NEWS
A10 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2020
Boom:
Continued from Page A1
are talking to each other
about what improvements
are needed to infrastruc-
ture,” he said.
Stockdale said most of
the new development is
going on Umatilla’s South
Hill, which is zoned for res-
idential use and still has
plenty of room for growth.
As developers build out
the area, they are required to
pay for the needed improve-
ments and extensions to
roads and utilities, then hand
those investments over to
the city.
Infrastructure is always a
concern for cities when they
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Homes sit in diff ering states of construction at a development along Powerline Road in Umatilla
on Monday, July 6, 2020.
experience growth, Stock-
dale said, but with growth
comes additional reve-
nue through property taxes,
enterprise zone agreements,
system development charges
and other sources that can be
used to stay abreast of needs
that new homes and busi-
nesses create.
The city is planning to
update its master plan for
water and wastewater over
the next 12 months, and
continues to make improve-
ments to those systems. A
major overhaul of Sixth
Street, Umatilla’s main road
through downtown, is cur-
rently under construction,
and another project along
Lind Road will begin soon.
“We continue to ask for a
little bit of patience,” Stock-
dale said. “With growth
comes construction, and we
have it all over town.”
Umatilla also contin-
ues to improve its parks. In
September 2019, it added
new playground equipment,
lighting and other improve-
ments to Kiwanis Park.
Some parks will be getting
new restrooms in the coming
months, Stockdale said, and
the city is waiting to hear
back from the state about
a grant for a proposed trail
system that would connect
South Hill to downtown.
Stockdale said during the
city council’s July 7 meet-
ing, they will meet in exec-
utive session to discuss real
property transactions for six
different projects that are not
public yet, but involve pos-
sible future growth in Uma-
tilla’s industrial and com-
mercial sectors.
“We’ve certainly spoken
to interested retailers and
new industrial customers,”
he said.
Burrowing owl project nears its
end at Umatilla Chemical Depot
By JADE MCDOWELL
NEWS EDITOR
For 11 years, David H.
Johnson, director of the
Global Owl Project, has got-
ten to know the burrowing
owls of the Umatilla Chem-
ical Depot.
He knows which owls
will put up a fi ght and which
will hold still while he han-
dles them. He knows how
many eggs they laid this
year. He knows their chil-
dren and their grandchildren.
After he returns for one
more spring at the depot
next year, however, his
12-year project to revive the
depot’s previously declining
burrowing owl population
will come to an end.
“After that, I have
resigned myself to letting
go,” he said. “It will be hard
because it has been a joyful
thing.”
The project to create arti-
fi cial burrows for the owls
has done more than multi-
ply the depot’s owl popula-
tion by many times over. It
has also led to new scientifi c
discoveries about the spe-
cies as a whole, from their
mating habits to their migra-
tion patterns.
“I certainly have a lot to
write up,” Johnson said.
The reason the depot’s
owl population needs arti-
fi cial burrows started with
pronghorns,
the
ante-
lope-like animals that used
to roam the land back when
it was an active Army depot.
Fenced in on all sides, the
herd because dangerously
inbred, causing a genetically
weak population that began
to dwindle. Johnson said
people at the depot thought
the reason was that there
were too many coyotes prey-
ing on the pronghorns, how-
ever, and so they trapped the
coyotes to send away and,
in the process, also removed
the depot’s badgers.
That was a problem for
the burrowing owls, who do
not dig their own burrows
but rather borrow aban-
doned ones dug by other
creatures — in this case, by
badgers. Once there were
no more badgers, their old
holes began to crumble and
disappear. By the time the
depot’s environmental man-
ager called Johnson in, there
were only two or three nest-
ing pairs left.
“It became a rescue mis-
sion,” he said.
Johnson began devising
artifi cial burrows to lure the
owls back. The fi rst year of
the project, there were nine
pairs trying out the bur-
rows. Then 21 the next year.
Then 65. This year Johnson
banded 177 new young owls
who hatched on the depot
this spring.
“That’s double the repro-
duction of last year,” he said.
“It’s a really great year for
the owls.”
Over time, Johnson and
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
A driver wears a mask while passing through downtown
Hermiston on Tuesday, July 6, 2020.
Masks:
Continued from Page A1
HH fi le photo
From left, volunteer Bill Aney, intern Anya Nelson and David Johnson, director of the Global
Owl Project, check burrowing owl nesting sites on the former Umatilla Chemical Depot outside
of Hermiston in June 2019.
HH fi le photo
David Johnson, director of the Global Owl Project, holds a trio
of 6-day-old owlets in June 2019.
the helpers he brought in
each spring perfected the
artifi cial nests by build-
ing different options for the
owls and observing which
they chose. He found they
didn’t like ones made with
white plastic barrels, for
example, but preferred blue
or black.
To make the current
nests, Johnson cuts in half
blue 55-gallon plastic bar-
rels donated by the Tree Top
plant in Prosser, Washing-
ton, and buries them in the
ground. Mesh underneath
keeps the gophers out, sand
provides a soft bed for the
nest and a contraption using
two buckets on the top pro-
vides a way for Johnson
to check on the nests after
they are buried 10 feet away
from each nest the entrance
of a 6-inch corrugated plas-
tic pipe beckons, cave-like,
from a pile of stones.
