A2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, JULY21, 2020
IN BRIEF
New Youngs Bay Bridge blocked
after Monday morning crash
Traffic was delayed on the New Youngs Bay Bridge
on Monday morning due to a crash.
Police say the two-vehicle crash blocked both lanes
on the bridge for about one hour.
The bridge reopened just before noon. The traffic
light at U.S. Highway 101 and E. Harbor Drive was a
four-way stop while the Oregon Department of Trans
portation worked to fix the issue.
—
The Astorian
Gatherings, entertainment limited in
Pacific County over virus concerns
LONG BEACH, Wash. — To reverse the spike in
coronavirus cases across Washington state, gatherings
in Pacific County must have no more than 10 attendees
starting Monday.
The new order will apply to all counties in phase
three of the state’s reopening plan. Gov. Jay Inslee
announced the new gathering limit during a news con
ference Thursday.
Under the previous Safe Start Order, counties in
phase three were allowed to have gatherings of up to
50 people.
The new order will also ban live entertainment,
regardless of whether it is indoor or outdoor. A wor
rying trend of new COVID-19 cases caused Inslee to
take action to prevent social gatherings across the state.
Halibut case overturned
but Pacific County appeals
LONG BEACH, Wash. — Pacific County prosecu
tors will fight a Superior Court’s decision to reverse
the convictions of two brothers who were charged with
exceeding daily halibut fishing limits.
In March, a judge found serious flaws in the cases
of David C. Gudgell, 59, and Robert W. Gudgell, 58,
two charter boat captains who worked for their fami
ly’s Ilwaco-based business, Pacific Salmon Charters.
The judge found the search warrant used in the
cases was overbroad, prosecutors had overcharged the
men and important instructions were not given to the
jurors before deciding a verdict.
In June, the Washington State Court of Appeals
agreed to review the decision overturning the convic
tions. The decision of county prosecutors to further
pursue the case came as a surprise to Mark W. Muen-
ster, an attorney based in Vancouver, Washington, who
represented the brothers in their appeals.
“Both David and Robert complied with all of the
provisions of the sentence that the judge had put in
place,” Muenster said. “They did the jail time and suf
fered a year of lost income.”
—
Chinook Obsen’er
DEATH
July 17, 2020
MYERS, Virginia Arlee, 99, of Gearhart, died in
Seaside. Caldwell’s Funeral & Cremation Arrangement
Center of Seaside is in charge of the arrangements.
MEMORIAL
Friday, July 24
CLARK, Gary Lee — Burial with U.S. Navy hon
ors at 1:30 p.m., Willamette National Cemetery, 11800
S.E. Mount Scott Blvd. in Portland. Clark, 72, of The
Dalles, former longtime Astoria resident, died July 15,
2020, in The Dalles. Spencer, Libby & Powell Funeral
Home of The Dalles is in charge of the arrangements.
ON THE RECORD
Theft
• Stephen A. Smith, 54,
of Seattle, Washington,
was arrested Sunday at
Walmart in Warrenton for
theft in the second degree.
Unauthorized entry
• Andrew James Ben
son Oyler, 24, was arrested
Saturday on 17th Street in
Astoria for unauthorized
entry into a motor vehicle.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Port of Astoria Commission, 4 p.m., workshop, (electronic
meeting).
Astoria Historic Landmarks Commission, 5:15 p.m., City
Hall, 1095 Duane St.
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District Board of
Directors, 5:15 p.m., 1225 Avenue A., Seaside.
Warrenton-Hammond School District Board, 6 p.m.,
special session, (electronic meeting).
Shoreline Sanitary District Board, 7 p.m., Gearhart Her-
tig Station, 33496 West Lake Lane, Warrenton.
WEDNESDAY
Astoria Parks Board, 6:45 a.m., City Hall, 1095 Duane St.
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 6 p.m., (elec
tronic meeting).
THURSDAY
Sunset Empire Transportation District Board, 9 a.m.,
(electronic meeting).
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Two board members resign from
Sunset Empire Park and Rec
Chapman, Mills
step down
By R.J. MARX
The Astorian
SEASIDE — Two Sun
set Empire Park and Recre
ation District board members
announced their resignations
Sunday.
Jeremy Mills, the chair
man of the board, and John
Chapman, a board mem
ber, each issued statements
announcing their decisions to
step down.
