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
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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.
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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,
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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-
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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
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Alameda, Calif.
Brzuska declined to describe
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Bitterman.
Gov. Kate Brown
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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-
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“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
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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
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tion representing Oregon’s 1st Con-
gressional District.
“I think I can represent this dis-
trict well for the community of sport
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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-
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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
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by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
itself.
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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.