THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2021 A3
TODAY
Today is Tuesday, Feb. 23, the
54th day of 2021. There are 311
days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Feb. 23, 1836, the siege of
the Alamo began in Texas.
In 1861, President-elect
Abraham Lincoln arrived
secretly in Washington to take
office, following word of a
possible assassination plot in
Baltimore.
In 1870, Mississippi was
readmitted to the Union.
In 1903, President Theodore
Roosevelt signed an agreement
with Cuba to lease the area
around Guantanamo Bay to the
United States.
In 1942, the first shelling of the
U.S. mainland during World
War II occurred as a Japanese
submarine fired on an oil
refinery near Santa Barbara,
California, causing little damage.
In 1945, during World War II, U.S.
Marines on Iwo Jima captured
Mount Suribachi, where they
raised two American flags.
In 1954, the first mass
inoculation of schoolchildren
against polio using the Salk
vaccine began in Pittsburgh
as some 5,000 students were
vaccinated.
In 1965, film comedian Stan
Laurel, 74, died in Santa Monica,
California.
In 1981, an attempted coup
began in Spain as 200 members
of the Civil Guard invaded
Parliament, taking lawmakers
hostage. (However, the attempt
collapsed 18 hours later.)
In 1995, the Dow Jones
industrial average closed above
the 4,000 mark for the first time,
ending the day at 4,003.33.
In 1998, 42 people were
killed, some 2,600 homes
and businesses damaged or
destroyed, by tornadoes in
central Florida.
In 2007, a Mississippi grand
jury refused to bring any new
charges in the 1955 slaying
of Emmett Till, the Black
teenager who was beaten and
shot after being accused of
whistling at a white woman,
declining to indict the woman,
Carolyn Bryant Donham, for
manslaughter.
In 2006, Japan’s Shizuka
Arakawa stunned favorites
Sasha Cohen of the United
States and Irina Slutskaya of
Russia to claim the ladies’ figure
skating gold medal at the Turin
Winter Olympics.
Ten years ago: In a major
policy reversal, the Obama
administration said it would
no longer defend the
constitutionality of the Defense
of Marriage Act, a federal law
banning recognition of same-
sex marriage.
Five years ago: Donald Trump
won the Nevada Republican
caucuses; Marco Rubio finished
second while Ted Cruz placed
third. A 26-year-old gunman
killed four family members and
torched their house in Phoenix
before being shot dead by
authorities.
One year ago: Chinese
President Xi Jinping defended
the Communist Party’s response
to the coronavirus as “timely
and effective,” but warned that
the epidemic was still “grim
and complex.” Japan reported
the third fatality from among
those who’d been aboard a
quarantined cruise ship. Iran
raised its death toll to eight,
the highest toll outside China;
Italy reported 152 cases, the
largest number outside of Asia,
including three deaths. Italian
authorities said they would shut
down Venice’s famed Carnival
events in a bid to stop the
spread of the virus.
Today’s Birthdays: Pro and
College Football Hall of Famer
Fred Biletnikoff is 78. Author
John Sandford is 77. Country-
rock musician Rusty Young is
75. Actor Patricia Richardson is
70. Former NFL player Ed “Too
Tall” Jones is 70. Rock musician
Brad Whitford (Aerosmith) is
69. Singer Howard Jones is 66.
Rock musician Michael Wilton
(Queensryche) is 59. Country
singer Dusty Drake is 57. Actor
Kristin Davis is 56. Former tennis
player Helena Sukova is 56. Actor
Marc Price is 53. TV personality/
businessman Daymond John
(TV: “Shark Tank”) is 52. Actor
Niecy Nash is 51. Rock musician
Jeff Beres (Sister Hazel) is 50.
Country singer Steve Holy is 49.
Rock musician Lasse Johansson
(The Cardigans) is 48. Film and
theater composer Robert Lopez
is 46. Actor Kelly Macdonald is
45. Rapper Residente (Calle 13)
is 43. Actor Josh Gad is 40. Actor
Emily Blunt is 38. Actor Aziz
Ansari is 38. Actor Tye White (TV:
“Greenleaf”) is 35. Actor Dakota
Fanning is 27.
