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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 12, 2018)
A4 THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, DEcEmbER 12, 2018 OPINION editor@dailyastorian.com KARI BORGEN Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND Editor JEREMY FELDMAN circulation manager Founded in 1873 DEBRA BLOOM business manager JOHN D. BRUIJN Production manager CARL EARL Systems manager PUBLISHER’S NOTEBOOK Forests a gift to Clatsop County D uring the holidays most of us give more thought to trees than usual, since they’re decorated with lights and ornaments everywhere. Although we may be thinking ever- greens now, let’s face it, during most of the year we live along the river and sea and don’t give much thought to the larg- est part of our county — the part that grows trees. Of 529,000 acres in Clatsop County, 499,000 acres is forestland, according to OregonFor- estFacts.org. That means KARI trees cover 94 percent of BORGEN our home. In October I joined 108 community mem- bers on three school buses to tour for- estry projects and logging operations on private timberlands and in the Clatsop State Forest. The idea was to get us to think about our forestland and the con- tributions it makes to our local economy more often. The county’s forestland is mostly large and small private ownership, as opposed to publicly owned. Five of Clatsop County’s top 10 taxpayers are forest landowners or wood processors, and accounted for nearly 40 percent of property taxes in 2017, according to the county budget message. In addition to property tax revenues, timber sales on the State Forest Trust Lands comprise an additional $3.6 million of the gen- eral fund. Forests fund a big chunk of the county budget — that’s a year-round gift. Changes in forest management Our first tour stop was at a tract owned by Hampton Lumber, one of those top 10 property taxpayers, where retired forester Bud Henderson talked about the changes in historic forest man- agement. At one time, forest practices called for cleaning snags and debris from streams, removing places where water pooled. Culverts channeled water under roads and prevented fish passage. Oregon’s Forest Practices Act now requires a buffer of trees around streams that provide shade, sticks and insects that create fish habitat. In the last 10 lights and grapples and tracks, out in the woods on their own. I even want to run one. High-wage jobs Kari Borgen/The Daily Astorian The sun shines through the trees on the landing of a selective cut harvest site on the Clatsop State Forest. years, state agencies collaborated with Hampton to install bridges over roads to remove the fish barrier and provide a more naturally flowing stream. Now fish have habitat again in the once-scarce weirs and pools. It’s an example of a pri- vate-public project that keeps giving back, year after year, as fish now find homes upstream. As the forestry tour bus traveled off paved roads and into the woods, I was struck by the vastness of the timbered ground in our county, much of it in steep ravines (something you notice riding in a school bus on a narrow gravel logging road). More gravel road, switchbacks and a spur road took the bus to the second stop on the tour, a cut-to-length log- ging operation on Clatsop State Forest. The harvest plan on this site calls for the contractor, Miller Timber Services of Philomath, to selectively cut small trees with a harvester, a machine with a com- puterized cutting head that falls, limbs, cuts correctly measured logs and marks for the right species sort in one pass. The accompanying forwarder has a grapple and boom mounted on a carrier to pick up the harvested logs and take them to the road to be unloaded and sorted. The forwarder also loads the sorted logs on the truck for delivery. Fifty years ago though, these oper- ations would have required a team of fallers, choker setters, skidder oper- ators, knot bumpers and a log loader operator. Now with $1.3 million in computerized machinery, this harvest operation is accomplished with a team of two. “How hard is it to find employees?” asked someone on the tour. They have no problem finding operators, came the answer. That makes sense. It was like watching kids play with Tonka toys with Water under the bridge Port of Astoria Manager C.E. Hodges told the port commission Tuesday night he thinks the port will develop a facility to handle containerized cargo but not with its own money. “I think Astoria is in a strategic position geo- graphically as a containerization port but with- out sufficient financing,” said Hodges. He said this was another reason for obtain- ing the cooperation of the Port of Portland in leasing the former Cathlamet Bay reserve fleet facility from the federal Maritime Administra- tion. The two ports are examining the poten- tial of the site with an eye toward containerized cargo there. 