Eugene weekly., September 13, 2018, Page 13, Image 13

the changes he’s seen over the years. He says he wants
to preserve “the thrill of being able to go wherever you
want to go, the freedom and the thrill of riding climbing
big dunes.”
He adds of the broad expanses of sand: “It’s like a clean
sheet of paper, and you can do what you want to with it.”
Phillips says one kind of event that benefits both the
dunes and the OHV riders is “trash the grass,” in which
people go out in their vehicles and use the tires to tear up
the Scotch broom and European beachgrass.
It’s a family sport, Phillips says of dunes riding, and
one that’s a recreational draw and moneymaker for coastal
communities like Florence, Winchester and Coos Bay, all
located near OHV riding areas.
Bill Blackwell, a retired deputy district ranger for
Oregon Dunes Recreation Area, has a different technique
for removing the invasive plants. Blackwell has been
coordinating work parties to pull gorse, Scotch broom and
European beachgrass from the dunes.
He says people come from as far away as Eugene and
Roseburg to help restore the dunes, in groups from 10
people to as many as 23. Spring, he says, is the best time
to go after bright yellow Scotch broom as it flowers and
before it goes to seed, but work parties continue through
the summer and the fall.
“Little plants you can pull,” Blackwell says. “For larger
plants, each person has their favorite tool.”
Weed pullers are the most effective, he says, with a wrench
you put on the base of the plant with a lever to pull the roots
out. “Some of us use a shovel to dig down a little bit down to
the root and loppers or a handsaw to cut them down.”
Looking Forward
from a Long History
GHOSTLY TREES ARE THE REMNANTS OF A FOREST COVERED BY THE DUNES
PHOTO COURTESY DINA PAVLIS
lost major processes such as sand collection and dispersal
via wind and water.” The natural shifting of the dunes has
been interrupted, as has the function of the ecosystem.
Ironically, one apparent aspect of the changing dunes
has been to increase the numbers of not only common
opportunists like crows and coyotes, but also possibly of
a subspecies of Humboldt marten. Kertis says the marten
“lives in huge swaths of shrub fields that have developed
on the dunes thanks to dunes stabilization.”
In June, environmental groups including Cascadia
Wildlands, where Peters sits on the board, and Oregon
Wild, petitioned to have the Humboldt marten put on
Oregon’s endangered species list. There are an estimated
200 of them in Oregon, according to the Center for
Biological Diversity, 100 in the dunes.
LeGue says one conundrum is that when you open up
the dunes to benefit the snowy plover, you might be risking
the habitat also benefitting the Humboldt marten.
Currently, Kertis says, the Forest Service is working
on an Environmental Assessment (EA) for the project to
address many of the environmental issues that arise as the
group seeks to protect and restore the dunes as well as the
means by which they are restored and preserved.
Because the dunes are public land, projects go through a
public process, with opportunity for people to weigh in on
how those goals will be achieved. For example, work parties
have been hand-pulling the invasive plants, but the overall
project will take years and must operate on a large scale.
“We are talking about everything from hand-pulling
and big machines to herbicides and burning,” Kertis says.
Phillips is kind of a fan of big machines. More precisely,
he’s a fan of OHVs and using them to keep invasives at
bay. Phillips founded Save the Riders Dunes as part of his
efforts to both preserve the dunes and preserve the rights of
OHV riders to recreate on them.
“I go back to just being a kid,” he says of riding on the
dunes. “Who do you know as a kid doesn’t like to play in
a sandbox?”
Phillips remembers his first trip to the dunes when he
was five or six years old, back in 1957, and he laments
Collaborative member Ashley Russell understands
Phillips’ affection for ATVs as one way people enjoy
recreating on the dunes, but as a Miluk-Coos tribal member
she also brings in a long-term perspective on the land, its
history and its uses.
Russell is an enrolled member of and water specialist
for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and
Siuslaw Indians. The tribes are part of the collaborative,
and Russell says the dunes are a historical village and
camping site. “We still gather there,” she says.
The unique ecosystem of the dunes is home to a number
of culturally significant species, Russell says, including
bearberry, mussels, bog cranberries and American dune
grass, which are still utilized by the tribes today.
In addition to restoration — and acknowledging the
European beachgrass will never be fully removed —
Russell is working on education and outreach to “inform
local landowners of why this is important and why dunal
processes are important.”
The tribes “lived and hunted and camped” in the dunes,
she says.
Russell was brought into the collaborative by Jesse
Beers, Shayuushtl’axan hiich (a Siuslaw person) and
cultural stewardship manager with the confederated tribes.
Cultural stewardship and natural resources are often
interrelated, Beers says.
The tribes have stories associated with the dunes, Beers
says, as well as traditional camp sites and cultural sites. A
great example of this, he says, is Tahkenitch — the same
place where Peters saw her first glimpse of the dunes.
Tahkenitch was a traditional village site, Beers says.
What is now a lake system was once a river to the bay.
Dunes cut off the outlet, “and now we know it as an inland
lake,” he says. Possibly due to the encroaching dunes, the
village was abandoned as a permanent site.
“There are lots of different village sites we don’t know
about, probably under the dunes, and campsites we do
know about,” Beers says.
“The most important things is just having the dunes.
They are in danger of going away.” ■
Dina Pavlis will present on the Oregon Dunes at an Oregon Wild
Wednesday event 6 pm Oct. 10, at Claim 52 Brewing and Taproom, 1030
Tyinn Street in Eugene.
To find out more about the Oregon Dunes Restoration Collaborative and
upcoming work parties, go to saveoregondunes.org. To keep tabs on the
Forest Service’s EA, go to fs.usda.gov/project/?project=52946.
eugeneweekly.com • September 13, 2018
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