MEMORIAL DAY: TODAY IS ABOUT THE COST OF WAR OPINION • PAGE 4A
DailyAstorian.com // MONDAY, MAY 29, 2017
144TH YEAR, NO. 237
ONE DOLLAR
Merkley
talks health
care at
town hall
Democrat urges people
to use national pressure
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
WARRENTON — “How many folks
here are concerned about health care?” U.S.
Sen. Jeff Merkley asked the crow d fi lling
the stands at Warrenton High School’s gym
Sunday.
Almost everyone in attendance raised
their hands to an issue that has dominated
town halls across the country as Republicans
attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable
Care Act.
Merkley was in Warrenton as part of his
306th town hall since taking offi ce in 2009.
Before taking questions, the Oregon Dem-
ocrat awarded a U.S. fl ag that fl ew over
the U.S. Capitol to retired U.S. Navy Capt.
Steve Gibson of the American Legion in
honor of fellow veteran Bill Thomas, one of
the region’s last Pearl Harbor survivors, who
died in December.
FOR SNOWY PLOVERS, A
FRAGILE, FLUFFY KIND OF HOPE
See MERKLEY, Page 7A
HATCHED
Muslims
thankful
for support
after attack
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
W
ildlife biologists discovered
another w estern snowy plover
nest at Nehalem Bay State Park
over the Memorial Day weekend.
It’s been a week of good news for the
tiny, threatened shorebird. Last Wednes-
day, the Oregon Parks and Recreation
Department announced the fi rst hatchling
in 50 years in that area. Several days later
three chicks hatched at the Sitka Sedge
Natural Area near Pacifi c City.
They’ve come a long way since 2015
when the fi rst nest at Nehalem Bay State
Park after conservation efforts began in
earnest there failed. When that happened,
wildlife biologist Vanessa Blackstone
cried on beach.
It was like a scene from a movie, she says.
You know: “Nooooooooooooo!”
Though plover conservation efforts
have been underway along the southern
and central portions of the Oregon C oast
since the 1990s, managed N orth C oast
sites like Nehalem Bay are relatively new.
Biologists hoped that as plover populations
rebounded elsewhere, the birds would
begin to search farther afi eld for new hab-
itat and return to traditional sites up north.
Now — with an estimated 518 birds state-
wide and recent successes at Nehalem Bay
— they can say with certainty that this is
beginning to happen.
The odds are stacked against the
Nehalem Bay chick, and any others that
follow it. The hatchling is roughly the size
of two cotton balls or a golf ball, though
getting bigger every day — a small bird
Anti-Muslim rant
before Portland murders
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: Signs clearly mark areas where shorebirds, like the threatened w est-
ern snowy plover, might be nesting in Nehalem Bay State Park. Wildlife bi-
ologist Vanessa Blackstone, left, scans the beach looking for nests. TOP: A
w estern snowy plover leaves tarcks in the sand on the beaches of Nehalem
Bay State Park as wildlife biologist Vanessa Blackstone, in the background,
searches for more evidence of the birds’ presence.
on a large beach. But even if it doesn’t sur-
vive, for Blackstone and others who have
worked to restore snowy plover popu-
lations on the West Coast, it is a fragile,
fast-moving, fl uffy kind of hope.
“It means Oregon remains at the fore-
front of recovery for this bird!” Black-
stone, who works for the Oregon Depart-
ment of Parks and Recreation, wrote in an
e mail after news of the plover chick broke.
It means, she said, that “not only did
we pick the right locations when selecting
nesting areas in the (state’s h abitat c onser-
vation p lan), it also means our manage-
ment is working.”
Field work
A few days before the Memorial Day
weekend, Blackstone set out to locate the
hatchling.
PORTLAND — Muslims in Portland
thanked the community for its support and
said they were raising money for the families
of two men who were killed when they came
to the defense of two young women — one
wearing a hijab — who were targeted by an
anti-Muslim rant.
“I am very thankful as a Muslim, I am
very thankful as a Portlander … that we
stand together here as one,” Muhammad A.
Najieb, an imam at the Muslim Community
Center, said Saturday.
The two young women “could have been
the victims, but three heroes jumped in and
supported them,” he said.
A fundraising page launched by his group
for the families of the dead men, a surviving
victim and the two young women had raised
more than $300,000 by Sunday evening.
Police said they’ll examine what appears
to be the extremist ideology of suspect Jer-
emy Joseph Christian, 35, who is accused of
killing the two men Friday. Christian’s social
media postings indicate an affi nity for Nazis
and political violence.
See PLOVERS, Page 7A
See MUSLIMS, Page 7A
Volunteers tackle invasive Scotch broom plants
‘What lovely
yellow blooms’
hile a crowd in Can-
non Beach celebrated
the 50-year anniversary of the
bill that preserved Oregon’s
beaches for the public, John
Rippey killed plants.
“That took a lot of hard
work to stand up to bad inter-
ests,” he said about Oregon’s
landmark 1967 Beach Bill as he
methodically cut away at inva-
sive Scotch broom plants along
Ecola Creek earlier this month.
“And I fi gure, rather than be
part of a parade, I should con-
tinue the hard work, and you
W
can’t do that by having bon-
fi res. You do that by getting rid
of invasive species.”
Or, at least, the Cannon
Beach resident says with some
self-deprecation, that’s the
work he’s chosen for this par-
ticular day.
A former lifeguard in Can-
non Beach, Rippey is well-ac-
quainted with efforts to protect
and preserve this stretch of sand
— as well as the people who
fl ock here in droves to enjoy it.
But this was his fi rst time vol-
unteering with the North Coast
Watershed Association, which
has organized Scotch broom
removal efforts around the
creek for several years.
Their work around the creek
and in nearby Les Shirley Park
has started to pay off. Rip-
pey is tearing up young plants;
he doesn’t have to tackle the
older, established bushes that
confronted volunteers in past
efforts. Watershed coordinator
Brooke Stanley points to wild
rose that has started to take
over areas along a sandy beach
Katie Frankowicz/The Daily Astorian
See VOLUNTEERS, Page 7A
Cannon Beach resident John Rippey volunteers to help
pull invasive Scotch broom near Ecola Creek .