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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 2017
Drones, despite complications, essential to OSU researchers
By ANTHONY RIMEL
Corvallis Gazette-Times
CORVALLIS — There’s a lot that
can go wrong in using unmanned air-
craft to do survey work for research.
Weather can make a scheduled
flight impossible, sometimes software
controlling the vehicles has mysteri-
ous hiccups or the satellites that guide
the vehicle autonomously through a
planned route can’t be reached or an
important component is forgotten in
the lab.
Since he began using unmanned
aircraft in his research in 2012, Ore-
gon State University forestry professor
Michael Wing has seen many ways a
flight can go wrong.
Once, in August, he even had a tur-
key vulture threaten to attack a quad-
copter he was using; the bird came
within about 15 feet of the vehicle, he
said.
Wing said nearly every flight has
some kind of complication.
Wednesday, when Wing and one of
his graduate students surveyed a vine-
yard near Amity, was no exception.
On the first flight, Wing and his
student, Cory Garms, briefly lost con-
trol of the quadcopter they were using
to record infrared footage of a vine-
yard as the craft’s battery was ticking
down to near zero. The vehicle, which
was following a programmed route,
kept trying to follow the route even as
Garms was attempting to take man-
ual control of it to land it as the battery
was getting low.
Garms eventually was able to get
control of the craft and land it with
about 10 percent of its battery capac-
ity remaining. That’s well below the
25 percent he and Wing aim to have
remaining when they land, so that
they don’t risk thousands of dollars of
equipment falling out of the sky when
the battery dies.
Wing said that despite the chal-
lenges, lots of new research opportuni-
ties are made possible by vehicles like
quadcopters and other remote-con-
trolled vehicles equipped with cam-
eras, infrared sensors and LIDAR sys-
tems to do survey work. Wing said
before these crafts were available, it
took six months to schedule a plane to
do a flyover to gather similar data.
Although when he started using
unmanned vehicles for survey work,
the Federal Aviation Administration
required a two- to five-month process
for approval of such research flights,
Wing said that process was stream-
lined in August 2016.
“We went from one flight in 2012,
to two flights in 2013 and from there it
just exploded,” he said.
Wing said the 2012 flight was the
first FAA sanctioned research flight
in Oregon, but there are now 15 to 20
other researchers at OSU alone using
unmanned aerial vehicles for research.
He said his Aerial Information Sys-
tems Laboratory at OSU has a budget
of anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000
annually, and gets funds from the U.S.
Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife and Oregon Department
of Forestry. Wing is also the principal
researcher for OSU’s participation as a
core university in the FAA’s Center of
Excellence for Unmanned Aerial Sys-
tem Research.
Wing and his students have done
projects like surveying a shipwreck,
counting sea turtles, studying elk pop-
ulations and doing topographical stud-
ies of volcanically active areas. These
studies have taken place across the
United States and in Indonesia, Brazil,
Turkey, Germany and the Dominican
Republic.
Wednesday at the vineyard near
Amity, Wing and Garms were survey-
ing a field where the grapevines had
been infected with red blotch disease,
a viral infection that hampers fruit pro-
duction. Wing said the flight was the
fourth in a series of five monthly fly-
overs at the field where he and Garms
were using an infrared camera to look
for the disease.
Jail: An average of
68 people per day
have populated
the jail this year
Continued from Page 1A
Wednesday to discuss the
results of a $51,000, two-
month study. The private
firm examined the feasibil-
ity of relocating the jail from
Astoria to the Warrenton site.
Commissioners approved
the study in May in anticipa-
tion of the state closing the
youth facility. Money for
the youth facility was not
included in the state’s two-
year budget adopted in July,
and the facility will officially
close in October.
Inmates at the county
jail, a 60-bed facility on
Duane Street across from the
county courthouse, often are
released early due to over-
crowding. When this hap-
pens, they aren’t required to
post bail even when a crimi-
nal case is pending in court.
This year, an average of
68 people per day have pop-
ulated the jail. Out of 1,765
inmates that have been
booked as of Sept. 21, 209 of
them have been released due
to overcrowding. As a result,
inmates charged with crimes
such as possession of meth-
amphetamine or those who
have been arrested for driv-
ing under the influence of
intoxicants on multiple occa-
sions are typically released
early.
