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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 1, 2015)
12A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2015 Planting: Overall, the group had about 16,000 violets Continued from Page 1A coexist with all the other na- tive dune prairie plants in the area.” In 2014, a bag of Corval- lis-grown violet seeds was sent to the North Coast Restoration Partnership’s temporary native plant nursery in Tillamook. A group of young men from Camp Tillamook, an Oregon <outh Authority facility, ¿lled thousands of plastic plug con- tainers with seeds. The seedlings spent most of 2014 and the winter of 2015 at the nursery, where they were exposed once again to the coastal environment. In July, the conservancy collected thousands of the burgeoning shoots and brought them back to the organization’s Circle Creek property near Seaside to continue maturing in time for fall planting. On Clatsop Plains, approx- imately 9,000 violets were placed at two sites owned by the land conservancy — Neacoxie Forest and Reed Ranch — and one site owned by the National Park Service — John B. Yeon Scenic Corridor. The conser- vancy is planting the violets into plots treated last fall by an exca- vator that removed topsoil. “We waited a year after the treatment to give the little vio- lets an extra year to grow and develop their roots,” Reich said. Overall, the group had about 16,000 violets. The re- mainder were planted at the conservancy’s Surf Pines property and are going to be planted later at the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge on the Long Beach Peninsula, Re- ich said. Partnership continues work on project The conservancy is in the second year of a ¿ve-year North Coast prairie restoration project with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and Willapa Na- tional Wildlife Refuge. The primary goal of the project is to boost the native prairie eco- system being lost primarily to development, Reich said. A factor in restoring the Katherine Lacaze/EO Media Group North Coast Land Conservancy Associate Director Jon Wickersham (left) oversees volunteers from Seaside High School who helped plant early blue violets on Clatsop Plains. habitat is bringing back the Oregon silverspot butterÀy population. Clatsop Plains and the Long Beach Peninsula used to teem with butterÀies of that species but they hav- en’t been seen since the 1990s, Reich said. They were listed as threatened in 1980. The clos- est remaining population is at Mount Hebo. The partners said they believe that is because the environment on those prairie lands has changed. Some vio- lets remain, but not enough to support a robust butterÀy pop- ulation. “If we can restore the habi- tat, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be able to re-intro- duce the butterÀy to the North Coast,” Reich said. The conservancy is manag- ing the coastal prairie habitat using strategies such as plant- ing native plants and remov- ing invasive species, the most prevalent of which is Scotch broom. “All of the coastal prairie habitat has been invaded at some level, and we need to keep on top of it because it quickly shades out native prai- rie species,” Reich said. The group seeks volunteer help for its occasional “broombuster” events. After the violets are plant- ed into the research plots, the Institute of Applied Ecology in Corvallis will monitor them in the spring and make rec- ommendations for adaptive management. Meanwhile, the group is seeking funding for treatments and plantings on a larger scale, Reich said. Katherine Lacaze/EO Media Group Seaside High School students Whitney Westerholm (left) and Brittany West share a laugh while volunteering with the North Coast Land Conservancy. Dunes: CREST will help out in the process Continued from Page 1A Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian District Attorney Josh Marquis speaks during a Jessica Smith hearing in May. Death penalty: Case went through four trials Continued from Page 1A “It’s the end of a very long journey and it’s a journey that Ron (Brown) made with me,” Marquis said. Death penalty in focus Marquis, a proponent of the death penalty, said the Guzek case was the ¿rst death penalty case he prosecuted that went to trial. The experience put the idea of seeking the death pen- alty into focus for him. “It’s one thing to support the death penalty and discuss it in the abstract way. It’s an- other thing to do it in the con- crete,” Marquis said. “When you stand in front of a jury and say, ‘That man deserves to die.’ It’s a tremendous mor- al responsibility.” Guzek, 46, was 18 when he and two other accomplic- es murdered Rod and Lois Houser in their Terrebonne home. A jury convicted him of aggravated murder in 1988 and the death penalty a year later. The case was retried three times on appeal. After four trials, 48 De- schutes County jurors all voting guilty and millions of dollars spent, the Oregon Supreme Court af¿rmed the ruling Friday to not allow a ¿fth trial. The Supreme Court’s de- cision marks the end of the state’s criminal case against Guzek, Marquis said. There is a slight chance Guzek could attempt to appeal the death penalty sentence. “I will never stand in a courtroom with Randy Guzek again,” Marquis said. Close relationships with the family Over the quarter century since the murders, Marquis said, he and Brown