Introducing your Territorial Sea Plan Working Group

Presenter: As part of the first meeting of the Territorial Sea Plan Working Group, for the Department of Land Conservation and Development, Jeff Burright:

Jeff Burright (Oregon DLCD): All right! We’re going to work down our list of working group members. We’d like you to please, let us know who you are and what your affiliation is, please let us know what interest you have and what you hope to see out of the workgroup. And then maybe let us know what is your favorite ocean species?

David Cook: I’m David Cook. I am the planning manager for the Clatsop County’s Community Development Department here on the North Coast.

My interest in this is mostly due to the work that I worked on in Clatsop County—adopted updates to our local Goals 16, 17, 18, and updates to Goal 19 a few years ago. So I kind of worked on all of those.

So I have just some sort of, like, I don’t know, percolating knowledge, of the territorial sea plan and how it kind of interacts with the land adjacent to the ocean.

So I’m just looking for opportunities to kind of use some of my knowledge and maybe learn some new things as well.

Favorite ocean species? I might need to think about that a little more closely. You know, we have a lot of pelicans right now. I guess those are kind of an ocean species, right?

Fran Recht: My name is Fran. I’m a City of Depoe Bay city councilor. And I’m actually been involved for six years on the Depoe Bay City Council.

And before that, I was involved in the Planning Commission for years. I’ve been a fan of coastal land use planning forever. I served as conservation director of Oregon Shores for 20 years or so as a volunteer.

I’ve recently retired from Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, where I served as a habitat program manager dealing with estuary habitat restoration, salmon habitat restoration, water quality, whale entanglement, and a whole host of other things. So I’m really happy to be here.

My interest is trying to update these plans, I guess, for, it’s a whole other world. It’s no longer stable. How we can deal with climate change, and just a changing ocean environment and increased populations and other challenges in incorporating the new ocean energy framework into the plan as well.

Andrea Sumerau: My name is Andrea and I work in the Natural Resources Department of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.  And I would say my main interest in this is just sort of trying to see that concerns that the tribe has are brought into the discussion.

And I think my—I’ll have to go with octopus as my favorite. I wish I had that many arms to take care of stuff.

Lucy Lefkowitz: Lucy Lefkowitz, she/her pronouns. And I am so happy to be here. There’s such a wealth of expertise. I’m enjoying hearing everybody’s intros.

I’m the staff attorney with the offshore wind program with the National Wildlife Federation. So, I’m excited to bring the conservation organization perspective to the working group.

And I think what I’m most interested in focusing on here is: How can Oregon ensure that its ocean resources are really grounded in rigorous environmental review and clear and enforceable standards, while still remaining adaptable to the ocean, the emerging ocean uses, and evolving scientific information?

And like Fran, you pointed out as well the ever-changing ocean landscape that we’re in right now with the climate crisis.

And then my favorite marine species, probably beluga whale.

Jim Lerczak: I’m Jim Lerczak at Oregon State University, currently serving as associate dean for research in the College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences.

My research background is in coastal and estuarine processes, mainly studying things like currents and tides and differences in density in the waters between the estuaries and the ocean.

Also recently interested in what controls temperature in estuaries and how that may change in the future with the different climate conditions.

I’m passionate about the coastal ocean. I hope that some of the expertise I bring in this area can be of value to this working group. I’m very excited to be in this working group, and contribute to it.

Favorite species: I’m going to have to go with two, one of which is the pelagic cormorant, and the other one is the Olympia oyster.

Karina Nielsen: Karina Nielsen here. I’m director of the Oregon Sea Grant program. So my involvement here is a bit of an occupational hazard.

For those of you who don’t know Sea Grant, we really work on supporting a lot of community engagement and science and education around the coast and the ocean.

And trying to, you know, have balanced information out in the community and also balance responsible use and conservation.

So just to give you kind of a quick overview of what my work world is like.

My background is as a marine ecologist. I started out working in coastal estuaries on the East Coast, and then fell in love with biodiversity of the West Coast; did my Ph.D. here in Oregon studying rocky shores, did some work in Chile and in New Zealand.

And then in the Bay Area around San Francisco and in the San Francisco estuary, and then came back to Oregon about five years ago. So very happy to be here and to be part of this process.

It’s very important that our territorial sea plan, coastal sea plan is robust and I’m looking forward to contributing to the updates that are overdue.

I struggled with the marine species because I have one that is usually my go to and I studied it and I love it. And it’s the sea palm, Postelsia palmaeformis. It’s only found in the most wave-exposed rocky shores. And it’s quite an amazing seaweed.

However, these days I’ve been looking in the mirror and watching my hair get gray in funny places, and I think I look more like a tufted puffin. I feel like I have a lot of relationship with tufted puffins these days, so I’ll offer that. 

Presenter: Territorial Sea Plan Working Group member Sarah Courbis:

Sarah Courbis: Nice to see everybody. A lot of familiar faces.

I’m engaged in this in sort of similar to Lucy’s concept of thinking about how Oregon can be adaptive to changing environment as well as changing ocean use and our enforcement policies, and how we can use that and leverage that to make sure that the goals that Oregon has for sustainability can be met in a changing environment.

