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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2018
Guns: ‘Bill
doesn’t fix
the systemic
problems’
Continued from Page 1A
Photos by Oregon State Police
A program to reward people who report poaching had a successful year in 2017.
Poachers: Albany area had highest number of rewards
Continued from Page 1A
deer, since those animals are
the most popular big game for
hunters, said Sgt. Joe Warwick
of the state police’s fish and
wildlife division.
The Albany area had the
highest number of rewards at
11.
Pinpointing why hunters
report more or fewer poach-
ing cases can be difficult. Not
all poaching convictions are a
result of tips, and not all infor-
mants accept rewards.
“We don’t know much
about the informants,” Dun-
gannon said. “They give the
tip, we write the check and we
send it to them.”
Dungannon suggests recent
raises in reward money may
be a factor in last year’s spike.
Standard amounts range from
$100 for game fish, shellfish,
upland birds, waterfowl and
fur-bearers to $1,000 for big-
horn sheep, mountain goats
and moose.
Dungannon also pointed
to the state police’s efforts
to advertise the program on
social media and in local
publications.
“There are things that offi-
cers can do to take the game to
the next level and get the word
out to the community,” Dun-
gannon said.
Nearly all of the fund’s
financial support comes from
courts ordering those convicted
of violations to pay restitution.
The hunter’s association and
other conservation groups also
pitch in when unusually large
award amounts are requested.
A bill pending in the state
Legislature may help on that
front. While judges already
impose fines for misdemeanor
offenses, the bill would lay
out a precedent to impose such
fines in addition to any jail or
prison sentence. It also would
give the state the ability to
deny licenses, tags and permits
if fines are not repaid.
“This removes any doubt
from the court that they’re
able to assess the restitution to
the state and to the TIP fund,”
Dungannon said.
To continue its growth,
police and others who run
the fund can think of ways to
incentivize hunters to turn in
suspected poachers.
“It’s a big deal to take home
an elk,” Warwick said. “We
need to tell them, ‘That bull
elk that guy poached, that’s
a bull you could have caught
legally.’”
Authorities credit advertising on social media
and local publications with getting the word out
about the incentive program to report poaching.
Rep. Janeen Sollman, D-Hillsboro,
wept as she talked about verbal and
physical abuse she experienced from
an alcoholic father.
Rep. Andy Olson, R-Albany, said
he also had witnessed horrific domes-
tic abuse during his former career as a
police officer. Olson voted against the
bill, because, he said, it would not pre-
vent abusers from obtaining guns ille-
gally and killing or injuring others.
The legislation also fails the address
the root cause of gun violence, he said.
“This bill doesn’t fix the systemic
problems our state is experiencing,
that is why I am going to vote ‘no.’”
The legislation also would require
Oregon State Police to notify other law
enforcement when they learn someone
has tried to obtain a gun illegally.
Under existing law, only convicted
abusers in domestic relationships, such
as a spouse, former spouse, co-parent
or live-in partner, are prohibited from
having guns. The bill expands the ban
to current and past intimate partners of
all kinds, as well as stalkers.
Barker said as a compromise with
reluctant supporters of the bill, he and
other sponsors agreed to remove a pro-
vision that would automatically dis-
possess an accused abuser or stalker
of their guns if they missed one court
hearing.
A study by the Oregon Department
of Justice showed that more than 16
Oregonians were killed in nine sep-
arate domestic violence incidents
between Dec. 25, 2016, and Jan. 16,
2017. Not all of the fatalities involved
romantic relationships.
Women are more likely to be killed
in domestic disputes when a gun is
present in the home, Barker said.
Laws aimed at keeping guns from
abusers have reduced homicides of
intimate partners, according to recent
research published in the American
Journal of Epidemiology.
The Capital Bureau is a collabo-
ration between EO Media Group and
Pamplin Media Group.
Planners: Port ‘very interested’ in who
new community development director will be
Continued from Page 1A
The person the city hires
will oversee a department
that is responsible for sig-
nificant pieces of Astoria,
from economic development,
zoning, land use planning and
code enforcement to historic
preservation, building inspec-
tions and the urban renewal
districts.
Weiser has more than 20
years of experience in planning,
much of it in southern Oregon
where she worked for Jackson
County and the cities of Med-
ford and Jacksonville. She also
has experience in development
and historic preservation.
