By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews
WALDPORT – The Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife on Monday suspended its contract with a Waldport-area fishing group after one of its members set off a brush fire Sunday evening while hazing double-crested cormorants during a day of record-high temperatures.
The fire four miles up the Alsea River took place in a grass field across from Oakland’s Marina. It started at 7:40 p.m. and covered a half acre during an unusual weather day of record high temperatures and strong east winds.
The fire was caused by volunteers from the Alsea Sportsman’s Association, which holds a contract with ODFW to haze cormorants for two months each spring while salmon and steelhead smolts are migrating downstream to the ocean. The group hazes the fish-eating birds by chasing them with boats or shooting special noise-making flares at them,
Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies cited Matthew R. Ulm, 40, of Alsea for reckless burning, a Class A misdemeanor that could carry a fine of up to $6,250. He was one of three association members in a boat hazing the cormorants.
Central Oregon Coast Fire & Rescue had to use its water rescue boat launched from the Port of Alsea to move firefighters, hoses and pumps to the north side of the river to put out the fire. In a news release Monday, COCF&R said the three hazers were attempting to put out the fire when firefighters arrived.
Firefighters were worried that if the blaze moved northeast it could burn into a heavily forested area and be nearly impossible to fight from the ground.
James Lawonn, who oversees the ODFW’s cormorant hazing programs along the Oregon coast, told YachatsNews on Monday that the agency told the Alsea group “to cease all operations immediately” until it reviews the incident.
The group’s hazers also drew a COCF&R response to a surf rescue call several weeks ago when it was shooting off the flares in Alsea Bay, said fire district public information director Erich Knudsen.
The Alsea Sportsman’s Association has had a contract with ODFW to haze the birds for 13 years, said the group’s vice president Jim Robinson. Robinson said it was Ulm’s first year as a hazing volunteer.
“It comes down to a judgment thing …” he said.
Cormorants are a voracious fish-eating bird who feast on young salmon and steelhead — some of which are considered endangered by state and federal agencies — migrating out to sea. The hazing is an attempt to interrupt that feeding to allow the smolts to reach the ocean.
Sunday’s temperatures set records along the Oregon coast, including a high of 100 degrees in Yachats and 95 in Waldport. Temperatures and fire conditions were made worse by strong east winds through much of the day.
Central Oregon Coast crews responded along with firefighters from Yachats and Seal Rock to nine calls Sunday, Knudsen said, including two surf rescue calls and a variety of medical calls.
Normally it has 2-3 calls a day.
COCF&R’s first fire call was at 1:53 p.m. Sunday when a small burn pile fire tended by a landowner on the south end of Crestline Drive near Wakonda Beach Road got out of control and ignited spot fires and spread. It took three hours for crews from Central Coast, Seal Rock, Yachats, Newport and the Oregon Department of Forestry to put out and mop up the fires, Knudsen said.
The owner was not cited because no other properties were damaged, the district said.
Record high
Sunday’s wind sucked the humidity out of the air and contributed to record temperatures, said Adam Altson of Yachats, who has been recording weather details since September 2013.
His high temperature Sunday was 100 degrees, beating a temperature of 94.6 on Sep 5, 2014..
“In all that time, I’ve only measured 90 degrees three times until Sunday, the most recent one was April 17, 2016,” Altson said. “We have had a rather cold year so far, and it seemed like Mother Nature was trying to cancel that out in one day.”
Altson said an index that combines temperature, humidity, solar and wind index reached 109.9 at 6:20 p.m. Sunday at his home overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
“Almost right on schedule the winds shifted just after 8:40 p.m.,” he said. “ And the temperature plummeted 27.3 degrees from 8:40 to 8:50 p.m. We’ve had similar drops in the past, but none as extreme as that.”
I absolutely love the Yachats News! You cover everything, leave no stone unturned! Thank you so much! You are the only news I read! I don’t watch it on tv at all! Thank you!
Ok, a fire got started. What did they expect? First you don’t use flares to haze cormorants. Reassess the approach to stop predation, maybe nest removal, or eradicate the invasive species that co-habitate with the native species, which would remove half of the problem birds. Then approach the seal issue that affects the same fish when they return. Don’t just cancel a program because of an incident that can be evaluated and adjusted to prevent reoccurrence.