Life on the Coastal Edge Lecture

Katie Voelke, Director of the North Coast Land Conservancy. | Photo courtesy of NCLC

The final talk in this winter's World of Haystack Rock speaker series is offered on Wednesday, April 11, when Katie Voelke presents "Life on the Coastal Edge" at 7 p.m. in the Cannon Beach Library (131 W. Hemlock).  The free event is sponsored by The Friends of Haystack Rock group, which supports Cannon Beach’s Haystack Rock Awareness Program.

Voelke, executive director of the North Coast Land Conservancy (NCLC), will  cover her organization’s Coastal Edge Initiative and the ongoing efforts to conserve the wild and rare on the north coast. The Coastal Edge Initiative seeks to preserve complete, contiguous coastal watersheds, allowing the once and future temperate rainforest indigenous to this coastline to again thrive. The goal is to create a corridor of ecological connectivity of unprecedented scale in Oregon, stretching from the ridgetops to the ocean, in one of the world’s most biodiverse regions.

Katie Voelke settled on Oregon’s north coast with her husband Scott in 2003 and spent time doing field work with the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife before beginning to work on land conservation with NCLC. She started as NCLC’s first stewardship director working under founding Executive Director Neal Maine. After three years of learning the ropes alongside Maine, she took the helm in 2008 as executive director.

For more information about the event or the Friends of Haystack Rock, contact Tiffany Boothe, (503) 738-6211, seasideaquarium@gmail.com.