August 5, 2016 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 7A
North Coast Land Conservancy
acquires Boneyard Ridge property
New college president
mingles, talks priorities
Breitmeyer’s focus is on
enrollment
By Edward Stratton
EO Media Group
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Conservationists have acquired Boneyard Ridge on Tillamook Head.
By Lyra Fontaine
EO Media Group
North Coast Land Con-
servancy will permanently
conserve Boneyard Ridge, a
former commercial tree farm
on Tillamook Head, with the
goal of helping the property
mature into a high-function-
ing temperate rainforest.
The nonproit organization
inalized the $1.3 million ac-
quisition of the 340-acre par-
cel July 27.
The land is adjacent to El-
mer Feldenheimer State Natu-
ral Area and Ecola State Park
and west of the land conser-
vancy’s Circle Creek Habitat
Reserve in the Necanicum
River loodplain west of U.S.
Highway 101.
“The whole ecosystem gets
to lourish when you have that
scale and connectivity,” North
Coast Land Conservancy Ex-
ecutive Director Katie Voelke
said. “It’s one
of those spots
in the world
where a small
purchase makes
a huge differ-
ence.”
Katie Voelke
By linking
3,500 acres of
conserved areas, Boneyard
Ridge — which encompasses
an entire watershed — creates
a habitat corridor, connecting
wildlife populations separat-
ed by human activities.
“The way we will manage
it, the trees will get bigger and
older and there will be a great-
er diversity within the forest
understory,” Voelke said.
After decades of commer-
cial logging, the property’s
current forest has trees from
10 to 60 years old, Voelke
said. The land conservancy
plans to take “stewardship ac-
tions that lead to an old, com-
plex rainforest” where native
plants and animals can thrive.
Boneyard Ridge is home
to 2 miles of salmon-bearing
streams, amphibians such as
red-legged frogs and Colum-
bia torrent salamanders, and
mammals that include black
bears and elk. About 90 bird
species — including pileated
woodpeckers, olive-sided ly-
catchers, bald eagles and ru-
fous hummingbirds — live or
make a migration stopover at
Boneyard Ridge.
Wildlife species at Ecola
State Park, including black
bears and lying squirrels,
could use the Boneyard Ridge
habitat as well.
The purchase was funded
with a $524,000 grant from
the Oregon Watershed En-
hancement Board, $500,000
from an anonymous donor,
and contributions from more
than 120 additional donors.
North Coast Land Conser-
vancy has worked to conserve
Boneyard Ridge in partner-
ship with Lewis and Clark
Timberlands since 2011.
In March, North Coast
Land Conservancy signed
a purchase and sales agree-
ment with GreenWood Re-
sources and had raised $1.1
million.
Since then, they have
raised the last $200,000 need-
ed to make the purchase.
Voelke emphasized the
land’s accessibility — one can
see it driving on Highway 101.
Within the next few years,
the land conservancy will
work to create a system of
trails.
“We’re really excited about
being able provide trails and
recreation so close to town for
residents,” Voelke said. “We
feel like this can be a new,
super special place for people
who call it home … This is
something we all get to have
now forever.”
Laundry Love: Contributing ‘in some small way’
Laundry from Page 1A
Every second Saturday of
the month, from 11 a.m. to
2 p.m. at the Laundromat on
South Roosevelt Drive, the
group will fund two loads of
laundry per household.
“This is an honor for us to
contribute in some small way
to those needing help,” Smith-
Yates said.
Each monthly event also
features snacks, like hotdogs
and cocoa; children’s activi-
ties; books and magazines for
people to take for free; and
information on employment
opportunities and community
programs. Usually 18 to 22
families – a mixture of return-
ing attendees and new faces
– come to Laundry Love each
month, Smith-Yates said.
In October last year, the
group collected donations of
winter clothes for a clothing
drive in November, which was
attended by about 30 families.
Leftover clothes were donated
to the South Clatsop County
Food Bank.
In the future, Smith-Yates
hopes to see the program
continue growing and mor-
phing to serve more of peo-
ple’s needs. For instance, she
would like to start distributing
small bags of toothpaste, soap
and other hygiene items each
month. Simply paying for
the laundry is an expensive
endeavor, though, and the
outreach is entirely funded
from donations and sustained
through volunteer work.
