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THE ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2022
IN BRIEF
Trina & Ron’s Place burns in Warrenton
Trina & Ron’s Place, a Warrenton restaurant on
N.E. Skipanon Drive, went up in fl ames early Monday
morning.
The fi re was called in at around 1 a.m., according to
Warrenton Police Chief Mathew Workman. The city’s
fi re personnel arrived shortly thereafter. Neighboring
agencies also responded. The fi re was under control
before 5 a.m., Workman said.
“Looks like a total loss to me,” he wrote in a text.
Gearhart seeks gun ban at City Hall
GEARHART — The City Council moved forward
with an ordinance to prohibit weapons at city meetings,
but rejected a $5,000 purchase of a metal detector and
hand-held wand to screen visitors.
A police offi cer will be present at city meetings to
address potential threats.
The measure comes after what the Clatsop County
Sheriff ’s Offi ce deemed a false gun threat in June, when
conversations from private Facebook groups adminis-
tered by local residents led to reports of potential gun
use at a council meeting.
FAIR DAYS
Cannon Beach distributes
grants to organizations
Photos above and below by Lydia Ely/The Astorian
CANNON BEACH — The City Council has dis-
tributed grant funding to more than two dozen
organizations.
The city allocated $90,000 in community grants
for the fi scal year that started in July. The City Coun-
cil approved recommendations made by the parks and
community services committee.
The council distributed $11,691 to the Can-
non Beach Arts Association; $1,201 to the Cannon
Beach Chorus; $1,154 to the Cannon Beach History
Center & Museum; $3,630 to Clatsop CASA Pro-
gram; $8,476 to Clatsop Community Action; $7,782
to Helping Hands Reentry Outreach Centers; $2,435
to the North Coast Food Web; $6,678 to Restoration
House; $3,060 to South County Community Food
Bank; $2,535 to Sunset Park & Recreation Founda-
tion; $11,610 to The Cannon Beach Academy; $7,750
to The Harbor; $1,369 to The Seaside Hall; $12,376
to Tolovana Arts Colony and $8,250 to Wildlife Cen-
ter of the North Coast.
The council also distributed $313,318 in tourism
and arts fund grants, which come from lodging taxes.
The funding was distributed to support events put on
by the Cannon Beach Arts Association, Cannon Beach
Chamber of Commerce, Cannon Beach History Cen-
ter & Museum, Cannon Beach Library, Clatsop Animal
Assistance, Coaster Theatre Playhouse, North Coast
Land Conservancy and Tolovana Arts Colony.
Road to Soapstone Lake Trail
to temporarily close
The road off state Highway 53 that leads to the
head of Soapstone Lake Trail will close for about three
weeks, the Oregon Department of Forestry announced.
Felling and logging operations will be taking place
in the area, the department said.
The road will be open on weekends, the department
said.
Once the felling is fi nished, log hauling will take
place on the road between 5 a.m. and 2 p.m., the depart-
ment said.
Signs indicating the road closure will be posted at
the junction of the road and highway, the department
said.
— The Astorian
MEMORIAL
Saturday, Aug. 13
Memorial
ROEHR, Ernestine “Joy” — Celebration of life and
open house from 1 to 3 p.m., 40271 Compass Lane in
Svensen.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
TUESDAY
Clatsop County Planning Commission, 10 a.m., Judge
Guy Boyington Building, 857 Commercial St., Astoria.
Clatsop Care Health District Board, 5 p.m., Clatsop Com-
munity College, Patriot Hall, Room 207, 1651 Lexington
Ave., Astoria.
Cannon Beach City Council, 6 p.m., work session, City
Hall, 163 E. Gower Ave.
Warrenton City Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 225 S. Main
Ave.
WEDNESDAY
Clatsop County Board of Commissioners, 6 p.m., Judge
Guy Boyington Building, 857 Commercial St., Astoria.
Knappa School District Board, 6:30 p.m., Knappa High
School Library, 41535 Old U.S. Highway 30.
Astoria School District Board, 7 p.m., Astoria Middle
School Library, 1100 Klaskanine Ave.
THURSDAY
Seaside Civic and Convention Center Commission,
5 p.m., 415 First Ave.
Astoria School District Board, 5:45 p.m., special meeting,
1100 Klaskanine Ave.
Gearhart Planning Commission, 6 p.m., City Hall, 698
Pacifi c Way.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
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Betsy Johnson/Twitter
TOP: The Clatsop County Fair wrapped up over the weekend. Cows
waited in stalls during the Future Farmers of America competition.
ABOVE: Betsy Johnson, an independent candidate for governor,
introduced country music star Trace Adkins. RIGHT: Eli Miles and his
goat during the FFA competition.
Federal study gives hope to sea otter reintroduction
Decision could
be years away
By TOM BANSE
Northwest News Network
A federal study ordered
by Congress concluded it
would be feasible to reintro-
duce sea otters to the Ore-
gon and N orthern California
coasts. However, that fi nd-
ing doesn’t mean the super-
cute predators will be relo-
cated into their former ocean
habitat anytime soon.
Sea otters were hunted
to local extinction along
the Pacifi c Northwest coast
as part of the fur trade in
the 18th and 19th centuries.
The critters were success-
fully reintroduced to Wash-
ington state, British Colum-
bia and southeast Alaska 50
years ago. It didn’t go so
well along the southern Ore-
gon C oast, where the otters
released during the same
time period mysteriously
vanished after a few years.
