4A • January 19, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
SignalViewpoints
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE ELK KIND
I
n a few short years they’ve
become a symbol of Gearhart.
Newcomers still greet the elk
with amazement.
“It just is unbelievable,” Gear-
hart’s Ellie Ludy told reporter
Brenna Visser. Having an elk herd
wander through town is a bonus
Ludy didn’t expect when she moved
to the coast about a year ago. “I
knew there would be elk, but I
didn’t know they would come into
your yard!”
But for others the elk have be-
come more of a nuisance and even
a threat. Golf course professionals,
homeowners and landscapers have
considered everything: gates, fences,
trapping and transport, reintroduc-
ing natural predators — even birth
control.
Now the city is chronicling
elk-human encounters in an effort to
quantify the extent of the problem,
to provide safety for residents and
limit damages to property owners.
The comments are posted on the
city’s blog site and offer a stark and
seemingly endless series of danger-
ous encounters.
“As we tried to pack up and
leave last Monday afternoon, we
found ourselves surrounded by elk
who clearly did not mind our look-
ing but did not want us encroaching
on their space,” a resident posted.
“Five were on Ocean Avenue feet
from the back of my jeep and 40 or
more on our west lawn.”
At the city’s January City Coun-
cil meeting, local resident and ham
radio operator Dana Gandy told the
city elk destroyed approximately
$1,000 worth of emergency commu-
nications and antennas and equip-
ment in his backyard. An antenna
mast approximately 45-feet tall was
snapped in half; cabling and guy
wires were destroyed.
Forrest Goodling, groundskeeper
at Gearhart Golf Links, reported
$5,000 damage to a newly seeded
putting green, in a Dec. 22 blog
post. Goodling and area golf course
crews have been struggling with
damage — and potential risk — for
years.
In July, golf course officials
staged decoy coyotes — models
of the predators intended to deter
the elk — something of a last-ditch
move to find a peaceful resolution to
this hoofed invasion.
“We’ve been working on getting
the elk removed, the herd size
reduced for years now,” golfer Russ
in some cases, elk are suffering. In
November residents were distressed
after seeing elk encumbered by a
tomato cage and a volleyball net,
enough so to contact the Department
of Fish and Wildlife to find a remedy.
Photographer John Dudley, whose
home on Little Beach overlooks the
estuary, said answers will be com-
plicated for no other reason than the
fact that emotions run high on both
sides of the issue, as well as the fact
that anything proposed at the local
level would likely face a long period
of scrutiny by state and maybe even
federal agencies.
“I have watched and photo-
graphed the herd for over 10 years
and have seen them at least quadru-
ple in numbers,” Dudley said. “I like
elk and I like humans, but no one
should believe that living together
is not fraught with danger to both
species.”
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
Earl said, recounting meetings with
four different levels of the Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife.
It’s not just professionals who
face big landscaping and repair
costs.
Residents use picnic tables to
protect plantings.
Gearhart’s Gay Jacobsen told the
city in a December blog post: “We
were practically held captive for two
days as a herd of 75 elk took over
our street, backyard and front yard
decimating vegetation, ruining turf
and breaking our sprinkler heads.
… They had no fear of us and were
huge.”
Drivers and pedestrians alike find
themselves surrounded by the herd,
pets are threatened and their owners
intimidated.
“I must leave the house with cau-
tion,” wrote South Ocean resident
Susan Workman.
In a blog post, Ian Goldspink
said he was “real close to being in
the herd” as he drove down Pacific
Way.
“They certainly are majestic and
exciting but they are a bit too fear-
less of us and too close,” wrote Bill
Bennetts of South Ocean Avenue.
“They are starting to make seagulls
seem attractive.”
Documentation,
awareness
JOHN DUDLEY
This elk dines on some Gearhart shrubbery.
‘WE WERE PRACTICALLY HELD CAPTIVE FOR
TWO DAYS AS A HERD OF 75 ELK TOOK OVER
OUR STREET, BACKYARD AND FRONT YARD
DECIMATING VEGETATION, RUINING TURF
AND BREAKING OUR SPRINKLER HEADS. …
THEY HAD NO FEAR OF US AND WERE HUGE.’
‘Danger to both species’
It’s easy to see the appeal of the
elk, a rare creature in most places,
recovered after near depletion by
settlers depleted wolf populations to
protect the diminishing herds from
hunting, according to author and
ecologist Kurt Jeffrey Jenkins.
From 1905 in the Peninsula, no
elk were legally hunted until 1933.
Aware of the elk situation. Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt set aside
615,000 acres as Mount Olympus
National Monument in 1909 for the
expressed purpose of providing a
reserve for Roosevelt elk. A bounty
was placed on cougars, elk’s natural
predator.
