Video produced by Stephen Ward, Extension and Experiment Station Communications, and edited by Jill Wells, Extension Administration
Wild Rivers Coast Alliance collaborates with Oregon State University on local seafood issues, invasive species and most recently on tourism. Scott Reed, vice provost for University Outreach and Engagement and director of OSU Extension Service, traveled to Bandon on the South Coast to meet the people and organization that offers office space and introductions to regional tourism collaborators to one of the newest positions in OSU Extension: Associate Professor Miles Phillips, tourism and business development specialist. Community partnerships are focused on helping the South Coast thrive.
Share with Scott in the comment section of this O&E blog post the partnerships you are building in your communities. In addition, let Scott know if you would like to have the First Monday video filmed in your community!
Adapted from a story written by Oregon Sea Grant, which will appear in the Fall 2016 edition of O&E—
Map of Coos Bay’s working waterfront
Are you heading to the Oregon Coast this summer? Have you driven the coast highway wondering where you can find fresh seafood, or want to know where the seafood came from, or even if it is in season? We might have just the thing for you!
Oregon Sea Grant and OSU Extension Service developed two apps for smartphones and tablets to appeal to tourists and seafood lovers. The goal is to bolster the state’s coastal economies.
The first app, Oregon’s Catch, identifies locations along the entire Oregon coast where people can buy fresh and frozen seafood caught by Oregon fishermen.
The second app, Oregon’s Working Waterfronts, offers a self-guided tour of waterfronts in Coos Bay, North Bend and Charleston. Through video clips and photos, users get a behind-the-scenes look at local industries and infrastructure—including a lumber mill, seafood processor, Coast Guard cutter, shipyard and tuna troller—and the people who work in and on them.
“For tourists, I hope they learn something, stay a little longer, and have a greater appreciation for the Coos Bay area,” says Jamie Doyle, an Oregon Sea Grant specialist with the Oregon State University Extension Service who was involved with development of the apps along with Mark Farley, Cyber Lab manager at the Hatfield Marine Science Center.
In addition to the app, Oregon Sea Grant produced a fold-out map of the same “stops.” The map will be available at local businesses and other attractions. The developers plan to add tours of other waterfronts in the future.
Both apps are free and available for Android and Apple devices. Search for Oregon’s Working Waterfronts and Oregon’s Catch (available at the end of July 2016).
Jenny East, a new boater outreach coordinator with Oregon Sea Grant Extension, holds one of many new signs set to appear along the Oregon coast and Columbia River. The signs inform recreational boaters about the location of pumpout and dumping facilities for sewage. Photo by Vanessa Ciccone
How do you talk with people about a subject matter that is emphatically avoided in polite conversations?
That is the question Oregon Sea Grant Extension’s new boating outreach coordinator, Jenny East, has been asking. She’s charged with informing recreational boaters about the location of facilities for properly disposing of their sewage along the Oregon coast and Columbia River and in the Portland-metro area in an effort to keep waterways clean.
The breadth of Extension work is, well, breathtaking. This new position takes Extension work in a new direction.
“My job is all about finding innovative ways to engage with Oregon’s recreational boaters. The key will be trying different avenues such as face-to-face interactions at events where boaters are, walking the docks, and spending time meeting with marina managers and private industries that provide supplies for boaters,” said East, who is based out of Oregon State University’s Extension office in Washington County.
“Through my conversations with boaters I will learn more about how they prefer to receive information. Engagement is a two-way street. It isn’t about me lecturing them, but more a conversation about their connections to the aquatic environment and being proactive about the health of that environment. I am also thinking about how I can get other boaters to be communicators and educators as well.”
As part of her job, she will work with the Oregon State Marine Board to post signs showing where recreational boaters can empty their portable toilets and holding tanks. East added that talking about the proper disposal of human waste will take some humor. She’s got a good start. Oregon Sea Grant has produced two light-hearted public service announcements about floating restrooms and dockside stations for emptying porta-potties.
Oregon Sea Grant serves the state, region and nation through an integrated program of research, outreach, and education that helps people understand, rationally use and conserve marine and coastal resources. The best available science is applied to timely and important ocean and coastal issues, and they engage with coastal stakeholders to help them reach informed decisions. Sea Grant supports scientific excellence and innovation, fosters new generations of marine scientists and encourages ocean science literacy among people of all ages.
Based at Oregon State University and working with scientists, scholars and communities statewide, Oregon is part of the national network of NOAA Sea Grant College Programs.
