DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, AUGUST 1, 2017
145TH YEAR, NO. 22
Flavel
stake in
Astoria is
no more
ONE DOLLAR
A plant-friendly fl yover
Sale takes last property
out of fi nal heir’s hands
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Mary Louise Flavel has sold her last
building in Astoria.
Portlanders Lisa and James Long pur-
chased Flavel’s building at the southeast-
ern corner of Ninth and Commercial streets
from her conservator, Caroline Evans, for
$269,000. The couple will keep Bosnian
restaurant Drina Daisy in place and restore
the surrounding storefronts.
Lisa Long, a Portland-area broker and
owner of High Five Properties, said she and
her husband have been visiting Astoria for
some time, have friends locally and have
always wanted to restore a vintage commer-
cial building.
“This is like my husband’s dream come
true,” she said of James Long, a contractor.
“He has a history degree. When he found out
it was a Flavel building, he needed to have
it.”
She said the fi rst order of business is fi x-
ing the building’s roof before winter, after
which comes interior work to the offi ce
space on the corner of Ninth and Commer-
cial streets.
See SALE, Page 4A
Thinking
outside
the can
Oregon food processors
change as tastes evolve
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A drone, piloted by Joe Aga of Seattle-based Ryka UAS, prepares to fly over Colewort Creek last week. The area, within
the Lewis and Clark National Historical Park, has been undergoing restoration efforts and the data collected by the
drone will allow researchers to monitor the area’s progress. Find more photos online at DailyAstorian.com
Drones help map
plant species at
Lewis and Clark
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
T
he objects soaring above Lewis and
Clark National Historical Park’s
Colewort Creek last week were not
some of the area’s native herons, eagles or
hawks. Rather, they were a familiar form
of 21st-century technology, and months of
paperwork allowed them to migrate here.
Researchers with the National Oce-
anic and Atmospheric Administration
spent much of last week operating two
drones in an effort to map out plant spe-
cies . Mounted with a hyperspectral scan-
ner, which uses the electromagnetic spec-
trum to identify plant species, the drones
helped researchers monitor the progress of
an area that has undergone numerous res-
toration projects since 2007.
Natural Resources Program Manager
Carla Cole said the Colewort Creek area
serves as a living laboratory for scientifi c
experiments due to its potential for salmon
habitat use, water -quality measurements,
vegetation surveys, soil analysis and
native species plantings.
“Our extensive plant community and
elevational data from our ongoing monitor-
ing efforts will assist the NOAA research-
ers in ground-truthing their data for this
study,” Cole said. “We expect the results
of this study to have useful and immedi-
ate management implications and to also
be transferable to our partners throughout
the L ower Columbia estuary.”
The researchers fl ew the drones one
day in June, three times last week and will
be there once again for a day this fall. They
will analyze the video over the winter and
use it to help develop a library to track
both native and invasive plants species
near the creek. Also, a roughly fi ve -minute
video collected by the drones will be avail-
able at the visitor’s center.
Surmounting obstacles
Use of the drones this year did not come
without a few bureaucratic obstacles.
The National Park Service banned rec-
reational and commercial use of drones
in national parks in 2014, citing issues
with users landing them on national mon-
uments and fl ying them over wildfi res.
See DRONES, Page 9A
By ALIYA HALL
EO Media Group
THE DALLES — Russell Loughmiller
has seen fi rst hand how the food -processing
industry has changed over the years. He’s
changing with it.
Loughmiller’s Muirhead Canning Co. in
The Dalles is one of the 1,016 food - and bev-
erage -processing plants in Oregon and is part
of a $500 billion national industry, accord-
ing to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s
Economic Research Service. But Lough-
miller, 42, who has been canning peaches,
cherries and pears for 11 years, has noticed
a steady decline in consumers’ desire for
canned goods.
“That affects me directly. I go into gro-
cery stores and see that canned fruit is
shrinking,” he said. “I feel like some of it is
generational, and some of it is the availabil-
ity of fresh fruit year-round.”
Loughmiller bought the cannery in 2006,
and employs 25 people.
Like every industry, food processing has
gone through many rapid changes in recent
Joe Aga, left, and
Robert Erdt of
Seattle-based drone
operating company Ryka
UAS perform a final
pre flight check on a drone
before it flies over the
Colewort Creek area to
map plant species.
See FOOD PROCESSORS, Page 4A
Clatsop County Fair: critters, carnies, caramel corn
Country singers,
comedy, magic,
bikers on tap
By KAELIA NEAL
The Daily Astorian
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Tucker Delay, 5, carries a piglet to a warming lamp during
setup for last year’s Clatsop County Fair.
The Clatsop County Fair
starts today, so get ready to
enjoy live entertainment, win
prizes and eat salty, fried foods
and sticky, sweet treats .
“We are offering all different
types of things that will have an
interest to everyone,” said fair
Manager Kathi Mattinen.
The f air has been operating
for more than 100 years .
“It’s a big community
Colton Scheel weighs a
Cornish Cross chicken for
market at the 2015 Clatsop
County Fair.
thing,” said fair board Chair-
man Jack Edwards.
The fair is open 10 a.m. to
10 p.m. today through Satur-
day , with the carnival starting at
2 p.m. today and noon the rest
of the week .
Entertainment highlights
include country band Mont-
gomery Gentry and coun-
try-rock group Showdown.
A comedy show by Mark
and Dre and a magic show by
Elias Caress is scheduled daily.
After missing last year, the
BMX Freestyle Team is back
for daily shows.
There will also be local
performances, including one
by the Maddox Dance Team,
which takes the stage 1 p.m.
Friday .
A new attraction is the Junk
Queen’s tent sale, where ven-
dors sell vintage home decor,
crafts, antiques and more.
See FAIR, Page 4A