— Associated Press
LOCAL, STATE & REGION
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
Spotted owl protections
taken off chopping block
Trump-era rollbacks
back under review
BY MONICA SAMAYOA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The U.S. Interior Depart-
ment is delaying and reviewing
the Trump administration’s
last-minute rollback of federal
protections for the imperiled
northern spotted owl, which
called for slashing protec-
tions from millions of acres of
Northwest forests.
On Jan. 15, just days before
leaving office, the Trump ad-
ministration published a fi-
nal rule revising Endangered
Species Act protections for the
northern spotted owl. The rule
lifted critical-habitat protections
for the bird from 3.4 million
acres in Oregon, Washington,
and California. The U.S. Fish
and Wildlife’s had proposed a
far more modest revision, seek-
ing to remove critical habitat
status from a little over 200,000
acres in 15 counties in Oregon.
Earlier this month, Western
Democrats led by Oregon Sens.
Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley
sent a letter to the Interior De-
partment requesting an imme-
diate federal review into the de-
cision to slash millions of acres
of the owls’ critical habitat. The
letter also questioned whether
the previous Interior Secretary
David Bernhardt ignored sci-
entific recommendations made
by staff.
“David Bernhardt ended his
corrupt and destructive ten-
ure at Interior with this part-
ing blow to science and the
Don Ryan/AP file
A northern spotted owl flies after an elusive mouse jumping off the end of a stick in the Deschutes National
Forest near Camp Sherman in 2003.
public interest, raising even
more questions about scientific
meddling by Trump political
appointees,” Wyden said in an
emailed statement. “I’m glad to
see Biden’s Interior understands
the urgency of stopping this
dangerous rule from going into
effect and is committed to sci-
ence, not corporate interests.”
Wyden said he hopes other
Trump administration roll-
backs will be permanently re-
versed to protect the northern
spotted owl and other threat-
ened species.
On Monday, the Interior De-
partment said it will be review-
ing the changes and delaying
the effective date of the rule
from March 16 to April 15.
“Robust critical habitat pro-
tections are essential to ensur-
ing the survival of the north-
ern spotted owl. The Trump
administration’s arbitrary and
sweeping reduction of pro-
tected areas was conducted
without public input or scien-
tific basis. Interior is reviewing
the Trump administration’s
rollback of northern spotted
owl critical habitat designa-
tions to adequately protect
this threatened species and
the habitat it needs for recov-
ery,” U.S. Department of Inte-
rior spokesperson said in an
emailed statement.
In December, the species
received a separate blow to its
chances for recovery when the
former administration declined
to “uplist” the species from
threatened status to endangered
under the Endangered Species
Act. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service said the species war-
ranted uplisting but it consid-
ered other species on the list to
be higher priorities.
A notice is expected to be
published in the Federal Regis-
ter in the next few days.
No power for
24,000-plus
10 days after
big storms
BY KALE WILLIAMS
The Oregonian
More than 24,000 cus-
tomers were still without
power in northwest Oregon
on Monday, 10 days after a
series of powerful ice storms
walloped utilities across the
region.
The majority of the out-
ages were in Clackamas
County, where more than
8,700 people were still in
the dark Monday. Marion
County accounted for an-
other 7,800 outages with the
rest scattered among Mult-
nomah, Polk, Washington
and Yamhill counties.
Portland General Elec-
tric had said last week that
it hoped to have power re-
stored to all but 15,000 cus-
tomers by Friday night. But
officials with the utility said
that, as crews have surveyed
the damage, the estimates
for restoration for length-
ened.
Nearly half of PGE’s cus-
tomers, more than 420,000,
were impacted by outages
during these storms, PGE
President Maria Pope said
Monday.
Crews are in the last
phases of slow work that
only restores power to about
10 customers at a time, she
said.
“Ongoing wind as well
as ice and tree damage con-
tinue to impact our system’s
wires and poles, making res-
toration very challenging,”
Pope said in a news confer-
ence. “We continue to make
progress to get your power
back on, but not as quickly
as we all would like.”
STATE & REGION BRIEFING
Oregon fines lake community
$429K after fish deaths
The state has fined Fishhawk Lake
Reserve and Community northwest of
Portland $439,200 for draining a reser-
voir, which is blamed for killing more
than 30,000 fish.
