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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 2015
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Where do bats
spend their days?
Living up to their name, the
bats have long ears.
Bat burrito
Anthony glued transmitters
on some of the bats after snip-
ping away a patch of their fur
BEND — In her eight years
using nail scissors. About the
catching bats, Nadja Schmidt
size of half of an AAA battery,
has learned lessons about them.
the transmitters have a 5½-
First, they are fragile. Sec-
inch wire antenna, which dan-
ond, they should not be feared.
gles from the back of the bat.
“A lot of pictures make
Members of the bat-catching
them look scary,” she said.
team said the transmitters do
“But they eat mosquitoes. They
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don’t bite that hard, except for
thony said the transmitters run
the big ones.”
for about 12 days, which is also
Schmidt, a wildlife techni-
about how long it is until the
cian with the U.S. Forest Ser-
glue gives way and the device
vice, was among a team of bat
falls off the animal.
catchers that trekked out into
“So you have a really short
window to collect as much data
the High Desert east of Bend
as you can,” he said.
on a recent Monday night. The
The glue takes 10 minutes to
mission was part of a two-year
dry, so once a transmitter is on a
Bureau of Land Management
project trying to determine
bat, Hummel wraps the animal
where western long-eared my-
in nylon and then folds it into
otis bats go during the daytime,
a washcloth, hoping to keep its
said Christopher “Digger” An-
body temperature up.
thony, wildlife biologist with
“We call it a little bat burri-
the BLM in Prineville.
to,” Hummel said. Active bats
“The main thing is to iden-
often have a body temperature
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
tify their roosts,” said Anthony,
around 102 degrees. If they
who is leading the research as Nadja Schmidt works on setting up a mist net across a small pond to capture bats near Brothers in July.
cool down, they can quickly
part of his master graduate
become lethargic. When this
studies with Oregon State Uni- help sage grouse by promoting
blue rubber gloves, Cassandra happened to bats, she would put
versity in Corvallis. Figuring sage brush habitat, so Anthony
Hummel, another BLM wild- a hand warmer next to them.
out where the bats go during the wants to know if those are af-
life biologist, untangled a bat Soon the bat would be warmed
GD\ZLOO¿OOLQJDSVLQNQRZO- fecting the bats.
from the net. Then, she tucked XS DQG WDNH ÀLJKW VHHPLQJO\
edge about what habitats are
The study also hopes to de-
it into a brown paper bag and not bothered by the hardware
PRVW LPSRUWDQW IRU WKH À\LQJ termine whether male and fe-
put the bag in the pocket of her glued to its back.
A day crew comes out at 7
mammals.
male bats have different roost
waders.
preferences.
Bagging and pocketing bats a.m. the morning after the bats
Shrouded in mystery
Last year, Anthony’s team
does three things: keep them were captured. Using radio gear,
A 2007 study determined FDXJKWDQGDI¿[HGWUDQVPLWWHUV
IURP À\LQJ RII NHHS WKHP they locate the bats, pinpointing
there were nine species of bat to 15 bats — eight males and
warm and keep them separat- where they are and what they
frequenting the playas — sea- seven females. This year he
ed to avoid spreading illness have chosen for a roost.
sonal shallow lakes — south hopes to track 17 more bats.
“We are try to get visuals on
among the bats. Bat research-
of U.S. Highway 20 between
Scientists depend on the
ers are particularly concerned the bats in the roosts,” Anthony
Brothers and Hampton. The tiny transmitters, attached to
about white-nose syndrome, said.
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
western long-eared myotis bats’ backs with surgical ce-
Despite the winds around
prevalent in the northeast part
proved the most common. The PHQWJOXHWR¿JXUHRXWZKHUH Nadja Schmidt places a small transmitter on placed on of the U.S., spreading west. So sundown, Monday night turned
small bats, which have a wing- the bats go during the day. But the back of a bat shortly after the animal was captured in far, there have not been cases about to be a good time to catch
span of 10 to 12 inches and before Anthony and his crew a mist near Brothers in July.
of the disease, a skin infection bats — the team caught eight in
weigh 0.2 to 0.3 ounces, are could attach the transmitters,
caused by a white fungus, in all. The end of a hot day often
is a good time to catch bats, An-
shrouded in mystery, including they had to capture the bats. it grew dark, the bats began to
“They can see it as a barrier Oregon.
where they go in the winter.