Today, Roosevelt elk proliferate
without predators and in Gearhart
are protected within the city limits
from rifles or archers and natural
predators are rare. They migrate near
the estuary and on any given Sunday,
Gearhart’s Gay Jacobsen, to the city in a December blog post
depending on their grazing habits,
out-of-towners can be seen parked
along the roadway or by the high
school for a glimpse.
“The elk are a pain, but the
tourists love them,” wrote Gearhart’s
John Green in a blog comment.
“Maybe a little too much at times.”
Over the summer, the city
received reports of aggressive elk
— bulls can weigh 900 pounds and
cows clear 800 pounds — along Pa-
cific Way, G Street and beach trails.
One report was of an unleashed dog
that was grazed by the elk and the
dog’s owner charged. The dog was
unharmed but the dog’s owner and
another person was understandably
frightened, police said. Visitors were
advised to keep dogs leashed during
elk calving season.
Not only are people frightened,
At the city’s first meeting of the
year, councilors once again sought
solutions.
“I remember a number of years
ago it was, ‘Look at the elk who are
visiting our city,’” City Attorney
Peter Watts said. “Now the reports
we are getting are very different, as
well the number of elk and size of
the herd.”
Mayor Matt Brown, who as PGA
professional at the Highlands Golf
Course, has first-hand experience
with the issue, said the city will for-
ward feedback to the Department of
Fish and Wildlife as it comes in.
A letter addressed to the Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife went out
in the mail on Jan. 10. “The city of
Gearhart would like to request more
information on how to best protect
the citizens’ safety and what can be
done so no one is injured or killed by
these animals,” wrote Brown.
The letter, also sent to Gov. Kate
Brown, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonami-
ci and State Sen. Betsy Johnson,
includes attachments, articles, photos
and letters dating from 2014.
Matt Brown said he hopes it will
build awareness of the conflicts pub-
lic safety issues such as elk-caused
traffic accidents, elk-to-human
contact and elk-to-pet contact.
“We really haven’t had a way
to document things,” Brown said.
“Specific incidents haven’t been
documented. Now they are.”
A library card for everyone
Eating out is like a vacation
L
I
ittle Free Libraries have been
popping up all over Clatsop
County over the past four years,
thanks to a program called Libraries
Reading Outreach in Clatsop County.
The goal is simple, providing library
resources for all children in Clatsop
County, through library cards, courier
services between schools and a
countywide summer reading program.
Due to the wonderful support of local
community members and businesses
who build the little libraries and donate
them, the Libraries Reading Outreach
annual fundraiser provides funding for
the project by auctioning off at least eight
little libraries each year. The best part is
that community members then place the
little libraries throughout our community.
If you’ve never seen one, a little library is
a cute little house, larger than a birdhouse
but smaller than a doghouse. Smaller
little libraries are perched on poles or
placed on a stand, and larger little librar-
ies usually sit on a bench. Inside each
little library are books that the owner has
placed there for people to take and ex-
change. The idea is to take a book, leave
a book so everyone can enjoy reading.
According to Wikipedia, the first
little free library was built in 2009 by
Todd Bol of Hudson, Wisconsin. He
built a little library that looked like a
schoolhouse to honor his mother who
was a teacher and loved to read. The
original idea behind little free libraries
was to create more little libraries than
the number of libraries founded by An-
drew Carnegie. A Scottish businessman
and philanthropist, Carnegie founded
2,509 libraries between 1883 and 1929.
In 2016 it was believed that there were
well over 50,000 little free libraries
worldwide and that number continues to
grow each year.
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
BETWEEN
THE COVERS
ESTHER MOBERG
Libraries Reading Outreach in
Clatsop County will be raising money
on March 31 at the Seaside Convention
center. This is the main fundraiser for
the year for the program. This year’s
fundraiser will be even better than pre-
vious years because Libraries Reading
Outreach, a countywide group repre-
senting the libraries of Astoria, Seaside
and Warrenton, is joining forces with the
Seaside Public Library Foundation. This
year’s fundraiser will have an additional
author event as part of the fundraiser.
There will be at least eight little libraries
up for auction and perhaps you will get
to bring one home to place in your yard
or business.
Some examples of little libraries
around Seaside include one at Sea
Star Gelato that was built by Vintage
Hardware of Astoria, A little library built
by Bill Moberg located across the street
from Seaside High School near the mini-
mart, and a little Snoopy library inside
State Farm Insurance. There are many
more little libraries out there and it’s fun
to try and find them all.
There will be nine local authors at the
upcoming event and the fundraiser will
allow for chances to get your name into
a short story collection they are writing.
In the next two months, we will be
sharing some excerpts from the authors
who will be at the event. The authors
will be sharing shorter pieces of their
stories written for the event and will be
sharing them here in the Seaside Signal
as a teaser in my next two articles.
