Cooperative marine fisheries research—the practice of involving the expertise of fishermen and scientists in conducting studies of ocean fishes—has increased gradually over the past 50 years on the US west coast. However, few studies have systematically collected and analyzed the experiences and perceptions of numerous cooperative marine fisheries research project...
Long-haul diesel trucks carry the lion’s share of all shipped goods in the United States. The drivers of these trucks often live in these trucks for days, sometimes weeks, at a time as they deliver these goods. When stopped overnight, many of these drivers leave their engines idling to heat...
Co-located mills that share a log resource through a single merchandising
facility are challenged with the task of allocating the costs of joint-products in order to
determine log cost for each mill during a given period. While allocating joint-costs is
inherently arbitrary, some allocation must be made to include raw...
Wild salmon populations are in decline in the Pacific Northwest. In the region populations and runs of Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytsha), Chum (Oncorhynchus keta), Coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch), Sockey (Oncorhynchus nerka), and Steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) have been listed as threatened and/or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the U.S. and/or...
Geospatial technology is a rapidly growing and changing field. The term geospatial technology (GST) refers to geographical information systems (GIS), global positioning systems (GPS), and remote sensing (RS), all emerging technologies that assist the user in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of spatial data. The speed at which new fields...
The EPA’s Western Ecology Division (WED) had been accumulating geographic information system (GIS) data files for up to 20 years. There was no index or catalog for these files; locating data became more difficult over time. More that 4 Tb of data existed on numerous disk volumes in hundreds of...
Fisheries researchers and the general public can greatly benefit from the rapid data sharing and collaborative research that is facilitated by the both the internet and modern digital technology. One of the pioneers of this new strategy of conducting and utilizing fisheries research is Project CROOS (Collaborative Research on Oregon...
From a landscape ecology perspective, meadows are often seen as landscapes in
transition. Succession and change in meadows may be investigated by considering the
physical and anthropogenic factors that influence the landscape through time. What is
often unknown is how changes occur and how physical and anthropogenic factors
contribute to...
Vessel traffic places the sensitive environmental, natural, and cultural resources of Washington’s outer coast at risk of oil or hazardous materials spills. In 1995, International Maritime Organization established the Area to be Avoided off the Washington Coast (ATBA) to reduce this risk. Annual estimates of vessel compliance with the ATBA...
The goal of this analysis is to use the social construction framework to determine 1) whether the Oregon Drug Take Back Program stakeholder group can design a public policy that will ultimately reduce water contamination from the improper disposal of unused pharmaceuticals from the general public, and 2) use the...
Latinos are less likely to be civically involved in their community than any other minority group, despite the fact that they are the biggest minority in the United States. A great concern exists over ways to effectively promote and improve this group’s participation in their community’s decision-making process [or civic...
The leasing of submerged and submersible lands is emerging as a new marine conservation method. Using a geographic information system, this study: (1) examines the suitability of estuary tideland sites for conservation leasing in Lincoln County, Oregon, and (2) explores the relationship between adjacent terrestrial land use zones and the...
Increasing population and land use decisions have had a negative effect on the aquatic ecosystems in the Willamette River Basin. One result is elevated temperatures in many of the Basin’s streams, which adversely affect the fish that live in these streams. There are several regulatory mechanisms in place to improve...
In Oregon, property tax revolts and school equalization measures have led to increasingly unstable and more non-discretionary public funding for schools. As a result, public schools are turning to private donations to provide both basic and supplemental educational opportunities. Some schools and districts are raising hundreds of thousands of dollars,...
Oregon’s high hunger and food insecurity rates have been a concern throughout the last decade. These high rates earned Oregon the dubious distinction as the most food insecure with hunger state in the late 1990’s. While Oregon’s ranking has improved in recent years, our understanding of why Oregon ranked so...
Many communities emphasize participatory involvement in local development or reinvention efforts. Recognizing barriers among specific groups could help community leaders identify what may be constraining underrepresented groups from joining in. Utilizing data from the Social Capital Benchmark Survey, this research examined identified “barriers” to community involvement among individuals in rural...
