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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2017
Microplastics: ‘We want this affordable and accessible’
Continued from Page 1A
to consistently raise money, as
well as awareness about the
issue.
“Rather than going to a
landfi ll, we wanted to turn (the
plastic) into a vehicle for con-
versation,” Rice said. “When
visitors come , it’s not only an
opportunity for environmental
education, but a positive, tan-
gible reminder that you can
make a difference.”
Haystack ‘really bad’
The presence of micro-
plastics on beaches around
the world has been steadily
increasing for the past six
years, said Marc Ward, the
director of the environmen-
tal non profi t Sea Turtles
Forever.
Ward, who often leads
beach cleanup efforts in Can-
non Beach, has been research-
ing marine plastics for more
than 20 years. In that time he
started to see the prevalence
of the material in the digestive
tracts of sea turtles.
But he didn’t realize the
severity until he returned to the
coast from a research trip six
years ago to fi nd the beaches
he loves — like Oswald West
and Crescent Beach — cov-
ered in the tiny plastics .
“I’ve been on the beach
all my life. I was a surfer — I
know every beach in this state.
I also know we never had
microplastics before,” he said.
“I take my kids to the beach,
and when I saw my baby with
microplastic in his mouth I
Pooka Rice holds up a tray of pieces of plastic and oth-
er materials removed from area beaches that are used in
making her line of jewelry.
Photos by Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
The finished products from the line of jewelry include pieces of plastic removed from
local beaches embedded within earrings, bracelets and other decorative adornments.
knew something had to be
done about this.”
Since then, Ward has facili-
tated countless surveys, devel-
oped a microplastic screening
system and organized more
than 100 beach cleanup events
up and down the West Coast.
Microplastics are detrimen-
tal to beaches because of the
toxins they accumulate.
“You get a bottle. It’s
dropped in the ocean. The
UV light from the sun breaks
it down and makes it brittle.
Then it breaks up into small
pieces,” Ward said. “It never
biodegrades, they just get
smaller and smaller. It’s then
when they absorb these chem-
icals — which are often car-
cinogenic — through bro-
ken edges and surfaces and
keep concentrating them. Left
alone, you could have a con-
taminated beach.”
The mile in front of Hay-
stack Rock is “really, really
bad,” Ward said, where he has
consistently surveyed more
than 100 grams of micro-
plastics per square meter.
Some beaches, like Crescent
Beach at Ecola State Park,
had the amount of microplas-
tics quadruple in three years of
surveying.
Generally, he said it’s dan-
gerous to not clean out any
section of sand more than 50
grams per square meter. How
the currents work and the
geography of the North Coast
are partly to blame for why the
volume is dense, Ward said.
This issue affects every part
of the food chain, where almost
a million seabirds and 66 per-
cent of marine life are ingest-
ing microplastics , according to
NOAA statistics. But people
can also ingest it by building
a fi re on the beach and inhal-
ing chemicals from the burn-
ing plastics.
Disposing of and creat-
ing less plastic is ultimately
needed to eliminate these
issues, but volunteering at
beach clean up events to screen
plastics out of the sand is a big
way to start, Ward said.
“Sometimes it feels like
a hopeless situation. I’ve
worked with thousands of peo-
ple in Clatsop County and Til-
lamook County to clean these
beaches, and they all leave
with a great feeling of accom-
plishment,” Ward said. “They
see we can actually do some-
thing about it.”
Becoming sustainable
Even with 100 pieces of
jewelry made, the team has
hardly made a dent in those
240 pounds of microplastics
collected . But in this case,
that might be good — interest
in buying the pieces has sur-
passed Rice’s expectations.
“We’re trying to make this
sustainable. We’ll need more
volunteer involvement to keep
up with the demand,” she said.
A website is set to launch
next week offering pieces for
sale, and people should expect
seeing these creations around
the county at local stores
priced between $8 and $35,
program coordinator Melissa
Keyser said.
The goal is a steady form
of revenue to make the pro-
gram as independently sus-
tainable as possible. The team
also hopes to partner with the
Cannon Beach Arts Asso-
ciation to hold more ecolo-
gy-based art classes, as well
as support more environmental
education .
“We want this affordable
and accessible, because we
want to start larger conversa-
tions about sustainable con-
sumption and practice with
everyone,” Keyser said.
Doughboy: The bronze monument was last refurbished in 1991
Continued from Page 1A
were damaged by the wreck,
so they’ll need to be recon-
structed. We still need to have
an analysis of the connection
of the bronze monument to the
base.”
The city had already
received a $12,625 Veterans
and War Memorials Grant
from the State Historic Pres-
ervation Offi ce to pay for
improvements to the west-
ern side of the statue, includ-
ing the western bathroom —
undamaged by the crash but
closed for years and in need
of restoration.
Utility work will be done
by contractors. Clatsop Com-
munity College’s Historic
Preservation and Restoration
program will document con-
ditions of the monument and
restore the plaster on the west
side of the base starting this
winter, said instructor Lucien
Swerdloff.
“We’re also going to refur-
bish the fl agpole,” he said.
“That has rust, and the con-
nections to the ground need
to be redone.”
The crash damage has
already pushed back the
grant-funded work, some of
which will be delayed until
spring, Cosby said, but the
city hopes to fi nish the resto-
ration within a year.
Astoria’s Doughboy Mon-
ument is one of many around
the country undergoing
repairs in advance of the cen-
tennial of the end of World
War I. A monument in Ray-
mond, Washington, is one of
50 so far to receive a match-
ing grant for restoration from
the World War I Centennial
Commission’s 100 Cities/100
Memorials program.
Astoria’s monument was
entered into the National
American Legion
The American Legion’s Clatsop Post 12 hopes to install a new monument in front of the
Doughboy Monument in Uniontown listing the names of 34 Clatsop County soldiers lost
in World War I, along with the poem “In Flanders Fields” by John McCrae.
Register of Historic Places in
1984, including the fi rst pub-
lic bathrooms added to the
list. The bronze doughboy
was last refurbished in 1991
using crushed walnut shells
and hot wax. It is not part of
the new project.
Mike Phillips, president of
the American Legion’s Clat-
sop Post 12, said the group
hopes by next summer to
install a new concrete mon-
ument near the Doughboy
listing the names of the 34
c ounty soldiers lost in the
war, along with the poem
“In Flanders Fields,” by John
McCrae.
The proposed monument
will have to go through the
city’s Parks Advisory Board
and ultimately be decided by
the City Council, Cosby said.
The monument would be
about 3 to 4 feet wide and 3
feet high and also have the
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
Edward Stratton/The Daily Astorian
The Doughboy Monument in Uniontown, dedicated in
1926 to locals lost in World War I and struck by a truck in
August, will be repaired through a combination of state
historic preservation grants and insurance money.
The bronze doughboy atop the Astoria Victory Monument
in Uniontown, dedicated in 1926 to locals lost in World
War I, is called Over the Top at Cantigny in honor of the
first major American offensive in World War I.
names of those who served
on the other side, Phillips
said. He hopes it will com-
plete the Doughboy Monu-
ment and help remind peo-
ple of those who served in
even realize that they have
family members that made
the ultimate sacrifi ce,” Phil-
lips said. “I think it’s only
right to memorialize our vet-
erans and their families.”
World War I.
Frank Buckles, who died
at 110 in 2011 in West Vir-
ginia, was the last surviving
U.S. World War I veteran.
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