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9A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015 Algae: Crab ¿ shermen are bracing for a tough season Continued from Page 1A the lobster population, studies have found. “I don’t have a crystal ball, but I think we’re being given a warning here,” said Vera Trainer, who manages the marine bio- toxin program at the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seat- tle. “We’re being shown what the future is going to look like. This is more of what we can expect.” Razor clams, for now, have been taken off menus in Oregon and Washington. Shell¿ sh man- agers have closed recreational digs after ¿ nding dangerous levels of domoic acid in the bi- valves. Those closures have cost an estimated $22 million in tour- ism-related spending, said Dan $yres, coastal shell¿ sh manager for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Crabbing was also closed along parts of the Washington coast over the summer, though crabbing continued in the Puget Sound. 0att +unter, shell¿ sh proM- ect leader with the Oregon De- partment of Fish and Wildlife, said crabbing is huge ¿ shery in the state and any closure will have “trickle-down effect on the economy, not only on the coastal communities.” Crab can still be found in many restaurants and stores, including San Francisco’s Fish- erman’s Wharf, and health of- ¿ cials say crabs sold in stores are safe to eat. Some crab on the market now may have been harvested months ago and fro- zen for later; commercial crab ¿ shing is currently open in some parts of Alaska, Oregon and Puget Sound. Tough season In California, crab ¿ shermen are bracing for a tough season. “Needless to say, this is dev- astating,” said Steve Fitz, who Eric Risberg/AP Photo Crab pots are stacked along a pier at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. owns Mr. Morgan Fisheries in Half Moon Bay. Crab represents the bulk of annual income for many in the ¿ shing community, he said. Still, he’s optimistic that toxin levels will go down and the season will open soon. Restaurants and customers say they’ll adMust their habits. “It’s a disappointment be- cause we really look forward to it every November,” said Matt Watson, manager of Wood- house Fish Co. in San Francis- co, which will do its best to get whole crab at a reasonable price from other states. Kris Ducker, who grew up in California, looks forward to her family’s holiday tradition: eating crab served ice cold, cracked, with a side of sourdough bread. Even though she now lives in Texas, she still tries to ¿ nd fresh Dungeness crab. “We’re looking forward to having Dungeness crab for Christmas Eve. We could move on to something else. It wouldn’t kill us, but we would be sad,” she said. Scientists say the warm wa- ters that fostered the massive toxic algae bloom off the West Coast this year is more likely a short-term climate event than one attributed to climate change. “Whether this warming itself is a direct function of climate change or not, we can’t say,” said Mark Wells, an oceanog- raphy professor in the School of Marine Sciences at the Uni- versity of Maine. However, the climate change models proMect warming along the coastlines over the next several decades, so “this type of event probably is going to become much more frequent in the future.” On the Northeast coast, sci- entists have documented shifts in species as the result of warm- er waters and that’s meant some changes in what is caught and where. “We see lots of shifting go- ing on,” said Richard Merrick, NOAA Fisheries chief science adviser. Signi¿ cant ¿ sh stocks have been shifting northward and deeper into cooler waters along the Northwest Atlantic Ocean, he noted. The New En- gland cod ¿ shery collapsed but haddock ¿ shing has gone up as ¿ shermen switched, he said. Another study found that warming seas will likely send West Coast ¿ sh species north- ward by about 20 miles a decade, and some species probably will disappear from southern ranges off California and Oregon. FFA: Membership nationwide is at an all-time high FFA membership nationwide Continued from Page 1A sciences degree at Oregon State University and going to work there full-time after graduation. Today, she is the Oregon FFA’s associate director of programs, handling career de- velopment, membership and awards and helping out at the state fair. “I felt the need to give back,” she said. “The organization had done so much for me when I was in high school. I really attri- bute all of my success to FFA. … I really believe in everything FFA does for students.” As a student who was drawn to FFA by its practical hands- on activities, Kraxberger is a testament to the growth of the 87-year-old national