10A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 17, 2016
Salmon: ‘We want
the EPA ... to look
at all the sources
of temperature’
Continued from Page 1A
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
A seagull takes flight near Del Ray Beach Recreation Site.
Beach trafic: 75 percent of Clatsop
County beaches are off-limits to cars
Continued from Page 1A
“It’s a very small group of
people who complain,” Ber-
gin said. “How are families
going to get down there with
their strollers and little kids?
Elderly and handicapped
people like to drive that sec-
tion of the beach. These peo-
ple are trying to encroach on
that. They own these homes
along the beach and want
their own private little walk-
ing space. It’s not going to
happen.”
A right or a privilege?
The Oregon Coast consists
of smaller beaches that are
often secluded in the margins
between the Paciic Ocean and
steep, prominent headlands.
The Warrenton-to-Gearhart
route and some areas around
Paciic City and Lincoln City
are open for cars, along with
Sand Lake Dunes Recreational
Area, where off-road vehi-
cles are permitted in some
stretches.
Cars and trucks are allowed
at any time in the 10-mile
stretch between Peter Iredale
Road south to the beach ramp
at Gearhart, including the Sun-
set Beach State Recreation
Site, the west trailhead to the
Fort to Sea Trail. A 25 mph
speed limit is in effect along
the shore.
State law grants the Parks
and Recreation Department
authority “to take action to
protect ocean shore resources,
to protect public health and
safety, to provide secu-
rity, to avoid user conlicts,
or for other reasons deemed
necessary.”
Beach driving is considered
almost a right among long-
time residents, Wing said.
Environmental
concerns
Neal Maine, a wildlife pho-
tographer, pointed to the haz-
ards to birds caused by drivers.
“I don’t think there’s any-
body patrolling the beaches,”
Maine said. “It turns into a
race track, turning around,
spinning, spinning. Let’s have
access to a phone number so
on busy weekends there’s a
patrol oficer there continu-
ously, and they’re making their
presence known.”
Drivers like to cause birds
to ly or roust locks while the
birds are storing up valuable
energy for migrations. “The
main issue on our beaches is
the continued action of shore-
birds that is caused by cars,”
Maine said. “They’re pick-
ing out invertebrates out of the
sand when they only have a
limited amount of time. These
are calories they need on the
way to get to the Arctic to get
to the nesting cycle.”
Maine said he would like
to see a new management plan
with a police enforcement
component.
“Camping’s prohibited —
but it’s easy to go to the beach
and ind 100 tents,” he said.
“The same with the driving. On
the highway we have patrols,
but on the beach it’s very lim-
ited. State Parks has no vehicles
to patrol it. They don’t plan on
patrolling it. They don’t have
the resources to patrol it. They
farm it out to a default program
with the county sheriff, which
is not adequate for continuous
monitoring.”
Legislation opposed
State legislation introduced
in the 1990s limiting beach
access for vehicles along the
10-mile roadway was highly
unpopular in Clatsop County
and vigorously opposed at the
time.
In 1995, the Gearhart City
Council, backed by a peti-
tion signed by hundreds of
residents, sent a letter to the
state Legislature opposing the
bill, which ultimately died in
committee.
Today, 75 percent of Clat-
sop County beaches are
off-limits to cars, according
to Wing, including Cannon
Beach, where only permitted
vehicles — for people with
disabilities, boating or collect-
ing driftwood, among other
uses — are allowed along the
beach. Access is at Tolovana
Wayside.
Enforcement
Chris Havel, the associate
director of the Parks and Rec-
reation Department, said most
people “run afoul of rules unin-
tentionally,” and it’s faster and
more effective to get people on
track with a quick talk. Enforce-
ment for speeding or other vio-
lations along the beach fall to
the Sheriff’s Ofice or Oregon
State Police.
“A lot of people go around
in a circle, around and around,
making ‘cookies,’” Wing said.
“It’s not the right thing to do,
but it’s something that people
don’t realize they shouldn’t do.
It’s a beach, not a playground.”
Former Arizona state
trooper Teresa McKee began
work in July as reserve deputy,
replacing retired deputy John
Wood. She’s already made a
big difference, Bergin said,
recovering stolen bicycles and
issuing citations for drug and
alcohol offenses.
Most citations are written
to drivers for reckless driving,
Bergin said. Other tickets may
be issued for illegal camping,
trash or ireworks. “We don’t
write a lot of tickets,” he said.
“But if we don’t get compli-
ance, there will be a citation
issued.”
Despite concerns from
homeowners, the beach road
should remain open, he said.
“Ninety-nine percent of the
time people pick up their gar-
bage and obey all the rules,”
he said. “It’s that 1 percent that
goes down there and causes a
problem or two. Why should
everyone else have to suffer
for that 1 percent? We will con-
tinue to enforce the laws and do
the right thing to keep that Clat-
sop County beach open.”
In Mexico, high avocado prices fuel deforestation
By MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press
MEXICO CITY — Amer-
icans’ love for avocados and
rising prices for the highly
exportable fruit are fueling the
deforestation of central Mexi-
co’s pine forests as farmers rap-
idly expand their orchards to
feed demand.
Avocado trees lourish at
about the same altitude and cli-
mate as the pine and ir forests
in the mountains of Michoacan,
the state that produces most
of Mexico’s avocados. That
has led farmers to wage a cat-
and-mouse campaign to avoid
authorities, thinning out the for-
ests, planting young avocado
trees under the forest canopy,
and then gradually cutting back
the forest as the trees grow to
give them more sunlight.
“Even where they aren’t
visibly cutting down forest,
there are avocados growing
underneath (the pine boughs),
and sooner or later they’ll cut
down the pines completely,”
said Mario Tapia Vargas, a
researcher at Mexico’s National
Institute for Forestry, Farming
and Fisheries Research.
