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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (May 4, 2016)
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, MAY 4, 2016 143RD YEAR, NO. 215 ONE DOLLAR Gearhart Grocery makes way for a brew pub Challenge likely as councilors OK switch By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian Photos by Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian Crews from logging company J.M. Browning stack timber harvested from the Beneke Basin, as part of a more than $3 million sale in the Clatsop State Forest to Hampton Affiliates. The Astoria district of the state Department of Forestry produces about $23 million in local revenue each fiscal year, harvesting about 73 million board feet of timber. Time for a trim or buzz cut? 73 million timber board feet auctioned each year By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian E ach year, the state Depart- ment of Forestry’s Asto- ria District sells 73 million board feet of timber out of nearly 137,000 acres in the Clat- sop State Forest, providing $23 million in net revenue, two-thirds of it going to local governments and school districts. The district is planning 12 sales across 2,200 acres of state forest- lands in the iscal year ahead. Pub- lic comment on the sales is open through June. With pressures on the state Board of Forestry, the harvest may be in lux. See GROCERY, Page 10A Riverwalk Inn hoteliers off the hook Judge removes Astoria Hospitality Ventures from lawsuit Feeding local mills Deep in the heart of the Clatsop State Forest above Beneke Creek late last month rose a tall yarder, its guylines spreading out to tree stump supports in all directions like the metal skeleton of a teepee. A gas-powered sky car attached to a skyline stretching 5,000 feet down the hillside towed two or three tree trunks at a time to a forest road landing. A crew from logging irm J.M. Brown- ing snatched the trunks with a log grabber, sent them through a delimber and stacked the timber to be put on trucks and taken to regional sawmills. “You’re probably looking at 10 guys just here,” said Jew- ell Unit Forester Ty Williams, who helps plan timber sales for the state Department of Forestry in the heart of the county. “And you’re not counting the log truck drivers.” See TIMBER, Page 10A GEARHART — City councilors in Gear- hart opened the way for a new brew pub Tuesday night, approving a conditional use permit for Gearhart Station at 599 Paciic Way. In a three-hour hearing at the Gear- hart irehouse, owner Terry Lowenberg of Sum Properties in Seaside told councilors the Gearhart Grocery could not compete with Fred Meyer, Safe- way and Costco. “We sell raw food now,” Lowenberg said. “Raw food is not a sus- tainable thing in this community.” Lowenberg said alternative food choices, such as Terry organic vegetables or Lowenberg specialty products, had not been successful with customers. “People say they wanted it, we bought it, and we ended up eating it ourself,” he said. “We thought about what we could do to make it better, to make it a proitable business.” Trees are shown in a buffer near the Homesteader timber area. On the other side of the buffer is the Nehalem River. MORE INFO To see the full 2017 Annual Operations Plan for the state Department of Forestry, visit http://tinyurl.com/zpar7kz ‘You’re probably looking at 10 guys just here. And you’re not counting the log truck drivers.’ Ty Williams Jewell Unit forester who helps plan timber sales for the state Department of Forestry in the heart of the county Crews stack logs By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian Clatsop County Circuit Court Judge Phil- lip Nelson agreed to remove Astoria Hos- pitality Ventures, William Orr and Ches- ter Trabucco as co-defendants in the lawsuit brought by Param Hotel Group over the Astoria Riverwalk Inn. Param, a Portland-based hotel opera- tor, sued the Port of Astoria in November on claims of fraud and breach of contract after the agency chose Hospitality Ventures to take over operation of the hotel from indebted operator Brad Smithart and his company, Hospitality Masters. The com- pany added Trabucco and Orr, the locally connected representatives of Hospitality Ventures, as co-defendants, claiming they intentionally interfered with a previous agreement between the Port and Param. “I do not think all the elements have been See HOTELIERS, Page 10A Peninsula clamming ends Sunday to protect rare birds EO Media Group LONG BEACH, Wash. — After a unique season that jammed 97 days of digging into four months, the Long Beach- Ocean Park razor clam season will end after this weekend’s opener. The decision to end the sea- son here while it continues else- where on the Washington coast until at least May 22 was driven in part by avoiding human impacts to two rare birds species that nest at Leadbetter Point, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said. Local business leaders advo- cated extending clam digs here, engaging state Sen. Dean Takko and others in probing Fish and Wildlife’s decision. However, after additional internal dis- cussions, the agency decided to stick with its Sunday ending date, Coastal Shellish Manager Dan Ayres said Saturday. “It’s no surprise that protec- tion of nesting snowy plovers remains important on the north end, so any additional digging on Long Beach would require additional measures to ensure protection in the area adjacent to nesting activities,” Ayres said. Streaked horned larks also nest in the soft, dry sand at Leadbet- ter. Both species are listed as “endangered” in the state and as “threatened” under the federal Endangered Species Act. Great season anyway Clam season tradition- ally starts in October and runs through May. However, a bloom of a marine algae that creates the toxin domoic acid ended the 2014-15 season a little early and delayed start of this season until early January on the Long Beach Peninsula. A survey of the clam pop- ulation on the peninsula esti- mated the allowable harvest at nearly 4.8 million for 2015-16. Clams are unaffected by domoic acid, and once digging began this January, diggers commonly harvested their daily limits of 15 within a half hour or so when- ever the weather permitted. Even with the early end- ing, Ayres said, “It is important to keep in perspective the fact that we’ve offered a total of 97 days of digging on Long Beach (even with the late start) which is by far the most of any beach this season. Mocrocks has had 26 days and Copalis 18 days — while Twin Harbors remains closed.” A local harvest total for 2016 is not yet available. Despite the toxin problem, the 2014-15 season produced 104 days of digging — the most in modern times. A little more than 2.4 million clams were harvested. Toxin persists in places Latest tests show domoic acid in clams is no more than 7 parts per million on the See CLAMMING, Page 10A EO Media Group/File Photo More clamming starts Sun- day on Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula.