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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, JANUARY 22, 2018
editor@dailyastorian.com
KARI BORGEN
Publisher
Founded in 1873
JIM VAN NOSTRAND
Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN
Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM
Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN
Production Manager
CARL EARL
Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Soccer stalwart Boisvert deserves
his honor for lifetime achievement
W
hen it comes to identifying
key adult volunteers in
youth sports on the North
Coast, several names come to mind.
In the soccer community it’s one —
Jerry Boisvert.
There isn’t a child who has played
soccer in the last three and a half
decades whose life hasn’t been touched
by the man. Every adult volunteer,
coach, referee or fan has encountered
Boisvert’s dedication.
Recently he received the applause
of his peers statewide with the 2018
Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Oregon Youth Soccer Association. The
top honor from Oregon’s entire soccer
community followed his nomination
by Fergus Loughran, past president
of the Lower Columbia Youth Soccer
Association. Boisvert was one of its
founders in 1984.
Boisvert has coached recreational
and competitive youth teams, both the
Astoria High School boys and girls
squads, and served as a U.S. Soccer
Federation referee. He has also sin-
glehandedly spearheaded the main-
tenance of the Warrenton Soccer
Complex, mowing, repairing and lin-
ing the fields, mending the goal nets
and cleaning up.
Each fall when he was coaching
Astoria High School teams, it was not
unusual to drive along Ridge Road just
The Daily Astorian
ABOVE: Jerry Boisvert,
right, referees a preseason
match in 2014.
LEFT: Boisvert coached
varsity soccer at Astoria
High School.
after lunchtime and observe Boisvert
cutting the grass in time for the junior
varsity kids to play their early game
— then coaching the varsity squad late
into the same evening.
In addition to his commitment to
inspiring his teams and maintaining
the fields, what sets Boisvert apart is
his sense of fair play. When coach-
ing, his tone was always positive. He
encouraged his young players with
loving discipline. He could react with
passion at a referee’s call against his
team one moment, shout “good call!”
the next, then shake the official’s hand
after the final whistle. Visiting coaches
frequently commented on his positive
tone, as well as commending the excel-
lent condition of the fields.
The Clatsop Clash — Astoria vs.
Seaside high school games — was
always contested with good sportsman-
ship during his 11-year era as Astoria’s
varsity coach, despite the intensity
of the rivalry. In large part that was
because Boisvert had an equal num-
ber of Seaside players blended into his
classic teams when they were U-14s.
His enthusiasm is irrepressible —
he wore a tutu on silly costumes day
at Camp Kick-A-Lot, an annual event
where North Coast kids learn the
game.
When recent serious health troubles
caused Boisvert to step back from his
commitments, the board of the Youth
Soccer Association let out a collective
gasp. Loughran — a man not prone to
exaggeration — said they needed six
or seven people to step up and divide
Boisvert’s duties.
SOUTHERN EXPOSURE
Close encounters of the herd kind
I
n a few short years they’ve become a
symbol of Gearhart.
Newcomers still greet the elk with
amazement.
“It just is unbelievable,” Gearhart’s
Ellie Ludy told reporter Brenna Visser.
Having an elk herd wander through town
is a bonus Ludy didn’t expect when she
moved to the coast about a year ago. “I
knew there would be elk, but I didn’t
know they would come into your yard!”
But for others, the elk have become
more of a nuisance and even a threat. Golf
course professionals, homeowners and
landscapers have consid-
ered everything: gates,
fences, trapping and
transport, reintroducing
natural predators —
even birth control.
Now the city is
chronicling elk-human
R.J. MARX encounters in an effort to
quantify the extent of the
problem, to provide safety for residents
and limit damages to property owners.
The comments are posted on the city’s
blog site and offer a stark and seemingly
endless series of dangerous incidents.
“As we tried to pack up and leave last
Monday afternoon, we found ourselves
surrounded by elk who clearly did not
mind our looking but did not want us
encroaching on their space,” a resident
posted. “Five were on Ocean Avenue feet
from the back of my jeep and 40 or more
on our west lawn.”
At the city’s January City Council
meeting, local resident and ham radio
operator Dana Gandy told the city elk
destroyed approximately $1,000 worth
of emergency communications and
antennas and equipment in his backyard.
An antenna mast approximately 45 feet
tall was snapped in half; cabling and guy
wires were destroyed.
Forrest Goodling, groundskeeper at
Gearhart Golf Links, reported $5,000
damage to a newly seeded putting green
in a Dec. 22 blog post. Goodling and area
golf course crews have been struggling
with damage — and potential risk — for
years.
In July, golf course officials staged
decoy coyotes — models of the predators
intended to deter the elk — something of
a last-ditch move to find a peaceful resolu-
tion to this hoofed invasion.
John Dudley
seeing elk encumbered by a tomato cage
and a volleyball net, enough so to contact
the Department of Fish and Wildlife to
find a remedy.
Photographer John Dudley, whose
home on Little Beach overlooks the
estuary, said answers will be complicated
for no other reason than the fact that
emotions run high on both sides of the
issue. Anything proposed at the local
level would likely face a long period of
scrutiny by state and maybe even federal
agencies.
“I have watched and photographed
the herd for over 10 years and have seen
them at least quadruple in numbers,”
Dudley said. “I like elk and I like
humans, but no one should believe that
living together is not fraught with danger
to both species.”
a rare creature in most places, recovered
after near depletion. From 1905 in the
Peninsula, no elk were legally hunted
until 1933. Aware of the elk situation,
President Theodore Roosevelt set aside
615,000 acres as Mount Olympus
National Monument in 1909 for the
expressed purpose of providing a reserve
for Roosevelt elk. A bounty was placed
on cougars, the natural predator of elk.
Today, Roosevelt elk proliferate
without predators and in Gearhart are
protected within the city limits from rifles
or archers. They migrate near the estuary
and on any given Sunday, depending on
their grazing habits, out-of-towners can
be seen parked along the roadway or by
the high school for a glimpse.
“The elk are a pain, but the tourists
love them,” wrote Gearhart’s John Green
in a blog comment. “Maybe a little too
much at times.”
Over the summer, the city received
reports of aggressive elk — bulls can
weigh 900 pounds and cows clear 800
pounds — along Pacific Way, G Street
and beach trails. One report was of an
elk threatening an unleashed dog and its
owner. The dog was unharmed, but the
owner and another person were under-
standably frightened, police said. Visitors
were advised to keep dogs leashed during
elk calving season.
Not only are people frightened,
but elk are suffering in some cases. In
November residents were distressed after
At the city’s first meeting of the year,
councilors once again sought solutions.
“I remember a number of years ago
it was, ‘Look at the elk who are visiting
our city,’” City Attorney Peter Watts said.
“Now the reports we are getting are very
different, as well the number of elk and
size of the herd.”
Mayor Matt Brown, who as a PGA
professional at the Highlands Golf
Course has first-hand experience with the
issue, said the city will forward feedback
to Fish and Wildlife as it comes in.
A letter addressed to Fish and Wildlife
went out in the mail Jan. 10. “The city
of Gearhart would like to request more
information on how to best protect the
citizens’ safety and what can be done
so no one is injured or killed by these
animals,” Brown wrote.
The letter, also sent to Gov. Kate
Brown, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
and state Sen. Betsy Johnson, includes
attachments, articles, photos and letters
dating from 2014.
Matt Brown hopes it will build aware-
ness of the conflicts public safety issues
such as elk-caused traffic accidents, elk-
to-human contact and elk-to-pet contact.
“We really haven’t had a way to
document things,” Brown said. “Specific
incidents haven’t been documented. Now
they are.”
R.J. Marx is The Daily Astorian’s South
County reporter and editor of the Seaside
Signal and Cannon Beach Gazette.
Elk in a Gearhart backyard.
Documentation, awareness
“We’ve been working on getting
the elk removed, the herd size reduced
for years now,” golfer Russ Earl said,
recounting meetings with four different
levels of the Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
It’s not just professionals who face big
landscaping and repair costs.
Residents use picnic tables to protect
plantings.
Gearhart’s Gay Jacobsen told the city
in a December blog post: “We were prac-
tically held captive for two days as a herd
of 75 elk took over our street, backyard
and front yard decimating vegetation,
ruining turf and breaking our sprinkler
heads. … They had no fear of us and were
huge.”
Drivers and pedestrians alike find
themselves surrounded by the herd,
pets are threatened and their owners
intimidated.
“I must leave the house with caution,”
wrote South Ocean resident Susan
Workman.
In a blog post, Ian Goldspink said he
was “real close to being in the herd” as he
drove down Pacific Way.
“They certainly are majestic and
exciting, but they are a bit too fearless of
us and too close,” wrote Bill Bennetts of
South Ocean Avenue. “They are starting
to make seagulls seem attractive.”
‘Danger to both species’
It’s easy to see the appeal of the elk,