A8
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2019
Lichen: Covers 6% of the earth’s surface
Continued from Page A1
And they haven’t even
left the parking lot yet.
McCune and Stone are
lichenology experts and pio-
neers of the fi eld. Through-
out the past three decades,
their knowledge has guided
a new wave of scientists
toward the small, colorful
organism that covers 6% of
the earth’s surface.
This week, they guided
the Northwest Lichenolo-
gists, a nonprofi t that pro-
motes professional train-
ing, through the Lewis and
Clark National Historical
Park. The team of seven
conducted lichen surveys ,
each bearing a pocket knife,
a hand lens and a bag full of
the leafy, scaly species.
This is big news for the
park. Without the help of
the volunteer lichenologists,
the park would have to draft
contracts, secure funding
and possibly wait years to
conduct similar surveys.
In just three days, the
park’s lichen herbarium — a
collection of preserved plant
species kept under lock and
key in a climate-controlled
room — more than doubled.
“A good starting point is
to at least know what spe-
cies we have,” Carla Cole,
the park’s natural resources
project manager , said. “To
really manage things prop-
erly, you have to know what
you have, so we’re always
wanting more inventory.”
At the park, making that
inventory list took time,
as the region is covered in
lichens. It took the lichenol-
ogists more than an hour to
drop from the visitor center
to a footbridge less than half
a mile away.
And that’s a really good
sign for the plants, the park
and the people that live here.
It means the air we’re
breathing is clean.
Air quality indicators
Because of their genetic
build, lichens are extremely
sensitive to their living con-
ditions, which makes them
natural air quality indicators.
“They care about where
they live, so now we use
lichens to notice air qual-
ity,” Stone said. “The lichens
are out there getting the air
blown by them all the time,
so they know much more
about air quality than a
machine can measure, or
than we think we know.”
Scientists
throughout
Continued from Page A1
Photos by Hailey Hoff man/The Astorian
Daphne Stone, also known as Dr. Usnea, holds a sample of usnea lichen she pulled from a tree
branch. Usnea grow in small net patterns to catch water from the air and are indicators of good
air quality.
the country utilize lichens
to study air quality and bet-
ter understand the impact
humans have on their natural
surroundings. In highly pol-
luted urban areas, lichens are
few and far between. In Clat-
sop C ounty’s cool and moist
coastal climate, lichens are
everywhere: dangling off
branches, growing on road
signs, clinging to bridges.
But it’s not just the fact
that they’re here that mat-
ters. The specifi c type of
lichens scientists found tell
us even more about the air .
“By looking at the lichens
we fi nd on a plot, we can tell
exactly what the air quality
is like, which is just amaz-
ing,” she said. “There’s
nothing else that sensitive.”
Understanding the lichens
that thrive in this region is
a crucial fi rst step for the
National Park Service .
Lichens are at the base
of the food chain. They act
as their own miniature for-
est and provide a habitat for
small, sometimes micro-
scopic animals. Larger pred-
ators, such as birds, frogs and
bigger bugs, pick through
lichens to feed on those
smaller creatures. The more
park monitors know about
the lichens, the more they
can understand all the ani-
mals that live in the region.
“There’s a lot of life going
on at the tiny level inside the
lichen habitat,” Cole said.
An understanding of the
lichens throughout the park’s
‘ANYTHING THAT LOOKS LIKE IT
CAME OUT OF A DR. SEUSS BOOK
IS PROBABLY A LICHEN.’
Daphne Stone
In regions dominated by
agricultural land, such as
parts of Oregon’s Interstate
5 corridor, small, orange-
tinted lichens grow aggres-
sively, a sign that the air
is polluted with nitrogen
compounds.
“We’re not seeing that at
all here,” Stone said. Instead,
the survey team found abun-
dant amounts of cyanoli-
chen, which enhance tree
growth and are not found in
polluted places. “It means
that the air is really clean.”
seven units will help guide
it forward. Discovering and
recording different types of
lichens throughout habitats
will infl uence design plans
and enhance habitat diver-
sity. The knowledge helps
guide restoration projects
for prairies and wildfl ower
meadows, according to Cole.
“The fi rst step in knowing
what to do is getting these
basic inventories and species
lists down,” she said. “That
always informs the next step
of management.”
Enhance
growth
Lichens are epiphytes ,
which means they don’t
take nutrients from the
plants they grow on, and
though lichens are often
wrongly blamed for killing
trees, they actually enhance
growth by retaining mois-
ture and stabilizing soil.
Lichens also have medic-
inal properties and cultural
value. Native Americans
used lichens to dye wool and
Scandinavians feed them to
reindeer. Some lichens, such
as usnea, have an antibiotic
substance used in tinctures
and sold commercially.
But none of those rea-
sons are what drew Stone or
McCune to lichenology.
For McCune, it was “ the
lure of the unknown.”
“It’s as if they’re from
outer space,” he said.
“They’re weird forms.
They’re beautiful, they’re
colorful, they’re so varied
in form. It’s just one sur-
prise after another.”
For Stone, it was the
fact that they made intricate
fairy houses when she was a
young girl.
“I loved all the details I
found on the forest fl oor,”
she said, “and one of them
was lichens.”
