Habitat Restoration Articles

Silvery (or sand dune) Phacelia.

Threatened Shoreline Plants Need Protection

phacelia_sand_dune_oregon_wild.jpg Efforts to protect certain threatened or endangered species of the coastal region are well known. Gray whales and Bald eagles have, happily, thrived enough thanks to conservation efforts that they are no longer listed. Oregon Shores has supported the work that has gone into recovering the population of beach-...Read more
Upper Yaquina Bay estuary.

Land Use Coordinator Featured in Estuary Podcast

Annie Merrill in her favorite habitat. Annie Merrill, Oregon Shores’ land use coordinator, was interviewed recently for the Beyond Your Front Door Northwest podcast. The subject was “Protecting Oregon’s Estuaries.” Annie was interviewed by the program series producer and host, Dina Pavlis. Beyond Your Front Door...Read more
Sea otters in the Gulf of Alaska, where populations have been restored. /photo by Kedar Gadge, Unspl

Sea Otter Study Points to Reintroduction Feasibility

Sea otters in the Gulf of Alaska, where populations have been restored. /photo by Kedar Gadge, Unsplash.com On July 27, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released a report to Congress supporting the feasibility of reintroducing sea otters to their historic range on the Pacific...Read more

Oregon Shores Launches Eelgrass Project

Eelgrass bed meets mudflat in Coos Bay.\Photo by Mike Graybill. We work to protect a wide range of coastal habitats, from watersheds to offshore reefs. But no resource we work on is more important than the state’s estuaries. A critical component of estuarine ecosystems is eelgrass. Oregon Shores is committed to preserving the remaining eelgrass habitat in our...Read more

Snowy Plover Nesting Season Underway

Snowy plover exclusion area.\Photo courtesy of USFWS. Oregon’s conservationists and resource agencies have been engaged in a decades-long effort to restore the state’s population of the Western Snowy Plover, an endangered shorebird that nests on Oregon beaches (the only shorebird that breeds here). We are now in the nesting season, the crucial period for...Read more
Snowy Plover chicks.\Photo by Adam Kotaich.

Snowy Plover Nesting Period Ends

Snowy Plover chicks.\Photo by Adam Kotaich. Beachgoers assist the ongoing effort to restore healthy populations of the threatened Western Snowy Plover to Oregon’s beaches by respecting nesting areas and beach restrictions during nesting season, March 15 through Sept. 15. Signs and ropes that identify sensitive western snowy plover nesting areas have gone up now...Read more
A scene from the Elliott State Forest. Photo courtesy of Coast Range Forest Watch.

Forest Activists Urge Public Ownership for the Elliott

A scene from the Elliott State Forest. Photo courtesy of Coast Range Forest Watch. The Oregon Department of State Lands is considering sale of the Elliott State Forest near Coos Bay. The state has received a single offer to buy the 82,000 acre tract, from a consortium of Lone Rock Timber and the Cow Creek tribe. The proposal, in the view of Oregon Shores and a...Read more
Photo of Horsfall Beach by Dina Pavlis.

Strategy Group Creating Dunes Restoration Plan

Horsfall Beach at the southern end of the Oregon Dunes. Photo by Dina Pavlis. The Oregon Dunes, the longest stretch of coastal dunes in the United States, is a dynamic landscape. Their dynamism depends on moving sand. The introduction of non-native species, especially the highly invasive European beachgrass, has created a severe threat to the dunes, through...Read more