Their resignations come
after park district staff filed
a formal grievance regarding
“behaviors unbecoming of
a board member” involving
Mills and Chapman, includ
ing offensive remarks and
sexual innuendo.
At a July 7 meeting, infor
mation technology director
John Chapman Jeremy Mills
Darren Gooch and district
staff mentioned incidents
from last December to late
June of alleged inappropri
ate behavior and sexual innu
endo involving Mills and
Chapman, both inside district
facilities and out.
Gooch
and
employ
ees called for the immedi
ate resignation of Mills and
Chapman.
“These
incidents
besmirch the district’s name
in the community and under
mine staffs’ ability to con
duct their work effectively,”
district management and
staff wrote in a letter released
at the meeting.
At the same meeting, Sky-
ler Archibald, the district’s
executive director, alleged
Mills had delivered an inap
propriate financial offer to
Archibald
in
December
after Mills allegedly sought
his services at the insurance
agency Mills operates in
Seaside.
Mills sent a letter to
Archibald and the Seaside
Signal on Sunday.
“When I first stepped onto
the board for Park and Rec
my only goal was to strive
to make it the best it could
be,” Mills wrote. “At this
point though I have come
to believe that the direction
the board is going is no lon
ger a direction I can be a part
of. I hope and pray that the
new board can still continue
to make successful and for
ward movement while still
being responsible to every-
one whose taxes are support
ing our incredible programs.
This is a heavy burden and I
know that each will do so to
their best understanding.”
Chapman offered a public
apology in his announcement
that he was stepping down.
“The road to getting here
is one I believe I need to put
in my own words,” Chapman
wrote. “I have prayed long
and hard and know that I
only need to speak with hon
esty and truth.”
In a 2,000-word state
ment, Chapman said the dis
trict’s executive director
position needs more clarity
in its operation and role.
“It’s become clear many
of the fiscal choices and
goals of the executive direc
tor’s directions are not some
thing I can accept or support,
making me ineffective as a
board member at this current
time,” he wrote.
Forest service considers rule change
for logging of old growth forests
By COURTNEY FLATT
Northwest News Network
The U.S. Forest Service
is considering changing a
rule that prevents logging of
large trees on national for
estland in parts of Washing
ton state and Oregon.
Federal officials say it’s
an important update that
could help tame large-scale
wildfires.
Conservation
groups worry the amend
ment process has been
rushed and could damage
important forest habitat.
The land management
plans, known as the “East-
side Screens,” came about in
1995 to protect old growth
trees east of the Cascades.
The rules were meant to be
temporary. The Forest Ser
vice wants to amend a sec
tion of the policy called the
“21-inch rule,” which pro
hibits harvesting trees that
are greater than 21-inches in
diameter.
Conservation
groups
say the provisions, though
largely unknown, are “the
most meaningful protec
tions for large trees and old
growth” in Oregon.
“By keeping old growth
logging off the table for 25
years on public lands, these
protections for wildlife hab
itat, clean water, and other
values have kept the peace
and created conditions for
some level of agreement
over forest management in
the region,” Rob Klavins
with Oregon Wild said.
While Klavins says his
group isn’t opposed to
removing individual trees
at times, he says hastily
removing the 21-inch rule
would drastically weaken
the Eastside Screens provi
sions, and thereby hurt old
growth forests.
The amendment would
apply to the Deschutes, Fre-
mont-Winema,
Malheur,
Ochoco, Umatilla, and Wal-
Oregon Department of Forestry
The U.S. Forest Service is considering a change to its 'Eastside Screens' rule that prevented
logging of some trees over 21-inches in Eastern Oregon and Washington state.
lowa-Whitman national for
ests, which are primarily
in Oregon with some sec
tions in southeastern Wash
ington. It wouldn’t apply
to the portion of Washing
ton’s Okanogan-Wenatchee
National Forest that falls
under the Eastside Screens
management
plan.
The
Colville National Forest, in
northeastern
Washington,
recently removed the East
side Screens provisions —
including the 21-inch rule
— from its forest plan.
Forestry groups say the
blanket rules don’t help
make wise land manage
ment decisions. Amend
ing the 21-inch rule would
lead to better management
of individual stands, says
Andy Geissler with the
American Forest Resource
Council.
