10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 25, 2016
Plants: The park is asking people to watch 10 plant species
Continued from Page 1A
monitors, Fernandez showed
how the start of spring has
been coming earlier across
the country than in centuries
before.
“All of this is problemat-
ic because it’s causing mis-
matches between pollinators,
plants, insects,” she said.
Lewis and Clark Nation-
al Historical Park has part-
nered with San Juan Island
National Historical Park to
study the impacts of climate
change.
At San Juan Island, Fer-
nandez and others are study-
ing the endangered island
marble butterÀy. 2nly about
of the butterÀies are left
on the island. Researchers are
¿nding that when the butter-
Ày larYa comes out of its egg,
it is expecting to eat a certain
Àower. HoweYer, the Àower
is blooming earlier than be-
fore, making it dif¿cult for
the butterÀies to eat.
“How many are we losing
that could potentially sur-
YiYe"” Fernandez said.
Project Budburst
Lewis and Clark Nation-
al Historical Park is inYiting
the public to help monitor
and report plant actiYity at
the park and around Clat-
sop County. Data collected
will help the park learn how
plants are responding to
changes in the enYironment.
Specifically, the park is
asking people to keep watch
on 10 plant species. The spe-
cies include red alder, 2re-
gon crabapple, Sitka spruce,
edible thistle, salal, eYer-
green huckleberry, salmon-
berry, wapato, Pacific silYer-
weed and skunk cabbage.
Carla Cole, natural re-
source program manager at
the park, said the 10 plants
are culturally and naturally
significant to the park. Lew-
is and Clark described and
journaled about the same
plants two centuries ago.
Tracking plants at the
park is part of a national
effort called Project Bud-
Burst. The project encourag-
es people to get outside and
obserYe how plants change
with the seasons. 2bserYa-
tions can be shared online
at www.budburst.org, where
the data will become a part
of an ecological record.
“Project Budburst is a
wonderful way to carry on
the tradition of scientific
obserYation and discoYery
handed down to us by Amer-
ica’s first great naturalists,
Lewis and Clark,” Cole said.
“It is exciting that we will
be obserYing the same plants
they recorded for the first
time here oYer 00 years
ago in their elkskin journals,
but we will be using smart-
phones and the Internet.”
Bioblitz 2016
Later this spring, Lewis
and Clark National Historical
Park plans to, again, call on
citizen scientists for BioBlitz
01, a national eYent where
Yolunteers at Yarious national
parks work together to iden-
tify as many species of plants
and animals as possible.
2Yer two days on 0ay
0 and 0ay 1, local Yol-
unteers and students will go
out around Netul Landing
and identify eYery liYing
thing they come across, with
a focus on pollinators such
as birds, bats, insects and
plants. Lewis and Clark Na-
tional Historical Park preYi-
ously hosted a BioBlitz eYent
in 01 out in the Clatsop
Plains.
A Jumbotron will be set
up at the National 0all in
Washington, D.C., during the
two-day BioBlitz to show-
case each national park’s
findings. What is found in
Astoria may be broadcast on
the Jumbotron at the nation’s
capital.
Collecting the data of
plants and other species is
an initial step in understand-
ing the long-term changes to
the enYironment. It’s a piece
of the puzzle to know how
climate change is occurring,
Cole said.
Another goal of the Proj-
ect Budburst and Bioblitz is
simply to get people outside
and in their national parks.
“The mission is to get
people outdoors,” Fernandez
said. “We want to connect
you to a place. It doesn’t
matter if it’s a national park
or if it’s a park down the
street or in your backyard.”
Fergus: ‘It’s just
kind of fun to be
someone I’m not’
Continued from Page 1A
Northwest News Network
Former commercial fisherman and current Harvard medical student Matthew Tarabochia on vacation in New York City in
2015. He and his brother won a case against the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife for an illegal traffic stop in 2007.
Lawsuit: Department of Fish and Wildlife
denies it targeted the Tarabochia family
Continued from Page 1A
old twins Alex and Bryan.
2utside the truck were seYer-
al of¿cers from the state De-
partment of Fish and Wild-
life. They demanded that the
Tarabochias get out of the Ye-
hicle. The family refused to
budge until the county sheriff
or undersheriff showed up.
This roadside standoff
followed a morning of ¿sh-
ing on the Columbia. The
Tarabochias had a load of
salmon the department want-
ed to inspect. The family had
led of¿cers on a slow-speed
chase before they were ¿nal-
ly boxed in.
/egal ¿sK
illegal stop
These of¿cers and the
Tarabochias knew each other
well. There was a lot of his-
tory and bad blood between
them. Now, it was coming to
a head. The standoff lasted
more than 13 minutes. At
one point in the Yideo, a Fish
and Wildlife captain is seen
pulling out a collapsible ba-
ton. He said he’d break the
window if they didn’t get
out.
