4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2018
Pelicans: Migrate north from California, Mexico
Continued from Page 1A
a maximum documented life
span of 43 years.
“They don’t have to breed
every year, but making sure
they have those food resources,
that’s the big story of making
sure this species is going to do
well into the future,” she said.
It isn’t uncommon for wild-
life center workers to have
starving pelicans on their
hands while the birds are up
here. Sometimes pelicans stay
north for too long, into late fall
and early winter, and get stuck
when food runs out.
But researchers say to
have young pelicans arriv-
ing in Clatsop County in this
condition points to issues that
began earlier in the migration.
The birds are also showing
up later than they have in the
past, according to the Fish and
Wildlife Service. But so are
other bird species.
Six to seven California
brown pelicans circled Cas-
tle Rock in the last seconds
before 5 p.m. on Saturday. But
they flew over to the far side
of the large offshore rock near
Arch Cape and disappeared
from view so Nadia Gard-
ner, an environmental advo-
cate and Arch Cape resident,
didn’t count them. She and
other volunteers — citizen sci-
entists — were keeping an eye
out for brown pelicans as they
returned to historic roost sites
for the evening, participating
in a survey up and down the
West Coast.
The survey is a collabo-
ration between the Fish and
Wildlife Service, Cornell Lab
of Ornithology, state agen-
cies, Audubon Society groups
along the West Coast and Con-
servacion de Islas. It occurs
once in the spring and once
in the fall in an effort to count
and observe the birds across
their range. The next survey is
scheduled for September.
Biologist Deborah Jaques,
who has studied the birds on
and off for decades, wants to
pay more attention to the pel-
icans’ nonbreeding range,
which includes historic night-
time roosts like Castle Rock
and East Sand Island in the
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Biologist Deborah Jaques, left, and Reva Lipe take measurements of a brown pelican at the Wildlife Center of the North Coast.
Katie Frankowicz/The Daily Astorian
Nadia Gardner, a local environmental advocate, leads a
group of citizen scientists documenting brown pelicans
and other seabirds during a recent survey.
Reva Lipe and Josh Saranpaa examine a brown pelican in
an enclosure.
Columbia River estuary. She
has created an organization
that she hopes will be able to
monitor roost sites on on a
monthly basis.
Researchers with Oregon
State University study the tern
colony that nests on East Sand
East Sand Island isn’t just
a home away from home for
pelicans or a honeymoon
spot for amorous terns. It
also hosts a massive dou-
ble-crested cormorant col-
ony that has come under fire
— literally — in recent years.
Column: City’s policy
has been to allow lighting
effects only twice a year
Continued from Page 1A
happening in their schools to
prevent that, and the people
in lots of working-class con-
ditions who are unable to be
out in their lives and in their
employment because those
conditions are unsafe.
“So hopefully the rain-
bow on the Column will be
a bit of a beacon for people
in town.”
Pride Week begins June
3 and marks the third such
celebration in Astoria.
The city’s policy has
been to allow lighting effects
on the Column only twice a
year. However, prompted by
new requests last year and
the request this year from the
Astoria Pride Committee,
the City Council asked the
Friends of the Astoria Col-
umn to develop a new policy.
The group already handles
maintenance at the hill-
top park and was interested
in taking over the responsi-
bility of handling lighting
requests as well.
But the Friends group was
not able to meet and develop
a draft policy in time for the
City Council to review it and
still be able to consider the
Astoria Pride Committee’s
request in time for Pride
Week. The City Council
opted to make an exception
to the twice-per-year lighting
policy and allow the Column
to be lit for Pride Week while
the Friends group continues
working on a draft.
The Friends plan to bring
a draft policy to the coun-
cil for consideration in July,
according to Parks and Rec-
reation Director Angela
Cosby.
The city first lit the Col-
umn in 2013 — pink for
breast cancer awareness
month. In 2014, teal light
bathed the Column to rec-
ognize sexual assault aware-
ness and child abuse aware-
ness month. The two original
colors and the two causes
they represent have contin-
ued to illumine the Column
each year.