The U.S. Forest Service on the Willamette National Forest currently employs the “Disturbed Water Erosion Prediction Project” (WEPP) model to determine potential suspended sediment delivery from timber harvests or other treatment scenarios given user-defined hillslope parameters. At the time of this study there was no known calibration or testing of...
Diversity development has achieved higher agenda prominence based on the culmination of historical developments in problem recognition, political events, and university policies that have generated a window of opportunity. Oregon State University is currently at a critical time that will significantly transform the university's commitment inclusiveness and a diverse campus...
Satellite remote sensing is an effective tool for mapping snow covered area. However, complex terrain and heterogeneous land cover, due to vegetation and patchy snow cover, present challenges to snow cover mapping. This research compares two techniques for mapping snow covered area: binary and enhanced fractional snow cover mapping techniques....
Gathering empirical data on the factors and processes affecting bedload transport
in the field is difficult. This project conducted during the winter of 1996 field tested a new passive method of positively tracking individual particle movement. The project was conducted in Oak Creek, a gravel bedded stream, located in Corvallis,...
In 2000, the US Congress responded to the industry-wide constriction of the West Coast groundfish industry by allocating $5 million in disaster relief for Oregon, Washington, and California. Each state, with minimal federal oversight, designed and executed its own disaster response program to help impacted members of the fishing industry...
Nonpoint source pollution is currently the major source of water pollution in Oregon as
well as the United States as a whole. The Environmental Protection Agency designated
marinas as one of the sources of nonpoint pollution to coastal waters. In an effort to
reduce nonpoint pollution from marinas and to...
In addition to analyzing rural and non-rural differences in health insurance coverage among Oregonians, this essay examines the effect of key socioeconomic and demographic factors in relation to differentials in health insurance coverage.
This paper will address Oregon's ability to regulate and manage its wetland resources as a means for protecting and enhancing salmon habitat. After identifying the importance of wetland environments the paper will look into OWRF to assess its effectiveness. Ultimately the paper will conclude that OWRF's design is an effective...
An Internet Map Server (IMS) web site was constructed with the goal of
helping middle- through high-school students learn about ocean processes. This IMS was
developed in conjunction with the activities of the Science & Math Investigative
Learning Experience (SMILE) program, and for eventual use with the Oregon Coastal
Atlas,...
Spatialization is an innovative way to expand searching capabilities for a
marine/coastal reference database by using a metaphorical map framework to establish
a sense of place for non-spatial information. Spatializing the Catalogue of Oregon
Marine and Coastal Information (COMCI), a coastal reference database, enables the
marine and coastal resource community...
The Pacific Northwest and Oregon in particular, have a rich fishing history. There are several fishing communities that rely on the resources found within Oregon waters. This research project explores communication in one particular fishing community, the coastal marine recreational fishing community (CMRFC) and the fisheries management community (FMC).
Objectives...
This analysis determines the impact of campaign contributions on Senators' legislative activity on the Energy Policy Act of 2003, identifies organizations within the power policy-planning network, and examines the social netwrok of the energy industry and its relationship with the power policy-planning network. After describing the research methods used for...
Ecoregions are regions of relative homogeneity with respect to specific
ecosystem variables (Bailey 1976; Omernik 1995). There has been an increasing
awareness that effective management of environmental resources must be undertaken
with an ecosystem perspective (Omernik, 1995). Ecoregions serve as a spatial
framework for assessing, managing, and monitoring ecosystems that...
Given the broad scientific consensus that global climate is changing, it is no longer a question if sea level will rise, but rather by how much will it rise. The regional estimates for the Eastern Pacific suggest that the Northwest coastlines will experience a greater eustatic sea level rise than...
The work described herein entailed three separate but related
education/outreach activities aimed at distinct audiences. This portfolio required
acquisition of a range of skills in order to effectively convey information in a fashion accessible to each target audience. The first project consists of contributions to a
sample chapter of a...
In a democratic system, or a system of rule by the people, economic arguments are not sufficient for the creation of public policy. There are many important values that should influence our public policy decisions including: human dignity, justice, trust and authority. Public policy is not only a matter of...
