A7
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, MAY 28, 2019
Pence honors fallen service members
at Arlington National Cemetery
AP Photos/Patrick Semansky
LEFT: Vice President Mike Pence lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. RIGHT: Marines march in formation during a wreath-laying ceremony.
Pence placed a wreath at the Tomb of the
Unknown Soldier to remember dead service mem-
bers whose remains haven’t been identifi ed and
observed a moment of silence. He told Gold Star
families he was honored by their presence.
Dignitaries attending Monday’s ceremony
included Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr. and acting Sec-
Associated Press
ARLINGTON, Va. — Vice President Mike Pence
paid tribute to fallen members of the U.S. armed
forces Monday, thanking their loved ones in a cere-
mony at Arlington National Cemetery and acknowl-
edging that for them “every day is Memorial Day.”
retary of Defense Patrick Shanahan.
President Donald Trump and Melania Trump
visited the Arlington, Virginia, cemetery last week
and placed fl ags at several gravesites, a decades-
old tradition known as “fl ags in.” Trump, in Japan,
was expected to address troops aboard a battleship
before returning to the U.S.
River: ‘It’s not going to be the same when it grows back’
Continued from Page A3
bureaucrats didn’t see much
evidence of clearcuts in the
scenic corridor.
Parks employees pains-
takingly documented the
beauty in a report endors-
ing the Nehalem as a scenic
waterway.
Then the pushback came.
Logging rules
The timber industry
wanted to ensure the sce-
nic designation would not
supersede state logging
rules, which include some
of the weakest environmen-
tal protections on the West
Coast. And, in a state where
the timber industry donates
more to lawmakers than
anywhere else in the coun-
try, those interests often get
what they want.
Weyerhaeuser, the Wash-
ington state timber giant,
owns large swaths of land
along the proposed scenic
stretch. No private land-
owner controls more. The
company was one of just 10
parties to oppose the desig-
nation (nearly 1,400 com-
menters supported it), say-
ing the Nehalem wasn’t that
scenic.
Kevin Godbout, the com-
pany’s environmental affairs
manager, acknowledged the
views from the river were
pleasant. But they aren’t
undisturbed, he wrote. For-
ests along the Nehalem are
logged too much to qualify
as scenic, he said.
His comments made clear
that the industry had for-
ever changed the Nehalem’s
landscape in the last cen-
tury. “This area cannot be
restored to a primitive con-
dition,” Godbout wrote.
The
Oregon
Farm
Bureau, another powerful
political force, said there
was no “compelling reason
to increase protection of the
river.”
“There are no current or
foreseeable threats to the
existing scenic and recre-
ational values as they exist
today,” bureau attorney
Mary Anne Cooper wrote in
late 2017.
But one was already
being planned.
A 67-acre clearcut
Alongside the parks staff
on that 2017 fl oat trip was
someone from the Oregon
Department of Forestry.
The agency controls 80 per-
cent of the land in the pro-
posed Nehalem scenic cor-
ridor. What Weyerhaeuser
doesn’t own predominantly
belongs to the state.
In the months after the
fl oat, while the blueprint to
protect the Nehalem inched
forward, state forestry
workers developed their
own plan for the views: A
67-acre clearcut.
With the exception of
a required 100-foot buffer
on the river, the cut would
denude steep hillsides that
form the vista from the
Beaver Eddy and Morrison
Eddy campgrounds, which
parks offi cials called “pleas-
ing” and “of high scenic
quality.” The agency called
the $853,000 timber sale
“The Double Eddy.”
The agency would give
most of the revenue to Til-
lamook and Clatsop coun-
ties. But it would have
kept $309,000 for its own
budget.
Though Oregon law
requires trees to be replanted
SEVEN؏DAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TODAY
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
after a clearcut, the impact
of cutting is unmistakable
around the Nehalem. Across
the river from the planned
new cut, landslides on the
steep slopes have carved a
deep gully down to bedrock.
It allows water draining into
the Nehalem — home to
coastal Coho salmon and
other threatened and endan-
gered fi sh — to fi rst warm
up as it courses over sun-
baked rocks.
The Nehalem already has
problems maintaining tem-
peratures cool enough for
salmon, which are depen-
dent on cold water, said
Maggie Peyton, execu-
tive director of the Upper
Nehalem Watershed Coun-
cil, a group that works to
conserve the river.
“It’s not going to be the
same when it grows back,”
Peyton said, sizing up the
planned clearcut recently
from the riverbank. “Now,
it’s beautiful. There’s other
values we can capture that
exceed the value of the tim-
ber they’re going to get off
that.”
Environmental groups
protested the proposed Dou-
ble Eddy clearcut. In a May
2 letter, 13 groups called for
the Department of Forestry
to cancel the sale.
The Wild Salmon Cen-
ter and Oregon Wild, two
of the groups, separately
urged the governor to accel-
erate the scenic waterway
designation. If she signed
it before July, it would take
hold upon the Legislature’s
adjournment this summer.
If she waited, it wouldn’t be
offi cial until next year.
Steve
Pedery,
Ore-
gon
Wild’s
conserva-
tion director, said a Brown
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
adviser told his group she
planned to wait until after
adjournment.
A spokeswoman for the
governor was noncommit-
tal about the timing when
asked by The Oregonian .
“Our team is focused on the
legislative session,” Brown
spokeswoman Kate Kon-
dayen said. “However, the
governor will consider sign-
ing this designation this
month, June, or July, and is
eager to do so.”
