DailyAstorian.com // FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2017 144TH YEAR, NO. 211 ONE DOLLAR Memo alleges threats against Port’s Knight allegations against the “Man Cave” being an “unlicensed speakeasy” went public. Executive director MORE ONLINE Read the full memo online at www.dailyastorian.com calls behavior ‘unconscionable’ Hunsinger of making threats against administration, By EDWARD STRATTON The Daily Astorian Jim Knight Jim Knight, the executive direc- tor of the Port of Astoria, has accused Port Commissioner Bill him and his family in a pattern of “unprofessional, threatening and bullying tactics.” In a memo to Hunsinger and the Port Commission, Knight described a phone call in late March with Hunsinger, a critic of the Port about the Clatsop County Sheriff’s Offi ce investiga- tion into retired dentist and aviator Philip Bales’ hangar and clubhouse, nicknamed the “Man Cave,” at the Astoria Regional Airport. Knight called for the investigation after Commissioner Stephen Fulton’s The memo Knight wrote on April 11 that Hunsinger, after expressing frus- tration about being dragged into the investigation, mentioned there were “a lot of bad guys that are See PORT, Page 7A Bill Hunsinger Cat hoarder struggled with mental problems Woman was banned from owning cats By DIANA HEFLEY Everett Herald Submitted Photo The Oregon Mandolin Orchestra performs in an outdoor concert. The group comes to Astoria for the first time Saturday. Oregon Mandolin Orchestra makes Astoria debut By ERICK BENGEL The Daily Astorian IF YOU GO Where: Liberty Theatre, 1203 Commercial St. Performance: 7:30 p.m. Doors open: 7 p.m. Tickets: Adults $18; Students, seniors and military $15 WARRENTON — A psychologist pre- dicted last year that Kathryn St. Clare would be back to hoarding cats if she didn’t receive proper mental health treatment. The former Lake Stevens, Washington, woman, who was con- victed last year of ani- mal cruelty for col- lecting 111 cats in a recreational trailer, was arrested Mon- day in a Warrenton for investigation of ani- mal neglect. A police offi cer allegedly found Kathryn 41 live cats and a dead St. Clare one in St. Clare’s car. A second cat later died. The offi cer noted that the car reeked of cat urine and feces. St. Clare, 58, also was wanted on Sno- homish County warrants. She failed to appear for a hearing in April 2016 to deter- mine how much she would be ordered to pay Snohomish County for costs associated with investigating her two years earlier. There also were concerns that St. Clare wasn’t following through with mental health treatment, and prosecutors had received word that she might be hoarding cats again, Sno- homish County deputy prosecutor Michael Boska said . Tickets can be purchased online through http://bit.ly/2mDNaaH Mental illness St. Clare’s case highlighted the com- plexities facing the criminal justice system when dealing with people living with men- tal illness. A century ago, the mandolin was the most widely played string instrument in the United States , overtaking the banjo in the late -19th century and usurped by the guitar around the Jazz Age. But the man- dolin is experiencing a revival, as is the once-popular mandolin orchestra. At the Liberty Theater on Saturday evening, the Port- land-based Oregon Mandolin Orchestra will make its Astoria debut, the second stop in a three-day concert tour that includes Portland and Ridgefi eld, Washington. Now entering its eighth season, the 24-member orches- tra will perform Mozart concertos, Brazilian choro and pieces adapted from American folk tunes — a program to help expand the mandolin’s profi le beyond, say, “The God- father” theme and bluegrass ballads. “So it’s not all snooty, and it’s not all sh--kicker, either,” said Rick Bella, a board member and orchestra mandolinist. Submitted Photo Warrenton Police Department See ORCHESTRA, Page 6A The Oregon Mandolin Orchestra, which includes mandolin, mandola, mandocello and mandobass. Police re covered 42 cats from a wom- an’s car, including one that was dead. Another cat died later. See CAT HOARDER, Page 7A Too soon to know if killing barred owls helps spotted owls By ERIC MORTENSON EO Media Group Ray Bosch /U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Researcher Zachary Hanna of the Mu- seum of Vertebrate Zoology and Califor- nia Academy of Sciences collects tis- sue samples from a barred owl killed in a project to benefit threatened northern spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest. Federal wildlife researchers killed 737 invasive barred owls in the past two years in an ongoing experiment to determine if removing them will aid the recovery of northern spotted owls, the bird whose threatened status was at the center of the Pacifi c Northwest timber wars. Spotted owl populations have con- tinued to decline rapidly despite envi- ronmental lawsuits, protection under the Endangered Species Act and log- ging restrictions in the old -growth timber habitat they favor. Barred owls, which are larger, more aggres- sive and feed on a wider variety of prey, have taken over spotted owl ter- ritory throughout their range in Ore- gon, Washington state and Northern California. Scientists with U.S. Fish and Wild- life Service and U.S. Geological Sur- vey, partnering with the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, agreed to an experiment: Kill hundreds of barred owls in the Cle Elum area of Washington, the Oregon Coast Range and Klamath-Union-Myrtle areas of Oregon and Hoopa Valley tribal land in Northern California. In Oregon and Washington, fi eld crews shot 642 barred owls using 12 -gauge shotguns and captured one owl alive, turning it over to the Ore- gon High Desert Museum in Bend. In Northern California, where early research by the late Lowell Diller of Humboldt State University docu- mented that spotted owls reclaimed nesting areas after barred owls were removed, researchers killed 95 of the competitors. High stakes Ranchers and farmers in the Pacifi c Northwest have a stake in Endangered See OWLS, Page 6A