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A3 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 2020 #TimberUnity to state legislators: ‘We’re fed up’ Fight over cap and trade By SIERRA DAWN McCLAIN Capital Press Mark Thiessen/AP Photo Dead common murres lie on a rocky beach in Whittier, Alaska, in 2016. Researchers link massive seabird die-off to heat wave A threat to common murres By DAN JOLING Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Common murres look like skinny penguins but fl y like F-15 fi ghter jets. The North Pacifi c sea- birds can quickly cover hun- dreds of miles searching for schools of small forage fi sh. Their powerful wings let them dive more than 150 feet under water to gorge on cap- elin, sand lance, herring, sar- dine and juvenile pollock. So biologists were stunned four winters ago when carcasses of emaciated common murres showed up on beaches in what they say was the largest seabird die- off recorded in the world’s oceans. The die-off even- tually killed an estimated 500,000 to 1 million murres from California to Alaska, eliminating 10% to 20% of the northeast Pacifi c popula- tion of the species. Seabird experts now believe they know why. Common murres were ambushed by effects of the northeast Pacifi c marine heatwave dubbed “The Blob,” according to a paper published Wednesday by 23 federal, university and pri- vate researchers in the sci- ence journal PLOS ONE. The heatwave lasted more than 700 days from 2014 to 2016, increasing water temperature and interrupt- ing patterns in the food web from the smallest creatures to top predators. Forage fi sh — the main prey of murres— feed on zooplankton, the fl oating small animals that feed on plant plankton. Cold water produces the biggest, fattiest varieties of zooplankton. But the marine heatwave reduced the nutritional value of zoo- plankton, researchers con- cluded, and the lower-grade food stunted the growth of forage fi sh. In turn, warmer water increased the metabolism of large fi sh such as Pacifi c cod, walleye pollock and arrow- tooth fl ounder, requiring them to eat more forage fi sh. That translated into a double whammy for murres, according to the research- ers. The seabirds found that their main food source had a fraction of its usual nutrition. Murres also found them- selves out-competed by large fi sh. “The food just wasn’t there and everybody wanted it,” said lead author John Piatt, a research biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey who has studied seabirds for more than 40 years. “And it just got scarcer and scarcer.” Common murres have marvelous tools for fi nd- ing forage fi sh but have an Achille’s heel: Murres must eat 56% of their body mass every day, the equivalent of 60 to 120 fi nger-length for- age fi sh. If they don’t, they can starve in three to fi ve days, Piatt said. Murre die-offs have occurred before but never in such numbers and never across three ecosystems, Piatt said, alluding to the California Current System, the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea. Biologists with help from citizen scientists counted or collected 62,000 carcasses, although Piatt says the fi gure represents only a fraction of the deaths because murres spend most of their time far from shore. About two-thirds of the dead birds were adults — and that carried ramifi cations for reproduction. Thirteen murre colonies in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea, where thousands of murres gather to reproduce, experi- enced complete failures for at least one breeding season during or after the die-off. Seabird experts early on suspected naturally occur- ring toxins played a role in the deaths. So far, there has been no evidence that any- thing other than starvation could explain the mass mor- tality, Piatt said. Pulling together work done by oceanographers, fi shery and avian disease experts and data collected by citizen scientists, Piatt and his collaborators focused on effects of the marine heat wave. The Blob created water with surface tempera- tures that were more than 4 degrees above normal. The heat wave extended hun- dreds of miles off shore and hundreds of feet below the surface. The reasons for the heat- wave are unclear. Global warming has slowly raised ocean temperatures over decades. Yet the marine heat- wave also is tied to the recur- ring Pacifi c climate patterns including El Nino cycles of warm sea surface tempera- tures and changing patterns of wind speed, direction and duration that help mix ocean waters. The murre deaths signaled that something was wrong in the ocean but starvation, die- offs, reproduction failures or population declines were recorded in other species: cod, arrowtooth fl ounder, rhinoceros auklets, tufted puffi ns, California sea lions and Guadalupe fur seals. Seventy-nine humpback and fi n whales stranded during 2015-16, mostly for “unex- plained” reasons and in the Gulf of Alaska. The common thread was their reliance on forage fi sh. “It sort of hit me — no wonder things were so screwed up, no wonder this thing hit so hard, because the 4-inch species is at the heart of all this for the murres, the rhinos, the tufteds the hump- backs,” Piatt said. Fisheries professor Selina Heppell, the chair of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Oregon State University, said it’s long been known or suspected that there were big impacts from the marine heatwave. “What this group has been able to do is