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The Chronicle - Centralia
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Julie McDonald: Baffling over gas prices and shore birds
Last week, I headed to the Oregon Coast for my annual trek with a personal history friend I met a quarter of a century ago. (Now that certainly makes me feel old.) Although she lives in the Portland suburb of Beaverton, Paula and I seldom see each other during the year. But every fall, we spend a week at Newport, Oregon, working on writing and editing projects. I stay upstairs, she works downstairs and we catch up over meals or during occasional outings. After all, who can resist a trip to the Tillamook Creamery while at the Oregon Coast? The last couple of years, I’ve been baffled to see gas prices at the Oregon Coast so much lower than what I’ve been paying in Washington and the rest of Oregon. While the national average gas price on Sunday was $3.072, I’ve been paying about $3.60 a gallon at Love’s Truck Stop at Napavine while the cost in Olympia and Seattle is much higher. Washington’s average gas price is $3.987 a gallon for regular, which is better than the $4.464 charged a year ago. In Oregon, the average price was $3.542 for a gallon of regular on Saturday, down from $4.145 a year ago. The average price of gas in Oregon is 45 cents cheaper than in Washington even though our gas tax is only 9.4 cents higher (49.4 cents per gallon — the third highest in the nation — compared with 40 cents per gallon in Oregon). So why then when I filled up my tank in Newport did I pay only $2.87 a gallon? When I was younger, we always filled up with gas in town because the cost at the coast was astronomical. Not anymore. The gas price at Circle K even dropped two cents a gallon during the week we stayed in Newport. I Googled for answers but didn’t find any. So then I turned to artificial intelligence and asked ChapGPT, which pointed to local taxes in places like Portland and Washington’s Climate Commitment Act of 2023, which boosted costs by requiring polluters to purchase allowances for carbon emissions. It also pointed to supply and demand. “Newport’s proximity to fuel distribution centers and lower demand compared to larger cities like Portland can lead to reduced transportation costs and lower prices at the pump,” ChapGPT wrote. But if that’s the case, why were gas prices always higher at the coast for decades?
Shore birds While at the Oregon Coast, I thought of a presentation this month of the Lewis County chapter of the American Association of University Women by Allison Anholt, shorebird and colonial waterbird lead biologist with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the daughter of AAUW member Marcy Anholt. She gave us a glimpse of the work done behind the scenes such as using radio bands to track migration of coastal birds and cordoning off nesting grounds to protect wildlife habitats. She ran through the listings — endangered, threatened, sensitive, species of greatest conservation need (which are reassessed every 10 years) and delisting. Anholt spoke of how interconnected life is and the way human activity and climate change can affect wildlife habitats and the survival of certain species of birds. Some do better in warmer weather while others can be threatened with extinction. “The biggest impact to birds are human development,” she said. “Windows can kill up to a billion birds per year.” Domestic cats also kill birds. “Keep your cats inside,” she said. Pollution in streams, lakes and on coastlines can affect the health of invertebrates, which she described as an indicator species. “I believe we have an obligation to protect these species,” she said. “That’s my philosophy and why I’ve chosen this career.” The ultimate goal is to recover wildlife species, so they’re no longer listed under the Endangered Species Act, she said. They can be delisted. One of the greatest success stories is the California condors, a large vulture species that was nearly extinct. It had dwindled to 13 birds before their fragile eggs were raised artificially and returned to the nests of adult condors, which brought back the population. “It is still on the Endangered Species List, but that’s brought their population back to multiple hundreds of individuals,” she said. She also noted that the “eagle population is a conservation success story.” DDT pesticides sprayed in the 1950s entered streams and affected fish, which were eaten by eagles. That affected the calcium in their eggshells, making them so fragile they broke when the eggs were laid or when the birds sat on them for nesting. Then Rachel Carson, a marine biologist with a wildlife refuge in Maine named after her, wrote a book that started the conversation movement in the 1960s and managed to get DDT banned. Anholt spoke of efforts to protect Western snowy plover eggs and hatchlings. Washington state listed the bird as endangered in 1981 and the federal government followed suit in 1993. Recovery efforts have proven successful in boosting numbers although the work continues. “Our recovery goals are that we are set to maintain three secure breeding areas in Washington,” she said. Anholt also spoke of the American white pelican, one of the largest birds in North America, which faces increased threats from predators as climate change has reduced water levels in the intermountain West and exposed their island habitats. And she talked about the red knot, a shore bird that stops on oyster mud flats in Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay only between late April and late May en route from Baja California to Alaska and Russia. It’s not listed as endangered, but biologists are studying whether it should be. What can citizens do to help protect the shore birds? People can obey signage and posted rules to protect camouflaged birds and eggs. They can leash their dogs to protect chicks, eggs and shore birds and pay attention to signals from birds fluttering around or peeping. Pack out trash to protect habitats. And help count birds that fly through the county on Saturday, Dec. 21, during the Lewis County Christmas Bird Count. Contact coordinator Rachel Hudson at lightningdash09@yahoo.com for more information. (The Olympia area bird count is on Dec. 15.) Last year, 35 people participated and identified 109 different species of hawks, egrets, warblers, owls, Steller’s jays, sparrows, goldfinches and other birds. “That’s the longest running community science program,” Anholt said. “It’s been going on nationwide for over 100 years, and it’s the single biggest indicator that we’ve lost a ton of bird species.” My friend Kerry Serl of Napavine has participated the last two years and already signed up for next month’s count. And for 15 or 20 years, she has joined in a global bird count from Feb. 14 to 17. For information, see https://www.birdcount.org/. ••• Julie McDonald, a personal historian from Toledo, may be reached at chaptersoflife1999@gmail.com.
