A2
THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, APRIL 5, 2022
Freshwater mussels facing decline
IN BRIEF
Challenges include
warming waters
Place Matters conference
to focus on climate change
This year’s Place Matters conference will focus on
the impacts of climate change in Clatsop County.
The virtual event will take place from April 19 to
April 21.
Clatsop Community Health Advocacy Resource
Team, or CHART, hosts the conference. The Place
Matters Oregon project comes from the Oregon Health
Authority.
More information and registration is available
online at Clatsop CHART’s website, clatsopchart.org.
Astoria man charged after bicycle thefts
Cyrus Galen Grabenhorst, 27, of Astoria, was
charged on Thursday for a series of bike thefts from
March.
He allegedly stole a bike, worth about $2,000, off
Harrison Avenue in Astoria.
Grabenhorst then allegedly stole four more bikes —
totaling about $13,400 in value — days later from a
detached garage off Duane Street.
For the initial case, he was charged with fi rst-de-
gree theft and violation of a release agreement.
For the second case — which involved him fl eeing
police offi cers trying to take him into custody — he
was charged with second-degree burglary, second-de-
gree theft, third-degree escape and two counts of tam-
pering with evidence.
All the bikes have been recovered, police said.
— The Astorian
DEATHS
April 3, 2022
Deaths
BOREN,
Margaret,
86, of Warrenton, died in
Warrenton. Ocean View
Funeral & Cremation Ser-
vice of Astoria is in charge
of the arrangements.
April 2, 2022
JASPER, Ronald Les-
ley, 88, of Astoria, died
in Astoria. Caldwell’s
Luce-Layton Mortuary of
Astoria is in charge of the
arrangements.
MEMORIALS
Wednesday, April 6
Memorials
REYNOLDS,
Liz
— Graveside service at
2 p.m., Ocean View Cem-
etery, 575 S.W. 18th St. in
Warrenton. Reynolds, 70,
of Seaside, died Thursday
in Seaside. Hughes-Ran-
som Mortuary is in charge
of the arrangements.
Saturday, April 9
SWANSON, Theo-
dore Willard “Teddy” and
Sally Sue (Manula) —
Memorial at noon, Valley
Bible Church, 4723 State
Route 4 W. in Rosburg,
Washington.
Assault
• Samuel Alvin Dar-
On
Record
• Toni the
Lee Ramvick,
ling, 47, of Portland, was
indicted on Wednesday
for second-degree bur-
glary, fi rst-degree theft
and second-degree crim-
inal mischief. The crimes
are alleged to have
occurred in January 2021.
DUII
•
Ashley
Anne
Wilkins, 34, of Astoria,
was arrested on March 23
on Lewis and Clark Road
for driving under the
infl uence of intoxicants.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Seaside Community Center Commission, 10 a.m., Bob
Chisholm Community Center, 1225 Avenue A, Seaside.
Port of Astoria Commission, 4 p.m., 10 Pier 1, Suite 209.
Seaside Library Board, 4:30 p.m, 1131 Broadway.
Clatsop Care Health District Board, 5 p.m., (electronic
meeting).
Clatsop County Fair Board, 5:30 p.m., 92937 Walluski
Loop, Astoria.
Seaside Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
Cannon Beach City Council, 6 p.m., City Hall, 163 E Gower
Ave.
WEDNESDAY
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 10 a.m., work
session, (electronic meeting).
Warrenton Community Library Board, 6 p.m., special
meeting, City Hall, 225 S. Main Ave.
Clatsop Community College Board and Foundation,
6 p.m., Columbia 219, 1651 Lexington Ave, Astoria.
Warrenton-Hammond School District Board, 6 p.m.,
work session, Warrenton High School Library, 1700 S. Main
Ave.
Knappa School District Board, 6:30 p.m., work session,
Knappa High School Library, 41535 Old U.S. Highway 30.
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 698 Pacifi c Way.
THURSDAY
Seaside Parks Advisory Committee, 6 p.m., City Hall, 989
Broadway.
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The Northwest’s fresh-
water mussels are in trouble,
rapidly declining in almost
every population biologists
study.
Take 2005, when biolo-
gists counted historic num-
bers of freshwater mus-
sels in the North Fork of
the John Day River. They
counted around 500 mus-
sels per meter squared, sim-
ilar to what Lewis and Clark
noted on their westward
expedition.
