FIREWORKS TO LIGHT UP NORTH COAST SKIES COAST WEEKEND
144TH YEAR, NO. 260
ONE DOLLAR
DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, JUNE 29, 2017
CONSERVATION
PATROL
BEAUTIFUL, BUT INVASIVE, PLANT
POISED TO TAKE OVER WATERSHED
Legislators
strike deal
on transit
package
Details will not be
released until later
By PARIS ACHEN
Capital Bureau
SALEM — State lawmakers have reached
an agreement on sticking points of a multi-
million dollar transportation
package, Gov. Kate Brown MORE
said Wednesday.
The details of the pro- INSIDE
posal will be released later County
this week, the governor said. roads:
Legislators have less Clatsop
than two weeks to fi nish and County starts
vote on the package. The $500,000
plan includes new taxes and paving project
this summer.
fees and increases in other
taxes and fees to fund main- Page 3A
tenance and improvements
to roads, bridges, transit and sidewalks.
See TRANSPORTATION, Page 7A
North Coast Land Conservancy/Submitted Photo
North Coast Land Conservancy Stewardship Director Melissa Reich pulls policeman’s helmet at Circle Creek Habitat
Reserve in Seaside. The conservancy got an $86,000 grant to tackle the invader over the next three years.
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Oregon silverspot butterfly
A
n ornamental renegade is perfectly
poised to take over the Necani-
cum Watershed in southern Clat-
sop County
Five years ago, no policeman’s helmet
— so named because its fl owers resemble
an old-fashioned British bobby helmet —
bloomed along the Necanicum River or
its tributary creeks . Then, suddenly, it was
everywhere.
Local conservationists are confi -
dent they can slow — and even stop —
this invasion, but they have had to hit the
ground running.
Last year, the North Coast Land C on-
servancy landed an $86,000 grant from
Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board
to aggressively address the invader over
the next three years. This year, the battle
began. They are now six months into the
effort to eradicate the plant .
The battle plan involves a partner-
ship between the land conservancy and
the Necanicum Watershed Council; an
intern crew dedicated solely to tracking
the plant’s progress and removing it wher-
ever they fi nd it; a mobile, volunteer scout-
ing party fl oating the river in kayaks and
armed with smart phone apps to map where
they see plants; and a host of dogged vol-
unteer weed-pullers.
“I think we defi nitely needed to have all
hands on deck for this one,” said Melissa
Reich, the land conservancy’s stewardship
director.
See PLANT, Page 7A
Silverspot
butterfl ies
get two new
spots to grow
Nestucca Bay, Saddle
Mountain on the map
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
Niecierpek Gruczlolwaty/Submitted Photo
Policeman’s helmet in bloom. These pretty plants chokes out native species.
STEWARDSHIP DAY
The North Coast Land Conservancy is holding a stewardship day July 8 to pull police-
man’s helmet in the watershed and at the Circle Creek Habitat Reserve. For more informa-
tion, call the land conservancy at 503 -738-9126 or the Necanicum Watershed Council at
503 -717-1458, or visit nclctrust.org/pull-pile-stomp
To find out about native plant alternatives, local landscapers that specialize in native
plant landscapes or to find nurseries that stock native plants, e-mail Melyssa Graeper at
necanicumwatershed@gmail.com
To release an Oregon silverspot butter-
fl y caterpillar, biologist Anne Walker takes
it out of a little Tupperware container and
sets it gently on its preferred food, the spade-
shaped leaves of the early blue violet.
It’s not as precarious as it sounds.
“They’re very adapted to their environ-
ment,” said Walker, a biologist with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service and a silverspot
expert. “They hide.”
She’s seen released caterpillars dive
down and seemingly disappear in moments.
Somewhere down there, she knows, they are
starting to munch on the fi rst of the roughly
200 violet leaves they will each need to eat to
survive to adulthood.
See BUTTERFLIES, Page 7A
Astoria YMCA is a Diamond in the Rough
State grant will
help restore
building facade
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
The former Astoria YMCA
in the city’s downtown historic
district is getting a makeover.
Building owner and local
entrepreneur Noel Weber
announced he has received a
$20,000 grant from the Ore-
gon State Historic Preserva-
tion Offi ce’s Diamonds in the
Rough p rogram .
The grant will help fund
work to restore or reproduce
several architectural elements
on the 103-year-old build-
ing’s facade including installa-
tion of an iron railing above the
12th Street entrance; restoring
the original second -story win-
dow rough openings, as well
as installing new windows; and
molding, casting and installing
reproductions of lintel details.
The grant accelerates the
remodeling process, Weber
said. Without it, the work
would have likely been put off
for another year. “It really helps
out a tremendous amount,” he
said.
Weber is a designer and fab-
ricator from Boise, Idaho. He
came to Astoria to be closer
to his sister and her family.
He hadn’t planned to buy the
YMCA, but walking around
the building it seemed like a
fun project, he said. “It seemed
right.”
Varied history
The building’s 14,000-
square-feet have been many
things over the years. As a
YMCA, it was a place for Asto-
rian’s to gather and interact. In
recent decades, it has served
as a private school and art stu-
dio. Now, it houses the Astoria
Design Studio, run primarily by
Clatsop County Historical Society
See YMCA, Page 7A
The YMCA building 1934.