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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 2016)
10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2016 Wallacut: ‘Fish can move in as soon as it’s open’ Continued from Page 1A Since breaking ground on the project in early September, land trust workers have re-con- toured and restored the four channels. They have breached one channel, and will open the other three to tidal lows within the next few weeks, Sinks said. Reconnecting a river Almost 100 years ago, farmers built a simple, but effective push-up levee, and installed dikes with tide gates that let water low out, but not in. Over the years, this low-ly- ing marshy forestland was drained and illed with sand. “Sweeny,” as it came to be known, supported a few farms, orchards and a bit of cattle grazing. The levee did its job, but it also totally cut off the river from the land. Farmers loved it, but the salmon would pay the price. “It disconnects all that hab- itat for ish,” Sinks said. Scientists and conserva- tionists are now beginning to understand the critical role that estuaries play in the life cycles of ish. Past resto- ration efforts often focused on spawning habitat, but research now shows that the tidal zones, where juvenile salmon spend time maturing before head- ing out to sea, are also very important to their survival. When a river is recon- nected to its historic lood- plain, the free movement of water through tidal channels provides refuge for juvenile salmon. Cooler cleaner water is one draw for ish, but the buffet of organisms is another. A host of delectable inverte- brates and bugs await the hun- gry swimmers. “They come in. They feed. They get out of high lows. David Plechl/EO Media Group Ian Sinks, a stewardship director with Columbia Land Trust, meets with Caitlin Alcott, an ecologist with Inter-Fluve, the firm that is providing the engineering and design for the Wal- lacut River restoration project. Sinks is leading the $170,000 effort aimed at enhancing salmon rearing habitat at Lower Columbia tributaries and their associated estuaries. Damian Mulinix/For EO Media Group The tannin-rich soil often makes the Wallacut River run a very dark color. They get away from preda- tors. They start to transition, especially in this stretch of the river, to the ocean,” Sinks explained. Sinks said that, once com- plete, the restored habitat could beneit stocks of ish from the Columbia’s many tributaries, including the Grays and Chi- nook rivers. Coho, Chinook, steelhead and, potentially, chum salmon will all bene- it, said Sinks. Sculpin, stick- leback, starry lounder and other ish also will seek out the newly restored habitat. “For a long time, the think- ing was that the estuary was just something the ish had to get through,” Sinks said. Now, that thinking has changed. “The idea is to make more of this habitat.” Unlocking the past The path from homestead to salmon habitat has been a long and winding one. Dam: City is seeking to take control of dam Continued from Page 1A risk. “The concerns aren’t just liability,” she said. “The con- cerns are that it is a lood haz- ard for us. It causes looding for us. My district, my con- stituents are at the risk.” The city’s ultimatum comes after an agreement between the city, the water district and the Columbia River Estuary Study Task- force to remove the dam and install a single-lane bridge for emergency access fell apart in May amid doubts about the impact on lood control. Questions about whether Kurt Fritsch, the former city manager, should have dis- closed skeptical reviews by a city consultant on the dam’s removal to the City Commis- sion led to Fritsch’s resigna- tion in June. A fact-inding report by Blitz released Tuesday con- cluded that the city owns the dam because the water district forfeited a 1962 city easement for the project by raising and eventually removing tide gates over the past few years. The city contends a 1938 Circuit Court ruling estab- lished city title to the land. In his letter Wednesday, Blitz said the only other potential claim might be asserted by the Department of State Lands for the land underneath the structure, but he said the state has not claimed an interest. The water district has operated and maintained the dam since it was built with help from the federal gov- ernment in 1963. The federal government said in 2014 that the water district was free to operate the dam and two other lood control structures on the river as the owner, since the government’s inter- est was complete after the 50-year useful lives of the structures ended. Ron Smith, the state con- servation engineer for the U.S. Department of Agri- culture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Portland, said Wednesday that the federal government viewed the water district as “the owner because they had to obtain those land rights to be able to install those struc- tures and to successfully operate and maintain those for the service life of the structures. “So from our agency per- spective, we look at them as an owner of those structures.” The ownership inter- est, however, is based on the water district’s city easement for the project, which the city now maintains the water dis- trict forfeited by removing the tide gates. The city is seeking to take control of the dam and either operate it for lood control or hold the structure as an asset and remove it later to off- set wetlands mitigation for a future development project. Committee: Supporters pressed commissioners to change their minds Continued from Page 1A During public testimony Wednesday, a half dozen sup- porters urged commission- ers to change their minds. They said the committee has been meeting for the past four decades, and is a local asset that maintains the livability of the community. Theodore Lundy, chair- man of the Arch Cape com- mittee, said the group offers a way for locals to voice their concerns face-to-face. Sinks said a cultural archaeological review found evidence of a historic Native American presence in the area, so land trust workers will leave a few parts of the property untouched, to pre- vent an potential disturbance of archaeologically sensitive sites. When homesteaders built the levee, about 100 years after Lewis and Clark passed through, cattle grazed and crops prospered sporadically. As better lands were devel- oped elsewhere, ranchers and farmers gave up on Sweeny. The forest quickly returned, and the structures that dot- ted the site crumbled and dis- solved. By the time the land trust bought the land, just one