“They said you couldn’t
step into the river without
stepping on 100 mussels,”
said Alexa Maine, the lead
biologist for the Confeder-
ated Tribes of the Umatilla
Indian Reservation’s Fresh-
water Mussel Research and
Restoration Project.
By 2007, every mussel in
the North Fork of the John
Day River was gone, Maine
said.
“When mussels start
dying en masse like we see
now, that, to me, signals
there’s a greater issue going
on that we’re not yet recog-
nizing,” Maine said.
Biologists aren’t sure
what’s going on. They’re
working to fi gure it out
quickly.
Freshwater mussels face
challenges that include
warming waters caused by
climate change, an abun-
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
A western ridged mussel in the Chehalis River.
dance of non native fi sh spe-
cies, habitat destruction and
pollution.
In fact, the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service is taking a
closer look at one species
of freshwater mussels, the
western ridged mussel.
The service conducted
a 90-day initial assessment
that found western ridged
mussels might be a good
candidate for the Endan-
gered Species List.
Now, the service will take
an even closer inspection,
known as a species status
assessment, of the western
ridged mussel throughout
the fi ve states in its range,
including in Oregon, Wash-
ington and Idaho.
The assessment will help
researchers learn more about
the western ridged mussel’s
life history and current con-
ditions. In addition, the
assessment will predict what
the future might look like for
the western ridged mussel.
Only a handful of fresh-
water mussels can be found
in the West, compared to the
up to 300 species found east
of the Continental Divide,
Maine said.
“It’s pretty diffi cult these
days to fi nd two species in
one location together, let
alone a population that is
what we call self-sustain-
ing,” Maine said of mussels
in the West.
Freshwater
mussels,
which live 60 to 100 years,
clean the rivers and streams
where they’re found. One
mussel can clean 10 gallons
of water in around 30 min-
utes, said Courtney Newlon,
a fi sh and wildlife biologist
with the U.S. Fish and Wild-
life Service.
“The mussels do a lot of
work behind the scenes, such
as maintaining water qual-
ity, fi ltering out sediments
like pollutants and bacteria,
Washington approves fi rst statewide
missing Indigenous people alert
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
and TED S. WARREN
Associated Press
ON THE RECORD
38, an inmate of the Clat-
sop County Jail, was
arrested on Thursday at
the jail for assaulting a
public safety offi cer.
Burglary
• Kyle Brandon Bean,
41, of Stevenson, Wash-
ington, was indicted on
Friday for fi rst-degree
burglary and fi rst-degree
criminal trespass. The
crimes are alleged to have
occurred in February 2021.
By COURTNEY FLATT
Northwest News Network
and they provide food and
habitat for other aquatic spe-
cies,” Newlon said.
As a species that these
ecosystems depend on,
known as a keystone spe-
cies, freshwater mussels
could be an indicator that
not all is well in Northwest-
ern waters, Maine said.
“I think mussels are part
of this larger picture of envi-
ronmental decline and spe-
cies destruction and all of
that that’s happening,” she
said.
Moreover, tribes used
mussel shells as a cultural
resource in jewelry and
ornamentation, Maine said.
Historically, tribes consid-
ered freshwater mussels a
fi rst food — a staple food
source — boiling and dry-
ing them to eat in the winter,
Maine said.
The Confederated Tribes
of the Umatilla Indian Res-
ervation heads up the only
project dedicated to breed-
ing and restoring freshwater
mussels in the West.
For that project, Maine
snorkels rivers within the
tribe’s ceded lands, scouring
the riverbeds for what might
at fi rst appear to be a rock
but instead is a freshwater
mussel.
After fi nding many mus-
sels that haven’t reproduced,
she said she wonders if she’s
watching elder mussels die
out over decades.
“Mussels
are
now
screaming, saying, ‘Help us
do something, there’s some-
thing going on,’” Maine
said.
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TULALIP, Wash. —
Washington Gov. Jay Ins-
lee on Thursday signed
into law a bill that creates a
fi rst-in-the-nation statewide
alert system for missing
Indigenous people, to help
address a silent crisis that
has plagued Indian Country
in this state and nationwide.
