RECORDS
Friday, October 25, 2019
East Oregonian
A5
PUBLIC SAFETY
OBITUARY
DEATH NOTICE
WEDNESDAY
Jeannine Irene Peterson
Virginia ‘Tobie’ Williams
Pendleton
April 27, 1933 — October 23, 2019
Elgin
Oct. 23, 2019
Jeannine Irene Peter- less celebrations under her
son, age 86, passed away beloved tiki lights on the
on Wednesday, October 23, back deck. She had a beau-
2019, in Pendleton, Oregon. tiful smile and a contagious
She was born in Sandpoint, love for life. She will be
remembered as a
Idaho, to Howard
person who was
and Lucille Melvin
always kind and
on April 27, 1933.
graceful — and
She grew up in
especially for her
Sandpoint, Spo-
kane, Washing-
amazingly posi-
tive attitude.
ton, and Portland,
She is survived
Oregon. She met
by her brother
the love of her life,
Vern
Melvin
Don R. Peterson,
(Jeannie); her chil-
while in Portland.
dren Karla Robin-
Peterson
They were mar-
son (Craig), Karen
ried in Spokane
in 1954. Don and Jeannine Bordenkircher (Rick), and
lived in Klamath Falls, Port- Jon Peterson (Shelli); her
land, Pendleton, Wilson- grandchildren
Lindsey
ville, and finally Pendleton Coiner, Jeff Waterland, Kyle
again upon Don’s retirement Waterland, Mike Borden-
kircher, Kory Stump, Megan
in 1995.
Jeannine’s passion was Bordenkircher, Taylor Peter-
her family. She supported son and Jack Peterson; and
Don in all of his profes- her five great-grandchildren.
sional activities and endeav-
The family would like to
ors, and she served as the thank the incredible team
backbone of the family. She at Suttle Care in Pendleton,
loved spending time with Oregon, where she lived the
family, especially her eight last several years of her life.
grandchildren and her five
A memorial service for
great-grandchildren.
family and friends will be
Jeannine was a great held at 1 p.m. on Wednesday,
friend to many. She loved October 30 at Pendleton Pio-
spending time with family neer Chapel Folsom-Bishop.
Online condolences may
and friends at their vacation
home in Priest Lake, Idaho, be sent to www.pioneer-
where she hosted count- chapel.com.
Virginia “Tobie” Williams, 81, of Elgin, died Wednes-
day, Oct. 23, 2019, in La Grande. A memorial service will
be held Saturday, Nov. 2 at 2 p.m. at the Elgin Stampede
Hall. Casual dress is preferred by the family. A full obituary
will be published at a later time. Loveland Funeral Chapel &
Crematory is handling the arrangements.
3:11 a.m. — An Ione resident reported the chicken coop
next to their house was on fire, and a large tree hangs over the
coop and the house. The Ione Rural Fire Protection District, Mor-
row County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies responded.
8:48 a.m. — An employee at the Crossroad Truck Stop, 2020
Highway 730, Umatilla, reported a black and red GMC Sierra
with Montana plates parked by the diesel island for a while
and the occupant won’t acknowledge the attendant. The caller
asked police to check on this because the driver needs to move
on.
9:18 a.m. — An Irrigon resident on Southeast Utah Avenue
reported a Ford Taurus turned around in front of his house and
he told a passenger to tell the driver to go down to the cor-
ner for that, and the passenger started “running his mouth.” The
Morrow County Sheriff’s Office told the caller there is nothing
illegal about turning around in front of his house.
9:42 a.m. — The Morrow County Sheriff’s Office received
another driving complaint from a resident on Southeast Utah
Avenue, Irrigon. The caller was “very irate” about the driver of
a blue Mitsubishi for revving the engine and harassing him
whenever he walks across the street.
Nothing indicated this caller was the person who com-
plained about the car turning around in front of his house.
9:44 a.m. — The Morrow County Sheriff’s Office received a
report of a male in Hepper assaulting his girlfriend and bloody-
ing her face. The case is under investigation.
11:58 p.m. — The Umatilla County Sheriff’s Office took a
report for a burglary on the 32600 block of East Punkin Center
Road, Hermiston.
