5A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2018
Climate: Effects from 2015’s warm water still being felt
Continued from Page 1A
For local fishermen, 2015
was the year when a massive
harmful algal bloom, exacer-
bated by warm water condi-
tions, shut down Washington
state’s commercial and recre-
ational Dungeness crab fish-
eries. Domoic acid also closed
razor clam digs, while high
temperatures drew subtropical
species up the Oregon Coast.
The effects of warm water
in 2015 are still being felt in
this year’s low salmon returns
— what remained of a gener-
ation of fish who entered the
ocean at a time when waters
were unusually warm and
their chances of survival were
poor. In September, Oregon
and Washington state fishery
managers closed the Colum-
bia River to all salmon fishing
after salmon runs came in well
below preseason predictions.
Researchers predict the
Northwest’s natural resource
sectors will suffer as climate
change conditions become
more marked. The North Coast
has built its economy around
logging and fishing, and, in
recent years, around tourists
who are drawn to the outdoors
and the area’s natural beauty.
Already, fisheries scientists
have seen shifts in fish popu-
lations and examples of how
salmon might change where
they spawn if water condi-
tions are poor. In 2015, there
was little or no snowpack to
feed streams and rivers in Ore-
gon and Washington state.
Climate models predict even
more warm, snow-free winters
in the future.
Areas already prone to ero-
sion or where landslides are
common will likely deterio-
rate further under the more
A salmon is caught in a
gillnet on board Tim Beck-
en’s boat.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Dungeness crab are sorted before being transported to a processing facility.
severe weather expected with
climate change. Both erosion
and landslides have already
changed the face of the popu-
lar Ecola State Park near Can-
non Beach many times over
the years. Winter landslides
cut a trail between Ecola Point
and Indian Beach in half in
2016.
And there are other
considerations.
Water is not something the
North Coast ever feels like it
lacks, but water supply and
quality could become an even
greater concern in light of cli-
mate change. Larger commu-
nities like Portland or Corval-
lis have two or more nearly
independent water supplies.
“A lot of coastal communi-
ties rely on very local sources,”
said Philip Mote, director of
the Oregon Climate Change
Research Institute at Oregon
State University, and a co-au-
thor on the national assess-
ment’s Pacific Northwest
chapter. “They can have real
difficulty in a dry summer.”
Clatsop County has yet to
see a big, aggressive forest
fire like the blazes that have
plagued other communities in
recent years.
“But it’s not out of the realm
of possibility,” Mote said.
The coast’s forests are
not accustomed to seasonal
burning — they are not “fire
adapted” — and underbrush
abounds. In these wet forests,
when a fire gets going, it’s not
a low-intensity burn as may
occur more regularly else-
where in Oregon. Instead, it is
devastating.
Mote pointed to the human-
caused Eagle Creek Fire in the
scenic Columbia River Gorge,
which burned more than
48,000 acres last year.
“A place where it rains 100
inches a year yet it went up
like a tinderbox,” Mote said.
Mote recently reviewed
a report on the impacts of
global warming that he’d been
involved in writing nearly 19
years ago.
“We spent maybe a para-
graph or two on how for-
est fires might even become a
problem,” he said. “And now
they’re one of the leading
ways we think about climate
change in the West.”
Regional authors
The national assessment is
the fourth such report under the
U.S. Global Change Research
program and the first since
2014. The Northwest chapter
included authors from across
Oregon, Washington state and
Idaho representing universi-
ties, state and federal agencies,
Native American tribes and
private industry.
As communities in the
Northwest struggle to figure
out how to address climate-re-
lated impacts before or as they
occur, report authors noted
that not all groups are on equal
footing.
Mote and others in Ore-
gon hope to refine the informa-
tion presented in the national
assessment, looking for gaps
and for ways to provide even
more detailed guidance to dis-
tinct areas across the state.
Over and over, Mote has
seen the push to address cli-
mate change locally come
from pockets, small groups,
or motivated community
leaders.
Groups like the Portland
Water Bureau started think-
ing about how climate change
could affect supply and
demand 20 years ago. These
groups have the resources,
capacity and community sup-
port to start figuring that out,
Mote said.
But the question remains,
he said: “How do you help
communities that don’t have
all that going for them to tackle
these same questions?”
