Tide Poolers

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Tide pools are the wildflower bloom of the marine world. If you time it right, the colorful array of life is revealed from beneath the ocean cover for a brief, yet exciting period of time. Some of the marine life in tide-pools lives between two worlds, spending half of their time fully submerged under seawater and the other half in the air we breathe. I think tide pools are one of the most intriguing ecosystems that exist on this planet.

purple urchins in the tide pools at Yaquina Head

Why is it that these creatures, that become exposed when the tide goes out, can flaunt such vibrant colors and shapes? Wouldn’t they all want to camouflage themselves as rocks to avoid getting eaten? The sun-orange sea stars, huckleberry-purple urchins, seafoam-green anemones, and assorted hermit crabs (to name a few) sport their colors loud and proud. For some of these organisms, it is still not known for certain what the purpose of their vivid coloration is, but one thing is known for certain: this attractive marine life display draws eyes from across the globe to the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

Sea stars and anemones at low tide

This past Saturday, June 25th, we were lucky enough to have a negative-low tide, which (as the name implies) means the lowest tide retreats to a negative number of feet relative to average sea level. For tide-poolers, that means there is a very good chance of seeing the unique marine life that resides at the farthest edge of the low-tide water line. Of course, I am just one of many tide-pool chasers. For many coastal residents and marine enthusiasts alike, tide-pools are an important place. A recent study in 2013 found that exploring tide-pools was among the top three most common activities for Oregon’s marine reserve visitors. While it is encouraging to a conservationist for there to be so much interest in this natural resource, too many visitors can be harmful to such a fragile environment. I’m sure the tide pool residents wouldn’t be pleased to have an army of land-dwelling visitors tromping all over their property.

Purple urchin at negative low tide

In the coming weeks, as I finish up some prep work and solidify my work schedule, I look forward to exploring more of the unique places along the coast, but also learning about the people who use them. As part of my work this summer, I hope to find out how informed coastal visitors feel about issues related to marine areas in order to better inform ocean managers about any potential knowledge gaps or concerns from the general public about our oceans. While I haven’t been able to immediately work out in the field, the work I will eventually be doing along the coast is a crucial element to bettering our understanding of marine reserves. Until then, I’ll continue to familiarize myself with new places in Oregon during my free time!

Angus exploring the tide pools

Stuck in the Mud

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So week two is already done…hard to believe; this summer is flying by. A lot has happened though since my last post! First, I got stuck in the mud haha. I guess it was bound to happen at some point. We went out on Tuesday for our first field sampling trip to Tillamook Bay (2 hrs north of Newport). Since we needed to cross both water and mud flats during our sampling, we elected to use one of the EPA’s hovercrafts. Yes, it was as awesome as it sounds. Everything was going great for the first hour or so! We got to 3 sites and collected water, nutrient, sediment, and eelgrass samples at each. Then we hit our first speed bump. The pillow-block (the part of the engine that holds the driveshaft of the propeller in place) failed in spectacular fashion due to old age. As a result, the belt connecting the driveshaft to the engine lost tension and we were left dead in the bay. Thankfully we were fairly close to shore and the tide was coming in so we started paddling towards shore. With some luck we made it to shallow water that was near our 4th sampling site so, like any good scientists, we stopped and took some more samples. We resumed pushing the hovercraft when we had finished. As it turned out, we had broken down very close to the Pacific Oyster factory and there was a makeshift boat-ramp by their jetty. That was when our luck ran out: to get to the ramp we would need to pull the hovercraft across 300ft of mudflat. After 10 minutes of yanking and tugging on the hovercraft’s bowline I found my right leg buried in mud up to the knee and solidly stuck. Once I had been dug out we resumed our struggle but my boss took my place being stuck. After an hour of this repeated pulling, getting stuck, and digging each other free we had only moved 50ft. To make a very long story short it took us 3 hours to get to the boat-ramp and it was only with the help of the tide and some very nice folks from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Tillamook Office did we get that head of metal back on its trailer and back to Newport. On the bright side I did get some pretty stellar ice cream at Tillamook Creamery.