The homeowners association plans
to appeal the fine. Fishhawk Lake is a
private community around a reservoir
formed in the 1960s by an earthen dam.
The association maintains the lake, pro-
cesses water and treats sewage.
The lake feeds into Fishhawk Creek
and the Nehalem River. The homeown-
ers association drained the lake in 2019
to fix a broken drain in the dam.
A state investigation found drain-
ing the lake and the turbidity it caused
downstream killed 20,539 endangered
coho salmon, 4,047 steelhead trout,
5,346 cutthroat trout and 459 trout of
undetermined species.
The state also directed the homeown-
ers association to create a water-quality
management plan .
The state Department of Fish and
Wildlife is seeking a separate claim
against the association for the fish kill,
but didn’t disclose the amount.
The homeowners association has de-
nied being responsible for a fish kill.
Avalanche dangers close 3
mountain passes in Washington
Three major mountain passes in
Washington state were closed overnight
due to avalanche dangers after heavy
rain fell on a large snowpack from recent
storms, state transportation officials said.
Snoqualmie Pass along Interstate 90,
Stevens Pass on U.S. Highway 2 and
White Pass on U.S. Highway 12 were
closed Sunday at 6 p.m. and remained
Plan allows more smoke
from prescribed burning
BY MONICA SAMAYOA
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The Environmental Protec-
tion Agency is seeking public
comment for rule changes that
would allow more smoke in
Oregon from prescribed burn-
ing on forestlands.
The State Implementation
Plan’s Smoke Management
Plan revisions allow for more
prescribed burning while still
protecting public health within
any federal, state and private
forestlands in Oregon.
Prescribed burning helps re-
store and improve forestlands
by burning fuels like brush,
smaller trees and dead vegeta-
tion, reducing wildfire risks to
nearby communities .
But Smoke Management
Plan rules have made the
practice difficult to carry out.
Communities that have al-
ready been heavily hit by low
air quality were off limits to
additional air problems from
prescribed burning. As a re-
sult, vast stretches of forest
could not be treated with fire,
resulting in increased wildfire
dangers.
Manager Michael Orman said
the goal for the revisions is to
keep air quality levels below the
federal government’s air quality
standards — while also find-
ing a balance with increasing
prescribed burns and protect-
ing public health. One of those
changes is increasing communi-
cation with communities.
“The plan that we put in
place now incorporates com-
munity response planning as
part of that activity,” he said.
“Communities are encouraged
to develop plans to notify their
community members of po-
tential smoke impacts, when
burning is happening and the
purpose of those burns.”
The rulemaking was under-
taken by the state’s Depart-
ment of Environmental Qual-
ity, the Department of Forestry
and the Oregon Health Au-
thority. The plan was submit-
ted to the EPA in June 2019.
closed Monday morning.
It was unknown how long the pass
would be closed.
In Oregon, Mt. Hood Meadows ski
resort remained closed Monday due
to high winds, rain and ice and ongo-
ing power outages from recent storms.
Gusts as high as 89 mph have been re-
corded at Mt. Hood’s Cascade Express
weather station. Temperatures are just
below freezing at 30 degrees. The resort
is scheduled to resume normal opera-
tions Tuesday.
2 dead after fishing boat capsizes
at Tillamook Bay
Two fishermen from Warrenton died
after a 38-foot commercial fishing boat
capsized Saturday at the Tillamook Bay
bar entrance.
The U.S. Coast Guard was watching
the Coastal Reign as a precaution as the
Warrenton-based vessel crossed the bar.
The boat capsized at about 4:40 p.m.
All four people on board entered the
water and were recovered by 6 p.m. and
taken to hospital.
Two people were located in the water
and recovered by a boat team, accord-
ing to the Coast Guard. One was un-
responsive. One person climbed onto
rocks at a nearby jetty and was rescued
by an aircrew.
The fourth person was eventually re-
covered by a boat team by the jetty near
debris that was floating. The person was
unresponsive and died.
Family members said Todd Chase, a
51-year-old Warrenton man, died after
he was recovered by jetty rocks.
The family of Zach Zappone, 41, of
Warrenton, said he died after being
taken to a Portland hospital in critical
condition.
Find it all online bendbulletin.com
— Bulletin wire reports