Toll plan: Tolling supporters face a number of political hurdles
Continued from Page 1A
An advisory group came
up with the proposal that now
appears headed toward the
federal highway authorities.
It calls for tolls on I-5 from
the North Going Street/North
Alberta Avenue off-ramps to
Southwest Multnomah Bou-
levard, 7 miles away. Sec-
ondly, it proposes tolls “in
and around the Abernethy
Bridge” over I-205 that goes
over the Willamette River at
Oregon City and West Linn.
Both tolling areas are con-
nected with major freeway
projects sought in the trans-
portation package passed by
the Legislature.
The I-5 project calls for
adding new lanes in the Rose
Quarter area while the I-205
project seeks to add a third
lane in each direction from
the Abernethy Bridge to the
Stafford Road exit.
Transportation officials
said the tolling could help
Food cart: Astoria
has become a haven
for mobile eateries
Continued from Page 1A
restaurants in California and
Utah. He has lived on the
North Coast since 2007, work-
ing at local staples such as the
Bridgewater Bistro in Asto-
ria, The Cove in Long Beach,
Washington, and Maggie’s on
the Prom in Seaside and com-
peting in local cooking compe-
tition Iron Chef Goes Coastal.
“I think there’s a push for
talented chefs to work on
trucks, because it’s their own
thing,” he said. “They get
to control it. You don’t have
to have a lot of employees.
The overhead is kind of low.
It gives you a chance to play
around without having a mil-
lion things to pay for.”
Astoria has become a haven
for food carts and other minia-
ture and mobile eateries.
Ramen and sushi cart Roll
& Bowl recently opened out-
side the Art Garden, follow-
ing hot dog cart Baby Boom-
er’s All-American and the
recently relocated bAKos taco
and burger cart. North on 11th
Street, Ken Booth recently
opened a Japanese-inspired
walk-up window Būsu.
Mai Tong Thai Food, The
Hot Box BBQ and Asian infu-
sion cart Hong Kong Taco
have all taken up residency
outside Reach Break Brewing
and Reveille Ciderworks at the
Astoria Station east on Duane
Street. Outside the Astoria
Eco Wash near the Round-
about, pasty cart Bucket Bites
recently joined the stalwart El
Azadero Mexican food truck.
Local property owner Sean
Fitzpatrick and Baked Alaska
owner and chef Chris Holen
are planning a food court and
tap house inside the former
J.C. Penney across Duane
Street from Astoria Station.
Lancaster, who has long had an
affinity for Asian food, is plan-
ning to open Black Fern Noo-
dle Bar there once the project
gets off the ground, offering a
diverse array of noodle dishes.
“I wouldn’t say it’s going
to be a traditional noodle
house,” he said. “It’s going
to be a fusion. But I’m really
stoked with that J.C. Penney’s
thing. I think Astoria’s ready to
embrace that.”
pay for each of these freeway
projects.
Baney and Alando Simp-
son, another transportation
commissioner, said they rec-
ognize there are a number of
concerns with tolling they
will try to mitigate. They
include providing better tran-
sit alternatives for drivers
and making accommodations
for lower-income motorists.
However, tolling support-
ers face a number of poten-
tial political hurdles. Two
Republican legislators, state
Reps. Mike Nearman of Inde-
pendence and Julie Parrish
of West Linn, have already
filed a proposed ballot mea-
sure requiring voter approval
before any tolling of current
infrastructure.
Parrish said she thought
state transportation offi-
cials are trying to open wide-
spread use of tolling, and
she said she’d urge the fed-
eral government to reject the
proposal.
“Let’s be clear,” she said,
“their goal is to toll the entire
metropolitan transportation
system.”
U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera
Beutler, R-Wash., expressed
a similar concern. In a state-
ment, her spokesperson,
Angeline Riesterer, called
the tolling proposal a “Tro-
jan horse for its ultimate
plan to toll all lanes of I-5
and I-205 at the state line, a
move that will disproportion-
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ately impact working-class
southwest
Washington
commuters.”
In addition, U.S. Rep.
Peter DeFazio, a Democratic
congressman from Lane
County, will take over the
chairmanship of the House
Transportation Committee in
January. He has said he wants
to take a careful look at tolls
because he’s concerned about
new financial burdens on
working people.
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