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Letter to the editor: Amid assessor's office issues, I hope we can afford to stay
I think letter writer Shirley Lewis has an excellent suggestion on improving the operation of the assessor’s office. My own idea was to provide the comparables with the notice of new values with any notice that increased by 25% or more. I was pleased to discover on the assessor’s website a statement that they intend to be a professional organization. As a retired professional engineer, I know that means obeying the law and regulations, being diligent to do accurate work, keeping good records so that you can show your work when questioned, being courteous and open with communications, and upholding the good reputation of professionals in your field. My recent experience with them has not been up to that standard, however. My assessment increased by almost double and, when I inquired as to the basis, I was directed to file an appeal, which I did. I checked the box for a list of comparable properties and expected a reply within the 60 days set forth in the statute. When that deadline passed, I wrote to the Board of Equalization (BOE) to find out why, and received no reply from them either. I had to pay the new tax (yes, it did almost double — proportional to the assessment). I finally got the comparable data after 208 days. It was actually just a copy of a spreadsheet with 195 entries. I am guessing there is really no record of my actual assessment. I put that data into a spreadsheet and sorted it to find that my value is about 40% higher than the others with my property size. At the BOE hearing, no one from the assessors office attended and so I’m still unaware of their logic. The BOE refused my argument; I am appealing to the state. We moved here less than five years ago, and we love the area. I hope we can afford to stay.
Gary Shelton Chehalis |
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Letter to the editor: Pray Lewis County remains safe and conservative under Bob Ferguson as governor
I am concerned about the future of Washington under newly-elected governor Bob Ferguson. His last speech was nothing but an attack of Donald Trump and what he plans to counter-defeat. Unfortunately, there was nothing on how he wants to improve for the people’s needs and the heavy inflation he will secretly add more fuel to. Bob Ferguson is a complete crooked slot machine for lawsuits and will just be doing nothing but suing the crap out of every business that doesn’t match his bureaucratic agenda. He did nothing about the 2020 rioting in Seattle. He had downplayed the drug crime law into a misdemeanor. He got involved with Inslee in tying down the cops with making arrests and car chases that increased the crime and made Washington state No. 6 in the highest crime in the nation. He spent $40 million in our tax-earned dollars to defeat the Let’s Go Washington initiatives with falsified ads that confused citizens which in reality was going to save Washington’s economy and energy costs and bring down crime. I am writing this as a deep concern to the people of Washington state and the residents of Lewis County to keep this county a conservative refuge against the liberalism that has destroyed this blue state, especially in the lens of Seattle. Really pray hard that the local business of JJ’s To Go will not be Ferguson’s upcoming lawsuit target just the same way he did for Arlene’s Flowers and ruined the owner’s reputation. And pray hard that Lewis County will still remain safe and conservative even under any dictator governor.
Marlene Cotla Centralia |
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Letter to the editor: Nice work, Lewis County Public Works
I would like to give a “shoutout” to the Lewis County Public Works Department for their response to a situation I brought to light a couple weeks ago. I live near the end of Lucas Creek Road in Chehalis where for the past few months there has been lots of heavy weight logging and bridge construction traffic that has deteriorated the road in a few spots. In the dark, it seemed like I always found this particular pothole on my way to work at 5 a.m. and on the way back home at about 7 p.m. While heading to town for errands on a day off, I called the Public Works Department at about 11 a.m. and talked to a nice lady about the situation. On my way home from town just two hours later, I was surprised to see a county worker. I stopped to talk to him as he was just finishing up the pothole repair. Thank you for such a rapid response and following up on the road repair. It is nice to feel like we are heard and part of a community.