Now, a key federal agency
has wrapped up a detailed
look at whether it is worth
trying again in Oregon. The
bottom line according to the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice is, yes.
“There would be multiple
substantial biological and
ecological benefi ts to the
nearshore marine ecosys-
tem from a reintroduction of
sea otters to their historical
range in N orthern California
and Oregon,” the executive
summary of the newly-re-
leased feasibility and cost
assessment stated.
Michele Zwartjes, a Fish
and Wildlife Service Oregon
C oast fi eld supervisor and
one of the study co-authors,
cautioned that her agency is
years away from any deci-
sion to carry out a reintro-
duction plan.
“There’s no recommen-
dation as to whether or not
reintroduction should actu-
ally occur,” Zwartjes said in
an interview. “We are in the
very earliest stages of even
considering the possibility
of reintroduction.”
Zwartjes explained that
Elakha Alliance
A new feasibility assessment looked at sea otter reintroduction
in Oregon and Northern California.
restoring this keystone spe-
cies could launch a cascade
of positive, indirect eff ects.
Hungry otters would reduce
an overpopulation of sea
urchins, which in turn could
result in healthier kelp for-
ests. More widespread kelp
in turn could store carbon
and nurse increased fi sh
populations. The presence
of sea otters could also spur
increased tourism.
However, the federal
agency acknowledged there
is also risk to shellfi sh fi sh-
eries due to predation by
sea otters on crabs, clams
and sea urchins. The otters
have big appetites because
they need to eat heartily to
stay warm in the cold Pacifi c
waters.
Therefore, the federal
report recommended as
a next step that an expe-
rienced, neutral facilita-
tor convene stakeholders,
agency representatives and
scientifi c experts to hash out
reintroduction options “that
might present an acceptable
level of risk to all parties.”
Zwartjes said additional
studies are also needed,
including a robust social
and economic impact analy-
sis. The Elakha Alliance, an
Oregon nonprofi t that sup-
ports reintroduction of sea
otters, is already working on
its own version of that with
a view toward addressing
the grave concerns within
the fi shing industry about
competition from voracious
otters.
“For our part in Ore-
gon, we’ve hired a commu-
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nity liaison person to work
with the communities on
the southern Oregon C oast,
where the best habitat is
located,” said Bob Bailey,
the board president of the
Elakha Alliance.
“Elakha” is the Clat-
sop-Chinookan word for
sea otter. The conservation
group previously commis-
sioned its own feasibility
study, which reached simi-
lar conclusions to the federal
one released in late July .
“Restoring a population
of sea otters is doable,” Bai-
ley said. “It’s likely to suc-
ceed and it’s likely to bring
major benefi ts to the ocean
ecosystem and local coastal
economy.”
People in the fi shing and
seafood industry remain
dubious about that. The
West Coast Seafood Proces-
sors Association fi red off a
preemptive critique of the
Fish and Wildlife Service
study in June and the trade
group’s executive director,
Lori Steele, said via email
Thursday that all of their
concerns were still valid.
“There is no doubt rein-
troducing sea otters will
have signifi cant impacts on
fi sheries, ports and other
industries,” California Sea
Urchin Commission chair-
man Dave Rudie said in a
statement. “We’ve seen it
happen already in Califor-
nia. Look at what happened
to Pismo clams in Pismo
Beach and the loss of the
abalone fi shery in Morro
Bay and Monterey in the
1960s and 1970s.”
Coastal tribes are weigh-
ing in, too. When consulted
by the Fish and Wildlife Ser-
vice, tribes within the area
under consideration for sea
otter reintroduction in Cal-
ifornia and Oregon were
generally supportive, with
the Confederated Tribes of
Siletz Indians voicing par-
ticularly enthusiastic assent.
“We vigorously sup-
port restoration of sea otters
to our coast, and the bol-
stered resilience of our near-
shore ecosystem diversity
that would result from it,”
wrote Siletz Tribal Chair-
man Delores Pigsley in a let-
ter. “We have been without
that relative here to help take
care of us for too long.”
The Quinault Indian
Nation in neighboring
Washington took exception,
though, and said in a sep-
arate letter that it does not
support further sea otter rein-
troductions, even at a dis-
tance to the south. Quinault
Nation President Guy Capo-
eman wrote that he was con-
cerned that sea otters, once
established off the Oregon
C oast, would expand their
range north and threaten the
viability of razor clam and
Dungeness crab populations
that tribal fi shermen depend
upon.
The confl uence of biolog-
ical and human variables led
Zwartjes and Bailey to inde-
pendently describe a work-
ing concept for a limited,
targeted reintroduction in a
few strategic locations along
the coast, if the plans move
forward.
“That would poten-
tially result in a few hun-
dred sea otters over the com-
ing decades, not thousands
of sea otters,” Zwartjes
said. “So, we believe those
impacts would be relatively
localized.”
Individual Washington
sea otters occasionally stray
south into Oregon waters,
but haven’t stuck around
long term. Washington is
home to about 2,300 sea
otters along the outer coast
and western Strait of Juan de
Fuca. Expansion of the cen-
tral California population
northward has been blocked
by a “shark alley” around
Half Moon Bay. The Fish
and Wildlife Service report
said shark bites are a lead-
ing cause of mortality for
the threatened California sea
otters.
Zwartjes said there was
“virtually no chance” of col-
onization of the vacant otter
territory along the N orth-
ern California and Oregon
coasts through natural range
expansion within the next 10
years.