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About Seaside signal. (Seaside, Or.) 1905-current | View Entire Issue (July 6, 2018)
July 6, 2018 • Seaside Signal • seasidesignal.com • 3A An extraordinary ship Historic marker the effort of volunteers By R.J. Marx Seaside Signal U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE Marbled murrelets won’t be listed as endangered in Oregon. Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission reverses course on threatened seabird Marbled murrelet not endangered By Katie Frankowicz The Daily Astorian The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission on June 7 reversed a decision to upgrade the status of the marbled murrelet from threatened to endangered, choosing to wait for a 10- year study of the species to end. There were concerns that increased protections for marbled murrelets — small seabirds that winter at sea but nest in coastal for- ests — would mean strict- er logging limits on state forestland. Several county commissioners from coast- al communities testified at a commission meeting in Baker City Thursday that they were concerned about the economic impacts of the decision. The move toward uplist- ing nearly ended in a dead- lock when commission- ers first considered it at a meeting in February. It only passed after Commission- er Bob Webber decided to change his vote. Staff recommended re- classifying marbled mur- relets as an endangered species Thursday, but Curt Melcher, director of the Ore- gon Department of Fish and Wildlife, said commission- ers had the option to reject the listing change, which they did in a 4-2 vote. The commission intends to wait for results from an ongoing study of marbled murrelets by Oregon State University researchers. The researchers are in the second year of the 10-year study. “Let’s wait a few years and let scientists update us on how this species is do- ing,” Mike Finley, the com- mission’s chairman, said. Environmental groups shot back against Thurs- day’s reversal. Quinn Read, director for Defenders of Wildlife, said the commission “bowed to the interests of the tim- ber industry, abandoning the conservation leadership they demonstrated just four months ago.” “We are extremely dis- appointed, but we are not done,” Read said. “Orego- nians won’t stand for this failure of leadership. De- fenders will continue to work with our conservation partners to challenge this in- defensible decision.” Marbled murrelets are considered endangered in Washington state and Cal- ifornia. Oregon listed the species as threatened in 1995. Very little is known about them and nests are hard to find and study. The birds appear to favor large, old-growth conifers, a hab- itat that has dwindled, re- searchers say. The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife assessed the species in response to a petition from multiple con- servation organizations. ARCH CAPE — The USS Shark was no ordinary ship. In the mid-19th century, it was a trusted military ves- sel that fought in combat and navigated the Strait of Ma- gellan and beyond. But it met its match in Oregon with the mighty Columbia River. “Everything that ship did is so mind-boggling,” Elaine Trucke, director of the Can- non Beach History Center and Museum, said. “It went all over the globe, then it thought it could do the Columbia Bar! And it couldn’t!” In an effort to get the Shark off the south spit, the crew chopped down the ship’s three masts and jettisoned the cannons. When the ship be- gan to break up, the crew took to lifeboats and all on board were eventually saved. The ship’s captain received information from Native Americans that the three can- nons had come ashore south of Tillamook Head. Realizing it would be impossible to re- trieve the ship’s remains from such a remote location, they made no effort at recovery. On June 15, volunteers and state officials converged on U.S. Highway 101 just north of the fire station in Arch Cape to celebrate a new inter- pretative marker dedicated to the shipwreck. Namesake The Shark was one of hun- dreds of ships sunk along the coast, but one of the most no- table — and the one that gave Cannon Beach its name. The new marker stands just north of Arch Cape firehouse, where an original marker was in- stalled in the 1980s. The new marker, made of a wood resin, includes historical informa- tion, photos and illustrations recounting the ship’s story. Annie Von Domitz, of the Oregon Travel Experience, supervised the renovation of the historic marker, in the style of the state’s histor- ic wooden beaver markers. Arch Cape resident John Piatt R.J. MARX Annie Von Domitz of the Oregon Travel Experience at the ribbon-cutting of a new historic marker along U.S. Highway 101 in Arch Cape. R.J. MARX A new historic marker ready to be unveiled along U.S. High- way 101 in Arch Cape. played a key role in work- ing on the text and drafts, with historical support from Trucke and Jeff Smith, senior curator of the Columbia River Maritime Museum. The postmortem is as fas- cinating as the Shark’s career in the waters. Long after it ran aground, the search for the ship’s three carronades — small, powerful cannons used to fire at ships at near range — became a local obsession. “For decades, the cannon played peekaboo,” Trucke said. One was found in 1896. Two others were discovered a day apart more than a cen- tury later, in 2008, revealed by extreme low tides and the natural loss of beach sand due to winter storms. Piatt recalled: “The sand was way out and a girl and her dad were out walking and she said, ‘This looks like a can- non!’ A couple of days later someone found the third can- non right near there.” The restoration of the three carronades became a commu- nity project, with the assis- tance of the Garden Club, the Arch Cape Community Club, Historic Markers Committee, the Cannon Beach History Center and Museum and the Columbia River Maritime Museum. Funds were raised and the carronades were restored at the marine archaeology de- partment of Texas A&M Uni- versity before returning to the North Coast. Today, a replica stands at the site of the historic marker. One carronade stands at the history center and two are on exhibit at the Columbia River Maritime Museum. How did the Shark arrive here? Trucke provided an elo- quent recounting of the ship’s creation and its ultimate de- mise. ‘Manifest Destiny’ The secretary of the Navy in early 1846 sent the vessel to the Pacific Northwest to join the Pacific squadron. The ship’s role was to defend U.S. interests in the Northwest and to spread the concept of “Manifest Destiny” in the Or- egon territory when there was doubt about whether it would be British or American land? President James K. Polk sent the Shark to