3A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2018
Climate change hits national
parks harder than rest of US
By COURTNEY FLATT
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Climate change is heating
up national parks much faster
than the rest of the U.S. That’s
according to a first-of-its-
kind study that looked all 417
national parks, including those
in the Pacific Northwest.
The study found that
national parks are especially
hard hit by climate change, in
part, because of their locations
at high elevations, in arid des-
erts or Arctic zones, said Pat-
rick Gonzalez, study co-author
and climate change scientist at
the University of California,
Berkeley.
“National parks aren’t a
random sample — they are
remarkable places and many
happen to be in extreme envi-
ronments,” Gonzalez said in
a news release. “Many are in
places that are inherently more
exposed to human-caused cli-
mate change.”
The researchers found that,
historically, temperatures in
national parks increased at
double the rate of the rest of
the country. They also found
participation decreased more
rapidly in many national parks
than other parts of the U.S.
“We found that human-
caused climate change has
caused impacts in places where
we found significant historical
temperature increases,” Gon-
zalez said. “Glaciers melting
in Glacier Bay National Park
in Alaska. Bark beetles killing
trees in Yellowstone National
Park. Vegetation shifting ups-
lope in Yosemite National Park
in California.”
Looking forward, if emis-
sions stay the way they are
now, that could mean average
temperatures in the most vul-
nerable national parks could
increase by 16 degrees Fahren-
heit by 2100, according to the
study.
The study was published
in the journal Environmental
Research Letters.
In the Northwest, the two
parks that have historically
seen the biggest average tem-
perature increases are Wash-
ington’s North Cascades
National Park and the Oregon
Caves National Monument and
Preserve, Gonzalez said. Both
have seen average temperature
increases of about 2.9 degrees
Fahrenheit per century.
And that can dramatically
change the temperatures at
high elevations.
“It’s the equivalent of (low-
ering) a mountain two times
the height of the Washington
Monument, from cooler areas
at high elevations to warmer
areas down lower,” Gonzalez
said.
The North Cascades are
already seeing dramatic effects
of a warming climate, said Jon
Riedel, a geologist at the park.
For the last 25 years, he’s mon-
itored glaciers at the North
Cascades, Mount Rainier and
Olympic national parks.
“I’ve witnessed quite a bit
of change in that time — mea-
sured quite a bit of change,”
Riedel said.
Over the past 100 years,
Riedel said, the area in the
North Cascades covered by
glaciers has shrunk by more
than 50 percent.
He’s looked at what that
means for the surrounding
ecosystem. He found that
the recession of glaciers has
impacted the summer melt into
the Skagit watershed. Over
30 years, the lost ice added
up to around 800 billion gal-
lons of water, or three cubic
kilometers.
“That was pretty staggering
to see how much ice has been
lost,” Riedel said.
That impacts summer
streamflow in the Skagit River.
(All of the glaciers in the
Skagit watershed contribute
about 10 percent of the sum-
mer streamflow right now, Rie-
del said.)
He said the North Cascades
have also seen flood regimes
change, especially in colder
parts of the park — near the
Stehekin Valley. Floods used
to happen in the spring when
National Park Service
The River Styx could become the nation’s first under-
ground Wild and Scenic river with a proposed expansion
of the Oregon Caves National Monument.
snow melted. Now, the area is
more often flooding in the fall,
as precipitation changes.
All that can lead to other
broad ecosystem changes, Rie-
del said: trees invading mead-
ows, changes in water tem-
perature and quality, loss of
habitat for species like gla-
cier worms, which are prey for
birds like rosy finches.
“So a pretty big ripple effect
through the landscape with the
loss of glaciers,” Riedel said.
Nationally, the study Gon-
zalez worked on predicts parks
in Alaska will be the most
vulnerable to temperature
increases. Parks in the U.S.
Virgin Islands may see the
most decreases in rainfall.
No other study had previ-
ously looked at the severity of
climate change across all the
country’s national parks.
In the future, these predic-
tions could spell trouble for
many national parks. More
wildfire in Yellowstone, the
death of Joshua trees, the pos-
sible disappearance of pikas in
Lassen Volcanic National Park
in California, Gonzalez said.
The researchers have provided
information to the national
parks, Gonzalez said, to help
with management decisions.
But the future isn’t all dire,
he said.
“Our actions — reducing
carbon pollution from cars,
power plants, and other human
sources — can save parks from
the most heat,” Gonzalez said.
Reducing emissions could
reduce temperature increase by
half to two-thirds by the end of
the century, he said.
Consult
Oregon bans tree-killing herbicide
a
amid sweeping state investigation PROFESSIONAL
Forest Service to
log dying trees
By EMILY CURETON
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The herbicide is called ami-
nocyclopyrachlor. You might
not be able to say it, but it was
once a common weed killer
used by the Oregon Depart-
ment of Transportation and
other public entities. Then, last
week, Oregon became the first
state in the U.S. to temporarily
ban it from rights of way.
The Oregon Department
of Agriculture is investigat-
ing potentially widespread
tree damage because of the
chemical.
“What we’re trying to get
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Dead and dying ponderosa pines line Highway 20 near Sisters.
a handle on is, is this occur-
ring in other areas? We are
starting to hear about a situa-
tion in Eastern Washington,”
said Rose Kachadoorian, pesti-
cide program manager with the
agriculture department.
In Central Oregon, she said
trees were poisoned in at least
four locations. The Department
of Agriculture has prohibited
the use of products with ami-
nocyclopyrachlor until April,
and lasting regulation could be
established.
