Knappa, Astoria, Warrenton baseball teams advance
SPORTS • A8
DailyAstorian.com // TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2019
146TH YEAR, NO. 229
$1.50
Craft3
gets $50M
in tax
credits
Money to help rural areas
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
Colin Murphey/The Astorian
People spend time at the beach near Seaside as the sun sets behind them.
Area tourism leaders look at
impacts on natural resources
Visitors take
a toll on parks
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
Regional lender Craft3 is deciding
where to invest $50 million in tax credits
it recently secured from the U.S. Depart-
ment of the Treasury.
The New Markets Tax Credit program
incentivizes investment in rural areas. The
Treasury Department makes the awards to
organizations such as Craft3, a rural- and
environmental-focused community devel-
opment lender. The organizations find
investments in underserved communities
that will provide community benefit.
The Treasury Department awarded
Craft3 $40 million in tax credits in 2009,
$35 million in 2006 and $8 million in
2003. Craft3 has invested in such projects
as building Columbia Hall and renovating
Towler Hall on Clatsop Community Col-
lege’s main campus in Astoria.
“Without Craft3’s New Markets Tax
Credit investment in Clatsop Commu-
nity College, we simply couldn’t have
completed the Columbia Hall construc-
tion or Towler Hall renovation,” Chris-
topher Breitmeyer, the college president,
said in a news release about the tax cred-
its. “These two buildings form the core of
our academic spaces at CCC and are used
by thousands of students and community
members to grow, learn and succeed.”
See Craft3, Page A6
S
taff with the Haystack Rock
Awareness Program know one
side of Cannon Beach’s popular
landmark is not like the other.
The tide pools that are open for the
public to walk near and poke their fin-
gers into have a wealth of creatures,
but even more life abounds in the
areas closed off to people, said Alan
Quimby, an environmental interpreter
for the outreach and educational orga-
nization, during a busy April morning
at low tide.
That morning, he was splitting his
time between pointing out puffins and
reminding people to stay out of the
protected marine garden around Hay-
stack Rock. They kept coming any-
way, seemingly deaf to the instruc-
tions Quimby gave prior groups and
oblivious to signs that told them to
stay out.
In Ecola State Park, visitors intent
on getting down to beaches where no
established access exists exacerbate
erosion on coastal cliffs when they
clamber down anyway. Park staff
have started to add portable toilets
where they’ve never had them before
to curb the issue of human waste on
increasingly popular hiking trails.
Tourism is a billion dollar indus-
try in Oregon and millions of those
dollars find a home at the coast. But
as the number of visitors continues to
grow, tourism leaders are rethinking
their approach and the environmental
impacts of hosting so many people.
Last week, the newly formed
Colin Murphey/The Astorian
Aurelie and Io Fornier admire the view from a rock outcropping at Hug Point.
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
Wildlife in tide pools is particularly
vulnerable to the impact of tourists.
North Coast Tourism Management
Network, which includes represen-
tatives from Clatsop and Tillamook
counties, looked at three possible
projects proposed for grant funding,
all tied to environmental stewardship.
The ideas include:
• A transportation pilot program in
Cannon Beach to encourage the use
of public transportation and a push
to provide information about local
resources for bike rentals, local tran-
sit and walking maps.
• Trailhead and beach ambassadors
at heavily trafficked outdoor sites like
Ecola State Park, Cape Falcon, Rock-
away Beach and Cape Kiwanda.
• And a communications strat-
egy called “Care for Our Coast,”
intended to provide information
about the effect of tourism on natu-
ral resources and to educate visitors
about ways they may need to adjust
their behavior.
Merkley
addresses
national
concerns
Senator appeared at
town hall in Astoria
By EDWARD STRATTON
The Astorian
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley on Saturday
reminded locals to remain involved in
national matters.
“A democratic republic does so much
better when citizens are engaged and
motivated,” the Oregon Democrat told
the crowd gathered at Clatsop Commu-
nity College in Astoria.
Merkley, who was elected to the Sen-
ate in 2008, has adopted the practice of
fellow U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon,
visiting each county once a year.
See Parks, Page A6
See Merkley, Page A5
A budding interest in farming
Jewell student
likes viticulture
By KATIE
FRANKOWICZ
The Astorian
hen Daniel Kuhnly
was a freshman, he
thought maybe he’d be an
engineer. It was, he said, a
kind of random choice, but
at the time it worked as a fill-
in-the-blank to the question
of what he was going to do
with his life.
He has a more concrete
W
answer now: He wants to
go into farming, specifically
viticulture. Grapes, wine-
making, vineyards.
When the 17-year-old
senior at Jewell School grad-
uates in June, his next move
is to attend Chemeketa Com-
munity College’s Northwest
Wine Studies Center.
Someday, he hopes to
have his own vineyard and
organic farm. He is intrigued
by the mechanics and aes-
thetics of vineyards — but,
more, he is fascinated by
transformation.
“A raw fruit can transform
into wine, and there’s that
whole process of fermenta-
tion,” he said. Then there is
farming: Dry, gnarled little
seeds become plants that can
feed and heal people.
“I think it just comes par-
tially from genetics,” Kuhnly
said of farming, “and I just
like nature. I’ve always liked
being outdoors.”
His
great-grandfather
was a farmer. Kuhnly didn’t
know him well. His grand-
mother in Svensen has had
more of a direct influence,
with her greenhouse and
her yard full of plants and
flowers.
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
See Kuhnly, Page A5
Daniel Kuhnly stands in the greenhouse he built at his family’s home in the Jewell area.