Moab has a population of
around 6,000 people, but a
daily tourist count of anywhere
from 25,000 to 50,000, she told
the audience Thursday. Like
Astoria, and many other cit-
ies across the country, Moab is
dealing with workforce hous-
ing issues that have been exac-
erbated by the rise of vaca-
tion rental options like Airbnb.
Violette was Tomball’s first city
planner and worked to incor-
porate zoning practices into a
city that had never had them
before. The economic develop-
ment corporation she leads now
has a board that reports to the
city and is tasked with creating
jobs and promoting economic
development. While linked to
the city’s formal planning and
permitting processes, it is a sep-
arate entity.
Violette said Tomball is
very similar in size to Astoria,
in terms of both population and
land. The city had a popula-
tion of 10,753, according to the
census.
Astoria’s community devel-
opment director position has
been filled by Estes since Octo-
ber after former director Kevin
Cronin left the job amid con-
cerns about his management.
Cronin has continued to work
in the area as a consultant. Port
of Astoria Commissioner Frank
Spence said the Port had a good
working relationship with Cro-
nin and has contracted with him
to work on grants.
“The Port is certainly very
interested in who the new com-
munity development director is
going to be because we work
so closely with that person,” he
said.
The Port’s main hub and
industrial land are in Astoria,
subject to the city’s zoning and
land use regulations. Whatever
the Port or its tenants want to do
must go through the city. “So a
close working relationship is
extremely important from our
point of view,” Spence said.
Jared Rickenbach, a general
contractor and member of the
city’s Design Review Commit-
tee, agreed.
“That person is your con-
nection with the city,” he
said.
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Astoria is hiring a new community development director.
Sea stars: ‘Their ability to eat stuff
is their ecological importance’
Continued from Page 1A
in sea water for awhile, move
with currents. We don’t have
a smoking gun of why it pops
up here or there, or why it went
to California and Washington
first.”
Over the past two years,
Gravem said the percentage
of sea stars affected by the dis-
ease at survey sites along the
Oregon Coast have settled at
closer to 10 percent.
The figures reported in Can-
non Beach in January are some
of the earliest for the year,
Gravem said, but could possi-
bly be a worrisome indicator.
“Some populations are
recovering, but they aren’t out
of the woods,” she said. “If
another outbreak occurred, it’d
be concerning for the survival
of the whole species.”
Many questions still remain
about what aggravates the dis-
ease and why some areas are
affected more than others. His-
torically, die-offs have been
associated with warm ocean
temperatures, but Melissa
Miner of MARINe — the
Multi-Agency Rocky Inter-
tidal Network — said the orga-
nization has not seen a cor-
relation between higher water
temperatures and sea star
wasting.
“Other localized groups
who conduct surveys felt they
saw relationship, but we don’t
see that as the case on the
broad scale,” Miner said.
Haystack Rock, like many
places along the coast, had a
significant resurgence of sea
stars in 2015.
The drop in wasting in
early 2015 could be a result of
a massive reproduction effort
in response to the disease,
Owen said.
“Most of the sea stars sur-
veyed during this time were
very young recruits,” he said.
“The subsequent spike in per-
cent wasting may correlate
with a resurgence of the dis-
ease as many of these juveniles
then became infected as well.”
While many Oregon sites
have made a substantial recov-
ery, Gravem said, the sea
stars are smaller. The role
sea stars play in the ecosys-
tem is a “big mean predator,”
she said, and their job is to eat
prey like snails and limpets.
If smaller sea stars are eating
less, that could lead to an over-
abundance of snails and lim-
pets, threatening the intertidal
balance.
“Their ability to eat stuff is
their ecological importance. A
big star can eat more than a lit-
tle sea star,” she said.
Overall, a higher popu-
lation of juveniles point the
fate of sea stars in a posi-
tive direction. But anomalies
like Haystack Rock remind
researchers there are still many
unanswered questions.
“We don’t know what 2018
will hold,” Gravem said.
PERFORMING THE
ORIGINAL HEART MEMBERS AND
ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAMERS
STEVE FOSSEN & MICHAEL DEROSIER
LEGENDARY MUSIC
OF HEART!
LIVE IN CONCERT
March 10th at Liberty Theatre
Doors open at 6 p.m., Show starts at 7 p.m.
General Admission: $28, Seniors and Active Military: $24
Tickets on sale at the Liberty Theatre box offi ce and online at http://libertyastoria.showare.com