Second, I processed a LOT of samples from our field collections. Every water and eelgrass sample gets filtered for DNA for qPCR (quantitative polymerase chain reaction) so we can start to identify whose fecal bacteria have made it into the bay (human, cow, chicken, or otherwise). Sediment, water, and eelgrass samples also need to be diluted down for IDEXX testing; this detects the presence of certain indicator bacteria such as Enterococci ssp. and fecal coliform and generates the most probable number of bacteria per 100ml of sample. We also enrich many of the samples with growth media to try and grow Salmonella, E. coli, etc. to see if they are present in the samples.

Third and finally, I started doing some research for my own side project that will feed into my work at the EPA: how eelgrass biology could play a role in enabling the retention of indicator bacteria in the Bay. I’m mostly reading papers right now but I’m going to start work on a lit review next week. Hopefully it works out and I can use it as part of my poster!

That’s all for this week! I’ve put a link to some of the fieldwork pictures below, sadly nobody thought to take a picture while we were struggling in the mud haha.

Summer is here! (finally)

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It’s the first day of summer today, and with the sunshine came our ten new Summer Scholars! This past Monday, orientation at the Corvallis Sea Grant office was followed by a trip to Newport where eight of our scholars met their agency mentors and moved in to the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) dorms. On Tuesday, Sarah Kolesar, Mary Pleasant and I headed down to the south coast to drop off two more of our Scholars, Lexi and Collin. Lexi is stationed in Bandon working for the Wild Rivers Coast Alliance (WRCA), and Collin is living in Charleston and working for the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (SSNERR). This was my first opportunity to visit these beautiful locations, and to be honest, I never wanted to leave! The South Slough Visitor Center is interactive, modern and well designed, which is coupled with an adventurous forest setting with winding trails throughout. The housing for SSNERR interns are yurts that sit up high in the forest overlooking the slough, which makes for a stunning view every day. In Bandon we saw the newly built WRCA offices that are located on the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, which I found out is ranked number one for golf resorts in the nation! These offices are architecturally appealing with outdoor seating available that overlooks a small lake – a perfect place for lunch. Check out Lexi and Collin’s blogs for photos to see for yourself. We happened upon delightful, sunny weather, which always makes the coast seem ten times more breathtaking in my opinion. We also encountered some delicious food at Shark Bites restaurant in Coos Bay – I highly recommend the Dungeness crab eggs benedict!

As summer continues we are gearing up for expectations meetings with our scholars and host agencies, as well as the much anticipated mid-summer check in and camping trip! We will be heading to Trout Creek Campground, which is about an hour from Corvallis, to spend some time exploring more sections of Oregon. Seeing as none of our Scholars are Oregonians this year, we encourage them to make the most of their summer in Oregon and adventure as much as possible. There’s no place more amazing than the Pacific Northwest in the summer months – warm days, plenty of lakes and rivers, flowers and trees all around, mountains to hike or even ski, well you get the idea! I’m kept plenty busy between my two jobs at Oregon Sea Grant (OSG) and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), but I am certainly making time for camping and hiking in these next months. Even as a native Oregonian, there are still plenty of places I haven’t yet discovered. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know!

First Thoughts (…Best Thoughts?)

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Hello there.

Thank you for checking out this blog. As you probably already know, I (Claire) am one of the students participating in the Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholars Program for Undergraduates. This summer, I am working for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) on a project to research the recreational ocean Dungeness crab fishery and recreational Dungeness crab fishing gear. I’ll explain more about that in a bit.

A little about me before I launch into a week-by-week account of my life: I just finished my junior year at Indiana University (IU) in Bloomington (well, not all at Indiana University – I spent the spring semester studying in the Dutch Caribbean) where I am majoring in Biology. I have focused on lab work in my short time in the research world, but studying Dungeness crabs calls for getting out in the field, measuring some crabs, and chatting with people. The remainder of my time will be spent analyzing data and learning other things (which may or may not include learning R and driving a truck with a boat trailer attached – I’ll let you know). Conclusion: this summer I am getting a taste of fieldwork, working on my social skills, and reviving my relationship with math. Three birds with one stone.

And, as usual, I’m procrastinating.