3:39 p.m. — Hermiston police received a complaint about
barking dogs at a residence on Southeast Fifth Street. The caller
said a least two dogs were inside and perhaps more, and the
dogs are always in cages, all day and all night. The caller asked
police to check on the situation and contact him after.
8:35 p.m. — A 911 caller told Pendleton police she was chas-
ing after a vehicle that cut her off in traffic on the 1900 block of
Southwest Emigrant Avenue. Police responded, but did not find
find the vehicles involved.
8:52 p.m. — A woman on Umatilla River Road, Hermiston,
called 911 for police. She said her “ex” climbed on the hood
of her car and put his foot through the windshield. The Uma-
tilla County Sheriff’s Office responded and took the report, and
Umatilla police assisted.
9:08 p.m. — Hermiston police responded to a report of a
burglary on the 600 block of East Gladys Avenue.
10:05 p.m. — A caller on Southwest 15th Street, Pendleton,
reported a female was “attacking guys by the insurance place.”
11 p.m. — A woman on Rome Street, Boardman, called 911
and reported someone entered the back of her car, but she was
outside the car at that moment.
ARRESTS, CITATIONS
•Pendleton police at about 4:25 p.m. responded to the Riv-
erside Veterinary Clinic, 2504 N.E. Riverside Place, on a report
about an employee theft. Police arrested Megan Amity Rochelle
Simmons, 40, of Pendleton, for misdemeanor and felony pos-
session of federally controlled substances and second-degree
theft.
•Morrow County Sheriff’s Office arrested Steven Thomas
Hilling, 61, for driving under the influence of intoxicants.
•Pendleton police arrested Mischelle Cherie Keyser, 47, of
Pendleton, for theft of services and second-degree trespassing,
both misdemeanors, and for aggravated harassment, a felony.
MEETINGS
FRIDAY, OCT. 25
No meetings scheduled
MONDAY, OCT. 28
UMATILLA COUNTY SPECIAL LIBRARY DISTRICT WORK
SESSION, 5:15 p.m., Hermiston Public Library, 235 E. Gladys
Ave., Hermiston. Directors will receive reports about last fiscal
year’s Annual Library Service Plans. (Dea Nowell 541-966-0917)
UMATILLA BASIN WATERSHED COUNCIL, 6 p.m., Eastern
Oregon Higher Education Center room 134, 975 S.E. Columbia
Drive, Hermiston. (Michael T. Ward 541-276-2190)
IRRIGON COMMUNITY PARKS & RECREATION DIS-
TRICT, 7 p.m., Irrigon Fire Station, 705 N. Main St., Irrigon.
(541-922-3047)
MORROW COUNTY HEALTH DISTRICT, 7 p.m., Morrow
County Grain Growers conference room, 350 Main St., Lexing-
ton. (Tonia Adams 541-676-2942)
HERMISTON CITY COUNCIL, 7 p.m., Hermiston City
Hall council chambers, 180 N.E. Second St., Hermiston.
(541-567-5521)
MILTON-FREEWATER CITY COUNCIL, 7 p.m., Milton-Freewa-
ter Public Library Albee Room, 8 S.W. EIghth Ave., Milton-Free-
water. (541-938-5531)
TUESDAY, OCT. 29
MORROW COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION, 7 p.m., Port
of Morrow Riverfront Center, 2 Marine Drive, Boardman.
(Stephanie Loving 541-922-4624)
WEDNESDAY, OCT. 30
MORROW COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, 9 a.m.,
Bartholomew Government Building upper conference room,
110 N. Court St., Heppner. (Roberta Lutcher 541-676-5613)
THURSDAY, OCT. 31-FRIDAY, NOV. 1
No meetings scheduled
OBITUARY POLICY
The East Oregonian publishes paid obituaries. The obituary can
include small photos and, for veterans, a flag symbol at no charge.
Obituaries may be edited for spelling, proper punctuation and
style. Expanded death notices will be published at no charge.
These include information about services.
Obituaries and notices can be submitted online at
EastOregonian.com/obituaryform, by email to obits@
eastoregonian.com, by fax to 541-276-8314, placed via the
funeral home or in person at the East Oregonian office. For more
information, call 541-966-0818 or 1-800-522-0255, ext. 221.