10 years ago this week — 2008 The future of the port of Tillamook Bay Rail- road is as murky now as it was exactly one year ago, when floodwaters and fallen trees knocked the line out of commission. What has grown clearer, though, is the enor- mous investment that would be required to fix and upgrade the railroad. Before the December 2007 storm, dair- ies and sawmills in the region relied upon the line, which runs from Tillamook to Gaston, for incoming cattle feed deliveries and outgoing lumber shipments. In the storm’s immediate aftermath, the port pegged the repair cost at roughly $27 million. A more complete analysis commissioned by the port brought the price tag to $34 million, but that didn’t include permitting and other bureaucratic requirements. Astoria resident Curtis Dawson has been awarded the Carnegie Medal in recognition of his “outstanding act of heroism” in rescuing his captain, David M. Schmelzer, Kari borgen is publisher of The Daily Astorian. disclosed, but The Daily Astorian has been advised by state and federal agencies that there is little likelihood of the type of seismic work that disturbed the offshore fish- ing industry so greatly a few years ago. Compiled by Bob Duke From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers CORVALLIS — A little over 10 years ago, two high school basketball teams celebrated state championships with a parade through the streets of Astoria — where, as the story goes, “all they do is catch salmon and play basketball.” Well ... the local boys can play a little football, too. For the second time in just over a week, Clatsop County welcomed home a state football champion, as the Astoria Fishermen capped their run for history with a 19-11 win over the Banks Braves in the 2008 Class 4A state title game, on a sunny Saturday afternoon at Reser Stadium in Corvallis. Just one week after the Knappa Loggers capped ‘08 with their first football championship in school history, Astoria put the finishing touches on a perfect season with a victory over the Braves in the ultimate Cowapa Clash. What do you say, Astoria and Knappa, same time, same place, 10 years from now? Clatsop County employed about 440 people in logging and lumber and wood products manufacturing in 2017, down from more than 500 in the 1990s, according to Oregon Employment Department figures. But the average for- est-related job paid $68,200 a year in 2015 — nearly double the county’s all- job average of $35,100. Those jobs are better than family-wage, and most don’t require a college degree. Our final stop on the tour was at Northrup Horse Camp, a recreational site in Clatsop State Forest managed by the Oregon Department of Forestry. As the name implies, there are corrals for horses, and camping areas for RVs and tents as well as a picnic area. Although we may not think about our forests often, the state forest is being managed for multiple use, which means the pub- lic can access more than nine miles of trails for hiking, horseback riding and and camping — a livability benefit for county residents. Clatsop County forest lands pro- duced enough wood in 2017 to pro- vide lumber for more than 15,000 typ- ical 2000-square-foot homes. We are home to both a lumber mill and a paper mill that processes some of that lum- ber and pulp. The export yard at the Port of Astoria sorts and ships logs over- seas. State and private foresters and land managers assure that harvests are done responsibly, and managed sustainably. On the bus ride back through miles and miles of forests, it struck me that all of the management and harvest activity I saw on the tour goes on every day, out of sight of almost all of the rest of Clat- sop County. As you look at your Christmas tree this year, you might think about the other trees in Clatsop County that stand in the woods unadorned, and how fortu- nate we are to be home to a vibrant for- est and forest economy. 1943 —The Oregon Pine No. 2, a 2,400-ton wooden barge build at the CRPA shipyard on Young’s Bay, is shown sliding down the ways on Armistice Day in the company’s first launching. from drowning three years ago. The medal is awarded to those who risk their lives to an extraordinary degree to save the lives of others. 50 years ago — 1968 The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commis- sion has taken under advisement a request of Washing- ton Mineral Inc., of Ilwaco for a long-term lease of beach at Fort Canby State Park to mine mineral-rich sand. The present one-year lease was extended until February while the long-term proposal is considered. The company said the black sand at the southwestern tip of the state contains enough iron and titanium for its smelter at Centralia to produce 35,000 tons of iron annu- ally for 25 years. It said engineering studies indicate ocean action will deposit additional amounts of the sand. Union Oil company has applied to the Portland dis- trict office, U.S. Corps of Engineers, for renewal of a permit to conduct core drilling and exploratory opera- tions in the Pacific ocean off the Oregon coast. Nature of exploratory work planned by union was not Delegates to the National Conference of Coastal States were told Wednesday that mineral deposits may make the ocean floor along the coasts “one of the richest strips of real estate in the world.” But they were cautioned, too, that “only uninformed people believe ocean mining will be a large business within two or three years.” There appeared to be agreement among a number of speakers, however, that mining of hard metals from the coastal shelf is coming. 75 years ago — 1943 To renew interest of Clatsop County women in home nursing with a view to making every woman “symptom conscious” and thus forestall epidemics both during and after the war, Miss Mary Grey, Red cross nursing consul- tant for the state of Oregon, conferred today and Thurs- day with local Red Cross workers. Every war — from the time of the Egyptians to date — has been followed by an epidemic, according to Miss Grey. Consequently, she explained, the Red Cross and health departments have been observing the incidence of communicable disease in this country. The increase now nears 35 percent since the war began, she said. “We are hoping to avoid any such epidemics as we had after the last war.” A light plane from the naval auxiliary air facility at the Clatsop County airport devel- oped engine trouble while on a routine flight at 12:32 p.m. Sunday and crashed into the Colum- bia River near the naval station, port docks, naval authorities announced today. The pilot, Ensign C.J. Dugan, “got wet.”