Coastal Oregon Conservation w/ Paul Englemeyer

Mark your calendar for Tuesday, July  11^th at 7 PM because Worthy Garden Club will be facilitating a presentation by Paul Engelmeyer, the enthusiastic and well-connected mid-coast manager for the Portland Audubon Society.    Paul’s talk — Coastal Conservation Issues and Strategies, and the Land-Sea Connection —  will cover a range of coastal Oregon issues and strategies including protecting forage fish — the prey base for seabirds — as well as describing the unique habitat requirements for the Marbled Murrelet, an old-growth indicator species listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.  Paul will also talk about the value of beavers to salmon recovery, water quality landscape conservation efforts, the Wetlands Conservancy parcels on the central coast, and the globally significant Central Coast Marbled Murrelet IBA (Important Bird Area).  He will share how the Marine IBA effort includes partners from Baja to Point Barrow Alaska.

Paul will be drawing upon his years of experience managing the Ten Mile Creek Sanctuary (located near Yachats) for the Portland Audubon Society and on his work with Oregon’s Ocean Policy Advisory Council (OPAC), during which he helped develop a system of marine reserves and protected areas for Oregon’s coast. He has also managed lands for The Wetlands Conservancy located in Alsea Bay, Beaver Creek and Yaquina Bay

Paul’s update will include the current status of Oregon’s five marine reserves as well as the Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve and Seabird Protected Area. He has decades of experience working in partnerships to achieve conservation goals, including the Siuslaw Forest Stewardship group which received the 2010 Two Chief ’s Partnership Award. This award is presented annually to a handful of projects by the Chiefs of the U.S. Forest Service and the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to recognize exemplary efforts working across both public and private lands to promote conservation and forest stewardship.

Worthy Garden Club is the newest partner in the Ten Mile Creek conservaiton effort and is in process of implementing a restoration plan for their parcels.