I arrived in Newport to chilly and damp weather on Monday after our orientation in Corvallis. As most beginnings seem to be, Monday was hectic – it was filled with driving, grocery shopping, unpacking, meeting new people, divvying up closet and refrigerator space…

The rest of the week simultaneously flew by and felt much longer than six days. Maybe because I was meeting so many new people and doing so many new and varied things every day…every hour, even. Tuesday brought my first day on the job, a trip to Rogue Brewery, and Funfetti cake for Justin’s (another Scholar’s) birthday. Getting to know the seven other people here with me has been such a treat, especially against the backdrop of beautiful Newport. Watching the sunset from the South Jetty, visiting the popular bayfront restaurant Local Ocean, going to the [ferociously windy] beach, seeing Yaquina Head Lighthouse…I couldn’t ask for a better place to spend our time. If my body would maintain the temperature of a normal human being and let me wear less than five layers that would be even better. But it’s okay. Hiking boots and wool socks are my new flip-flops.

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My week during the hours of 8:30 AM to 5 PM was no less eventful. This week, I got a crash course in the recreational Dungeness crab fishery. While there has been ongoing data collection on the sizes of crabs caught in the estuary, this information is lacking for ocean-caught crabs. So, my job will be to start getting some data there. To do this, of course, I have to learn how to handle/measure crabs. After Justin (my mentor) took me shopping for a pair of boots, lent me some rain gear, and took me out to measure some crabs we caught in the bay, I feel like I am well on my way. I didn’t get pinched, at least. And we found a message in a bottle! A plastic water bottle. But a bottle nonetheless.

I also learned about the problem that derelict fishing gear poses to the environment (a larger one than I had realized). A lost crab pot can continue catching crabs for months to years after it is lost. Crabs crawl in the pot, die, become lunch for more crabs, and so on. I’ll be asking crabbers (that return from crabbing in both the estuary and the ocean) questions about lost gear to feel out just how big this problem is. Oregon already has a Post-Season Derelict Gear Recovery Program, but perhaps there is more that needs to be done. Hopefully, I’ll have at least part of an answer to this question by the end of the summer. There are other issues involving crabbing gear as well, including that of floating vs. sinking line. Crabbers are encouraged to use sinking line because floating line can cause navigational problems for other boats. Oregon does not have laws concerning this issue, but Washington does. “To regulate or educate???” seems to be the overarching question with these gear problems. Hopefully, some of my data will help people to eventually make that choice.

To sum up: my first week has been packed with learning new info and skills. I have some wonderful roommates and program-mates (hi, boys) to help pass the time when I’m not huddled in orange rain gear elbow-deep in a bucket of crabs. But in all seriousness, I am thrilled that I get participate in marine science research and get my feet wet in the resource management side of things. As I spent more time at the lab bench, I became more aware of the importance of not only scientific research but also education and communication with the public. In the coming weeks, I get to bridge that gap by hanging around the docks, clipboard in hand.

Hey, you still there? Thank you for making it this far. Catch you next week.

 

Greetings from Newport, Oregon

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Yaquina Bay State Park

The last couple of months have brought a lot of change. From applying to jobs and internships, to graduating, to moving out of my minuscule apartment in LA, to moving here- it’s been quite the adventure. Welcome or unwelcome, these events have all pushed me closer and closer to the real adult world. As young and carefree (or perhaps naive) as I’d like to be, there’s nothing more sobering than the prospects of figuring out my future and the reality that money can determine what happens in my future. And while I don’t want it to be the most important thing, I do recognize the value in understanding the role money has in the world.  

Albeit, economics is not a field I’m very familiar with, I’m extremely excited to be working with the OSU Lincoln County Extension Office on a project to assess the economic and business impacts of direct marketing programs that help marine businesses of Yaquina Bay. An astounding amount of seafood caught off the Oregon Coast is shipped elsewhere; hence, research was done on the impacts of direct marketing (also known as community-supported fisheries) in the hopes of understanding which fishermen can benefit from these programs. It found that many consumers felt intimidated or unfamiliar buying off the docks.