“If we don’t have a jail
population, possibly, of 150-
plus, we are going to con-
stantly be chasing the same
people over and over again,”
District Attorney Josh Mar-
quis said.
The larger expansion plan
in Warrenton would offer the
opportunity for future expan-
sion of up to 252 beds. Due
to the design, it also would
require less staff supervision
of inmates.
The current jail requires
29 staffers. Just 36 staff
members would need to
work in the jail under the
larger expansion, as opposed
to 46 in the smaller renova-
tion plan.
That would result in an
18 percent difference in
staffing costs between the
two plans, which architects
predict would mitigate the
construction cost difference
after 10 years.
“This is more of the way
jails are going,” Sheriff Tom
Bergin said. “Over the long
run, once we start deferring
the costs of all the personnel,
we’re going to be a lot bet-
ter off.”
DLR Group had previ-
ously provided similar ser-
vices for the sheriff’s office
as part of a project to relo-
cate most of its functions to
a new location in Warren-
ton near the site of the youth
facility. The project was
completed in the summer of
2016.
The county jail in Asto-
ria opened in 1980, and
its population has grown
and shrunk multiple times
since then due to economic
swings. Bergin cited multi-
ple studies since 1999 that
have illustrated the need for
a jail expansion, though two
bond measures have failed.
Several
questions,
including what would hap-
pen to the current jail, have
yet to be determined. Com-
missioners will likely hold
another work session in the
future to further discuss the
potential relocation.
Rentals: Ordinance
would impact at least
173 property owners
Continued from Page 1A
provide covered garbage
containers and possess at
least one fire extinguisher.
They also could set maxi-
mum occupancy at three peo-
ple per sleeping area plus two
more at a rental.
Regulations would not
cap the number of days a
particular unit can be rented
out, a major difference from
ordinances in some cities.
The ordinance would not
apply to Arch Cape, which
has had regulations in place
since 2004, or any proper-
ties within the county’s five
cities.
County estimates reveal
the ordinance would impact
at least 173 property own-
ers. The figure is nearly dou-
ble the estimate in 2010 of
the number of properties
available to rent for up to 30
days.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Porcupines have recently been spotted around Ecola Creek, pictured here, near Cannon Beach.
Porcupines: Rodents are mostly east of Cascades
Continued from Page 1A
It is not unheard of for tim-
ber companies to trap and kill
porcupines, sources in Wash-
ington state and Oregon say.
Georg Ziegltrum, ani-
mal damage control supervi-
sor with the Washington For-
est Protection Association,
says identifying markers such
as bark being stripped away
and eaten and distinctive tooth
marks make it clear when por-
cupines are to blame for tree
damage. He said they can
take a heavy toll on industrial
timberland.
Porcupines can weigh up
to 40 pounds, but despite their
bulk they will climb high in
young trees, gnawing around
the trunks — “girdling” them
— eating the bark. They may
expose roots and clip branches
in their foraging, making the
trees more susceptible to dis-
ease and decay.
A draft management plan
for the Elliott State Forest
in Coos and Douglas coun-
ties named porcupines on a
short list of wildlife species —
including beaver, elk and black
bear — that were causing dam-
age in the forest. The damage,
the plan’s authors note, was
“sporadic and occurs in vary-
ing severity as to the number
of trees damaged.”
Growing population
Porcupine populations are
believed to be robust in Ore-
gon. The rodents are found
mostly east of the Cascade
Range, but they have become
more common in western Ore-
gon, as well, Dennehy said.
On public land, they are
considered unprotected mam-
mals; people who want to trap
Wikimedia Commons
Porcupines, a rare sight in Clatsop County, are toothy ro-
dents that like to gnaw bark and have sharp quills to ward
off predators.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Porcupines are rare in Clatsop County, but recently the
rodents have been spotted around Ecola Creek near Can-
non Beach by loggers.
or hunt them have to apply for
a furtaker license through the
state. The season is open the
entire year and the state does
not track harvests. In general,
there tends to be very little
public interest in hunting por-
cupines, Dennehy said.
