Date wrapper:
Dec
4

Presentation on Salmon River

When
December 4, 2019 - 6:30 PM
Where
Newport Visual Arts Center
777 NW Beach Dr
Newport, OR
Sponsors
Salmon Drift Creek Watershed Council, MidCoast Watersheds Council
Cost
Free

Duncan Berry with his beloved Salmon River estuary in photo and reality.

Artist and conservationist Duncan Berry will provide a visual tour of the Salmon River’s watershed on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 6:30 p.m. at the Newport Visual Arts Center (777 N.W. Beach Dr.).  The event, free and open to all, is co-sponsored by the Salmon Drift Creek Watershed Council and the MidCoast Watersheds Council.

Berry’s presentation, “The Story of My Life as Told by Water,” will include images and a narrative from his walk down the entire length of the Salmon River watershed, from its headwaters high in the Coast Range, through old growth forests to small and large streams, and finally through its restored estuary to the nearshore ocean (and continue the narrative to the deep sea). 

Berry lives on Cascade Head within the Cascade Head Biosphere Reserve, and considers preserving it and sharing knowledge of the natural world there to be his life’s work. He grew up on the Clatsop Plains of the northern Oregon coast, the son of author Don Berry (“Trask”) and photo-journalist Wyn Berry. He began a fishing career at the age of 13, salmon trolling out of the Columbia River, then turned to diverse careers including gold-smithing, porcelain enamel, apparel, eco-system services and sustainable seafood.  His creative work currently includes poetry, the Japanese technique of fish printing Gyotaku, and photography. He co-founded the Westwind Stewardship Group and the national seafood company Fishpeople, as well as acting as a co-organizer of the citizen effort on behalf of the Cascade Head Biosphere Reserve which offers a series field experience programs and helping to coordinate the many efforts of non-profits, agencies and citizens in that community-based, non-mandatory biosphere reserve area.

 The Cascade Head Biosphere Reserve, comprising 58,000 acres within the Salmon River’s watershed, was designated in 1976 by the United Nations Man and Biosphere Program. The area’s special qualities are further recognized through the Cascade Head Marine Reserve, a U.S. Forest Service Scenic-Research Area, and The Nature Conservancy’s headland preserve. Further, the estuary is only one of four in Oregon designated as “natural”.

Refreshments will be provided. Following the presentation, a MidCoast Watersheds Council Board meeting will be held to review the financial report, restoration work, and the work of the groups’ technical administrative committees and take action as needed.