Oregon Beaches Forever
Our mission is to safeguard Oregon's public beaches for future generations and ensure the preservation of our coastlines and communities as we adapt to climate change
SAFEGUARDING OUR COASTAL LEGACY
Preserve, Protect, Prepare
About the Campaign
Protecting Oregon's beaches forever
Clatsop Planning Process
Preparing Clatsop County for a changing climate
King Tides and Beaches
Engaging community scientists to study our rising tides
OPRD Rulemaking
Working with the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department
What’s At Stake
In Oregon, the entire shoreline, from the Columbia River to the California border, is open to all. The state’s public beaches are one of our glories. For more than 50 years, Oregon Shores has worked to protect these beaches, and public access to them.
But this legacy is now at risk. Our beaches are caught in the “coastal squeeze,” between rising sea levels and more intense storm surges on one side, and spreading riprap on the other. Protecting infrastructure with shoreline armoring can increase erosion while depriving beaches of their sand supply. Without a bold new management strategy, we could increasingly lose access to stretches of our shoreline.
Oregon Shores is taking action to address this challenge before it is too late. We are partnering with the Surfrider Foundation in a new campaign, Oregon Beaches Forever. Our goal is to launch a statewide conversation about the future of our beaches, and what it will take to preserve them.
If you care about the Oregon coast, we hope you will join us in this long-term effort.
The Oregon Beaches Forever Campaign
Oregon’s iconic public beaches are one of the state’s most beloved features. Few are the states whose citizens and visitors have access to the entire shoreline. Protecting this Oregonian legacy has been one of Oregon Shores’ key missions for more than five decades. Yet those public beaches are now caught in the “coastal squeeze,” between rising sea levels and human infrastructure.
Oregon Shores is partnering with the Surfrider Foundation in a new campaign, Oregon Beaches Forever, to address the long-term threats to our Oregon beaches, dunes, and shorelands before it is too late. The goal is to foster a statewide conversation about the future of our Oregon shore—as a beautiful landscape, as a recreation area, and as natural habitat.
Spreading the Message
Oregon Beaches Forever is a long-term campaign, which we expect to carry out over a number of years. Before we can hope for the kinds of comprehensive new policies we will need if we are the preserve our beaches in the face of sea level rise, we have to alert Oregonians to the fact that their beaches are at risk, and this will take a massive amount of public education.
Shoreline armoring, such as riprap revetments and seawalls, is proliferating, as rising seas and intensifying storms due to climate change increase erosion and threaten properties. However, such hardened shoreline protection structures hasten the erosion of beaches, causing scour in front of the structures while depriving beaches of a replacement sand supply from dunes and bluffs. If we lose beaches and dunes, we won’t just lose opportunities for recreation and solitude, we will lose important coastal habitat areas as well.
Standing Up for Beaches
Oregon Shores and Surfrider plan to inform the Oregon public about the science of coastal erosion and habitat loss, as well as of beach ecology. We will explore the policy and legal alternatives, both those that are possible under Oregon’s current land use laws, and those that would require new legislation. We plan to provide public education about the shoreline through webinars, in-person seminars, and social media.
While working toward long-term solutions, we will collaborate on more immediate goals, such as advocating for tighter regulations to limit shoreline protection structure permits through the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, and developing a strategy for preserving Oregon’s legacy of coastal state parks. We will also work together to strengthen city and county comprehensive plans in terms of preserving the shoreline and limiting development in hazard areas.
Clatsop County Planning
King Tides and Beaches
Oregon Shores, partnering with the Oregon Coastal Management Program (OCMP), has long been involved with the Oregon King Tides Project. This community science effort, organized through CoastWatch, monitors the reach of each year’s highest tides through photography. Our growing archive of photos documents current impacts to the shoreline and to human infrastructure from flooding, but more important, provides us with a preview of future sea level rise, when what are now the highest tides become regular events. This makes the King Tides Project a perfect fit with the Oregon Beaches Forever campaign, helping us to envision the future impacts we will need to anticipate if we are to preserve our beaches. The campaign will work together with CoastWatch and OCMP to recruit more volunteer photographers to document more areas of the coast, while utilizing the results to educate Oregonians about coming threats to our shoreline.
OPRD Rulemaking
The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) is expected to begin a rulemaking process this fall, addressing the rules for permitting shoreline armoring structures (such as riprap and seawalls). Drafts of new rules have not yet been made public. The hope is that this process will lead to tighter restrictions, such as limits to the use of emergency permits, requirements that alternatives (such as moving buildings) be fully explored before hardened structures are considered, and greater accountability for landowners who violate their permits. Oregon Shores will work with Surfrider to advocate for stronger regulations and to encourage our members and other coastal residents to make their concerns known in the rulemaking process.
As the Oregon Beaches Forever campaign develops, there will be plenty of volunteer opportunities, ranging from helping to organize educational events, to advocating within city or county land use processes, to lobbying for new state legislation.
Get Involved
For more information, contact Phillip Johnson, Oregon Shores’ Shoreline and Land Use Manager, (503) 754-9303, phillip@oregonshores.org. To connect with Surfrider concerning this campaign, contact Kaia Hazard, the group’s Oregon Region Manager, at khazard@surfrider.org.
Ready to volunteer? Submit this form to sign up today.
