THE RICH FEAST OF INDIA
WEEKEND BREAK
PAGE 1C
VOLUME 13 • ISSUE 1
CHRONICLING JOY OF BUSINESS
IN COLUMBIA-PACIFIC REGION
JANUARY 2018
PROUDLY PUBLISHED
EVERY MONTH
Discovery Ride Shop owner
Patrick McCash (left)
has been selling Onewheel
electric skateboards
since December, an idea
fi rst inspired by local teen
Cody Huff (right). McCash
describes the experience
as a combination of surfi
ng and snowboarding.
PHOTO BY LUKE WHITTAKER
145TH YEAR, NO. 139
WEEKEND EDITION // FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2018
ONE DOLLAR
County
might take
action on
vacation
rentals
Disagreements persist
on parking, inspections
By JACK HEFFERNAN
The Daily Astorian
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
A juvenile male bald eagle sits atop a perch at an enclosure at the Wildlife Center of the North Coast.
RETURNING TO THE WILD
An eagle finds his wings again at wildlife center
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
he bald eagle fixes one fierce eye
on the meddlesome people below
him.
He squawks at them, a plaintive and
undignified sound. Then they move,
and so does he, taking off in a smooth
swoop across the flight enclosure. It is
his fifth or sixth run back and forth and
he almost knocks his tail feathers against
the branches of a tree in the middle of the
enclosure.
“He’s getting tired,” said Josh Saran-
paa, executive director of the Wildlife
Center of the North Coast.
But this is the eagle’s CrossFit. When
he showed up at the center to recover
from surgery on a broken wing, flying the
length of the enclosure was a major work-
out. He would come to rest on the ground,
winded. Now his increased stamina
means he’s that much closer to returning
to the wild.
When he is released later this month,
back to posing on piers or chomping
down on dead whales while still looking
noble, he’ll rejoin a robust population —
one that seems to be reshaping bird colo-
nies up and down the coast.
T
Rebound
Poisoning by the pesticide DDT, loss
of habitat and shooting contributed to a
significant decline in bald eagle popu-
lations across the country. By 1963, the
birds were in danger of extinction. Fol-
lowing decades of recovery efforts, they
were finally removed from the federal
endangered and threatened species list
Clatsop County commissioners have
reluctantly agreed to hold a hearing that
could determine whether to impose vacation
rental regulations.
Commissioners will vote Jan. 24 on an
ordinance that would require property own-
ers to apply for five-year, renewable permits
based on safety inspections for an unlimited
number of short-term rental properties. Dis-
cussions on Wednesday night revealed park-
ing limits and the five-year timeline as the
two remaining hangups.
The permits would require property
owners to comply with quiet hours, pro-
vide covered garbage containers, possess at
least one fire extinguisher and offer at least
one off-street parking spot. Only three peo-
ple per sleeping area plus two more in the
entire dwelling would be allowed to occupy
a residence.
The hearing later this month may
culminate a roughly 1 1/2 year effort
by county staff, who have documented
multiple complaints from residents. They
estimate the ordinance would impact at
least 173 property owners in unincorporated
areas who rent out homes for up to 30 days,
nearly double the 2010 estimate for vacation
rentals.
Commissioners were first handed a draft
of an ordinance in June and have held three
work sessions on the topic. They opted to
indefinitely postpone a final vote at a similar
hearing in September.
The delay was due in part to Gearhart reg-
ulations that were put to a vote in November,
Scott Lee, the board’s chairman, said in Sep-
tember. Voters rejected the ballot measure
77 percent to 23 percent, keeping the regu-
lations in place.
See RENTALS, Page 7A
Josh Saranpaa checks the chart for an injured bald eagle that was brought to
the Wildlife Center of the North Coast.
in 2007. Oregon’s population grew from
a mere 65 nesting pairs in 1978 to more
than 500 by 2012.
“The eagle population is doing very
well in Oregon,” said Shawn Stephensen,
a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and the Oregon Coast National
Wildlife Refuge Complex. “We’re find-
ing new eagle nests all the time in new
areas.”
But that recovery has come with com-
plex consequences.
In Oregon, there was a distinct shift
of common murre colonies from the
northern to the central and southern
coast, according to a federal research
paper published in 2017. The authors —
Susan Thomas with the Fish and Wild-
life Service and the Washington Mari-
time National Wildlife Refuge Complex,
and James Lyons of the U.S. Geological
Survey and Patuxent Wildlife Research
Center — noted that a surge in bald eagle
populations in the Puget Sound region
could set off a chain of events that may
restructure that food web.
Murres, a seabird common to the
region, are often the prey of bald eagles,
though eagles are scavengers and will eat
just about anything.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
See EAGLE, Page 7A
Gearhart voters upheld vacation rental
rules in November.
Old trestle timbers
survive in house flooring
Reclaimed wood
a popular trend
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
SVENSEN — In the late
1800s, crews building the
South Jetty at the mouth of the
Columbia River used a wooden
trestle bridge to move large
boulders to the end of Clatsop
Spit.
Some of those same tim-
bers have found new life in
the popular trend of using
reclaimed wood in construc-
tion, including the flooring of
an elaborate new barn house in
Svensen.
Tobey Parsons, owner of
McGee Salvage, acquires
reclaimed wood flooring from
old gyms, houses and other
structures. He was recently
connected with Greg Mor-
rill, general manager of
marine contractor Bergerson
Construction.
Bergerson in 2016 was
awarded a contract to remove
about 900 feet worth of jetty
stones to improve fish passage
into Trestle Bay near the tip of
Clatsop Spit.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
See WOOD, Page 7A
Tobey Parsons of McGee Salvage checks in on work to a home in Svensen that utilized
reclaimed timber from the trestle bridge at Clatsop Spit.