NORTHWEST
East Oregonian
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Friday, November 16, 2018
Oregon gets OK to kill sea lions at Willamette Falls
help save threatened winter
steelhead and spring Chi-
nook salmon, state officials
said. Analyses show that sea
lions ate about one-fourth of
the steelhead run last year
and about 7 to 9 percent of
the spring chinook salmon,
officials said.
“The unfortunate reality
is that, if we want to prevent
extinction of the steelhead
and Chinook, we will have
to lethally remove sea lions
at this location,” Shaun Cle-
ments, a policy analyst for
the state Department of
Fish and Wildlife, said in a
statement.
Opponents say killing
the sea lions won’t solve
the problem of declining
salmon, which also face
SALEM (AP) — Ore-
gon wildlife managers on
Thursday received federal
approval to trap and kill
California sea lions that eat
protected fish.
The National Marine
Fisheries Service approved
the Oregon Department of
Fish and Wildlife’s request
to trap and euthanize up to
93 animals a year on the
lower Willamette River.
With their numbers grow-
ing, the sea lions are ventur-
ing ever farther inland from
the Pacific Ocean, and state
officials say they’re inter-
cepting fish on their way
to spawning grounds above
Willamette Falls south of
Portland.
Removing them will
AP Photo/Don Ryan, file
In this March 14 file photo, a California sea lion that was
trapped at Willamette Falls in the lower Willamette River,
waits to be released into the Pacific Ocean near Newport.
other problems such as hab-
itat loss and dams, and have
called the move unethical.
The Humane Society of
the United States opposed
the state’s request and ques-
tioned whether killing sea
lions would boost fish runs.
California sea lions’
numbers dropped dramat-
ically but have rebounded
from 30,000 in the late
1960s to about 300,000 in
2016 under the 1972 Marine
Mammal Protection Act.
Killing California sea lions
requires special authoriza-
tion under that law.
Clements said the state
has tried using non-lethal
methods for several years
to keep California sea lions
away, but those efforts
didn’t work. There are cur-
rently a dozen at Willamette
Falls and many have been
there for years, he added.
Some 50 to 100 sea lions
are seen at the falls at some
point in the year.
Under the federal authori-
zation, wildlife officials can
only remove individually
identified sea lions that have
been observed between Wil-
lamette Falls and the mouth
of the Clackamas River for
two days, or are seen eating
salmon or steelhead. The
marine mammals would be
captured and transferred to a
facility where they would be
euthanized.
Washington, Idaho and
Oregon wildlife manag-
ers currently have federal
authorization to kill prob-
lem sea lions that eat salmon
in the Columbia River near
Bonneville Dam.
Total voters increased by large margin in 2018 election
every time they apply for or
renew driver’s licenses. This
year, about 91 percent of eli-
gible voters are registered,
roughly 20 percent higher
than before the law.
“That means there’s hun-
dreds of thousands of new
people who are registered to
vote who most likely would
not have been if not for auto-
matic voter registration,”
said John Horvick, vice
president and political direc-
Portland pollster
analyzes results,
with equal turnout
from Democrats
and Republicans
By JACK HEFFERNAN
EO Media Group
Oregon’s motor voter
law, enacted in 2016, auto-
matically registers voters
tor of Portland-based polling
firm DHM Research, at the
Columbia Forum speaker
series in Astoria on Tuesday
night.
While registered voter
turnout in Oregon in mid-
term elections typically
ranges between 69 percent
and 71 percent, as it did this
year, the number of eligible
voters who participate typ-
ically flat lines at 52 per-
cent. This year, roughly 63
Forecast for Pendleton Area
TODAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
MONDAY
TUESDAY
Times of clouds
and sun
Mostly sunny and
chilly
Mostly sunny and
chilly
Plenty of sun, but
chilly
Mostly sunny and
chilly
48° 32°
42° 26°
PENDLETON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
44° 29°
43° 26°
43° 26°
HERMISTON TEMPERATURE FORECAST
50° 32°
43° 28°
43° 27°
43° 28°
45° 26°
OREGON FORECAST
ALMANAC
Shown is today’s weather. Temperatures are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.
PENDLETON
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Seattle
Olympia
56/42
47/27
52/24
Longview
Kennewick Walla Walla
47/32
Lewiston
56/39
49/30
Astoria
56/44
Pullman
Yakima 46/25
54/36
51/31
Portland
Hermiston
56/44
The Dalles 50/32
Salem
Corvallis
56/37
Yesterday
Normals
Records
La Grande
52/32
PRECIPITATION
John Day
Eugene
Bend
56/40
58/31
55/34
Ontario
53/32
Caldwell
Burns
53°
28°
51°
33°
72° (1995) -12° (1955)
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
Albany
58/38
0.00"
0.01"
0.56"
6.46"
8.33"
7.84"
WINDS (in mph)
53/33
54/17
0.00"
0.10"
0.65"
8.25"
14.40"
10.64"
through 3 p.m. yest.
HIGH
LOW
TEMP.
Pendleton 49/29
59/39
24 hours ending 3 p.m.
Month to date
Normal month to date
Year to date
Last year to date
Normal year to date
HERMISTON
Enterprise
48/32
54/35
56°
33°
49°
33°
71° (1896) -6° (1955)
PRECIPITATION
Moses
Lake
55/35
Aberdeen
42/24
46/30
Tacoma
Yesterday
Normals
Records
Spokane
Wenatchee
56/42
Today
Medford
63/34
Sat.
