3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2018
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
The sun is seen through smoky air as it sets Sunday behind the Narrows Bridge in Tacoma, Wash.
Smoke blots out mountains, poses health risks
Unhealthy
air quality
from fires
By SALLY HO and
GILLIAN FLACCUS
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Smoke from
wildfires clogged the sky
across the West, blotting out
mountains and city skylines
from Oregon to Colorado,
delaying flights and forcing
authorities to tell even healthy
adults in the Seattle area to
stay indoors.
As large cities dealt with
unhealthy air for a second
summer in a row, experts
warned that it could become
more common as the West
faces larger and more destruc-
tive wildfires because of heat
and drought blamed on climate
change. Officials also must
prioritize resources during the
longer firefighting season, so
some blazes may be allowed
to burn in unpopulated areas.
Seattle’s Space Needle
was swathed in haze, and it
was impossible to see nearby
mountains. Portland resi-
dents who were up early saw
a blood-red sun shrouded in
smoke and huffed their way
through another day of pol-
luted air. Portland Public
Schools suspended all outdoor
sports practices.
Thick smoke in Denver
blocked the view of some of
Colorado’s famous mountains
and prompted an air quality
health advisory for the north-
eastern quarter of the state.
The smoky pollution, even
in Colorado, came from wild-
fires in British Columbia
and the Northwest’s Cascade
Mountains, clouding a season
that many spend outdoors.
Portland resident Zach
Simon supervised a group of
children in a summer biking
camp who paused at a huge
water fountain by the Wil-
lamette River, where gray,
smoky haze obscured a view
of Mount Hood.
Simon said he won’t let the
kids ride as far or take part in
as many running games like
tag while the air quality is bad.
“I went biking yesterday,
and I really felt it in my lungs,
and I was really headachy and
‘Today, biking, you can see
the whole city in haze and
you can’t see the skyline.’
Portland resident Zach Simon
like, lethargic,” Simon said
Monday. “Today, biking, you
can see the whole city in haze
and you can’t see the skyline.”
In Colorado, Sid Vaughn,
who works at a Boulder shoe
store called the Boulder Run-
ning Co., did his usual 9-mile
run Monday despite the
smoke.
“It didn’t feel that great to
my lungs,” he said.
Forest fires are com-
mon, but typical Seattle-area
weather pushes it out of the
way quickly. The latest round
of prolonged smoke happened
as hot temperatures and high
pressure collided, said Andrew
Wineke, a spokesman for the
Washington State Depart-
ment of Ecology’s air quality
program.
It’s a rare occurrence that
also happened last year, raising
concerns for many locals that
it may become normal during
wildfire season. Wineke said
climate change is expected to
contribute to many more fires.
“The trend is clear.
You see the number of for-
est fires increasing, and so
there’s going to be wildfires,”
Wineke said. “There’s going
to be smoke. It’s going to be
somewhere.”
The Federal Aviation
Administration said airplanes
bound for the Sea-Tac Inter-
national Airport, Seattle’s
main airport, may be delayed
because of low visibility.
In Spokane, air quality
slipped into the “hazardous”
range. Thick haze hung over
Washington’s second-largest
city, forcing vehicles to turn
on their headlights during the
morning commute.
The air quality was so bad
that everyone, regardless of
physical condition or age, will
likely be affected, according to
the Spokane Regional Clean
Air Agency.
The haze caused Gon-
zaga and Eastern Washington
universities to cancel soccer
matches Sunday, and Spokane
to delay some garbage ser-
vice until Tuesday to protect
workers.
In California, winds blew
smoke from several wildfires
into the San Francisco Bay
Area, where hazy air blan-
keted the skies and authorities
issued an air quality advisory
through Tuesday.
The Bay Area Air Qual-
ity Management District
issued a “Spare the Air” alert,
which recommends people
don’t drive to avoid adding
more pollutants to the air and
advises those with health prob-
lems to limit outdoor exposure
because and stay in air-condi-
tioned buildings.
Health officials say signs
of smoke-related health
symptoms include cough-
ing, scratchy throat, irritated
sinuses, headaches, stinging
eyes and runny nose. Those
with heart disease may expe-
rience chest pain, irregular
heartbeats, shortness of breath
and fatigue.