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Flyers for Shop at the Dock

And so began Shop at the Dock (now going into its third summer!), which is an event that provides free, guided educational tours of commercial fishing docks in Newport, allowing customers to learn about fisheries, meet local fisherman, and buy fresh, locally caught fish. This project combines all of my interests- education, community building and outreach, and the environment- so I’m really grateful and excited to get started.

During my first week, I spent time getting acquainted with the Extension Office. I was amazed to hear about all the work they do, including running the 4-H Youth Program to Family and Community Health Programs. I have my very own (and first!) office with a fantastically distracting view of Yaquina Bay. I also began preparation for Shop at the Dock. One of the highlights of the week was going on a Dock Walk led by my mentor, Kaety Jacobson, and seeing a boat that was rigged to catch hagfish (mmm…dried slime).

I am endlessly in awe of Newport. The weather gets a little gloomy for this California soul, but I love the billowing clouds, the random rain, and the cotton candy sunsets. So far, I’ve had a fantastic time exploring the Newport Farmer’s Market (I ate the pint of blueberries I bought in a day), hiking around Yaquina Head Lighthouse, and laying out on the beach on an exceptionally windy day (my ears are still filled with sand).

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Like-minded (and like-dressed) environmentalists

Newport’s definitely inspired a new playlist this summer, so feel free to listen along. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more on my research and Newport adventures!!

Week 1 – Planting the seed

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…I have always found fish to be intriguing creatures, and as far back as I can remember, I have been enamored with fishing…Each species has its own life history that dictates its diet, location, and behavioral characteristics, and so I studied up on a plethora of them, eager to know more about what makes each one unique as well as how to pursue them…connecting my interest with academics was intuitive – as a biology major specializing in ecology, I was very much interested in fish as a particular subject, and as a recreational angler, I felt as though I had a personal stake in helping to manage our resources. It has become increasingly apparent to me, whether it be through learning about historical stock collapses through my lecture on the tragedy of the commons or hearing the debates regarding recreational regulations each year, the importance of stewardship side by side with research…

I included the above excerpt from my personal essay as a bit of insight into what drove me to apply to the Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholars Program. The focus of my essay was on the tragedy of the commons, a phenomenon that I first came across several years ago when I was still an undergraduate. Now, I’ve found that throughout college there are the courses you enjoy, the courses you tolerate, and the courses that leave you profoundly contemplative of what just transpired in the sixty minutes prior. I can’t say that I was raptly attentive throughout the entirety of my marine biology lectures (I’m looking at you, macroalgae), but our class on the tragedy of the commons was one in which I was not only intrigued by the content matter itself, but also surprised by the fact that I could be so interested in a topic.

Originally conceptualized by William Forster Lloyd in 1883, the tragedy of the commons was popularized by Garrett Hardin in 1968 as an explanation of the consequences of the rapidly expanding human population on resources. In his paper, Hardin summarizes it best in the following thought experiment:

“Picture a pasture open to all. It is to be expected that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as possible on the commons…As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain. Explicitly or implicitly, more or less consciously, he asks, “What is the utility to me of adding one more animal to my herd?”…the rational herdsman concludes that the only sensible course for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd. And another; and another… But this is the conclusion reached by each and every rational herdsman sharing a commons. Therein is the tragedy. Each man is locked into a system that compels him to increase his herd without limit–in a world that is limited. Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in a commons brings ruin to all.”

Since its inception, the tragedy of the commons has been applied to a variety of situations – in the case of my marine biology class, on overfishing. This isn’t even necessarily about blatantly illegal fishing; responsible operations that abide by the law are also part of the problem as we attempt to divide increasingly scarce fisheries among increasingly larger markets. Certainly fishermen have a right to a livelihood, but where do we draw the line between sustainability and human demand? As one can imagine, it’s a complex path studded with bias and contention, one that must be navigated shrewdly if we are to adequately meet the needs of both nature and man. (I recommend reading Hardin’s paper in its entirety to get a stronger understanding on the tragedy of the commons, but be forewarned that the latter parts of the paper adopt a decidedly controversial attitude on human overpopulation).

