The River Run: A Log Drive Threatens Local Fishing
Three hundred cords of wood floated down the south fork of the Walla Walla River are expected to wreck the local fishing season for weeks.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Walla Walla sportsmen fear that 300 cords of wood being floated down the south fork of the Walla Walla river will put an end to fishing in that excellent mountain stream for several weeks. The first of the drive reached the Robert's place yesterday, but the bulk of the wood is yet to come. The wood camp where choppers have been cutting timber all spring is located at Table rock, 10 miles above the Roberts' ranch, and the drive will take place over the finest part of the stream for fishing. The wood is comparatively green yet and it floats half submerged, which tends to scare fish and cause them to seek side streams if there are any, or else turn tail and go down stream ahead of the drive. About five men are engaged in running the wood down stream, and it is estimated that three weeks will be consumed in the work.
“The wood is comparatively green yet and it floats half submerged, which tends to scare fish and cause them to seek side streams.”
Conflicts between extractive industrial practices and the preservation of river ecosystems for recreation remain a staple of Northwest environmental discourse. While today we look at the Walla Walla through a lens of salmon restoration, this 1903 conflict over wood drives echoes the modern tension between economic use of public waterways and conservation.
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