3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2018
Oyster growers to Old growth could be key
appeal after state
for native songbird species
denies pesticide use
Associated Press
Associated Press
SOUTH BEND, Wash. — A
group of oyster growers say they’ll
appeal after state regulators denied
their request to use a pesticide to con-
trol burrowing shrimp in oyster and
clam beds in Willapa Bay and Grays
Harbor.
The Department of Ecology on
Thursday denied the permit. They said
mounting scientific research confirms
that the insecticide imidacloprid poses
“too great a risk” to the environment.
The president of the Willapa Grays
Harbor Oyster Growers Association,
Ken Wiegardt, called the state’s deci-
sion a blatantly political one and said
the group would appeal.
The group says in the meantime
burrowing shrimp are destroying oys-
ter beds and damaging an industry that
contributes millions to the regional
economy.
State officials said the pesticide
would harm invertebrates that live in
the sediment, and affect fish and birds
when their food sources are disrupted.
It’s a reversal from 2015 when
the agency approved a similar per-
mit, saying the pesticide was unlikely
to result in significant harm to the
environment.
The association withdrew that per-
mit amid public outcry. In 2016, a
smaller group of about a dozen oyster
growers applied to reinstate the per-
mit, triggering environmental review.
Growers have said that failing to
control the shrimp will have a signif-
icant impact on the shellfish industry
and local economy.
BLUE RIVER — Hotter, drier
summers are having an impact on
some of the migrating songbirds that
come to Oregon and Washington
state to breed each spring.
Oregon Public Broadcasting
reports that because of rising tem-
peratures, the areas where hermit
warblers can live and find food are
shrinking by up to 4 percent each
year. Now researchers with Oregon
State University are developing an
experiment to track the tiny song-
birds through the Pacific Northwest.
Oregon State researchers have
already found that warbler popula-
tions declined in areas with young
forests but in some cases increased
in old growth forests despite the
warming climate. Researchers Han-
kyu Kim and Adam Hadley are con-
ducting a new experiment to deter-
Greg Davis
Oregon State’s Hankyu Kim set
a decoy designed to trigger the
territorial instinct of hermit war-
blers. The small songbirds will be
caught, tagged and released so
their movements can be tracked.
mine why the warblers are doing
better in old growth areas.
Kim has gotten inside the head of
the hermit warbler. He knows what
makes the tiny songbird tick.
“These birds are territorial in the
breeding ground, they set up their
territories and they fight with each
other to defend it,” he said.
Kim uses a nearly invisible net
strung between two fishing pools,
a plastic warbler decoy and a loop-
ing bird-call recording to lure hermit
warblers so they can be captured,
tagged and released. The tiny radio
tag allows Kim and Hadley to track
the birds through the dense forests of
the Oregon Cascades.
They hope to determine how the
birds use the forests and whether
they use the temperature variations
between the top and the bottom of
the forest canopies to mitigate the
effects of climate change.
Hadley says it’s possible that
when it’s warmer, the birds stay to
the bottom and more shady parts of
the trees.
Learning how the birds move
could help explain how warblers
and other species deal with rising
temperatures.
Graves: Morgan’s family does
not plan on taking anything down
Continued from Page 1A
could remain in place through
Morgan’s birthday on Sept. 22.
The family now has until Oct.
5 to remove the items.
“We’re hoping to get some
resolution in the near future to
either have the family remove
it, or have our staff respectfully
remove it and store it until the
family can make arrangements
to retrieve the items,” Dart-Mc-
Lean said.
But Morgan’s family does
not plan on taking anything
down.
Jeanne
Morgan-Reeves,
Morgan’s mother, said the fam-
ily has long maintained the
gravesite themselves: mow-
ing, weeding and even replac-
ing sod. For a family that is still
grieving, the decorations lend a
sense of peacefulness.
Morgan-Reeves believes
the decor should stay in place
and argues that the Parks and
Recreation Department has not
held up its end of the bargain in
caring for gravesites.
It is not the first time fami-
lies have made this type of crit-
icism against Astoria.
Ocean View Cemetery
is located in Warrenton, but
owned and managed by Asto-
ria. People with loved ones bur-
ied in the cemetery, along with
Warrenton city commissioners,
have complained Astoria has
not maintained the cemetery
grounds to the standard of per-
petual care.
In the past, the Parks and
Recreation Department said
maintenance has been minimal
at the cemetery due to budget
cuts, thinly stretched resources
and lack of staffing. This year,
the department hired a tem-
porary worker to focus solely
on the cemetery. Volunteers
from several groups, including
the Coast Guard and Tongue
Point Job Corps Center, also
put in time at the cemetery this
summer.
“The cemetery is in pretty
good shape for what can be
done without significant addi-
tional investment,” Dart-Mc-
Lean said.
Decorations like the ones on
Morgan’s grave make it diffi-
cult to maintain the grounds or,
in some cases, perform burials
at neighboring plots, he added.
It is an uncomfortable and dif-
ficult position, but the depart-
ment cannot make any excep-
tions to the rules, Dart-McLean
said.
Morgan’s family and
friends, however, are not con-
vinced. Morgan-Reeves intends
to press the city on the issue.
“Jade was so well-loved
and touched so many lives,”
she said. “That little bench out
there is not hurting anyone.”
Melissa Anne Westley
The Astoria Parks and Recreation Department wants a family to remove decorations on
a grave at Ocean View Cemetery.
It gets the job done the first time.
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