It’s been another unbelievable year for us at Surfrider in Oregon and we have you, our dedicated local chapters, members, and volunteers to thank for some huge wins for our ocean, waves, and beaches. We pushed major ocean conservation investments in Oregon’s Marine Reserves over the finish line during Oregon’s short legislative session, we’re razor close with public access at Lighthouse Beach, we launched our Oregon Beaches Forever campaign and secured multiple victories for our coasts and recreational users, and launched new projects to tackle plastic pollution at its source.
Read more below on each of our key initiatives and the successes from this year that our Oregon Surfrider network made a reality.
From the Field
This year, we celebrated Surfrider’s 40th anniversary- that means 40 years of protecting the places we love and being a force for good on our coasts and in our communities. We again rallied from Oregon’s State Capitol to our nation’s Capitol, activating hundreds of voices through our Coastal Recreation Hill Day.
We also had the opportunity to convene with other Surfrider activists from around the country and globe at Surfrider’s Super Summit, a quinquennial conference of over 200 chapters and student clubs. There, several Oregon chapters were recognized with Coastal Champion Awards for their outstanding contributions to Surfrider’s mission.
The Coos Bay Chapter won Most Impactful Campaign for their work to reopen Lighthouse Beach; the Portland Chapter won the Innovation Award for their Green Streets Program; the Newport Chapter won Best Beach Cleanup Program and Best Event for the Otter Rock and Roll Youth Surf Competition, which celebrated its 14th year in 2024 with 55 participants and 41 volunteers. This event remains Oregon’s longest-running and only surf contest designed solely for kids, complete with a best beginner division to support young learners.
Oregon’s Mike Harrington also won a coveted Wavemaker Award for Chapter Leadership, beating out stiff competition from across the Western states and Hawai’i. His leadership in shaping the Newport Chapter and making Otter Rock and Roll into the signature event that it is today is a shining example of how to work hard and play hard, and we are lucky to have him on the Oregon team!
A Wavemaker Award for Outstanding Contribution was also awarded to Steve Shipsey, who has been volunteering in various positions with Surfrider since 1992. Steve helped found Surfrider’s first chapter in Oregon, and most recently he completed his second term on our national Board of Directors. Steve continues to serve the Portland Chapter and Surfrider’s Legal Issues Committee.
We are incredibly proud of and inspired by the work that you, our activist network, have accomplished for our oceans and coasts. Here’s a top line summary of key outcomes and highlights from each of our priority initiatives:
We’ve seen huge growth in our plastic pollution initiative this year, in programs, policy, and people! After over 4 years of advocacy to get Oregon's health and food code on track to curb single use plastics and build space for reuse, restaurants in Oregon are able to accept reusable containers for to-go and take out. Surfrider members and chapters engaged in the final rulemaking efforts this summer making reuse a reality for Oregon restaurants!
Joining our team this year through a collaborative fellowship with Oregon Sea Grant is Dr. Sarah Wolf, our new Aquaculture Marine Debris Policy Fellow. Over the next year, Sarah will be working with Oregon aquaculture industry professionals, policymakers, engineers, volunteers, and scientists to tackle a critical issue in Yaquina Bay: marine debris from oyster aquaculture facilities. While Oregon has existing laws on the books requiring encapsulation of polystyrene (foam) docks, it is an imperfect solution, as these materials still degrade in the environment, threatening our estuarine resources as well as oyster consumers. By raising awareness around aquaculture-related marine debris, the project hopes to promote sustainable practices and help modernize the industry for the future. If you’re looking to get involved, be on the lookout for our four cleanups in Yaquina Bay, to be scheduled throughout 2025! Check out her 2024 wrap up, and stay up to date with Sarah’s progress and learn more about the project on our website.
This year saw the expansion of Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly program, with the launch of our new Ocean Friendly Hotels program. Similar to our successful Ocean Friendly Restaurants program, we offer a simple framework for hotels looking to reduce their plastic footprint and drive behavior change. The result is a network of businesses that we can promote as leaders in sustainability. We are excited to have two north coast hotels- the Bowline Hotel and Ashore Hotel- on board and look forward to growing this program in 2025.
Oregon chapters have had a huge impact for our beaches this year, hosting 55 beach and inland cleanups, engaging 1,174 volunteers and removing nearly 7,000 lbs of trash! Thanks to funding from NOAA, we were able to expand our July 5th cleanups in Lincoln County this summer and increase capacity with the addition of Jennie Warmack as our seasonal Marine Debris Outreach Coordinator. Through the efforts of many volunteers and collaboration with Lincoln County, local waste haulers, and several community partners, we were able to prevent 638 pounds of debris by placing extra trash receptacles at beach access points throughout the county, and removed 912 pounds of debris during 13 cleanups over the holiday weekend.