Oregon in August 1846. The ship, 86 feet long, was designed for speed and maneuverability to navigate the waters of the West Indies. The Shark’s impressive career saw it transport the nat- uralist James J. Audubon in 1831 to collect research spec- imens. The Shark was the first U.S. ship to navigate the Strait of Magellan in 1833 en route to Peru. According to the “Arch Cape Chronicles,” by Da- vid and Alma English, in the summer of 1846 Lt. Neil N. Howison received orders to carry supplies from Hono- lulu in readiness to ascend the Columbia River as far as the Willamette. Their reports would assist in formulating a decision on the location of the boundary between En- gland and the American lands. Americans wanted the board to be 54 degrees, 40 minutes latitude, the reason for Polk’s slogan, “54-40 or fight,” im- mortalized in history books. But due to a lag in com- munications, crew members were unaware that the U.S. Senate had already ratified a treaty with Britain making the U.S. border the 49th par- allel, rendering the journey unnecessary. Some of the ship deserted, but the lieutenant in command was “impatient, na- ive and somewhat impetuous” in seeking his return south. He attempted to cross the Colum- bia Bar without a bar pilot. With a sparse crew and bad weather, on Sept. 10, 1846, the Shark was pulled directly toward breakers. While the crew survived, the ship was destroyed. Author offers a path for stewarding public lands Conversation focuses on peoples’ relationship to forests By Nancy McCarthy For Seaside Signal In Oregon, where the issue of forest management is a hot topic, Mariah Acton asks a personal question: What does the forest mean to you? Acton, a former social sci- ence researcher for the U.S. Forest Service, recently led a conversation about the future of forest management with a group at the Cannon Beach History Center. She is study- ing for her master’s degree in conflict resolution at the Uni- versity of Oregon and works as a mediator for the state Housing and Community Ser- vices Department. “I noticed no one was talking about their own iden- tities as people living in the forest, as third-generation timber families, or as envi- ronmentalists or just speaking from their own values. I just felt this was a big part of the conversation that was miss- ing,” Acton said. As part of a program spon- sored by Oregon Humanities, Acton has traveled through- out the state to talk about what public forests mean to Oregonians. “Every community has a different relationship to the land that surrounds them,” she said. “This is a chance to explore those values and perspectives, the chance to be heard, to hear others and to CANNON BEACH MUSEUM AND HISTORY CENTER “Seeing the Forest for the Trees: Stewarding Our Public Lands,” a lecture by Mariah Acton, at the Cannon Beach Mu- seum and History Center. reflect.” While most of the 15 par- ticipants lived in Cannon Beach, others were visiting from surrounding communi- ties. When Acton asked what forests meant to them, they cited the forests’ importance for recreation, sustaining watersheds and their connec- tion to the eco-system. Some participants talked about the beauty, solitude and peace forests gave to them and the need to protect them for fu- ture generations. “When I look at a forest, I think of life,” said Jan Sie- bert-Wahrmund. Clatsop County Commis- sioner Lianne Thompson, who also was among the par- ticipants, noted that she lived in a forest clearing in Falcon Cove. “Forests mean to me a place that I love, that I’m devoted to,” Thompson said. “But as a public figure, my job is to create a moderate middle where there’s a bal- ance between what John Muir called economic development and conservation; they go hand-in-hand.” “In Oregon, our for- ests mean a lot of different things,” Acton said. “We have a timber industry that is the economic driver of our state settling; there’s no way around that. The economics part of it continues to fuel a lot of our communities across the state.” Forests also draw visitors, Acton noted. “People come here for nature, for finding the peace, the tranquility and the beauty of those trees when they’re standing upright.” Half of the 63 million acres in Oregon is in forests, Acton said. “We have lots of different forests across our state, so when we talk about different types of forest poli- cies, we’re talking about lots of different types of trees,” she added. In eastern Oregon, conver- sations about forest manage- ment are different, she said. “They have to cut down a lot more trees to get the board footage to fuel their schools (economically) than over here. It’s different environ- mentalism, it’s different eco- nomics.” In addition, the type of ownership varies from region to region in Oregon. While federal ownership predom- inates on the east side, state forests are more common on the west side, she said. With the variations of ownership – city, state, federal, Bureau of Land Management, private holdings – come variations in management policies. “We can’t talk about forest policy as a monolithic; there’s a lot of different nuance there,” she said. Policies also change with time. Acton talked about the influence of two early conser- vationists: John Muir, found- er of the Sierra Club, who sought preservation of forest land, and Gifford Pinchot, founder of the U.S. Forest Service, who promoted sus- tainable use of the forest. Acton asked participants to consider where they place themselves along the spec- trum of conservationism and utilitarianism. Thompson said she kept moving between “loving the planet” and taking care of “disenfranchised people who don’t have any way of earning a living.” “I see people with ade- quate and stable incomes saying I want to have only park land and we shouldn’t cut any trees and the money should magically come from somewhere. Tourism creates air pollution and traffic and the load on fresh water and wastewater,” Thompson said. But Betsy Ayres, of Can- non Beach, noted that auto- mation is taking away tim- ber-related jobs. She said government’s priority should be to conserve natural re- sources. “I personally don’t feel like we are managing those in perpetuity. I think we’re still stealing from our chil- dren’s children for a profit,” said Ayres, who would like to see more of the corpora- tion-owned forests owned by families. At the end of the gathering, Acton challenged the group to continue the discussion. “Anyone can start these conversations,” she said. “In this world of hyper polariza- tion, we’re afraid to talk to our neighbor these days. Be willing to start these conver- sations.” Want a fresh look for summer? Call your local, neighborhood experts! 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