actually pull several lines of evidence together into a cohesive story,” said Heppell, who was not part of the study. However, she said the study underscores the need for additional research on forage fi sh even though many do not have commer- cial value. “That’s what you really have to get to do to answer these eco- system-change kinds of questions.” States oppose Trump plan to allow LNG shipments by rail Oregon among the 15 states By MARC LEVY Associated Press HARRISBURG, Pa. — The attorneys general of 15 states said this week that they oppose a Trump administration proposal to allow rail shipments of liq- uefi ed natural gas, arguing the trains will share tracks with passenger trains and travel through congested areas. The protesting states included Pennsylvania and New Jersey, where the Trump administration issued a special permit in December to ship LNG by rail. Oregon and Wash- ington are also among the states. The rule-making by the U.S. Pipeline and Hazard- ous Material Safety Admin- istration stems from Trump signing an executive order in April that, in addition to seeking to speed up oil and gas pipeline projects, directed the transporta- tion secretary to propose a rule allowing liquefi ed nat- ural gas to be shipped in approved rail tank cars. In their 18 pages of com- ments submitted Monday, the states said the Trump administration’s proposed rule would put residents, fi rst responders and the environment at greater risk of catastrophic accidents. The administration failed to adequately analyze those risks and failed to consider the environmental and cli- mate effects of allowing LNG to be shipped in rail tank cars, the states said. The fl ammable and odor- less liquid would be trans- ported “through densely populated areas, potentially in unit trains of up to 100 tank cars operated by just one person, on the same rail lines used by high speed passenger trains, with inad- equate safety precautions,” the states said. They asked the pipeline administration to withdraw the proposed rule pend- ing the completion of more safety studies and the devel- opment of an environmental impact statement. Federal hazardous mate- rials regulations allow LNG shipments by truck, but not by rail, except for with a special permit. SALEM — Angelita Sanchez’s message was loud and clear when she spoke about the renewed effort in the Oregon Leg- islature to pass a new cap- and-trade bill. “We’re fed up,” she said. “The Legislature is giving us a false narrative so they can shove through a tax scam. But there’s no more room for these taxes. We’ve been work- ing, working, working, and there’s no room to pinch anymore. So we’re saying enough is enough.” Sanchez, of #Timbe- rUnity, said the new legis- lation — a similar proposal to 2019’s cap-and-trade bill — is 157 pages and count- ing. The bill would limit the carbon dioxide emis- sions of some businesses in urban areas, but rural residents say the costs of the bill will ultimately be passed on to them, as well. Sanchez spoke Wednes- day at the 50th Northwest Agricultural Show. The Legislature’s fi ve- week session begins Feb. 3, with lawmakers in the Democratic supermajority planning to push through the new bill. On Feb. 6, #Timbe- rUnity plans to take their complaints to the Capitol with a truck convoy and a protest, — while also deploying semi truck fl eets to demonstrate in Portland and other cities the same day. Last year’s attempt to limit carbon dioxide emis- sions fl opped. Protesters, most of whom were part of #TimberUnity’s move- Sierra Dawn McClain/Capital Press Angelita Sanchez, of #TimberUnity, speaks Wednesday at the Northwest Agricultural Show in Salem. ment, rallied in Salem against the bill. The mea- sure provoked a nine-day walkout by Senate Repub- licans in late June. They returned two days before the session ended. By then, the bill was dead for lack of Democratic support. “I thought last year’s bill was bad,” Sanchez said. “And it was. But I think this year’s bill may be worse.” After 2019’s legislative chaos, Gov. Kate Brown met with rural residents from across the state and listened to their concerns. According to Kate Kon- dayen, deputy communi- cations director for Brown, the governor is commit- ted to “ensure the bill pro- tects jobs and livelihoods in rural communities.” Sanchez, however, said that although the bill may not target rural commu- nities initially, it has the potential to hold them under its power later. This is because, according to the legislation’s text, once 19 counties have bought into the cap-and-trade program, the legislation will then apply to the rest of Oregon, too. “The reality is,” said Julie Parrish, another spokesperson for #Timbe- rUnity, “the Legislature is really saying, ‘Here’s your fi rst bite of the apple, then here’s your next bite.’” Although #TimberUnity formed to protest cap and trade , the movement has mushroomed into some- thing broader. When Sanchez joined the movement last sum- mer, she wanted to stand up for her trucking business. Now, she said, the move- ment runs a political action committee and a nonprofi t, teaches people how to exer- cise their political rights, is planning new chapters in fi ve states and will begin endorsing political candi- dates at the upcoming rally. “Why in the circle of life do we have to deal with stuff like this crushing us?” asked Phil Kuehnel, a retired salesman from Yam- hill County. 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