Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 18, 2018)
‘BE AN ASOC ANGEL’ RAISES FUNDS FOR THEATER GROUP COAST WEEKEND 146TH YEAR, NO. 79 DailyAstorian.com // THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2018 This is Evelyn The Astoria chicken is a frizzled satin showgirl ONE DOLLAR Judge orders EPA to protect salmon Warmer water is lethal for fish By LYNDA V. MAPES Seattle Times Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian Brent Rueff holds up Evelyn, a chicken in the running for Miss Flock-Tober. By KATIE FRANKOWICZ The Daily Astorian Y ou know those photo contests that pop up on social media — the kind where you see everyone hitting “like” on a picture of some random baby — and you think, “My baby is so much cuter.” And then you send off a picture to prove it to the world? Just trade the baby for a chicken and that’s more or less why Brent Rueff of Asto- ria decided to send a picture of his hen, Evelyn, to the nation- wide Purina “Miss Flock-Tober” contest. Because Evelyn — with her blue ears, naked neck and star- tling explosion of gray feathers on top of her head — is cuter than most chickens. And the world needs to know. So far, the world has validated Rueff’s belief. Evelyn won the title “Miss Fancy Feathers” earlier this month. She is in the running for the title of “Miss Flock-Tober,” and the grand prize, a year’s sup- ply of Purina poultry feed. Rueff, a registered nurse at Columbia Memorial Hospital, and his husband, Ryan Ewing, a web developer, started their back- Brent Rueff checks on a group of chickens in the backyard of his home. MORE ONLINE Watch video of the chickens at bit.ly/astoria-chickens yard flock about a year ago, not long after they moved to Asto- ria. Rueff’s grandmother and great-grandmother both raised chickens, but the flock — also known as “the girls” — was Ewing’s first real exposure to chickens, even though he’d long had an interest in urban farming. Now he and Rueff care for 16 chickens in the backyard of their home on the South Slope. They have standard hens, breeds like Speckled Sussex or Welsummer that are known for their egg lay- ing, the children’s book picture of a chicken. Then there are the sat- ins and silkies. “OK, it’s kind of a weird thing,” Rueff said, picking up Evelyn and thinking briefly about how to describe her and her sisters. See EVELYN, Page 7A SEATTLE — A federal judge has ordered protection for salmon in the Colum- bia River basin from warm water tempera- tures that have been lethal to salmon and steelhead as the climate changes. The U.S. District Court for the West- ern District at Seattle in a 16-page ruling Wednesday ordered the U.S. Environmen- tal Protection Agency to protect salmon and steelhead from dangerously warm water temperatures in the Columbia and Snake Rivers. Climate change has exacerbated a long-standing problem with water tem- perature in reservoirs behind hydropower dams on the rivers, MORE increasing the number INSIDE days in which tempera- tures exceed what can Sea lions be tolerated by salmon dine on and steelhead, which salmon at Willamette are cold-water species. Falls In 2015, 250,000 adult Page 3A sockeye salmon died when the Columbia and Snake rivers became too warm. Hot water pushed survival rates for crit- ically endangered Snake River sockeye to only 4 percent in 2015. “Because of today’s victory, EPA will finally write a comprehensive plan to deal with dams’ impact on water temperature and salmon survival,” said Brett Vanden- Heuvel, executive director of Columbia Riverkeeper, one of the plaintiffs in the suit. The suit was brought by multiple con- servation and fishermens’ groups. The court found that the EPA has failed to undertake its mandatory duty to enforce and ensure a temperature daily maximum, just as it must also enforce other types of water-quality parameters under the Clean Water Act. Federal Judge Ricardo Martinez ordered the agency to issue a temperature standard for the river. The ruling was celebrated by fisher- men hurt by diminished salmon runs on the Columbia and Snake, once the big- gest in the world. “Our livelihoods depend on healthy salmon runs,” said Glen Spain, Northwest Regional Director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associa- tions. “It is simply unacceptable to let hot water kill otherwise-healthy adult salmon before they can spawn. We’re glad EPA will finally do its job.” See SALMON, Page 4A Schools prepare as shelters in a storm State pushes school resiliency By BRENNA VISSER The Daily Astorian With construction under- way in Seaside to build schools outside the tsunami inundation zone and a bond on the bal- lot in Warrenton in Novem- ber to do the same, preparing schools for a disaster is in the limelight. But as schools look for opportunities to relocate to higher ground to be safer in an earthquake and tsunami, administrators will face a new task: how to prepare to be a community’s default shelter when disaster strikes. Schools are at the cen- ter of the state’s emergency planning strategy. The state has emphasized making aging school buildings more earth- quake resilient, with pro- grams like the seismic retro- fit grant, which has awarded more than $225 million to bring schools up to building code standards. While schools are tradition- ally expected to serve as shel- ters, an analysis by the Oregon Seismic Safety Policy Advi- sory Commission found there has been little to no planning by school districts for how schools would be used fol- lowing a Cascadia Subduction Zone quake. “People have a lot of assumptions that schools Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian See SCHOOLS, Page 7A Construction crews work on the new campus in Seaside.