3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2017
Gearhart dune management plan misses window
Committee to
meet Saturday
By R.J. MARX
The Daily Astorian
GEARHART — Earlier
this year, the city developed
a plan to cut noxious weeds
on Gearhart’s foredunes, with
the goal of maintaining public
safety, protecting fi refi ghters
and beach habitat.
But after concerns from
residents that a proposed
amendment to the city’s beach
and dunes overlay zone was
over-reaching,
information
incomplete and ill-timed, city
councilors agreed to postpone
Wednesday’s public hearing.
“The city fi nds the oppor-
tunity to address the fi re haz-
ard and noxious weed growth
in the subject area has passed
until later this year,” City Plan-
ner Carole Connell wrote in a
report delivered to councilors.
EO Media Group
Safety, habitat at issue
In January, residents fi lled
the Gearhart Fire Station for
an education forum and town
hall meeting on an amendment
permitting the removal of nox-
ious weeds.
The panel of city offi cials,
state parks representatives and
other experts was organized
by Margaret Marino, a resi-
dent who had expressed con-
cerns about the vegetation at
city meetings and reached out
to state departments and ecol-
ogists for assistance.
The amendment would
have permitted the “removal,
destruction or uprooting” of
vegetation in areas of Gear-
hart’s foredunes. The amend-
ment would have required
revegetation of native plants or
grasses after removal. Letters
on behalf of the amendment
stressed the risk of fi re from
overgrown vegetation.
“As a child in the 1980s, I
witnessed the power and speed
of a large dune fi re that started
close to the northern end of
Ocean Avenue and spread
down the dune to nearly in
front of our home,” Gearhart
property owner Joe Gregoire
wrote. “Had there been the
R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian
The invasive plant Scotch broom proliferates in the Gearhart foredunes. The city is working on a plan to cut the weeds.
high fuel-load currently in
place in the dunes with the
added height … I believe the
outcome would have been
much worse.”
“I am in support of clearing
and cleaning the safety lane for
fi re and police access to Little
Beach,” Gearhart’s Ted Amato
wrote in late-April.
Fire Chief Bill Eddy pro-
vided testimony that a wild-
land fi re in the area would be
left to burn itself out because
of the amount of fl ammable
fuel load.
“As the dune area now
exists, there is a real public
safety concern, with the lim-
ited access for emergency
vehicles,” Police Chief Jeff
Bowman wrote in March. “We
have responded to incidents
such as unattended camp-
fi res, unlawful lodging, illegal
fi reworks, minors in posses-
sion, parties and other minor
disturbances.”
Threatened species
Future council decisions
will also be driven by not only
public safety but on impacts
to threatened or endangered
wildlife.
Any proposed land use
action may negatively impact
bird habitat in the area, Con-
nell said in her staff report.
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OLYMPIA, Wash. —
Clam digging is over for
the season on the Long
Beach Peninsula after test
results for domoic acid.
“Based on the most
recent toxin tests, razor
clams will not be safe to
eat for the remainder of the
month at Long Beach or
Twin Harbors,” said Dan
Ayres, a state coastal shell-
fi sh manager.
The
Washington
Department of Fish and
Wildlife had opened areas
for clam digging briefl y
at the end of April, coin-
ciding with Long Beach’s
annual Razor Clam Fes-
tival. The state allowed a
bag limit of 25 clams per
person, the highest the
department has permitted
since the 1940s, according
to Ayres .
Oregon’s
beaches
have yet to open this sea-
son. On Clatsop County
beaches, toxin levels in
the razor clams’ tissues
have remained well above
the thershold of 20 parts
per million since Octo-
ber. Near Coos Bay, lev-
els have spiked as high as
120 ppm.
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The Sand Dune Vegeta-
tion Committee, created to
help the city identify a strat-
egy to manage the vegetation
on the dunes, will meet Sat-
urday at 10 a.m. at Gearhart
City Hall.
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Five bird species — mar-
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ened or endangered species
nesting in critical Gearhart
foredune habitat, according to
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Leatherback, olive ridley and
loggerhead sea turtles may also
be found in the Gearhart dunes.
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