Which brings us to why I’m here with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW). My area of research this summer is centered on the state’s five marine reserves scattered up and down the coast. Officially enacted in 2012, these reserves are closed to fishing and ocean development, but they are more than simply ecological sanctuaries. The ODFW Marine Reserves Program is closely monitoring their long-term effects with respect to comparison areas, which are open to fishing but still closed to development. In addition to studying the impacts of fishing, the Marine Reserves Program also assesses other abiotic and biotic measures related to the health of Oregon’s coastal ecosystems.

As a research project, these marine reserves were built specifically to be scientific in nature. But they are also simultaneously meant to conserve biodiversity and inform future management of our marine resources. Having already shared my above motivations for pursuing this specific field, I can’t help but feel that that this is the path that much of future ecology work must take, if it hasn’t already started trending in that direction. This is exactly what I meant when I wrote “stewardship side by side with research” in my essay. The effects of what has already occurred under scenarios dictated by the tragedy of the commons are glaring. Overfishing. Water shortages. Fossil fuel usage and the advent of climate change. And so on and so forth; the list will undeniably get longer with time. We’ve already taken so much out of our natural resources, some of it irrevocably. It’s going to take a lot more to restore it back to the way it was.

But enough big picture talk for the time being. My personal role in this endeavor is multifaceted – I’ll be working on anything ranging from SMURF (Standard Monitoring Units for the Recruitment of Fishes) data collection to intertidal sea star surveys to underwater video analysis. I’ll also be spending part of my time on the communications aspect of the project, namely video editing and social media outreach. So far, I’ve been dutifully busy reading material, visiting the aquarium to solidify my fish identification skills, and conducting SMURF fieldwork.

We’ll see what the next week brings.

Newport: My new place

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The past few weeks have been exciting and eventful. I returned home after spending a year abroad studying at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton England. Only to unpack, repack and once again say goodbye to home and move into the dorms at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon.

My first office

My first office

As far as life in Oregon goes, I am a huge fan. The beach is a 20-minute walk to the west, a campus full of marine science experts sits to the east and a sand volleyball court is just outside my doorstep. I have met some awesome young scientists that share my passion for the ocean from all corners of the USA and I get to live with three of the friendliest and funniest ones! We have spent the weekend exploring the beach and the cute casual coastal town of Newport, complete with quirky coffee shops, delicious seafood and a picturesque lighthouse.

 This week I started my internship with the EPA. After finally ticking all of the federal government’s safety training boxes and moving into my first office, I sat down with my mentors to hear all about the Coastal Biodiversity Risk Analysis Tool (CBRAT), the project I will be working on the next ten weeks.

CBRAT is a program that attempts to define the potential risks climate change poses for marine species living in the Gulf of California up through the Beaufort Sea. The first phase of CBRAT involved cataloging hundreds of marine species, their traits habitats, ranges and taxonomic information. It’s an impressive feat, and some of the data is already available to the public here: http://www.cbrat.org/.

I will be contributing to the second phase of CBRAT that looks at the primary risks climate change poses to ocean creatures through sea level rise, warmer ocean temperatures and ocean acidification.

Sunset over the dunes

Sunset over the dunes

My research focus is ocean acidification. Many marine organisms use calcium carbonate to make their shells. As the ocean becomes more acidic calcium carbonate becomes more difficult for calcifying marine organisms like shellfish and plankton to obtain. The good news is some organisms have adaptations that allow them to live in lower pH environments, but the bad news is these adaptations are highly variable and not entirely understood for many species. That’s where I come in; I will be going through the existing literature and identifying characteristics that make ocean acidification a higher or lower risk for a particular organism and developing pH tolerance parameters for different marine taxa.

I am excited for a summer full of long walks on the beach, epic sunsets, improving my sand volleyball game and lots of marine science! Stay posted for updates on my research, adventures and sea creature fun facts.

 

Life on the coast

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After traveling across the country for 11 days and putting 4,000 miles on my car, I finally arrived in Newport, Oregon! This being my first time on the West Coast, I really didn’t know what to expect. I recently graduated college in upstate New York so I was more than ready to see and live in a new part of the country. As of right now I can say that I am really enjoying my time here and I am very excited to see what the rest of the summer has in store for me and the research team I am working with.

