A5
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2021
Weyerhaeuser works toward
more resilient timberlands
OBITUARIES
Gary Niemi
Westport
March 21, 1943 — July 9, 2021
By GEORGE PLAVEN
Capital Press
Gary Niemi was born on March 21, 1943, annual pool tournament, and was a member
in Astoria, to Harold and Lillian Niemi. of their bowling team.
He passed away peacefully, in his home in
He built their dream home on the Colum-
Westport, on July 9, 2021, at the
bia River in 2007, and was able
age of 78.
to stay there, enjoying a view of
He met the love of his life,
the great Columbia River until his
Helen Nygaard, when he was a
passing.
freshman at Astoria High School
He always enjoyed anything
in 1957.
family-related, especially attend-
Gary was always a hard worker,
ing sporting events for his kids
and paid his own way through
and grandkids and hunting and
college by helping his dad in his
fi shing. He spent 20 years making
machine shop, longshoring and
an annual elk hunting trip to Idaho
logging for his future brother-in-
with his sons, son-in-law, brothers
Gary Niemi
law, Martin.
and many close family friends.
He was always resourceful.
He was a member of Faith
While just getting by in college, one side Lutheran Church in Clatskanie.
of his suitcase read: “Astoria to OSU,” and
He is survived by his loving wife of 56
the other side, “OSU to Astoria.” He mar- years, Helen Nygaard Niemi; his brother,
ried Helen in 1965, and graduated from Ore- Dennis; a half-sister, Judy Wiley; and three
gon State University in 1966 with a degree children, Sean, Erika and Andrew and their
in mechanical engineering.
spouses, Heather, Miles and Kristin; and
After college, Gary accepted a job with eight grandchildren.
Boeing Co. in Seattle, and they moved to
He was preceded in death by his dad,
Bellevue, Washington. His love for hunt- mom and brother, Warren.
ing and fi shing drew him to Sitka, Alaska,
His ashes will be spread at the family
in 1969, where he worked at Alaska Lum- duck shack, where he loved spending time
ber & Pulp Co.
with friends and family. Gary will be missed;
As much as Gary loved Alaska, family his welcoming personality and love will be
always came fi rst, and they moved back to cherished by the many lives that he touched.
Oregon with their three children in 1973 to
Donations may be made in his honor to
be closer to family and friends. Helen and Faith Lutheran Church in Clatskanie or to
Gary raised their three children in Westport, Lower Columbia Hospice in Astoria.
where he worked at the Wauna paper mill
Friends and family are invited to attend
until retiring in 2004.
a celebration of Gary’s life at the Clats-
He made a lot of good friends at the mill. kanie City Park, 300 Park St., on Friday at
Gary was a repeat champion in the mill’s 5:30 p.m.
Merry Dawn (Hughes) Zavala
Astoria
Nov. 11, 1959 — July 14, 2021
Merry Dawn (Hughes) Zavala passed emotional challenges.
away quietly on July 14, 2021, in Portland,
Merry was in and out of hospitals and
after a long battle with diabetes.
nursing care the past few years due to fall
Born to Roy and Itha Hughes, in
injuries, kidney failure and the
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Nov. 11,
resulting infections from dialysis
1959, Merry was raised with three
ports and surgeries.
older sisters and a younger brother.
She was preceded in death by
She went to college in Boise,
both parents, as well as two sisters,
Idaho, was a nanny in New Jer-
Iola Thompson and Renee Hughes.
sey, and ultimately earned a mas-
She is survived by a sister,
ter’s degree and owned her own
Noella (George) Roots, of Post
counseling service for a while in
Falls, Idaho; and a brother, Clint
Eugene. Later, she loved living in
(Gail) Hughes, of Meridian, Idaho.
Astoria and other Oregon Coast
No service is scheduled at this
Merry Zavala
towns.
time.
Leading life with a trusting
Merry and the family request
heart, she continued moving forward with that instead of fl owers, friends send a memo-
an infectious smile and laugh through the rial gift to St. Jude Children’s Research
numerous medical, physical, fi nancial and Hospital.