“It should be done on a
stand-by-stand basis. Using
just one number for every
stand out there, without actu
ally looking at the stands, is
just flawed. It’s using this
absolute approach, and it
just doesn’t work,” Geissler
said.
Geissler says removing
the 21-inch rule won’t dras
tically increase the amount
of logging done on national
forests, calling it an “incre
mental change.” But con
servation groups aren’t con
vinced that’s the case.
The Forest Service says
it’s trying to encourage a
mix of different types of
trees of all different sizes.
That would help forests bet
ter withstand wildfires and
drought, spokesperson Ste
phen Baker said.
“The ability to remove
some 21-inch trees would
help us manage for more
resilient forests with species
that are less likely to die in
wildfires and other distur
bances. It could also allow
us to manage homogenous,
high-density stands in a
way that lowers the poten
tial for large-scale forest
die-offs from individual dis
turbances like a wildfire or
an insect outbreak,” Baker
wrote in an email.
Baker says the 21-inch
rule has allowed fast-grow-
ing, shade tolerant species
to thrive, such as grand firs.
That means there are big
ger trees in forests, but not
necessarily older trees. He
says those younger trees
can out-compete more fire-
adapted species, such as
ponderosa pines.
A recent white paper
from the Forest Service’s
Pacific Northwest Research
Station said “tree diameter
alone” was an “insufficient
guide for restoration.” In its
recent bioregional assess
ment, the Forest Service
said the Eastside Screens
have helped stabilize old
growth forests on federal
lands, but that these forests
are now at risk of increasing
wildfires.
The Forest Service is
developing a draft envi
ronmental assessment that
would provide four alter
natives for tree removal —
likely due out at the end
of July. A final decision is
expected by next spring.
Fishing: Fishermen pay for cost of having an observer on board
Continued from Page A1
“An observer doesn’t
work for you,” she said. “You
don’t have that same level of
control over whatever they’re
doing ... It just seems like a
really unnecessary risk.”
Observer coverage was
one of several measures
required in the West Coast
groundfish trawl catch share
program after certain rockfish
species were declared over
fished. A number of these spe
cies have since rebounded.
Fishermen pay for the
cost of having an observer on
board, but the observers are
employed by outside com
panies. On the West Coast,
observer companies told the
National Oceanic and Atmo
spheric Administration they
would be taking public health
precautions because of the
pandemic.
Mann does not think every
fisherman is interested in a
waiver. She thinks less than
15 boats in Oregon, Wash
ington state and California
would take advantage of an
extended blanket waiver.
“Some people don’t even
think the virus is a real deal
so they’ll take the observer.
They don’t care,” she said.
“But there are people who do
care and are concerned about
that.”
The industry is also seek
ing temporary relief for fish
ermen from the payment
of mandatory cost recov
ery fees, a percentage of the
value of the fish harvested
that goes to cover the costs of
managing, enforcing and data
collection in the West Coast
trawl program.
The coronavirus pan
demic, which has already
upended major industries and
economies globally, has not
spared fishing.
Outbreaks have shut down
plants and kept vessels at
docks. Markets have shifted
or, in some cases, disap
peared. Coastal communities
have seen spikes in cases at
seafood processing plants.
This month, Seafood Har
vesters of America, represent
ing industry groups and fish
ermen, also sent a letter, this
one addressed to National
Marine Fisheries Services
administrators and the U.S.
Department of Commerce.
They asked the agen
cies to add a third criteria to
the emergency action under
which the fisheries service
can waive observer cover
age that considers “the health
and safety of captains, crew,
coastal communities and
observers.”
They argue that the
agency has taken a scattered
approach to observer cov
erage across national fisher
ies, waiving it in some areas
and enforcing it in others.
The agency has said a flex
ible approach is necessary
given the differences in fish
eries and fishing communi
ties’ circumstances.
But in their letter, industry
leaders note that the agency
canceled
scientific
sur
veys because of the logistics
during an outbreak and the
possible risk to staff. They
argue that the same caution
should be possible for the
fishing industry, too.
“We understand the need
for science and data — they
are the underpinnings of all of
our fisheries management,”
the letter stated. “Our busi
nesses, as well as sound fish
eries management, depend
on science and data. How
ever, we cannot safely gather
this data through the deploy
ment of human observers at
this time.”