2A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2018
Elk herd disrupts farming in
northwest Washington valley
By DON JENKINS
Capital Press
Brenna Visser/The Daily Astorian
Crews clear a landslide on Highway 101 near Hug Point.
Landslide closed Highway 101 near Hug Point
By BRENNA VISSER
The Daily Astorian
CANNON BEACH — A
landslide closed U.S. High-
way 101 near Hug Point
for several hours Friday
afternoon.
Authorities said the slide
was about 4 miles south of
Cannon Beach.
Lou Torres, a spokes-
man for the Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation, said
the slide mostly covered
the northbound lane of the
highway. The southbound
lane was closed for safety
reasons.
Felix Martinez, the
interim Warrenton area man-
ager for the Department of
Transportation, said the slide
happened around noon. He
said about 50 yards of mate-
rial — or about five dump
trucks worth — had fallen.
There were no reported
injuries or accidents caused
by the slide.
FIVE-DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TONIGHT
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
51
41
42
A few showers early, then
a little rain
Still cloudy and breezy
with a little rain
ALMANAC
Mostly cloudy
Full
Last
Apr 29
Salem
41/55
Newport
42/51
Coos Bay
41/53
New
May 7
May 15
Baker
32/50
Ontario
37/56
Bend
30/48
Burns
26/47
Klamath Falls
23/48
Lakeview
20/45
Ashland
34/53
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
TOMORROW'S TIDES
Astoria / Port Docks
Time
9:24 a.m.
9:20 p.m.
Low
-0.5 ft.
1.5 ft.
REGIONAL CITIES
City
Baker City
Bend
Brookings
Eugene
Ilwaco
Klamath Falls
Medford
Newberg
Newport
North Bend
Hi
50
46
50
49
51
43
53
50
50
50
Today
Lo
32
30
40
38
43
23
36
40
42
41
W
pc
c
sh
r
r
sf
r
r
r
r
Hi
50
48
52
53
50
48
55
52
51
53
Tues.
Lo
27
29
41
37
42
28
38
38
41
40
W
pc
c
c
r
r
pc
c
r
r
r
City
Olympia
Pendleton
Portland
Roseburg
Salem
Seaside
Spokane
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Yakima
Hi
49
52
52
51
52
50
47
49
51
57
Today
Lo
40
41
43
40
41
43
36
39
42
41
W
r
c
r
r
r
r
sh
r
r
c
Hi
52
53
55
55
55
51
49
53
53
60
Tues.
Lo
38
35
42
39
39
40
32
35
40
37
W
r
pc
r
r
r
r
pc
sn
r
pc
TOMORROW'S NATIONAL WEATHER
NATIONAL CITIES
Hi
55
51
38
76
41
41
89
47
82
39
52
77
65
57
82
48
70
60
71
62
48
72
56
49
59
John Day
34/48
La Grande
34/47
Roseburg
40/55
Brookings
40/52
UNDER THE SKY
Today
Lo
39
42
26
45
24
29
64
20
73
29
31
49
48
43
57
35
51
42
56
40
32
34
47
43
40
Prineville
30/50
Lebanon
40/53
Medford
36/55
Tonight's Sky: Hercules emerging into the eastern
evening sky before midnight.
High
9.2 ft.
8.0 ft.
Pendleton
41/53
The Dalles
44/57
Portland
43/55
Eugene
38/53
Sunset tonight ........................... 8:04 p.m.
Sunrise Tuesday .......................... 6:26 a.m.
Moonrise today ........................... 7:16 a.m.
Moonset today ........................... 9:00 p.m.
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Denver
Des Moines
Detroit
El Paso
Fairbanks
Honolulu
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Los Angeles
Memphis
Miami
Nashville
New Orleans
New York
Oklahoma City
Philadelphia
St. Louis
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
Seattle
Washington, DC
Intervals of clouds and
sun
Mainly cloudy and milder
Tillamook
42/50
SUN AND MOON
Time
2:40 a.m.
3:35 p.m.
57
44
Shown is tomorrow's weather. Temperatures are tonight's lows and tomorrow's highs.
ASTORIA
42/51
Precipitation
Sunday ............................................. 0.77"
Month to date ................................... 8.30"
Normal month to date ....................... 2.87"
Year to date .................................... 31.53"
Normal year to date ........................ 27.71"
Apr 22
FRIDAY
57
40
REGIONAL WEATHER
Astoria through Sunday.
