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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 24, 2015)
NORTH COAST THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 24, 2015 It’s no surprise; it’s dry Astoria isn’t planning for a crisis, but warns not to waste water caution ¿re Level 2 limits certain operations, like ca- ble yarding and blasting, from 8 p.m. to 1 p.m. “Being in charge of ¿re, it makes my nerves itch,” said Dan Goody, district forester, about the dry con- ditions. More conversations surrounding ¿re danger have taken place this year, he said. As people go outside to enjoy the nice weather, they can sometimes create ¿res in their wake. Goody said they have been on seven abandoned camp¿re runs so far this year. Even driving can some- times spark ¿res, as hot ex- haust can burn dry brush. In Oregon, 23 counties are in drought. By MCKINLEY SMITH The Daily Astorian The Astoria Public Works Department will deliver an update on the city’s water supply to the next City Council meeting Aug. 3. “Basically, we’re going to plan for it to be dry,” said Public Works Director Ken Cook. Cook said there’s no water crisis, but people should be mindful not to waste water. Astoria receives its wa- ter from Bear Creek, about 12 miles east of Astoria. The 3,700-acre watershed is then ¿ltered and sent down miles of pipes to two in-town reservoirs. That resource is dependent on rainfall, and there hasn’t been much of it. Astoria’s rainfall in June totaled only .73 inches, 1.82 inches below normal, according to pre- liminary data from the Na- tional Weather Service Cook said it has been an unusually dry spring and summer. The department will have a better under- standing of the unfolding weather situation in Au- gust. Depending on the out- come, the months of Sep- tember and October, which are usually dry, could be dif¿cult. Ron Zilli, assistant dis- trict forester for the Astoria District of the Oregon De- partment of Forestry, said they’ve had a very good summer season for road improvements, like culvert and bridge work. Usually, the department experiences a short window of ¿re danger in Septem- ber, but dry conditions have stretched their vigilance to four months. The depart- ment is operating at a ¿re precaution Level 1 for the NW-1 region and Level 2 for the NW-2 on a scale of 1 to 4, with 4 being the greatest danger and impos- ing the most limits on forest industrial operations. ODF starts every district at Level 1 when ¿re season begins. Zones NW-1 and NW-2 both split through Clatsop County. An industrial ¿re pre- Antiques By Renée Washington In Washington, severe drought conditions have spread to 98 percent of the state, and state agencies warned that hardships are expected to grow for farms, ¿sh and communities. In a conference call with reporters, state Department of Ecology Director Maia Bellon noted that rain in Washington is now being treated as “breaking news.” “We’ve never experi- enced a drought like this,” Bellon said. “We’re in an unbelievable streak of hot- ter and drier weather.” So far 13 Washington counties plus all the coun- ties that border them, have been declared federal di- saster areas because of the drought. And, 39 counties may eventually qualify for federal drought relief. In fact, all of Wash- ington, including Paci¿c County, with the exception of parts of Cowlitz, Clark and Skamania counties moved into the severe clas- si¿cation in data posted on- line Thursday morning. In a departure from pre- vious forecasts, the U.S. Climate Prediction Cen- ter said Washington had a better than even chance of drier than usual weather for the next three months. In June, the center predicted Washington had an equal chance of a drier or wetter than normal summer. 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See more on petfinder.com Sponsored by Clatsop Animal Assistance CLATSOP COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER 1315 SE 19th St., Warrenton • 861- PETS www.dogsncats.org Noon to 4pm, Tues-Sat 3A Oregon Board of Forestry punts on no-logging buffers Decision on expanding buffers around streams will come in autumn By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Bureau SALEM — The Oregon Board of Forestry has punt- ed its decision whether to ex- pand no-logging buffers around streams to prevent water tempera- tures from rising after harvest. After hearing testimony from timber and conservation groups Thursday, the board formed a subcommittee that will narrow the range of possible op- tions for consideration during a future meeting in September or October. Supporters and opponents of expanding Oregon’s no-cut buffers, currently set at 20 feet