Category Archives: Oregon Sea Grant

More fellowship opportunities

Posted on by

Oregon Sea Grant is accepting graduate and postgraduate student applications for two prestigious Washington, D.C. fellowships:

The NOAA Coastal Management Fellowship (application deadline Jan. 28, 2011) was established in 1996 to provide on-the-job education and training opportunities in coastal resource management and policy for postgraduate students and to provide project assistance to state coastal zone management programs. The program matches postgraduate students with state coastal zone programs to work on projects proposed by the state and selected by the fellowship sponsor, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coastal Services Center. This two-year opportunity offers a competitive salary, medical benefits, and travel and relocation expense reimbursement. Read more …

The Dean John A. Knauss Marine Policy Fellowships (application deadline Feb. 18, 2011)   provides a unique educational experience to students who have an interest in ocean, coastal and Great Lakes resources and in the national policy decisions affecting those resources. The program matches highly qualified graduate students with hosts  in the legislative and executive branch of government located in the Washington, D.C. area, for a one year paid fellowship. Read more …

Meet some of our current and recent fellows.

Scientists conduct rapid assessment survey of Oregon estuaries

Posted on by
Didemnum vexillum

D. vexillum

NEWPORT, Ore. – Scientists from the United States, Canada, Japan and Russia are conducting a “rapid assessment survey” of three Oregon estuaries, looking for invasive species such as the marine tunicate, Didemnum vexillum, found earlier this year in Coos Bay and Winchester Bay.

These scientists spent a week surveying the estuaries before for the annual conference of the International North Pacific Marine Science Organization (PICES), meeting in Portland through Oct. 31.

Nations hosting the conference also host cooperative on-site surveys for introduced species, conducted by scientists from participating countries, according to George Boehlert, director of Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center and one of two United States members on the PICES governing board.

“It provides an opportunity to train scientists on surveying techniques, assess local estuaries for potential problems, and share information on common invasive species,” Boehlert said. “Many of the non-indigenous species on the West Coast originated in Asia, so the opportunity to work with scientists from Japan, Russia and elsewhere is highly beneficial.”

OSU scientist John Chapman, an aquatic invasive species specialist at the university’s Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC), and Thomas Therriault of Fisheries and Oceans in Nanaimo, British Columbia, coordinated the Oct. 17-21 surveys, which looked at  Yaquina Bay in Newport; Winchester Bay near Reedsport; Coos Bay; and a 300,000-gallon seawater tank at the HMSC.

Funding for the project is provided by PICES through a contribution from the Japanese government, which has granted $500,000 to the organization for studies on invasive species and harmful algal blooms. Additional support is being provided by Oregon Sea Grant.

Read more

Sea Grant, State Parks collaborate on iPhone guide to newest park

Posted on by

NEWPORT – A new iPhone application gives visitors an inside look at Oregon’s newest state park, the Beaver Creek State Natural Area south of Newport.

The application, “Paddle Beaver Creek,” was developed jointly by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State University. It is available free for downloading from the iPhone store.

The project is designed to provide park visitors with an additional way to learn more about the park. “We are adapting to the needs of present and future generations of park visitors,” stated Mike Rivers, Ranger Supervisor for Oregon State Parks. “Having a park-specific smart phone guide to water trails, wildlife and natural history will hopefully deepen our visitors’ experiences in Oregon State Parks’ 2010 park of the year, Beaver Creek State Natural Area.”

The core of the application is an interactive map of the Beaver Creek Water Trail – about three scenic miles of an easy-paddling waterway in a pristine coastal marsh open to kayaks and canoes. With no feasible way to post interpretive signs along a water trail, the application provides iPhone-equipped canoeists and kayakers a way to track their progress via GPS, and interactively highlights points of interest along the way, from nesting ospreys to beaver lodges.

Oregon Sea Grant’s interest in developing new tools for effective science education brought them to this cooperative project. “We are always exploring tools that deepen understanding of the coast,” said Dr. Shawn Rowe, Sea Grant Extension’s free-choice learning specialist at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. “Giving visitors the ability to seek the depth of information they prefer is the future of parks and interpretive centers.”

Beaver Creek State Natural Area  is located seven miles south of Newport, just east of Ona Beach State Park. The park, which celebrated its grand opening Oct. 1, offers recreation for boaters and nonboaters alike. A newly created Visitor Center features interpretive exhibits, an ADA-accessible deck overlooking the wetland, and trail access. Free Wi-Fi access allows visitors to download the iPhone App on the spot.

