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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.”