“We get inancial support
just from different people who
give toward it, and they’re
from all over the country,”
she said.
A place for people to come
When the couple started
Seaside’s Laundry Love chap-
ter, they knew it was important
in terms of addressing people’s
health and hygiene concerns
and lessening at least one i-
nancial burden. What Smith-
Yates didn’t expect is what
else would blossom from the
program. She and other volun-
teers have built relationships
with the people who come in
and learned their stories.
“We ind out people’s
names, where they’re from
and make ourselves available
to them,” she said. “It’s just
one of the best parts of doing
Laundry Love. … I wasn’t
prepared for nor did I think
that would be something that
was beneicial.”
People’s reasons for need-
ing the service vary. One wom-
an came in with garbage bags
full of her recently deceased
Christopher Breitmeyer
stood on the second loor of
Fort George Brewery recent-
ly, sometimes a pint in hand,
and talked with the elected
oficials, business leaders,
educators and other luminar-
ies who had come to meet
the new president of Clatsop
Community College.
Breitmeyer, after less than
a month since moving from
St. Louis, said he is still learn-
ing the college and communi-
ty, but already enamored.
“That’s one of the things
that attracted me, is that I can
get to be a part of the commu-
nity and make a difference,”
he said.
Breitmeyer, 49, was hired
by the college’s board unan-
imously in April. Shortly
before the Fourth of July,
he arrived from St. Charles
Community College north-
west of St. Louis, where he
was vice president of aca-
demic and student affairs
since 2012, and the college’s
dean of math, science and
health since 2008.
A native of Illinois, Bre-
itmeyer earned a bachelor’s
in biology education. While
both his parents attended
community college, his irst
introduction was after grad-
uate school at Arizona State
University, where he earned
a master’s in zoology. After
graduation, he spent a de-
cade as a science teacher at
Yavapai College in central
Arizona.
His wife, Alana, who
helps teach other instructors
to work online at St. Charles,
is staying until next spring to
earn a better retirement pack-
age, along with his daugh-
ter, Sophie, a junior in high
school hoping to graduate
early before moving to Asto-
ria and enrolling in college in
the Paciic Northwest. He de-
scribed himself as a scientist,
his wife as a mathematician
and his daughter as an artist.
Breitmeyer, who can
sometimes be seen around
town walking his rescue dog
Maize, said he is settling into
town, exploring, house-hunt-
DANNY MILLER / EO MEDIA GROUP
Christopher Breitmeyer, the
new president of Clatsop
Community College, chats
with community members
during a public meet-and-
greet in July.
ing and learning the state of
the college.
Getting to work
“I think the irst thing we
need to do is make a plan to
start a strategic plan, and I
can’t do that without know-
ing what’s going on … so we
can chart the next ive years
of the institution,” he said.
“Like anything else, you’ve
got to know where you’re
going, or else you’re just go-
ing to wander around, and
we don’t have the luxury of
resources that allow us to not
be focused and know what
we’re doing.”
Breitmeyer said he is por-
ing over past budgets, plan-
ning documents and other
information to learn the state
of the college.
His top long-term priority
is increasing enrollment at
the college, which recorded
less than a 1 percent drop in
full-time equivalent students
from the last academic year.
At his irst college board
meeting earlier this month,
Breitmeyer said the college
is already doing better than
the national average, which is
seeing 5 to 6 percent drops in
enrollment.
As he learns about the
college, Breitmeyer is trying
to ind a new second-in-com-
mand. Donna Larson, the
former vice president of ac-
ademic and student affairs,
left for a dean’s position at
Clackamas Community Col-
lege shortly before he arrived.
He said the college al-
ready has about 30 applicants
for the position, open through
the end of the month. Caught
in an odd season for hiring,
Breitmeyer said the college
will likely offer a candidate
the job in October.
FEMA to discuss revised
lood hazard zones
SUBMITTED PHOTO
The Laundry Love program puts on events each month at the
Laundromat on South Roosevelt Drive. People can attend and
have a couple loads of laundry done for free.
husband’s clothes. She want-
ed to get them washed so she
could donate them to Good-
will as part of her grieving and
healing process. At other times,
transients have brought in their
clothing or bedding after it got
dirty from being stored out-
doors. No one is turned away.
