4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2017
Lesson: ‘See something, say something’ Jewell: Structure
From left,
Clatsop Coun-
ty Emergency
Management
Coordinator
Bijan Fayyaz
looks on
as Seaside
High School
juniors David
Schwinof,
Cole Her-
rington and
Megan Brown
practice car-
rying injured
survivors.
Continued from Page 1A
disaster response. “With the
situation our county is in, I
thought it was a great opportu-
nity,” Clouse said.
See something,
say something
Seniors in Joshua Funk’s
classroom at Astoria High
School Friday filed in past a
black briefcase left by Fayyaz
in the doorway, complete with
suspicious wires poking out of
the top.
In his emergency manage-
ment training, Fayyaz said, he
specialized in recognizing ter-
rorist threats, another unit he
teaches students.
While one might not
think of the rural North Coast
as a target, Fayyaz said,
the area has already been tar-
geted by animal-rights activ-
ists, who in 2010 firebombed
a mink farm. And the region
includes at least one high-value
target.
“The Megler Bridge, if you
cut that off, if you took down
that bridge, you would cut off
the Pacific Ocean from the
Columbia River,” Fayyaz said.
Fayyaz noted that explo-
sives, like the ones that theo-
retically could have been con-
cealed in his briefcase, are used
Edward Stratton
The Daily Astorian
in about 80 percent of terror-
ist attacks. While Fayyaz said
it shouldn’t be assumed that
something out of the ordinary
is immediately a threat of ter-
rorism, he reminded students to
always consider the possibility
and remember the U.S. Depart-
ment of Homeland Security’s
motto: “If you see something,
say something.”
Creating assets
Astoria Principal Lynn
Jackson said that besides the
basic self-preservation skills
students learn in earthquake
or tsunami evacuation drills,
only students in clubs like Boy
Scouts of America and 4-H get
training in how to become an
asset in a disaster.
Astoria had tried the emer-
gency response team train-
ing as an after-school club,
Jackson said, but “as it wasn’t
structured in a classroom envi-
ronment, attendance was hit or
miss.”
With the training inserted
into the classroom, Fayyaz
expects to have about 100 stu-
dents in Astoria, 75 in Warren-
ton and 75 in Seaside trained
as volunteer responders in a
disaster. The hope is that some
of those and future students
will join local response teams,
and spread the training to their
families.
Fayyaz said this year will
cement the model of teach-
ing disaster preparedness in
the classroom. Eventually, the
county will train local teachers
to add disaster preparedness
within their classes.
Fayyaz said he’s seen simi-
lar in-class programs along the
coast in Lane and Lincoln coun-
ties, with interest even coming
from Gov. Kate Brown on a
recent visit to talk about disas-
ter preparedness. “I wouldn’t
be surprised if at some point
this becomes a part of state pol-
icy in our curriculum.”
Bump: ‘We need the tree huggers’
Continued from Page 1A
GOP-controlled
Congress
will run roughshod over the
environment.
“It’s time to turn shock and
outrage into action,” the Natu-
ral Resources Defense Council
encourages would-be donors
in a social media campaign.
“NRDC is gearing up to fight
the Trump administration’s
disastrous anti-environmental
agenda at every turn — in the
courtroom, in Washington and
on the global stage.”
Experts who track nonprofit
organizations expect environ-
mental activists to use their
donation windfall — they call
it the Trump Bump — to step
up litigation. They also predict
environmentalists, who may
find themselves stonewalled at
the federal level, will shift their
focus to local, state and interna-
tional venues.
Many involved in agri-
culture say they hope Trump
will ease some of the regula-
tions governing their industry,
but worry that environmen-
tal groups will use their bigger
war chests to fight more legal
battles on key issues such as
public lands management, air-
and water-quality standards,
food safety and endangered
species.
“The fear is you would have
an unfounded lawsuit filed, and
then the (agricultural) business
is still responsible for funding a
defense of themselves, even if
the suit has no legitimacy,” said
Rick Naerebout, director of
operations at the Idaho Dairy-
men’s Association.
Naerebout recalled a case
in the early 2000s in which an
environmental group filed a
notice of its intent to sue a dairy
for alleged methane-emission
violations. The suit was eventu-
ally dropped, but only after the
association made a six-figure
investment in scientific stud-
ies that proved the dairy didn’t
pollute.
