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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, ApRIL 8, 2019
Danny Miller/The Daily Astorian
Cormorants rest below the Astoria Bridge.
Cormorants: Droppings are very corrosive, reducing life span of steel coating
Continued from page A1
dozen pairs in 2004 to around 1,700
pairs last year, according to moni-
toring reports cited by the Oregon
Department of Transportation.
The leaps coincide with the
beginning of lethal management
of a massive double-crested cor-
morant colony on East Sand
Island. The birds abandoned the
island several times after the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers began
shooting thousands of adult birds
and destroying nests and eggs
in 2015 to protect runs of young
salmon.
The Audubon Society of Port-
land called a mass exodus in 2017
a “catastrophic collapse.”
Fish and wildlife researchers
have since questioned the value
of cormorant management in sav-
ing salmon. They say it was clear
after each dispersal that cormo-
rants were resettling on the bridge
and farther upriver — areas where
they could potentially impact even
more salmon.
Cormorant droppings have
accumulated on the bridge in lay-
ers so thick they have made it dif-
ficult for state inspectors to eval-
uate the structure. The droppings
are also very corrosive, reducing
the life span of the bridge’s pro-
tective steel coating.
“The potential expense we’re
facing is a real worry to us,” said
Department of Transportation
spokesman Lou Torres.
Costly painting
The state repaints the Astoria
Bridge every 20 years, a lengthy
but necessary maintenance that
has shut down lanes during busy
summer months.
Work on the span only just con-
cluded in 2018 and more work
is planned in 2021 on the under
truss, where many of the cormo-
rants appear to nest.
“We’re really trying to get pre-
pared for that,” Torres said.
He estimates it could cost
around $80,000 to pressure-wash
the bridge to complete required
inspections. But that cost could
quickly increase to $6 million if
environmental agencies require
the state to set up containment
structures during pressure wash-
ing so bird waste does not sim-
ply get pushed into the Columbia
River.
If cormorants continue to nest
on the bridge in such high num-
bers, the state may also have to
paint the bridge more often, every
15 years as opposed to every 20.
Under that scenario, Torres
said, “We’re not going to have
a lot of years where we’re not
painting.”
Either way, the Department
of Transportation is weighing its
options as 2021 approaches. The
department anticipates it will need
to begin a hazing program to dis-
suade cormorants from nesting on
the bridge. How to remove them is
still an open question.
Several years ago, the state
hired a company that set up noise
cannons on the Interstate 5 Colum-
bia River Bridge in Portland to
disturb thousands of starlings
that had colonized the bridge and
whose accumulated droppings on
the bridge, catwalks and roadways
posed health and safety hazards.
The Army Corps does not link
the movement of double-crested
cormorants farther upriver to man-
agement actions on East Sand
Island. The agency blamed attacks
by eagles for the birds’ departures
in 2016 and 2017.
‘THE pOTENTIAL
EXpENSE WE’RE
FACING IS A REAL
WORRY TO US.’
Lou Torres | Department of
Transportation spokesman
Feasting on salmon
Army Corps spokesman Jeff
Henon suggested the birds may
not have nested in large numbers
on the bridge before because of
the billowing containment struc-
tures that were around in 2014
during painting and maintenance.
When the state moved on to other
portions of the bridge and the con-
tainment structures were no longer
necessary, the birds moved in.
But Torres noted that the bulk
of that work was not in areas where
birds usually nested and, besides,
the number of nesting birds on
the bridge during the spring and
summer climbed steadily between
2012 and 2018.
Though further investigation is
needed, available evidence sug-
gests the cormorants that have
been nesting upriver only recently
immigrated from somewhere else
— their most likely origin being
East Sand Island, said James
Lawonn, avian predation biolo-
gist with the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife.
Past research on Caspian terns,
also seasonal inhabitants of East
Sand Island managed by the Army
Corps, indicates birds that nest
farther up in the estuary eat even
more salmon than those nest-
ing near the river’s mouth, where
more types of food are available.
It’s possible cormorants that nest
upriver could eat three times more
young salmon.
Housing: Most units will rent below market rates
Continued from page A1
“This has been a project I’ve
been excited about since I got the
job because I knew Innovative
Housing was the organization that
could handle this,” Heath said.
The nonprofit has secured the
services of an architect and the
first steps to renovate the building
include dealing with pigeon drop-
pings and window repairs.
These steps, “while not glam-
orous, are super important,”
Heath said, adding, “Look for
noticeable repairs to start in the
late fall, early winter.”
“We do have plans to open the
building for a couple of tours to
let people know what’s going on,”
she said, “since we are looking at
some preservation and commu-
nity space needs we’ll have to
fundraise for.”
City Councilor Joan Herman,
in a Facebook post announcing
the news over the weekend, said,
“Most of the units will rent for
well below market rates, which as
we all know are not affordable for
those on whom the tourism indus-
try depends: service workers.”
Innovative Housing partnered
with the Lower Columbia His-
panic Council, Clatsop Com-
munity Action and Clatsop Eco-
nomic Development Resources to
secure the state funding.
They plan to partner with Clat-
The old
Waldorf Hotel
next to Astoria
City Hall will
likely become
about 40 units
of affordable
and workforce
housing.