organiza- tion formerly known as Future Farmers of America. Record membership FFA’s membership nation- wide is at an all-time high, with 629,367 participants in the 2014-15 academic year com- pared to 490,017 a decade ago, according to Kristy Meyer, the spokeswoman at the national FFA headquarters in Indianap- olis. Participation in FFA has been trending upward through- out the West, too. In California, there were 79,526 members in 2014-15, up from 64,201 a de- cade earlier. Washington state’s FFA ranks have increased from 5,802 in 2011-12 to 8,024 last year. Membership has also been increasing in Oregon and Idaho. Started for high school stu- dents who wanted to be produc- tion farmers, FFA has broad- ened its focus in recent decades to encourage students who aspire to become teachers, vet- erinarians, scientists and other professionals who interact with agricultural industries. In addition to hands-on farming, FFA members learn “soft skills” such as public speaking, marketing and inter- viewing for Mobs, Kraxberger said. “There’s something for everyone in FFA,” she said. “Something really cool that’s been happening is that for peo- ple in the city who don’t have access to farms, maybe they’re doing a science proMect related to agriculture. … If it relates to the environment or natural re- sources, it’s very much FFA.” Students and teachers say this emphasis on building ca- reer skills is a big reason for the FFA’s burgeoning popularity. The growth of agriculture ed- ucation in schools, the contin- ued involvement of alumni and youngsters’ desire to avert a future global food shortage are also factors, they say. “I think FFA is Must an amaz- ing program that sets kids up for success,” said Ally Rose McDonald, a senior at Durham, Calif., High School and the Cal- ifornia FFA’s Superior Region secretary. “It truly opens doors. It gives you an opportunity to see what kind of agricultural ¿ elds you’d like to pursue. “I think FFA gives you the tools to be con¿ dent and suc- cessful in talking to other peo- ple,” she said. “Those are tools that are going to be necessary throughout your life.” Bucking the trend FFA’s growth has come as 629,267: Up 28.4% from 2004-05 (Thousands of members) 523.3 540.4 495 500.8 507.8 506.2 490 2004-05 Tim Hearden/Capital Press FFA members from Northern California await a series of competitions Oct. 15 at Shasta College in Redding, Calif. FFA membership nationwide has reached record levels. participation in other youth pro- grams for high school students has seen a decline. For instance, Boy Scouts of America membership fell 7 percent last year, continu- ing a decade-long decline, and the number of Girl Scouts and adult volunteers dropped by 6 percent, The Associated Press reported. There were about 3.4 million Boy Scouts and adult volunteers and about 2.8 mil- lion Girl Scouts and volunteers last year. Youth team sports participa- tion has also declined in the last ¿ ve years, according to a report by the Sports and Fitness Indus- try Association. What makes FFA different is its af¿ liation with high schools, leaders say. A student might start with an agriculture-related class and become involved in FFA’s extracurricular activities. “I think we’re Must ahead of the curve,” said Katy Teix- eira, an Anderson, Calif., high school adviser who was an FFA member. “It gives kids an op- portunity to travel and to learn and compete at the state, nation- al and international level.” Jack Klaiber, a freshman at Anderson, Calif., High School, is in his ¿ rst year of FFA. “At ¿ rst it was Must because some of my friends were doing it,” Klaiber said of his reason for Moining. “As I started to at- tend the events, I realized this is something I want to put my time into and it will be a great thing for me.” While Klaiber isn’t neces- sarily planning a career in agri- culture, “I’d still like it to be a main part of my life,” he said. Humble beginnings Fostering farming careers was the sole purpose when 33 students from 18 states gathered at the American Royal Live- stock Show in Kansas City to form Future Farmers of Amer- ica in 1928. The group elected Leslie Applegate of Freehold, N.J., as its ¿ rst president and adopted its national emblem. The national FFA was or- ganized two years after Walter S. Newman, Virginia’s state supervisor of agriculture edu- cation, worked with other ag educators to start the Future Farmers of Virginia to address concerns that boys were losing interest and leaving the farm, FFA adopted its of¿ cial creed in 1930 and introduced its familiar blue corduroy Mack- ets three years later. In 1965, the FFA merged with a similar organization for young African Americans called New Farmers of America, and girls gained full