Our in-person seminars have become webinars! We currently use Zoom to present them and find this format works well. SEA is committed to finding interesting and pertinent topics that we hope you will enjoy.
Michael Graybill
MARCH 29, 2022 6:00 PM
“Offshore Wind Energy”
This seminar will explore floating offshore wind energy, helping the audience understand how the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) plans to identify thousands of square miles off the Oregon and Northern California coasts for lease to wind energy developers. Mike is clear that everyone impacted by the development should have knowledge and a full understanding of the range of issues. He states “Offshore Wind is one option to address the urgent need to decarbonize the global energy system and this may be justified in some contexts. But the same proposal may be wholly inappropriate in other contexts.”
Jesse Jones
December 14, 2021 at 6pm
“King Tides Project”
The Oregon King Tides Project is a citizen science partnership between the Oregon Coastal Management Program and CoastWatch, a program of Oregon Shores Conservation Coalition. The King Tides Project is looking to document the effect that extreme tide events have on our state’s beaches, coastal waterways, private property, and public infrastructure. Photographs of these tides help to visualize and understand the impacts of sea level rise (like flooding and erosion). The effect of individual King Tides may vary considerably. In some cases, they may barely even be noticed. In other cases, a King Tide may cause coastal erosion, flooding of low-lying areas, and disruption to normal daily routines. This is particularly true when a King Tide event coincides with significant precipitation or storm surge, creating even higher water levels. Over time, the frequency and effect of King Tide events may increase due to gradual mean sea level rise. Jesse Jones is the CoastWatch volunteer coordinator and promotes and shares citizen science projects with her volunteers and others who wish to help document changes and events along the Oregon coast.
King Tides in Oregon:
The tides on the Oregon coast drive our decisions. When to take a walk on the beach, and when to hold a special event on the sand. When to fish and when to kayak. The low tides open up the shore for recreation and research. The time between the high and low tides is best for fishermen, kayakers and other recreational water users. For animals, the high tides bring nutrients and food to the intertidal. For humans, the high tides have shown the reach of the ocean we’ve planned our towns, our industries and our recreational places depending on its reach. As we look to the future of our communities, we must also look to the future of the tides.
Tides are mysterious to many, but knowing more about them can save lives, money and potential conflict. The tides are most obvious to those who live close to the water’s edge as they can see the power or the peace of these events, ruled by the alignment of the earth, the sun and the moon. But something else has stepped into this mix – climate change is also having an effect on the height, reach and force of these tides. In a 24-hour period, the Oregon ocean rises and falls, twice a day–on average, five to six feet a day. In the winter, these vertical heights increase by three to five or more feet during the new and full moon. The Oregon King Tides Project asks citizens to document these highest winter tides in their communities with photos. The insight these photos provide can assist city and county leaders in planning for the future, and can help all of us visualize the impact of sea level rise, indicating a day when these now-extreme tides become the norm.
The “king tides“ (Australian slang—this international project began there) are the highest tides of the year, as predicted by NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. These highest of high tides have always been here; they are not new. King tides happen when the moon, earth and sun are in alignment. Year round, the highest highs happen during the new moon every month. Also called spring tides because they “spring forth,” happen twice a month, during the new and full moons. In the winter months, the king tides bring high water levels to our tidal rivers, estuaries, beaches and rocky shores. They flood our roads, businesses, homes and other infrastructures like docks, parking lots and trails.
What’s new is that they are helping us anticipate the effects of sea level rise. Every year, sea level rises due to global warming, and ordinary tides get a little higher. King tides show us what a typical tide might look like once the ocean has risen by a few inches.
Every fall since 2009, CoastWatch has partnered with the Oregon Coast Management Program to provide outreach about these tides and how they are testing our durability – as planners, as leaders and of learners of science. The Oregon King Tides Project is a citizen science program that asks citizens to document with photos regular high tides and the king tides. The Oregon Coastal Management Program has built and manages a website, oregonkingtides.net, mapping these photos and providing a place for the public to view photos of how far these high tides are reaching into their communities.
CoastWatch hosts events every fall and winter, inviting the public to participate in the Oregon King Tides Project and teaching about how citizen science helps plan the future. On December 14, SEA hosts Jesse Jones, CoastWatch’s volunteer coordinator, to present about this season’s Coos and Curry county king tides in a presentation called King Tides in Your Neighborhood. She’ll share king tide predictions in specific places, where photos are needed Oregon King Tides live and demonstrate how to upload photos to the Oregon King Tides website, located at www.oregonkingtides.net.
The king tides in 2021-2022 happen November 5th – 7th and December 3rd– 5th 2021, and January 1st – 3rd, 2022.
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Ron Metzger, B.S, M.S., Ph.D.
January 11th, 2022 at 6pm
Geologic Overview of Oregon’s South Coast
This SEA talk will start with a short descriptive background on plate tectonics. From there, we’ll see world class geology displayed in Coos County shaped by tectonics and coastal processes, from the dune fields to waterfalls and a spectacular display of missing time. We’ll also touch on the Cascadia Subduction Zone – and other plate activity and earthquakes in our neighborhood. Most importantly, you’ll have a chance to ask questions about what you’ve seen…and what you should see that’s geologically “cool” in the Coos and beyond!
Ron Metzger earned a bachelor’s degree with Honors from St. Lawrence University, and masters and doctoral degrees in Paleontology from the University of Iowa. He has been a member of the Southwestern Oregon Community College faculty since the fall of 1996. At SWOCC he has served as Faculty Senate Chair and is the Faculty ex-officio on the College Foundation Board. One of Ron’s most significant local contributions has been the development of the geology lecture series that has brought prominent scientists to the college to present free lectures on cutting edge topics to students and the community since 2000. Ron also serves on the Jefferson Public Radio Foundation Board and spent 20 years on the Board of the Oregon Coast Music Festival.
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Kassandra Rippee, M.A., M.L.S.
February 8th, 2022 at 6pm
History and Culture of the Coquille Indian Tribe
Kassandra Rippee (Kassie) is the THPO and Archaeologist for the Coquille Indian Tribe. Kassie began working for the Tribe in July 2014 performing archaeological site survey and protection, cultural resources compliance, collections management, and public education and outreach. Prior to working for the Tribe, she worked as an archaeologist at various cultural resource management firms in the Mid-Atlantic. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from Radford University in 2007, her Master of Arts in Anthropology specializing in bioarchaeology from Florida Atlantic University in 2011, and her Master of Legal Studies in Indigenous People’s Law in 2019.
Alice Yeates
March 16, 2021 at 6:30 PM
A Watershed Tour of the South Slough
Sara Hamilton, Dept. of Integrative Biology, Oregon State University
February 16, 2021
Going . . .Going . . .Gone? Conservation Outlook for the Sunflower Star
Bob Bailey, Elakha Alliance President
January 19, 2021
Sea Otters and Oregon Coastal Health
30th Anniversary Annual SEA Meeting
December 15, 2020
Nancy Treneman
Oregon Institute of Marine Biology
November 10, 2020
Seaweed: Diverse, Delightful, and Delicious
For a digital recording of this webinar, please click on the link below. Thank you Nancy for teaching us so much about seaweed.
Shoreline Education for Awareness, Inc. 