This study analyzes public participation in nine regional hearings and six public meetings held by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy (USCOP) from September 2001 to April 2003. While several researchers have examined whether certain public involvement methods are considered successful or fair, this study characterizes the participants in a...
In 1997, the Eskimo Walrus Commission (EWC) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) established a formal cooperative agreement for the conservation and management of Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens). This arrangement facilitates the transfer of funds from Section 119 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act via the USFWS...
Rapid assessments are essential to establish baseline information of ecosystems that can
be used to design management plans such as marine protected areas. A rapid ecological
assessment was conducted to determine the conditions of coral reefs and reef fish around barrier islands that occur within the central Belize Barrier Reef...
Conservation efforts have been increasing in recent years to help preserve threatened coastal and ocean resources. Marine protected areas (MPAs) are an important tool to protect and conserve ocean resources. The MPA Center was established to take the lead in developing a framework for a national system of MPAs. The...
Outreach is a key element in natural resource public participation processes in order to create an engaging, thoughtful, and productive environment for citizen involved decision-making. This project examined the utility of a needs assessment as an initial outreach tool within the context of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries...
Quantitative assessments of many West coast rockfish stocks of both major and
minor importance to commercial fisheries have shown varying declines in abundances. The population sizes of less-abundant, co-occurring unassessed species may also be
declining. However, determining stock status of the many non-targeted, minor species with high levels of certainty...
This paper aims to present a comprehensive review of the selected coastal protection
alternatives in a form most useful for coastal mangers. It is not intended to serve as a
technical review of the engineering design of shore protection schemes. The concept,
design, and application of each method are reviewed....
Subsistence hunting and fishing in Alaska is a political, social, and cultural issue. Since statehood in 1959 the state of Alaska has managed fish and wildlife resources on all its lands. But because the state has been unable to come into compliance with federal regulations mandating a subsistence rural priority,...
One of the crucial components of marine and coastal resource management is
using the best available data for decision-making. There are many facets however,
to what makes data available and useable. Even though data may exist for many
natural resource and marine resource issues, they don't always come in accessible...
The continued growth of the world's population beyond six billion places increasing pressure on natural resources and thus a growing demand for effective management of both resources and the recreational users of these resources. This
situation is particularly relevant to the management of Oregon's rivers and growing
numbers of nonmotorized...
Web geographic information systems (GISs) and the Internet are now providing the connectivity necessary to support large-scale data access by a wide variety of users, including not just scientific researchers, but also policy-makers and marine resource managers. However, connectivity alone cannot ensure that those who need natural resource information will...
A dynamic bioenergetic model for Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) was built using the STELLA simulation modeling system. The model is intended as an aid for the exploration of ecological questions regarding growth and survival of immature Steller sea lions (ages 1-3) living along the Oregon coast under different nutritional...
Coastal erosion hazards on the Island of Maui can be divided into two
general categories. Chronic shoreline retreat results from the gradual narrowing of
beaches and shorelines over time under the influence of long-term dominant coastal
processes and features of the littoral sediment budget that cause local sediment
deficiencies. Episodic...
Marine protected areas are increasingly popular tools for fisheries conservation and
enhancement worldwide. Monitoring programs that enable managers to track changes in fish stock abundance, size-frequency of target species, and species diversity are critical to evaluating the success of MPA's. The Port Honduras Marine Reserve (PHMR) in southern Belize encompasses...
Oregon's estuarine wetland landscapes have been changed, especially since the nineteenth century, by diking, dredging, fills, and other alterations. These alterations have removed wetlands from the estuaries, and with them, have removed wetland functions. Currently, efforts are being made to restore estuarine wetlands. The first step in
selecting a site...
Stabilization structures are the most commonly used form of shore protection along the Oregon coast. Eighty-five percent of the hard stabilization structures built in Oregon
from 1976 – 1999 were riprap revetments. An evaluation was conducted of 143 riprap
revetments in the northern three counties of Oregon. Clear trends exist...
This report intends to assist the development of biological and habitat goals and objectives for the Oregon Plan on statewide, regional and watershed scales.
