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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 31, 2015
Programming: Elements of robotics, drones may be taught next year
Continued from Page 1A
Riehl, the camp’s instructor
and the computer services di-
rector at the college.
“That’s the neat thing
about this is you can start
building things right out of
the box,” he said.
Scratch and Python
Students hooked up their
Raspberry Pi to comput-
ers to program using two
programming languages,
Scratch and Python. They
created their own video
games early on in the camp
using Scratch, then moved
on to interacting with the
outside world by hooking
up other devices, such as
LED lights, buttons, heat
sensors and small cameras.
Elena couldn’t decide
whether her favorite part
involved the LED lights
they made flash or a tiny
camera they were able to
program to take photos and
video.
How to code
Georges 2ates Larsen
helped teach the teenagers
how to code to make their
electronics respond. He cir-
cled the room with Riehl to
assist anyone with questions
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
A Raspberry Pi and temperature probe sit on a desk
during the Raspberry Pi camp at Clatsop Community Col-
lege Thursday.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Parker Fergus, 13, left, watches as J.J. Heacock, 14, right, controls a brushless motor
system operated with the help of a Raspberry Pi during Raspberry Pi camp at Clatsop
Community College Thursday.
or a program that wouldn’t
run.
2ates Larsen had discov-
ered Riehl was holding the
camp and got involved.
“I love programming. I
love kids. And I love teach-
ing them programming,”
2ates Larsen said. “I’ve en-
joyed doing this.”
After one more year at the
college, he plans to transfer
to Portland State University
to study mathematics with a
possible minor in computer
science.
2ates Larsen is president
of the Remotely 2perated
Vehicle Club, which actual-
ly uses the Raspberry Pi for
their underwater vehicle.
He demonstrated to the
class how the club uses the
Raspberry Pi to control the
vehicle’s motors via a con-
troller.
Next year, Riehl would
like the program to include el-
ements of robotics and drones.
“If they can get really
excited about programming
at this age, there’s no tell-
ing what they can do,” Rie-
hl said. “That’s where we’re
going to get the next gener-
ation of software.”
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Instructor Georges Oates Larsen, shows the class how to
record videos during the Raspberry Pi camp at Clatsop
Community College Thursday.
Slough: Project involves 2,317-acre watershed full of salmon habitat
Continued from Page 1A
opening made water spew
through at a high velocity.
The adults could just make it
through, but it was a deadly
spot for young salmon, Ferri-
er said.
For now, the area looks a
little bit like a disaster — as
do all restoration projects
when they first begin, said
Ferrier. But refuge biolo-
gists are looking forward
to the months after work
wraps up in the fall. With
the culvert gone, the daily
influence of tides will wash
through the slough and it is
common to see fish return
in encouraging and even
surprising numbers, Ferrier
said.
“It’s not cheap, but there
are big impacts,” she said.
Big gain in habitat
The overall project in-
volves a 2,317-acre water-
shed full of important salm-
on habitat.
The refuge owns the land
and, over the years, has
“Ideally we would have
proceeded from the down-
stream to upstream direc-
tion in terms of these im-
provements,” said Cleve
Steward, one of the Sus-
tainable Fisheries Founda-
tion’s executive directors
and the current project
manager on this part of the
Greenhead Slough project.
“But because of the fund-
ing and just the sort of me-
chanics of getting all this
work done, it didn’t work
out that way.”
Madeline Kalbach/Submitted Photo
A newly installed box-style culvert provides tidal-level access to extensive acreage
south of U.S. Highway 101 near Long Beach, Wash.
picked away at fish passage
projects upstream when
money has become avail-
able, restoring four differ-
ent streams, nearly 10-miles
worth of spawning habitat
for cutthroat trout, chum
and other salmonids.
But the final piece, the
old culvert, was more com-
plicated. Various groups
held easements or right-of-
ways in this area next to the
highway — the Bonneville
Power Administration and
the Washington State De-
partment of Transportation,
to name two. Also, over the
years, people interested in
pushing the project through
have come and gone. It was
the same story for funding
sources, too.
Then in July, McMurry
announced her group had
landed $75,000 from the
state, this in addition to a
$373,524 grant from the
Washington State Salmon
Recovery Funding Board
that the Friends of Willapa
National Wildlife Refuge
landed in 2014.
