Metro CoastWatch Gathering

Fawn Custer teaching at Strawberry Hill.\Photo by Dennis White.

CoastWatch Volunteer Coordinator Fawn Custer is on something of a farewell tour, as she will be stepping down from her post after next year’s conference in March.  She will be visiting Portland for what is probably the last time in her CoastWatch role on Friday, Nov. 9, for a gathering at the Lucky Labrador Brew Pub (915 S.E. Hawthorne), in the private party room.  Don’t miss this last Metro-area chance to meet with and learn from Fawn.  (There will be many more opportunities on the coast during the next four months.)  This will be both a somewhat premature goodbye party and a final fling in celebration of CoastWatch’s 25^th anniversary.

Fawn will talk about our citizen science projects and the ways in which volunteers can make a significant contribution in collecting important information and thus adding greatly to the value that CoastWatch provides Oregon.  CoastWatch (and Oregon Shores) Director Phillip Johnson will also be there to briefly discuss the program’s history and future.

The evening will also feature an exciting guest speaker, Neal Maine, presenting "It's More than a Beach."  Maine is a legendary former biology teacher at Seaside High School, and was an important Oregon Shores board member during our early years in the 1970s.  He then founded the North Coast Land Conservancy, and served as its director for many years.  Having retired from NCLC, he has devoted himself to photography and public education, introducing audiences to the living ecosystems of the coast, include the ecosystem that dwells upon and within the sand that we call the "beach."

Doors open at 5:30 p.m.  Neal Maine will speak at about 6:15.  The event will also feature plenty of time to socialize with fellow CoastWatchers and other coast-lovers.  Please invite along anyone who might be interested in CoastWatch, the natural history of the shoreline, or both.

Food and drink available from the Lucky Lab, no host.

For more information, contact Phillip Johnson, (503) 754-9303, phillip@oregonshores.org.