pablo Coro. Coro is a combo guard who is versatile and athletic. Coro is a potential D-l recruit according to some. Football TIMPANOGOS - Wide receiver Grant Jimenez has committed to play football for Dixie State College. Jimenez, an all-state performer per-former who led the state in receiving in 2007, also considered Utah State. He was also a standout on the T'Wolves baseball team. TIMPANOGOS - The T'Wolves will host their annual Blue-White game on their home field on Friday, Aug. 16th, at 7 p.m. Court rules in favor of fishermen Don Allphin NORTH COUNTY In a landmark ruling, the Utah Supreme Court recently declared that anglers have the right to walk in the beds of streams and rivers that cross private property. Quoting the decision, "We hold that the scope of the easement ease-ment provides the public the right to float, hunt, fish, and participate in all lawful activities activi-ties that utilize the water." For many years anglers have been barred access to some of the best sections of rivers and streams in our state because those waters run through private property. This ruling clears the way for anglers to fish the waters legally for the first time, and thus open to the public some pristine areas of the Provo, Weber and many other rivers throughout the state. The one thing the Justices didnt quantify however, is exactly "w here" stream beds begin and end Montana courts decided some time ago that the "high-water mark" delineates the beginnings of the stream bed, so for much of the j 'ear, anglers are able to walk the banks and still be legally inside the stream bed But the Utah Justices didnt take on that particular question. The results of this decision are far reaching. In their declaration, dec-laration, the Court said, "We further hold that the public has the right to touch privately owned beds of state waters in ways incidental to all recre GOING ON D O N AT E YOUR PAPER i . CALl. TO DONATE YOUR NEWSPAPER TO NEWSPAPERS IN EDUCATION -- 3755103- vvww.heraldextra.com Wrf All JT(fXjl) Produce ((jflrtyTtfffi Season ational rights provided for in the easement, so long as they do so reasonably and cause no unnecessary injury to the landowner." So, as long as anglers remain inside the banks of a river and have gained access to the water from a legitimate public access point such as a bridge or other such structure, they should be able to fish almost anywhere they choose. There will be some problems with this decision. One, anglers will most likely leave fishing line all along the banks which will injure cattle and thereby injure in-jure the property owner. Two, anglers will treat landowners with hostility and thereby create cre-ate tension that could lead to confrontations. Don't laugh at this notion, trust me, it will happen. So, where should you fish first? My suggestion is that you look to sections of the Provo, from right here in the city limits to areas around the Heber Valley. Val-ley. Thea try to find some of the pristine spots along the upper up-per Weber River from Kamas down to Echo Reservoir. Just because anglers now have the right to fish the whole stream, they (we) should still be mindful that they (we) don't own the property; they (we) are using an easement only, and as such should be respectful respect-ful to landowners and show appreciation for having the opportunity op-portunity to fish I Don Allphin can be reached at remaxdoa(S gmail.com. VACATION? i American avocets take flight from the mudflats ofFarmington Bay on July 29. BELOW: Rich Hansen, Waterfowl Management Area, prepares to launch his unit's airboat. armingfon Bay: A 'fowl' place Beky Beaton NORTH COUNTY While legions of Utah students are dreaming of or dreading the return to school in a few short weeks, millions of birds are making a return of their own, from nesting grounds far to the north to their winter havens. The Great Salt Lake and Utah Lake are major components of the state's portion of the Pacific Flyway, a network of wetlands in the interior and coastal regions of the West which provides pro-vides critical rest and refueling stops for migrating shorebirds, waterfowl and songbirds. Fortunately for Utah residents resi-dents past and present, the importance of these critical habitats was recognized early enough to preserve some of them. Protection efforts began many decades ago and are continuing con-tinuing today. One center of these efforts is the Farmington Bay Waterfowl Water-fowl Management Area, which has grown from 3,800 acres in 1935 to about 18,000 today. According to Rich Hansen, site manager for the Division of Wildlife Resources, two recent controversial Utah transportation projects have actually had a positive effect ontheFBWMA. Federal policies require that when infrastructure construction construc-tion impacts wetlands, the land lost must be compensated for somewhere else, called mitigation. mitiga-tion. Usually constructing entities enti-ties must purchase or provide new land at a ratio which favors fa-vors the goals of conservation. For example, when TRAX was extended to Ogden, they were required to mitigate at a ratio of 12 to 1, meaning that for each acre of wetlands removed to build the tracks, 12 acres would be required to replace it. FBWMA stands to benefit from that standard as TRAX purchased 60 acres adjacent to the current boundaries to help fulfill this requirement. "TRAX cut a check to us to manage their land," Hansen explained. "After that, if we fulfill certain stipulations set by the Army Corps of Engineers (the federally -designated overseer over-seer of wetlands), that 60 acres will be deeded to the DWR." The Legacy Highway project proj-ect has also benefitted