Money drives
work flow
With these kinds of
large, expensive, long-term
projects, you have to be op-
portunistic, Steward said.
They were confident
they would be able to get to
the lower stream eventually.
“You don’t say ‘no’ just
because things are out of se-
quence,” Steward said.
The Sustainable Fisher-
ies Foundation is another
partner with the refuge
and is managing the funds
brought in by the Friends
of Willapa National Wild-
life Refuge.
“It was a very collabo-
rative process,” said Stew-
ard. A list of partners on the
refuge’s informational page
about Greenhead Slough
names 19 different groups,
agencies and departments.
“We got great support
from the state agencies, in
particular the Washington
Department of Transpor-
tation and the Washington
Department of Fish and
Wildlife,” Steward added,
saying such cooperation can
make or break a project like
this.
“We rely so much on them
and if they’re able to engage
with us early and effective-
ly then the project goes so
much more smoothly ... it
really helped us to make sure
the project was done correct-
ly and within the schedule
and budget we have.”
Major work will wrap up
this summer, with planting
and seeding of the area to
continue in the fall.
Crashes: Alcohol, drugs are not listed as a cause in any of the fatal crashes
Continued from Page 1A
For the sheriff’s of¿ce,
the focus is on county roads
which have a relatively low
amount of fatal crashes. Wil-
liams points to lower speed
limits on the local roads as a
main factor.
“You take away speed and
that has a lot to do with how a
crash turns out,” he said.
On scene
The sheriff’s of¿ce, 2re-
gon State Police and local po-
lice departments often work
together when responding to
fatal accidents. Fatalities com-
monly occur after a vehicle
crashes into a ditch, guardrail
or the person is ejected from
the vehicle, the data shows.
State troopers are regularly
called to fatal crashes, even
if the crashes do not occur
on state highways, because
of their enormous amount of
training for that type of inves-
tigation, Williams said.
Despite the training, Wil-
liams said, law enforcement
of¿cials are not always able to
deal with family or friends of
the deceased, who may be at
the crash scene.
“2ne of the challenges we
have always dealt with is the
trauma on the scene and help-
ing the families that may be
there or show up,” he said.
The sheriff’s of¿ce re-
lies on a chaplain program,
where local church leaders re-
spond with law enforcement
to a fatal crash and assist the
friends and family through the
trauma. Chaplain programs
are becoming more popular
around the country. Williams
estimates at least 70 percent
of sheriff’s of¿ces in 2regon
have such programs.
“It has truly been a blessing,”
he said. “They can concentrate
wholly on the family and the
trauma and assist them through
that. We have a very devoted
group of chaplains that will
come out at a drop of a hat.”
Safety improvements
A key reason for maintain-
ing the crash data is to im-
prove the safety of roadways
across the state, according to
Department of Transportation
spokesman Lou Torres.
The data allows the state
to pinpoint and prioritize
stretches of roadway that
may be problematic. The de-
partment is then better able
to funnel money to roadways
with the most crashes for safe-
ty improvement projects.
“We really have to know
if there is an intersection or
stretch of road we need to
work on or improve for safety
reasons,” Torres said.
Last year, the department
identi¿ed a nearly 7-mile
stretch of U.S. Highway 101
from Camp Rilea Armed
Forces Training Center to
Surf Pines Lane as a priority
safety improvement project.
The plan is in place and
individual projects will begin
as funding becomes available.
The ¿rst project will add a
J-turn near Cullaby Lake. Work
is funded and scheduled to be-
gin in 201. 2ther proposed
projects through the corridor in-
clude adding center turn lanes,
widening the shoulders and im-
proving intersections.
Causes
2D2T’s fatal crash data
lists multiple causes for the
crashes. Speed, fatigue and
reckless driving are all found
in the data. So is improper
passing, not yielding and fol-
lowing too closely.
But alcohol or drugs are not
listed as a cause in any of the fa-
tal crashes over the past decade.
Williams has a hard time
believing not one crash was
caused by impairment. 2ne
possible explanation is that
crash data is collected before
toxicology reports are avail-
able or drivers are charged
with crimes.
2D2T insists the data is
up to date.
“If there was alcohol or
drug impairment, it would
show up as a cause,” Torres
said. “I can’t explain what is
not there.”
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