4A • June 8, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com
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LOOKING FOR A MAGIC BIO-BULLET
F
or Gearhart residents who have
been threatened by a fearsome
mama elk protecting her calf
or caught amidst the herd,
controlling the elk population
isn’t a matter of if it’s needed, but
how it should be implemented.
Michael Finley, chairman of the
Oregon Department Fish and Wild-
life Commission, was among those
who ventured to Gearhart this spring
as part of a tour of Department of
Fish and Wildlife and local officials
to assess the region’s elk concerns.
Most of the time, elk and humans
live peaceably together. “But during
birthing, calving or during the rut they
became very protective,” Finley said.
“That’s the most dangerous time.”
Finley, a former superintendent of
Yellowstone National Park, has had
his own interactions with elk, espe-
cially during rut and calving seasons.
“In terms of public safety, I was
chased several times,” Finley said. “I
literally ran behind stone pillars. It’s
real.”
Finley introduced a novel solu-
tion, one that he had seen efficiently
control a wild horse population:
contraceptive darting.
“Over time, the population went
down,” he told Gearhart officials
and wildlife commissioners. “It was
nonlethal, so people didn’t get upset
about it.”
Could it work in reducing the elk
herd here?
Lethal culling
The immunocontraceptive
vaccine called GonaCon is currently
registered by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency for use on wild
and feral female horses, burros,
and white-tailed deer, according to
Legislative and Public Affairs Gail
Keirn of the USDA National Wildlife
Research Center. It is not currently
registered for use in elk.
GonaCon works by stimulating
production of sex hormones. As a
result, females don’t go into heat and
males are less amorous as long as
there are sufficient levels of antibod-
ies in the female’s body.
GonaCon vaccine has been
studied and tested in female elk and
found to be effective, Keirn said.
Other contraceptive agents have been
tested in wildlife, but like GonaCon,
they are not currently registered for
use with elk.
Larry Keller of New West maga-
zine described a 2008 elk contracep-
tive darting at Rocky Mountain Park.
First, the animals had to be shot
SEEN FROM SEASIDE
R.J. MARX
with a tranquilizer dart, accurate
up to 45 meters or about 148 feet.
Their lack of fear of people made the
darting possible.
Once sedated, the elk were rolled
on to their chests so they could
breathe easier, blindfolded, injected
with the vaccine and fitted with a
radio telemetry collar to locate them
later. Blood samples were extracted.
Then they were injected with another
drug to reverse the effects of the
tranquilizer. The entire process took
about 40 minutes.
Subsequent studies showed the
contraceptive worked in completely
reducing pregnancy for one to two
years after the shot was administered.
A daunting process
Herman Biederbeck, wildlife
biologist of the Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife, hosted a town
hall on elk in Gearhart in 2014 and
attended this year’s elk tour with the
wildlife commissioners.
The process of darting and
catching a free-range animal is next
to impossible, he said, even though
most of Gearhart’s elk are “pretty
tamed down.”
“We’re not talking about a small
group of five deer,” Biederbeck said.
“This is a herd of 70 or 80 elk. You
wouldn’t necessarily have to get all
of them, but you’d certainly want
to get a high percentage of them to
limit the amount of new calves born
and recruited into the population.”
After darting, animals could
become more wary of people, state
wildlife veterinarian Colin Gillin
said in May.
Studies show results of immuno-
contraceptive vaccines in closed pop-
ulations with deer, Gillin said, but
effectiveness is hard to determine.
“Too many animals could come
and go from the herd, and unless all
the animals were marked, it would
be impossible to know which ones
had been treated,” he said.
Even if as many as 30 percent
were darted, elk would still cause
property damage and potential harm
to people, dogs or cars, he said.
“You’re probably not getting all of
them, so you have some you never
catch and they’re still making babies.”
The process may have other
adverse effects. “I’ve never seen
NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
A park researcher fits a radio collar on an elk.
‘REALLY THINK IT
THROUGH BEFORE
YOU THROW A LOT
OF MONEY AT THIS.
BECAUSE YOU WANT
IT TO WORK.’
State wildlife veterinarian
Colin Gillin
anything saying it affected the
animal’s well-being, but I don’t think
they know,” Gillin said.
R.J. MARX/SEASIDE SIGNAL
Lethal culling
Wildlife biologist Herman Biederbeck (far right) and Gearhart Mayor Matt
Brown (to his left) address visitors on the topic of elk in Gearhart.
Mayor Matt Brown again raised
the prospect of elk contraception at
the April City Council meeting.
Whether it’s the best option in
managing Gearhart’s free-ranging elk
population is something that state and
federal officials are still not sure about.
The National Wildlife Research
Service says further study is needed
to determine if fertility control can
be applied effectively to a large free-
range elk population.
State Senate Bill 373, in effect
since January, requires the state’s
Fish and Wildlife Commission to
adopt a pilot program in cities where
officials determine deer “constitute a
public nuisance.”
How animals would be taken is
not specified, but the pilot program
specifies that darts or lethal injection
are prohibited.
While “a lot of people aren’t go-
ing to like” lethal removal, it’s quick,
The inner life of a summer vacation town
I
just got off the phone with my friend, the
author Judy Blundell, whose latest novel,
“The High Season” just came out to rave
reviews. The New York Times called Judy
“a writer to watch; People Magazine named
it their book of the week; and Entertainment
Weekly said it is a “must read.” Judy won
the National Book Award a few years ago
for her young adult novel, “What I Saw
And How I Lied.” Her newest book (she’s
written 114) is her first for a grown up
audience.
