Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 12, 2015)
OPINION 6A T HE D AILY A STORIAN THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2015 Lights, camera ... cue the elk Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager SAMANTHA MCLAREN, Circulation Manager Does the Wellville campaign matter? Wellness happens when people make their own lifestyle decisions JEFF TER HAR — For The Daily Astorian Making their way from the Gearhart Golf Links over to Gearhart Palisades, a herd of elk find food in resi- dents’ yards last April. G earhart’s herd has its own television segment I MPRESSIONS In the end, educating the com- munity about the elk was about all people could come up with. Signs are going up now, but I’m wondering how effective they will be if a herd gets too close and knocks them over. I guess that will teach some sort of lesson. Despite some negative reaction to- ward the elk, Shippey and Maine saw the positive side. “We’re living in a high-quality place with enough open space to have elk,” said Maine, who spends much of his days trekking through the local backwoods to gather fabulous photos of wildlife we all take for granted. “That’s kind of a blessing you don’t want to mess up by having a community battle,” he added. As Shippey watched a young bull elk lock horns with a larger bull in the dune grass on the beach, he called the elk an “opportunity.” If we on the North Coast want “clean, nonpolluting” attractions that bring in temporary tourists and permanent dollars to the community, then “elk are a perfect vehicle,” Ship- pey said. Goodness knows, they stop enough vehicles on the road, I re- sponded snarkily as I watched the end of the Oregon Field Guide segment. But no sooner had Shippey made KLVFRPPHQWWKDQLWZDVFRQ¿UPHGE\ a beachgoer who encountered elk on his path to the ocean. “I was in Jacksonville, Wyo., and I didn’t see this kind of action,” the beachgoer said. “And that’s why I went there.” Hmm…. Maybe we need to re- think our response. Instead of trying to shoo the elk away, perhaps we should embrace them as tourist attrac- tions, take the bull by the horns (so to speak) and take a meeting with their publicist. There must be someone around here who can polish their image. And who’s going to do their hair and make-up? Nancy McCarthy covers South Clatsop County for The Daily Asto- rian and is the editor of the Seaside Signal and the Cannon Beach Ga- zette. Her column appears every two weeks. Tar sand costs must stick RQWKRVHZKRSUR¿W It never ceases to amaze me how much attention elk get around here. They even have their own televi- sion segment. Not only do they stop cars on the highway, they have the power to cur- tail meetings. Last week — on the night they were about to star on TV — Seaside Public Works Director Neal Wallace told the Seaside Parks Advisory Committee that its meeting would be swift. He had to get home to watch the elk. Never mind that the committee was about to discuss a proposal to develop pathways and bird blinds around the Mill Pond on the south end of Seaside. The project, which has taken years to get to this point, just didn’t muster the attraction that a 10-minute segment on Oregon Field Guide did. Lured by tales of an elk herd rou- tinely roaming through Gearhart, an Oregon Public Broadcasting produc- er spent a few days in South Clatsop County to see for herself what all the fuss was about. 6KH WDONHG WR ORFDO ¿OPPDNHU Howard Shippey, nature photogra- pher and biologist Neal Maine, Gear- hart Mayor Dianne Widdop and Ore- gon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Herman Biederbeck. The OPB video crew shot footage of 100 elk traipsing through town, SDVW &LW\ +DOO GRZQ 3DFL¿F :D\ through local front yards and loping onto the smartly trimmed lawn of the Gearhart Golf Links. It was like they owned the place. Gearhart City Administrator Chad Sweet said it was more of a “people problem” than an elk problem; his comments acted as a voice over of a scene of an elk being shooed off by a local resident who yelled, “Quit eat- ing my plants.” Adam Woods, from the Highlands Golf Course, likened the frequent invasion of frolicking elk to 3-year- olds weighing 1,500 pounds ruining the golf course. Employees have to work an extra 20 to 30 hours a week C What is the purpose of society? M onths ago, there was great excitement that Esther Dyson would be coming to town. Dyson is a technology guru, a marquee name on the lecture circuit. Dyson would be here as part of The Way to Wellville, a national competition that promised a $5 million prize for one county or community. Clatsop County was a contender. The run-up to Clatsop County’s participation in The Way to Wellville drew considerable interest. More than 80 people attended a January event in Warrenton. Now it seems there is no cash prize. Instead communities and counties are asked to collaborate and maybe raise some money to participate The promoter of The Way to Wellville, Rick Brush, admits to some culpability. He spoke to Kyle Spurr of our staff about the inadequacy of his public relations and website. To the outsider, The Way to Wellville resembles a bait and switch. That may be harsh, but Wellville is not what we thought it was. The value