While city councilors
voted unanimously to allow
the Astoria Pride Commit-
tee’s request, some coun-
cilors have said they would
prefer the Column not be lit
with different colors in the
future.
Councilor Cindy Price
said that, in her opinion, the
Column “should be treated
like the Washington Monu-
ment” — the marble obelisk
in Washington, D.C., built
to honor the country’s first
president, George Washing-
ton — and be lit only with
white light.
Councilor Zetty Nem-
lowill, who was not pres-
ent Monday night, said at a
previous meeting that if the
city was going to light the
Column, councilors should
stick to the policy of only
lighting it twice a year. She
supported the idea of allow-
ing the Friends of the Asto-
ria Column to handle light-
ing requests.
“In terms of prioritiz-
ing (the parks department’s)
efforts right now, lighting the
Column doesn’t seem like it
should be a priority right
now,” Nemlowill said in
March, referring to ongoing
efforts to make the depart-
ment more sustainable. She
also thought there could be
more meaningful ways to
support worthy causes than
lighting the Column.
Mayor Arline LaMear
disagreed. “If it isn’t over-
used, when you look up at
the Column and you see a
color up there, you’re going
to ask why, and I think it
does bring a reason to chang-
ing the color at the Column,”
she said.
Island. They spend some time
monitoring the pelicans, too,
but Jaques believes more mon-
itoring is necessary to under-
stand how the pelicans use the
area, what they eat and what
pressures they face during the
time they spend here.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers has management
plans in place for the terns
and the cormorants and has
restricted their nesting hab-
itat, hazed both species and
spent several seasons shoot-
ing adult double-crested cor-
morants in an effort to control
their growing numbers and
protect young salmon from
predation.
The agency will not shoot
cormorants this year, but will
haze the birds and destroy
nests.
“They’ve come all this
way, they’re relying on this
northern (anchovy) stock,
they need somewhere to rest,”
Jaques said. “Can they rest
there and what does salmon
restoration and hazing of
other birds (mean), how does
that affect them?”
East Sand Island is ideal
for pelicans in many ways,
McDowell said. It is located
in a food-rich environment,
it provides a relatively safe
place to gather in large num-
bers and it hosts other sea and
water bird species.
Several
years
ago,
researchers reported that
brown pelicans were build-
ing nests on East Sand Island.
None of the nests were suc-
cessful, but it marked the
northernmost brown pel-
ican nesting activity ever
recorded.
“It provides a potential
northern breeding habitat if
southern regions become less
suitable for nesting,” said
Tim Lawes, an Oregon State
wildlife biologist and senior
faculty research assistant.
Lawes echoed theories
also expressed by Dan Roby,
a seabird ecologist with the
university, several years
earlier.
In 2014, Roby told
reporters with Oregon Pub-
lic Broadcasting the birds’
migratory patterns had been
shifting northward for three
decades, mirroring a shift by
similar pelican species on the
East Coast. The East Coast
birds were also expanding
their breeding range. All were
changes Roby attributed to
climate change.
There are an estimated
70,700 breeding pairs of Cal-
ifornia brown pelicans. Of the
thousands that flock to East
Sand Island, only three to
15 pairs have ever been seen
attempting to build nests or
breed there, McDowell noted.
Session: Gov. Brown called a
one-day special session Monday
Continued from Page 1A
to expand the state’s lower tax
rate for “pass-through” busi-
nesses to sole proprietors.
Expanding the tax break
will cost about $11.3 million
in 2018, $11.8 million in 2019
and $12.5 million in 2020. The
cost continues to increase each
subsequent year, said Chris
Allanach, acting legislative
revenue officer.
Many House Republicans
criticized the governor’s deci-
sion to sign Senate Bill 1528
into law and to call a special
session on an issue that isn’t an
emergency.
“I think we can all agree
that this is an emergency man-
ufactured by the governor,”
said state Rep. Knute Buehler,
R-Bend, who is challenging
Brown in the governor’s race
this year.