Other Sea Grant personnel involved in conceptualizing and creating the application and coordinating logistics include Mark Farley, Nancee Hunter, Joe Cone and Evelyn Paret. Plans are in the works for additional applications, in versions for a variety of mobile smart-phone platforms.

Oregon Sea Grant, founded in 1968 and based at Oregon State University, supports research, education, and public engagement to help people understand, responsibly use, and conserve ocean and coastal resources.

Still time to register for Heceta Head conference

Posted on by

FLORENCE – There’s still time to register for the 6th annual Heceta Head Conference, with a theme of “Oregon’s Ocean: Working Waterfronts,” this Thursday and Friday (Oct. 28-29) at the Florence Events Center.

The conference kicks off Thursday afternoon with a 2 pm tour of the Siuslaw River estuary and Florence’s working waterfront, including a river boat trip for the first 36 reservations. After the tour, join Oregon State University anthropologist Court Smith for dinner and a talk about “Salmon Peoples of the Northwest.”

Friday’s conference includes sessions about Oregon’s working waterfronts, estuary conservation and development, commercial fishing infrastructure needs, port planning and smart growth for coastal communities, along with a keynote address and panels about the relocation of NOAA’s Pacific research fleet to Newport, and partnerships for waterfront development featuring speakers from Bandon, Astoria, Coos Bay and Florence.

Registration for the Thursday dinner is $20, and for Friday’s conference and lunch is $25. The Thursday afternoon tour is free but reservations are requested. To register, visit http://www.HecetaHeadConference.org. Registration will also be accepted at the door.

This year’s conference is organized by Oregon Sea Grant in collaboration with Heceta Head Coastal Conference.

New Sea Grant Extension leader takes office Oct. 4

Posted on by

CORVALLIS – David Hansen, a former Extension program leader at the University of Delaware, joins the Oregon Sea Grant leadership team Oct. 4 as program leader for Oregon Sea Grant Extension at Oregon State University.

Hansen succeeds Jay Rasmussen, who retired earlier this year after serving 14 years as Sea Grant Extension program leader.

Sea Grant Director Stephen Brandt called Hansen “a first-rate choice to lead Sea Grant Extension at a time when time when coastal stakeholders need our services most. He brings both the scientific and academic background and the practical experience to help us achieve our goals of using sound science to create a more informed and engaged society around issues important to our coast, our region and our nation.”

Hansen will be based on the OSU Campus and will oversee a marine Extension program including agents, specialists and educators located on campus and on the Oregon coast from Astoria to Gold Beach, working in fields ranging from watershed restoration and fisheries policy to invasive species, climate change and tsunami preparedness. Oregon’s is one of the largest and most highly regarded Extension programs among the 30 Sea Grant programs nationwide.

Hansen will also serve on the Sea Grant leadership team, which coordinates an integrated program of ocean and coastal outreach, education, research and communications.

The new program leader was educated at Iowa State University, where he earned an MS in forest biology and a PhD in soil science and water resources. He has been an assistant professor of soil and environmental quality at UD since 2006, and since 2008 has also directed Delaware’s Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources program.

Hansen has served as Delaware’s representative on the Chesapeake Bay Program scientific and technical advisory committee and co-chair of the program’s Water Quality Goal Implementation Team.

In public presentations during his interviews at OSU this spring, Hansen emphasized the need to build strong teams and forge broad coalitions with others – inside and outside the university – to deepen Sea Grant Extension’s “diversity of expertise,” particularly in tight fiscal times. He expressed strong support for an “outcomes-based” approach to public outreach and engagement, with measurable targets and regular, quantitative assessment of results.

OSU, partners to lauch regional climate consortium

Posted on by

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Oregon State University has received a five-year grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish and coordinate a regional consortium of climate variability assessment, research and outreach.

The funding, which could surpass $3.5 million, will establish the Pacific Northwest Climate Decision Support Consortium – one of six new regional integrated sciences and assessments (RISA) programs funded by NOAA.

OSU researchers will work with colleagues from the University of Oregon, Boise State University, University of Idaho, and University of Washington – as well as the extension programs from Oregon, Washington and Idaho – to address climate assessment needs for businesses, state and federal agencies, municipalities, tribal leaders and non-governmental organizations in the Pacific Northwest.

Oregon Sea Grant expects to play a significant role in the new consortium’s research and public outreach efforts.

