Nighttime closure planned

for New Youngs Bay Bridge

The New Youngs Bay Bridge will close at night for two weeks beginning June 6.

The bridge will close from 9 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. Sunday through Friday until June 18. The closure is part of a repair project that began in 2019.

Drivers can use U.S. Highway 101 Business as an alternate route.

Warrenton appoints new

Municipal Court judge

WARRENTON — The City Commission has appointed Stacy Rodriguez as judge of the city’s Municipal Court.

Rodriguez, an attorney based in Cannon Beach, has been a prosecutor for the court since 2011.

She has also been a judge pro tem at Seaside Municipal Court since 2007.

Rodriguez will assume the role on Tuesday.

— The Astorian

Hirsch named Oregon’s

acting state forester

The Oregon Board of Forestry appointed Nancy Hirsch as the acting state forester Thursday. Hirsch will step into her role overseeing the state Department of Forestry on Tuesday.

Hirsch is coming back to the state Department of Forestry after her 2019 retirement. She has held several leadership roles over her 33 years at the agency. She was the first woman to serve as an incident management team commander from 2008 to 2010. She previously served as acting state forester for five months in 2010 and 2011.

“Given the conversations we’ve had this week and the vote of confidence here today, I am extremely excited and honored to be back and serve with the strong folks that exist within the department,” Hirsch said. “I can feel at ease with the opportunities and the serious work we have in front of us.”

Hirsch will replace departing State Forester Peter Daugherty, whose previously-announced resignation is effective Monday. Daugherty faced dueling criticism from environmentalists and the timber industry over conservation and logging levels on state and private forests. His time as agency head was also marked by financial and management problems.

— Oregon Public Broadcasting

Twelve Northwest tribes say

they are united to save salmon

SPOKANE, Wash. — Some Native American tribes in the Pacific Northwest are criticizing the suggestion they have competing opinions on how best to save endangered salmon runs, saying tribes are united in pursuing the removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Snake River in order to preserve the iconic fish.

A dozen tribes issued a joint press release on Wednesday rejecting the notion that tribes based near Puget Sound might have differing goals than inland tribes.

“Any efforts to divide the Indigenous peoples of this region by suggesting that the Puget Sound tribes don’t have the same interests as the Northwest inland tribes have been soundly rejected by tribal leaders,” Nez Perce Tribe Chairman Samuel Penney said in the release. “We are all salmon people.”

The dozen tribes are united behind a controversial proposal by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, to spend some $33 billion on efforts to save salmon that include breaching the four dams.

— Associated Press