ESTACADA — Pri-
vate forestland owned by
the timber company Wey-
erhaeuser lines both sides
of Tumala Mountain Road
near Estacada. The road
marks the northern perim-
eter of last year’s massive
Riverside fi re.
Steve Keniston, region
forester for Weyerhaeuser
in the Willamette Valley,
stopped at one area where
crews recently completed
a thinning project designed
to remove smaller trees and
underbrush, referred to as
“density management.”
The goal, Keniston said,
is two-fold. First, by cut-
ting down undersized trees,
it eliminates competition
for water and nutrients with
larger trees that will eventu-
ally be harvested and made
into wood products.
Second, smaller trees
clustered next to bigger ones
can act as “ladder fuels”
during a catastrophic wild-
fi re, Keniston said. That
allows fl ames to climb from
the forest into the canopy
where they are much more
diffi cult to contain.
“Density management is
one of our key tools,” Ken-
iston said, discussing the
company’s approach to for-
est management.
Weyerhaeuser
owns
approximately 2.7 million
acres in Oregon and Wash-
ington state, according to
the company’s website.
Last year, 125,000 acres
owned by the company
burned in four large blazes
across the Willamette and
Umpqua valleys in western
Oregon, including the Riv-
erside, Beachie Creek, Holi-
day Farm and Archie Creek
fi res.
This year is proving to
be another scorcher, with
the Northwest Interagency
George Plaven/Capital Press
Steve Keniston, region
forester for Weyerhaeuser,
shows a young seedling
as part of replanting
eff orts on the company’s
land following last year’s
Riverside fi re near Estacada.
Coordination Center in
Portland reporting 820,129
acres burning in large fi res
across Oregon and Wash-
ington, versus 40,023 acres
at this same time last year.
The Bootleg fi re in
south-central
Oregon
accounts for about half of
those acres.
Carol Connelly, spokes-
woman for the Northwest
Interagency Coordination
Center, said fi re season in
the Pacifi c Northwest typ-
ically doesn’t peak until
mid-August.
“This fi re season just
started off with more large
fi res than we’ve seen in the
past,” Connelly said. “We
haven’t even plateaued yet.”
As wildfi res grow bigger
and hotter in the West, Ken-
iston said Weyerhaeuser is
working not only to prevent
large blazes, but contain
them quickly before they
can devastate neighboring
communities.
“Our primary strategy,
really, is that initial attack
and keeping fi res small,” he
said.
Driving farther into the
Weyerhaeuser property, the
eff ects of the Riverside fi re
become increasingly appar-
ent. Blackened logs and tree
stumps dot the hillsides,
while green vegetation has
started to regrow out of the
dusty soil.
Weyerhaeuser is now
replanting the burned acres,
which Keniston said they
are aiming to complete by
2024. An intense heat wave
in late June hasn’t made
that easy, with many of the
newly planted seedlings
already dried and brittle.
Approximately 5 miles
to the south, Keniston
explained how Weyer-
haeuser oversaw fi refi ght-
ers and contractors making
their stand to prevent the
fi re from merging with the
Beachie Creek fi re within
the company’s Molalla tree
farm.
The eff ort is an exam-
ple of the state’s complete
and coordinated system for
fi ghting fi res, in collabora-
tion with other land man-
agement agencies and pri-
vate forest operators.
Nick
Hennemann,
spokesman for the Oregon
Department of Forestry, said
landowners such as Weyer-
haeuser play a major role in
the system.
“They’re an integral part
of the Oregon fi refi ghting
team,” Hennemann said.
“These are people who
know the land and how to
operate forestry equipment,
often in diffi cult terrain.”
The need for a complete
and coordinated system is
acknowledged in Oregon
statute to protect the state’s
forestry resources. Once the
fi re bell rings, Hennemann
said local dispatch centers
will fi nd the closest avail-
able resources to begin the
initial attack.
More than 95% of fi res
are contained at 10 acres or
less, Hennemann said.
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SEVENDAY FORECAST FOR ASTORIA
TODAY
WEDNESDAY THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
REGIONAL FORECAST
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
Seattle
69 55
Breezy in the
p.m.
69 58
66 59
Breezy in the
p.m.