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
John D. Bruijn
ADVERTISING
SALES
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Holly Larkins
Carl Earl
CLASSIFIED
SALES
Danielle Fisher
was joking around with a friend
how I live to eat out.
“We don’t take vacations.
We don’t have a boat. We don’t
play golf,” I said. “Food is our
recreation.”
Most nights I like to wind down
after a hard day by cooking Mr.
Sax and myself a nice dinner. After
30 years of marriage I like to say
my husband married me for my
cooking and I’m not lying when
I say my culinary creations are as
good as almost anything we could
eat out. I love playing with local
ingredients, including fresh sea-
food, which is abundant and very
good in these parts.
We like to go out for dinner
about once a week. On occasion,
instead of going out, I take a break
from cooking by getting take out.
Right now my favorite meal to
have at home that I didn’t have to
cook is from Avenue Q Pizza in
Seaside. Thanks to The Mouth, the
food writer whose discoveries and
thumbs up or thumbs down appear
in Coast Weekend, quite a few of
my friends have become fans of
this spot. In my humble opinion,
Avenue Q has the best thin crust
pizza on the North Coast. The crust
is so amazing, I would just eat the
crust. Angelina’s does a good thick
crust pizza, and I’ve only heard
good things about the deep-dish
pizza they’re doing in Cannon
Beach at Surfcrest Market in Tolo-
vana Park, but right now Avenue Q
Pizza is rockin’ it for me. Luckily,
it’s close to home.
In my immediate neighborhood,
the Osprey Café is pretty much
everything a person could want in
STAFF WRITER
Brenna Visser
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Skyler Archibald
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Esther Moberg
Jon Rahl
VIEW FROM
THE PORCH
EVE MARX
EVE MARX/FOR SEASIDE SIGNAL
The chef’s signature pork chop
at the Pacific Way Café and Bak-
ery is super juicy and delicious.
a local eatery. Open for breakfast
and lunch now seven days a week,
they don’t do dinner. The portions
are large and the food hearty
with a distinctly geographically
eclectic menu featuring traditional
South American fare like huevos
rancheros and arepas, as well as
East Asia dishes like Nasi Goreng,
an Indonesian rice dish made with
vegetables, wild caught shrimp,
and chicken, topped off with a sun-
ny side up egg. There are the more
expected breakfast/lunch/brunch
options including salads, omelettes
and pancakes, and they do a big,
juicy Koji burger and a pork belly
banh mi. I am personally partial
to the Hungarian mushroom soup
and the house made granola. The
Osprey has a full liquor license and
they make a mean cocktail. The
bacon bloody mary is practically a
meal in itself. I had one with their
signature avocado toast last Friday;
it was a great, if boozy way, to kick
off the weekend.
For an abbreviated meal, I love
the clams steamed in their own
broth at the U Street Pub, which
also has a great selection of craft
beer on tap. We also love the
oyster shooters at Screw and Brew
in Cannon Beach.
When we’re in the mood for
finer dining, i.e., a white tablecloth
experience, our go-to place is the
Pacific Way Café and Bakery in
Gearhart. They’ve got a new chef
and he’s got a way with meat,
which is good news for carnivores.
The chef’s signature pork chop
brought me to my knees. Old fa-
vorites like Dungeness crab ravioli
remain on the menu, as does the
cioppino, but there’s a new halibut
risotto I’d like to try, as well as
a new salmon dish glazed with
cranberries. The bakery makes
all the restaurant’s bread. If you
haven’t had the molasses bread
you haven’t really lived. Should
you be lucky enough to get there
early when the bakery side is
open, as you’re oohing over the
perfection of your apple turnover
or your almond croissant, you may
be treated to the glorious aroma of
roasting garlic wafting over from
the kitchen as the chef gets the
soup on.
I may not get to Mexico or
Hawaii this year, but I can still
treat my palate with the sensation-
al local fare.
Seaside Signal
Letter policy
Subscriptions
The Seaside Signal
is published every other week by
EO Media Group,
1555 N. Roosevelt, Seaside, OR 97138.
503-738-5561
seasidesignal.com
Copyright 2018 © Seaside Signal. Nothing
can be reprinted or copied without consent
of the owners.
The Seaside Signal welcomes letters to the editor. The
deadline is noon Monday prior to publication. Letters
must be 400 words or less and must be signed by the
author and include a phone number for verification. We
also request that submissions be limited to one letter
per month. Send to 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive, Seaside, OR
97138, drop them off at 1555 N. Roosevelt Drive or fax to
503-738-9285, or email rmarx@seasidesignal.com
Annually: $40.50 in county • $58.00 in
and out of county • e-Edition: only $30.00
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Seaside
Signal, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103. Postage Paid at
Seaside, OR, 97138 and at additional mailing offices.
Copyright 2017 © by the Seaside Signal. No portion
of this newspaper may be reproduced without written
permission. All rights reserved.