Leveraging the Cabinet
Environmental groups con-
tacted all say they have received
many more contributions
since the election, though they
wouldn’t provide numbers.
“We’re clearly seeing folks
who were hesitant to associate
with us because we’re the tree
huggers, and now they’re com-
ing around and saying, ‘We
need the tree huggers,’” said
Jeremy Nichols, who handles
climate and energy issues for
New Mexico-based WildEarth
Guardians.
Josh Mogerman, a spokes-
man for the Natural Resources
Defense Council, emphasized
his organization would rather
be broke than have to defend
“bedrock environmental pro-
tections Americans have come
to expect.” But he acknowl-
edges the group has experi-
enced an “exponential bump in
engagements for online actions,
as well as fundraising.”
“To some extent, we ini-
tially didn’t have to ask people
(to donate). People were com-
ing to us,” Mogerman said.
The additional contributions
are on top of already substan-
tial revenues. According to tax
forms filed with the Internal
Revenue Service, from July 1,
2014, through June 30, 2015,
the Natural Resources Defense
Council reported $155 mil-
lion in total revenue, including
slightly more than $134 million
in contributions and grants.
For the year through Decem-
ber 2015, WildEarth Guard-
ians reported nearly $3 million
in total revenue, and Earthjus-
tice, a nonprofit law firm that
takes on environmental cases,
brought in $48.1 million.
During that same period,
the Sierra Club reported $109.2
million in revenue, including
$94.3 million in contributions
and grants.
Hailey, Idaho-based West-
ern Watersheds Project brought
in $639,000 in total revenue
for the year ending December
2014.
More recently, criticizing
Trump’s Cabinet and agency
leadership choices has been an
especially lucrative fundrais-
ing strategy, the environmental-
ists said.
A Sierra Club blog describes
Trump’s pick to lead the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency,
Oklahoma Attorney General
Scott Pruitt, as a “climate sci-
ence denier who repeatedly
partnered with the state’s larg-
est polluters to block health and
environmental safeguards.”
The organization concludes
that the choice of Pruitt will
make “America the scorn of
the world.” On the site is a link
with instructions to donate to
the club each month and “pro-
tect the planet from Trump.”
In its online advertising,
the Natural Resources Defense
Council encourages supporters
to “Speak out! Tell your sen-
ators to vote NO on Donald
Trump’s Cabinet of polluters.”
The group contends Secretary
of State pick Rex Tillerson, the
retired CEO of Exxon Mobil,
“put his company’s interests
ahead of those of the U.S. and
thwarted action on climate
change.”
The Natural Resources
Defense Council also takes to
task former Texas Gov. Rick
Perry, tapped to oversee the
Department of Energy, for his
record on climate change and
claims Secretary of the Interior
pick Ryan Zinke, a second-term
congressman from Montana,
has a “rock-bottom voting
record on the environment of
3 percent,” as calculated by the
League of Conservation Voters.
“You have a list of
extremely pro-industry advo-
cates with very weak records
on environmental protection
and conservation,” said Erik
Molvar, executive director of
the Western Watersheds Proj-
ect. “That elevates the need for
conservation groups like West-
ern Watersheds to hold them
accountable.”
Avoiding pushback
Though the Trump admin-
istration is generally viewed
as friendly to agriculture, some
warn against trying to go too
far, too fast.
Jay Byrne, president of the
St. Louis issues management
and research firm v-Fluence,
advises agricultural leaders to
focus their advocacy on core
issues instead of “moving too
quickly on too many fronts” in
pursuit of reforms that could be
viewed as extreme. The firm
provides public policy intelli-
gence to the food industry,
“Some suggest there may
be a radical dismantling of reg-
ulations, and that could end up
with pushback and other reac-
tions that, in the end, could hurt
farming interests,” said Byrne.
“You want to take advantage of
the opportunities, but also be
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cautious that we don’t enable
and lift up some of the more
radical opponents.”
Regardless, Byrne predicts
unprecedented levels of liti-
gation impacting agriculture
ahead.