Meanwhile, Kachadoorian
said the agency will exam-
ine paperwork behind years of
spraying in the state.
“And that will give us an
opportunity to have an investi-
gator go back to some of those
areas and take a look — maybe
they used it three years ago,
are we seeing decline at this
point?” Kachadoorian said.
Plans for this in-depth inves-
tigation come more than three
years since a massive tree die
off in Deschutes National For-
est was first linked to the trans-
portation department spraying.
Nearly 1,500 ponderosa pines
near Sisters are standing dead
or dying. Some are hundreds of
years old. The Forest Service
plans to log those trees, rather
than risk a dead tree falling on
Highway 20.
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ASTORIA
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Q: What
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Debate: Brown, Buehler to face off again Thursday
Continued from Page 1A
Brown said she wants to
make sure schools have fund-
ing for counselors, specifically
ones who mirror the back-
grounds and experiences of the
students they serve. She wants
to enforce state policy meant to
keep students safe from bully-
ing and continue meeting with
school superintendents regu-
larly to make sure the policy is
implemented.
Buehler said the governor
can stand on a soapbox and let
the public know bullying isn’t
right. He said he would imple-
ment a hotline to report bully-
ing directly to the Governor’s
Office so the state’s leader
would know firsthand how big
of an issue it is.
Starnes answered as well,
noting his time in schools and
then told Lawrence, “I would
hire you.”
After the hour-long tele-
vised debate, Lawrence said
she took exception to Bue-
hler’s responses to her. She
said it seemed like Buehler was
unprepared for the question,
and it made her wonder how
seriously he took her concern.
“Buehler did not even use
the term LGBT,” she said.
The scene — lasting sev-
eral minutes — was a change
in tone from an otherwise rel-
atively cordial political debate.
Brown, Buehler and Starnes
sat on stools side by side under
stage lights at the north Port-
land high school.
The students picked from
across the state for the debate
stepped to the lectern one at
a time. The candidates each
had a minute to answer — a
time cut in half near the end to
squeeze in more questions. The
debate was organized by Chil-
dren First For Oregon, KOIN
6, and the Pamplin Media
Group.
The youthful questioners
peppered the candidates with
carefully scripted and force-
fully presented questions.
Many touched campaign hot
topics: homelessness, health
care, education, gun control.
Genesis Gomez, 12, of
Portland, asked how the can-
didates would protect farm
workers like those in her fam-
ily from being exposed to
harmful chemicals. Brown
answered in part by declaring
again her opposition to repeal-
ing the state’s sanctuary law,
Measure 105. Her statement
drew the only crowd applause
of the night to an answer.
Dazon Sigo, 17, asked why
schools like his in Pendleton
don’t do a better job of teach-
ing about native history and
culture.
Throughout, the candidates
largely answered the questions
without bickering, though Bue-
hler several times blamed state
problems on Brown’s leader-
ship. Brown largely ignored
the jibes, but did fire back at
one point that action means
more than words.
A few times, the two were
afforded rebuttals to address
direct attacks.
While addressing gun con-
trol, Buehler said he would
support a ban on bump stocks,
raising the minimum age to
purchase a firearm to 21, and
requiring a three-day waiting
period to buy a handgun.
Brown asked for a rebuttal
to point out Buehler’s oppo-
sition to the “red flag” legis-
Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500
Steve Putman
Q: I can’t afford
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DMD, FAGD
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It can pay some or all of Original
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to Brown and Buehler. But
Starnes would not be deterred,
and got in a short, and often
innovative, answer nearly
every time.
When asked how the can-
didates would address climate
change, he said he would work
to build an electric highway to
charge vehicles as they drive.
He said he would impose a
tax on vacant development to
fund mental health. He said he
would also tax advertising to
get money for mental health.
Brown and Buehler will
face off again at a debate
scheduled for Thursday night
in Medford and then next week
in Portland. Starnes has been
excluded from those events.
The Capital Bureau is a col-
laboration between EO Media
Group, Pamplin Media Group
and Salem Reporter.
it the same as a Medi-
gap policy?
ASTORIA
TRANSIT CENTER
WANTED
lation, which allows authori-
ties to take guns from people
who could be harmful to them-
selves or others. The law also
bars them from buying a gun.
Buehler said the legisla-
tion was flawed because it
didn’t mandate health care for
would-be purchasers or allow
them to defend their Second
Amendment right in court.
While answering Sigo’s
question about Native Amer-
ican education, Buehler said
Brown was to blame for any
gaps because she can’t stand
up to special interest groups.
Brown shot back, tout-
ing an increase in funding and
a modest hike in graduation
rates, while admitting there
was more work to be done.
The students had the oppor-
tunity to address the field
of candidates, or narrow it
symptoms — muscles are irritated
and working too hard — they don’t
have the nutrients they need. Muscles
need calcium, magnesium and Vitamin
D taken together. Seventy-six percent
of Americans are deficient in those
nutrients. People may be OK until an
injury when the increased activity in
the hurt area causes the deficiency
symptoms. It is easy and quick to
correct. Time of day and dosage are
important and need to be adjusted
until the spasms stop. If you need help
figuring this out, call Dr. Sears.
self-service
maintenance
activity I can do?
blow out dust from
A: Annually
your computer using short
bursts of air. Remove the side of
your desktop. Stabilize the fan fins
& using a can of compressed air or
garage compressor, point the nozzle
at the radiator fins under the fan
on the circuit board. Also, blow out
dust from the power supply, located
where the power cord connects to
the computer. For laptops, point the
nozzle to any vents on the sides and
bottom of the computer.