Kondayen
did
not
respond to subsequent ques-
tions about whether Brown
delayed signing in order to
satisfy Sen. Johnson.
Even
though
the
Nehalem’s
designation
wasn’t offi cial, the Depart-
ment of Forestry asked
Parks
and
Recreation
Department offi cials for
their opinion on the clear-
cut. They didn’t object.
But they also said they
didn’t conduct as thorough
a review as they normally
would for a scenic water-
way. They didn’t make a
site visit to examine the area
up close and ensure state
foresters were doing every-
thing they could to mini-
mize the clearcut’s visual
impact.
From the Nehalem, the
cut on the steep forested
slopes would have been
obvious.
The Double Eddy tim-
ber sale became part of the
forestry department’s oper-
ations plan for the budget
year that starts July 1.
The clearcutting was
ready to move forward.
Sale canceled
Last week, The Orego-
nian began making inqui-
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MONDAY
Partly sunny
62 52
62 51
63 52
62 51
Low clouds may
Low clouds
Low clouds
break
Partly sunny
62 50
63 50
Mostly cloudy
Clouds and
sunshine
REGIONAL FORECAST
Aberdeen
Olympia
61/52
73/53
Wenatchee
Tacoma
Moses
Lake
UNDER THE SKY
TODAY'S TIDES
Astoria through Sunday
Tonight’s Sky: Vega is climbing
into view in the northeast, with
Arcturus in the east-southeast.
Astoria / Port Docks
Temperatures
High/low ................................ 68/45
Normal high/low .................. 62/47
Record high .................. 81 in 1947
Record low .................... 37 in 1998
Precipitation
Sunday ..................................... 0.00”
Month to date ........................ 1.66”
Normal month to date ......... 2.82”
Year to date .......................... 22.01”
Normal year to date ........... 32.86”
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2019
Time
9:21 a.m. 5.7 3:47 a.m.
10:16 p.m. 7.1 3:44 p.m.
Cape Disappointment
8:57 a.m.
9:58 p.m.
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
Sunrise today .................. 5:31 a.m.
Sunset tonight ............... 8:55 p.m.
Moonrise today .............. 3:11 a.m.
Moonset today .............. 2:48 p.m.
New
First
Full
5.3 3:21 a.m.
6.7 3:07 p.m.
2.6
1.4
9:13 a.m. 5.9 3:33 a.m.
10:06 p.m. 7.3 3:21 p.m.
2.8
1.6
Hammond
SUN AND MOON
Last
Warrenton
9:16 a.m. 6.1 3:31 a.m.
10:11 p.m. 7.5 3:28 p.m.
Knappa
9:58 a.m. 6.0 4:48 a.m.
10:53 p.m. 7.4 4:45 p.m.
Depoe Bay
June 3 June 9 June 17 June 25
2.6
1.5
8:18 a.m.
9:13 p.m.
5.5 2:47 a.m.
6.9 2:31 p.m.
2.7
1.6
2.2
1.3
2.8
1.5
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Honolulu
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Phoenix
San Francisco
Wash., DC
Today
Hi/Lo/W
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
94/72/s
59/51/r
70/51/t
88/74/pc
50/36/sh
87/75/sh
90/77/pc
70/56/pc
88/78/s
68/60/t
85/65/s
67/54/pc
90/74/pc
94/74/s
61/51/c
78/58/t
84/69/t
55/39/pc
89/74/s
89/74/pc
74/58/pc
91/78/s
75/62/pc
91/70/s
69/52/pc
88/73/s
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy,
c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms,
r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice.
76/52
Kennewick Walla Walla
80/60 Lewiston
87/59
81/57
Hermiston
The Dalles 87/60
Enterprise
Pendleton 69/48
80/55
80/57
La Grande
73/51
74/48
NATIONAL CITIES
High (ft.) Time Low (ft.)
Pullman
84/56
71/51
Salem
80/55
Yakima 87/56
Longview
61/53 Portland
75/53
Spokane
83/58
72/52
71/52
Astoria
ALMANAC
HOURS OPEN: MON-FRI 8-6 * SATURDAY * SUNDAY 10-4
We Service What We Sell
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
61 53
ries about the planned cut.
An advocate notifi ed the
governor’s staff about a
reporter’s interest in the
timber sale on May 16.
The next day, when a
reporter toured the area
around the planned clear-
cut, state forestry employ-
ees held a conference call.
Employees from the
agency’s state, Northwest
Oregon and Astoria offi ces
discussed the planned tim-
ber sale and “reached con-
sensus,” a forestry depart-
ment spokesman said.
The sale was canceled.
“Having
considered
all the circumstances,”
spokesman Jason Cox said,
“not harvesting the area
contributes more to Ore-
gonians societally and
environmentally than the
harvest would have con-
tributed economically.”
Corvallis
72/48
Albany
73/48
John Day
Eugene
Bend
74/49
73/45
73/49
Ontario
77/57
Caldwell
Burns
77/54
70/48
Medford
78/52
Klamath Falls
69/40
City
Baker City
Brookings
Ilwaco
Newberg
Newport
Today
Hi/Lo/W
73/48/t
63/49/pc
59/53/pc
74/47/pc
58/50/pc
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
74/46/t
65/51/pc
60/52/pc
72/47/pc
60/50/pc
City
North Bend
Roseburg
Seaside
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Today
Hi/Lo/W
61/52/pc
78/52/pc
62/53/pc
74/49/pc
73/50/pc
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
62/51/pc
79/53/pc
62/52/pc
74/50/pc
71/49/pc