Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2016)
DailyAstorian.com // WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2016 144TH YEAR, NO. 54 ONE DOLLAR Vacation rental rules in the works Warrenton likely to adapt Seaside’s regulations By ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian WARRENTON — With the Airbnb trend hitting the North Coast, Warrenton is turning to Seaside’s vacation rental regulations as a model for establishing rules of its own. Last month, the City Commission directed Skip Urling, the community devel- opment director, to produce some ideas pre- scribing how and where short-term vacation rentals should be run in Warrenton. Que- ries about such rentals have gone up, but the development code lacks standards for oper- ating them. Urling has said he suspects that an unknown number of property owners in town already rent out homes on a short-term basis. Seaside treats vacation rentals as con- ditional uses that need approval from city administration unless the rentals are located in an area where 20 percent or more of the structures within 100 feet are also vacation rentals. Possible policies Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian Bruce “Buck” Nelson from Fairbanks, Alaska, poses for a portrait in his kayak Tuesday at the East End Mooring Basin in Astoria. Nelson was on the last leg of his journey hiking and kayaking the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. Ocean in view for adventurer Urling said Seaside’s vacation rental requirements could be “fairly easily incorpo- rated” into the Warrenton code. Property owners would need to obtain a business license and pay the hotel-room tax. Rules regarding sanitation, smoke alarms, mechanical and electrical features, and other site safety issues would apply. A rental property owner would need to provide enough off-street parking to accom- modate guests; on-street parking will be prohibited. See WARRENTON, Page 10A By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian W ith a jaunt down the Fort to Sea Trail from Fort Clatsop to Sunset Beach this morning, Bruce “Buck” Nelson inished retracing the steps of Lewis and Clark. His arrival at the Paciic Ocean marked the end of a journey more than 3,300 miles and nearly six months long. The adventurer made his way down the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail by foot and kayak from the conluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers in St. Louis to the mouth of the Columbia River. “I kind of had it in the back of my mind to do the Lewis and Clark Trail some day, so I started research- ing how dificult it would be to paddle up the Missouri, and I found … some people who had done it,” he said. “I igured if they did it, I could work hard and do it as well — an interesting, great, outdoor, epic adventure, which is what I enjoy.” Neal Maine/Submitted Photo A new federal roadmap addresses the impact of ocean noise on whales and dolphins. Feds combat ocean noise on marine mammals The journey Nelson started walking March 24 from Camp Dubois on the Illinois side of the Missouri River near St. Louis. The Corps of Discovery started its journey nearby on May 21, 1804. Nelson passed through Mis- souri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota and into Montana on his way up the Missouri River, walking the initial 800 miles to avoid danger- ous currents caused by wing dams, then kayaking the next 1,500 miles. See ADVENTURER, Page 10A Bruce Nelson/Submitted Photo Bruce “Buck” Nelson reached the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass on the Montana-Idaho border Aug. 6 while retracing the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail on foot and in a kayak. ‘Son of a Blob’ springs to life in Paciic Patch of warm ocean water makes its return By MATT WINTERS EO Media Group LONG BEACH, Wash. — The Blob, a news-making patch of unusually warm ocean sur- face water from late-2013 through autumn 2015, was reborn this month. The ocean warmed quickly. As recently as July, “The northeast Paciic off our coast was slightly above normal, but nothing exceptional,” Univer- sity of Washington meteorologist Cliff Mass noted Sunday in his popular blog. By Saturday, some limited areas well off the coast were 5.4 to 7.2 degrees above normal, Mass said, while satellite monitoring shows an See BLOB, Page 10A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Satellite monitoring on Saturday found a huge area of warmer than normal surface temperatures in the north- east Pacific Ocean. Whales, dolphins use sound to navigate Associated Press The federal government says a new strategy to address the issue of noise in the ocean will better protect the safety of marine mammals. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its Ocean Noise Strat- egy Roadmap on Tuesday. The agency says the roadmap will guide it in managing ocean noise and its effects on ocean life through the next 10 years. The roadmap lays out roles for federal government agencies, researchers, industries and environmental advocates to play in man- aging noise in the ocean. NOAA crafted the plan using more than 85,000 public comment responses. Sound plays a key role in the survival of marine animals and can be caused either by human actions or the ocean’s natural ecosys- tem. Whales and dolphins, for example, use sound to navigate and ind food. “NOAA has the scientiic and techni- cal expertise to assess what’s happening with ocean noise, help identify gaps in knowledge, and use various tools to alleviate or mitigate its effects,” Richard Merrick, NOAA Fisher- ies’ chief scientist, said in a statement. “Our approach looks for creative and wide-ranging solutions to ensure the agency is effectively understanding and addressing how ocean noise affects the resources placed in our trust in the coming decade.”
