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SEASON’S GREETINGS 2023 SPECIAL SECTION WITH LETTERS TO SANTA AND RECIPES FROM LOCAL ADVERTISERS INSIDE
Headlight Herald from our Season’s
2023
Headlight Hera
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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2023
TILLAMOOK, OREGON • WWW.TILLAMOOKHEADLIGHTHERALD.COM
VOL. 135, NO. 51 • $1.50
Yamamoto celebrated at retirement soiree WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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Commissioner Yamamoto opening gifts at his retirement reception at the Tillamook Creamery Association.
riends, family and colleagues gathered at the Red Barn at the Tillamook County Creamery Association on December 13, to celebrate retiring Tillamook County Commissioner David Yamamoto’s career in public service. After enjoying light refreshments courtesy of the creamery, attendees gave Yamamoto gifts and shared some of their favorite stories from working with him. Yamamoto announced his early retirement from the county commissionership in August, citing a desire to enjoy retirement and travel before age precluded those possibilities. Doug Olson was selected to replace Yamamoto for the final year of his term in October and will assume the position at the beginning of 2024. A group of county commissioners from around northwest Oregon made the trip to Tillamook to fete Yamamoto, included Linn County Commissioner Will Tucker, Columbia County Commissioner Margaret Magruder and Washington County Commissioner Jerry
Wiley. Tucker told the crowd that Yamamoto had a knack for marketing, telling the story of three lawsuits in which Linn County has been the defendant during the past decade. Tucker said that two of the suits ended up in big wins for Linn County but noted that coverage had focused on Tillamook’s role in the cases, while in the final case, a loss, all credit went to Linn County. Magruder told the story of giving Yamamoto a wig of dreadlocks to wear at this year’s Association of Oregon Counties meeting and said that she would miss his leadership on timber and other issues facing the counties. Staffers and partners from across Tillamook County also came out to share their well wishes, with both Commissioners Erin Skaar and Mary Faith Bell attending, as well as Sheriff Josh Brown, Tillamook County Chief of Staff Rachel Hagerty, Tillamook County Director of Community Development Sarah Absher, Tillamook County Treasurer Shawn Blanchard, Port of Tillamook Bay General Manager Michele Bradley SEE YAMAMOTO PAGE A2
Commissioners Board of Forestry and rename roads FTLAC discuss forest management plan T WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
illamook’s Board of County Commissioners approved name changes for roads in Pacific City and Oceanside at their meeting on December 13, renaming the roads Dorymen’s Way and Lighthouse Road. The commissioners also approved a $26,500 professional services agreement with Solid Ground Consulting to update the county health department’s strategic plan. The name change in Cape Meares was made to account for the recent reopening of Cape Meares Loop Road on a new alignment. A portion of the old alignment, which was knocked out in a landslide in 2013, has remained in use as an access to Cape Meares National Wildlife Refuge in the intervening years and was renamed Lighthouse Road from the intersection with the new Cape Meares Loop Road to the refuge’s entrance. In Pacific City, the unimaginatively named Cape Kiwanda Beach Access Road was renamed Dorymen’s Way in recognition of its use by Dorymen to access the beach and launch their craft. The road runs through the Cape Kiwanda State Park parking lot and is erroneously marked on some maps and Hungry Harbor Road, an appellation given by the owners of a restaurant of the same name that closed in the 1990s. The commissioners noted that the new name better reflected the curtailed use that is now allowed at the access point, after personal vehicles were banned from driving on the beach in Pacific City in recent years. The Cape Meares Community Association asked for the commissioners to support a letter
requesting a transient lodging tax grant for the construction of a path in their community, but commissioners declined. The proposed path would have provided access to several benches on county property, but the commissioners said that with recent court rulings removing recreational immunity for government bodies on access trails, the county’s insurer, CIS, and legal counsel recommended against building such a path. They noted that they would not be opposed to deeding the land to the Cape Meares Community Association to pave the way for them to build the path in the future. The commissioners also mentioned that county staff were in the process of inventorying all the county’s paths to identify potential issues outside of beach access points already addressed by public works. Commissioner Erin Skaar said that she had been in contact with Governor Tina Kotek’s office about the county’s emergency declaration on the day before the meeting and had been told a state emergency declaration was imminent. She said that the declaration would allow for funds to be sent directly to HB Civil, the firm undertaking work on a new bridge on Miami Foley Road to replace a culvert that washed out in the storms. On December 14, the governor’s office put out a statement saying that Oregon’s State Resilience Officer and the Department of Emergency Management were working closely with Tillamook County officials to evaluate the ongoing needs of the county in the wake of the storm. The statement said that state officials would continue to help in the process of securing federal funds for the recovery effort. Commissioner Mary Faith Bell said that work on the Miami Foley bridge project was progressing at an astonishing pace, which she likened to a Christmas Miracle. She said that the bridge should be passable to emergency vehicles by December 14, 8 days after the washout, and open to the public by December 21. SEE RENAMED ROADS PAGE A7
WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
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he Oregon Board of Forestry and members of the Forest Trust Lands Advisory Committee met on December 14 to discuss recently released modeling results and their impacts on the counties that rely on state forest revenues and the department of forestry. Members of both groups quickly homed in on excess habitat protections for the northern spotted owl as an area of concern and signaled their intention to work together to dampen the economic impacts of the new plans. The meeting began with an address from Oregon Board of Forestry Chair Jim Kelly who discussed the next steps that would happen following the joint meeting. Kelly said that throughout the process of developing a new habitat conservation plan (HCP) and forest management plan (FMP) for the state forests, the board had received well over 4,000 pieces of written testimony and heard more than 700 public commenters. Kelly said that while the board wanted to honor the public process, the voluminous correspondence risked bogging down the rest of their agenda. He said that two hours of public testimony on the matter would be included at the board’s January meeting and that department staff would schedule three listening sessions to allow for more feedback in the new year. The meeting then moved into a presentation by Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) staffers on the new modeling that largely mirrored the one given the week before to the FTLAC. The presentation showed that across all state forests revenue would drop somewhere between $21 and $28 million dollars annually and that the department had taken a conservative approach to species protection, with different planned scenarios protecting between 15% and 30% excess acreage of northern spotted owl
habitat. Board of Forestry members were then allowed to ask questions about the presentation and quickly focused in on the excess protected habitat. Board Member Joe Justice was the first to chime in and asked for clarification about the decision to remove between 55% and 70% of possible northern spotted owl habitat from harvest when the HCP process only called for protection of 40%. Department staff responded that the decision was made to account for unforeseen occurrences like wildfires or climate change destroying some of the habitat without putting the plans’ compliance with federal law in jeopardy. Board Member Ben Deumling said that he was concerned that the latest modeled numbers did not include allowances for climate change, fires or other disasters. Deumling said that the lack of such consideration made him doubt that even the already-worrisome harvest projections would be fulfilled and that he felt the model was looking through “rose-colored goggles.” State Forests Division Chief Mike Wilson said that accounting for such exigent events in long-term modeling was not possible. Wilson said that the department generally included those considerations in implementation plans, which have a 10-year period versus the FMP’s 70. Board Member Karla Chambers chimed in that by not including those factors, the proposed HCP and FMP were failing at their main goals increasing certainty of harvest outcomes and reducing risk of revenue loss for the trust land counties and ODF. The meeting then moved into a discussion between the board and members of the FTLAC, mediated by Sylvia Civorowski from Kearns and West. Civorowski had a group of questions to promote dialogue that she had shared with the FTLAC prior to the meeting, allowing the
group to coordinate its replies and designate members to respond to each. Columbia County Commissioner Margaret Magruder kicked off the discussion, saying that the FTLAC commissioners had come up with an extensive list of questions for Wilson, which he had answered in 15 written pages. Magruder said that the group would probably have more questions going forward but appreciated Wilson’s responsiveness as well as the opportunity to have a conversation with the board. Linn County Commissioner William Tucker said that one of the biggest concerns for FTLAC members was that the newly modeled harvest numbers would not bear out in more specific implementation plans. Tucker pointed to the number of disclaimers and caveats offered by staff during the presentation, as well as the lack of consideration for exigent circumstanes, as the reason for this concern. Tucker also brought up the question of excess conservation acreage being dedicated to the northern spotted owl. He suggested that some of the area outside of habitat conservation areas being dedicated to the purpose could be harvested to decrease revenue cuts for the counties and ODF. Wilson said again that the habitat conservation commitments had been crafted to account for uncertainty but that adjustments could be made to increase harvests at the direction of the board. Tillamook County Commissioner Erin Skaar turned the focus to the impacts that revenue cuts would have, asking how ODF was planning to maintain operations when its revenues from state forests fell by 30%. Justice said that the Board of Forestry did not control the purse strings of ODF and that it would be the purview of Salem legislators to cover any shortfall with additional SEE FOREST MANAGEMENT PAGE A4