Sharing the Coast Community Talk

Marty Giles in the field, teaching.

The tenth annual Sharing the Coast Conference will take place March 8-10 at the Hatfield Marine Science Center (2030 S.E. Marine Science Dr.) in the South Beach area of Newport.  The event will feature speakers, panels, and field trips, all designed to provide a wealth of knowledge about coastal science and natural history.  See separate listing. 

Every year the conference kicks off with a “Community Talk” on Friday evening, free and open to the community.  And what could be a more fundamental subject to lead off a conference about the shore than “Sand”?  This year’s opening night speaker is coastal naturalist extraordinaire Marty Giles, who will focus our vision on the substance that ties it all together.  She will describe what sand is, where it comes from, what it does on the beach, who lives with it, and where it goes when it's done.  Once Marty has conducted her virtual tour, her audience members will never look at a beach the same way again.

Marty Giles has been interpreting the Oregon coast for residents and visitors for more than four decades.  She has been a naturalist for a variety of agencies, including Oregon State Parks, Oregon State University Extension/Sea Grant, and South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.  She holds a Master’s degree in Recreation Resources Development from Texas A&M University, specializing in Environmental Interpretation.

Those years of education and professional experience are now applied to Marty's interpretive nature guiding service, Wavecrest Discoveries, which specializes in customized, "mind-refreshing" explorations of Oregon's southern coast that reconnect people with nature.

The talk takes place on Friday evening, March 8, 7 p.m. (doors open at 6:30) in the Hennings Auditorium at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. 

Mark your calendars!