Bryant Bowman Chehalis |
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Nonprofit announces grant for Western Washington and Oregon tree farmers to receive coast redwood seedlings for test plots
PropagationNation, a nonprofit based in the south Puget Sound area, is offering up to 360 coast redwood seedlings to qualified tree farmers who will plant and maintain test plots and report back site-specific results on the growth and resilience of the trees over time. The grant program’s goal is to encourage the establishment of commercial timber test plantings on sites throughout Western Washington and Oregon, according to a news release. “There are many compelling reasons why coast redwood is an ideal candidate for commercial timber success in the Pacific Northwest,” PropogationNation said in the news release. This new initiative aims to help determine appropriate forest practices for coast redwood timber production and help develop site specific quantifiable information for commercial timber owners interested in diversifying their timber stands, including the role coast redwoods can play in providing resilience where fire, disease and climate conditions are threatening forest lands, according to the news release. The grant allows for a minimum of 360 coast redwood seedlings, including shipping costs, enough for the establishment of 1 acre. Philip Stielstra, co-founder and president of PropagationNation, announced the grant program. “There are many compelling reasons why coast redwood is an ideal candidate for commercial timber success in the Pacific Northwest. We have seen several sites where they are outperforming our traditional commercial timber species in terms of volume per acre and harvest rotation cycles,” Stielstra said. PropagationNation recommends planting at least 360 coast redwood seedlings per acre or planting in a mixed-species forest. The grant does not cover additional landowner costs for establishment and maintenance including site prep, plug planting and post-plant establishment treatments. Successful grant participants are asked to provide growth and survival data to PropagationNation via an easily updatable annual form and give permission for PropagationNation to publish site-specific growth information. PropagationNation will work with successful grant recipients to provide forest practices advice to maximize successful coast redwood timber establishment. Those interested in participating in the Coast Redwood Test Plot Grant Program can find an application form at https://tinyurl.com/ybypk3p9. Qualified applicants accepted into the test plot grant program will receive free coast redwood plug seedlings for spring 2025 planting and will be notified in December. For more information on PropagationNation, visit https://propagationnation.us/. |
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Port of Chehalis approves 2025 budget; Port of Centralia prepares to hold public hearing before budget approval
As 2024 draws to a close, staff from both the Port of Centralia and the Port of Chehalis have drafted and submitted 2025 fiscal year budgets for approval by port commissioners. The Port of Centralia’s 2025 budget will undergo a public hearing at the next regular port commissioners meeting scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 3 p.m. at the port’s office located at 3508 Galvin Road in Centralia. According to the preliminary budget document posted on the Port of Centralia’s website, the port’s 2025 budget is expected to have a total $2,211,351 in revenues. Total expenses for the Port of Centralia in 2025 are expected to total $1,962,011. Once the public hearing has been held on Nov. 20, Port of Centralia commissioners will vote on whether to approve it or not. As for the Port of Chehalis’ 2025 budget, port staff held the public hearing for it during the port commissioners regular meeting on Thursday, Oct. 24, before unanimously approving the budget during the same meeting. Port of Chehalis revenues totaled $845,220.38, with expenditures equaling the port’s revenues. |
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November's beaver moon: Last supermoon of the year rose on Friday
By The Chronicle staff The last supermoon of the year, November’s beaver moon, rose at 4:11 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 15. It’s called the beaver moon as it is typically the time of year beavers are observed sheltering in their dams after having prepared food stores for winter, according to Old Farmer’s Almanac. It is the final of four supermoons that have been visible in the sky this year, including August’s sturgeon and blue moons and September’s harvest moon. A supermoon occurs when the full moon coincides with its closest position to earth — its perigee, about 222,000 miles away — during its 27-day elliptical orbit, according to NASA. During this time, the moon appears about 14% bigger than a standard full moon and about 30% brighter. It can also trigger higher-than-average tides. On average, three or four supermoons occur each year. By Sunday, only 96% of the moon was illuminated as it continued through its waning phase. Other full moon names include the cold moon for December, wolf moon for January, snow moon for February, worm moon for March, pink moon for April, flower moon for May, strawberry moon for June and the buck moon for July. For more information on the beaver moon, visit https://www.almanac.com/full-moon-november. |
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Tickets for Possibilities Women's Center's 12 Days of Christmas Raffle on sale through Nov. 25