On private lands, the state
considers them predatory ani-
mals for the damage they do to
tree saplings and they can be
trapped without permits.
“The porcupine range has
been expanding slowly for
the last 30 years or so,” said
Dennehy. “ODFW saw much
the same reaction in Tilla-
mook County 25 years ago
when the ‘first one’ showed
up as roadkill and people were
flabbergasted.”
Not anymore.
“They’re fairly common
in Tillamook now, though
the county isn’t overrun with
them.”
Olson grew up in Clatsop
County and has seen a few por-
cupines during her time here.
She has also seen evidence of
porcupine-related damage in
the woods she helps manage
for GreenWood, but she and
other foresters weren’t worried
about a few girdled trees here
and there.
This summer, though,
they saw several acres where
numerous 10- to 20-year-old
trees had been hit. Most of
these trees will likely die or
bush out, Olson said, losing
their value. In her seven years
with the timber company, she
has never seen the level of
damage they are seeing now.
Next year, GreenWood
expects to initiate an annual
program to monitor where por-
cupine activity is taking place
and if it is occurring in stands
that are particularly vulnera-
ble. The company will work
with contractors to estab-
lish acceptable and unaccept-
able levels of damage that will
guide when, if necessary, more
animals need to be trapped and
killed.
“I think their population is
increasing,” Olson said, “and
I think that’s why we’re see-
ing some of the damage to our
young stands. … We want to,
when we find that damage,
control it.”
But, she added, “I think
it’s something we can con-
trol without having a consider-
able impact on the population
overall.”
Sheriff: ‘It doesn’t mean I agree with Mr. Sessions’ policies’
Continued from Page 1A
Sessions, a former Republi-
can U.S. senator for Alabama,
advocates several controver-
sial administration positions,
such as a tougher stance on
illegal immigration and a ban
on travel to the U.S. by citizens
from several Muslim-majority
nations. The attorney general
also is against marijuana legal-
ization by states like Washing-
ton and Oregon.
The Sept. 19 meeting
included a number of other
Washington state sheriffs,
including those from Wahkia-
kum and Cowlitz counties.
Johnson defended his deci-
sion to listen to the attorney
general’s expectation of coop-
eration from local leaders as
he runs the U.S. Department
of Justice with a “prosecuto-
rial eye.”
“It doesn’t mean I agree
with Mr. Sessions’ poli-
cies,” the sheriff said. “I don’t
answer to anyone but the cit-
izens. But how he conducts
business affects us locally.”
Johnson said Sessions’ vow
to have anyone in the coun-
try illegally tracked down and
deported contradicts informa-
tion Northwest officials with
U.S. Immigration and Cus-
toms Enforcement gave him
two weeks ago.
They told him ICE is tar-
geting immigrants who have
been previously deported or
involved in crime. The Seat-
tle and Portland-based offi-
cials said federal agents come
into the county knowing who
they’re going to pick up.
“I said ‘OK, show me the
money,’” Johnson said. “The
community keeps telling
me they’re coming in taking
grandma and grandpa.”
ICE agreed to let the sheriff
know when arrests are made
in the county but declined
to share further details, such
as names, that would allow
him to confirm stories from
neighbors.
About a week later, the
sheriff said, federal agents
came into his office without
warning. They arrested a man
who was at the front counter
registering as a sex offender
on Sept. 15.
Johnson said he has no
problem with ICE deport-
ing people who are com-
mitting crimes after coming
into the country illegally. But
with little information about
who’s being taken during fed-
eral operations, it’s hard to
tell whether the government
could be spending federal dol-
lars on “other, more important
issues.”
Local law enforcement
does not ask anyone about
their immigration status or
use it in making decisions,
Johnson said. He’s asking for
answers from ICE because
people are coming to him with
questions.
After writing two letters to
the federal agency and meeting
with officials, the sheriff said
he got the first official word of
an ICE arrest on Monday.
A longtime employee of
a Bay Center business was
taken. The man left behind a
wife and two children.