My internship is stationed at the EPA’s Pacific Coastal Ecology Branch under Dr. Ted DeWitt. Our research team consists primarily of Ted, Jody, Daryl, Katie (another intern in the group), and myself (all pictured below except for me). We are looking primarily at characterizing how water moves through various salt marshes around Tillamook Bay, OR and seeing if we can use various models (that were created for other outside sites) at these sites to predict changes in the environment due to different factors. To eventually accomplish that goal, Katie and I will be analyzing soil cores to look at the hydrology, soil chemistry, and soil physics of these salt marshes.

I originally found out about the Summer Scholars program when I was looking at OSU for graduate school. I’m really passionate about studying water quality and one of my long term goals is to be able to participate in creating a management plan for a certain area to improve coastal water quality while appeasing local business owners and nearby residents. This is why I am so excited to be a part of this research. Even though I won’t be here to see the project all the way through, I am very confident that the work we are doing will lead to more knowledge about Tillamook Bay and management plans will have a greater chance of being established in this area.

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The picture above was taken this past Thursday in Tillamook Bay when we were installing wells in the salt marshes to track the water pressure in different areas of the marsh. It was a surprisingly beautiful day considering the weather was predicted to consist of severe rain and possible thunderstorms. It was the one day so far in Oregon where we completely missed any sort of rainfall. This was my first experience conducting field work in salt marshes and it was a lot of fun. We used a corer to take out soil cores in the marsh which were then sectioned off and soil characteristics were identified while we were still in the field. Wells made out of PVC piping were then installed and HOBO (yeah I know it’s a weird name but that’s just what they’re called) sensors were put into the wells to measure the water pressure over time. We should be going back to this particular site in about a month to remove the sensors and analyze the water pressure data.

We now have eight cores to analyze from Thursday, plus the four cores taken from site 7 before we arrived in Newport, AND now we have water pressure data to work with…so I am currently preparing for a very busy week ahead of me. Knowing that my contribution to this project will hopefully improve the health of the environment and possibly even the standard of living in the Tillamook area makes me really excited to analyze the data.

Other aspects of living in Newport and being a Summer Scholar are getting to explore the area and getting to meet other like-minded individuals from across the country.

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My roommates and I went to the Yaquina Head lighthouse on Saturday and I highly recommend going! It was beautiful and the area has great intertidal zone access. I definitely suggest looking at a tide chart before going and planning your trip around low tide so you can go out further and see more. We went to a nearby beach today which was also beautiful but windy. Very windy. Hopefully the next time we try to go the conditions will be a little better. I’m still having trouble getting all of the sand out of my clothes.

Hopefully I’ll have some really interesting data and some beautiful pictures to share next week!

The Oregon South Coast: Week One

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My first week as an Oregon State Summer Sea Scholar has been busy, but already fulfilling. It’s impossible to document every experience that I’ve had, but looking back on my week, there are several moments that stand out. I’ll organize the post by these moments, and hopefully this will make it easier for you to read too – you can skip the less intriguing subtitles.

Part 1: “Where are the hipsters?” (A story of expectations)

I’m almost embarrassed to say that I didn’t know much about this region, or Oregon generally before I had arrived. My academic interests surround environmental policy, and I’ve studied Oregon’s history within (really, initiators of) the U.S. environmental movement, and many of their successful environmental policies are fascinating, so I wanted to learn about these aspects on the ground. But my academic research on the histories and policies of the region failed to prepare for the cultural and geographic differences from my Mid-West home. Flying in, I had no idea that there were so many mountains here! I knew about Mt. Hood, and the mountains in Washington, but mountains, a coast, and a seasonal in-land climate? Oregon, you cool. I also expected just about everyone to be wearing flannel, skinny jeans, and thick-rimmed glasses, but I don’t think I saw a one! There were plenty of Starbucks in the airport, though, and I haven’t had a shortage of coffee while here, so that expectation was met. Also no one told me how cold it was; coming from Missouri, our summers are 100 degrees and humid, but here? Highs of 65 and breezy? I can see why Nike set up shop, you can run forever! Also these trees. Man, the trees! Gorgeous conifers, towering over 70 ft! I thought just the Redwoods (which, I also got to see a “baby” Redwood on the OSU campus) could grow this tall, but their average tree here is a giant. Really helps put the world in perspective biking among this giants to work.