It ended when the under-
sheriff arriYed ² someone
the Tarabochias trusted.
They unlocked the doors to
the truck and the of¿cers
quickly detained the family.
DriYer 0atthew Tarabo-
chia and his father, Joe, were
jailed for resisting arrest and
obstruction. Those charges
were later dismissed. The
¿sh the Tarabochias were
‘It is common knowledge
amongst commercial
fishermen that they’re
going to be inspected.’
Steve Crown
current chief of The Department of
Fish and Wildlife’s law enforcement division
transporting that day were
all legal.
In 010, the Tarabochias
¿led a federal lawsuit chal-
lenging the constitutionality
of the traf¿c stop. The family
argued the Fish and Wildlife
of¿cers had no right to pull
them oYer to do a ¿sh check
without reason to belieYe a
crime had been committed.
They lost in U.S. District
Court, but successfully ap-
pealed to the 9th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals in San
Francisco.
0atthew Tarabochia said
the appellate decision on
their Fourth Amendment
claim was Yindicating espe-
cially after what the family
calls a “campaign of harass-
ment” by the Department of
Fish and Wildlife.
“No one belieYes you
when you say the police did
something unfair to you,”
Tarabochia said. “When you
say that, people automati-
cally assume you that did
something wrong and you’re
just trying to coYer it up.”
µ7Ke\¶re going
to be inspected¶
The Department of Fish
and Wildlife denies it tar-
geted the Tarabochias. SteYe
Crown, the current chief of
the agency’s law enforce-
ment diYision, said regular
contact with ¿sh police is
part and parcel of being a
commercial ¿sherman.
“It is common knowledge
amongst commercial ¿sher-
men that they’re going to
be inspected,” Crown said.
“There’s high dollars, high
stakes. When you’re en-
gaged in commercial ¿shing
practices you can haYe huge
impacts on a particular spe-
cies of ¿sh and they know
that.”
But Crown said as a re-
sult of this case, his of¿cers
haYe ended a longstanding
practice of pulling Yehicles
oYer on the road for ¿sh
checks.
“We’Ye told our of¿cers,
‘Hey, don’t make those
kinds of traf¿c stops unless
you haYe reasonable suspi-
cion to do so,’” Crown said.
2f¿cers can still do those
checks on the water and at
the landing area. The Tarab-
ochias recently settled their
lawsuit against the agency
for $130,000. In addition to
the payment, Fish and Wild-
life agreed to acknowledge it
Yiolated 0atthew and Alex
Tarabochia’s rights ² for
technical reasons they were
the only family members
named in the appeal to the
9th Circuit.
µ0\ famil\¶s name is
Nind of tarnisKed¶
0any years haYe passed
since that roadside standoff
in Wahkiakum County. The
Fish and Wildlife captain
in the Yideo is now a dep-
uty chief. The Tarabochia
family is no longer in the
¿shing business. The boys
moYed away. Alex Tarab-
ochia doesn’t think he’ll
come back.
“I’m not sure I would go
home,” he said. “I feel to
some extent like my name
and my family’s name is
kind of tarnished and sort of
like there’s a stigma around
it to where I’m not sure that
I would eYer haYe kind of an
eYen playing ¿eld.”
(Yen though he would be
coming home as a doctor.
Alex Tarabochia is attending
medical school at Dartmouth
in New Hampshire as a ru-
ral health scholar. 0atthew
Tarabochia also is in med
school ² at HarYard.
Alex Tarabochia said he
always knew he would go
into medicine. But 0atthew
Tarabochia said what hap-
pened between his family
and the authorities on the
Columbia RiYer influenced
his decision to leaYe the
fishing business behind.
regular in the North Coast the-
ater scene, most recently ap-
pearing in “2nce Upon a 0at-
tress” at the Coaster Theatre
in Cannon Beach, in which
her son was in the ensemble.
Fergus, 13, has appeared
at the Coaster and with the
0issoula Children’s The-
ater, making his debut as Lit-
tle Jake in “Annie Get Your
Gun,” then playing Tiny Tim
in “Scrooge, The 0usical”
and Chip in “Disney’s Beau-
ty and the Beast,” which his
mother directed.
“I’Ye neYer pushed him to
be in a show,” said Lisa Fer-
gus. “He chooses whether to
be inYolYed and prepares on
his own for auditions.
“And I try to instill in him
the classic, ‘no small parts,
only small actors,’ and that
the way he acts with his cast
and crew is just as important
as the performance he giYes
on stage.”
Fergus recalls his debut
with fondness.
“When they did ‘Annie
Get Your Gun,’ my mom
asked me if I wanted to be
in it. I said 2.,” he said. “I
just kind of checked in and
figured out a passion. I loYe
acting. It’s just kind of fun to
be someone I’m not.”
