Coastwatch News Archive

All articles related to Coastwatch

Environmental Steward Certificate Program Always Open

Ed Joyce (right) and Jesse Jones (center) at a training session for the marine debris survey, a project which would help participants qualify for the Environmental Steward Certificate.\Photo by Patricia Jensen. Oregon Shores and CoastWatch partners with Clatsop Community College (CCC) in sponsoring the Environmental Steward Certificate program, an innovative...Read more

King Tides Photo Contest Winners Announced

The past winter’s edition of the King Tides Project, the 11 th year of this annual citizen science effort, had a new feature. This time around, we partnered with the Oregon Coast Visitors Association to sponsor a photo contest. The goal of the King Tides project is to document the winter’s highest tides, to raise awareness of the impact of high water and storm surges on the coast at present,...Read more

BioBlitzes in a New Format Coming up in July

Fawn Custer (kneeling), CoastWatch's citizen science trainer, leads a BioBlitz at Cascade Head. A BioBlitz is an intensive survey of a defined area with the goal of identifying all the species to be found in that area at one time, generally involving members of the public assisted by experts. It is a snapshot of biodiversity. In past years, coastal...Read more

Special Volunteer Needed for King Tides Project

CoastWatch collaborates with the state’s Coastal Management Program on the King Tides Project every year. Through this project, volunteer photographers document that highest tides of the year. We have a trove of photographs, growing in value every year, as we develop an ever-more-detailed portrait of the coast’s vulnerability to flooding and sea level rise. However, the photos, to be really...Read more

CoastWatching Moves Online

CoastWatchers Dave and Diane Bilderback conducting a beached bird survey. The coronavirus crisis poses particular difficulties for a program like CoastWatch, which brings people together for educational events and projects on the shore, while encouraging volunteers to monitor a shoreline which is currently closed to many. But the program has now pivoted to an...Read more
Snowy Plover.\Photo by Mick Thompson

Snowy Plover Patrol Training Now Online

Snowy Plover.\Photo by Mick Thompson The nesting season for the endangered Western Snowy Plover is due to begin in Oregon, and in an ordinary year the Snowy Plover Patrol would be about to start monitoring sites on the north coast again. In this unique year, though, with coronavirus precautions in place, the in-person training sessions (which had been scheduled...Read more

Black Oystercatcher Survey Still Taking Place

Birds, Citizen Science, Marine Conservation, Marine Reserves, Rocky Intertidal Zone. The annual citizen science project to survey Black Oystercatcher nests is coming up again, May through August, and volunteers are needed. The survey is a partnership among the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey, Portland Audubon, and local conservation...Read more

Conference Falls Victim to Virus

Beachwalkers.\Photo by Kirt Edblom. With great regret, we are announcing that the Sharing the Coast Conference that was coming up this weekend (March 13-15) has been cancelled. Over the last week, CoastWatch and the Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators (NAME), our partners in sponsoring the annual conference, have been closely watching the situation around...Read more

'Sharing the Coast' Time Soon to Arrive

Horsfall Beach near Coos Bay; European beachgrass (foreground) will be a topic at the conference.\Photo by Dina Pavlis. The 11 th annual Sharing the Coast Conference is coming up March 13-15. This time around the conference, a collaboration between CoastWatch and the Northwest Aquatic and Marine Educators (NAME), will be held in Coos Bay, at Southwestern...Read more

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