Given that Michoacan’s for-
ests contain much of the win-
tering grounds of the monarch
butterly, the deforestation is
more than just an academic
issue. Authorities have already
detected small avocado plots
in the monarchs’ reserve where
farmers have cut down pine
forest.
Worse, Tapia Vargas said, a
mature avocado orchard uses
almost twice as much water
AP Photo/Nick Wagner
Avocados are displayed for sale in a large market in Mex-
ico City.
as fairly dense forest, meaning
less water reaches Michoacan’s
legendary crystalline mountain
streams on which the forests
and animals depend.
Greenpeace Mexico says
people are likely to suffer, too.
“Beyond the displacement
of forests and the effects on
water retention, the high use of
agricultural chemicals and the
large volumes of wood needed
to pack and ship avocados are
other factors that could have
negative effects on the area’s
environment and the well-be-
ing of its inhabitants,” Green-
peace said in a statement.
The two-lane rural roads
that cut through the mountains
are choked with lines of heavy
trucks carrying avocados out
and pickers in to the orchards.
But it is hard to argue farm-
ers out of the economic logic of
growing avocados.
“Avocado farming is very
attractive, because of the prices
being the way they are,” Tapia
Vargas said.
Avocado prices jumped from
around 86 cents apiece in Janu-
ary to around $1.10 in July,
partly because of weak seasonal
supply from Mexico. And the
peso lost 16 percent of its value
against the dollar over the past
year, making exports cheaper
for the U.S. customers. Mexican
farmers can make much higher
proits growing avocados than
from most other crops.
It is the enormous U.S.
appetite for avocados that has
driven the expansion. Between
2001 and 2010, avocado pro-
duction in Michoacan tripled,
but exports rose 10 times,
according to a report pub-
lished in 2012 by Tapia Vargas’
institute.
The report suggested the
expansion caused loss of for-
est land of about 1,700 acres
(690 hectares) a year from 2000
through 2010.
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2000 and 2003, their conclu-
sion was that it’s really the
dams and low that are con-
trolling most of the tempera-
ture issues in the Columbia,”
he said.
The lawsuit aims to
force federal environmen-
tal regulators to determine
“total maximum daily load”
for the rivers, which would
set a limit on water tem-
peratures in order to pro-
tect salmon. The EPA and
other agencies would then
have to operate under those
guidelines when regulating
the river.
Johnson said a plan to
manage river temperatures
could include changes to
dam operations and removal
of what he called obsolete
dams on the lower Snake
River.
“I think this is really
about whether, looking down
the road 50 years from now,
do we want to be teaching
our children and grandchil-
dren to catch salmon in the
Columbia or explaining to
them what salmon were?”
Johnson said.
The EPA did not imme-
diately provide an expla-
nation for why the regula-
tory process was initially
shelved. A spokesperson
said it was the agency’s
policy not to comment on
pending litigation.
Brown: Golfer hopes to
emulate longtime Mayor
Kent Smith’s calmness
Continued from Page 1A
each other,” he said. “One
of the things I’m most proud
of through my years on the
Planning Commission is
that we went from having a
dysfunctional relationship
with the council to having
a great relationship with the
council.”
Brown left the commission
in 2012 but remained involved
in city politics. During public
hearings on vacation rentals,
he provided testimony urging
an adherence to values pro-
moted in the comprehensive
plan.
Gearhart’s proposed short-
term rental ordinance —
requiring registration, 24-hour
notiication and limiting trans-
fer of short-term rental per-
mits — is a compromise that
reduces the number of vaca-
tion rentals while protecting
the rights of rental property
owners. “The part-time and
the full-time people — we’re
all part of the same commu-
nity,” Brown said. “But we all
recognize times have changed
with the internet.”
The ordinance is expected
to become law in October.
“What I’ve admired about
it is that we’ve gotten to hear
both sides,” Brown said. “The
city has done a great job of lis-
tening and giving people the
opportunity to speak, trying to
come up with a solution that’s
a compromise.”
Issues in the city’s next
four years include a transpor-
tation master plan, a new ire-
house, a parks master plan,
and efforts to bridge the divide
between residents on the east
side of U.S. Highway 101 and
the west.
Emergency
prepared-
ness should not only focus
on tsunamis and earthquakes,
Brown said, but all natural
disasters.
“We have to be prepared,”
he said. “We have to be
updated on the facts. We don’t
want to live in fear — but we
have to be prepared.”
Brown said he grew up at
a time when longtime Mayor
Kent Smith presided over
the community. He admired
Smith’s calm demeanor and
listening skills and hopes
to emulate those qualities.
“He always gave everyone a
chance to speak at the meet-
ing,” Brown said. “He was
always calm about it, and that’s
how I feel about it. My mantra
would be ‘calm waters.’
“Hey, we’re all in this
together,” he added. “We have
to communicate.”
Lead: Results will help
determine cause of high
lead concentrations
Continued from Page 1A
Samples were taken from
EPA guidelines for fountains
and food prep faucets, Ely
said. Some control samples,
not from drinking or cooking
faucets, were also taken.
Some water taps at Sea-
side Heights Elementary
with lead levels approach-
ing the limit of 20 parts per
billion have been shut down
and retested. The district will
receive results in the coming
months that will help deter-
mine the cause of high lead
concentrations.
“We decided anything
above 10 was high enough
that we should look to see if
something should be done,”
Ely said. The district may
replace the ixtures or seek a
cleaner water supply.
After high lead volumes
discovered in some Port-
land Public Schools drink-
ing water was disclosed this
spring, Oregon oficials rec-
ommended statewide testing
of school drinking water.
“We made a decision to
test early,” Ely said. “We
would still be waiting for
results if we hadn’t.”