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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JULY 27, 2017
Puffins: Team hopes to research population trends
Continued from Page 1A
our own way, but we need to
make people aware of what’s
going on first.”
Identifying the problem
There are about 2.4 mil-
lion puffins who breed in
North America. While the
Haystack Rock colony has
stabilized the past few years
in the low 100s, the popula-
tion has been steadily declin-
ing for the past 20 years, said
Shawn Stephensen, a wild-
life biologist with the Oregon
Coast National Wildlife Ref-
uge Complex.
Twenty years ago, 5,000 of
the birds were nesting on the
Oregon Coast. Now it is just a
few hundred, he said.
Stephensen has been mon-
itoring puffins at Haystack
Rock for the past six years. The
way he does this is by observ-
ing the number of burrows
puffins use to nest in, which
between 2010 to 2016 dropped
from 368 to 99, according to
his study — a significant drop
from the 612 counted in 1988.
It’s still too early to esti-
mate this year’s population,
Stephensen said, but the initial
counts have not be high.
While he said formal
research has yet to be con-
ducted as to why the popula-
tion is declining, he and other
researchers believe it is due to
a food shortage.
Because of various factors
such as rising ocean tempera-
ture and acidification, smaller
fish like herring are either
becoming less plentiful or
swimming deeper in the water
to where puffins can no longer
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Bird-watchers at Cannon Beach were recently afforded
the opportunity to take a guided tour around Haystack
Rock with experts on the habitat of nesting seabirds and
the perils certain populations face.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Members of the public recently took a tour around Haystack Rock as part of an educa-
tional effort by personnel with a group dedicated to preserving the habitat of nesting
seabirds such as puffins.
dive to retrieve them, he said.
Even if there are other fish
available, puffins could still be
malnourished from eating less
nutritious fish.
“They are a great indicator
species of climate change. If
they can’t find food, what else
is changing?” Stephensen said.
‘A warning’
Roy Lowe is a retired proj-
ect leader for the Oregon Coast
National Wildlife Refuge
Complex, which is part of the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
and spent much of his career
conducting coastal surveys of
seabirds like puffins.
He said while the decline is
most notable in easily accessi-
ble places like Haystack Rock,
there are nesting sites that have
been hit even harder. Finley
Rock by Oceanside in 1979
recorded almost 4,000 puffins.
Today, he said, there are fewer
nested there than at Haystack
Rock.
“If puffins aren’t able to
live in natural environment, it
should be a warning,” Lowe
said. “Birds evolve over mil-
lions of years, and if they can’t
make a go of it in their envi-
ronment something is seri-
ously wrong.”
For years, seabird biolo-
gists have had the goal to add
the tufted puffin to the fed-
eral endangered species list.
Two years ago, the Washing-
ton Department of Fish and
Wildlife voted to put the puf-
fin on the endangered species
list, and Oregon has it listed as
a sensitive species.
This led Stephensen and
other scientists from the
Pacific Seabird Group to form
a special technical commit-
tee dedicated to devoting time
and dollars to researching why
these birds are disappearing.
The team hopes to research
population trends, genetic
studies, wintering patterns
and detailed food analysis
— all types of data not being
collected about puffins in
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A nesting seabird can be
seen through a scope used
by personnel with the Hay-
stack Rock Awareness Pro-
gram to monitor the popu-
lation of puffins and other
species that use the iconic
place in Cannon Beach as
a nesting ground.
the region.
There is a list of criteria
a species must meet before
being considered endangered.
He said doing more expan-
sive research will hopefully
help qualify the puffin as a
candidate.
They will seek funding
through the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, but might
have to look at grants to con-
tinue the expanded projects, he
said.
“We’ll probably find it’s
not just one issue,” Stephensen
said. “It will be many issues,
whether it be ocean acidity,
human disturbance, lack of
fish, what have you.”
But a place to start is by
funding volunteer groups like
the Haystack Rock Aware-
ness Project, Stephensen said,
which state and national enti-
ties rely on heavily to help pre-
serve and record local seabird
populations.
For Underwood, he hopes
to work with Keyser to fund
research projects like the ones
proposed in the Pacific Seabird
Group through the sale of his
sweatshirts.
