Beaches Articles

August 24, 2021

Join Volunteer Coordinator for a Beachwalk

Jesse Jones (center) meets with members of Shoreline Education for Awareness, which has adopted Mile 101, on an earlier visit.\Photo by Steve Garrett. CoastWatch Volunteer Coordinator Jesse Jones is about to tour the coast, with the goal meeting with CoastWatchers (and those interested in CoastWatch) at various locations. She will lead beachwalks on numerous...Read more
July 3, 2021

50th Anniversary Celebration Is Today!

Neptune Beach.\Photo by Rena Olson. While we’ve been celebrating our 50 th anniversary all year, the actual anniversary date—the Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition was officially founded on July 29, 1971—is now approaching fast. Over the course of the day on Thursday, July 29, 2021, we will offer place-based and online events and lectures, honor outstanding...Read more
April 16, 2021

Public Invited to Help Guide Beach Monitoring Program

Short Sand Beach in northern Tillamook County, one of the beaches proposed for monitoring.\Photo courtesy of ODFW. The Oregon Health Authority’s Beach Monitoring Program is the public’s means of learning whether the waters washing our beaches is polluted. All too often, the water quality testing provided by this program demonstrates that it is. As the program...Read more
April 11, 2021

Snowy Plover Nesting Season Underway

Snowy plover exclusion area.\Photo courtesy of USFWS. Oregon’s conservationists and resource agencies have been engaged in a decades-long effort to restore the state’s population of the Western Snowy Plover, an endangered shorebird that nests on Oregon beaches (the only shorebird that breeds here). We are now in the nesting season, the crucial period for...Read more
July 12, 2020

CoastWatch Joins Hunt for Hybrid Beachgrass

Rebecca Mostow in the field. Much of the terrain of the Oregon's sandy shoreline we see today has been shaped by two dominant, invasive beachgrass species. They build the tall, stable dunes that parallel sandy beaches, providing some protection for infrastructure but causing the decline of native animal and plant species. A team from Oregon State University...Read more
February 21, 2020

Rockaway Beach Riprap Appeal Fails

The Tai Dang house in Rockaway Beach, showing the eroded dune where he is placing the riprap.\Photo by Phillip Johnson. Oregon Shores has lost its final, last-ditch stand in a years-long struggle to prevent the riprapping of a structure in Rockaway Beach that never should have been built. The owner was allowed last year to install temporary riprap; his...Read more
September 6, 2019

Beach Water Quality Monitoring Continues to Reveal Pollution

Frolicking in ocean waters--check to make sure they aren't polluted.\Photo by Sonja Peterson. The Oregon Beach Monitoring Program , based at the Oregon Health...Read more
Snowy Plover chicks.\Photo by Adam Kotaich.
March 16, 2018

Snowy Plover Nesting Period Ends

Snowy Plover chicks.\Photo by Adam Kotaich. Beachgoers assist the ongoing effort to restore healthy populations of the threatened Western Snowy Plover to Oregon’s beaches by respecting nesting areas and beach restrictions during nesting season, March 15 through Sept. 15. Signs and ropes that identify sensitive western snowy plover nesting areas have gone up now...Read more
Tidepool instruction at Haystack Rock.\Photo by Melissa Keyser/HRAP.
February 15, 2018

Share the Coast for Fun and Stewardship

Tidepool instruction at Haystack Rock.\Photo by Melissa Keyser/HRAP. The annual Sharing the Coast Conference, coming up March 2-4 in Cannon Beach this year, presents an extraordinary harvest of coastal natural history and shoreline science. Mingle with fellow coast-lovers, revel in talks, panel discussions, and field trips, and, of course, strive for supremacy...Read more
Image of top portion of Oregon coast map, showing title.
December 9, 2017

New Oregon Coast Conservation Map Available

As part of our 2017 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Oregon Beach Bill, Oregon Shores collaborated with Raven Maps to produce a new large-format, high resolution map of the Oregon coast, emphasizing public lands. The map is now available for order , in time to serve as a beautiful holiday gift for your coast-loving friends and relatives. The new map highlights...Read more