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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 21, 2017
Cormorants: Corps halted killing of birds
Continued from Page 1A
According to an update
Army Corps spokesman
Karim Delgado received Tues-
day, the Corps has seen no
new nesting efforts on the
island as of June 14. Last year,
after abandoning thousands of
nests and eggs, cormorants did
not return to East Sand Island
until the end of June.
Since finalizing a manage-
ment plan in 2015, the Corps,
which manages the East Sand
Island birds, has secured
permits to kill adult dou-
ble-crested cormorants and
destroy nests each year with
the goal of cutting the mas-
sive colony in half by 2018,
reducing predation on runs
of threatened and endangered
juvenile salmon. Last year,
the agency’s contractors killed
nearly 3,000 adult birds and
destroyed 1,092 nests.
Now, conservation groups
say it is clear the Corps’ activ-
ities are harming the larg-
est known breeding colony
of double-crested cormorants
in the world. But the Corps
blames bald eagles for this
year’s exodus and says the
cormorants could still return
and successfully raise chicks
before the breeding season
ends.
The Corps has halted any
killing of the birds until it is
clear if the colony will re-estab-
lish itself on the island.
Last year, double-crested
cormorants abandoned approx-
imately 8,600 nests, but later
returned to the island and estab-
lished 3,900 new nests —
numbers high enough that the
Corps, which had suspended
culling activities, resumed kill-
ing birds in October.
They ended the season with
more nests than they would
have if culling had gone ahead
as planned, Delgado said.
“It’s possible still with this
year that the same thing could
happen again,” he said.
Eagles
Bob Sallinger, conserva-
tion director for the Audubon
Society of Portland, sent a let-
ter to Robyn Thorson, regional
supervisor for the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, on June
13 requesting that, in light of
this year’s dispersal, she imme-
diately revoke the permits the
agency issued to allow cormo-
rants to be killed on and around
East Sand Island.
“It’s very possible that the
combination of eagle preda-
tion activity and lethal control
activity being conducted by the
federal agencies are acting in a
cumulative manner to put pres-
sure on this colony,” Sallinger
wrote.
“While the colony may have
been able to withstand the pres-
sure of eagles alone,” he contin-
ued, “the added impacts of per-
vasive shooting, egg oiling and
other elevated human activi-
ties has significantly increased
the scope, scale, frequency
and intensity of threats to the
cormorants.”
The only reply he got was
an acknowledgment that the
agency had received his letter,
he said today.
He had spoken with the
agency before he sent the letter.
“And they indicated that they
planned to do absolutely noth-
ing,” he said. “They are leav-
ing it entirely up to the Corps
to determine whether or not to
resume killing birds.”
In his opinion, this is an
abdication of their oversight
role.
The Corps reported in April
that eagles were disrupting
early nesting attempts on East
Sand Island. A whale carcass
dumped at nearby Sand Island
in early May in an effort to draw
bald eagles away from the col-
ony attracted up to 40 eagles.
Crews worked to remove dead
trees from East Sand Island that
eagles could use as perches.
By May 1, the cormorants
had established 258 active nests
on the Astoria Bridge, a num-
ber that would only continue
to grow. Delgado said there
are approximately 600 nests on
the bridge now, 100 more than
last year. Thousands of cormo-
rants have been spotted roost-
ing there over the past month,
but within historic levels, Del-
gado said.
Nest-building and breeding
behavior among double-crested
cormorants wasn’t recorded on
East Sand Island until mid-May
when the Corps counted an esti-
mated 5,422 of the birds and
997 nests from aerial imagery.
On May 19, only a few days
after this count, the Corps says
bald eagles scattered the cormo-
rants, driving them away from
the island.
“Clear photographic evi-
dence and real-time observation
from blinds show bald eagles
played a significant role in the
dispersal of cormorants,” the
Corps reported in a timeline of
events.
Population
According to the Corps, the
double-crested cormorant col-
ony on East Sand Island — that
in 2013 included 14,916 nesting
pairs — accounts for more than
40 percent of the entire Western
population.
At this point, Fish and Wild-
life, which monitors the over-
all population, does not have
concerns about the Western
cormorants. There are an esti-
mated 76,306 breeding pairs
total for the Western popula-
tion, according to the agency’s
2016 evaluation.
“Looking at that broader
population level, we know that
it’s common for populations
of cormorants to fluctuate and
kind of ebb and flow,” said Fish
and Wildlife spokeswoman
Miel Corbett.
“The role of East Sand
Island is a little bit less than
originally assumed,” she said.
Graduate: 100 Astoria grads applied for program
Continued from Page 1A
The promise
Oregon Promise debuted
this year, subsidizing tuition at
the state’s 17 community col-
leges for recent high school
and GED graduates after fed-
eral financial aid and other
scholarships were accounted
for. The program offered up to
nearly $3,400 a year, the aver-
age annual tuition at commu-
nity colleges.
Lloyd Mueller, Clatsop
Community College’s director
of financial aid, said the pro-
gram locally paid $99,914 in
tuition and fees for 61 students
over the past year. Four students
using the program earned aca-
demic transfer degrees this year,
he said, while a fifth earned a
certificate to become a medical
assistant.