“Hopefully we’ll have to
order some more sweatshirts,”
Underwood said.
Elk: ‘I can’t believe it’s up to us to come up with a plan’
Continued from Page 1A
human safety reached a head
this month when an elk cow
protecting its calf charged a
bicyclist in Gearhart, days
after menacing beachgoers,
children and dogs. The elk
was tranquilized and brought
to safety by police, firefighters
and officials from the Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife. The
elk calf was also tranquilized
and reunited with its mother
at God’s Valley in Tillamook
State Forest.
The incident stirred public
sentiment and led to a call to
action.
“You can tell from the
last two weeks of elk inci-
dents, someone is going to get
killed,” Goodling said. “There
are plenty of people pushing
strollers. If a bicycle spooks
that herd and it goes around
the corner, there’s no stopping
them. I’ve seen them jump
over a 6-foot concrete fence
one after the other.”
Bangild said the Gearhart
herd has at least “doubled or
tripled” in the six years he has
been here. “That’s way too
many for a small town,” he
said.
“I used to take my son
down to the estuary for walks,
but now I am much more cau-
Jeff Ter Har/For The Daily Astorian
A herd of elk look both ways before crossing a street in Gearhart in 2014. While some
Gearhart residents love them, managers of the Gearhart Golf Links want them removed.
tious. You are stuck out there.”
Transport urged
Bangild, Earl and Good-
ling each said they don’t want
to kill elk — hunting is pro-
hibited in Gearhart — only to
move them out of the city to
reserves like God’s Valley or
Circle Creek.
“We are not seeking to
eliminate the entire herd, but
at least get the herd down to
where it is safe for the town
residents,” Goodling said.
But transport has its lim-
its, Dave Nuzum, acting wild-
life biologist of the Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife, said
Tuesday.
Nuzum has been coming
to Gearhart for several years,
meeting with city leadership,
the public and golf interests.
In 2014, the city asked the
department to come up with a
cost estimate for the transport
of 75 percent of the herd.
The total cost for trapping
was estimated at $14,000 for a
one-month effort, which could
bring in “an optimistic number
of 50,” more likely 30, Nuzum
said.
One day of darting, which
would tranquilize the elk, is
$1,472 per animal. Fewer than
10 elk could be darted and
transported per day.
A ‘suite’ of responses
A public workshop and
subsequent meetings with the
department identified “a suite”
of responses, including hazing,
fencing and exclusion.
“Transplanting was part of
that,” Nuzum said.
What complicates mat-
ters is the dichotomy of inter-
ests between those who want
to get rid of the elk and “an
even more greater number of
people who love the elk,” he
said. “They don’t want any-
thing done.”
Trap and transplant, as sug-
gested by the golf course offi-
cials, is a popular suggestion,
he said, but of limited value.
“Population
control
through trap and removal
has been widely shown not
to work for any species caus-
ing trouble anywhere, whether
it’s Canada geese, urban deer,
whatever,” Nuzum said. “And
of all the methods discussed, it
is by far the most expensive.”
Elk are baited, usually
using alfalfa hay, before being
trapped in a flat-paneled cor-
ral. The traps are remote-trig-
gered and the panels then drop
a canvas covering so the ani-
mals don’t get spooked by
anyone walking by.
It would be impossible to
remove all the elk, Nuzum said.
A realistic number might
be 30 before trapping becomes
ineffective.
“Thirty elk is not going to
make that much of a dent in
the population,” he said. “If
you were able to remove a
higher percentage, they breed.
You would be back in the same
boat in a very short amount of
time.”
And in a city like Gearhart,
where elk occupy an almost
mythic role, residents may
tamper with traps.
“Inevitably your traps are
going to get vandalized by folks
who are opposed to it,” Nuzum
said. “Somebody always has to
mess with them.”’
‘Stalag 17’
Fencing is the only “100
percent sure way” of keep-
ing elk out of any area, he
said, whether a dairy pasture,
orchard or a golf course. “The
downside of that is aestheti-
cally, you don’t want the place
to look like Stalag 17.”