devel- oped close relationships with the surviving members of the Houser family. Every year on his birthday, Marquis said, he still receives cards from the family. The death penalty sen- tence was important to the Houser family, according to Marquis, because had Guzek been sentenced to life in prison he could have been released on parole as early as 2017. State law has since changed to make convicted murderers only eligible for life in prison without the pos- sibility of parole, known as a “true life sentence.” “It’s over for me and hope- fully it’s over for the Hous- ers,” Marquis said. planning goal dealing with dunes and beaches, known as Goal 18. The excep- tion — which allowed property owners in different areas along the beach to grade their sections below goal limits — ex- pired several years ago, according to Planning Director Kevin Cupples. The task force will provide its services for approximately $12,100, or a rate of $60 per hour. Additionally, the city plans to contract with an expert in coastal geol- ogy to provide technical oversight. The need for updates The city is considering amendments to provide for dune grading in selected areas to depths between the base Àood elevation and four feet above base Àood elevation. Currently, any dune grading below four feet above the base Àood elevation requires the city to obtain an exception to Goal 18, according to Cup- ples. In the past, the city had an excep- tion to Goal 18 to grade the dunes from Broadway to north of 12th Avenue. At that time, a group of property owners along the Prom from about Third to 10th avenues received approval to grade the dunes near their homes and businesses. They continued to do maintenance grad- ing after the initial project. “Now we’re to a point where trying to continue maintenance grading is violat- ing the goal, so we’ve got to reauthorize the exception or you can’t grade down to the levels that you were allowed to be- fore,” Cupples explained. The Land Conservation and Develop- ment Commission will have to approve the exception. The statewide planning goal set the level at four feet above the base Àood elevation as “a safety mea- sure,” Cupples said. “It’s a matter of protecting the inland areas from potential Àooding.” In order to get an exception approved, the city needs to justify allowing grading below that level and demonstrate that it won’t have a negative affect on safety in those areas. What Cupples believes will help is that portions of the Seaside beach are underlaid by cobblestone, which is added protection. “Even if you eroded part of your sand away, you still have cobble beach protec- tion, which tends to break up waves pret- ty well,” Cupples said. R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian A foredune grading plan is being developed in Seaside. Here, the dunes just north of 12th Avenue. Changes in the future The city wants the management plan amendments to make grading elevations “dynamic,” so they respond to future changes in the base Àood elevation. For instance, if the base Àood elevation is lowered in the future, the city’s allowed grading elevation would lower automati- cally to allow for enhanced grading activ- ities, Cupples said. Likewise, if the base Àood elevation is heightened, the allowed grading elevations also would heighten, ensuring “the allowed grading elevations would not compromise Àood hazard pro- tection,” according to a memorandum presented at the City Council meeting. Rather than including speci¿c grading depths in the plan and exception based on the current levels, Cupples said, “You want to be able to say, ‘No, if that level goes down, then the grading level will go down along with it.’” Managing vegetation The city plans to clarify what vegeta- tion management options are allowed in different beach areas. Some vegetation management occurs in the southern re- gion of the beach, but the plan did not an- ticipate the amount of tree growth in that area. The plan needs to specify that the city is “not trying to create an urban for- est down there,” Cupples said. “It’s sup- posed to have kind of a semi-open look.” With so many trees growing in the area, the dense vegetation offers an op- portunity for people to camp overnight, which is against city ordinance and cre- ates a potential ¿re risk. Right now, the city allows certain ac- tions. “When there is an unhealthy spacing of trees, we’ve allowed it to be taken out, but it’s not well explained in the plan that you should be doing that,” Cupples said. “That’s what we want to be clari¿ed.” CREST to provide scope, goal-setting Kevin Cupples said the city’s Planning Department does not have the staff and resources needed to focus on the process of updating the foredune management plan, at this time. CREST is a council of local governments, of which Seaside is a part, that helps communities with land-use planning, Director Denise Lofman said. She said it is important to work with the state during the process “to make sure whatever we are creating for Seaside can be approved at the state level, she said. “The state is really interested in making sure properties are protected in addition to dunes being able to be managed.” Public hearings on the amendments will be June to August. Seaside City Council must approve the amendments before the updated plans and justi¿ca- tions are sent to the Land Conservation and Development Commission.