NE 4-8
NW 4-8
Boardman
Pendleton
NNE 4-8
NW 4-8
SUN AND MOON
Klamath Falls
59/24
Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2018
Sunrise today
Sunset tonight
Moonrise today
Moonset today
6:56 a.m.
4:23 p.m.
1:45 p.m.
none
Full
Last
New
First
Nov 22
Nov 29
Dec 6
Dec 15
NATIONAL EXTREMES
Yesterday’s National Extremes: (for the 48 contiguous states)
High 86° in Tamiami, Fla. Low -6° in Antero Reservoir, Colo.
percent of eligible voters
participated.
“So for an apples-to-ap-
ples comparison, it makes
more sense to look at the
percentage of eligible vot-
ers who turned out in past
elections, and we’ll compare
that to 2018,” Horvick said.
“Turnout was exceptionally
high here in Oregon.”
Oregon Republicans have
turned out to vote at a higher
rate than Democrats since at
least 1964. This year, both
political parties turned out at
an 80 percent rate.
“That actually is con-
sistent with the national
story,” Horvick said. “Dem-
ocrats turned out, and so did
Republicans.”
With voter rates being
equal in both parties, Repub-
licans face a significant chal-
lenge due to the overall num-
ber of registered Democratic
voters. A massive population
of Democrats lives in and
around Portland and, since
they live bunched together,
can be easier to energize.
“They are so much better
organized. It is night and day
compared to what Republi-
cans have, in terms of, the
unions are organized, pro-
gressive groups are orga-
nized and they worked hand
in hand to get the vote out
in 2018,” Horvick said. “It’s
just the turnout, you know,
machine is much stronger on
the Democratic side.”
As a result, Republicans
generally face about a 9 per-
cent incline at the start of
every election, Horvick said.
That impacted the strat-
egy of state Rep. Knute Bue-
hler, a Bend orthopedic sur-
geon, in his failed bid to
upset Gov. Kate Brown, a
Democrat.
Governor’s race
Buehler needed to tar-
get suburbanites, moderate
Democrats and independent
voters rather than playing
to a more right-wing base,
Horvick said. He focused on
convincing them that Brown
had failed on the issues they
cared about like education,
foster care, housing and
homelessness.
“The Democrats in power
have failed,” Horvick said in
summarizing Buehler’s mes-
sage. “Moderates, liberals —
the candidates that you’ve
supported in the past are not
delivering on the things that
you care about. Try some-
thing new.”
In January, 65 percent
of Oregonians hadn’t heard
of Buehler. Brown’s strat-
egy, then, was to define and
disqualify him, using large
sums of money from labor
unions and progressive
groups to do so.
“It was a blank slate,”
Horvick said. “So one of the
things that she had to do …
(was to) do what she could
to define him, to tell voters
who he is before he had an
opportunity to do it for him-
self and define him in a way
that was going to be negative
to the average voter in Ore-
gon, which right now means
Republican. It means Trump.
It means Washington, D.C.”
In speaking with Demo-
crats, Horvick noticed that
they were generally not
upset with the governor but
could name few, if any, of
her accomplishments.
“Satisfaction, but not ela-
tion,” Horvick said. “She
was doing OK, but they
weren’t super excited about
her either.”
As a result, Horvick
said, she needed to tap into
her actions as governor that
would energize a left-wing
base — minimum wage
increases, paid family leave,
clean energy policies and the
$5.3 billion transportation
package.
One major factor work-
ing in Brown’s favor was
the economy. Because of
an economic upswing this
decade, the percentage of
Oregonians who identified
jobs and the economy as the
state’s top issue plummeted
from 30 percent to 9 percent
in the past five years, Hor-
vick said.
“So this wasn’t going to
be an election that Knute
Buehler was going to be able
to say, ‘The incumbent has
ruined the economy,’” Hor-
vick said. “So he’s going to
have to run on some other
things.”
The strategy didn’t pro-
pel Buehler to a win. Hor-
vick noted, though, that eco-
nomic concerns have not
gone away, largely due to
the cost of housing and other
things.
Partisanship
On top of polarized
answers to specific ques-
tions, including economic
concerns, Horvick presented
data that highlighted exactly
how much bitter partisanship
has spread in Oregon.
In 1994, 16 percent of
Democrats held a “very
unfavorable view” of Repub-
licans, and Republicans felt
that way about Democrats at
a 17 percent rate. Now, those
numbers have skyrocketed
to 43 percent and 45 percent.
“Voting, more and more,
has been about who you
dislike more than who you
like,” Horvick said. “I don’t
have an answer to that —
what we should do, how to
change it. But I show these
to help remind us that not
everybody in this room is
going to think like us.”
Corrections
Admission for the Pendleton Altrusa Bazaar on Satur-
day is $2 per person. Conflicting information appeared in
Thursday’s East Oregonian. The EO regrets the error.
NATIONAL WEATHER TODAY
SATURDAY NOV 17
Pendleton Convention Center
9 AM - 4 PM
Only $2 Admission!
OVER 100 VENDORS!
RAFFLE TICKETS FOR:
$2,000 Cash, Gift Baskets, and Door Prizes!
Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.
-10s
-0s
0s
showers t-storms
10s
rain
20s
flurries
30s
snow
40s
ice
50s
cold front
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