Catching bats requires nets, bounce around the watering and avoid it,” she said, noting
Brought to the tailgate of a thony said. It is when bugs may
)RU QRZ WKH IRFXV LV ¿J- calm winds and some patience. hole but were dodging the nets. that the bats “see” something pickup, which serves as an out- swarm. Rain and cool weather
uring out where the bats roost
At dusk, the bat catchers
door lab table, the bats caught keeps insects from buzzing
Winds probably were the using echolocation.
on summer days, whether VWUHWFKHGRXWPLVWQHWV²¿QH problem. Bats notice the nets
0RQGD\ QLJKW ZHUH LGHQWL¿HG around, which also keeps the
Fly into the trap
they prefer places such as mesh nets strung between two more when they move in the
weighed and measured. While EDWVIURPÀ\LQJ
After a change to a less some bats tried to wiggle free
“They are not going to waste
rocks, living junipers, snags or poles like a volleyball net — wind, said Lisa Clark, BLM
burned-out logs. Juniper-thin- over a playa near the base of spokeswoman in Prineville, windy part of the playa for while being examined, most energy,” he said. “If there is not
ning projects are underway Frederick Butte, about a 20- who was also part of the one of the nets, bats started calmed down when held snug- a food source out they won’t be
out.”
near Frederick Butte, in part to mile drive from Brothers. As bat-catching team.
WR À\ LQWR WKH WUDS :HDULQJ gly.
By DYLAN J. DARLING
The Bulletin
Barge brings tons of buoys,
other ocean debris to Seattle
By BECKY BOHRER
Associated Press
JUNEAU, Alaska — Hun-
dreds of tons of marine debris
have been collected from the
shores of Alaska and British
Columbia as part of an unprec-
edented cleanup effort that an
organizer says barely made a
dent in the rubbish that remains
on beaches.
A barge heaped with white,
heavy-duty bags and loose piles
of Styrofoam, bottles, commer-
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other debris arrived in Seattle
on Thursday, three weeks after
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diak, Alaska.
Some of the debris collect-
ed likely was swept to sea by
the 2011 tsunami in Japan,
which killed thousands of peo-
ple. But marine debris in gen-
eral, including rubbish such as
SODVWLFVDQG¿VKLQJQHWVLVDQ
ongoing environmental prob-
lem.
In Seattle, volunteers will
have to pick through the piles,
sorting what can be recycled or
returned and what must be tak-
en by train to a disposal site in
Oregon. Sorting isn’t expected
to begin until next month and
could take a couple weeks to
complete, said Janna Stewart,
tsunami marine debris coordi-
nator with the Alaska Depart-
ment of Environmental Con-
servation.
Still, project organizers
were relieved when the barge
docked in Seattle after a largely
uneventful journey. There were
no major weather delays along
the way that would have racked
up costs, and the bags held up
as they were hoisted by heli-
copter to the barge from often
remote, rocky beaches.
“Having it come in was just
incredibly gratifying,” Stewart
said.
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unprecedented in scale in Alas-
ka, was spurred by the amount
of material that has washed
ashore; the high cost of shut-
tling small boatloads of debris
from remote sites to port; and
LEGAL NOTICE
You Could Get $164 or More
If You Bought Gas in Oregon at an
ARCO or ARCO ampm Station
and Paid a Debit Card Fee
Case Update
You may have seen a previous notice in this case. The Oregon
state rule on unclaimed money in class actions has recently
changed, and your rights may be affected.
People who did not previously receive a letter about this case,
file a claim, or opt out of this lawsuit may need to take action.
If this applies to you, you must file a claim or opt-out of this
lawsuit to preserve your rights. Any money that is not claimed
will be paid to Oregon Legal Services and an entity (or entities)
chosen by the Court.
What is this
case about?