Mount St. Helens, the river in Newport, and my new hat

 

Part 2: The pokey bike ride

Speaking of biking, that brings me to my first story. So I had just arrived at my new place (also gorgeous, by-the-way — huge ceilings, two stories, queen bed with my own private bath — definitely didn’t expect any of that. Oh, also laundry is right-next-door and I have yet to see anyone else in there), and I was about ready to take my requisite daily nap, when it occurred to me that I had absolutely no food. While I wasn’t hungry then, I reasoned that by the time I woke up, biked the 10 mile roundtrip to town, and fixed my dinner, it’d be too late. Talking myself out of my nap (very hard to do), I took off down the road I was told led to Bandon (there’s only one road…). I didn’t get very far when I noticed that the seat on the bike that was donated (thanks a million, OSU!) was a bit too high (surprise, I’m really short). I bent down and realized that the only way to move the seat was with a wrench. So I piddle-paddled-peddled on down to town, choosing between bruising my tailbone and getting poked in the rear with the seat (a difficult decision). After a couple of stores, a lady (in a pharmacy, no less), directed me towards the section that included a wrench, wahlah! She was very surprised by how excited I was to find and purchase such a strange item, and so I explained my long and arduous journey. She laughed and said, “Well now you can add a wrench to your toolbox.” “Great,” I replied, “it will include one wrench.” But it was a wrench that I was able to comfortably peddle on back to my house (with some yummy groceries that I was also very excited for upon returning).

Downtown Bandon, and the infamous bike

Part 3: Person, Place, Thing (First Day on the Job)

Wow, is Bandon Dunes stunning (photos linked). I had looked up photos before coming, but nothing compared to standing out on the course, warmed by the sun, cooled by the ocean breeze, and in awe as these elements played with the seemingly-endless rolling hills, unbelievably tall trees, and sparkling sand dunes. When I first saw Bandon Dunes, it felt like I was in a dream. Every morning biking to work, it still takes my breath away as I roll through the forest, come down the hill into the resort, and its vast beauty strikes me again. Best perk: I can walk amongst this beauty during my lunch break (see photos from my lunch spot, and a few great trails that I’ve visited).

Bandon Dunes

For the actual “work”, I get to do what I love, research, for a cause I support. A bit on Wild Rivers Coast Alliance (WRCA) – they’re a local non-profit that is funded by the proceeds from Bandon Preserve, a 13-hole, 3-par course open to anyone at a much lower cost than the other courses at Bandon Dunes. Mike Keiser, the visionary, creator, and owner of Bandon Dunes, created WRCA to help give back to the community. We work with local businesses, other non-profits, and the state to fund projects that meet the “triple-bottom-line” of conservation, community, and economy. We help the south coast develop sustainably, which are exactly my academic interests. My job? Provide information to make this happen. Currently I’m working on a report of the Oregon Coast Trail that I’ll provide to Travel Oregon on how to increase the accessibility of the trail, while protecting the ecosystem that it runs though. Later, I’ll be compiling data on the tourism initiatives in the region to help develop curriculum for Oregon State’s new tourism program. I’ll also get to work with a fantastic local organization called “Washed Ashore”, which collects local sea debris and turns it into art, and then a conversation about the effects of sea litter on our ecosystems (see photo of “Henry the Fish” who lives in downtown Bandon). Basically, this position is perfect. It’s like no other “job” I’ve had before because it doesn’t feel like a job. Every day I am excited to show up and learn as much as possible to support such a great cause. Thank you to everyone who has helped to make this organization, and I am so grateful to be a part of the team.

Meet Henry, from Washed Ashore

Part 4: “Do you know how I can get to Portland?”

When I envisioned Oregon before my arrival, I guess I basically thought that it would be Portland all across the state… that’s a bad assumption. But with that assumption I also thought that I would be just fine trying to navigate around with just a bike. Oregon is bike-friendly, right? Sort of. What I didn’t realize was just how small Bandon is (the town where my program is), and just how far away it is from everything else (even my office is 2 miles from where I live, so I’m getting into some decent shape, whether I want to or not).

