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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS September 27-28, 2013 | 75¢
Port Angeles-Sequim-West End
Names make news
First snow of the season
TODAY’S THE DAY for fo the annual edition of Who’s Who on the North Olympic Peninsula, a 54-page magazine of names, faces and information featuring some of the important leaders in our communities. Look for it in this edition, along with Peninsula Spotlight entertainment magazine.
KEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
The first glint of sunrise hits the east face of Klahhane Ridge in the Olympic Mountains on Thursday to reveal a dusting of snow on sheltered areas. Peaks and ridges received their first snow of the season this week, the first week of autumn. More snow is expected this weekend as lowlands receive heavy rains starting today. The government’s Climate Prediction Center forecasts above-normal temperatures and precipitation this winter. PDN’s five-day forecast, Page B12
End is growing near for old PA madrona tree BY ARWYN RICE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — A lastditch attempt to save a landmark madrona that dates before Port Angeles’ European discovery is underway, but the condition of the huge tree is terminal, according to an arborist familiar with it. A crew from Blue Mountain Tree Service cut dead limbs from the massive Pacific madrona — the biggest of the species in the state, according to the state Department of Natural Resources — at 231 W. Eighth St. this week. Its owner, Virginia Serr, 86, of Port Angeles, made sure that not a single living limb was removed. “That’s enough, guys,” she called to two men cutting large sections from a black, rotted branch more than 20 feet above the ground at Ted’s Tree Park. Nearly the entire northeast quarter of the madrona was found to be dead, and many dark,
PA’s Pryne to leave at end of ’14 year BY ARWYN RICE PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
leafless sections extended bare, skeletal fingers into the sky. Once the decaying branches were removed, the once perfectly arched canopy gained a heavily lopsided look as the still-green southern canopy still overhangs the westbound lane of West Eighth Street. “I want to at least give it a chance to regenerate,” Serr said.
Too late However, an expert who has been monitoring the tree’s health since 1990 said it’s too late for the massive madrona, believed to be as old as 400 years — or more. “It’s dead already; it just doesn’t know about it yet,” arborist James Causton of Port Angeles said. It may take years, but the tree is dying from a root fungus, excessive water and a comKEITH THORPE/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS pacted root system, Causton Justin Walz, left, and Jeff Grall of Blue Mountain Tree said. Service Inc. cut dead branches from the giant TURN
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Schools chief retiring PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles School District Superintendent Jane Pryne will retire at the end of the current school year. Pryne announced her June 30, 2014, retirement in an email sent to staff earlier this week. She plans to submit a formal letter to the Port Angeles School Board at a later date. “After 37 years in education and 12 of those years spent as a superintendent in two different states, I am hanging up my high heels in favor of running Pryne shoes,” Pryne said in the email. Pryne, 58, became Port Angeles district superintendent July 1, 2009, after serving seven years as superintendent of a district in the Tucson, Ariz., area and a year as interim superintendent in another Tucsonarea district. Pryne is paid $141,432 annually. She said she initially intended to stay with the district for four years. During those years, the district’s graduation rate improved, test scores are increasing, all-day kindergarten was instituted, and school counselors were reinstated to the elementary schools, Pryne said Thursday.
madrona tree on Eighth Street in Port Angeles.
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Tugboat floated after running aground towing barge near PT Townsend Paper Corp. mill. “There was no damage to the boat, and no pollutants were PORT TOWNSEND — The released,” said Petty Officer 1st Coast Guard is investigating why Class David Mosley, a Coast a tugboat went off course and ran Guard spokesman. aground on Cape George Beach early Thursday morning. Why off course? The tugboat Shannon, which “We are still investigating why ran aground at about 12:30 a.m., was refloated at about 7 a.m., the it went off course, and this could state Department of Ecology said. take several days before we have It was moored behind the Port an answer.” BY CHARLIE BERMANT PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
The tug, which is owned and operated by Maritime Works Corp. of Seattle, was heading from Port Angeles to Seattle when it ran aground south of its scheduled route, according to the Coast Guard. The 68-foot, 141-ton Shannon was towing a barge of paper products that did not run aground. TURN
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TUG/A6 The tug Shannon sails in Port Angeles Harbor in 2010.
INSIDE TODAY’S PENINSULA DAILY NEWS 97th year, 232nd issue — 5 sections, 94 pages
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