Karna said that most terms,
she only paid $40 to $60 out of
college,” Beth Frausto,
pocket per class after
financial aid. She is
a counselor at Asto-
ria High School, said.
working two jobs over
the summer, before
“If they know they
can enroll in college
moving in the fall to
attend Portland State,
and they have mini-
where she expects to
mal cost, they’re more
Katherine
likely to try community
get more financial aid
Karna
— and start taking out
college.”
student loans.
Of the 124 Oregon
“It’s very amazing that this Promise-eligible Astoria gradu-
program exists,” she said. “I ates this year, Frausto said, 100
never thought there would applied for the program, with
be something that could help 85 meeting the minimum 2.5
me out this much. It really did GPA requirement. Statewide,
seem like a miracle in my life. It more than 6,800 recent high
was there when I needed it the school graduates used the Ore-
gon Promise program over the
most.”
last academic year. Endi Harti-
gan, a spokeswoman and pol-
‘Biggest advantage’
Local high schools have icy specialist for the state’s
pushed as many students as pos- Higher Education Coordinat-
sible to apply for Oregon Prom- ing Commission overseeing the
program, said the state funded
ise, regardless of their plans.
“I think the biggest advan- $11.7 million in tuition over the
tage that it gives students is if past year.
As more recent high school
they’re wanting to dabble in
W EDNESDAY E VENING
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6 PM
Associated Press
Dem loss in Georgia special
election underscores challenges
WASHINGTON — Republicans just got a big argument
for sticking with President Donald Trump and pushing for-
ward with dismantling “Obamacare.” And Democrats are
looking almost incapable of translating the energy of their
core supporters into actual election wins.
Tuesday night’s outcome in a Georgia special House race
was a triumph for the GOP, and the most recent, and devas-
tating, illustration of the Democrats’ problems, from a weak
bench and recruiting problems to divisions about what the
party stands for.
Instead of a win or even a razor-thin loss by Democrat
Jon Ossoff that many had expected, Republican Karen Han-
del ended up winning by a relatively comfortable 5 percent-
age point margin in the wealthy suburban Atlanta district pre-
viously held by Health and Human Services Secretary Tom
Price.
That followed another recent Democratic disappointment
in Montana, where the Republican candidate won even after
last-minute assault charges, and an earlier loss for the Demo-
crats in Kansas.
Indeed the best news Democrats got Tuesday night was
that a different special House race, in South Carolina, ended
up closer than the Georgia contest even though it had drawn
little national attention. Republican Ralph Norman beat Dem-
ocrat Archie Parnell by around 3 percentage points in South
Carolina, closer than expected and a warning sign to the GOP
not to take any seat for granted.
Uber CEO Kalanick resigns
under investor pressure
DETROIT — Travis Kalanick, the combative and troubled
CEO of ride-hailing giant Uber, has resigned under pressure
from investors at a pivotal time for the company.
Uber’s board confirmed the move early today, saying in a
statement that Kalanick is taking time to heal from the death
of his mother in a boating accident “while giving the company
room to fully embrace this new chapter in Uber’s history.” He
will remain on the Uber Technologies Inc. board.
The move comes as Uber, the world’s largest ride-hailing
company, was having trouble morphing from a free-wheeling
startup into a mature company that can stanch losses and post
consistent profits. After eight years of phenomenal growth by
upending the taxi business, Uber had reached a point where
the culture that created the company had become an albatross
that threatened to kill it.
In a statement, the 40-year-old co-founder said his resigna-
tion would help Uber go back to building “rather than be dis-
tracted with another fight,” an apparent reference to efforts on
the board to oust him.
It was unclear who would replace Kalanick.
Saudi king upends royal
succession, names son as 1st heir
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia’s King Salman
today appointed his 31-year-old son Mohammed bin Salman
as crown prince, placing him first-in-line to the throne and
removing the country’s counterterrorism czar and a figure
well-known to Washington from the line of succession.
The monarch stripped Prince Mohammed bin Nayef from
his title as crown prince and from his powerful position as the
country’s interior minister overseeing security. The announce-
ments were made in a series of royal decrees carried on the
state-run Saudi Press Agency.
The all-but-certain takeover of the throne by Mohammed
bin Salman awards near absolute powers to a prince who has
ruled out dialogue with rival Iran, has moved to isolate neigh-
boring Qatar for its support of Islamist groups and who has led
a war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians.
LISTINGS
THE DAILY
ASTORIAN
A
and GED graduates enter com-
munity college, usage of the
program is expected to increase.
The higher-education commis-
sion has requested $39.7 mil-
lion to fund and expand the pro-
gram over the next two fiscal
years, which Gov. Kate Brown
also recommended in her pro-
posed budget for the coming
biennium, along with $151 mil-
lion for the Oregon Opportu-
nity Grant helping low-income
students. But the funding level
for such programs amid the
state’s efforts to fill a $1.4 bil-
lion revenue shortfall is up to
the Legislature.
“Certainly by the time
the 2017 legislative session
adjourns we will know the fund-
ing levels for the Oregon Prom-
ise, but we do not have a predic-
tion as to when that vote will be
taken,” Hartigan said. “We plan
to send notifications to student
applicants in August.”
WORLD IN BRIEF
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