decrepit house remained. It was soon demolished. “It’s like a family meeting down there,” Lundy said. Commissioner Lianne Thompson used Lundy’s family analogy to point out not all family members agree. She said many residents felt too vulnerable or at risk to propose their building plans to their neighbors. “Sometimes those family members had not wished to appear on the record because they have been concerned about their neighbor’s negative opinions,” Thompson said. the site with conservation in mind. The stars aligned when Columbia Land Trust, a Van- couver-based group with about a dozen ongoing proj- ects in Oregon and Washing- ton, came looking for a project that could meet their goal of aiding salmon recovery. How- ever, the project still probably would not have been possible without assistance from Bon- neville Power Administration. Under the Endangered Spe- cies Act, BPA is required to mitigate the environmental impacts of hydropower devel- opment by paying for salmon recovery projects. “Their objectives align with ours,” Sinks said. “Were not in business of mitigation, but we are a private nonproit focused on restoration.” Boots on the ground Funding the future Sinks said the previ- ous owner had purchased In late September, Sinks toured the site with Caitlin Alcott, a hydrologist and ecol- ogist with Inter-Fluve, the irm that has provided the engineer- ing and design for most of the project. Alcott led Sinks hundreds of yards down the riverbank past all four channels, each just a few steps from comple- tion. She explained how work crews had used an excavator to shave the roughly 4-to6- feet tall levee down in most places. Though the work- ers followed the contour of the land, and tried to avoid trees and other vegetation, most of the levee now resem- bles a lat, muddy track. She showed how the excavator operator used a stump and its attached rootwad like a brush to smooth out the track marks. Henderson Construction is doing the heavy lifting with the help of Johnson and Son’s from Naselle. Farther down river, Alcott showed Sinks one of the newly restored channels. The old ill sand had been removed, and the channel now cuts a sin- uous path through the shade of alders. In the future, the land trust plans to plant some native spruce and evergreens along the banks. Rainwater had illed in the restored channel and leaves were falling in the water. Bugs and birds were active around its banks. “Pretty nice huh? If you’re a ish,” commented Alcott. The two continued on to a more heavily forested spot where the irst of the four channels was breached. Sev- eral fallen trees had been art- fully placed in the channel. The logs will stabilize the channel banks and provide cover for juvenile ish, Alcott said. “Fish hotels,” she added. “We call it rearing habitat.” The water had already swept in and was now creep- ing its way back into the Wal- lacut, carrying with it, leaves, bugs and beetles. “Fish can move in as soon as it’s open,” Sinks said. “A lot of the habitat functions start as soon as you reconnect land to water.” Warrenton: Enrollment likely to grow more Continued from Page 1A is averaging 67 students per grade this year, 72 per grade in Warrenton Middle School and 86 per student in the grade school, according to an enroll- ment report Jeffery gave the board. “Without another economic upheaval, we’ll see that there’s more likelihood of increase than decrease,” he said. He estimated the aver- age class size through 2028- 29 would be 89. With cur- rent enrollment at 1,000, the district’s enrollment would increase another 15 percent over the next 12 years. The grade school also hosts high- risk children with behavioral issues from around the county as part of a special education consortium. Jeffery said they, too, need another classroom. Creative remodeling A storage room has been remodeled into a classroom. Closets have been turned into work areas for teachers. The library has been consolidated to make room for a multipur- pose activity room. A few years ago, Warren- ton became the irst school district in the county to offer preschool, in part to ill two empty classrooms in the grade school. Last year, the district spent nearly $400,000 add- ing two modular classrooms to avoid increasing class sizes, and is looking at more. On Wednesday, potentially clos- ing the preschool came up as an option to free up two classrooms. Jeffery estimated that next year, the district would need to add another two teaching posi- tions and remodel a patio out- side the art room into an addi- tional classroom, at a potential price tag of $100,000. He esti- mated that through 2021-22, the district would need to add three new positions and class- rooms to avoid increasing class sizes. Jeffery said a 20-year full faith and credit bond of $2 million would cost the district about $135,000 a year. Busi- ness Manager Mike Moha said that’s similar to what the dis- trict spends each year on facil- ities maintenance. The bond would allow the district to remodel the patio area, repair a leaky roof at the high school, add modulars Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Warrenton-Hammond School Board Members took a tour of the short-term fixes staff has made to fit new students into an overcrowded school. The tour included a library consolidated to make way for a new multipurpose activity room. ‘My belief is, at best, we have five years to have something in place that will give us more capacity.’ Superintendent Mark Jeffery at the grade school and add another behavioral-support classroom. The district could also have to try and purchase adjacent property to meet the additional parking require- ments for new construction. Bigger bond Jeffery said the bond could also allow the district to pre- pare for a larger bond like Seaside School District’s as it decides whether to attempt a larger remodel of its class- rooms, build a new school or try to build an entirely new K-12 campus. “My belief is, at best, we have ive years to have some- thing in place that will give us more capacity,” Jeffery said. Leinassar Dental Excellence Trusted, Caring and Affordable Dental Care I a m very ha ppy I m a d e the sw itch to Leina ssa r D ental. A ll involved a re ca ring a nd professional - a good m ix of b oth. W hen I need ed em ergency help, the response wa s im m ed ia te. A ll w ork is m eticu lou sly d one. T he end resu lt feels good a nd look s b ea u tifu l. I ha ve the k now led ge a nd confid ence tha t I ha ve the b est ca re. T ha nk you . T ha nk you . 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