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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (April 23, 2015)
AHS win 27th Clatsop Clash Crab, Seafood and Wine! SPORTS • 11A COAST WEEKEND THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015 142nd YEAR, No. 212 ONE DOLLAR A BIRD IN THE SAND Cutter Steadfast commander relieved of post, for now Announcement cites loss of FRQ¿GHQFHLQ abilities to lead By DERRICK DePLEDGE The Daily Astorian JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian North Coast Beach Ranger Ken Murphy shows an area of the beach that would work as a snowy plover nesting area at Fort Stevens State Park. Sparse grass, dry sand and scattered pieces of driftwood make for an optimum breeding ground for the birds. Fort Stevens invites endangered bird to nest Clatsop Spit is prime western snowy plover nesting ground See BITTERMAN, Page 12A Buckmaster to serve on fish commission By KYLE SPURR The Daily Astorian F ORT STEVENS STATE PARK — The dry, open sand beach near the Clatsop Spit is considered ideal nesting grounds for the endangered western snowy plover, a seabird the size of a spar- row. /DVW\HDU2UHJRQSDUNRI¿FLDOV designated a half-mile portion of the beach as a “Western Snowy Plover Management Area” in an attempt to entice the endangered seabird to nest at the site. No snowy plovers have nested at Clatsop Spit since. However, SDUN RI¿FLDOV UHFHQWO\ UHMRLFHG DI ter a pair were seen nesting at the Nehalem Spit at Nehalem Bay State Park. Oregon Parks and Recreation Wildlife Biologist Vanessa Black- stone spotted the pair April 3. She said the last documented sighting of snowy plover nests at the Nehalem and Clatsop spits was in 1984. Since then, only single snowy plovers have been seen in- cidentally at Clatsop Spit, and have not stayed to nest. The commander of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Astoria-based Cutter Stead- fast was tempo- rarily relieved of his post Monday due to the loss of con- ¿GHQFH LQ KLV abilities to lead. Cmdr. John Bitterman, who took helm of the Steadfast Cmdr. John last July, was Bitterman reassigned to Coast Guard Sector Columbia River in Warrenton pending an investigation, according to Lt. Donnie Brzuska of the Coast *XDUG¶V 3DFL¿F $UHD &RPPDQG LQ Alameda, Calif. Brzuska declined to describe ZKDWOHGWRWKHORVVRIFRQ¿GHQFHLQ Bitterman. Gov. Kate Brown ¿OOVORQJYDFDQW North Coast seat By HILLARY BORRUD Capital Bureau JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian A sign marks the shorebird conservation area near the South Jetty at Fort Stevens State Park. The vast majority of snowy plo- vers in Oregon, about 300, are seen along the Southern Coast. Before the Nehalem Spit sight- ing, Blackstone said, there was a gap in nesting from Florence up to Washington beaches at Leadbetter Point, Midway Beach and Grave- yard Spit. The Nehalem Spit sighting bodes wells for potential nesting at Clatsop Spit and the Necanicum Spit at the Gearhart Ocean State Recreation Area, another location designed for snowy plover conser- YDWLRQRI¿FLDOVVDLG “To this point, Oregon has had the most success in bringing back the population in the south,” Ore- gon State Parks Ranger Ken Mur- phy said. “Some of those birds have been coming back and nest- ing multiple times and visiting oth- er sites.” Why the Spit? What makes the Clatsop Spit beach area appealing to the snowy plovers is the dry sand above the tide line with no vegetation cov- er other than scattered driftwood, Murphy said. Snowy plovers, a state and federally protected species, often crouch in depressions in the sand or See PLOVER, Page 12A Wildlife groups sue Corps over cormorants Permit allows Corps to kill birds on East Sand Island BY KATIE WILSON EO Media Group COLUMBIA RIVER — A permit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers needed to proceed with its plan to kill thousands of double-crested cormo- rants nesting on the Lower Columbia River’s East Sand Island is now in SODFH²DQGVRLVWKH¿UVWODZVXLW The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser- vice issued a depredation permit April 13. The permit, valid through Jan. 31, 2016, will allow contractors to kill 3,489 double-crested cormorants and 5,879 nests, 105 Brandt’s cormorants and 10 pelagic cormorants in 2015. On April 20, the Audubon Society Daily Astorian file The Army Corps of Engineers pro- poses to kill thousands of the dou- ble-crested cormorants nesting on Sand Island near the mouth of the Co- lumbia River because the birds eat too many young salmon and steelhead. of Portland, along with four other nonprofit or volunteer-led organiza- tions, filed a complaint for declara- tory and injunctive relief against the Corps, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife SALEM — Gov. Kate Brown announced Wednesday the appoint- ment of Astoria resident Bruce Buckmaster to a long-vacant seat on the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Com- mission. The announcement means north- west Oregon will once again have a voice on the commission, after former Gov. John Kitzhaber waited PRUHWKDQWZR\HDUVWR¿OOWKHSRVL tion representing Oregon’s 1st Con- gressional District. “I think I can represent this dis- trict well for the community of sport DQGFRPPHUFLDO¿VKLQJ´%XFNPDV ter said. “I have a long history of working on issues.” Buckmaster was among the 96 appointees to state boards and com- missions that Brown announced in a press release Wednesday. A hearing on Brown’s executive appointees is scheduled for May 14 at the Senate Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services, which is authorized by the Fish and Wildlife See BUCKMASTER, Page 12A Service to kill the allowed number of birds and eggs. The Wildlife Center of the North Coast, a private volunteer-based non- SUR¿WUHFHQWO\MRLQHGWKHODZVXLW Audubon argues cormorants are being blamed for damage to salmon runs that is actually caused by dams, and that the Corps’ management plan would cause the Western population of double-crested cormorants to dip EHORZ ³VXVWDLQDEOH OHYHOV´ DV GH¿QHG by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service itself. :LWKWKHODZVXLW¿OHGWKH$XGXERQ Society of Portland will seek an injunc- Submitted photo tion to put a halt this year to the Corps’ plans to cut the nesting population on Astorian Bruce Buckmaster holds a chinook salmon he caught on a the island almost in half by 2018. See CORMORANTS, Page 12A fly rod in remote Alaska in 2011. He released the fish.