Now, she has a general
tip for anyone interested
in exploring the lichens in
their own backyard or in the
park.
“Anything that looks like
it came out of a Dr. Seuss
book,” she said, “is proba-
bly a lichen.”
Students: ‘I think every district ... has some work to do’
Continued from Page A1
Less than 18% of Knappa
students were on track in
math, a decline from 23.1%
two years ago, half the state-
wide rate and signifi cantly
worse than county peers.
“We have work to do,”
Paulette
Johnson,
the
schools superintendent in
Knappa, said of the results.
“I think every district in the
state has some work to do.”
Johnson couldn’t pin-
point exactly why Knappa
students struggle on state
assessments, but said it
could be related to demo-
graphics, academic rigor or
teaching styles.
“We always thought we
need to add more rigor to
what we do,” she said.
School districts statewide
are creating improvement
plans to secure an estimated
$1 billion annually in addi-
tional revenue from the Stu-
dent Success Act starting in
fall 2020. Knappa educators
have talked about investing
more in after-school oppor-
tunities, expanding pre-
school and increasing school
days, Johnson said.
In Astoria, just more
than half of students were
on track in English and lan-
guage arts, tracking similarly
to the last three years and
just below the state average.
Nearly 37% of Astoria stu-
dents were on track in math,
a slight decrease from the
previous spring, but within
2% of the state average.
Nearly half of Warren-
ton-Hammond School Dis-
trict students were on track
in English and language arts,
down from half of students
Violations: Newer
tour providers have
complained about Port’s
arrangement with Conner
the previous spring, but
up from less than 44% two
years ago.
Warrenton-Hammond
students were again the most
profi cient countywide in
math, with more than 37%
on track. District students in
2017-18 eclipsed the state
average in math profi ciency,
a rarity for county school
districts.
In Seaside, 44% of stu-
dents were on track in
English and language arts,
down from more than half
of students in 2017-18. A
mere 28.4% of Seaside stu-
dents were on track in math,
down from more than 32%
the year prior.
In the rural K-12 Jewell
School, where results can
skew heavily because of a
small student population,
more than 42% of students
were on-track in English and
language arts, compared to
around half of students the
previous two years. Nearly
22% were profi cient in math,
down from more than 26%
the previous spring.
“It is clear improvement
is needed in these two sub-
ject areas,” Colt Gill, direc-
tor of the state Department
of Education, said in a news
release. “Thanks to the his-
toric Student Success Act
passed by lawmakers and
signed by Gov. Kate Brown,
we will eventually see
more resources targeted to
help students graduate high
school ready for college or a
career.”
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called foul on the arrange-
ment between the Port and
Conner. Kulp fi led a previ-
ous ethics complaint last
year and at one point con-
templated a lawsuit over
the Port’s relationship with
Conner.
Over the past decade,
Astoria has become a big-
ger cruise ship destination,
hosting more than 40,000
passengers a year on aver-
age. Newer tour providers
like Kulp and Bob Vinat-
ieri of Astoria Tours have
complained about the Port’s
arrangement with Conner.
They protested the Port
reserving pier access to tour
operators — mostly Con-
ner — who have agree-
ments with cruise lines .
Jim Knight, the Port’s for-
mer executive director , had
argued the arrangement
protects cruise line reve-
nue and helps entice them
to visit Astoria.
The investigation noted
an email from Port c oun-
sel Eileen Eakins to Knight
last year recommending the
Port consider terminating
Conner’s marketing con-
tract. Conner “is not only
being paid by the Port, but
the work he is doing for the
Port will have the direct
effect of increasing tour
sales for his company,” she
wrote.
Will Isom, the Port’s
interim executive director ,
said he will meet with Eak-
ins and Conner to discuss
the relationship moving for-
ward. C onfl icts of interest
aren’t in themselves wrong-
doing and could just require
more disclosure, he said.
“My goal is just to pro-
tect the Port here,” Isom
said. “At the same time, I
don’t want to hang Bruce
over this.”
Contract: Repairs expected
to last until October 2024
Continued from Page A1
The Army Corps has not
asked a contractor to source
so much rock since the last
major rehabilitation of the
South Jetty in the 1960s.
The rock will come from
quarries in Oregon and
Washington state, includ-
ing the Drake Pit in Clatsop
County, Vandegrift said.
McAmis has been
awarded three of the last
four major jetty contracts
along the Columbia River
and is fi nishing up the
repair of the North Jetty.
For the repair, McAmis has
had rocks barged to Tansy
Point in Warrenton and
trucked over the Astoria
Bridge and through Cape
Disappointment State Park
in Washington.
The company plans
to initially truck a lot of
materials before construct-
ing a barge facility in Fort
Stevens State Park in the
spring to accept rocks, Van-
degrift said. Part of the
project entails keeping pub-
lic access open to all park-
ing areas.
The repairs are expected
to last until October 2024.
Storms generally limit
stone placement to between
May and October, with
more constraints on the
outer reaches of the jetty.
“The construction dura-
tion is fi ve years,” Vande-
grift said. “We’re always
shooting to get done early,
but I’d say four to fi ve
years.”
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