4A ܂ WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 2018 ܂ APPEAL TRIBUNE
Life in the Valley
Offering a glimpse of the past
Sitka Sedge State Natural Area preserves beautiful oceanfront land
The Sitka Sedge State Natural Area recently opened to the public. PHOTO COURTESY OF OREGON PARKS AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT
Zach Urness Salem Statesman Journal
USA TODAY NETWORK
TIERRA DEL MAR – The long odyssey
of
a
particularly
beautiful patch of the Oregon Coast has
finally come to an end.
Sitka Sedge State Natural Area offi-
cially
opened
last
weekend, providing access to 375 acres
of wetlands, dunes and oceanfront
north of Pacific City.
The park, composed of a small park-
ing area and 3 miles of hiking trails, is
the culmination of a decades-long effort
to preserve one of the most pristine sec-
tions of estuary and oceanfront in Ore-
gon.
It hasn’t always been easy.
Former owners attempted to build a
destination style golf course on the land
throughout the 2000s, including one
proposal that would have required
memberships costing $25,000 to
$35,000 per person.
Each time, however, community
members and local officials opposed the
plans, opening the door for the Oregon
Parks and Recreation Department to
purchase the land for $1.8 million in
2014.
Now, the landscape is open for every-
one to enjoy.
“We’re very excited to open the area
to the public,” said Kirk Barham, Sitka
Sedge Park Manager. “Sitka Sedge has a
unique
beach
ecosystem, and we want to preserve the
area’s natural character for visitors.”
What does the new park feature?
It doesn’t take long to disappear into
nature at Sitka Sedge.
Just a few minutes of walking brings
you into one of the largest intact estu-
aries on the Oregon Coast, teeming with
great blue herons and bald eagles, bea-
vers and otters, coho salmon, coyote
and even black bear.
Hike a bit further and you’ll reach a
forest of sitka spruce that slowly
morphs into dunes rising above a beach
nestled between the cliffs of Cape Look-
out to the north and Haystack Rock to
the south.
“Because this is one of the most pris-
tine estuaries in Oregon — and because
this sand spit didn’t receive much hu-
man use — it’s really in similar condi-
tion to what you would have seen pre-
European settlement,” said Katie Duzik,
natural resources specialist for the
coastal region of Oregon’s state parks.
“It’s a place that shows what the Ore-
gon Coast looked like in the past, a few
hundred years ago.”
The parking lot is small — it fits
around 28 cars — and provides access to
three miles of hiking trails.
Two loops, Estuary Views and Kinni-
kinnik Woods, travel through the estu-
ary and onto the forested dunes. Two
beach access points branch off from the
loop trails onto a very scenic beach.
Almost a golf course
The land that became Sitka Sedge
was known as the Beltz Property for
most of its history.
And throughout the 2000s, there
were multiple attempts to turn that
property into a destination golf course
on par with Bandon Dunes south of
Coos Bay.
One major push was led by group of
Seattle-based investors — including
two executives of the cell phone compa-
ny Nokia Corp. — who worked toward
building a “Scottish links”-style course
to be called Pacific Gailes.
It was hoped the 18-hole private
course, with memberships costing
$25,000 to $35,000 per person, would
feature a clubhouse, restaurant and
spectacular views.
The group faced opposition from
community members worried about
losing water rights, damage to wildlife
habitat and seeing the area co-opted by
an elite group of wealthy tourists. The
zoning restrictions and land use laws
that came into play were another major
hurdle.
The original group eventually aban-
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doned its effort, but property owner
Frank Bastasch continued to pursue the
project. He sought to develop a “world-
class environmentally friendly 18-hole
golf course to be known as ‘Sand Lake
Golf Links,’ “ that would include a club-
house, 30-room hotel and fine-dining
restaurant, according to a March 27,
2007 story in the Tillamook Headlight
Herald.
Those efforts slowed when the per-
mits to develop — and a Measure 37
claim, which frees property owners
from zoning restrictions — were denied
by Tillamook County Commissioners
2-1 in March of 2007.
“The zoning changes made it a lot
more difficult to build a golf course, and
I think there was an exhaustion factor
on (Bastasch’s) part after trying for so
long,” said Bettina von Hagen, who
helped negotiate the sale of the proper-
ty, in a 2014 Statesman Journal story.
Oregon Parks had expressed interest
in buying the property over the years. It
was viewed as a “high value natural re-
source that would make desirable addi-
tion to the state park system” as far back
as the 1960s, according to state docu-
ments, but the asking price had always
been too high.
The state offered $2.25 million for the
property in 2004 while Bastasch want-
ed closer to $8 million.
Once Bastasch decided he was ready
to sell, it ended up being Portland con-
servation group Ecotrust that pur-
chased the property for $1.8 million (the
appraised value) with the agreement
they would sell it to the state for the
same price.
Von Hagen said it was a tough choice
for Bastasch to make in selling the prop-
erty.
“It wasn’t the price they expected – it
was a long journey and a generous
choice to sell us the property with all the
public benefit that it will create as a new
park,” she said.
A different kind of park
The park begins with the rare combi-
Garry Falor
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What do to: Hiking on three miles of
trail, though estuary, dunes and
oceanfront beach
Directions: Put these coordinates
into your iPhone or mapping system:
45.26300, -123.9539.
nation of both salt and freshwater estu-
aries where native plants, birds and
even endangered coho salmon can be
found.
“There hasn’t been the same percent-
age of loss of estuary habitat we see in a
lot of other areas,” Duzik said.
“The freshwater marsh has really
great songbird habitat, while in salt wa-
ter marsh we have a lot of shore and sea
birds utilizing the mudflats for food in
their migrations.”
Beyond, the landscape transitions
into a forest of sitka spruce, hemlock
and shorepine, before climbing over
dunes and dropping onto a stretch of
beach with views of Cape Lookout and
Haystack Rock.
The mouth of Sand Lake rolls across a
beach that feels a long way from the typ-
ical chaos of the northern Oregon Coast
in August.
“The Oregon Coast isn’t just a way-
side pullout with a picnic table and rest-
room,” Oregon Parks and Recreation
Department spokesman Chris Havel
said.
“What sets a place like this apart is
that you can come in, detach, let every-
thing settle around you and get a sense
of what the coast was like 200 years ago.
It’s a place with a sense of stillness,
where the world isn’t crowding in
around you.”
Michael Kim,
DDS
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OR-SAL0008133-15
Location: North of Pacific City and
south of Tillamook, at Tierra Del Mar
Salem Area
Vin Searles
Jeff Davis
Member SIPC
Size: 375 acres
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