from either side of a stream, didn’t seem to have appetite for compromise during the recent hearing. Representatives of envi- ronmental and ¿shing groups claimed that buffers of 90-100 feet would not always be ade- quate for protecting ¿sh, while small woodland owners and commercial timber operators said that increasing buffers to 70 feet would be economically devastating. The legal implications of increasing forestry regulations were also discussed. Under Measure 49, a bal- lot initiative passed by Oregon voters in 2007, state and local governments must either waive new regulations or compensate landowners for lost land value in many circumstances. That would not apply to ex- panding no-cut buffers because the rule change pertains to meet- ing federal water quality stan- dards, said Richard Whitman, natural resource advisor to Gov. Kate Brown. State regulations that are required by federal law are ex- empt from Measure 49, he said. Dave Hunnicutt, executive director of the Oregonians in Action property rights group, disagreed with this assessment. Measure 49 only exempts state regulations that are man- dated by the federal govern- ment, but not those that would merely cause the state to lose some federal funding, he said. In this case, the buffers aren’t required by federal statute and they clearly reduce property val- ues, said Hunnicutt. “Those are the triggers for a Measure 49 claim,” he said. Hunnicutt said that enacting the buffers virtually guarantees the state will spend hundreds of thousands of dollars litigating the issue. Sybil Ackerman, a board member and advisor to phil- anthropic groups, said that any regulations the board does im- pose must adhere as closely as possible to achieving federal water quality standards rather than meeting other objectives. Kevin Clark/The Register Guard/AP File In this Oct. 27, 2011, file photo, Blue Ridge Timber Com- pany employees walk across a felled tree on a side chan- nel to the McKenzie River in McKenzie Bridge in 2011. The state Board of Forestry is considering increasing the numbers of trees left standing along streams through pri- vate timberlands in western Oregon to shade the water and keep it cool for salmon. Astoria tops Dallas in ¿rst round The Daily Astorian Astoria Ford 19, Dallas 16 MONMOUTH — In a first round game of the Ju- nior State tournament at Western Oregon Universi- ty, Astoria Ford scored two runs in the seventh to tie and five runs in the eighth to win a wild one Thursday night, 19-16 over Dallas. The two teams racked up a combined 35 runs on 29 hits, including eight extra base hits and 12 er- rors. Dallas held a 5-0 lead before Astoria Ford rallied with ¿ve runs in the top of the third inning; and Astoria grabbed a 12-10 lead in the top of the sixth before Dallas responded with four runs in the bottom half of the inning. Astoria managed to out- score Dallas 7-2 over the seventh and eighth innings to win. Astoria’s Fridtjof Frem- stad highlighted the eighth inning with a two-run triple that scored Carter Wallace and Cade O’Brien. Samboy Tuimato made his return to the lineup with four RBI’s on two hits, including a triple in the eighth. Fremstad got the win in relief for Astoria Ford, al- lowing two runs in two in- nings pitched. Kyle Strange had a dou- ble and a triple for Astoria, with Fremstad, Strange and Jackson Arnsdorf all driv- ing in three runs apiece. Coho salmon caught in Lower Columbia must be released EO Media Group OLYMPIA, Wash. — The early arrival of coho salmon in the Lower Columbia River has prompted state ¿shery managers to clarify a ¿shing regulation is- sued earlier this month. A new rule issued Thursday speci¿cally states that anglers must release any coho caught in waters open to salmon ¿sh- ing from the Astoria Bridge to a point nearly 300 miles upstream on the Columbia River. The new rule takes effect im- mediately and will expire Aug. 1, when the fall ¿shing season gets under way, said Ron Roler, a ¿shery manager for the Wash- ington Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We didn’t expect to see coho salmon arrive in the Co- lumbia River in July, so our initial regulations didn’t specif- ically preclude catching them,” Roler said Thursday. “The new rule issued today is consistent with Oregon’s regulations, which prohibit coho retention until August.” Roler noted that the two states have worked together for nearly a century to maintain consistent ¿shing regulations under the Columbia River Com- pact. The new ¿shing rule, out- lining daily catch limits upriv- er from the Astoria Bridge, is available on WDFW’s website at http://1.usa.gov/1DBYTrR. 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