Coast Guard runs
for awareness
Fishermen
¿ nish off GuOOs
NORTH COAST • 3A
SPORTS • 4A
142nd YEAR, No. 211
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
Protecting Haystack through education
Feds set
target date
for Oregon
LNG review
)(5&¶V¿QDO
environmental
study expected
next February
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
ERICK BENGEL — EO Media Group
Haystack Rock Awareness Program volunteer Michael Loftus, foreground, of Portland, gathers up HRAP’s equipment with volunteers
Nadine Nordquist, background left, and lead interpreter Lisa Habecker, background right, of Portland, after a morning shift on the beach.
On 30th anniversary, mission carries on
By ERICK BENGEL
EO Media Group
See LNG, Page 11A
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ANNON BEACH — Haystack Rock, that towering
235-foot monolith of the Cannon Beach coastline and
Oregon’s signature sea stack, is a locus of biodiversity, a
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ment and a source of shared wonderment.
While the iconic formation is a
nesting, breeding, and hunting ground
for sundry bird species, the rocks and
tide pools at its base support mussels,
chitons, sea stars, barnacles and other
creatures of the rocky intertidal zone.
The site, which is both a national
wildlife refuge and a state-protected
marine garden, draws about 200,000
visitors annually, mostly during the
summer months, according to the city.
And, between February and Sep-
tember, when the tides are low (aka
“beach season”), tens of thousands of
these visitors interact with a team of
interpreters distinguishable by their
red jackets and eagerness to educate.
These are the staff and volunteers
of the Haystack Rock Awareness Pro-
gram (HRAP), which this year cele-
brates its 30th anniversary as a full-
scale city program.
A new photo exhibit, on display
through June 18 at the Cannon Beach
History Center and Museum, com-
memorates the milestone and tells the
story of the program, whose mission
is to teach locals and visitors about
the ecosystem of Haystack Rock as a
means of protecting it.
“You can put in conservation laws
and regulations, and try to protect cer-
tain areas,” Program Coordinator Sa-
mantha Ferber said, but “they’re just not
effective if you don’t have the public ed-
ucation and awareness of these things.”
In 2014, over the course of 193
days on the beach, the HRAP team
made contact with 88,794 people at
Haystack Rock — averaging about
95 contacts per hour — and 98 volun-
teers dedicated a total of 3,872 hours
to the program, according to Ferber.
In addition, the program hosted
— for free — 62 school and adult
groups at Haystack Rock with a to-
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Melissa Keyser, the HRAP education
coordinator, said she hopes will con-
tinue to grow.
“Some of the students, they would
never get to have an experience like
that unless it was facilitated through a
school, especially the Portland schools
we work with,” Ferber said. “It’s a
good opportunity — and a unique one
— for them to come out and not only
learn about the marine environment
but actually experience it.”
Port to
fence off
sea lions
ERICK BENGEL — EO Media Group
Even on windy, drizzly days, the Haystack Rock Awareness Program
deploys its volunteers and staff interpreters down to the sea stack to
educate the public and monitor the activity of visitors, who may not
know they’re stepping on animal life while traipsing across the rocks.
+umbOe origins
ERICK BENGEL — EO Media Group
The program began informally in
1983 as a personal project of Neal
See MISSION, Page 10A
Lead interpreter Alan Quimby, left, answers questions posed by
Charles Wirtz, of Tualatin, about the animal life at Haystack Rock.
Quimby, a research management biologist, joined the Haystack
Rock Awareness Program in February.
A neighborhood nook for books
Little Free Library
invites neighbors to
browse, share
By DERRICK DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
Up the steep winding path to the
crest of 12th and Grand in Astoria, there
is a small, brightly painted lavender and
yellow box with a surprise inside.
On Friday afternoon, it was “One
Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish” by
Dr. Seuss or “The Bluest Eye” by Toni
Morrison.
By Tuesday, it was “The Call of the
Wild” by Jack London or “A Thousand
Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini.
Inspired by the Little Free Library
movement she had seen on Pinterest,
Melissa Keyser and her family placed a
WARRENTON — The Feder-
al Energy Regulatory Commission
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tal review of the Oregon LNG proj-
ect by next February.
The commission’s environmental
impact statement is a key document
in the federal government’s consider-
ation of the $6 billion project. A draft
study has yet to be released, but when
it does become public this year, it will
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the project’s vocal opponents in the
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Oregon LNG wants to build an
87-mile pipeline between Washing-
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natural gas export terminal on the
Skipanon Peninsula in Warrenton.
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book exchange and a bench last week not
far from their home on Grand Avenue.
“It’s a really sweet idea, a really
neat idea,” said Keyser, the education
coordinator for the Haystack Rock
Awareness Program in Cannon Beach.
“Most people have books that they’ve
read that they like to tell their friends
about but they’re not carrying the
books with them.
“Or a neighbor will come by, es-
pecially in this area, maybe you talk
about a book, but you’re not going to
necessarily follow through.
“This is a really good way to say,
‘Hey, look in there. I left a book in
there,’ or ‘I’m going to.’”
Start of a trend
Todd Bol, of Hudson, Wis., sparked
the Little Free Library movement in
2009 after he made a model school-
house to honor his mother, a former
teacher. His original goal was to sur-
pass Andrew Carnegie, the steel mag-
nate and philanthropist, who founded
2,509 public libraries in the United
States and abroad in the late 19th and
early 20th centuries.
There are now more than 25,000
Little Free Libraries in 80 countries.
“It’s such a simple fundamental,”
Bol said by telephone from Wisconsin.
“I mean it was like people approached
the Little Free Library like they just
discovered a puppy.”
Not all cities have welcomed the
communal book bins with heartwarm-
ing spirit.
Several cities have stumbled into
disputes over whether the tiny libraries
comply with zoning on private proper-
ty or the lawful use of public property.
Typically, the dustups end badly for
See LIBRARY, Page 12A
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
The Port of Astoria will begin
fencing off the docks at the East End
Mooring Basin this week to keep
sea lions off, Executive Director Jim
Knight announced at the Port of As-
toria Commission meeting Tuesday
night.
The obligation of the Port is to
protect the publicly owned docks,
he said, and other possible solu-
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didn’t work out.
“I’m also curious to see where the
sea lions go,” Knight said, adding
jokingly he hopes they won’t make
their way to the Port’s West End
Mooring Basin.
Commissioner Stephen Fulton
asked about an offer he’d heard
in the community to build a sea li-
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Mike Weston, the Port’s director
of business development and oper-
ations, said sometime last year, the
Port had been approached by Sea
Shepherd with an offer to pay for a
sea lion dock. But the offer would
have stipulated that the Port expel
the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife from the East End Mooring
Basin, Weston added, and the Port
can’t control what the state does.
See SEA LIONS, Page 12A
coast
weekend
THURSDAY
Crabs!