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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 4, 2017)
4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY 4, 2017 Harsh winter took heavy toll on wildlife across western US One of the coldest and snowiest By BOB MOEN Associated Press Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian Fireworks light the night sky over the Columbia River. Fourth: ‘We appreciate all the help we can get’ Continued from Page 1A In Warrenton Warrenton Police will adjust normal hours to have three officers working two 12-hour shifts. In addition, four officers were scheduled to work a short shift from 2 to 5 p.m. to cover traffic con- trol and security at the city’s holiday parade. Most of Warrenton’s issues on Fourth of July either come in the form of illegal firework use or dis- turbances due to alcohol consumption, Police Chief Mathew Workman said. Other than the relatively family-friendly parade, peo- ple in the city typically don’t congregate in one area. “In my nine years here, I’ve seen Fourth of Julys be very quiet,” Workman said. “It sometimes can be very difficult to locate problem areas.” Workman said those wish- ing to report illegal firework use should call the depart- ment’s main phone number rather than 911 emergency line. State parks Last year, state park rang- ers began focusing more keenly on trash and safety issues. Two rangers will patrol state beaches and parks from Fort Stevens to Gearhart and parts of Seaside through the holiday rush. A Sher- iff’s Office deputy will also patrol those areas at all times, along with some additional help from Oregon State Police. Trash and other debris also tend to gather in loca- tions on beaches and parks around the holiday. Sun- set, Del Ray and Gearhart beaches have been affected most acutely, Ranger Ken Murphy said. “There are so many peo- ple out there,” Murphy said. “We really want people to respect each other and recre- ate responsibly.” Visitors will receive gar- bage bags and can dispose of them at various dumpster sites. Murphy also warns vis- itors to prevent fire emergen- cies by keeping away from dune grass and upland prop- erties and by removing wood from burning campfires. People from multiple local organizations will tra- verse these areas Wednes- day to get rid of any leftover trash. All residents are wel- come to join the effort, as well, Murphy said. “We appreciate all the help we can get,” he said. Port: Judge will take Guess’ comments under advisement Continued from Page 1A sued the Port in November 2015 after the agency instead went with Astoria Hospital- ity Ventures, owned by Wil- liam Orr, former Port Com- missioner Stephen Fulton’s brother-in-law. Param claimed the Port breached a previous agree- ment and showed bias toward the locally connected com- pany. The company seeks monetary damages, as well as the lease for the hotel. A trial between Param and the Port is scheduled for October. Although Param’s attor- ney has no standing in the Port’s case against Smithart, McIntosh said, it makes sense to wait on any judg- ment with Smithart until after the Param trial. She asked Andrew Guess, an attorney with Portland firm Jordan Ramis PC representing the Port, if he had any strenuous objections. Guess argued that while a judgment in Param’s case could make the Port’s claims against Smithart moot, it doesn’t affect the procedure. He argued that Smithart had already admitted to not pay- ing rent and has not spe- cifically denied any of the other facts in the Port’s other claims. McIntosh said she would take Guess’ comments under advisement, but that the Port shouldn’t expect any judg- ment in the case until after the trial between Param and the Port. CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wildlife suffered higher than normal losses this winter in severe weather across the western United States, where the toll included the deaths of all known fawns in one Wyo- ming deer herd and dozens of endangered bighorn sheep in California. Wildlife managers in Colo- rado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washington state also reported higher losses of animals in the wake of one of the coldest and snowiest winters in decades. Parts of the Rockies saw snow- fall as late as mid-June. “This year we kind of had all the factors that we don’t want — we had deep snow, we had periods of fairly cold weather, subzero, and then we also had some crusting on top of that snow,” said Roger Phil- lips, spokesman for the Idaho Fish and Game Department. Wildlife managers have been assessing the damage using radio collars and sur- veys of herds following a win- ter in which many parts of the West recorded record snow- fall, including places where deer, pronghorn antelope and elk migrate each fall to escape the harsher mountain win- ters. Prolonged snow cover on winter grounds made it diffi- cult for wildlife to find food, and spells of bitter cold made matters worse for the weak- ened animals by hardening the snow. Mule deer in several Rocky Mountain states and elk in eastern Washington were hit hard. Wyoming was expecting above-normal losses among antelope as well, although it didn’t have an accurate accounting yet. Wyoming last saw compa- rable wildlife deaths over three decades ago, said Bob Lanka, Keith Kohl/Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Elk feed at the Wenaha Wildlife Area near Troy. Wildlife managers in seven states, includ- ing Oregon, in the U.S. West report severe weather this past winter was rough on wildlife. supervisor of statewide wild- life and habitat management program with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. “It’s been a long, long time since we experienced this kind of loss,” he said. ‘Rivers of moisture’ Meteorologist David Lip- son of the National Weather Service in Riverton blamed the rough winter on “unusu- ally strong rivers of moisture” flowing into the West from the Pacific Ocean, where a weak and