Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/15912
Tuesday, September 7, 2010 – Daily News – 7A WRECK Continued from page 1A A witness told police he saw a truck heading west- bound on Reeds Avenue after hearing the collision. He followed the truck to where it stopped on South Jack- son and contacted the driver. During the same time, Aaron Welch, 24, of Escalon, reported the theft of the truck to the police department. Officers contacted Welch, who was intoxicated, at a residence on Reeds Avenue. The witness identified Welch as the driver he spoke to. Welch was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and booked into Tehama County Jail, according to the release. Neither Welch or the dogs were injured in the colli- sion. The collision knocked out power to several resi- dences in the area after the truck struck a utility pole. The pole was severed at the base and was being held upright by power lines. A chain link fence across the pole was damaged. Staff report GRANT Continued from page 1A clean-ups.” Local public agencies and non-profit organiza- tions that previously have not been awarded watershed coordinator grants are encouraged to apply. Applicants must sub- mit an electronic appli- cation using State Water Resources Control Board Financial Assis- tance Application Sub- mittal Tool system by Oct. 12. A link to the system, as well as more information about the grants and upcoming workshops and webina- rs, can be found at con- servation.ca.gov/dlrp/wp /grants/Pages/wcgp_intr o.aspx. Generally, watershed coordinators help assess local watersheds — the WASHINGTON (MCT) — Twenty years after north- ern spotted owls were pro- tected under the Endan- gered Species Act, their numbers continue to decline, and scientists aren't certain whether the birds will survive even though logging was banned on much of the old-growth for- est in the Pacific Northwest where they live in order to save them. The owl remains an iconic symbol in a region where once loggers in steel- spiked, high-topped caulk boots felled 200-year-old or even older trees and loaded them on trucks that com- pression-braked down twisty mountain roads to mills redolent with the smell of fresh sawdust and smoke from burning scraps. Regionwide, the owl populations are dropping 2.9 percent a year. In Wash- ington state, they're declin- ing at 6 to 7 percent a year. While that may seem like a small number, it adds up, said Eric Forsman, a research wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Ser- vice's Pacific Northwest Research Station in Corval- lis, Ore., who's studied the owl since 1968. "Nothing we do seems to work for the spotted owl," Forsman said. The fight over the owl, however, perhaps the fiercest in the history of the Endangered Species Act, was always about more than just protecting a surprising- ly friendly, football-sized bird with dark feathers, dark eyes and white spots. It also was about the future of the ancient Dou- glas fir, red cedar and West- ern hemlock forests that once stretched from north- ern California through Ore- gon and Washington state into British Columbia, and the habitat they provide for hundreds of species. The owl was considered an indicator species, reflect- ing the health of forests where trees as old as 1,000 years grow. When the owl was listed as a threatened species in the summer of 1990, it was seen not just as a way to halt the decline in owl populations but also to end logging in the federal old-growth forests. "Though the owl trig- area drained by a river or river system — and help bring together local gov- ernment, landowners and community groups through outreach, educa- tion and partnerships in order to improve the health of the watersheds. Over the past 10 years the watershed coordina- tors have brought in more than $50 million in additional funding for watershed improvement projects statewide through grant writing and fund raising pro- jects. As a result, this program benefits the state by bringing in much more funding than it costs. “When you think about it, we all live in a watershed,” said DOC Acting Director Derek Chernow. “The cleaner and healthier each one is, the better off we all are.” SPLIT Continued from page 1A putting a spin on things, including this dispute about the budget shortfall, Byrne said. “He’s spun it so it looks like her fault,” he said. Councilman Bob Carrel said he didn’t know if there was anyone to blame for the council not know- ing about the shortfall sooner, and he did not want to point the finger at anyone. As a budget committee member, Carrel said he Wayne Brown constantly asked for the numbers. While Van Warmerdam has been helpful in provid- ing the numbers, they were constantly changing. The budget committee did not know that the shortfall would reach the millions until at least May or June, so there was no way Nichols would have known before that, Carrel said. “I just don’t think he knew before,” he said. “I don’t think he knew any sooner than we (the bud- get committee) did.” Brown said the num- bers did keep changing over the 13 or so budget meetings the committee had, but the number just ended up being $1.3 mil- lion at the end, after the committee had met with all the department heads and gone through the bud- get process. “There was never a meeting where either Mar- garet (Van Warmerdam) or Marty (Nichols) walked in and said the deficit was $1.3 (million),” Brown said. Mayor Jeff Moyer said, while he respects the bud- get process and under- stands that budget issues should be handled by the budget committee first, a grave injustice has been done if Nichols or Van Warmerdam did know in March that the deficit was in the millions and they did not tell the full coun- cil. “If in fact Margaret’s (Van Warmerdam) info is correct, then we have a serious situation with our management,” Moyer said. “That’s just some- thing that you don’t keep to yourself.” If something changes that drastically, the coun- CONCERN Continued from page 1A on the fees to acquire the property and the city is automatically insured for liability, Kimbrough said. Roger Clem, a preservation architect who came up with a plan in 2002 to restore the facade of the building, has shown interest and was expected to inspect the building Wednesday, Kimbrough said. A notice of dangerous building was mailed Aug. 20 and the city has cil should be notified right away, Moyer said. “If we cannot trust and rely on staff to provide us with the right info, it makes you think what else aren’t we being told,” Moyer said. Councilman Forrest Flynn said he did not think there was a communica- tion breakdown between the staff and council. “I can’t think of any time that we’ve