Rep. Phil Barnhart, D-Eu-
gene, said the bill makes an
important fix.
“This bill only deals with
an omission from the 2013 law
that will make it fairer for the
businesses that choose to orga-
nize as sole (proprietors),”
Barnhart said.
About 100 demonstrators
affiliated with the Democratic
Socialists of America and the
Poor People’s Campaign con-
verged on the Oregon Capitol
steps just after noon Monday
to protest the expansion of the
business tax break.
“We reject this special ses-
sion and everything it stands
for — a choice to increase the
wealth and the comfort of the
few at the top at the expense
of those struggling at the bot-
tom,” said Olivia Katbi-Smith,
co-chairwoman of the Portland
chapter of Democratic Social-
ists of America. “It’s not time
to give tax breaks to the rich;
it’s time to tax the rich and
invest in our communities and
fully fund our state.”
A special session should
Paris Achen/Capital Bureau
Sheena Sisk of northeast Portland, a member of the Dem-
ocratic Socialists of America, plays Gov. Kate Brown in a
skit during a demonstration against the governor’s leg-
islation to expand a business tax break during a special
legislative session in Salem Monday. This scene depicts
monied special interests capturing Brown.
Paris Achen/Capital Bureau
Members of the Oregon Poor People’s Campaign and the
Democratic Socialists of America demonstrate against
Gov. Kate Brown’s special legislative session Monday.
address adequate funding for
education, jobs, a living wage,
housing, help for immigrant
and refugee communities and
ending systemic racism, Kat-
bi-Smith said.
In
2013,
lawmakers
approved a lower tax rate for
some “pass-through” busi-
nesses, including S-corpora-
tions, limited liability corpo-
rations and partnerships with
certain amounts of employ-
ment hours and income of up
to $5 million per year. At that
time, sole proprietors were
excluded. The governor’s bill
changed that.
Sen. Mark Hass, D-Bea-
verton, a member of the Joint
Committee on Sole Propri-
etors, expressed reservations
about the move to expand
the current policy. He voted
“no” on the bill because, he
said, the effects of the exist-
ing policy are not yet known
and still need to be analyzed,
after more time has passed and
there is more data to gauge its
effectiveness.
“I think that’s been our
problem in the last couple of
years, and we’ve attempted
to fiddle with this, is nobody
can say for sure whether it’s
freeing up capital or creating
jobs or anything else,” Hass
said, “And so until we have a
definitive study or analysis on
this it’s hard for me to support
expanding it.”
Sen. Sara Gelser, D-Cor-
vallis, also voted against the
bill.
Rep. David Gomberg,
D-Central Coast, and other
lawmakers had proposed sev-
eral changes to make the tax
break revenue neutral and to
focus on helping small busi-
nesses, but none of those
amendments were voted on
before the legislation was
moved to the floor for a vote.
Gomberg had proposed
amending the bill to reduce
the income cap to be eligible
for the tax break from $5 mil-
lion to $750,000. Reducing the
eligibility cap by that amount
would make the expansion of
the tax break largely revenue
neutral, meaning it wouldn’t
have cost anything, Allanach
said.
Gomberg’s
amendment
also would have reduced the
requirement that businesses
have at least one employee
working 1,200 hours a year to
1,000 hours per year.
It would have eliminated
the mandatory 30-hour min-
imum work week to qual-
ify for the break. The 30-hour
requirement excludes seasonal
businesses, Gomberg said.
By opening the tax break to
seasonal businesses and reduc-
ing the income cap, the expan-
sion of the tax break would
have targeted “mom and pop”
businesses with lower profit
margins, without cutting into
state revenues, he said.
In discussions with the
Governor’s Office about his
proposal, “there was no real
resistance to it, but we’re in a
time bind,” Gomberg said.
The session corresponded
with the beginning of the Leg-
islature’s quarterly committee
meetings in Salem, which are
scheduled through Wednesday.