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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2016
Changes coming to
hatchery programs
Five-year
transition
planned
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
For The Daily Astorian
Significant changes are
coming to certain federal-
ly-funded hatchery programs
next year, National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administra-
tion staff told stakeholders at a
briefing Thursday.
Rob Jones, NOAA’s West
Coast head of hatcheries, said
the agency is proposing a vari-
ety of increases and decreases
in salmon production at Mitch-
ell Act-funded hatcheries along
the Columbia River in Oregon
and Washington state. This,
coupled with other proposed
changes, he said, will continue
work decades in the making to
design the “next generation of
hatchery operations.”
The proposed changes in
production would be phased
in over an approximately five-
year transition period, and
will eventually affect abun-
dance to commercial and sport
fisheries.
“I expect that what will
emerge from this opinion is
changes to release numbers,”
Jones said in a press confer-
ence later. “In some places
there will be reductions. In
other places, it could be the
status quo or even increases.”
It is likely any reduction
would not be felt in fisheries
until around 2026, estimated
James Dixon, a fisheries biol-
ogist with NOAA’s West Coast
Sustainable Fisheries Division.
There are 62 hatchery pro-
grams that receive Mitch-
ell Act funds in the Colum-
bia River Basin — in Oregon,
Washington state and Idaho.
The Mitchell Act is a law
passed by Congress in 1938
to put money toward conserv-
ing and rebuilding declining
salmon and steelhead runs on
the Columbia River.
Together these hatcheries
produce more than 63 million
fish annually and, over the past
10 years, received funding that
has ranged from $12 million to
$22 million per year, accord-
ing to a Mitchell Act final envi-
ronmental impact statement
published in 2014. NOAA is
required to review hatchery
operations and their effects on
threatened or endangered stock
and make funding decisions
for hatcheries that operate on
money from the Mitchell Act.
Throughout the transition
period proposed Thursday,
“we’ll be really tailoring each
hatchery program after under-
standing where each of their
fish end up,” Jones said.
“We’re going to be watch-
ing very carefully how these
actions (play out) and if some-
thing doesn’t play out very
close to what we expected,
we’ll revisit whether that
action will be adjusted.”
And that, he said, could
very well happen within the
first five years.
The proposed changes dis-
cussed Thursday with stake-
holders will be gathered in a
biological opinion expected
to be released in January.
This opinion will address
how NOAA plans to mitigate
impacts of hatchery operations
on protected fish.
Though the agency had
already started a larger review
of the impacts of Mitchell Act
funding several years ago, they
are on a tight timeline with this
particular biological opinion
due to a legal challenge filed by
the Wild Fish Conservancy. The
group argued that the agency
was not doing enough to pro-
tect listed fish from the impacts
of hatchery fish, according to
NOAA spokesperson Michael
Milstein.
Since reforms of hatch-
ery programs began in ear-
nest in the 1990s, NOAA has
continued to study and learn
“how the fish are doing and the
hatcheries are performing,”
Jones told stakeholders.
Ilwaco man sentenced
to six years for sex abuse
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
For The Daily Astorian
A 21-year-old Ilwaco,
Washington, man pleaded
guilty to first-degree sexual
abuse and first-degree rape
and was sentenced to six
years in prison Thursday.
Jesse Lee Jetland, 21,
of Ilwaco, was arrested in
March following a month-
long investigation by the
Clatsop County Sheriff’s
Office after he had been
found in a 13-year-old Asto-
ria girl’s bedroom. He and
the middle-schooler had sex
and he had hidden in her
room for nearly a day before
he was caught. He also had
sexual contact with another
underage girl during this
same period, and provided
marijuana to both girls.
The sex and sexual con-
tact were consensual, but
with minors, which led to
the charges of sexual abuse
and rape, explained Clat-
sop County Deputy District
Attorney Dawn Buzzard.
Jetland was sentenced to
75 months for each charge
and will serve these sen-
tences concurrently. He
also pleaded no contest to a
charge of delivery of mari-
juana to a person under 18
years old. Other charges
against him were dismissed.
Family, hospital settle wrongful death suit
Family had
alleged medical
malpractice
By DERRICK
DePLEDGE
The Daily Astorian
A $2.1 million medi-
cal malpractice and wrong-
ful death lawsuit against
Columbia Memorial Hospi-
tal has been settled.
Ann Potter, an Asto-
ria bookkeeper, died several
weeks after having surgery at
the hospital in 2013 for a perfo-
rated ulcer. Her family alleged
that Edouard Duret, the doc-
tor who performed the surgery,
prescribed Potter pain medica-
tion that can cause stomach or
intestinal bleeding.
Potter, 77, was married
to Tom Potter, an architect
who served on the Astoria
City Council. Tom Potter
died last year.
The family’s lawsuit
named Duret, who has
retired, and the hospital.
The terms of the settlement
are confidential.
“It’s a satisfactory reso-
lution,” said Mark McCull-
och, a Portland attorney for
the family.
Paul Mitchell, a spokes-
man for the hospital,
declined to comment.
The suit was filed last
March. A hearing on a
motion in the case had been
scheduled for Thursday in
Circuit Court. A trial had
been set for January.
OLYMPIA, Wash. — The
Naselle Youth Camp is tar-
geted for closure in Wash-
ington state Gov. Jay Inslee’s
proposed state budget.
The youth camp, one
of Pacific County’s largest
employers, houses 76 young
people who have gotten into
trouble with the juvenile jus-
tice system.
Inslee plans to relocate
them to Echo Glen Children’s
Center in Snoqualmie and
Green Hill School in Cheha-
lis. The governor’s budget
claims savings of $7.4 mil-
lion over the coming two-year
budget cycle.
In an interview in April, Pat
Escamilla, the youth camp’s
new superintendent, said state
officials assured him the camp
was staying open for the fore-
seeable future.
The youth camp is one
of just three across the state,
and is the only one that has
the state Department of Nat-
ural Resources occupational
programs.
Closing the camp has
been suggested several
times by governors since
the 1990s, but the decision
is ultimately up to the state
Legislature.
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Inslee wants to close
Naselle Youth Camp
EO Media Group
Murk also expressed con-
These included two charges
of first-degree sodomy and cern about Jetland being
first-degree burglary, among placed in a standard sex
others.
offender program.
His
attorney,
A neurological eval-
Mary Ann Murk,
uation showed Jet-
asked Circuit Court
land has a number
Judge Philip Nelson
of developmental
to allow Jetland to
delays, she said.
stay at the Clatsop
Still, she told
County Jail through
Nelson, “he under-
the Christmas holi-
stands and he’s
day. Jetland’s birth-
accepting the con-
day falls on Christ-
sequences of his
mas Day and he Jesse Lee Jetland actions.”
had hoped to see his
The charges to
family before leav-
which Jetland pled
ing for prison.
guilty are both Measure 11
Judge Nelson said he had crimes that carry mandatory
no control over this and it minimum prison sentences.
would be up to the jail and When he is released, Jetland
the Oregon Department of will be required to register as
Corrections.
a sex offender.