Read more …

Sociological profiles help decision makers understand coastal towns

Posted on by

Fish processors take a breakA three-year effort to flesh out existing dollars-and-cents data about coastal fishing communities with sociological information about how fishing affects community life is paying off in broader awareness by resource managers and industry of the social and economic culture of three coastal Oregon towns.

The project, initiated by the fishing community and Oregon Sea Grant with support from NOAA Fisheries and the Oregon State University Sustainable Rural Communities Initiative, has generated the first-ever “long-form” sociological profiles of the communities of Garibaldi, Newport and Port Orford. Other coastal towns are expressing interest in developing profiles of their own.

The fishing industry employs thousands of Oregonians and generated $105 million in fish-landed value in 2009 alone. In 2007, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published “short-form” economic profiles attempting to describe how specific communities benefit from fishing.

“The NOAA profiles area useful step in the right direction, but limited in scope,” said Flaxen Conway, Oregon Sea Grant’s Extension community outreach specialist and a professor of Sociology at OSU. “These long form profiles provide a more detailed, rich description of this socially, culturally, and economically-important industry,” she said.

Read more

Sea Grant director to blog Gulf research cruise

Posted on by

Stephen Brandt, director of Oregon Sea Grant, embarks tomorrow on a week-long research cruise attempting to map and quantify the effects of this summer’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill on the marine ecology of the northern Gulf of Mexico.

The cruise, supported by a National Science Foundation rapid-response grant, includes scientific collaborators from Oregon State University, the University of Maryland and Eastern Carolina University. The scientists will be building on data they’ve collected from the same region in seven years of research cruises there.

Time and shipboard Internet connections permitting, they intend to blog about the experience at http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/sciencefromthespill/

Read more about the research

Rain Garden Guide helping Oregonians manage stormwater

Posted on by

Oregon Rain Garden GuideCORVALLIS, Ore. – If you have a lemon, make lemonade. In Oregon, if you have excess rainwater, make a rain garden.

The Oregon Rain Garden Guide, produced by Oregon Sea Grant at Oregon State University, is the state’s first stormwater management resource for both novices and expert landscapers. An increasing number of Oregonians are disconnecting downspouts, building rain collection barrels and planting rain gardens to harvest water from their businesses, schools and front yards, according to co-author Robert Emanuel, an Oregon Sea Grant Extension specialist.

Rain gardens are sunken beds that absorb and treat stormwater runoff from rooftops, driveways and other paved surfaces. Runoff does not soak into the ground; instead it flows directly into sewers and surface waterways, such as streams or lakes. Landscaped rain gardens intercept runoff to reduce floods, recharge drinking water – and filter oil, garden chemicals and other pollutants. Rain gardens also provide wildlife habitat.

The need for an uncomplicated, step-by-step guide for stormwater management motivated Emanuel and a team of experts. “We needed a book, something polished, that our workshop participants could take into the field,” said Emanuel.

In the past year, Emanuel and Sea Grant Extension colleague Derek Godwin have helped coordinate about 20 “Stormwater Solutions” workshops around Oregon, from the southern coast to Portland. Builders, developers, civil engineers, city planners and other land development professionals learn from case studies about permits, site design and costs. The techniques and plants described by the guide are showcased in demonstration sites at churches, parks, private homes, businesses and even a day care center.

Search for partnerships/innovation leader expanded

Posted on by

Oregon Sea Grant is expanding its search for qualified applicants for a new Strategic Partnerships and Innovation Leader position to include candidates from around the US.

The new position is a full-time (1.0 FTE), 12-month, fixed-term appointment. The successful candidate will develop and lead Oregon Sea Grant’s co competitive research, strategic partnerships and innovation portfolio, including managing our biennial marine research grant competition, cultivating partnership opportunities and nurturing relationships for program development, growth and funding.

Candidates should have a PhD with 3 years minimum successful experience in a similar position (or Masters with at least 7 years of experience in program development in the aquatic sciences or policy arena) with a background emphasis in marine science, aquatic environmental science or marine policy or socioeconomics, ora  related field. Candidates should demonstrate:

  • Strong working knowledge of university research and scholarship
  • Proven ability to actively seek out opportunities for investment, revenue generation and strategic partnerships
  • Proven track record of writing successful multi-partner grant proposals of large proportion

The new position will be based in the Oregon Sea Grant office on the campus of Oregon State University, in Corvallis.

For a full position description and application material, visit the  OSU Jobs site