I have a long history in Oregon. I started working in Newport, Oregon originally. When I finished my undergraduate degree, I worked for Hatfield Science Center for a number of years. Did a lot of ecology work at that time and also interned in their marine mammal program.

I ended up doing some graduate work after that and I worked for the state of Hawaii for several years, and worked on their update to their coastal zone management plan at the time. So got some experience with that there.

And then I’ve also done some work for ODFW, salmon-related tracking and tagging and salmon population work. But my main background is in marine mammals and protected species.

So I have a long history working with marine mammals and working on permitting. And I have a pretty strong experience with the different types of regulations and things related to protected species in marine environments.

I’d say my favorite species, I’m going to say, since I’m a marine biologist, I got to pick a weird marine mammal.

So I’m going to go with strap-toothed whales, which are a type of beaked whale where the teeth on the males grow around in a circle around their mouth so they can only open their mouth about 10 cm total, but they still survive just fine. So they’re a very weird animal.

That is something I’ve always found kind of fascinating.

Jason Busch: My name is Jason Busch. I’m the executive director of POET, Pacific Ocean Energy Trust. It’s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a mission to promote ocean-based climate solutions.

I’ve been a lifelong conservationist. I’m a lawyer, haven’t practiced in many years since I took over POET. I’m obviously interested in marine energy, but I’m also just more broadly interested in the blue economy.

I have a lot of background in marine energy, including offshore wind. I worked on Parts 4 and 5 of the Territorial Sea Plan.

And I suppose my interest here is as a lawyer, as a conservationist, but as somebody who also works in the blue economy. I’m a small business owner. I have a seaweed company on the coast.

I guess I’m here to try to help develop the best possible, policy foundation for Oregon to make sure that we have the tools we need to make the best possible decisions about protecting our ocean, addressing climate change and our state’s, many infrastructure issues and needs while also recognizing that we need a thriving economy to be able to pay for all these kind of things.

So my favorite sea creature would have to be the sea otter. And I hope that one day we’ll have, we’ll have the elakha here back in Oregon.

Dean Apostol: So I’m Dean Apostol. I’m a mostly retired landscape architect with experience in scenic resource management.

I worked for the Forest Service for a number of years, and have also been in private consulting, and have worked on some of the East Coast offshore wind projects, doing scenic impact analysis off of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard.

I participated in the Offshore Wind Roadmap Committee. And that’s how I got recruited—or recruited myself—into this group.

And my favorite marine species, since I’m a landscape architect, not a biologist, so you have to bear with me on this, but I believe it’s called the Phyloclama manipulatus, which is a little-known vicious mollusk that comes out every Halloween and eats people.

And so be very careful if you’re near the beach on the evening of Halloween.

Peter Finley Fry: I’m Peter. I’m a planner with the American Institute of Certified Planning. I have my Ph.D. from Portland State.

I grew up along the California coastline, and I currently live in the Columbia Gorge on a 16-acre farm. So I’ve always been close to water and we go to the Oregon Coast a lot.

I’ve had a lot of different jobs. I worked as a consultant for property owners and business owners. I don’t normally work for developers or government, although I work a lot with government, obviously.

And I’m very excited to be part of this. Obviously the ocean interface to land is critically important, and Oregon has one of the longest coastlines in the U.S.

And I don’t have a favorite sea animal, I have a bunch of favorite ones. I start out with the orca, the dolphin, and I do love octopus, although that’s already mentioned.

I will say I was in Hawaii and I watched an octopus for over an hour and a half. It was very sensitive and shy. And I just was very polite. And it was a very interesting experience. They’re very intelligent animals in my experience.

But thank you for letting me be here.

Delia Kelly: I’m Delia Kelly, I’m the ocean energy coordinator with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

My primary work is in ocean energy, offshore wind, and wave energy at the environmental analysis of potential impacts and development of monitoring plans, mitigation measures and so forth.

But along the way, I have also worked in some significant policy realms, including development of Territorial Sea Plan Part 5 and review and revision of Part 4. So I am excited and eager to get going on what sorts of revisions might be appropriate for Parts 1 and 2.

Let’s see. I just can’t pick a favorite animal. Sorry, Jeff. You’re not going to get me on that.

Laurel Hillman: Hi, I’m Laurel Hillman. I work for Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. I’m the ocean shore resource coordinator.

I have my background in marine resource management from Oregon State, but I have been at Parks for quite a while, so I’ve been involved in sort of all the territorial sea planning work that we’ve done over recent years, from rocky shores to offshore energy.

So I’m here to represent Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. So any sort of territorial sea plan connections to the ocean shore, so: Oregon’s beaches and rocky shorelines, I guess that’s really hard to pick a favorite, but I’m not going to back out.

Let’s say I really like the frosted nudibranch. But I also really enjoy tropical fish from growing up overseas. I really like parrotfish, for example, but I have so many favorites. Those are just a few.

Jeff Burright: Parrotfish have kind of a secret humor to them, if you watch them long enough. They’re pretty funny.

Presenter: Members of the Territorial Sea Plan Working Group introduce themselves at their first meeting Oct. 27. You can view the entire meeting on YouTube at the DLCD channel.