Drought declarations, wildfires, municipal water restrictions, beach and park fire bans, welcome to the new Oregon? Climate change skeptic one woefully may be, but Oregonians are feeling some serious change and it sure as heck has a lot to do with the climate! We'd like to think we're immune to certain aspects of California here in Oregon, especially on the coast; but, the Golden State's climate is creeping in, her policies are following and recreational users on the coast are feeling "out of state".
Let's begin here by stating that we'll be using the term climate change a bit in this piece and we mean exactly what it literally sounds like so please try and remove any political loading you may have behind the term. Climate change is all to often caught in the political crossfire of technical and scientific modeling that helps us either forecast a marginally optimistic or dreaded doomsday future scenario, but what we can all agree on is change is happening at an accelerated rate around us. And while the physical and environmental changes get much attention and study in the climate change arena, the more cultural or human dimension changes and impacts, largely understudied, are likely the most identifiable to the general public.
Ask any Oregon coastal resident about these changes and while they might not make the climate change connection, they'll tell you all about the "Californication" of our coast among a multitude of other sensory, economic, and general well-being impacts. These daily life impacts we feel on the Oregon coast right now might just be one of the best climate change forecasters that connects to all of us. Rather than ramble the physical and environmental impacts of ocean acidification, sea level rise, increased erosion, storm activity and wave heights, etc., let's consider a few things here that are changing in a social context on the Oregon coast - the changes we feel today that just might have quite a bit to do with climate and our future.
The Oregon coast is beginning to lose her solitude.
What use to be empty beaches and parking lots in the winter have become speckled with recreational users, denied their mountain snow and retreating to the coast. This past winter and spring nearly all coastal parks and tourism facilities were breaking visitation records and anecdotally recreational users are attributing their visits to the lack of snow on the mountain. This summer has been no different, although the attribution is to the valley heat. Coastal residents and recreational users identify with solitude and struggle with "busy"...be it traffic on the street, on the beach or in the line up. Climate change has us questioning coastal solitude, scenic enjoyment, that 5 minute drive that's now 20, and most importantly, what "busy" means on our ocean and coastal natural resources.
Pacific City on the 4th of July, beyond busy
Coastal Economic Climate is hot
So increased visitation means more money in the coastal economy which is great...or is it? Booming coastal economy can mean a lot of good things for coastal residents and business owners, but a growing economy doesn't always equate to a healthy environment, cultural preservation or general well-being. Small coastal communities that get sudden booms in their economy can create huge shifts in the very culture and fabric of the community. Depending on your values, these shifts can be very positive or quite negative, they can make a community stronger or they can tear it apart. A peak at the history, shifting and sometimes clashing cultures in Pacific City may look very different to you as a Native American, a surfer, a doryman or a local business owner today. A deeper look at the PC history demonstrates how our climate and natural resources drove nearly all of this economic interest and resulting cultural changes over the years...from the Great Fire of 1845 driving early settlement to the temperate beaches and sheltered cove at Kiwanda beckoning hotel interests for traveling tourists. Where a tribal settlement once lay became the Kiwanda Fish Factory and today lies an RV park. Curry county, once an economy thriving on timber and commercial fisheries in the wildest of coastal settings may soon be an economy of golf and resort destinations. As the capital flows in those developers interests, the parks that we value become dubiously undermined.
A Pacific City doryman arrives a lone beach circa early 1900s
What's that rule?
Those who love to recreate and take advantage of the Oregon coast's splendors and magic tend to run within a counter-culture of rules and establishment. But if we are to like it wild in the sense of both establishment and general scenic nature, we have to be willing to protect that wildness through natural resource preservation and stewardship as well as make some compromises around establishment of rules that protect the very core of our "wild coast" interests. Case in point, a big change this season related to climate on the Oregon coast is, for the first time in Oregon history, a ban on fires on our beaches and ocean shores. While Surfrider fully supports this action, it's not what we want to see the norm; and moreover, the ban's current social impacts, although surmountable, we didn't exactly anticipate. The tiki torches at my buddy's wedding had to be 86'd, the Newport Chapter had to change plans on their beach bonfire meeting this past week and our annual end of the summer bonfire bash has been cancelled. Little rules relating to our current climate and natural resource state can ripple into cultural changes, many upon us now with watering restrictions and fire bans.
It's evident that many cultural changes are happening around us on the coast and while these changes have played out through history in various forms and under many natural resource factors, it's evident today that some of our most rapid changes have some strong climate connections and influence. And whenever I hear the grumblings of the "Californication" of the Oregon coast, I think back to what it was that drove people, natural resource and cultural change to the California coast in the first place. It behooves us in Oregon to look at more than just the natural resource impacts and appropriate actions to adapt to climate change, but to look deeper into the social and cultural values which we want to preserve as recreational users and coastal communities.