Danny Miller
The Daily Astorian
sop Community College’s his-
toric preservation program and
Tongue Point Job Corps Cen-
ter for work on the Waldorf, also
known as the Merwyn Hotel,
Garver said. There will also be a
partnership with the city to pro-
vide a job shadowing program to
future residents.
Garver is grateful to the proj-
ect’s many partners, especially
Heath and the downtown associ-
ation, she said.
“Over the weekend we were
talking about how the project first
came to be and it was really the
connections that were made for
us by (Heath),” Garver said. “She
knew about Innovative Housing
and some of the work we’d done
on historic buildings in Portland
and of course she knew about
the (Waldorf) ... She did that
matchmaking.”
The project appeared to hit a
“The numbers tell the story
there,” he said.
The Army Corps did not shoot
any adult birds last year, but did
destroy eggs. This year, the agency
plans to modify the island’s ter-
rain, creating intertidal wetlands
and further reducing nesting hab-
itat to keep double-crested cormo-
rants at the lower levels identified
in a federal management plan.
But it’s not as though the cor-
morants’ relocation onto the Asto-
ria Bridge and deeper into the estu-
ary should have been a surprise.
Studies funded by the Army
Corps before management of the
cormorants even began indicated it
was likely some of the birds would
move into the estuary if they were
hazed off East Sand Island.
setback last year when the state
rejected an application for funds,
finding there was not a need for
affordable housing in Astoria.
The announcement shocked res-
idents and city leaders. Lack of
affordable housing and an overall
housing crunch have been major
public-policy issues in recent
years.
Innovative Housing planned
to reapply this year. However, the
funds the nonprofit just received
are from a different housing fund
program, City Manager Brett
Estes said.
Garver and others still plan
to work with the state to clarify
and create criteria for housing
funding.
“There were communities all
over the state that were economic
drivers,” Garver said. “They had
jobs but they didn’t have places
for workers to live.”
Now the state and other part-
ners are looking into the impact
of new cormorant colonies in the
estuary on the survival of young
salmon.
To Lawonn, how many cormo-
rants are using the Astoria Bridge
is a major piece of the puzzle.
One evening at the end of
March, Lawonn set up a scope
near the Port of Astoria’s West
Mooring Basin near the bridge.
He wasn’t sure how many cor-
morants he would even see. It was
still early in the season.
Double-crested
cormorants
appear inclined to return to nesting
grounds where they have experi-
enced success, but they also aren’t
afraid to quest elsewhere for bet-
ter options if they are running into
trouble.
He wondered if birds that found
safe and suitable nesting on the
bridge would choose it first over
East Sand Island, bypassing habi-
tat where they had been hazed and
shot at by humans and harried by
eagles for the past several years.
The Army Corps will not begin
monitoring East Sand Island for
double-crested cormorants and
nesting activity until the end of
April or beginning of May.
Even as Lawonn trained his
scope down the bridge’s length,
the dark, snaking forms of cormo-
rants on support structures at the
base of the bridge caught the sink-
ing sunlight and gleamed.
Lawonn counted over 650 dou-
ble-crested cormorants that eve-
ning. A few days later, he counted
943.
Benitez: ‘I always wanted to come to
the United States and get my education’
Continued from page A1
Before the camp, she wanted to
be a chef, but she said the expe-
rience changed her track in life
and showed her what she really
wanted to do.
When Hurricane Maria struck
Puerto Rico in 2017, family
flocked to Benitez’s house, which
sustained minimal damage and
kept power through a generator.
But after the storm, Benitez said,
she was left to care for much of
her family.
After she missed months of
her senior year of classes, Benitez
learned it would take an extra year
to graduate. Instead, she reached
out to her great-aunt, Norma Her-
nandez, of Astoria, about com-
ing to the North Coast, where she
had been visiting since 9, to fin-
ish school.
“I always wanted to come to
the United States and get my edu-
cation here,” she said. “That was
my dream.”
It was hard leaving her par-
ents, Benitez said, but they were
on board with her aspirations.
She arrived in early January
2018 and began classes at Asto-
ria High School while still learn-
ing English. Within five months,
she finished her senior year and
graduated with the Class of 2018,
transferring to Clatsop Commu-
nity College.
Amy Magnussen, Benitez’s
counselor through the college pre-
paratory Talent Search program,
told her about the Summer Health
Professions Education Program,
which accepts 80 college fresh-
men and sophomores nation-
wide for an intensive six weeks of
classes, clinical rotations and pro-
fessional development.
“I think both her personal expe-
riences and goals aligned really
well with the opportunity,” Mag-
nussen said.
Benitez reached out to her edu-
cators on the North Coast for ref-
erences, including Lynn Jackson,
the Astoria High School principal,
who lauded her “determination
and resiliency to overcome cata-
strophic circumstances” in writing
her a recommendation.
After her internship, Benitez
will return to Astoria, where she
hopes to graduate from the college
in 2020 before studying public
health at Pacific University. Only
turning 19 in July, Benitez isn’t
quite sure where she will end up
and whether she’ll go into physi-
cal or occupational therapy.
“I do want to go back to Puerto
Rico and see how my skills and
my knowledge … can help there,”
she said.