of Wellville’s topic is an emphasis on health as opposed to an emphasis on illness, which is what is typically funded in our health care sector. But does RPSDUHG WR RUGLQDU\ XQUH¿QHG petroleum, crude oil originating in the vast tar sand deposits of Alberta, Canada and nearby areas of the U.S. is distinctly more challenging to clean up if it spills. There is surprising news this week that a great deal of it is moving along the Columbia River and elsewhere in Washington and Oregon — without any spill-response plan in place among state environmental agencies. Oregon Public Broadcasting reporter Tony Schick did a good job illuminating tar sands issues in a story Monday. Due to a gap in the law that required communications between shippers and agencies for U.S. tar sands but not the same material from Canada, regional WUDLQ WUDI¿F KDV UDSLGO\ H[SDQGHG MXVW since late November 2014. Up to 10 mile-long tar sands trains per month are now moving between Canada and destinations on Puget Sound, Wash., Portland and California. There are “good news” components in this. Petroleum processed from tar sands is a large part of why gasoline prices have gone down, as North America again becomes a net exporter of energy. This surge in domestic production, transportation and shipping RIFUXGHRLOJHQHUDWHVSUR¿WVMREVDQG taxes. But it is nevertheless surprising to learn that vast quantities of a distinctly hazardous substance are EHLQJ WUDQVSRUWHG DURXQG WKH 3DFL¿F Northwest without anything like an appropriate level of preparation for spills — disasters that are virtually inevitable. Plain old crude oil and petroleum are bad enough from the perspective of spills. In the latest of in a series of a county or a community need a national consortium of high tech companies to build strategies for wellness? For instance, one of Astoria’s most important health initiatives was creation of the Astoria Riverwalk. The Wall Street Journal years ago reported national research which indicated that communities that create more places for residents to walk show an improvement in heart health. Warrenton also has added trails, as had Cannon Beach. The Clatsop County Health Department has created a map that GHOLQHDWHVURXWHVIRU¿WQHVVZDONV Local research underway is focused on the county’s heart health. Columbia Memorial Hospital and Oregon Health and Sciences University are collaborating on a study of women in Clatsop County. The county will take a major step forward in establishing a holding facility for mentally ill people. It may be that the wellness discussion which The Way to Wellville started will lead to something tangible for Clatsop County. But a move toward wellness happens when hundreds of people make their own decisions about diet, exercise and lifestyle. excellent stories, Sightline Daily notes that U.S. Coast Guard Sector Columbia River already responds to about 275 oil pollution incidents a year. But pending plans for additional fossil fuel shipments could triple the number of tankers crossing the Columbia bar and GRXEOHPDMRUYHVVHOWUDI¿FRQWKHULYHU as a whole. $ JRRG GHDO RI WKLV WUDI¿F ZRXOG involve tar sands crude, which OPB describes as much worse to clean up. Canadian tar sands produce bitumen, a heavy tar-like material that is sticky and heavier than water. Because it sinks and adheres to everything it touches, cleanups are time consuming and expensive — more than $1 billion in the case of a burst bitumen pipeline in Michigan. All this has caught U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden’s attention. “It is unacceptable that volatile tar sands oil has been moving through our communities for PRQWKVDQG\HW2UHJRQRI¿FLDOVRQO\ found out about it last week,” he told OPB. He is working on a strong rule that would ensure that local and state emergency responders are kept in the loop about tar sands shipments. Beyond this, it is vital that the expense of insuring against spills and making things right afterward are fully DEVRUEHG E\ WKRVH SUR¿WLQJ IURP WDU sands exploitation. Northwest citizens must be guaranteed that we won’t get stuck holding an empty bag when a tanker wrecks on the bar or an oil train derails in some formerly pristine location. The oil industry is rife with examples of leaving messes behind for others to deal with. This time, things absolutely PXVW EH GLIIHUHQW 7KRVH ZKR SUR¿W PXVWVKRXOGHUDOOWKH¿QDQFLDOULVN By MARK BITTMAN New York Times News Service B Y N ANCY M C C ARTHY Instead of trying to shoo the elk away, perhaps we should embrace them as tourist attractions. repairing damage caused by the elk, Woods said. But Shippey, who had stunning shots of elk wading into the Necani- cum Estuary, turning toward the cam- era and galloping in the water, had a different take on the elk. “It almost looks like they’re smil- ing,” Shippey said. “They were, I think, obviously having fun. Having fun just wasn’t something I ever ex- pected to see elk doing.” Well, who wouldn’t have fun when you’re with your friends and you can throw your weight around, and no one — certainly not these silly humans with their cameras — can stop you? It reminds me of that cliché: If you can’t beat them, join them. Widdop seems to agree. “They have become quite a part of Gearhart,” she