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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 2017)
COAST WEEKEND: ASTORIA OPEN STUDIOS TOUR 2017 INSIDE DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, JULY 27, 2017 145TH YEAR, NO. 19 ONE DOLLAR Cashing in on the total solar eclipse PROTECTING PUFFINS , one sweatshirt at a time Matthew Zalewski Tufted puffins like this one photographed in Seattle are an iconic bird in Pacific North- west coastal waters, but are declining for unknown reasons. Expected crowds are already boon for some By ADRIAN SAINZ Associated Press BARTLETT, Tenn. — Millions of eyes will be fi xed on the sky when a total solar eclipse crosses the U.S. in August, and it’s likely many of them will be safely behind the special glasses churned out by a Tennessee company. American Paper Optics ramped up pro- duction for this year’s eclipse and expects to make 50 million paper and plastic eclipse glasses. John Jerit, the company’s CEO and president, said they began preparing about two years ago. During his almost 27 years making safety glasses, he’s only seen one total solar eclipse, in France in 1999, but will be going to Nashville for this one. See ECLIPSE, Page 7A AP Photo/Adrian Sainz Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Observers with the Haystack Rock Awareness Program keep a sharp eye on the tufted puffin population as numbers in recent years have continued to dwindle despite research and educational efforts to revive the colony. Population decline spurs fundraising, research By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian C ANNON BEACH — John Underwood has been coming to Cannon Beach with his family for the majority of his life. For the past 10 years, every time he and his wife, Ann, would take a walk on the beach they would approach the observer tasked with counting seabirds on Haystack Rock and ask the same question. How are the puffi ns this year? Every year, the answer he received was grim. But this year, when the observer said he’d seen only seven that day, Underwood and his wife walked back to their house and decided something needed to be done. “I remember coming down to Cannon Beach as a kid to look at the rock, and remem- ber hundreds of puffi ns,” Underwood said. “We can’t let this icon of Cannon Beach just disappear. We felt like we had to get engaged, to raise awareness.” ‘Protect our Puffi ns’ Haystack Rock still is home to Oregon’s largest tufted puffi n colony. But research has shown a signifi cant decline in the population of the small, black bird with golden plumes on Employees prepare solar eclipse glass- es for shipping at the American Paper Optics factory in Bartlett, Tenn. Staring at the sun during an eclipse — or anytime — can cause eye damage. The only safe way is to protect your eyes with special filters in glasses or other devices. Deputy Queener: New to the job but not to area Naselle grad dives into law enforcement By DAMIAN MULINIX For EO Media Group Submitted Photo The Daily Astorian/File Photo One of the first tufted puffins to arrive on Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach in 2014. Puffin populations are on the decline and researches want to know why. its head and a bright orange beak . After some brainstorming and a meet- ing with Haystack Rock Awareness Program coordinator Melissa Keyser, Underwood decided to donate $10,000 to launch the “Pro- tect our Puffi ns” campaign this summer. Soon, visitors and residents will see “Pro- tect our Puffi ns” sweatshirts for sale at local businesses, Underwood said. All of the pro- John Underwood, the retired CEO of Darigold, is selling sweatshirts to help raise money for research to protect puf- fins. ceeds will go to fund informational brochures, research and an event next summer to raise awareness of the “puffi n problem.” “Hopefully it will have an impact on the birds,” said Underwood, a Bainbridge Island, Washington, resident and retired CEO of Darigold. “Each of us need to contribute in NASELLE, Wash. — When Ryley Queener graduated from Naselle High School in 2012, he was ready for something new. “For me, I had to get out of Naselle. I was 18 and was ready to see the world,” he said. He soon soured on that idea. “I saw the world and realized that it sucked. Maybe that’s because I was 16 miles from Spokane?” he said recently. “But in the process of doing it, I learned that I don’t want to live outside of Pacifi c County. I learned to value that more.” Fast forward to last fall. Queener returned home to Naselle, fresh off of See PUFFINS, Page 7A See QUEENER, Page 5A Golf course sees fi x to elk hordes in trap, transfer State says plan would be costly, not yield results By R.J. MARX The Daily Astorian GEARHART — One man’s natural wonder is another man’s nuisance. While representatives of the Gearhart Golf Links don’t want to rid the city of elk, they would like to see the herd reduced. And after a dramatic incident involving beachgoers menaced by an elk cow, they feel that the Oregon Depart- ment of Fish and Wildlife — the organization responsible R.J. Marx/The Daily Astorian Jason Bangild, Forrest Goodling and Russ Earl are look- ing for more involvement from the state in managing Gearhart’s elk population. for the elks’ stewardship — has not done enough to pur- sue property protections and ensure public safety. “We’ve been working on getting the elk removed, the herd size reduced for years now,” Gearhart’s Russ Earl said Tuesday at a meeting with Gearhart Golf Links General Manager Jason Bangild and Superintendent Forrest Good- ling. “We’ve had (meetings with) four different levels of F ish and W ildlife people, up to the executive director, and we’ve gotten exactly the same results.” If the herds had been man- aged properly in the past, it would not of been such a big issue now, they say. Their latest attempt to dis- courage the elk — up to 100 in the herd, they say — involved the use of coyote decoys and coyote urine, designed to remind the elk of their preda- tors. Landscape crews sprin- kled the coyote urine on the eight plastic coyotes strate- gically placed on the perim- eter of the 100-acre, 18-hole golf course — the oldest golf course in Oregon and one of several area courses facing the problem. “They’ve basically said, ‘Put some signs up around the golf course,’” Earl said. “That didn’t help us at all.” Safety at issue While the course faces tens of thousands of dollars of dam- age caused by elk , the risk to See ELK, Page 7A