The law sets up a sys-
tem similar to Amber Alerts
and so-called silver alerts,
which are used for miss-
ing children and vulnerable
adults in many states. It was
spearheaded by Democratic
state Rep. Debra Lekanoff ,
the only Native American
lawmaker serving in the
state Legislature, and cham-
pioned by Indigenous lead-
ers statewide.
“I am proud to say that
the Missing and Mur-
dered Indigenous Wom-
en’s and People’s Alert Sys-
tem came from the voices of
our Native American lead-
ers,” said Lekanoff , a mem-
ber of the Tlingit tribe and
the bill’s chief sponsor. “It’s
not just an Indian issue. It’s
not just an Indian responsi-
bility. Our sisters, our aun-
ties, our grandmothers are
going missing every day ...
and it’s been going on for
far too long.”
Tribal leaders, many
of them women, wore tra-
ditional hats woven from
cedar as they gathered
around Inslee for the sign-
ing on the Tulalip Reserva-
tion, north of Seattle. After-
ward they gifted him with a
handmade traditional ribbon
shirt and several multicol-
ored woven blankets.
The law attempts to
address a crisis of missing
Indigenous people — partic-
ularly women — in Wash-
ington and across the United
States. While it includes
missing men, women and
children, a summary of pub-
lic testimony on the legis-
lation notes that “the crisis
began as a women’s issue,
and it remains primarily a
women’s issue.”
Besides notifying law
Ted S. Warren/AP Photo
Monie Ordonia, second from left, of the Tulalip Indian Tribe, joins others in singing an honor
song after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill that creates a fi rst-in-the-nation statewide
alert system for missing Indigenous people, particularly women.
‘WHAT’S THE MOST IMPORTANT
THING IS BRINGING THEM
HOME, WHETHER THEY’VE BEEN
TRAFFICKED, WHETHER THEY’VE
BEEN STOLEN OR MURDERED.
IT’S A WOUND THAT STAYS OPEN,
AND IT’S SOMETHING THAT WE
PRAY WITH (FOR) EACH PERSON,
WE CAN BRING THEM HOME.’
Teri Gobin | Tulalip Tribes of Washington chairwoman
enforcement when there’s a
report of a missing Indige-
nous person, the new alert
system will place messages
on highway reader boards
and on the radio and social
media, and provide infor-
mation to the news media.
The legislation was
paired with another bill Ins-
lee, a Democrat, signed
Thursday that requires
county coroners or medi-
cal examiners to take steps
to identify and notify fam-
ily members of murdered
Indigenous people and
return their remains. That
new law also establishes
two grant funds for Indig-
enous survivors of human
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traffi cking.
This piece of the cri-
sis is important because
in many cases murdered
Indigenous women are mis-
takenly recorded as white
or Hispanic by coroners’
offi ces, they’re never identi-
fi ed, or their remains never
repatriated.
A 2021 report by the
nonpartisan
Government
Accountability Offi ce found
the true number of miss-
ing and murdered Indige-
nous women in the U.S. is
unknown due to reporting
problems, distrust of law
enforcement and jurisdic-
tional confl icts. But Native
American women face mur-
der rates almost three times
those of white women over-
all — and up to 10 times the
national average in certain
locations, according to a
2021 summary of the exist-
ing research by the National
Congress of American Indi-
ans. More than 80% have
experienced violence.
In Washington, more
than four times as many
Indigenous women go miss-
ing than white women,
according to research con-
ducted by the Urban Indian
Health Institute in Seattle,
but many such cases receive
little or no media attention.
The bill signing began
with a traditional welcome
song passed down by Harri-
ette Shelton Dover, a cher-
ished cultural leader and
storyteller. Dover recovered
and shared many traditions
and songs from tribes along
Washington’s
northern
Pacifi c Coast and worked
with linguists before her
death in 1991 to preserve
her language, Lushootseed,
from extinction. Women
performed an honor song
after the event.
Tulalip Tribes of Wash-
ington Chairwoman Teri
Gobin said Washington
and Montana are the two
states with the most miss-
ing Indigenous people in
the U.S. Nearly four dozen
Native people are currently
missing in Seattle alone, she
said.
“What’s the most import-
ant thing is bringing them
home, whether they’ve been
traffi cked, whether they’ve
been stolen or murdered,”
she said. “It’s a wound that
stays open, and it’s some-
thing that we pray with (for)
each person, we can bring
them home.”