Temperatures
High/low ....................................... 48°/39°
Normal high/low ........................... 56°/41°
Record high ............................ 81° in 1947
Record low ............................. 30° in 1967
First
THURSDAY
57
39
W
s
r
sf
pc
s
sn
pc
s
sh
c
s
s
pc
s
s
c
s
r
s
r
pc
pc
t
r
sh
Hi
72
52
44
63
53
42
85
48
82
52
65
69
70
76
79
73
79
50
83
51
62
51
62
54
54
Tues.
Lo
54
37
32
29
35
28
54
24
73
36
43
51
53
60
63
55
61
40
53
40
52
35
49
42
41
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
W
s
c
pc
pc
pc
pc
s
s
pc
pc
pc
s
s
s
s
s
s
c
pc
c
pc
sn
s
r
pc
S E D R O - W O O L L E Y,
Wash. — In the Skagit River
Valley rippling through a tiny
portion of northwest Wash-
ington, farmers and ranchers
say they are overrun by elk,
the consequence of a continu-
ing effort by wildlife manag-
ers to enlarge the North Cas-
cades herd.
Efforts to increase the num-
ber of elk in northwest Wash-
ington go back more than a
century. In 1912, Skagit County
brought in 46 elk from Yellow-
stone National Park to increase
the herd. Poachers took the elk,
according to state Department
of Fish and Wildlife records. In
the late 1940s, the state released
22 elk from King and Yakima
counties. They became the
foundation of today’s herd.
The most recent importa-
tion of elk came between 2003
and 2005, when 98 elk from
the Mount St. Helens area in
southern Washington were
rounded up by the Department
of Fish and Wildlife and Indian
tribes. The animals were
herded by helicopter through
livestock chutes, loaded on
horse trailers and driven north
to Skagit County.
They were let go not far
from the farms and ranches
east of Sedro-Woolley. The
herd grew, as intended, and
farmers started seeing elk in
their fields, more each year.
Elk, once rare, are common
now. They calve in the val-
ley, stay year-round and make
farming and ranching there
more difficult and expensive.
The elk eat hay grown for
livestock, bust fences, dig up
potatoes and stunt trees by
gnawing on the bark. Farm-
ers worry about their livestock
escaping through the broken
fences or becoming infected
with hoof rot, a disease that
plagues elk.
The farmers say they are
frustrated, both by the bur-
geoning elk population and the
lack of cooperation from wild-
life managers.
Tall order
Farmers had no say in the
importation of elk that began
15 years ago.
“They didn’t ask us. They
just dumped them on our prop-
erty,” said John Jonasson, a
hog and beef producer whose
family has farmed in the val-
ley since 1870. “We don’t hate
the elk. We hate the numbers.”
Elk are a widespread prob-
lem in the Pacific Northwest,
where they number nearly
300,000 and cause agricul-
tural damage throughout the
region. Farmers on the Olym-
pic Peninsula, in the Columbia
Gorge, Eastern Oregon, west-
ern Idaho and elsewhere have
all recently reported increasing
damage caused by elk.
Washington state has an
estimated 50,000 and 60,000
elk in 10 herds. The North Cas-
cades herd near Sedro-Wool-
ley is the state’s smallest.
The Fish and Wildlife
Department, which co-man-
ages the herd with nine Native
American tribes, is working on
a new herd plan. The tribes,
who secured hunting rights by
signing the 1855 Point Elliott
Treaty, oppose submitting
the plan to the Legislature for
approval, but state lawmakers
made a gesture and put into a
spending bill instructions to
Fish and Wildlife to have a
plan by the end of the summer
to minimize the number of elk
on private land and maximize
the number of elk on public
land.
Amy Windrope, Fish and
Wildlife’s acting deputy direc-
tor, said it won’t be easy.
Woman who drove SUV with family
off cliff was drunk, police say
By OLGA R.
RODRIGUEZ
Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO — A
woman was drunk when she
drove her large family off a
Northern California cliff last
month and her wife and several
children had large amounts of
a drug in their systems that can
cause drowsiness, authorities
said Friday.
Police had previously said
they believed the Hart fam-
ily died in a suicide plunge
from a scenic overlook. The
crash happened just days after
authorities in Washington state
opened an investigation fol-
lowing allegations the children
were being neglected.
Preliminary
toxicology
tests found Jennifer Hart had
an alcohol level of 0.10, said
California Patrol Capt. Bruce
Carpenter. California drivers
are considered drunk with a
level of 0.08 or higher.
Toxicology tests also found
that her wife Sarah Hart and two
of their children had “a signifi-
cant amount” of an ingredient
commonly found in the allergy
drug Benadryl, which can make
people sleepy. Toxicology
results for a third child killed are
still pending, Carpenter said.