membership privileges as voting delegates in 1969. In 1988, Future Farmers of America changed its name to the National FFA Organization to reÀ ect the growing diversi- ty of the agriculture industry, according to the organization’s website. “One of the reasons for (the change) was that FFA wasn’t strictly about farming, it was about agriculture as a whole,” said Meyer, the organization’s spokeswoman. “It was helping to encompass the idea that ag- riculture is something we em- brace in every facet of our life.” Today, all 50 states and two U.S. territories are charter members of the national organi- zation, representing 7,757 local chapters. For each school chapter, there are three components — classroom instruction, hands-on learning outside the classroom and a leadership structure with elected of¿ cers, Meyer said. ’06-07 ’08-09 557.3 ’10-11 Source: National FFA Organization 579.7 ’12-13 610.2 2014-15 Alan Kenaga/Capital Press of regular biology by the UC and CSU systems, so a student can take ag and not have to worry about their access into college.” Moreover, ag mechanics classes are growing “by leaps and bounds” because teachers of other technical programs are retiring and leaving school shops empty, and ag instructors are teaching welding and oth- er facets of equipment main- tenance to take up the slack, Aschwanden said. “We turn out 75 (ag) teacher candidates every year,” he said. “The rest of the career tech ar- eas combined don’t train that many.” Teachers’ passion Additionally, students are captivated by the sheer enthu- siasm of instructors, said Abbie DeMeerleer, the Washington state FFA’s executive director. “I think they appeal to stu- dents and thereby FFA mem- bership increases because those teachers really care,” she said. “They became ag teachers be- cause it’s a passion for them. They want to see agriculture succeed, and they want to see the future of our food, ¿ ber and natural resource profession strong and well-positioned. And they share that passion with their students.” McDonald, the Durham High School student, agrees. She said advisers get young- sters excited about FFA. “I think FFA is Must an amaz- ing program that sets kids up for success,” McDonald said. Finally, teenagers — partic- ularly ones in urban chapters — are interested in learning about food production, the organiza- tion’s leaders say. “I think, too, that this gener- ation has a desire really to help society, and they know it’s real- ly important to feed the world,” Meyer said. While FFA has expanded from production agriculture to include other career skills, the organization will “stay true to the farming aspect,” Oregon’s Kraxberger said. Meyer agrees: “I think we’re going to continue down the path we’re on and really encourage students to understand their key role in the world today.” Ag education push In some states, FFA’s mem- bership ranks have been helped by a push for more ag educa- tion. In Idaho, state FFA execu- tive director Casey Zufelt cred- its the legislature’s agricultural education initiative, passed in 2014, with getting students in- volved. In June, a record number of students — more than 960 — competed in state career devel- opment events at the University of Idaho campus in Moscow. Idaho FFA boasted 4,372 mem- bers during the last school year, up from 3,965 in 2013-2014. “In our state, we’ve had a re- ally neat energy going on with the Ag Ed Initiative,” which provides about $2 million more in annual funding for secondary ag education in Idaho, Zufelt said. “It was a grass-roots effort from teachers a couple of years ago who decided to take some action in improving the quality of the programs and bringing more money to the program as well. … That energy translates to the students.” In California, FFA execu- tive director Jim Aschwanden expects the state’s membership to cross the 80,000 threshold this year. One big reason for the increased interest may be that ag teachers have pushed for recognition of their classes as meeting entrance requirements for University of California and California State University campuses, he said. “About 45 percent of the classes offered in our ag pro- gram meet UC and CSU en- trance requirements one way or another,” said Aschwanden, who is also executive director of the California Agricultural Teachers Association. “Our integrated ag biology courses are viewed as the equivalent Our people make The Planetree Difference Congratulations Spirit of Caring Award Winner Dr. Jennifer Lycette! The Spirit of Caring Awards honor individuals who personalize, humanize and demystify the healthcare experience. “Her care for each patient is evident with all the compliments we hear... 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