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The Cannon Beach Gazette
Making a difference in our community
Cannon Beach residents Rock and Lila Wickham are valuable members of the community who volunteer their time with several local organizations. Lila is an RN and coordinator of the Cannon Beach Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) which she established in 2015. The thirty-one member MRC consists of doctors, registered nurses, social workers, a pharmacist and a veterinarian. In 2021, MRC volunteers contributed more than 1,400 hours administering vaccines, along with testing and contact tracing, at an estimated value of more than $100,000 for the Clatsop County...
Sport mussel Harvesting opens on the North Coast
The Oregon Department of Agriculture and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announce a new shellfish opening. Levels of the marine biotoxin Paralytic Shellfish Poison continues to test below the closure limit in clams and mussels. Sport harvest of mussels is now open from the Washington border to Cape Lookout as levels of the marine biotoxin paralytic shellfish poison have fallen below the closure limit. Mussel harvest remains closed for paralytic shellfish poison from Cape Lookout to the north jetty of Coos Bay, and...
Analysis of Northwest, other salmon hatcheries finds nearly all hurt wild salmon populations
More than 200 studies across 40 years revealed large-scale salmon hatchery programs weaken wild salmon diversity and lead to wild population declines For much of the last century, fish hatcheries have been built in the Northwest, across the U.S. and around the world to boost fish populations where wild numbers have gone down. But an analysis of more than 200 studies on hatcheries programs meant to boost salmonid numbers across...
A secured five-year commitment to state’s western wildfire response is announced
Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and U.S. Representative Val Hoyle—along with U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and U.S. Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, Andrea Salinas, and Lori Chavez-DeRemer—and Oregon Governor Tina Kotek announce today the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF), and Forest Protective Agencies (FPAs) reached a renewed five-year commitment to the Western Oregon Operating Plan (WOOP). The WOOP serves as the long-term agreement that governs fire response for the BLM, ODF, and FPAs all over western Oregon. As the previous...
100 human-caused wildfires since June; lightning in forecast for record dry forests
Since June, there have been 100 human-caused wildfires on national forests and grasslands in Oregon and Washington. While firefighters have been largely successful in putting out these preventable fires, the extremely hot and dry conditions are significantly ramping up fire danger across the region. “We’re entering a very dangerous time period in the Pacific Northwest wildfire season,” said Ed Hiatt, Pacific Northwest Assistant Fire Director for Operations. “Mother Nature turned on the oven for a week in local forests and now we’re preparing for the...
Oregon launches new summer food program for children
Oregon Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer (Summer EBT) is a new food benefits program to help shrink the hunger gap when children are on summer break and don’t have easy access to healthy meals at school. Summer EBT started in late June and provides $120 per eligible child to buy food. “During the summer, many families must provide another 10 meals per child, per week,” Oregon Department of Education Director Dr....
Guest Column: The kids are home from school: 4 tips to address youth mental health
As high school and college students fi nish their spring terms and prepare for summer, it’s a critical time to check their mental health and consider how to engage in conversations about it. This is especially important for college students, as the 2nd Annual Student Behavioral Health Report reveals a significant jump in self-reported mental or behavioral health concerns among college students as compared to high schoolers. The report found...
Tribal leaders on the coast call for action to return sea otters to Oregon
Leaders of two federally recognized Oregon coastal Indian tribes have called upon U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to “take all appropriate actions” to direct the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to return sea otters — known to tribal ancestors as Xulh-t’ush, Giye’we, or Ela-ke’ — to the Oregon coast within the next five years. The Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians (CTCLUSI) and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (CTSI) have sent letters to Haaland. In the letters, Bradley...
Oregon joins nearly 30 states with illnesses linked to mushroom-derived candies
The Oregon Health Authority said the state is now part of a nationwide outbreak linked to microdosing products that contain a substance in mushrooms. So far, one person in Oregon has become ill and recovered, the health authority said. It didn’t provide any other information about that person. Nearly 60 people in 27 states – from the East Coast to the West – are part of the outbreak linked to microdosing products, federal officials said. Thirty people have been hospitalized and federal officials are investigating...
EVCNB hosts tsunami lecture
A standing-room-only crowd packed the Pine Grove Community House in Manzanita on July 28, to attend a lecture on tsunami modeling hosted by the Emergency Volunteer Corps of Nehalem Bay. The lecture by Dr. Jonathan Allan from Oregon’s Department of Geology and Mineral Industries detailed how experts at the department use clues from past tsunamis to predict future outcomes. Allan has worked for the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries...
All ODF district are now in fire season
As of, July 3, all Oregon Department of Forestry (ODF) districts are in fire season. This means that to reduce the risk of human-caused wildfires, fire restrictions may be in place where you live or at a destination you plan to visit or recreate. ODF protects over 16 million acres of private, county, state, and federal land in Oregon from wildfire. Fire season is declared at the local level when conditions reach a point where the risk of a fire starting and spreading becomes clear....
