5
6A • March 13, 2015 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
Minutes with…
BU SIN E SS
Tom Maertens
DIRE CT ORY
Maertens, 45, is the volunteer coordinator with the Haystack
Rock Awareness Program, a position he will hold through
October. He has a master’s degree in geography from the
University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and did doctoral
work in geography at the University of British Columbia.
L AWN & G ARDEN C ARE
HEIDI LALIBERTE PHOTO
in South Carolina originally, and then
I did my senior thesis on ghost crabs. I
A: 0\IDPLO\¶VIURPKHUHWKH3DFL¿F was a “coastal biologist,” I thought of
Northwest). I split my winters in De- myself as. I like the dunes, and I like
troit, Mich., and summers in Oregon the drift line, things like that. Plants
with my dad and mom. And, at 17, I on the shore.
moved out here and started my uni-
YHUVLW\YHQWXUHDW3DFL¿F8QLYHUVLW\ Q: How did you hear about this gig?
in Forest Grove), and then there’s a
A: Actually, I heard about it on the
list of 13 others that follow.
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And then I mentioned it to people, and
Q: (Tom refers to himself as a
friends around town said I’d be great
biogeographer.) Could you explain
for the job. And that was that.
Q: Where are you originally from?
what biogeography is?
A: I study where things live and the Q: I hear the city was slammed on
processes that control them — where
they live and why.
Valentine’s Day. (Samantha Ferber,
Haystack Rock Awareness Program
coordinator, said that she and her
Q: How does that map onto marine
team counted 2,339 visitors during the
biology?
program’s fi rst weekend of the year on
A: Biogeography’s an older thing. the beach, Feb. 13 through 16.) Was
That’s what Darwin was, for instance. that, at all, overwhelming?
(Alfred Russel) Wallace. A bunch of
famous people we talk about — they
were biogeographers. So you study
natural processes and what controls
the distribution of species. And you
can use that in a petri dish of bacteria
or in a forest...
It works in marine biology just the
same ... Some things live in the deep
tide pools, some on the more exposed
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right? So you can look at any scale.
My early career was as a marine
biologist. I worked with ghost crabs
our anemones are decades old, may-
be 100 years old. They want to poke
them and pry them off. And people
will wade into the tide pools — like,
literally the whole family will walk
in: “Where’s a crab?”
It’s like, “Wow. If you back up
and let the sand settle, there’s actu-
ally a dozen crabs in there.”
I learned you actually have to just
stop looking for things out there. You
just stop — just stop what you’re do-
ing, and you will see things. So, my
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ing for things to show people, and
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you can point at things right around.
That wall that looks dead is actually
a living wall of barnacles and mus-
sels and chitons. Amazing!
Q: Where do you see yourself going
after this position?
A: (Pause.) Thanks for thinking of
A: It went by really fast! I got chapped me. (Smiles.)
lips. The joke is, it wasn’t from the
wind and the sun, it was just from
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Ninety-seven percent of the people
are nice, in my little experience. About
half of those are sincerely interested
in learning more — like they’re really
interested in it, so that’s really nice, to
have a passionate group of people so
easy to teach. It’s not a chore.
And a few people just don’t get it
— just totally don’t understand that
I’m really in it for the journey,
and I haven’t gotten that far (in plan-
ning). The idea was to — for this
(volunteer coordinator) project —
just to stay local if I could, which
isn’t that easy on the coast. And if I
can be in Cannon Beach, that’s even
better.
And then, just to be with an or-
ganization that is not harming the
world, at a minimum. And, if it’s
helping, so much the better.
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Housing task
force gets the
lay of the land
By Erick Bengel
Cannon Beach Gazette
There are several rea-
sons why working families
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non Beach, and a lack of
available, low-cost units
hovers near the top of the
list.
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tive director of Northwest
Oregon Housing Authority,
told the city’s Affordable
Housing Task Force at a
recent meeting that many
of the city’s low-wage
employees must reside in
Seaside, Astoria and sur-
rounding areas, where liv-
ing costs are cheaper, and
commute to Cannon Beach.
In addition, many prop-
erty owners actually have
little incentive to create
more affordable housing:
They can make as much
money in a month, or even
in a couple of weeks, rent-
ing out their units to short-
term visitors with deep
pockets as they can renting
to a low-income family for
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of the task force, which is
investigating why medi-
sop, Columbia and Tilla-
mook counties. One is a
voucher program that will
cover up to 70 percent of a
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within 110 percent of what
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ket rent.”
Though this voucher
of a friend of a friend who
agreed to lower their rent”
so that a family or elder-
ly person could live in the
unit, he added.
More than two-thirds of
renter households in Can-
non Beach are considered
“rent burdened,” which
means they spend between
30 and 50 percent of their
income on housing needs,
More than two-thirds of renter
according to a report pre-
households and nearly one-fourth
pared by City Attorney
of households that are buying
Tammy Herdener in the fall
of 2013. Nearly one-fourth
their homes in Cannon Beach
of households that are buy-
are considered ‘rent burdened’
ing their homes also are
considered rent burdened.
Because Cannon Beach
an-income families cannot program “could have a big property values are so ex-
afford to rent or buy hous- impact” on Cannon Beach’s pensive, many families
ing in Cannon Beach. The affordable housing prob- earning the area’s median
task force will develop rec- lem, the people who use the income — roughly $55,500
ommendations to increase vouchers in Cannon Beach in Clatsop County in 2014
affordable housing in town. seem to be exceptions, — are priced out of the
The Northwest Oregon -RKQVWRQ VDLG 2IWHQWLPHV city’s housing market, ac-
Housing Authority, which “the landlord is a friend cording to the report.
administers federal Hous-
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ment funds, runs several
programs that provide ac-
cess to “safe and decent”
affordable housing in Clat-
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BU SIN E SS
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