Friday, March 1, 2019 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A3
Backyard bird count lands in Clatsop County
Katie Frankowicz/The Daily Astorian/The Daily Astorian
Naturalist Mike Patterson and park volunteer Rosemary McGrath turn their binoculars to the trees to identify a bird during a birding walk at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park
on Feb. 16. The walk was part of the annual Great Backyard Bird Count.
By KATIE FRANKOWICZ
The Daily Astorian
H
ere’s a birding lesson: Your ears
are just as important as your
eyes.
On a birding walk at Lewis and Clark
National Historical Park Saturday, Feb.
16, naturalist Mike Patterson stopped
often to listen. The sounds of birds
socializing and hunting often caught his
attention before he even saw a fl utter in
the trees or the underbrush. There was
the distinctive “dee-dee-dee” of black-
capped chickadees. The harsh squawk-
ing complaints of a great blue heron.
The birding walk was one of sev-
eral events the national park hosted over
the weekend as part of the 22nd annual
Great Backyard Bird Count, the fi rst
online citizen-science project with the
purpose of collecting data on wild birds
around the globe.
The park provided a number of
bird-related exhibits and activities at
the visitor’s center over the weekend.
A number of pink plastic fl amingos —
sorry, “great pink herons,” perhaps a
subspecies of the more common great
blue heron — also made an appearance
along trails in the park.
During the annual bird count, people
around the world count the birds they
see in their area and post the informa-
tion online, providing important infor-
mation about the abundance and distri-
bution of bird species.
In Clatsop County, people submitted
sightings of dozens of different birds,
cataloguing a total of 99 species as of
Sunday afternoon, according to the bird
count’s website.
The settling ponds in Cannon Beach
proved to be a popular spot for sight-
ings, along with Fort Clatsop’s Netul
River Trail, the route Patterson took on
Saturday.
Author seeks to make coho plentiful again
plan,” Phippen said, adding
the ground strategy does not
amend or revise the recov-
ery plan, but rather “identi-
fi es and prioritizes actions
NOAA will take unilater-
ally or in partnership with
others.”
For the fi rst time, he
added, NOAA Fisheries is
developing its annual work
plans alongside the agen-
cy’s Restoration Center staff
to ensure their work is com-
plementary and progressing
toward similar objectives.
As Phippen pointed out,
success is not measured by
merely getting coho salmon
de-listed as an endangered
species, but also through
creating the infrastructure
and environment for the spe-
cies to continue thriving so
it does not become re-listed
a few years down the road.
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration
has developed a roadmap for
getting Oregon Coast coho
off the endangered species
list, but it relies on coopera-
tion from partners, including
community members, con-
servation groups, and timber
companies.
The purpose of setting
a goal for recovery is to
ensure “we have those spe-
cies around for future gen-
erations,” according to
Kenneth Phippen, the Ore-
gon Coast Branch Chief for
NOAA’s West Coast region.
On Feb. 20, he presented
on “Breathing Life into the
Oregon Coast Coho Salmon
Recovery Plan” as part of
the Necanicum Watershed
Council’s Listening to the
Land lecture series, hosted
in partnership with the Sea-
side Public Library.
NOAA’s long-term strat-
egy for de-listing coho
salmon — and keeping
them off the list — is out-
lined in the Oregon Coast
Coho Salmon Recovery
Plan, which was fi nalized in
December 2016. The plan
builds on past and current
efforts to restore the coho
salmon, particularly with a
call for “continued actions
to repair the ecosystem pro-
cesses that infl uence the
health and stability of the
rearing habitats for juvenile
coho salmon,” according
to a plan summary. Using
the plan as a foundation,
the department can develop
focused annual work plans
with specifi c milestones.
Too often, Phippen said,
bureaucrats put together
plans that sit on the shelf
without leading to tangi-
ble action, when “they’re
supposed to be living doc-
uments.” Nine months
after the recovery plan was
approved, the Oregon Coast
Coho Salmon Workshop
Team worked to develop a
vision statement to ensure
the document remained tan-
gible and fresh.
Additionally, the plan is
supplemented by a Recov-
ery Implementation Strat-
and other agencies and local
stakeholders.
“You know that ground,”
Phippen said, adding that
level of localized familiarity
is especially valuable. “The
bottom line question is, are
you going to continue this
exciting journey with us?”
The Listening to the Land
series runs through May.
Each lecture takes place
at 6 p.m. at the library. In
March, Jakob Shockey, a
wildlife biologist and the
owner of Beaver State Wild-
life Solutions, will pres-
ent on “Resolving Confl icts
with Beaver Using Natural
Science and Design.”
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Making a difference
Katherine Lacaze
Kenneth Phippen, Oregon Coast Branch Chief for NOAA
Fisheries, presents on “Breathing Life Into the Oregon Coast
Coho Salmon Recovery Plan” on Wednesday, Feb. 20, at the
Seaside Public Library as part of the Necanicum Watershed
Council’s Listening to the Land lecture series.
egy, which includes excerpts
for each of the fi ve strata on
the Oregon Coast. Clatsop
County is in the North Coast
Stratum, which includes the
Necanicum, Nehalem, Tilla-
mook and Nestucca rivers.
What does a
recovery plan do?
Out of 28 salmon species
from the West Coast cur-
rently listed as endangered
or threatened, the coho is
relatively the closest to
recovery, Phippen said, add-
ing there is still work to be
done.
While there are multiple
variables at play, he added,
“We really need to dig down
deep and fi gure out what we
as NOAA Fisheries can do
to implement the plan.” To
that end, the agency devel-
oped a ground strategy with
several proactive and spe-
cifi c goals, one of which is
managing the riparian area
along rivers and streams and
increasing the quality, quan-
tity and diversity of winter
and summer juvenile rearing
habitat.
Other goals include
establishing focused protec-
tion and restoration efforts
within forestry and agricul-
ture; promoting actions that
strengthen coho populations
along with sustainable local
community and economies
that rely on working lands;
and enhancing monitoring
programs and science.
“We’re actually mak-
ing very specifi c commit-
ments in our daily work in
association to our recovery
Phippen said they have
seen success in the state
when a couple smaller
watershed councils or other
conservation organizations
build a coalition and con-
solidate their efforts. His
agency can provide sup-
port through funding and
by helping groups identify
opportunities for working
together.
Additionally, community
members can contribute to
the recovery effort by shar-
ing detailed information at
the population level to help
develop and implement stra-
tegic action plans along-
side the Oregon Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
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