From May 1999 through April 2000, I interned with the Alaska Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Association (AWRTA), a non-profit organization that balances responsible tourism development with resource protection and community enhancement. I was assigned to a seven-member task force charged with evaluating the success of AWRTA's "Ecotourism Guidelines2" and was...
Salmon restoration has become a major priority in the Pacific Northwest. In the State of Oregon, much of
the responsibility for habitat restoration has fallen on local watershed councils, with the majority of their
funding coming from state and federal grants. Funding limitations, including the amount of funds allotted
to...
Situated off the west coast of Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand, Phu Quoc archipelago and its waters are well-known for their rich natural resources, especially the bounty of fishery resources. Under increasing pressure from the growing population, fishing, and tourism development, there is a strong need to formulate an...
The purpose of this research is two-fold: to evaluate the success of the new emergency procedures promulgated in 1998 and to characterize the erosion event that precipitated the emergency during January, February and March 1999. These two purposes support each other and provide a holistic understanding of how emergencies arise...
Since their discovery in 1977, hydrothermal vent communities have offered scientists
a unique glimpse into a world that is supported primarily by chemically derived
energy rather than direct energy from the sun. Furthermore, studies of hydrothermal
vent ecosystems have introduced scientists to amazing animals that have successfully
adapted to living...
The 14-km long Netarts Littoral Cell, located on the northern Oregon coast, experienced episodic erosion as a result of the severe 1997-98 El Nino and 1998-99 La Nina. The erosion events led to the development of a unique partnership bridging scientists, stakeholders, and various planning agencies. To address these erosion...
State parks in Oregon provide important sites for visitor recreation and natural resource education. With the increasing number of visitors to Oregon coastal parks, tide pools and beach areas, there is growing need for site-specific marine education to enhance stewardship, interpretation and safety knowledge. The Oregon Sea Grant Program and...
Coral reef ecosystems are the oceanic equivalent of tropical rainforests, in terms of biodiversity. The estimated 1,037,000 square kilometers worldwide of reef provide
habitat for over one million species of plants and animals (Hinrichsen, 1997). Coral reefs are important to the economy of coastal nations because of the fisheries and...
Concern over the incidental catch of non-targeted species in commercial and
recreational fisheries has greatly increased. Public attention, negative publicity,
controversies between differing fisheries and gear groups and the reauthorization of the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act have led to an increased
awareness of the issue. The Pacific halibut...
In 1992, amendments to the Fishing and Aquaculture Law required rural communities
to organize into syndicates or cooperatives and to create resource management plans.
Once the Chilean Fisheries Service (SERNAP) approves these plans, villages could manage designated subtidal and intertidal areas. In response to these amendments, two villages, Puerto Aldea...
Oregon's estuaries have been significantly altered by human activity, so that many former tidal wetlands no longer provide the functions, such as fish and wildlife habitat, erosion protection from storms, and water quality maintenance, that preserve the integrity of estuarine ecosystems. Oregon has been a leader in wetland protection and...
Among Oregon's major tourist attractions is the State's beautiful and impressive coastal
scenery. Sandy beaches, usually backed by sea-cliffs or dune fields, are regularly
disrupted either by the mouths of shallow bays and estuaries, or by massive rocky
headlands extending hundreds of meters into the Pacific Ocean. Storm-generated waves,
tides,...
A heightened awareness to climate phenomena such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, and global warming has initiated much research concerning the impacts of climate change and variability on coastal resources. These events are perceived to exacerbate existing chronic natural hazards, including beach and dune erosion, sea...
Global Graduates/Oregon International Internship Program offered an internship position working in Senegal with the Institut Senegalais de Recherches Agricoles (ISRA) and the Natural Resource Based Agricultural Research (NRBAR). The author of this paper was accepted for this internship and lived and worked in Senegal from October 1 through December 15,...
The product of my internship was a working draft of a land use and master plan
for the SPC to review. The draft is to be used for creating a more comprehensive land use
and zoning master plan. Attempts were made to incorporate input from federal, state,
and local governments,...
Building institutional and human capacity for integrated coastal zone management (ICZM) is
increasingly recognized as critical to the future of sustainable development in coastal states.
Agenda 21 of the UNCED conference has underscored the urgency of capacity building for
ICZM as have other international bodies such as the North American...