Hot weather increases the fire danger level to high in northwest Oregon
Due to the extreme high temperatures throughout the region, the fire managers will be increasing the fire danger level to High (yellow) for recreationists using the forests in the NW-2 and NW-3 weather zones. This change will be effective at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, July 10, 2024. All OHV trails in the Nicolai Mountain OHV Riding Area will close at 1 p.m. daily during High (yellow) Fire Danger level. Additionally, all campfires and barbeques are prohibited in the dispersed campsites in the Nicolai OHV Area...
‘UPS Dave’ gets a grand retirement party
Residents of Cannon Beach held a retirement party for “UPS Dave” Brady on June 22, with the celebration kicking off at the park in the late afternoon. The group Out-Patientz performed for the large crowd and Dave joined them on stage with his guitar near the end of the concert. The party continued with a full house for dinner at the American Legion, with friends, residents and business owners telling many stories about Dave while expressing appreciation for his many years of service to the...
Democrats, homeless advocates disappointed in U.S. Supreme Court ruling on homelessness
Democratic lawmakers, homeless advocates and legal experts in Oregon expressed disappointment Friday with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in the Grants Pass homeless case, while conservatives welcomed the decision. In a 6-3 decision split along partisan lines, the court sided with the southern Oregon city in its prohibitions against homeless people using blankets, pillows or cardboard to protect themselves in severe weather while sleeping in public places. The court said that the city’s ordinances against homeless camping did not violate the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibition...
Wyden, Merkley, colleagues call on Postal Service to prepare for upcoming election
U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said today he is leading Senate colleagues including U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley in calling on Postmaster General DeJoy and the U.S. Postal Service to share their plans to accommodate high volumes of mail expected in the upcoming 2024 general election in Oregon and nationwide. “In 2020, the Postal Service overcame a series of challenges, including the onset of a global pandemic, to fulfill this critical mission. Impressively, it delivered 97.9% of ballots within three days, even as a record number of...
CFTLC briefed on HCP revenue replacement schemes
Following ten months of negotiations with the governor’s office, members of the Council of Forest Trust Land Counties were briefed on three proposed solutions for revenue reductions projected to be caused by the habitat conservation plan for western Oregon state forests on June 28. A group of five county representatives worked with three representatives from the governor’s office to hammer out the options, landing on reducing contributions to either the counties and special districts or Oregon Department of Forestry, or moving school districts in the...
Despite mild fire season forecast, agencies tell Oregon leaders they need to invest in workforce
Oregon is likely to face fewer big wildfires this summer than in previous years, but a lack of rural housing, coupled with unstable and often low pay, continues to create firefighter workforce challenges across the state and region. That was a big part of the message from state and federal fire and emergency response officials, who discussed this year’s fire outlook and what they need at a meeting Monday at the Northwest Interagency Coordination Center. The Portland-based center is part of a larger wildfire prevention...
Women’s preventive health care across the lifespan
The term women’s health covers more than just pap smears and mammograms. This category of healthcare has a wide scope covering care for people with a uterus from menstruation to pregnancy and osteoporosis, along with all of the health screenings in between. Women’s health aims at improving health over the lifespan with treatments and screenings beginning in the teen years and spanning the rest of a person’s life. The terminology for the women’s health category is evolving to recognize transgender and non-binary people. The women’s health category is inclusive for all people based on anatomy, not gender identity. ...
Study: Pacific cod can’t rely on coastal safe havens for protection during marine heat waves
During recent periods of unusually warm water in the Gulf of Alaska, young Pacific cod in near shore safe havens where they typically spend their adolescence did not experience the protective effects those areas typically provide, a new Oregon State University study found. Instead, during marine heat waves in 2014-16 and 2019, young cod in these near shore “nurseries” around Kodiak Island in Alaska experienced significant changes in their abundance, growth rates and diet, with researchers estimating that only the largest 15-25% of the island’s...
Structure fire adds to busy Fourth of July for Seaside responders
A two-alarm structure fire about two miles south of Seaside closed US Highway 101 Thursday night for hours and added additional strain for first responders on one of the busiest periods each year for fire and police on the North Coast. Seaside Fire & Rescue responded to a report of a house fire near the rock quarry at 84937 Hwy 101 at approximately 8:58 p.m. on Thursday, July 4. Responders found a fully-engulfed single-story home upon arrival. The highway was closed in both directions at...
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The Cannon Beach Gazette covers local news in Cannon Beach and Clatsop County areas in Oregon. We focus on local breaking news, general news, community news, sports, and opinions.
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