Patients
at
Denver’s
National Jewish Health, a
respiratory hospital, were
reporting worsening symp-
toms, hospital spokesman
Adam Dormuth said.
In Portland, six tour-
ists from Lincoln, Nebraska,
posed for a photo in front of
the Willamette River with the
usual Mount Hood backdrop
shrouded in haze. The group
of siblings and friends rented
an RV and drove in to visit a
sister who recently moved to
the area.
“We are disappointed that
we can’t see the mountains
and the whole city, because
our relatives live here and tell
us how pretty it is, and we’re
missing it,” Bev Harris said.
“We’re from tornado alley, and
we don’t have wildfires. It’s a
different experience.”
Flaccus reported from
Portland. Associated Press
reporters Nicholas K. Gera-
nios in Spokane, Dan Elliott in
Denver and Olga Rodriguez in
San Francisco contributed to
this story.
Washington state judge blocks kill order on predatory wolves
Togo wolf pack
poses a threat
to ranchers
By NICHOLAS K.
GERANIOS
Associated Press
SPOKANE, Wash. — A
judge in Washington state has
issued an emergency order
blocking the state from killing
members of a wolf pack that
have been preying on cattle.
The Department of Fish
and Wildlife had announced
Monday morning that it would
immediately begin efforts to
kill members of the wolf pack
who had been preying on cattle
in northeastern Ferry County,
near the Canadian border.
Members of the Togo wolf
pack have preyed on cat-
tle three times in the past 30
days and six times in the past
10 months, which exceeds the
state’s threshold to take action,
the agency said.
But two environmental
groups filed a lawsuit chal-
lenging that decision, and a
Thurston County Superior
‘The evidence shows
that nonlethal measures
have not been successful,
and the pack will continue
preying on livestock
unless we take action to
change its behavior.’
Kelly Susewind
WDFW director
Court judge on Monday after-
noon issued an order to tempo-
rarily block the hunt. A hear-
ing on the matter was set for
Aug. 31.
In a news release, agency
director Kelly Susewind said
the department planned to
shoot the wolves from heli-
copters or on the ground. “The
evidence shows that nonle-
thal measures have not been
successful, and the pack will
continue preying on live-
stock unless we take action to
change its behavior,” Susew-
ind said.
The agency uses a policy of
incremental removal, killing
one or a few wolves at a time.
The Center for Biological
Diversity and Cascadia Wild-
lands immediately sued, con-
tending the order to kill wolves
failed to undergo an environ-
mental analysis.
“It’s outrageous that Wash-
ington wildlife officials want
to kill more wolves from the
state’s small and recovering
wolf population,” said Amaroq
Weiss of the Center for Bio-
logical Diversity.
“Washingtonians
over-
whelmingly want wolves
recovered,” she said. “This is
not the Old West anymore.”
Since 2012, the state has
killed 18 wolves, eradicating
three entire wolf packs, the
environmental groups said.
In the case of the Togo
pack, the attacks on cattle
started last November, with
an injured calf. The rancher
took numerous steps to deter
wolves, including using lights
and range riders, the agency
said.
But three dead cows and
two more injured calves were
discovered in the next 10
months, including an injured
calf found Saturday on a U.S.
Forest Service grazing allot-
ment in Ferry County.
“The injured calf had bite
lacerations and bite puncture
wounds to the outside lower
left hindquarter, the left ham-
string, the inside of the left
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hock and the groin area,” the
agency said. The wounds were
consistent with a wolf attack,
officials said.
The last estimate of Togo
pack size was two adult wolves
and an unknown number of
pups, the agency said. The
existence of the Togo pack,
found near the U.S.-Canada
border, was only confirmed in
late 2017.
Wolves were wiped out in
Washington early in the last
century. They started to return
from Canada and Idaho in the
past 20 years. Washington con-
firmed its first breeding pack in
2008.
The wolves are federally
protected in the western two-
thirds of the state and pro-
tected by law statewide.
The latest count of wolves,
conducted last winter, found
a minimum of 122 wolves in
22 packs, with 14 success-
ful breeding pairs. Most packs
are in northeastern Washing-
ton, where there have been
numerous conflicts with cattle
producers.