As part of its management strategies for wetlands in Oregon, the Division of State Lands sponsored a Local Wetland Inventory for the city of Tillamook. Wetlands delineation,
determination, assessment, and management are the concern of several institutions which worked together to create the 1993 Oregon Freshwater Wetland Assessment Methodology. With...
An increase in the commercial and recreational harvest of clams in Tillamook Bay, Oregon,
coupled with a general lack of knowledge about the bay's ecology, served as the impetus for a
shellfish survey undertaken in the summer of 1995. Commercial clam harvest has increased
twelve fold since 1978 (Carter et...
This internship was supported and funded by the Yap State Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), the United States Department of the Interior, Office of Territorial and
International Affairs, and the University of Oregon Micronesia and South Pacific Technical
Assistance Program. What follows in this report is a description of the internship...
This paper presents the results of field tests of the Oregon Freshwater Wetland
Assessment Methodology. It begins with a review of the history of wetland assessment
techniques, including an in-depth review of some more popular methods. State and
federal wetlands legislation are briefly discussed and the utility of regional wetland...
This report and accompanying program inventory have been prepared in support of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality's statewide nonpoint source pollution control efforts and for use in the development of Oregon's new federally mandated Coastal Nonpoint Pollution Control Program (CNPCP).
When Congress reauthorized the Coastal Zone Management Act in...
"This report is organized as follows. First, the
objectives and methods used are outlined. Background
information follows, including what is known about the
extent, past alterations, and condition of wetlands in
Oregon today; the status of wetland restoration in the U.S.
and in Oregon; definitions of important terms; the functions...
With indications that fisheries production has plateued at a global capacity of 85 million metric tons in the 1990's, further exploitation of marine stocks on a sustainable basis is unrealistic. Economic development of coastal and regional economies will benefit from new approaches to maximizing benefits from harvested products that include...
Coastal communities in Oregon have experienced dramatic economic and demographic change during the 1980s. Although the timber and fishing sectors are still important, the economies of coastal communities now rely more on non-earned income and tourism. Non-earned income sources, such as transfer payments and investment earnings, account for over forty...
The development of a Marine Pollution Monitoring Program (MPMP), in any coastal area of the world, requires a precise knowledge of the functioning of the local ecosystem. Because of the differences found in every coastal ecosystem, it is important to recognize and characterize the reservoirs and significant environments that maintain...
The Alaska Coastal Management Program (ACMP) is a networked program, using existing state and local authorities and intended to allow joint state-local management of coastal zone resources and uses. The State of Alaska has outlined broad program goals, and
the local governments were to specify how those goals and additional...
This paper will attempt to evaluate the prospects of the PWG's success based on
their process so far, using models of policy development and implementation from
Kingdon (1984), Putt and Springer (1989), and Sabatier and Mazmanian (1983).
Because the PWG's work is not finished, the evaluation may help the group...
I tested the hypothesis that there is a correlation between inundation period and net primary production (NPP) in estuarine salt marshes through an observational experiment at South Slough National Estuarine Reserve, Oregon. I estimated primary production and inundation period for selected monotypic plant communities in (1) a naturally restored wetland...
This study is the second of a three-part project to determine potential locations for public transient tie-up facilities along the Columbia River. The goal of the three studies is to identify opportunities for developing a network of facilities, which will enable recreational boaters to safely traverse Oregon's portion of the...
In summer 1992, I interned as a Technical Assistant with the Kosrae Bureau of
Planning and Statistics, Kosrae, Federated States of Micronesia (F.S.M). The University
of Oregon Micronesia Program sponsored the internship, which proved to be a unique
professional and cross-cultural experience. The internship, initiated by Mr. Gerson
Jackson, Director...
In this paper, I will analyze the nature of these
problems and examine how recent approaches to SLRA have
dealt with them. In addition, a framework for assessing the
potential impacts of sea level rise is proposed, drawing
upon the ecological concept of resilience (Holling 1978,
1984).
This paper is organized as follows. First, there is a
overview of the U.S. National Marine Sanctuary Program,
including program goals, history and present status, and
sanctuary locations. Trends in multiple use management,
sanctuary size, intergovernmental cooperation, Congressional
intervention in program management, public involvement, and
the 1992 Congressional reauthorization are...