Possibilities Women’s Center is holding a 12 Days of Christmas Raffle through Monday, Nov. 25, with the winner of the $900-value prize package to be drawn live on Facebook at noon on Tuesday, Nov. 26. Tickets are $10 each with no limit on the number of ticket purchases per customer. “Every ticket you purchase supports Possibilities Women’s Center’s mission to uplift women and families in our community this winter,” Possibilities Women’s Center said in a news release. “ … Don’t miss your opportunity to make this December unforgettable while making a difference in the lives of others. The countdown to Christmas cheer starts now!” The prize package includes four tickets to Zoolights, a $50 Cinemark gift card, a cozy blanket with four mugs and hot chocolate, a $25 Stout Coffee House gift card, two gingerbread house kits, a DIY ornament-making kit, one U-Cut 7-foot Christmas tree from Mistletoe Christmas Tree Farm, a $60 Fairway Lanes bowling gift card, four ice skating tickets, a Fiddler’s Coffee goodie bag and $25 gift card, two wreaths from KLM Tree Farm, a $100 Jeremy’s Farm to Table gift card, four tickets to the Southwest Washington Dance Center’s production of “The Nutcracker,” a pair of gloves from Churchill Glove Factory and a Bath and Body Works Pumpkin Pecan Waffles candle. Tickets can be purchased online at www.findmypossibilities.com/12-days-of-christmas. Located at 1017 W. Main St. in Centralia, Possibilities Women’s Center is a specialized medical clinic and pregnancy resource center that provides women and families with personal care and free reproductive, prenatal, postpartum and material resources. The center does not perform or refer for abortion, according to the center’s website. Every appointment is free and confidential. |
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Centralia offering residents assistance obtaining flood insurance
As the rainy season kicks into gear, the City of Centralia is offering assistance to residents in navigating and obtaining insurance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Flood Insurance Program, according to Centralia Community Development Director Emil Pierson. The flood insurance program is also offered to residents in Centralia’s urban growth area. The insurance is necessary for many as regular homeowner’s insurance does not cover damage caused by flooding, according to the city’s website. “What are we expecting? As of Oct. 17, and as you can see outside, the Climate Prediction Center is expecting to see what we call ‘weak La Niña winter,’” Pierson said during a city manager report at a city council meeting last week. La Niñas occur when the Pacific jet stream shifts northward, which can cause storms to be forced north around a high-pressure system in the north Pacific Ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Pierson said that means the Pacific Northwest could see a wetter-than-average winter with below-average temperatures. La Niña’s climate counterpart, El Niño, usually leads to dryer and warmer winters in the Pacific Northwest. “Through January and March of 2025, we expect probably two major winter storms,” Pierson said. “As you can see right now, we have two back-to-back atmospheric rivers hitting us. Hopefully this is (major winter storm) number one. Maybe we’ll just get one other.” Even with his optimism, Pierson cautioned the council that La Niña years often coincide with major flood events. The five biggest flood events for the Chehalis River have all occurred during La Niña years — 1990, 1996, 2007, 2009 and 2022. Additionally, four out of the five biggest flood events for the Skookumchuck River have been during La Niña years — 1990, 1996, 2009 and 2022 — along with the China Creek flood of 2022. There are some examples of major flood events occurring during El Niño years, too, including both the Skookumchuck River and China Creek in 2015, Pierson added, but those were anomalies as El Niño years are typically dryer and warmer. He said the city offers assistance to residents obtaining flood insurance annually in order to qualify for the National Flood Insurance Program and to ensure the city is meeting the standards of the multi-jurisdictional hazard mitigation plan. City residents who have not yet signed up for FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program are urged to do so as soon as possible as even once the insurance is purchased, it still takes 30 days for the policy to take effect. Additionally, the city’s floodplain management and land-use policies qualify residents for a 25% discount on insurance through the National Flood Insurance Program. “(Assistant Planning Director) Hillary (Hoke) did a fantastic job, as well as (City Engineer) Patty (Page), Public Works with Kim Ashmore, with his department … This was our recertification year, and it is very, very difficult and very time consuming,” Pierson said. The National Flood Insurance Program is available through private insurance companies. It is available to those who rent homes, as well. To get a flood insurance quote, visit FEMA’s website at https://www.floodsmart.gov/. For more information on FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program, visit the City of Centralia’s website at https://tinyurl.com/36ddphf3. To learn more flood protection in Centralia, including links to live NOAA National Water Prediction Service river flood gauges in the region, visit the city’s website at https://tinyurl.com/33um62ke. For more information on the Chehalis River Basin and what’s being done to mitigate flood risk throughout the region, visit the Washington state Department of Ecology’s Office of Chehalis Basin website at https://tinyurl.com/3e3m9krc.
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NYT Politics
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Gaetz May Not Be Confirmed, Trump Admits. He’s Pushing Him and Others Anyway.
The president-elect is taking a flood-the-zone approach to his cabinet nominations, betting that the Senate won’t dare to turn them all down.
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