Intrigue, she said, is an important subject.
“The High Season” is full of intrigue. The
story is set in the small beach town of Ori-
ent, New York. “Small towns are a wonder-
ful repository of intrigue,” Judy said.
Judy and I met years ago when she and
her husband and young daughter lived in
Katonah, N.Y., where we used to live. She
said she wrote much of this book while
sitting in a wing back chair in the village
library. She said she worked on the book a
long time. “I first thought about it 15 years
ago,” she said. “The story appeared to me
but it has taken me a long time to write.”
She said adult stories with adult themes and
parenting and marriage and careers and what
happens when those things derail all at the
same time guided her novelistic thinking.
“What do you do in the face of catastro-
phe?” she asked.
Judy said she based the book on expe-
riences and observations she developed
years ago when she and her husband lived
in Montauk, New York, a rural beach town
whose tiny year-round population swells
like a king tide during the summer months.
She often thought about the full-time
residents who worked multiple jobs and/or
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
EVE MARX
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
Jeremy Feldman
John D. Bruijn
ADVERTISING
SALES
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
April Olsen
Carl Earl
CLASSIFIED
SALES
Danielle Fisher
LETTERS
Don’t smoke on the Prom
I am writing about smokers on the Promenade.
I run along the Promenade three days a week. The
smokers walk, stand and sit right on the promenade.
They throw their cigarette butts on the ground as
well. I don’t see any signs posted indicating they
should not be smoking within 20 feet of others
on the Promenade. I have to inhale smoke during
my run as well as families with children and other
non-smokers having to inhale smokers. Just wanted
to let you know so maybe signs could be put up for
smokers to go away from the Promenade to smoke.
Sandra Garvin
Seaside
VIEW FROM
THE PORCH
turned their private homes into summer rent-
als just to hold on. With escalating taxes and
infrastructure costs, the financial situation
has only become more difficult for regular
residents.
“You have school teachers who in sum-
mer months become Uber drivers, and peo-
ple renting out their homes Memorial Day to
Labor Day to live in a trailer just to get the
summer income,” my friend said. “People
going to extraordinary lengths just to hold
on to their financial place in American life.”
“The High Season” is told from three
female points of view: Doe, a Millennial;
Gem, a teen; and Ruthie, a Baby Boomer.
The third, unspoken character, is the heavy
weight of seductive privilege and its poten-
tial for abuse.
“Ruthie loses her job, her house, her hus-
band, and track of her teenage daughter all
in the course of a few summer weekends,”
Ms. Blundell said. “She makes the absolute
wrong choice in an effort to get everything
back.”
My husband and I often joke if only we
had someplace else to live for the summer,
we would do well to rent out our house.
We have friends who just sold their Seaside
house and for the time being, are living in
their trailer. I asked the husband how that’s
going and he shrugged.
“It’s OK for a week at a time, but…” and
then his voice trailed off.
effective and usually less costly than
alternatives, Gillin said. “The har-
vesting of animals, removing them
from the population, is something the
state is liable to be able to pull off.”
While a contraceptive vaccine
remains a “pretty intriguing con-
cept,” the opportunity for things to
go wrong are pretty high, he said.
“Really think it through before
you throw a lot of money at this,” he
said. “Because you want it to work.”
MEETINGS
EVE MARX
A pre-season beach read that may reso-
nate with local audiences.
I grew up in a summer resort town on the
east coast. I’m no stranger to the pressure
of making an entire year’s income in three
frantic and exhausting months. Summer is
the high season and for retailers the opportu-
nity to climb out of the hole of debt or stag-
nation they’ve endured all winter. It affords
homeowners to make double or even triple
mortgage payments or cover costly home
repairs. Bring in intrigue and the seduction
of privilege and just about any beach town
has the potential to be a novel or an HBO
series. Have you ever watched “The Affair”?
I haven’t finished reading “The High
Season” yet. Truth to tell, I can scarcely bear
to put it down. If you’re looking for a sum-
mer read that hits close to home, even if it is
set on the opposite coast, check it out.
Pick it up at Beach Books, 616 Broad-
way.
STAFF WRITER
Brenna Visser
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
Skyler Archibald
Rebecca Herren
Katherine Lacaze
Eve Marx
Esther Moberg
Jon Rahl
MONDAY, June 11
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
THURSDAY, June 14
Seaside Convention Center Commission, 5 p.m.,
415 First Avenue.
Cannon Beach Academy, 5:30 p.m. 3718 S. Hemlock
St., Cannon Beach.
Gearhart Planning Commission, 6 p.m., 698 Pacific
Way, Gearhart.
TUESDAY, June 19
Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District, Bob
Chisholm Community Center, 5:15 p.m., 1225 Avenue
A., Seaside.
Seaside School District Board of Directors, 6 p.m.,
1801 S. Franklin, Seaside.
Seaside Planning Commission, work session, 7 p.m.,
City Hall, 989 Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, June 20
Seaside Tourism Advisory Committee, 3 p.m., 989
Broadway.
THURSDAY, June 21
Seaside Transportation Advisory Commission, 6
p.m., City Hall, 989 Broadway.
Seaside Signal
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