This paper focuses on the role of natural resources information in Oregon legislative
policy-making, based on the two legislative case studies from the 1991 Legislative Session,
surveys conducted of state natural resource agency legislative liaisons, and a review of
current literature addressing policy-making and the role of science in policy-making....
In September 1988, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and the Governor of Oregon announced the creation of the joint state-federal Placer Minerals Technical Task Force. The group was charged with performing an analysis of the potential economic and environmental aspects of placer mineral mining in the nearshore waters of...
Rights-based systems for controlling the use of marine resources developed in many "traditional" societies of the world--notably
in the isolated island societies of the Pacific. These "customary marine tenure" systems (CMT) have eroded or collapsed
in many societies since the development of economic and other links with outside societies and...
A team of three people at the Republic of Palau Division of Marine Resources interviewed 54 women in seven of Palau's 16 states in a three-month study to determine the role of women in nearshore fisheries. The interviews, which generally lasted over an hour each, found that most of the...
HIGHLIGHTS
HISTORICAL MARKET DEVELOPMENT Headed and gutted (H&G) is the only
product form of Pacific whiting which has been successfully
developed by the domestic west coast seafood industry. This
success is attributed to the development of a production and
marketing concept which minimized enzyme and texture related
quality problems. Attempts...
The community of Bandon is located on the southern half of the Oregon coast, 140 kilometers north of the California border and 40 kilometers south of Coos Bay (Figure 1). Part of the city occupies the low-lying (average 3-meter elevation) area along the south bank of the Coquille River, while...
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wetlands Inventory (NWI) was developed to map U.S. wetlands comprehensively, following the Cowardin classification system. Wetlands are mapped by the NWI using small scale aerial photographs, but the inventory is not field checked in detail. The accuracy of this inventory has been questioned....
Data from Section 404 permits, which were issued in California from January
1971 through November 1987 and required compensatory mitigation, were compiled
and analyzed to determine patterns and trends in permitting activity and to document
the cumulative effects of the associated management decisions. Information was
gathered on the project permitted,...
Tuna fishery is an important activity worldwide. In the
eastern Pacific Ocean the effort applied by the Pacific Ocean
fleet to catch tuna fish is considerable. The eastern Pacific
tuna fleet harvests throughout the oceans and captures an
important fraction of this resource. For instance, in 1980 the
total catch...
This paper focuses on the explosive and controversial growth in finfish farming in general and salmon aquaculture in particular, and the response of Alaska policy makers to this emerging industry. It seeks to define and analyze why Alaska policy makers chose to prohibit all commercial culture of finfish at a...
Permit specifications, construction plans, and field measurements were used to examine the correlation between design and conditions "as-built" in a population of 11 palustrine emergent marshes created in the metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon, between 1980-1986. The projects ranged from six months to almost seven years in age. Data on...
Past disasters such as mercury poisoning in Minimata, and new problems such as tributyltin impacts on shellfish have maintained public concern about problems caused by chronic discharges of hazardous materials into marine waters (Clark, 1986; U.S. Congress, 1987). However, hazardous chemical spills in coastal waters typically escape public attention. Unlike...
This paper will discuss some of the pressing issues and critical problems pertaining to the resources of the northern coast of Java and some alternative management strategies that may be applicable for the region. Some conclusions and recommendations are presented at the end of this paper.
The objective of this project is the production of a Tillamook
Bay restoration plan which is designed to revitalize the bay's
biological productivity and thereby stimulate economic
opportunity in the region. A selected planning team will assess
the cumulative impacts on the bay from accelerated sedimentation.
The team will develop...
The project presented here emphasizes a specific biological problem affecting the salmon cage culture with the final goal being to propose a realistic management strategy for fjordic estuaries worldwide.
Groundwater is a vital resource and efforts must be made to protect its quality. In certain areas, its quality has been
threatened by the introduction of oil and gasoline, many times originating from underground storage tanks. Massachusetts has
directly reacted to this concern about groundwater quality by promulating a Massachusetts...