Top Stories
Cleaning up After the “Dirtiest Beach Day of the Year”
Oregon Restaurants on Track for Reusable Rulemaking
Surfrider’s Ocean Friendly Program is Growing
Plastic Pollution Policies & Programs Team Up
Explosive July 5th Results in Lincoln County
Last year marked the ten year anniversary for Oregon’s Marine Reserves and Protected Areas, a major ocean protection and conservation achievement for the state of Oregon that has been a priority for Surfrider since their designations. These underwater parks are havens for wildlife, critical habitat, fisheries, and support climate resiliency. Critically important to their success is funding consistent, long term research and monitoring. We were extremely pleased to see the near unanimous support of this year’s legislative campaign and associated investment in Oregon’s marine reserve - an effort that could not have been accomplished without your broad support and that of our partners and coalition members. These areas are sentinel sites for not just listening to and understanding our ocean environment, but understanding community and cultural needs related for informing management - we’ve got more work cut out for us next year to sustain that investment, stay tuned!
At the crux of climate change is our dependence on fossil fuels yet the development of our wild ocean spaces for renewable energy presents significant trade-offs and consternation for many. Surfrider navigated the political emotions of Oregon’s Offshore Wind process in 2024 to educate and survey our chapter network, learn and, ultimately file extensive comments to BOEM both throughout the federal lease auction process. Despite an uncertain future, Surfrider has officially joined the State’s Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap process in hopes to best represent our members in whatever path is to come.
Finally, this year brought the founding of the newly Oregon Ocean Alliance coalition. Surfrider was one of eight founding member organizations of the Alliance, whose efforts are aimed at working collectively to advance the protection of Oregon’s ocean and coastal ecosystems. Our geographic scope includes federal and state ocean waters, and coastal habitats such as estuaries and beaches. With 2025 legislative campaigns already underway and gaining momentum in the state’s Capitol, Surfrider is extremely proud of the Alliance’s significant progress!
Top Stories
New Ocean Alliance Launches Conservation Priorities for Oregon's Ocean
Governor Kotek Signs Ocean Conservation Bill
By now, it’s well understood to many that if we don’t begin adapting to climate change on our coasts, we stand to lose one of our most important coastal recreational opportunities, our beaches. This year’s launch of the Oregon Beaches Forever Campaign brought about significant new local and statewide efforts to advance better management and adaptation to what has been a losing battle for years. Rip rap proposals that are all too often rubber stamped were denied in the Lincoln Beach area and twice this year in Cannon Beach, a sign of progress for rethinking erosion control methods that further undermine public beaches.
But finding solutions to erosion isn’t a straightforward path in Oregon and as such our work in Cannon Beach with local partners to explore nature-based solutions that instead nourish beaches has been an important part of coast and climate efforts. Engaging communities in these solutions won’t always be the answer to beach management and over the next few years we’ll be furthering ideas and projects such as Surfer’s Point, to demonstrate where managed retreat may be one of our most viable options to adapt to coastal impacts from climate change.
Top Stories
Losing Ground: The Erosion of Oregon's Public Beaches
Recent Riprap Decisions Favor Public Beaches
Innovating on the Shore in Cannon Beach
After years of advocacy from local volunteers and countless hours from our legal team, we’re razor close to securing public access at Lighthouse Beach. This huge win wouldn’t be possible without the hard work and dedication of our volunteers and members in Coos Bay. Soon, this trail will be open to the public, and will remain in the public domain, ensuring access to this special place forever.
"Surfrider's Coos Bay Chapter has continued making positive strides in its campaign to restore public access at Lighthouse Beach in Coos Bay, Oregon. Final steps are being taken pursuant to Surfrider's agreement with the property owner, and a transfer of the new access path is anticipated to be made to Oregon State Parks early in the New Year."
Ensuring access to and along the beach is also a central goal to our Oregon Beaches Forever campaign, as the proliferation of shoreline armoring is making entire beaches, like Gleneden and Salishan Spit, inaccessible even during low tide. In 2025, we will continue to work to make sure our public beaches and our access to them remain open.
Top Stories
Agreement Reached to Restore Access to Lighthouse Beach
Preserve Lighthouse Beach Campaign
We’ve made big strides on our Clean Water Initiative in Oregon this year. Thanks to funding and coordination provided by the Redfish Rocks Community Team, we were able to reopen the Blue Water Task Force Lab in Port Orford, where volunteers tested 65 samples collected at 10 beaches this year. The Newport Chapter has worked closely with the City of Newport to identify several system leaks, leading to repair, and further contributing to clean waters on the central coast. Coastwide, our Blue Water Task Force volunteers collected and processed 495 samples from important beaches and creek mouths, representing approximately 1,000 hours of volunteer effort!
Surfrider National 2023 Clean Water Report
Oregon Takes Regulatory Approach to Ocean Acidification
Looking Forward 2025
Over the coming weeks we'll be officially updating our Policy and Legislation page for the 2025 legislative session and statewide policy work, but in the meantime for all you ocean and coastal policy junkies out there, here's a little forecast for next year's work in our 2025 Oregon Ocean and Coastal Policy Shop. Across all initiatives we expect it to be a busy year!