Carpenter said none of the
car’s occupants were wearing
seatbelts.
Sarah and Jennifer Hart
and their six adopted children
were believed to be in the fam-
ily’s SUV when it plunged off
a cliff in Mendocino County,
more than 160 miles north of
San Francisco.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy,
sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow fl urries,
sn-snow, i-ice.
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Knappa School Board, 5:30
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library, 41535 Old U.S. Highway
30.
Youngs River Lewis & Clark Wa-
ter District Board, 6 p.m., 34583
U.S. Highway 101 Business.
Astoria City Council, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
Jewell School Board, 7:30 p.m.,
Jewell School library, 83874
Oregon Highway 103.
TUESDAY
Cannon Beach Public Works
Committee, 9 a.m., City Hall,
163 E. Gower St.
Port of Astoria Commission, 4
p.m., Port offices, 10 Pier 1 Suite
209.
Seaside School District Board
OREGON
Sunday’s Pick 4:
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4 p.m.: 1-7-4-0
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Estimated jackpot: $15,000
Saturday’s Pick 4:
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4 p.m.: 4-5-4-9
7 p.m.: 7-7-0-3
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Saturday’s Lucky Lines: 03-08-
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Estimated jackpot: $13,000
Saturday’s Megabucks: 1-2-
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Friday’s Pick 4:
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4 p.m.: 2-4-1-5
7 p.m.: 6-7-7-0
10 p.m.: 2-6-5-6
Friday’s Lucky Lines: 04-07-
12-15-19-22-27-29
Estimated jackpot: $12,000
Friday’s Mega Millions: 8-9-
32-42-59, Mega Ball: 10
Estimated jackpot: $67 million
WASHINGTON
Sunday’s Daily Game: 5-2-4
Sunday’s Keno: 03-05-08-09-
11-13-15-22-26-29-30-39-43-
46-54-58-60-67-70-73
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Astoria Historic Landmarks
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Seaside Planning Commission,
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Shoreline Sanitary District
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Warrenton.
LOTTERIES
The Daily Astorian
Before implants
She agreed with farmers’
fundamental complaint. “We
need to get way more effective
in getting the elk off the valley
floor,” Windrope said.
Beyond that, managing the
elk gets more difficult, she said.
A large-scale culling of the herd
would cause an uproar from
valley residents who enjoy the
elk, and the state must respect
the treaty rights of the tribes.
“Finding a way forward is
really tricky,” Windrope said.
“I think it’s not happening fast
enough for ag folks.”
Upper Skagit tribe policy
representative Scott Schuyler
said the tribe doesn’t want to
see farms harmed, but it also
wants a healthy elk herd.
“It’s always going to be our
objective,” he said. “We real-
ize it could be problematic for
some, but we’re fortunate that
we have the environment here
to allow wildlife to remain here.
“We recognize there is
a balancing act we have to
achieve,” he said. “The reality
is not everybody is going to be
100 percent happy.”
Fish and Wildlife’s plan to
move elk out of the valley floor
will include hunting, hazing,
fences, creating elk habitat in
the hills and issuing permits to
farmers to shoot damage-caus-
ing elk.
Some farmers, though, are
pessimistic. The plan doesn’t
represent anything new, they
say. The department already
does those things.
“We’re not seeing any mea-
surable improvements,” Skagit
County Farm Bureau President
Bill Schmidt said.
Skagit County Cattleman’s
Association Vice President
Randy Good said he’s losing
hope the state will come up
with something helpful.
“Things aren’t getting any
better,” Good said. “They’re
going to get worse.”
Published daily, except Saturday and Sunday, by EO Media Group,
949 Exchange St., PO Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103 Telephone 503-
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Sunday’s Match 4: 15-18-20-
21
Saturday’s Daily Game: 6-6-6
Saturday’s Hit 5: 12-16-30-
32-33
Estimated jackpot: $130,000
Saturday’s Keno: 02-03-04-07-
09-18-19-24-25-33-45-48-49-
53-55-58-59-64-69-80
Saturday’s Lotto: 01-04-12-
14-36-38
Estimated jackpot: $4.2 million
Saturday’s Match 4: 04-13-
15-24
Sunday’s Daily Game: 2-8-6
Sunday’s Keno: 04-07-15-18-
22-23-25-29-35-37-44-48-49-
50-52-53-57-58-62-80
Sunday’s Match 4: 05-06-12-
20
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