Plastic Campaign Web Mail Manager Needed! This technologically savy individual is needed to help merge all of our petition signers into a cooler email account so we can message to them and coalition groups. Please contact Charlie at cplybon@surfrider.org
As you can see we had an enthusiastic group of youthful volunteers at the February 4th beach cleanup. Oh what fun it was to comb the the south jetty beach with this crew of high school activists. Thank you volunteers!! With a total of 10 people in 2 hours we managed to fill 12 bags of trash, and haul away a load of Styrofoam and a disintegrating fiberglass boat. Our ocean is that much cleaner, keep up the good work!
Under warm sunny skies, a total of 41 volunteers came out by boat and via land for just a few hours to help cleanup our beloved Siuslaw River. In total the crew hauled in a whopping 1600 pounds! Some of the more frequent items encountered included large chunks of styrofoam, plastic bottles, tires, and plastic bags. After all of the hard work, volunteers met up at the Wakonda Brewery Tasting Room for some cool libations and a BBQ, with some great music by the local band Sun House. Thank you so much to everyone who came out and helped to keep all of this trash from ending up in the ocean and on our beaches! Extra special thanks to Siuslaw Chapter Volunteer Coordinator Melisa Buckwald for her great leadership in organizing this event! The Siuslaw Chapter has officially adopted the Siuslaw Estuary from the Siuslaw Bridge up to Cushman through SOLV’s Adopt-A-River program, the next cleanup event will be on August 27th so mark your calendars now and tell your friends! Check out a few more pics that made the front page of the Siuslaw News here
For those of you wondering what has happened over the past few months to Siuslaw member Geth Noble…well, here you go:
Siulsaw Chapter Members Review Various Local Marine Reserve Scenarios
Congratulations to the newly elected chapter executive board for the Siuslaw Chapter! John Tipple – Chair, Ian Jarman – Vice Chair, Melisa Buckwald – Volunteer Coordinator, Jakki Todd – Treasurer and Johanna Finley – Secretary. Welcome aboard our new Siuslaw chapter leaders!
The topic of alternative ocean energy (i.e. wave energy) has been one of much interest in Oregon and among Oregon Chapters over the past 3 years. Since developing the Statement on Wave Energy in Oregon (below) and taking the administrative action of filling a motion of intervention on specific projects, Surfrider now has a seat in statewide planning processes thru their representation of recreational ocean users on the Territorial Sea Plan Advisory Committee. Non-consumptive recreational users comprise a significant stakeholder interest in planning processes due to the diversity of activities, level of participation, spatial distribution along the coast, and economic contributions to the economy of Oregon. In partnership with the State of Oregon, Ecotrust, and Natural Equity we are about to collect spatial information of various recreational uses from up and down the Oregon Coast. Your participation in this study is highly encouraged, good studies require accurate information and broad participation. Look for more info to come on this soon. A case study of a similar effort is the work this past summer completed by our graduate intern Marissa Matsler from Yale University. Marissa initiated a recreational use study for Douglas County in relation to the proposed wave energy device to be built within the Jetty. Click on the link below to read the final report.
Coming off a recent strategic planning retreat, the Siuslaw Chapter executive members are leading the charge into 2010 with a whole range of opportunities for the community to engage in the protection and enjoyment of your ocean, waves and beaches! Chapter meetings will now be held on the 1st Wednesday of the month, with a surf movie to be screened every other month, alternated with a feature presentation on various coastal and ocean issues. The meetings will be held in the Bromley Room of the Siuslaw Public Library on 9th street in Florence, meetings are open to the public and all ages are welcome to attend. The chapter welcomes their newest member on the Executive Committee, Melisa Buckwald as Volunteer Coordinator, and Jon Tipple who steps in as the new Vice-Chair. Look for lots of fun and exciting events to come in the following months on the events calendar.
Just a snippet from one of the sites on the lower river. Thank you so much to all who were able to participate in Saturday’s First Annual Siuslaw Adopt-a-River Cleanup. Under the spectacular leadership of Melisa Buckwald, the Siuslaw Chapter of Surfrider Foundation was able to pull off a great effort for making stewardhsip of land-sea connections within the Siuslaw watershed. Boats, kayaks, boards and swimmers hit the water pulling out around 1000 lbs of debris destined for the ocean. Also many thanks to our sponsors and supporters from the fundraising party to the clean up elbow grease! Thanks to SOLV, Siuslaw Watershed Council, Central Coast Water Sports for flotation donation, Lane County Disposal, Wakonda and Ninkasi Brewery.
This past weekend the Siuslaw Chapter held their first Pint-Night fundraiser under the title of the “Foam Fest”. The event was an effort to highlight the chapters on-going campaigns including the Blue Water Task Force, as well as increasing membership, and signing up volunteers for the Siuslaw River Cleanup on July 18th. Due in large part to the generous support of the Bay Street Grille, local rock band KUSH, Ninkasi and Wakonda Breweries, Barefoot Wine and many local business’ and chapter volunteers, the event was a huge success! Many people signed up to volunteer for the Cleanup while at the event, but if you know of others who are interested, tell them to contact Melisa Buckwald at 541-521-3744, surflivelove@yahoo.com or simply show up at either the Port Dock, Benders Landing, Cushman, Mapleton, Swisshome, Indian Creek, and Deadwood on July 18th at 11am (some sites may be slightly altered depending on level of interest).
(Pictured at Right: The ladies were in awe of Geth Noble (far left), longtime big wave charger, owner of Airspeed Skate Parks, and Foam Fest push-up contest champion. Also pictured are chapter members Melonie Rollin, Tres Tucker, Danele Sundstrom (Women’s Champion), and Heidi Jarman & Brittany Getz- lead organizers of the event, as well as an unidentified new recruit in purple.)
