Oregon daily emerald., January 17, 1973, Page 9, Image 8

Paul Rudy heads the University’s Institute of
Marine Biology at Charleston which will offer a
Photo by Lisa Mariano
course about man and his environmental problems
spring term.
Institute offers integrated
studies of Coos Bay ecology
By PETER SHEPHERD
Of the Emerald
COOS BAY (Special)—The
University’s Institute of Marine
Biology at Charleston, will offer a
“multi-disciplined approach to
man and his environmental
problems” spring term.
“The Coos Bay area is in many
ways a typical estuary,” said
Paul Rudy, director of the In
stitute. “It’s under a lot of
pressure from many sources.
We’ve Riled and polluted it
Unplanned growth is killing it.”
In an effort to provide some
insight into the area’s en
vironmental problems, students
will study landscape architecture
and sociology as well as
geography and biology.
“Since I came here four years
ago,” said Rudy, “I’ve begun to
realize that you have to go
beyond biology to social use
programs. If we’re to deal with
environmental problems we have
to get plugged into the political
process.”
Students and faculty will live
on the Institute grounds in old
Civilian Conservation Corps
dormitories. Though the dorms
are a little Spartan, Rudy said,
“a sort of summer-camp spirit
develops that’s a lot of fun.”
The Institute spreads over
more than 100 acres on the ocean
channel four miles from Coos
Bay, an important lumber
shipping port.
Rudy said the grounds en
compass a wide variety of en
vironments. “We have a wooded
area that has a high population of
mammals, like mice and flying
squirrels,” said Rudy. A recently
acquired 22-acre tract of land
allows the Institute to study a salt
marsh and large tidal mud flat in
addition to rockier types of
shoreline.
Rudy then responded to
charges that the University
program was duplicating ser
vices offered by the Oregon State
University Marine Biology
Center in Newport.
“This thing has been a bugaboo
all along to us,” said Rudy. “If
you think of the whole field of
oceanography as a pie, we are a
very narrow segment of it. We’re
trying to integrate our program
to deal most effectively with
coastal problems—something
that’s not being done anywhere
else that I know of.”
The State Board of Higher
Education recently com
missioned a study of the problem.
Pitch
35c
Anytime if you
play pool
the Annex
740 Willamette
The study concludes that no
change should be made in the
present set-up.
The University faculty at
Charleston this spring will be
Rudy, who is an associate
professor of biology; Robert
Diethelm, associate professor of
architecture and chairman of the
Department of Landscape Ar
chitecture ; Ronald Raich,
assistant professor of sociology;
and William Loy, assistant
professor of geography.
Rudy said he was concerned
about the spring term
enrollment. “We probably need
about 20 to make the program
work, but to date we only have
ten.”
Enrollment will be limited by
dormitory space to 60 students.
Students interested in enrolling
should see the individual
departments for information.
"and
clouzot
To marine biology institute
Indian donates land
By PETER SHEPHERD
Of the Emerald
COOS BAY (Special) — “I want that land left just exactly the way it
was before the White man came and took it away,” said Henry Met
calf, a Coos Indian who has donated 22 acres of land on the Coos Bay
estuary to the University’s Institute for Marine Biology.
‘ ‘We have had limited access to the land before we actually acquired
it,” said Paul Rudy, director of the Institute, “but we couldn’t protect
it from a variety of environmental pressures.”
The land extends from the low tide mark of a tidal slough across a
mudflat and salt marsh onto a forested hillside. Also on the acreage is
a small boat basin, rare in the crowded bay area.
The land is valued at approximately $18,000.
Though old age limits his activities to his house, Metcalf’s memories
of the land and its meaning to him clearly have not faded.
“This was a good country. There were deer and elk all over, and
millions and millions of ducks. If you waved your arms in the air and
scared those ducks they’d fly up and darken the sun,” said Metcalf,
pausing to take a contemplative draw on his pipe. “The hunters will
kill them all off though. They’re already taking away all the breeding
grounds.”
“‘We’d go out on those mudflats with a crooked stick about a foot
long,” said Metcalf, “and just stick it down in the mud. We’d twirl that
stick around and around and up would come a big clam—they were
that close together . . .
“If they keep on fishing for crabs there aren’t going to be any left.
They’ve got thousands and thousands of huge pots out there each day,
there’s no place for a crab to go,” said Metcalf. “When I was a boy, we
could go out on the flats and under each lump of seaweed there’d be a
crab.”
“In just a little space I’d get all the clams I could pack ashore, but I
always left some,” said Metcalf.
“One time a fellow came by to show me a whole bunch of clams he’d
dug. ‘I got every one of them,’ he said, and he probably did. He was
raised here on the slough just like me, but he lived up in Eugene most
of the time,” said Metcalf, as if that explained the man’s lack of
concern.
Metcalf raised two sons near the land he donated to the University.
“Oh God,” said Metcalf. “Those kids lived on that land more than in
the house.”
Rudy said the grant came with two stipulations. “First, we’ve
agreed to keep the area in its natural state—no extensive structures of
any type.” The Metcalf family has also asked that the land be used
only for educational and research purposes.
The University has named the area the “Henry A. Metcalf
Estuarine Research Area” in honor of its donor.
AND “
OAK
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