told the OPB crew. The elk even attracted enough at- tention that a town meeting was called just to talk about them — or rather, how to reduce their numbers. Contra- ception? Relocation? Hunting? Maine suggested attaching a GPS locater on them so people could go to their computers to check where the herd happened to be that day. None of the ideas seemed effec- tive, or, in the case of hunting in the middle of town, appropriate. Plenty of Democrats, even those who think he world of food and agriculture of themselves symbolizes most of what’s gone as progressive, would not an- wrong in the United States. swer yes to those But because food is plentiful for most questions. Some people, and the damage that conventional would answer, agriculture does isn’t readily evident to “Don’t be naïve, Mark everyone, it’s important that we look deeper, that’s impossi- Bittman ble,” and others beyond food, to the structure that underlies would say, “All most decisions: the political economy. we need to provide is equal opportuni- Progressives are not thinking broad- ty for all and let the market sort it out.” ly or creatively enough. By failing (To which I’d reply, “Talk about naïve!”) to pressure Democrats to take strong ,¶P¿QHZLWKGLVDJUHHPHQWEXW,¶PQRW stands on everything from environmen- ¿QHZLWKVWDQGDUGSXEOLFTXHVWLRQVOLNH tal protection to gun control to income “How do we create a better climate for inequality, progressives allow the party business so it can provide more jobs?” to use populist rhetoric while making Consider what this implies about the pur- America safer for business than it is for pose of people, to say nothing about the Americans. No one seriously believes meaning of life. The business of America that Hillary Clinton will ever put the should not be business, but well-being. interests of Main Street before those of Think about it this way: There are her donors from Wall Street, do they? At two kinds of operating systems, hard and least not unless she’s soft. A clock is a hard pushed, and hard. system. We know It’s clear to most Soft systems, like what it’s for, we know everyone, regardless agriculture and when it isn’t working, of politics, that the big and we know that 10 issues — labor, race, economics, are clock experts would food, immigration, DJUHH RQ KRZ WR ¿[ education and so on — more complex. it — and could do so. PXVW EH ³¿[HG´ DQG Soft systems, like WKDW¿[LQJDQ\RQHRI We don’t all agriculture and eco- these will help with the agree on goals. nomics, are more others. But this kind complex. We don’t all of change must begin agree on goals, and we with an agreement about principles, spe- don’t agree on whether things are work- FL¿FDOO\ SULQFLSOHV RI KXPDQ ULJKWV DQG ing or in need of repair. For example, is well-being rather than principles of mak- contemporary American agriculture a sys- ing a favorable business climate. tem for nourishing people and providing a Shouldn’t adequate shelter, cloth- livelihood for farmers? Or is it one for de- ing, food and health care be univer- nuding the nation’s topsoil while poison- sal? Isn’t everyone owed a society ing land, water, workers and consumers that works toward guaranteeing the and enriching corporations? Our collec- well-being of its citizens? Shouldn’t tive actions would indicate that our prin- we prioritize avoiding self-destruction? ciples favor the latter; that has to change. T 'H¿QLQJJRDOVWKDWPDWWHUWRSHRSOH is critical, because the most powerful way to change a complex, soft system is to change its purpose. For example, if we had a national agreement that food is not just a commodity, a way to make money, but instead a way to nourish people and the planet and a means to safeguard our future, we could begin to UHFRQ¿JXUHWKHV\VWHPIRUWKDWSXUSRVH More generally, if we agreed that hu- man well-being was a priority, creating more jobs would not ring so hollow. Sadly, even if we did agree, complex V\VWHPVDUHQRWVXEMHFWWRFOHYHU¿[HV Rather, changes often have unexpected results (that shouldn’t happen with a clock), so change necessarily remains incremental. But without an agreement on goals, without statements of pur- pose, we are going to continue to see changes that are not in the interest of the majority. Increasingly, it’s corporations and not governments that are determin- ing how the world works. As unrepre- sentative as government might seem right now, there is at least a chance of improving it, whereas corporations will always act in their own interests. It’s been adequately demonstrated that more than minor tweaks are need- ed to improve life for most people. Let’s try to make sense of where the world is now instead of relying on out- dated doctrines like “capitalism” and “socialism” created by people who had no idea what the 21st century would look like. Let’s ambitiously and public- ly philosophize — as the conservatives do — and think about what shape a sensible political economy might take. The big ideas and strategies for how we should manage society and thrive with the planet are not a set of rules handed down from on high. To develop them for now and the future is a major challenge, and we — progressives and our allies — have to work harder at it. 1RRQHLVJRLQJWR¿JXUHLWRXWIRUXV