LOTTERY
Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019
Megabucks
03-12-19-41-46-48
Estimated jackpot: $4.8
million
Powerball
05-12-50-61-69
Powerball: 23
Power Play: 2
Estimated jackpot: $120
million
Win for Life
40-58-66-75
Lucky Lines
04-08-10-15-18-23-28-31
Estimated jackpot: $27,000
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 5-5-7-0
4 p.m.: 6-6-8-4
7 p.m.: 6-7-7-8
10 p.m.: 6-5-7-2
Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019
Pick 4
1 p.m.: 3-7-2-3
UPCOMING SERVICES
FRIDAY, OCT. 25
BATES, JIM — Viewing from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
at Jenkins-Soffe Funeral Home, 4760 S. State St., Murray,
Utah. Graveside services will follow at 1 p.m. at Elysian
Burial Gardens, 1075 East 4580 South, Millcreek, Utah.
BICKLER, NANCY — Mass of Christian Burial at
1 p.m. at Our Lady of Angels Catholic Church, 565 W.
Hermiston Ave., Hermiston. Burial will follow at the Herm-
iston Cemetery.
CARVER, TESSA — Celebration of life service at
6 p.m. at the Pendleton Seventh-day Adventist Church, 1401
S.W. Goodwin Place.
DYKES, JOSH — Memorial service at 3 p.m. at Bethel
Church, 600 Shockley Road, Richland, Wash. A celebration
of life will follow immediately at Musser Bros. 3125 Rick-
enbacker Drive, Pasco, Wash.
SATURDAY, OCT. 26
COLLINS, DICK — Celebration of life at 11 a.m. at
First Presbyterian Church, 201 S.W. Dorion Ave., Pendle-
ton, with a reception following in the Rogers Fellowship
Hall.
LOWRANCE, EDNA — Celebration of life service at
11 a.m. at Landmark Missionary Baptist Church, 125 E.
Beech St., Hermiston.
PAINE, DOUG — Funeral service at 11 a.m. at the
Hermiston Christian Center, 1825 W. Highland Ave.,
Hermiston. Burial will follow at the Hermiston Cemetery.
ROOP, CHRIS — Memorial service at 2 p.m. at Burns
Mortuary, 336 S.W. Dorion Ave., Pendleton.
Purple sea urchin explosion off
California, Oregon decimates kelp
By GILLIAN FLACCUS
AND TERENCE CHEA
Associated Press
NEWPORT — Tens of
millions of voracious pur-
ple sea urchins that have
already chomped their way
through towering underwater
kelp forests in California are
spreading north to Oregon,
sending the delicate marine
ecosystem off the shore into
such disarray that other crit-
ical species are starving to
death.
A recent count found 350
million purple sea urchins on
one Oregon reef alone — a
more than 10,000% increase
since 2014. And in Northern
California, 90% of the giant
bull kelp forests have been
devoured by the urchins, per-
haps never to return.
Vast “urchin barrens” —
stretches of denuded seafloor
dotted with nothing but hun-
dreds of the spiny orbs —
have spread to coastal Ore-
gon, where kelp forests were
once so thick it was impossi-
ble to navigate some areas by
boat.
The underwater annihila-
tion is killing off important
fisheries for red abalone and
red sea urchins and creat-
ing such havoc that scientists
in California are partnering
with a private business to col-
lect the over-abundant purple
urchins and “ranch” them in
a controlled environment for
ultimate sale to a global sea-
food market.
“We’re in uncharted ter-
ritory,” said Scott Groth, a
shellfish scientist with the
Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife. “You can’t
just go out and smash them.
There’s too many. I don’t
know what we can do.”
The explosion of pur-
ple sea urchins is the latest
symptom of a Pacific North-
west marine ecosystem that’s
out of whack.
Kelp has been struggling
because of warmer-than-
usual waters in the Pacific
Ocean. And, in 2013, a mys-
terious disease began wip-
ing out tens of millions of
starfish, including a species
called the sunflower sea star
that is the only real preda-
tor of the ultra-hardy pur-
ple urchin. Around the same
time, the purple urchins had
two excellent breeding years
— and with no predators,
those gametes grew up and
are now eating everything in
sight.