unusually short-lived La Niña occurred. In California, the Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, which is listed as an endangered spe- cies, lost an estimated 40 to 60 animals. “We’re not including any predation or normal mortal- ity or any other kind of losses; that’s just from the snow, from getting trapped up in the snow and not having food, some of them starving and then some of them directly impacted by avalanches,” said Jason Hol- ley, supervising wildlife biolo- gist with the California Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife. Montana wildlife were spared the deadly conditions seen in neighboring states, according to Ken McDon- ald, wildlife division adminis- trator with the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Depart- ment. Nevada saw near aver- age wildlife losses statewide, while a few isolated areas in the northeast part of the state had slightly higher than aver- age mortality, said Tom Don- ham, a Nevada Department of Wildlife biologist. Fewer hunting permits Wildlife managers are responding by reducing hunt- ing permits in the hard-hit areas. “There will be less hunting opportunity this coming fall for sure, and the people that do get a license, whether it’s a general license or a limited quota tag, I don’t think there’s going to be any doubt they’re going to notice less animals on the landscape,” Lanka said. Mike Clark, owner of Greys River Outfitters in west- ern Wyoming, said the loss of mule deer and antelope tags will be hard on his business, which includes deer, antelope and elk hunts. “Luckily, we can still work with some elk,” Clark said. However, outfitters have to be careful not to overhunt elk and overload their fall hunting camps with too many hunters to make up for the decline in deer hunting, he said. “It just takes away from the quality of the hunt if you got too many hunters in camp,” Clark said. Biologists say the wild- life herds eventually should recover with the help of reduced hunting and a return to at least normal weather con- ditions next winter. However, forecasters say it’s too early to predict how next winter will play out. “What happens in the future depends a lot on what kind of winter we see next year,” Phil- lips said. “If we have back-to- back hard winters, it could be tough.” Seaside: ‘Exciting to see this finally happening’ Continued from Page 1A In November, Seaside vot- ers passed a $99.7 million bond to solve the problem. The bond came three years after a failed $128.8 million plan. The scaled-back pro- posal eliminated an audito- rium, covered bleachers, long- term emergency shelters and a varsity playing field. Advocates of the new pro- posal, including the Vote Yes For Our Local Schools group, presented a sustained cam- paign to promote the bond, which they said was neces- sary, not only for the safety of the students, but also because of the condition of the schools. Gearhart Elementary School, Broadway Middle School and Seaside High School were built with expected lifespans of 45 to 50 years. Each has been used beyond that span. With Weyerhaeuser’s land gift of 80 acres in the East Hills, along with favorable interest rates and a likelihood of limited matching funds from the state, proponents said “this was the best time” to pass the bond. Making it stable Only about 8 more acres of school district-owned property Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Seaside School Board members recently toured the school construction site that is still in the process of being logged. are left to be logged, which will eliminate the wooded bar- rier between Seaside Heights Elementary and the rest of the campus property. The rest of the unlogged property will serve as buffers for surround- ing streams, Seaside School District Superintendent-emer- itus Doug Dougherty said. Now that the trees have been cleared, the district has a clearer picture of what the land actually looks like and can proceed with more detailed architectural designs. Over the summer, soil surveys will be conducted to illuminate smaller slopes and contours of the hillside, which will help guide building stabilization techniques, Dougherty said. While building into a hill- side will be a challenge, Dougherty said the incli- nometer — an 80-foot under- ground sensor that monitors slide activity — showed no evidence of landslides in this section of the hillside in four years. “I’m excited for each stage of this process. I’ve been work- ing on this for 25 years, and it is exciting to see this finally happening,” Dougherty said. Commissioners: ‘Hopefully this will be a better year with a lot of stability’ Continued from Page 1A Port of Astoria Commissioner Frank Spence, right, takes the oath of office Monday with Clatsop County Sheriff Tom Bergin. Colin Murphey The Daily Astorian to hopefully being part of the solution and working with the Port staff and creating an envi- ronment of stability and hope- fully productivity,” he said. Campbell, who served on the Port Commission in 1960s and ’70s before being re-elected in 2012 and again in May, began his fifth term as a commissioner Monday. He recognized the voters who united behind him and Spence and Rohne over an alliance led by former Com- missioner Stephen Fulton.. “Hopefully this will be a better year with a lot of sta- bility and teamwork, and a lot of cooperation,” Camp- bell said. Port Executive Director Jim Knight, who had faced withering criticism from Ful- ton and Hunsinger but gen- eral support from Raichl, Campbell and Mushen, said the election results and new Port commissioners truly seem like a new beginning for the Port. “Honest to God, I would do the whole thing all over again,” he said. “It’s this important to our community that … the leadership of the Port create for our community what a port can do, and that is truly to be the economic gen- erator that we’ve always des- tined to be but have not quite accomplished. Now I see the hope that we can do this.”