He’s eloquent about why
he does it, too. “Applause
² that’s reward enough,” he
said. “If I got paid, it would
be a dream job.”
His ability to memorize
lines continues to surprise
his mother. “He does not
haYe to study them ² lines
come naturally, Yery early
on in the rehearsal process,”
she said. “He doesn’t usual-
ly write anything down, but
simply commits eYerything
to memory.”
Fergus shrugs off his
ability. “It just comes to me.
I don’t know how,” he said.
“I just remember the line.”
“Waiting for Godot,”
which spawned the “theater
of the absurd” moYement,
was famously described by
a newspaper critic as a play
in which “nothing happens
² twice.” It was written
by Irish playwright Samuel
Beckett and first staged in
Paris in 1953 as mainland
Europe rebuilt after World
War II.
The director, .aren Bain,
studied the script at the Di-
rectors Lab West, an inYi-
tational workshop in Los
Angeles last spring. For the
Astoria production, which
opens Friday, she cast famil-
iar North Coast actors Wil-
liam Ham and Slab Slabinski
as the tramps, Vladimir and
Estragon, with Bill Honl as a
strange Yisitor, Pozzo.
Submitted Photo
Parker Fergus
IF YOU GO
Partners for the PAC will
stage a new Astoria pro-
duction of Samuel Beck-
ett’s tragi-comedy “Waiting
for Godot” at the Clatsop
Community College Per-
forming Arts Center at 16th
Street and Franklin Avenue
in Astoria 7 p.m. Friday and
Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday,
and 7 p.m. Feb. 5 and 6.
Tickets are $15, available
at the door.
“I was looking for a
young boy to play the two
boys in the play, who are
traditionally played by one
actor,” she said.
“Parker was recommend-
ed to me by seYeral peo-
ple,” Bain added, noting the
youngster’s experience act-
ing at the Coaster Theatre.
“From the beginning,
Parker was treated as an
equal member of the ensem-
ble, with the same expecta-
tions and respect. His ideas
during the exploration of the
script were excellent.”
When older, Fergus
would like to sing the role
of JaYert, the Yillain, in “Les
0iserables.” For Christmas,
his parents gaYe him “The
Complete Works of William
Shakespeare.”
“I am working my way
through it,” he said, with a
grin, noting that “Romeo
and Juliet,” “Hamlet” and
“0acbeth” are his faYorites
… with his eye on the male
lead roles.
Bain, the director, is
impressed with his talent.
“Parker is a young man I
would be happy to work with
again,” she said.
“Waiting for Godot” is
funded, in part, by a grant
from the 2regon Cultural
Trust, distributed through
the Clatsop County Cultural
Coalition.
— Patrick Webb
Managing Editor’s note:
The writer will appear in the
mute role of “Lucky” in the
Astoria production of “Wait-
ing for Godot.”
Balzer: He is asking for more than $55,000 in damages and his reinstatement
Continued from Page 1A
Balzer, who alleges breach
of contract, wrongful dis-
charge and defamation, is ask-
ing for more than $55,000 in
damages and his reinstate-
ment as ¿re chief.
An attorney representing
the ¿re district’s board could
not be reached for comment
about the lawsuit, which was
¿led in Clatsop County Cir-
cuit Court in December.
Balzer’s
firing
has
caused an uproar in Cannon
Beach.
Residents haYe defended
the former chief and com-
plained about the way Balzer
was treated by ¿re district di-
rectors, who locked him out
of his of¿ce the morning after
his dismissal.
Garry Smith, a board di-
rector, described the ¿ring as
“strictly business, not person-
al,” and other directors ques-
tioned Balzer’s administratiYe
skills.
Susan Neuwirth, a Cannon
Beach resident, has ¿led a re-
call petition to remoYe three of
the board’s ¿Ye directors Pres-
ident Sharon Clyde, Smith and
Linda Beck-Sweeney.
Jim Stearns, of Hermiston,
is serYing as interim ¿re chief.
The ¿re district board hopes
to hire a new chief by June.
According to Balzer’s law-
suit, board directors conduct-
ed a performance eYaluation
in the ¿rst quarter of last year
that was Yery critical of Bal-
zer’s work.
Balzer claimed directors,
in particular, chastised him for
allowing his wife to criticize
board directors on social me-
dia and other comments.
Balzer said the board set
goals for him to accomplish by
NoYember that were “impossi-
ble to obtain” within that time
frame and then “intentionally
created a hostile work enYiron-
ment” before his ¿ring.
Balzer said he has “suf-
fered irreparable injury to his
business and personal repu-
tation, and will haYe serious
dif¿culty ¿nding substitute
employment, particularly in
the small coastal community
in which he resides.”