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COQUILLE — Jeers reverberated at a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service representative who presented a special use permit to commissioners at the Coos County commissioners meeting Tuesday. The jeers came when Richard Hannon, deputy regional director for Fish and Wildlife, said all he could do was provide the permit, which will allow the county to use whatever means necessary, including aerial spraying, to rid the Bandon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge of its mosquitoes. He said he wasn’t authorized to pay for it. And didn’t think the
county could get an emergency exemption from his agency, either. Both residents and officials said Fish and Wildlife was responsible, so should pay for mosquito abatement. “I don’t agree with you,” Commissioner John Sweet said after Hannon spoke. “I think the marsh is the problem. I also think your policy is very, very wrong.” Sweet said he grew up in Bandon and he’d never seen so many mosquitoes until after restoration of the marsh in September 2011. “You clearly have the money for this,” Sweet said. “You paid for the marsh...if you don’t have the money, you should get it. It’s not fair the citizens should have to pay
Logging campaign heats up
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SEE LOGGING | A8
Julie Miller, executive director for the Bandon Chamber of Commerce, said the issue was affecting the city’s economy. She said she’d received several emails from people who canceled their hotel stays after learning of the mosquito problem. Miller said people didn’t realize there weren’t many mosquitoes downtown or at the beaches. “I’m trying to do damage control,” Miller said. Resident Mike Anderson said Fish and Wildlife violated its own policies for mosquito control. “They are in violation of their own environmental assessment,” Anderson said. “They need to drain the ponds.” Residents said they were con-
cerned about quality of life and health issues. “It’s literally made us housebound,” said Bandon resident Dino Kummelehne. He presented a large bag with hundreds of mosquitoes he’d caught on his property with a $850 trap over a two and a half day period. Commissioners said they’d already contacted local representatives and senators for financial help. Nikki Zogg, administrator for Coos County Public Health, plans to decrease the bug’s population with the help of James Lunders, vector control for Jackson County. SEE MOSQUITOES | A8
It’s about that time
By Lou Sennick, The World
Players take head coach David Thomason for a ride on the sled Monday afternoon as the Red Devils prepare for the start of their 2013 season. Practice for all Oregon teams started last week and Coquille will have a jamboree game Friday evening with several other teams to prepare for the season.
US defining objectives of Syria strike BY JULIE PACE The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is still defining the central objectives of a potential military strike on Syria and considering possible Syrian government reprisals, even as U.S. intelligence agencies prepare additional evidence to show the Bashar Assad government’s responsibility for last week’s alleged chemical weapons attack, two senior admin-
istration officials said Wednesday. One of the officials also said the administration is considering more than a single set of military strikes. “The options are not limited just to one day” of strikes, the official said, adding that no additional U.S. defensive weapons have been deployed in the region in anticipation of Syria reprisals. The U.S. already has Patriot anti-missile batteries in Jordan and Turkey. The other official said the administration has determined it
can contain any potential Syrian military response in the event that President Barack Obama orders a U.S. attack, which likely would be led by low-flying cruise missiles fired from any of four U.S. Navy destroyers off Syria’s coast. But the manner and timing of Syria’s response are among the so-called “next day” questions that the administration is still thinking through as it prepares a possible military action, the officials said. Both officials were granted
anonymity in order to discuss internal deliberations on the highly sensitive and complex questions that surround crafting a response to the Aug. 21 attack in which hundreds of Syrian civilians were killed. The administration in recent days has made clear it believes it must take punitive action against Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons, which are banned by SEE SYRIA | A8
Beavers chew through river rehab project MEDFORD (AP) — A downtown Medford vandal is systematically taking down a riparian project along Bear Creek that high school kids spent four years turning from a mass of blackberries into perhaps the stream’s healthiest stretch. Project leader Jim Hutchins says the vandal and perhaps a partner are sneaking into the 200-yard project area at Hawthorne Park and
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DEATHS
PORTLAND (AP) — Campaigns over proposals to increase logging in western Oregon federal forests are ramping up, and two significant steps are expected within weeks. The U.S. House plans to take up a bipartisan bill from three Oregon members, and Democratic U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden is expected to reveal his proposals for what are known as the O&C lands. The government has managed the forests since a railroad company went bust in the 19th century and lost its land grants. Since the 1930s, 75 percent of the gross revenues from timber sold on the lands have gone to 18 western Oregon counties. It costs the government more to put the timber up for sale than it makes when the timber is sold. Republican Rep. Greg Walden said the House will vote in September on the measure he sponsored with Democratic Reps. Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader. It is part of a federal forests bill. “We will have it out of the House in a few weeks,” he told the Medford Mail Tribune. “Then it will go to the Senate and whatever Senator Wyden is putting together. We will have to work out the differences.” Their proposal would put about 1.6 million acres into a trust managed by a state board that is aimed at producing higher timber harvests, The Oregonian reported. Wyden has said he will unveil his legislation after Congress resumes its session next month. He’s expected to propose a smaller increase in logging and fewer curbs on environmental restrictions. The campaigns focus on Wyden, who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. They pit environmental groups warning of clearcut logging and lower water quality against the timber industry and local allies in western Oregon counties hurt by the long-term decline in logging. Portland-based Oregon Wild has listed the O&C lands as No. 1 on its annual list of “10 Most Endangered Places” in the state, and the Pacific Rivers Council released a nearly 10-minute video
for an issue you have caused. We don’t have the money to deal with this issue.” Sweet asked Hannon to seek an exemption. Hannon said he’d try, but couldn’t promise anything. “We have policies,” Hannon said. A handful of county residents and a couple officials voiced the same opinion. Bandon Mayor Mary Schamehorn said she’d never seen so many of the blood suckers in her 74 years of living in the city. She said if Fish and Wildlife had spent $14 million on restoration, they could pay for abatement. “They caused the problem and need to pay for it,” Schamehorn said.
making off with a tree or bush almost nightly, much to Hutchins’ chagrin. “This is what I woke to this morning,” Hutchins says, pointing to a sawed-off stem of an unidentifiable tree. “First they went after the cottonwood, then the alder and now the dogwood. Now I guess anything goes. It’s crazy.” “Beaver vandalism,” he sighs.
Anne Carr, Gardiner Bessie Bush, Myrtle Point Alan Mos, Lakeside Tracy Pritchett, Coos Bay
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The beavers slink into the project nearly every night, undoing a project that took thousands of hours of donated labor in a series of buck-toothed nibbles. “They’re just killing me here,” Hutchins says. The Oregon Stewardship project that has been the focal point of dozens of high-school work parties and half a dozen senior projects
Sharon Kibby, Coos Bay Corlea DeRoss, North Bend
Obituaries | A5
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BY EMILY THORNTON
had been thriving, with hundreds of native trees and bushes planted to stabilize the bank and provide water-cooling shade. The project has seen great growth in part because Hutchins’ design took into account all the variables that often cause one-shot riparian planting efforts to fail. SEE BEAVERS | A8
Chance of rain 70/59 Weather | A8
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