Christy Bozarth, who
moved to Seaside nine months
ago and has volunteered with
Laundry Love a couple times,
said there is more to caring
for people than just utter-
ing the words. Saying “God
bless you” to a person who is
hungry or has been wearing
the same set of clothes for a
month does not help them or
meet their physical needs. In-
stead of just professing gen-
uine empathy, Bozarth said,
Laundry Love “is one way of
showing it.”
The next Laundry Love
will be held from 11 a.m. to
2 p.m. Aug. 13. To learn more
about the organization, visit
laundrylove.org or the Face-
book page for At the Water’s
Gate.
The City of Seaside is host-
ing an open house Aug. 15,
from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Seaside
Convention Center so FEMA
representatives can provide
information and answer ques-
tions about revisions to lood
insurance rate maps.
FEMA has revised lood
hazard zones within Clatsop
County along Clatsop County
coastlines.
These revisions relect up-
dated information and recent
engineering studies.
Revised maps for these
areas are available for public
review and comment. These
maps will help community
oficials and local residents
identify lood risks and, once
adopted, will be used for lood
insurance, land use and devel-
opment decisions.
Property owners are en-
couraged to review the re-
vised lood maps. They are
available at City Ofices. If
you would like a custom lood
map for your property, you
are encouraged to contact
your city planner.
Maps will be available for
pickup at the open house.
The process for providing
comments or requesting a
map change will be discussed
at the August 15th open house.
More information is avail-
able by calling the FEMA Map
Information Exchange 877-
336-2627 or atmsc.fema.gov.
Seaside Art Walk kicks off Aug. 6
The Seaside First Saturday
Art Walk on Aug. 6 is all about
visual arts.
From 5-7 p.m. visitors can
meet artists, sip wine or snag
the better appetizers by fa-
vorite restaurants or personal
chefs, view an artist demon-
stration, listen to an art lecture
or enjoy live performances in
music.
The Art Walk, in its 14th
year, is a walk in the histor-
ic Gilbert District located be-
tween Holladay and Broadway.
Dedicated parking is to be
found on the corner of Ocean-
way and Holladay.
Bonamici, Cannon Beach oficials meet to discuss tsunami early warning systems
Visit from Page 1A
hot-button issues, including educa-
tion, housing, seniors, jobs and health-
care, improving emergency warning
systems on the north Oregon coast
was the primary focus of her visit.
Bonamici and Cannon Beach
public oficials met to discuss tsuna-
mi early warning systems and how
to best communicate emergencies to
residents.
“Cannon Beach is a great exam-
ple,” Bonamici said. “I really like
the creative solution of having peo-
ple store their things out of the tsu-
nami zone. I appreciate the partner-
ships and the local, state and federal
folks working together because we
want people to be prepared and we
don’t want to discourage people from
coming over to the coast.”
Leland O’Driscoll, University of
Oregon earthquake project manag-
er and seismic ield technician, ex-
plained the early warning system
used to detect earthquakes’ size and
magnitude through a network of seis-
mic sensors.
This system would be more avail-
able by 2018, O’Driscoll said.
The group also listened to the
“mooing cows” emergency test warn-
ing system, spearheaded by former
Cannon Beach ire board president
Al Aya. “It’s really fun to go down-
town on a day like today,” ire board
director Garry Smith said.
“We turned it into a marketing
tool rather than fear,” Public Works
Director Dan Grassick said. “Our
next phase is to take a serious look
at survival and where we will put
people post-tsunami.”
Bonamici said she is still work-
ing to get the Tsunami Warning, Ed-
ucation and Research Act “over the
inish line.”
Currently, Cannon Beach has
eight sirens, but the ire board even-
tually hopes to install more alarms in
the southern end of Cannon Beach
and Arch Cape.
“It took us a long time to con-
vince people, don’t be scared,” said
Cannon Beach Mayor Sam Steidel.
“Be educated.”
LYRA FONTAINE/EO MEDIA GROUP
U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici was in Cannon
Beach Tuesday to learn about that communi-
ty’s tsunami early warning system.