I’ve also been lucky enough to receive a scholarship for my tuition. I’m truly grateful, but one of a few stipulations of the scholarship is that I have to attend a workshop in the middle of the summer, meaning that I had to determine how to get from Bandon to KC and back again as quickly as possible. For my Missouri friends, I likened this task to trying to get from Camdenton (similar to Bandon) to either Springfield (like Eugene, has a smaller airport) or Kansas City (like Portland, large-ish airport with more options, but much farther away) with only a bike. Now, I lived in Camdenton for over 5 years, and I wouldn’t be able to tell someone how to do that. Do they have an Amtrak? I’m pretty sure there’s an Amtrak from Jeff City to KC, but how would you get to Jeff? Local bus from Osage Beach? And then I’m not sure if there’s a local bus from Camdenton to Osage Beach? My point is, I’ve learned what I didn’t know about myself growing up in a small town – we don’t take public transportation, because there basically isn’t any. If you live in a small town, chances are you have to commute to a larger town for most things, and so you’ll need a car, which I’m running short on. So after many conversations (a lot very similar to my description of transportation in rural Missouri), lots of google searches, and tremendous help from my travel enthusiast/saint of a grandmother, I found a route that includes a couple 30-min taxis, 2 greyhound buses, two flights, including the “red-eye” flight (1 am departure) from Las Vegas into KC, and finally a 3-hr drive to my workshop in Columbia, MO. That’s the trip out, I’m still working on getting back in since I just found out that there are no buses back to Bandon on Saturdays. I’ll keep you posted.

Looking forward: Week 2

If you’re still reading, (thanks!), you’re probably wondering about several aspects of my experience that I haven’t mentioned. This certainly isn’t close to everything that I have to talk about, including my roommates, workmates, and the wonderful people I’ve met around Bandon so far. But I’m sure I’ll fill in the gaps as the weeks progress and I continue posting. I’ve already set out some goals for the summer, for my internship, professionally, and personally, and I’m excited to share those next time!

Skyler’s Weekly Review – Week 1

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The Buzz: Newport, ODFW & SEACOR, UAVs and GIS

Newport: Consistent temperature. Inconsistent weather. Weather prediction apps wildly inaccurate. Prepare for rain AND sun. Quaint maritime/fishing community reinforced by the presence of the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC). Excellent farmer’s market on Saturdays.
P.S. Like many before me, I too have now contributed to the pool of images of the Yaquina Bay Bridge (See Left).

 

ODFW & SEACOR: The Shellfish and Estuarine Assessment of Coastal Oregon (SEACOR, pronounced “seeker”), is operated under the auspices of the Marine Resources Program of ODFW and is primarily funded by recreational shellfish licenses. They have enlisted my help for field work in several major Oregon estuaries. Additionally, I have been tasked with aiding in operating and evaluating Unmanned Aerial Vehicles’ (UAVs) potential for rapid assessment of shellfish burrow hole counts and eelgrass estimates. Utilizing various software, UAV imagery is stitched (also called a mosaic), referenced to a position on the planet, and exported for further use and/or analysis in a Geographic Information System (GIS).

 

 

UAVs: Often given a bad rap for landing on the White House lawn and interrupting firefighting flights, UAVs (or more commonly, drones) remain an undeniably game-changing technology in photogrammetry and scientific research due to their affordability and ease of use. We will be primarily utilizing a Turbo Ace Matrix quadcopter: a reliable, lightweight carbon-fiber/aluminum bodied UAV carrying a Sony RX100 camera sensor.

 

GIS: In order to utilize the UAV imagery with computer mapping tools (i.e. ArcGIS), we need to position several Ground Control Points (GCPs) along the anticipated flight path of our UAV. GCPs allow us to make geographic ties between the images we collect and the real coordinates of the high-accuracy GCPs. Our GPS coordinates will be collected using a professional-grade Trimble GPS receiver prior to the UAV flight. Once our imagery and GCPs are collected we can “georeference” our imagery so that we can make more accurate calculations.

Next week: Estuary Field Work, RStudio, and more!