65 54
68 55
67 54
Cloudy, showers Chance of a
Low clouds
around
shower
A shower
possible
67 55
Partly sunny
Aberdeen
Olympia
75/56
85/59
Wenatchee
Tacoma
Moses
Lake
87/57
89/56
Salem
ALMANAC
UNDER THE SKY
TODAY'S TIDES
Astoria through Sunday
Tonight’s Sky: After sunset,
brilliant Venus and faint Mars low
west.
Astoria / Port Docks
Temperatures
High/low ................................ 66/57
Normal high/low .................. 68/55
Record high .................. 83 in 2017
Record low .................... 43 in 1987
Precipitation
Sunday ..................................... 0.02”
Month to date ........................ 0.02”
Normal month to date ......... 0.02”
Year to date .......................... 37.51”
Normal year to date ........... 38.02”
Forecasts and graphics provided by
AccuWeather, Inc. ©2021
Time
11:08 a.m. 5.3 4:48 a.m.
10:07 p.m. 7.1 4:10 p.m.
Cape Disappointment
11:06 a.m. 5.0 4:06 a.m.
9:52 p.m. 7.1 3:34 p.m.
Source: Jim Todd, OMSI
Hammond
SUN AND MOON
Sunrise today .................. 6:00 a.m.
Sunset tonight ............... 8:43 p.m.
Moonrise today .............. 1:26 a.m.
Moonset today .............. 5:28 p.m.
New
First
Full
Last
11:09 a.m. 5.2 4:23 a.m.
9:58 p.m. 7.3 3:48 p.m.
Warrenton
11:03 a.m. 5.7 4:32 a.m.
10:02 p.m. 7.5 3:54 p.m.
Knappa
11:45 a.m. 5.6 5:49 a.m.
10:44 p.m. 7.4 5:11 p.m.
Depoe Bay
Aug 8 Aug 15 Aug 22 Aug 29
10:26 a.m. 5.4 3:39 a.m.
9:05 p.m. 7.4 2:58 p.m.
0.6
3.3
0.8
3.6
0.6
3.5
0.7
3.4
0.5
2.8
0.9
4.0
City
Atlanta
Boston
Chicago
Dallas
Denver
Honolulu
Houston
Los Angeles
Miami
New York City
Phoenix
San Francisco
Wash., DC
Today
Hi/Lo/W
82/69/t
81/67/c
81/62/s
89/73/pc
81/63/pc
86/76/pc
90/74/t
88/64/s
87/81/t
80/66/c
110/87/pc
70/55/pc
81/68/c
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
82/68/t
75/64/pc
83/64/s
90/72/pc
83/62/t
87/76/pc
92/73/pc
85/63/s
90/80/pc
80/66/pc
112/88/pc
67/57/pc
84/67/pc
Weather (W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy,
c-cloudy, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms,
r-rain, sf-snow fl urries, sn-snow, i-ice.
95/61
Kennewick Walla Walla
101/73 Lewiston
104/69
102/71
Hermiston
The Dalles 105/71
Enterprise
Pendleton 91/65
103/70
103/73
La Grande
96/65
96/63
NATIONAL CITIES
High (ft.) Time Low (ft.)
Pullman
100/68
90/59
69/55 Portland
93/64
96/67
Yakima 100/68
Longview
Astoria
Spokane
98/71
Corvallis
92/60
Albany
95/62
John Day
Eugene
Bend
95/60
95/65
99/66
Ontario
99/69
Caldwell
Burns
96/56
94/64
Medford
102/68
Klamath Falls
94/52
City
Baker City
Brookings
Ilwaco
Newberg
Newport
Today
Hi/Lo/W
93/54/pc
63/52/pc
65/56/s
95/62/s
62/50/s
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
96/56/pc
60/52/pc
65/56/c
94/61/s
62/52/pc
City
North Bend
Roseburg
Seaside
Springfi eld
Vancouver
Today
Hi/Lo/W
65/53/s
96/64/s
67/55/pc
96/61/s
93/64/s
Wed.
Hi/Lo/W
65/55/pc
94/62/s
68/55/c
97/57/s
93/64/s