July 27, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 3A
Officer-involved shooting in
Seaside leaves one man dead
Case, of Seaside,
was allegedly
waving pistols
By Brenna Visser
The Daily Astorian
BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
Witnesses heard gunshots near the Seasider RV Park and the Mazatlan
Mexican Restaurant Tuesday before 2 p.m. Cashus Dean Case was killed.
SEASIDE — Authorities said
the man shot and killed by Seaside
police on Tuesday afternoon was
armed with two black powder pis-
tols.
Cashus Dean Case, 44, of Sea-
side, was allegedly waving around
the pistols at the Seasider RV Park
in anger after a man had been bitten
by a dog. He was shot by police after
allegedly refusing to disarm, accord-
ing to the Clatsop County District
Attorney’s Office.
Authorities did not say wheth-
er Case was pointing or waving
the guns at police or if he fired any
shots.
Case was prohibited from own-
ing firearms because of felony con-
victions, the district attorney’s office
said.
Jeff Walker, who said he worked
with Case at Gorilla Gas in Seaside,
described Case as hardworking.
He said Case liked to play rock ‘n’
roll on the radio. “He was ‘Wayne’s
World,’ party time. He was bombas-
tic and he was loud,” he said. “His
stature made him seem intimidating,
but he’d risk himself for somebody
else. And he’s going to be missed.”
But Walker also said Case “had
his quirks. He was hot tempered.”
Two Seaside police officers in-
volved in the shooting have been
placed on leave with pay, which is
standard procedure.
The Oregon State Police is lead-
ing the investigation.
Parks committee reviews thinning in Ecola Creek Reserve
Projects have
not been a
significant
revenue source
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
The parks committee in
Cannon Beach is hoping a
road evaluation in the Eco-
la Creek Forest Reserve will
help determine whether thin-
ning operations should con-
tinue.
The evaluation is the be-
ginning of a larger, five-year
review the committee plans to
do of the stewardship plan for
the 1,040-acre parcel in the
city’s watershed. The public
will be invited to suggest up-
dates to policies concerning
management and recreation
access later this year.
The majority of the re-
serve was established with a
$4 million bond in 2010 with
the goal to enhance forest
health, protect municipal wa-
ter quality, enhance salmon
habitat and foster community
involvement.
While major changes have
not been proposed, several
elements concerning tree re-
moval policies, signage and
how trails and roads should
be maintained have been
points of discussion since the
plan was last adopted in 2013.
Committee members are
looking to a report on the state
of the former logging roads
in the area — left over from
when the land was industri-
ally harvested — to decide
whether thinning projects are
cost-effective.
After the city acquired
800 acres from the state De-
partment of Forestry, Barry
Sims, a consultant from Trout
Mountain Forestry, recom-
mended limited portions of
the forest that were dense
with similarly aged hemlock
trees could be thinned to im-
prove forest health. Doing so
would encourage the devel-
opment of new and different
trees hidden under the canopy
of these conifers.
Thinning projects were
seen as a way to achieve the
plan’s goal of restoring the
forest, as well as a revenue
source that could be reinvest-
ed back into maintaining the
reserve.
But the policy is being
questioned after the city had
to haul in loads of rock five
years ago to reinforce log-
ging roads after an unusually
rainy summer made them too
unstable to safely use. Af-
ter having to pay fees to use
neighboring logging roads
and road improvements, what
was estimated to be $20,000
in revenue turned out to be
closer to only $6,000, accord-
ing to Sims.
While the weather was an
anomaly and made the en-
deavor especially difficult,
City Planner Mark Barnes
said, the city has not done
work to maintain the roads
since.
“And they probably hav-
en’t gotten better,” he said.
Generating revenue has
never been the main priority
of the reserve, but the costs
associated with maintenance
may not make it a sustainable
venture, Barnes said.
“If we have to do exten-
sive road rehab every time
we do this, we’re not going
to break even,” Barnes said.
“We’re going to have to sub-
sidize that.”
If the report suggests a lot
of major modifications are
necessary, the community has
a few options.
Thinning could be taken
out of the plan as a recom-
mendation altogether, and
the roads decommissioned,
Barnes said. The downside
would be the city would no
longer be able to expect any
kind of revenue from the
reserve, meaning any resto-
PHOTOS COLIN MURPHEY/THE DAILY ASTORIAN
Signs at the reserve clearly indicate restrictions with-
in the protected area.
ration will have to be paid
with grants or the general
fund. The ultimate goal of re-
storing the forest would still
evolve naturally, Barnes said,
but not as quickly.
The community could also
still have thinning operations,
but leave the logs in the re-
serve for habitat restoration
rather than revenue, Sims
said. Roads would not have to
be maintained to support log-
ging trucks.
There are benefits to hav-
ing less disturbance in a wa-
Roads are being evaluated in Ecola
Creek Forest Reserve as part of the
five-year review of the property.
tershed, but he also has seen
how thinning has encour-
aged new growth, Sims said.
Keeping woody debris within
the reserve could also aid in
ongoing salmon habitat resto-
ration efforts.
“You do have an impact,”
Sims said. “But it’s also more
about the perception of what
that is. People are shocked by
it, but in a couple of years it
looks more natural.”
This summer, Sims will
continue evaluating roads
throughout the reserve to de-
termine which need major,
minor or no maintenance to
support any future activity
— whether that be a logging
truck or a hiker. He expects
the report to be finished by
September, and hopes it will
inform the committee in
whatever direction is chosen.
“A lot of it will come down
to: What do people want these
roads to do for them?” Sims
said. “We’ll take a fresh look
at all of it, to see if the com-
munity is excited about an-
other thinning project.”
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