been left in the dark,” Flynn said, in reference to Byrne’s June 29 comments that the council is kept in the dark. Nichols has always given the council informa- tion when he has it, Flynn said. Nichols is not the kind of person to scream “the sky is falling.” Until he knows something for sure, he won’t bring it to the council, and that is probably the way he han- dled the budget situation, given that the numbers do constantly change. Flynn said he was dis- appointed to know that there is conflict going on between Van Warmerdam and Nichols, but it is real- ly a non-issue. “Somebody’s just try- ing to stir the pot,” Flynn attempted to contact the State Department of Housing and Com- munity Development, but calls have not been returned, he said. Kimbrough said even if the city had voted to buy the building, there would still be time for someone to step in to save the building. “It could be into November before we deal with the actual demolition,” Kimbrough said. In February, Civil Engineer Steve Judson evaluated the building and said the problem was that the struc- ture is an unreinforced masonry Forks survived, and is now enjoying an economic boost from an unexpected source. gered it, what was at stake was the survival of the old- growth ecosystem," said Bruce Babbitt, who as the interior secretary during the Clinton administration helped write the still-con- troversial Northwest Forest Plan, which brought an uneasy truce to the owl wars. From that standpoint, Babbitt said, the forest plan has been a success despite the declining owl popula- tions. The plan represented a landmark in conservation planning, with forest man- agers now looking at entire ecosystems rather than just drawing lines on a map, Babbitt said. Once Forks, Wash. —an isolated town of about 3,000 on the remote Olympic Peninsula, where 12 feet of rain falls annually — was the self-proclaimed "Timber Capital of the World." Logging trucks rumbled through downtown nonstop and tourists were considered pretty much a nuisance. Though several recent studies found employment in the timber industry had dropped by almost half even before the owl was listed, as mills automated or closed, the early 1990s were tough times for towns such as Forks. By some estimates, more than 200 mills have closed over the past 20 years as the timber harvest in the region's national forests dropped from 4 bil- lion board feet annually to about half a billion board feet. The town is the setting for the "Twilight" series of books, and so far this year more than 50,000 "Twi- lighters" have visited to eat Bella burgers and purchase buttons such as one that reads, "I kissed a werewolf and liked it." Though they don't pro- duce the high-paid logging and mill jobs of the past, other timber towns are turn- ing to tourism. Oakridge, Ore., hopes to become a mecca for mountain biking. Aberdeen, Wash., the hometown of Kurt Cobain, could become a destination for GenXers on grunge music tours. Here's a closer look at how the protection of the owl has played out since the summer of 1990: SPOTTED OWLS. Sci- entists still aren't sure how many owls there are on fed- eral, state and local lands. Forsman said there might be 1,500 owls in Washing- ton state and 3,000 to 4,000 in Oregon and northern Cal- ifornia. The handful of remaining owls in British Columbia are in a captive breeding program at a zoo. said. “I don’t know that this is really an issue. If that info was there I see no reason why it would have been withheld.” Brown said, “There’s been a lot of finger point- ing in trying to figure this out, but I still believe in my heart that there was no benefit to either of them hiding the numbers.” All the council mem- bers do agree that if the information was available, it should have been brought forth. But Brown, Carrel and Flynn agree, had the coun- cil known sooner, nothing would have changed, except that maybe the city would have a finalized budget by now. Moyer said, if Nichols did know in March, he should have told the coun- cil then. “There’s probably some decisions that we made between March and now that could have adversely affected the city because we didn’t know.” ——— Tang Lor can be reached at 527-2153, Ext. 110 or by e-mail at tlor@redbluffdai- lynews.com. building with an old job-built roof framing system. “I cannot predict the date and time of the ultimate failure of the building, but at some time in the future the building will collapse,” Judson said in his report. The Corning City Council meets the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month at City Hall, 794 Third St. Meeting minutes and agendas are available at www.corning.org. ——— Julie Zeeb can be reached at 527-2153, extension 115 or jzeeb@redbluffdailynews.com. After 20 years of protection, owl is declining but forests remain Though the loss of old- growth habitat from logging over the years is thought to be the main cause of the decline, a new culprit has emerged: the barred owl. The barred owl, a more aggressive cousin of the spotted owl, isn't native to the region and has slowly moved westward from the East. While barred owl pop- ulations are growing in the Northwest, they reportedly are declining in the East. The Fish and Wildlife Service is deciding whether to hunt the barred owl to reduce its populations. FORESTS. As with the owl, it's hard to say how much old growth remains in the Northwest. By some estimates there were once 17 million acres of old- growth forest. Depending on the source, 3 percent to 12 percent may be left. The Northwest Forest Plan prohibited logging on 7 million acres of "late suc- cessional" federal forest. "There is almost no old- growth logging in Washing- ton state," Boyles said. Is cremation your choice? PEOPLE. As protests mounted in the region in the early 1990s, with dead owls tacked onto roadside signs and "owl fricassee" face- tiously placed on the menus of cafes in timber country, some estimated that the Northwest Forest Plan could result in the loss of up to 125,000 direct and indi- rect jobs. The number is now thought to be consider- ably lower. One 1995 esti- mate by the Forest Service said that 400 jobs had been lost as a result of the logging restrictions. "They were hard hit, but much of it occurred in the 1980s, before the owl," said Annabel Kirschner, a Wash- ington State University pro- fessor who's studied timber industry employment. "It had nothing to do with envi- ronmental policies." Congress appropriated $1.2 billion over five years to retrain laid-off workers. Marcia Bingham, the director of the Forks Cham- ber of Commerce, said many of those who were retrained left Forks. 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