Once a nesting pair
claims a burrow, the males
bring the females soft items
to line the inside of the nest,
but they also decorate the
outside of the burrow with
corn cobs and other items
they fi nd.
“It says that this site is
taken, and it’s taken by a
tough guy, so don’t even
think about it,” Johnson
said.
Small tweaks to the bur-
rows over time have helped
more of the species survive.
Johnson previously tested
out 4-inch pipe for the tun-
nels down to the nests, but
found fewer young sur-
vived in those nests because
when a coyote attacked they
would have to escape down
the tunnel in single fi le, giv-
ing the predator enough time
to pick off the last one.
During the winter, the
birds abandon the nests.
Johnson found the females
fl y south to California to fat-
ten up in preparation for the
weight they will lose while
caring for their young, while
the males fl y up to Central
Washington so that they can
be close enough to compete
for a prime burrow the next
spring before the females
return and pick the male
they think will be the best
provider.
He said if a male turns out
to not be a good provider,
his mate might sneak over to
another burrow to get food
from a male who is a better
hunter while he is out.
“Their secret lives are
complex and fascinating,”
he said.
Each spring, when John-
son traps the owls, he checks
on those he has placed bands
on in the past and bands new
owls, including babies and
owls who have moved in
from other territories. Some-
541-567-0272
2150 N. First St., Hermiston
July 7th -12th
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our Drive thru.
Purchase a face mask
inside for $5-$7
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20 %
times, he fi nds the new birds
had already been banded by
other projects in Pasco or
Yakima, Washington.
The nesting females and
their babies are easier to
capture, but Johnson had
to fi nd a clever way to trap
the males after trying to lure
them in with food bait didn’t
work well. Now, he brings
the males in with an MP3
player down inside a bur-
row that plays a recording of
a young, underweight male.
“He’s a punk, a pesky
intruder, and they’re not
having it,” Johnson said.
“They will strut back and
forth, and when he doesn’t
come out, they come in after
him.”
Johnson is working with
the National Guard and
Columbia
Development
Authority on determining
who might be able to do
some maintenance on the
artifi cial burrows after he
stops coming in to inven-
tory the burrowing owl pop-
ulation each spring, but he
hopes to be able to reintro-
duce badgers to the area to
return the ecosystem to a
self-sustaining state.
He said based on badgers’
territorial and hunting needs,
the depot could accommo-
date about 30 adults.
“There are a lot of pocket
gophers here,” he said. “I’m
sure the fi rst badgers we
bring in will eat like kings
and queens.”
a way we can get more
masks to more people at a
very low cost it could pos-
sibly increase usage,” she
said.
Judy Gormley of
Neighborhood Books and
Gifts in Hermiston said
they were closed for the
Fourth of July weekend
and so weren’t inspected,
but they have given out
masks to a few custom-
ers who said they forgot
to bring one.
While the masking
requirement is new for
some businesses, hair
and nail salons have been
operating with all cus-
tomers and employees in
masks since they were
fi rst allowed to reopen.
Sherry Kowalski-Sch-
link, salon coordina-
tor for the Main Stylin’
Nook, said the rule there
is “No mask, no service.”
She
said
people
“grumble a bit” but most
people are OK with it.
Customers
are
reminded of the mask
requirement when they
receive a reminder of
their appointment 24
hours in advance, and she
said while they do have
some masks available for
customers, most bring
their own.
On July 7, Morrow
County Emergency Man-
agement sent out a state-
ment strongly encour-
aging residents of the
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All Health Food
county to be diligent
about wearing a mask
while around people out-
side of their household.
The statement noted
that Morrow County was
among those placed on
the state’s watchlist of
counties that may have to
revert back to Phase 1 of
reopening if their rising
COVID-19 case numbers
do not slow down.
“If our numbers are not
reduced, are our schools
going to open this fall?”
the county department’s
statement asked.
“If they do open for
schooling, are we going
to have any fall sports?
What about those small
businesses that make
rural Oregon so great?
Will they be able to
endure more restrictions?
Some have already had to
close; many more might
close for good. Those
are all someone’s dreams
lost.”
The department stated
that everyone’s personal
actions during the pan-
demic have direct impact
on others, and called
wearing a mask a simple
way to help others and
“the least we could all
do.”
“While we do not
know what the situation
will be with our schools
this fall, we do know, if
our numbers continue
to climb, it will not be
school as usual,” the
statement read, conclud-
ing, “We all want our nor-
mal lives back, let’s work
to get there.”
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Eugenio Mannucci, DVM, cVMA • Jana von Borstel, DVM, cVMA
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Mon: 8-6
Tue - Fri: 8-5
Sat: 8-12
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541.567.1138
80489 Hwy 395 N
Hermiston
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Due to the
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than ever. Please
donate to your
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If you are not able to adopt, but would like to foster or donate, visit fuzzballrescue.com
or you can mail in donations to Fuzz Ball Animal Rescue, PO Box 580, Hermiston, OR 97838