Farmington Farm-ington Bay. The road has been built in marginal wetlands areas which weren't very productive,'' Han- Aspen Mortgage Your Home Loan Socialists WV.ASPKSMr,.:tM 30 yr. Fixed Rates Have Dropped Below 6.00! Buy a home. Change your ARM to a Fixed Mortgage Consolidate your Home Equity Line and high interest credit cards into one loan. Refinance to remove mortgage insurance. Call us today to apply. Find out why our past clients think we are the best. 7 rs I r y ' Bert Wilson Bruce Henriksen, pim v 'ft i' ill ''.n "' I i jt t s v si - m m v ... r dJshz - "" I idkt 1 sen said. "As a result of this project, proj-ect, 400 additional acres of prime habitat has been purchased which provides a good buffer between be-tween us and development." So, what exactly is a "productive" "pro-ductive" wetland? Basically, it's one where the vegetation and animal life provide pro-vide food and protective cover for wildlife. At Farmington Bay, there are several different types of wetland wet-land habitats, each with a role to play in the area's ecology. Freshwater and brackish marshes, with their characteristic character-istic plants like cattail and bulrush, bul-rush, fill the bill nicely with good hiding and nesting spots on land and lots of food sources in the water, such as insect larvae, fish and amphibians that waterfowl and shorebirds like to eat. Much of Farmington Bay is very shallow and includes huge expanses of mudflats, where salt-tolerant plants like pickleweed provide seeds for waterfowl and other birds. Fish cant survive because of the concentrated salinity in the open water of the lake, but brine shrimp and brine fly larvae thrive in those conditions, providing pro-viding millions of pounds of food for avian visitors every year. One of the prime beneficiaries beneficia-ries of that salt-water bounty are Wilson's phalaropes, who are among the first shorebirds to migrate. This unusual bird travels in flocks of tens of thousands of individuals, which put on a flight display unlike anything else in nature. Hansen said single flocks he's seen can number a quarter of a million. When the birds take to the air, they are like a living ribbon flapping in the wind, twisting and turning while filling the sky with sight and sound. That's not all that sets these visitors apart from other birds, however. Unlike most avian species, spe-cies, the female is the gaudy one and usually mates with several males. The males also incubate the eggs and care for the young. Phalarope migration peaks this week, but they are only the first wave of dozens that will take place between now and November as hundreds of bird species work their way south through the Flyway. Even in the winter, however, things are not dull at Farming-ton Farming-ton Bay. Several hundred bald eagles that nest far to the north make the area their winter home in January and February. All told, about 200 species have been documented there. Like all the marshes around the Great Salt Lake, Farming-ton Farming-ton Bay was completely inundated inun-dated by the floods of the late 1980s. The area has made a remarkable re-markable recovery, a testament to nature's amazing resiliency. That doesn't mean there aren't challenges, though. Hansen quickly identified the two biggest ones: invasive plant life and predators. Of particular concern in the first category is phragmites, a very aggressive plant which produces thousands of seeds as well as sending out runners to make new shoots. A single plant can choke out everything J 24 HOURS A!l PADIO The ey to ve is Jesus Chrnt R00 r KEYY FOR UTAH VALLEY 1450 NOW with Full Streaming jjj Audio on the Web HnP:WWW.KEYY.COM far.:ily&reutk)a:shsps Focus on the Family Dr. James Dobson M-F 12 Noon & 5.00 p m. Family Life Today Dr. Dennis Rainey ...... M-f 6 a.m & Sat. 6 a m & 9 f m. Moneytrfe Owd Bentley .. M-F 6:30 p m. & Sat. 6:30 a.m. & 9:3C p.m. Complete program schedule and listener comment opportunity on our web site or phone us for a copy of our schedule! KEYY will not add your name to any mailing lists T.T-T.S.-..::rvi; BEKY BFATON North rcnntv manager of the Farmington Bay V I 1 in a 200-square-foot area. Experts differ on how ihis Asian native ended up here, though it was pr bably with good intentions, the FBWMA is in the third year of a 15-year plan to try to dramatically reduce re-duce this vegetable pest . The second-biggest threat on the refuge are predators, which Hansen identified as raccoons, rac-coons, foxes, skunks and feral cats. These prey on hir is and their nests. He added that more than 250 such animals have been taken from the area each year, but more come because there is no predator control in the surrounding sur-rounding land. Still, the efforts have produced pro-duced some positive results. From a low of seven broods (each brood includes all the offspring of one nesting pair) at the WMA in 2002. biologists counted 154 this year. There are presently 60 species ot birds that nest at the refuge. Virtually all of the money to manage the refuge comes from hunting license fees, which is why the WMA's primary objective objec-tive is to provide the best habitat habi-tat available for waterfowl. However, all the other avian visitors also benefit, and humans hu-mans do as well as t hey enjoy a serene, spectacular and interesting inter-esting place teeming with wildlife wild-life in a world which pr ividos quite a contrast to the breakneck break-neck pace of modern life. For driving directions, hours and lots of interesting information informa-tion on what Farmington Bay has to offer, visit the Web site at greatsaltlakenaturecenter.org. 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