Shoreline and Land Management
Shoreline Policies and Regulations
We advocate for management policies that protect coastal resources. We address everything from vehicles on beaches, beach driving, to harvesting intertidal resources, to habitat protections.
Overview
Oregon Shores has been serving as a watchdog over our public shoreline for more than 50 years. From the organization’sits inception, we have worked to persuade State Parks to ensure a natural shoreline, free of excessive alterations and disturbances. Our first president, Ken Fitzgerald, carried on a personal crusade to remove vehicles from the sand.
In addition to seeking bans on vehicles, and restrictions on drone use, we have advocated for limits on removing material from the beach, bans on fireworks, prohibitions on smoking, and burning pallets onto the beach. Most importantly for the future of the beach, we have constantly lobbied State Parks for tighter controls on shoreline armoring.
Leave No Trace
With millions of people visiting and recreating on Oregon’s iconic beaches every year, robust shoreline regulations are critical to ensuring our beaches remain wild, so that future visitors and wildlife can enjoy them too. Cumulative impacts from many uses of our beaches have the capacity to degrade the ecosystem over time without regulations that protect public resources. We support responsible management and individual stewardship of our coast, and this requires advocacy on many fronts.
Enhancing Stewardship and Cooperation
We work cooperatively with State Parks, particularly beach rangers. Our CoastWatchers and other members report violations of shoreline rules, and collaborate to pick up marine debris.
We have engaged at crucial moments in campaigning for shoreline habitat protection. We were involved in the effort to create a Habitat Conservation Plan for the threatened Western snowy plover, and we support projects to restore natural dune habitat free from the invasive European beachgrass.
We also monitor and interact with other agencies that have regulatory roles on the shoreline, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Forest Service, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries.
Periodically, State Parks revisits and revises its ocean shore management plan. The department is currently in the early stages of another revision. At this point it is entirely in-house, and it may be quite some time before the public is invited to study and comment on proposed changes. When the opportunity does arise, Oregon Shores will make it a priority to organize our members and others to advocate for policies that do the most to protect our shores’ resources and natural splendors.
