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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (July 27, 2019)
SN SATURDAY EDITION | JULY 27, 2019 | $1.00 TH THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM SPECIAL SCREENINGS Wednesday July 24th at 6pm and Saturday July 27th at 11am. C ITY L IGHTS C INEMA 10% of ticket sales will be donated to the Oregon Coast Humane Society Siuslaw News Postal Customer Florence, Ore. 97439 VOL. 129, NO. 60 NEWS & VIEWS THAT DEFINE OUR COMMUNITY F LORENCE , O REGON WEATHER The Marbled Murrelet: Oregon’s mystery seabird connects forest, sea preservation Story & Photo By Victoria Sanchez Siuslaw News Intern I t’s 4:30 a.m. and the rustle of rain jackets and tents impedes the otherwise stillness of the camp- site. At the Cape Perpetua camp- ground in Yachats, Ore., about 25 eager individu- als roll out Partly cloudy with a high of 71 and a low of 55. Full forecast on A3 COMMUNITY Bus arrives for Florence-Yachats Service INSIDE — A3 SPORTS To play for America’s team INSIDE — SPORTS RECORDS Obituaries & emergency response logs Inside — A2 SIDE SHOW Activities and comics every Saturday Inside — B4 CLASSIFIEDS Listings and public notices Inside — B5 FOLLOW US FOR THE LATEST NEWS : /S IUSLAW N EWS @S IUSLAW N EWS T HE S IUSLAW N EWS . COM of their sleeping bags and hurry to dress for the drizzle that’s begin- ning to shower the campsite. They all make their way to the parking lot for the 5:08 a.m. meeting time. A red Chevy truck’s headlights turn on as the owner looks for something inside, and illuminates soft mist so that it looks like snow falling against the dark campsite. Aside from the lights from the bathroom pavilions, the campers are surrounded by darkness. “Perfect murrelet weather. They love this,” Kim Nelson says. This is the 14th annual mar- bled Murrelet Survey and Nelson is leading this group as they wait eagerly to spot the elusive bird. At exactly 5:08 a.m. she says, “It’s start time. Let’s get ready to hear some murrelets,” and everyone’s eyes turn towards the grey sky, looking to spot the marbled murrelet. See MURRELET page 7A Taking responsibility for Florence’s ‘Scam Jam’ plastic pollution with Precious Plastics hits Florence By Victoria Sanchez Siuslaw News Intern S IUSLAW N EWS 2 S ECTIONS | 16 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2019 “I am in love with this Earth and I want to preserve whatev- er is pristine and natural, that we have left. I take it personally when animals are asphyxiated or die of malnutrition because they are in- gesting plastic waste. It’s personal to me,” said Mona McSweeney, one of the founding members of Precious Plastics Florence. She’s one of many area residents working to reduce plastic pollu- tion in western Lane County. Precious Plastics Florence (PPF) began about a year and a half ago and it is now on track to revolu- tionize how Florence deals with its portion of the world’s plastic epi- demic. According to data by Na- tional Geographic, some 18 billion pounds of plastic end up in the ocean every year, and less than a fifth of all plastic is recycled glob- ally. Recent reports show 50 per- cent of plastics are single-use; and with Florence being a tourist des- tination along the Oregon coast, single-use plastics may be even more prevalent due to their com- mon use by hotels and Airbnbs. Currently, Florence only accepts milk jugs and other transparent drink bottles for plastic recycling. This began in October 2017, as China had announced that begin- ning January 2018, it would pass the National Sword policy ban- ning plastic waste from being im- ported — which means Florence and the rest of the U.S. has been left to deal with their plastics con- sumption alone. “Rather than manufacturing more, it would be great if we could capture what was already in pro- duction and use it again. It just makes sense,” McSweeney said. Plastics direly affect seabirds, sea Attorney General, police educate seniors on latest scams By Mark Brennan Siuslaw News Fish in the North Pacific ingest 12,000 to 24,000 tons of plastic annually, reports the center, and this plastic then transfers up the food chain — such as to residents of a coastal town such as Florence, who may consume more fish than inland Oregonians. Oregon Attorney General El- len Rosenblum visited Florence briefly on Tuesday, speaking to a small group of seniors at the Florence Events Center about the ever-present danger of fraud and scams. Representatives from the Amer- ican Association for Retired Per- sons (AARP) and the Florence Police Department were also in attendance and made short pre- sentations supporting the warn- ings given by the AG. The event was billed as a “Scam Jam” and was one of a number of public forums the attorney gen- eral is holding across the state to address primarily phone-based attempts at fraud. These informa- tional workshops are designed to provide suggestions and strategies to seniors and others about the techniques used by criminals to separate unsuspecting individuals from their money. The Financial Fraud Section of the Oregon Department of Jus- tice (ODJ) has recently released a statewide Scam Alert, warning residents of a new scam related to genetic testing. The increasing interest in ex- ploring individual ancestry and in searching for possible genetic problems has brought this issue to the ODJ’s attention. Unfortu- nately, when there is a new way for criminals to steal from people, they will try to do so. See PLASTICS page 7A See SCAM JAM page 5A VICTORIA SANCHEZ/SIUSLAW NEWS Precious Plastics Florence demonstrated its plastic shredder to the public at the 2019 Power of Florence last week. The top opens and pieces of cut plastic from yogurt containers are put inside. The machine is then started and the plastic is shredded into small pieces and funneled out of the bottom of the machine into a con- tainer until it is ready to be melted into future upcycled products. turtles and all marine life through animals ingesting or becoming entangled in plastic. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an expanse of plastic in the north-central Pa- cific Ocean, now exceeds the size of Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana combined, accord- ing to the Center for Biological Diversity.