Based on observations from
2005 to 2007 — the last time
Republicans held both houses
of Congress and the White
House — Byrne expects envi-
ronmental activists to take
many of their fights to the city,
county and state levels. For
example, Byrne said anti-ag-
ricultural groups recently con-
vinced a New York City Par-
ent Teacher Association to
endorse a ban on serving genet-
ically modified foods in school,
as well as a ban on milk and
other dairy products from cows
treated with artificial growth
hormone.
Regardless of the science,
Byrne said many liberal-lean-
ing local and state leaders will
be apt to support the activists
because of their general disdain
for Trump.
“We’re going to be chal-
lenged by fighting thousands of
little fires,” Byrne said.
He also expects the groups
to increase their lobbying in
international policy forums,
which could influence key agri-
cultural trade partners such as
China, Japan and South Korea.
“Junk science” — scientific
claims appearing in so-called
pay-to-play journals not backed
by credible research — will
also proliferate in the coming
years, Byrne said. He said bio-
tech crops and animal health
products are popular targets of
junk science.
will be used for
high-level medical
marijuana products
Oregon Jewell
Continued from Page 1A
In late December, the
Clatsop County Community
Development Department
issued a notice of decision
approving Plew’s applica-
tion, giving any opposed par-
ties until Jan. 3 to appeal.
Just in time were Hunsa-
ker and Jewell School Board
Chairman Brian Meier,
who appealed the county’s
approval Jan. 3.
Hunsaker said the school
district’s appeal took issue
with the proximity of the
facility to the school, the
location across the street
from a bus stop, the mini-
mum notice given, clarity on
the use of the facility and the
impact to surrounding land.
Hunsaker called it a
high-profile issue not only
for homeowners, but for the
school district and the com-
munity, “and to narrow that
notification window and
meet only the very mini-
mum public notice standards
for something of that level of
concern is not acceptable.”
Cold welcome
Unaware the owner was
sitting in the audience, school
board members shared their
disgust with the idea of a
marijuana business so close
to the school.
“We live out here so we
don’t have to live close to
crap like that,” said board
member Ginger Kaczenski.
“So, I don’t know. I moved
from Beaverton to be out
here away from stuff, and to
have it even think about com-
ing close to 1,000 feet of our
school is insulting. I think it’s
disgusting.”
Board member Brian
Swearingen took issue with
the county’s approval never
mentioning Jewell School.
The approval said the pro-
cess met notification stan-
dards, including the adjacent
property owners, “Oregon
Department of Transpor-
tation, and other relevant
agencies.”
Meier said it was sad the
school board even had to
waste time on such a mat-
ter. He asked whether there
were more comments, after
which Plew introduced him-
self and got a chance at the
end of the meeting to explain
his venture.
Plew
said
the
1,600-square-foot structure
will be named Oregon Jewell
LLC and used for high-level
marijuana medical products.
In June, a butane explo-
sion engulfed marijuana
extraction company Higher
Level Concentrates in Asto-
ria’s Uniontown. Trying to
allay such concerns, Plew
said his family’s equipment
extracts THC, the active
ingredient in cannabis, using
carbon dioxide, seen as a
much safer method.
As for the retail dispen-
sary portion of his appli-
cation, Plew said he was
required to sell something
on the property to meet the
county’s requirements for
general commercial zoning,
whether it’s a dispensary or
a Dutch Bros. Coffee stand.
“The dispensary part —
and I don’t even like using
that word, because I don’t
like dispensaries. I’ve been
in them, and I’ve seen the
pipes and stuff — that’s
not what that is,” he said of
the dispensary listed on his
application.
Asked why he didn’t
locate the business in Happy
Valley, Plew said it’s dif-
ficult there to get general
commercial zoning. He said
his research indicated Jew-
ell as the best location, add-
ing that he could show the
school board thousands of
plants growing within a half-
mile of the school. Instead
of growing, Plew said he
plans to process his products
from the leftovers of other
growers.
The lot’s corner on the
two highways is excellent
for whatever type of business
goes there, he said, just as a
tavern once succeeded in the
same place. “And I promise
you a whole lot more dam-
age was done with that tav-
ern, and a whole lot more
tax dollars and school dol-
lars will come from what our
plan is on that property,” he
said.
Meier thanked Plew for
coming in to speak, but said
he should expect many peo-
ple to not welcome him.
Hunsaker said Plew should
help create a more proactive
communication with the dis-
trict moving forward on his
project.
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