“You can imagine all of
these small urchins growing
up, each one of them looking
for food, desperate for food.
They’re literally starving out
there,” said Steven Rumrill,
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus, File
In this Oct. 16, 2019, file photo, a purple sea urchin sits in a touch tank at the Marine Hatfield
Science Center in Newport.
lead shellfish expert at Ore-
gon’s wildlife agency. “I’ve
seen some big-scale fluctua-
tions in the populations of sea
stars and urchins, but never
on this magnitude.”
Scientists aren’t yet sure if
climate change is responsible
for the sea urchin explosion,
but they suspect it plays a role
in the cascade of events that
allowed the purple urchins
to boom. And kelp, already
under siege from warming
waters, is not as resilient as it
once was, said Norah Eddy,
an associate director at the
Nature Conservancy Califor-
nia’s oceans program.
“We’re going to see cli-
mate change as a big driver
of changes in kelp forest as
we move forward, and we
are already seeing that,”
said Eddy, who is leading an
effort to use drones to map
and monitor Northern Cali-
fornia’s last remaining kelp
forests.
The devastation is also
economic: Until now, red
abalone and red sea urchins,
a larger and meatier species
of urchin, supported a thriv-
ing commercial fishery in
both states. But 96% of red
abalone have disappeared
from California’s northern
coast as the number of purple
sea urchins increased sixfold,
according to a study released
this week by the University
of California, Davis.
Last year, California
closed its red abalone fishery,
which poured an estimated
$44 million into the coastal
economy per year, and Ore-
gon suspended permits for its
300 abalone divers for three
years. The commercial har-
vest of red sea urchins in Cal-
ifornia and Oregon also has
taken a massive hit.
“That’s a huge economic
loss for our small coastal
communities,” said Cynthia
Catton, a research associate
with the University of Cali-
fornia, Davis Bodega Marine
Lab. “In California, there
were 30,000 to 40,000 par-
ticipants in (the abalone) fish-
ery every year for decades,
and for the first time ever that
fishery had to close.”
And while the purple
urchins have eaten them-
selves into starvation as well,
unlike other kelp-depen-
dent creatures, the species
can go into a dormant state,
stop reproducing and live for
years with no food.
That means the only
way to restore the kelp is to
remove or destroy the purple
urchins. Scientists estimate
that in Oregon alone, it would
take 15 to 20 years to remove
all 100 million pounds of
purple urchins recently sur-
veyed on just one large reef.
While urchins are in star-
vation mode, the edible part
— known as roe — shrivels,
making them commercially
worthless.
Against this backdrop,
conservationists, commercial
urchin harvesters, scientists
and private interests are com-
ing together with an unusual
plan: Pay underemployed
red sea urchin divers to col-
lect the shriveled, but living,
purple sea urchins and trans-
fer them to carefully tended
urchin “ranches” to be fat-
tened up for sale to seafood
markets around the world.
One company, Urchinom-
ics, is already working on
urchin ranching projects in
Japan, Canada and California
and sees a future where the
overwhelming demand for
wild urchin roe is replaced by
a taste for human-raised pur-
ple urchins collected from
the seafloor, allowing kelp
forests to rebound.
“We’re turning an eco-
logical problem into an eco-
logical opportunity and an
economic opportunity,” said
Brian Takeda, the Urchi-
nomics CEO. “It’s the first
time we’ve ever had an eco-
nomic incentive to get these
destructive urchins out of the
water.”
In Oregon, red urchin
divers are a tiny artisanal
collective, but they are also
exploring ways to try to turn
the glut of destructive purple
urchins to their advantage.
Oregon’s urchin fishery had
a boom year last year, when
red urchins were scarce in
California but before their
purple cousins had spread
north. Now, they too are
hurting.
Rumrill, the shellfish
expert from Oregon, sup-
ports efforts to harvest excess
urchins but strikes a less opti-
mistic note when it comes to
saving the kelp.
“That’s a promising tech-
nique. But we shouldn’t fool
ourselves into thinking that
we’re going to solve this
large-scale ecological prob-
lem, this literal perfect storm
of events, by eating our way
out,” he said. “It’s just too big
a problem.”