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.
Katie Wilson contribut-
ed to this report.
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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.
Current drought conditions,
which have affected ¿sheries
throughout the state, are an un-
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likely cause of the early arrival
of coho salmon in the Columbia
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“Warm water temperatures
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