Talks on Science of Oregon Coast Shorelines Throughout Summer

Published 06/29/2013

(Oregon Coast) – For those wishing to learn more about Oregon coast natural history there are some extraordinary opportunities this summer. Oregon's CoastWatch group is offering three intensive training workshops, led by ecologist Stewart Schultz, an authority on the Northwest’s coastal region. He will be joined by Fawn Custer, CoastWatch’s volunteer coordinator. (Above: near Florence)

Three workshops lasting three days each will be held around the Oregon coast. The first is in Netarts July 26 to 28, the second in Newport from August 8 to 10, and on the south coast at Coos Bay from August 11 to 13. They will cover everything from tidepools and sandy beaches, to estuarine and ocean ecosystems, to geology and forests, to marine mammals and birds.

Stewart Schultz is the author of The Northwest Coast: A Natural History

Also to be discussed are the timely issues of of concern such as marine debris and invasive species. Each session will include field trips, indoor presentations and laboratory experiences (with some variation, depending on the weather). Teachers can obtain 26 Professional Development Units by taking a workshop.

While the workshops were developed to provide training to volunteers in the CoastWatch program, they are open to the public.

CoastWatch is a project of the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition, through which volunteers adopt one-mile segments of the coast and keep watch for both natural changes and human impacts.

Online registration is now open at this link..

Stewart Schultz is the author of The Northwest Coast: A Natural History. His wide-ranging experience in studying the Oregon coast makes him a very knowledgeable guide to the shoreline environment. An Oregonian who grew up playing on the shore near Gearhart, he went to Reed College and obtained his doctorate in botany from the University of British Columbia. He worked on the Oregon coast for the Nature Conservancy, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, gaining wide field experience, before pursuing an academic career as a professor at the University of Miami, and now the University of Zadar in Croatia. During the academic year he studies marine ecology, as well as his specialty of plant evolution and genetics, but every summer he returns to the Oregon coast to teach shoreline science.

Assisting him will be Fawn Custer, an experienced marine educator who taught for 14 years at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.

The Netarts sessions will be at the Oceanside Fire District Meeting Hall, 1235 5th St. Loop in Netarts. Newport sessions happen at Newport High School (322 N.E. Eads St.). The Coos Bay will be conducted at Marshfield High School.

Each workshop will begin at 8:30 a.m. on the first day, and at 7 a.m. on the final two days, and will run until approximately 4:30 p.m. each day. Workshop fee will be $50 for those who are both CoastWatchers and Oregon Shores members, $60 for those who are either CoastWatchers or Oregon Shores members, and $90 for others (who are invited to join Oregon Shores on the registration site and take the discount).

Reservations can be made online here, or by linking through the CoastWatch website, http://oregonshores.org/coastwatch.php5. Registration can also be by check: Send to Oregon Shores, P.O. Box 33, Seal Rock, OR 97376.

For more information, or to reserve a place in one of the workshops in advance of payment, contact Fawn Custer, (541) 270-0027, fawn@oregonshores.org; or Phillip Johnson, (503) 754-9303, phillip@oregonshores.org.

Oceanside

Near Cannon Beach

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