An Oregon jury found that BP West Coast Products LLC
(“BPWCP”) charged more for gas than the amount registered
at the pump and failed to properly disclose its prices when
it charged a 35-cent fee to consumers who used debit cards
to pay for gas at Oregon ARCO stations and ampm locations.
BPWCP has denied the claims in this case and plans to appeal
the jury verdict.
Alan Berner/The Seattle Times
Tsuyoshi Ohtsuka, Consulate-General of Japan in Seattle,
reaches out to a Japanese float (large, pink at left) that reads
“white beach” Friday in Seattle. This debris was brought
from Alaska on a 300-foot-long barge contain floats, build-
ing materials, fishing equipment from Japan, Korea, China
and about half of it estimated to be from the tsunami. It’s
part of a two-year, multi-national shoreline cleanup project.
a demand by the Anchorage
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lines — common debris items
— be chopped up, a task that
Stewart called impossible.
The mass of debris collect-
ed and loaded onto the barge,
which is roughly the size of a
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1 to 2 percent of the cleanup
work that remains in Alaska,
said Chris Pallister, president of
the cleanup organization Gulf
RI$ODVND.HHSHUZKLFKFRRU-
dinated the project.
Alaska has more coastline
than all other coastal states
combined, and Pallister esti-
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barge three more times from
what remains on one island
alone, Montague Island in the
Gulf of Alaska.
The area on Montague that
needs to be cleaned is 74 miles
long, Pallister said. Over the
past three summers, cleanup
crews have covered 10 miles
RI WKDW VWUHWFK DQG ¿OOHG DW
least 1,300 heavy-duty “su-
per-sacks,” he said.
Many of sites that have
been cleaned are remote — not
the kind of beaches that attract
tourists. But it’s important to
clean the areas since disin-
tegrating foam can seep into
salmon streams or be ingested
by birds, Stewart said. There is
also concern with the impact of
broken-down plastic on marine
life.
Pallister worries about se-
curing funding to continue the
cleanup work. The barge proj-
ect was funded in part with
$900,000 from the state’s share
of a $5 million gift from the
Japanese government for states
affected by tsunami debris.
Pallister’s group committed
$100,000. The total cost of the
project was still being tallied.
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on July 15, where it loaded de-
bris collected in that region in
2013 and 2014. Most of the
collection sites were in Alaska,
with the last stop in Alaska near
Wrangell-St. Elias National
Park and Preserve. There also
was a pickup site in British Co-
lumbia.
It can be hard to distinguish
tsunami debris from run-of-the-
PLOOGHEULVZLWKRXWLGHQWL¿DEOH
markers.
Before the tsunami, a lot of
ROG¿VKLQJJHDUZRXOGODQGRQ
beaches. But afterward, there
was an inundation of Styro-
foam and urethane foam used
for things like building insu-
lation that has continued to be
found, Pallister said. Property
VWDNHVDQGFUDWHVXVHGE\¿VKHU-
men in coastal Japan also have
shown up.
Am I eligible
to file a claim?
How can I
file a claim?
You can file a claim now if:
• You purchased gas at Oregon ARCO or ARCO ampm
locations between January 1, 2011 and August 30, 2013
and paid a 35-cent debit card transaction fee,
• You did not receive a letter about the lawsuit,
• You did not already file a claim, and
• You did not opt-out.
If you already received a letter about this case, do not file a
claim because you will receive an automatic payment.
File a claim online or by mail by September 21, 2015. If you file
a valid claim, you will be eligible to receive $164.85 or more,
and you will give up your right to individually sue BPWCP for the
claims in this case. The previous notice talked about a $200
payment, but the fees required to pay Class Counsel will reduce
payments by $35.15.
What are my If eligible, you may also:
• Exclude yourself (or opt-out) online or by mail from the
other rights?
lawsuit by September 21, 2015. You will keep your right to
sue BPWCP yourself.
• Object to the notice or claims process (or the fees if you file
a claim now) by September 18, 2015.
• Do nothing. If you did not previously take action and now
do not file a claim or exclude yourself, you will give up your
right to get any money from this lawsuit and your right to
sue BPWCP yourself.
For More Information
Visit: www.DebitCardClassAction.com
Call: 1-866-329-5931