Webinar on Eelgrass

Eelgrass fringing a mudflat in Coos Bay.\Photo by Mike Graybill.

Oregon Shores is collaborating with conservation allies to offer a monthly webinar series about the Coos Bay estuary. Coos Bay could be the focus of major development proposals soon—both a major container port and facilities for offshore wind projects are under consideration. Plus, we are in the early stages of a vitally important revision of the Coos Bay Estuary Management Plan. There is plenty of reason to pay special attention to this area, and to learn more about it.

The next in the webinar series is coming up on Thursday, May 26, at 5:30 p.m.: “Superpowers of Eelgrass.”

The webinar will be feature presentations by Ali Helms, Estuarine Monitoring Coordinator with the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and Caitlin Magel, formerly a graduate student at Oregon State University and now a postdoctoral research scientists with the Puget Sound Institute. Other researchers will also particiapte. The webinar will provide an overview of eelgrass' role in the estuarine ecosystem, and cover climate impacts to eelgrass beds and conservation efforts to retore eelgrass in the Coos Bay estuary. Eelgrass stores carbon and is thus an important factor in addressing climate change by means of "blue carbon."

To register for this and future webinars (all of which take place on the final Thursday of the month through July), go to bit.ly/cbestuaryseries.