144TH YEAR, NO. 206
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 2017
ONE DOLLAR
‘For her, there’s no halfway’ Fire fee
removed
from 19
tax lots
Committee reviewed
parcels after complaints
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Christine Lolich, center, presents the two Lady Liberty Awards to Charlene Larsen, left, and Dulcye Taylor, right, during the
Lady Liberty luncheon on Thursday at the Liberty Theater in Astoria.
LARSEN, TAYLOR EARN LADY LIBERTY ACCOLADES
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
C
harlene Larsen said she learned the
importance of volunteerism from
her parents. Dulcye Taylor said she
learned it shortly after moving to Astoria.
The two community advocates shared
the stage Thursday in the Liberty The-
ater’s McTavish Room, bedecked in Statue
of Liberty tiaras and honored with the
sixth-annual Lady Liberty awards for their
impact on the community.
Lots on 19 parcels in Clatsop County,
each owned by one or a group of prop-
erty owners, will no longer be classified as
forestland, meaning those owners will
not need to pay an additional fee for fire
protection.
A six-member appointed committee
individually reviewed 32 parcels at a
public meeting Thursday. Each parcel
contained one or more tax lots and were
reviewed based on appeals submitted by
landowners.
The Oregon Department of Forestry pro-
vides fire protection to forest and grazing
lands through money from the state gen-
eral fund and fees it collects from forest-
land property owners. Committee members
Thursday peered over satellite images of the
parcels and asked for input from local fire
chiefs.
In addition to deciding which lands
should reasonably be considered forestlands,
criteria for reassessing the parcels included
whether or not rural and urban fire agencies
could easily access the land and whether a
fire would require additional resources from
the Department of Forestry.
“We want to keep fires small, but if
a fire gets big, the district brings its resources
and can also call upon all of the crew
and resources of ODF throughout the
state,” Astoria District Forester Dan Goody
said.
See FIRE FEE, Page 7A
Raised to volunteer
Larsen is a native of Clatsop County
who moved from the North Coast to Rose-
burg and back, following her father’s career
in the lumber industry.
“My dad was always willing to help
someone in need,” she said. “My mother
never knew a stranger. She could always see
an opportunity to reach out and help, and
always did. When you live with two people
who do that sort of thing, it rubs off.”
Larsen started volunteering after high
school with the Business and Professional
Women’s Foundation. Over her more-than
40-year career with Pacific Power and the
Clatsop County Sheriff’s Office and into
retirement, she has been involved with
a voluminous number of local volunteer
groups and committees. Her involvement
won her the George Award, Astoria’s citi-
zen-of-the-year honor, in 2010.
Local financial adviser Constance
Waisanen, introducing Larsen at the lun-
cheon, said the two first met at Astoria’s
First Lutheran Church. They have been
involved for the past several years with
Partners for the PAC, a coalition of per-
forming arts groups paying to keep Clat-
sop Community College’s Performing Arts
Center a public rehearsal and performance
space.
Waisanen said Larsen embodies Lady
Liberty — the New York City one — in sev-
eral ways, such as the nationwide campaign
in the 1880s by newspaper publisher Joseph
WILLAPA BAY
ABOVE: Astoria Mayor Arline LaMear chats with other attendees at the Lady
Liberty luncheon on Thursday. BELOW: Dulcye Taylor, who received one of the
Lady Liberty awards, smiles during the Lady Liberty luncheon.
Kristine Lashley
Willapa National Wildlife Refuge is prime
habitat for many bird species, including
this seldom-observed Virginia rail spot-
ted after last week’s stormy weather.
‘Five-star
place’ for
shorebirds
Peninsula, refuge earn
top habitat designation
See AWARDS, Page 7A
By AMY NILE
EO Media Group
GREEN GAMBLE
Pot growers take root
in Pacific County
Producers are
concentrated
in Raymond
By LUKE WHITTAKER
EO Media Group
RAYMOND, Wash. —
Every Monday morning, Tra-
vis Holmes leaves his home and
family in Skagit County and
drives more than 200 miles to
a motorhome parked in Pacific
County. It’s been a routine the
former varsity wrestling coach
and volunteer fireman has car-
ried on for three years after
leaving a steady career as an
electrician.
“I left all of those things
behind to come here and do
this,” said Holmes, 46, stand-
ing before a series of sprawl-
ing warehouses on the border of
South Bend and Raymond.
“There’s a lot of great canna-
bis being grown in Washington
and we’re one of them,” he said.
See POT, Page 7A
Luke Whittaker/EO Media Group
Operations coordinator Tyson Wood in-
spects clones in the nursery, the first
stage in the grow. Root length is an early
indicator of health for transplant, he said.
LONG BEACH, Wash. — As an esti-
mated 250,000 shorebirds flock in for spring-
time stops along the Long Beach Peninsula
and Willapa Bay, the area is being noted as
a critical point along their migration route.
It is now designated as a site of inter-
national importance in the Western Hemi-
sphere Shorebird Reserve Network strategy
to protect habitats across the Americas.
“It’s like saying you’re a five-star” hotel,’
Willapa National Wildlife Refuge Manager
Jackie Ferrier said. “This is a five-star place
for shorebirds.”
The designated area includes the 17,000-
acre federal refuge, which was established in
1937 for the conservation of migratory birds.
The Columbia River Estuary and Grays
Harbor are also included among 97 places
being preserved for shorebirds in 15 coun-
tries, from the Arctic to the southern tip of
Argentina.
See BAY, Page 7A