There are a number of ways
to make fencing more attrac-
tive, but exclusion has conse-
quences, he added. “Say you
were to put up an impenetrable
fence around the golf course
— problem solved. Well,
there are still elk going around
town.”
Nuzum’s response may not
satisfy Bangild, Earl or Good-
ling, who say they have been
down this path before.
“I can’t believe it’s up to
us to come up with a plan,”
Bangild said. “We’re trying
to run a golf course. I spend
more hours than I ever thought
I would coming up with a
solution.”
Eclipse: ‘We have people coming from Australia, Belgium’
the Middle of it All.”
Conway said a benefactor
donated 100,000 safety glasses
designed for the city and proceeds
are going to local museums and
charities.
Sales have been “amazing, phe-
nomenal,” she said. “It’s just blown
our minds.”
Continued from Page 1A
“It’s a life experience,” Jerit said
during an interview at his compa-
ny’s office in the Memphis suburb
of Bartlett. “When that 2 minutes is
over, or however long you’ve got,
the question that you really want to
hear is, ‘When is the next one?’”
Path of totality
His company is one of many busi-
nesses — hotels, campgrounds and
stores — taking advantage of the
total solar eclipse — when the moon
passes between Earth and the sun.
The moon’s shadow will fall in a
diagonal ribbon across the U.S., from
Oregon to South Carolina. The rest
of the U.S. will experience a partial
eclipse, along with Canada, Central
America and a bit of South America.
Cities and towns along the path of
totality — where there will be about
2 ½ minutes of darkness — are gear-
ing up for the crowds. St. Joseph,
Missouri, population 76,000, is in a
prime location and officials are brac-
ing for tens of thousands of eclipse
watchers to descend on the city, said
Beth Conway, spokeswoman for the
St. Joseph Convention & Visitors
Bureau.
Eye protection
Wikimedia Commons
The path of totality over Oregon for the upcoming solar eclipse Aug. 21.
The city’s restaurants, gas sta-
tions and stores are preparing for the
onslaught — the city’s largest arts
and music festival with the nick-
name “Total Eclipse of the Arts” is
scheduled on the weekend leading
up to the eclipse on Monday, Aug.
21.
“This is essentially our Super
Bowl,” Conway said. “If we see
anywhere near the amount of peo-
ple that they’re telling us, it will
probably be the biggest event in our
history.”
The city has gotten into the act
as well, selling eclipse glasses, post-
ers and blue and yellow T-shirts
decorated with a drawing of the
city’s skyline and an iconic railroad
bridge, and with the slogan “Right in
At the Tennessee factory, a con-
stant whirring sound fills the factory
as large sheets of paper are fed into
machines. One cuts out the eyeholes
in the preprinted frames, another
inserts the protective film lenses.
Then the glasses are punched out of
the sheets and packaged.
About 50,000 glasses can roll
off the assembly line per hour, Jerit
said. Paper glasses cost about 20 to
25 cents to make, and they are sold
to distributors for about 45 cents, but
prices vary depending on order size.
They’re sold retail for about $2. The
plastic versions are about $15.
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.
NASA lists four companies, includ-
ing American Paper Optics, whose
glasses meet international standards.
“It’s eye protection for enjoy-
ment,” said Jerit, whose main busi-
ness is making 3-D glasses.
Besides retail outlets, the com-
pany sells the glasses to cities, uni-
versities and space-related entities
like NASA and the Adventure Sci-
ence Center in Nashville. Some are
custom-designed, like the ones for
St. Jude Children’s Research Hos-
pital which are decorated with chil-
dren’s drawings. Under the wacky
category: glasses to make the wearer
look like an astronaut, space cowboy
or a green alien.
Green Acres farm near Casper,
Wyoming, is one of the many farms
and parks welcoming eclipse watch-
ers. The farm, which normally fea-
tures a corn maze and other chil-
dren’s activities, has been turned into
a campground with 300 campsites in
prime eclipse viewing territory.
“We have people coming
from Australia, Belgium, sev-
eral from Canada. I have a guy
from England coming that’s seen
17 eclipses,” said manager Dwain
Romsa. “We’re a little more remote
than some areas. It takes more effort
to travel here.”