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THE ASTORIAN • THuRSdAy, FEbRuARy 17, 2022
Tourism: It’s important to bring as many people to the table as possible
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Reid hopes to use the
network’s existing audi-
ence and marketing tools to
encourage environmental
stewardship and limit some
of the negative impacts of
travel, such as traffic.
The county has renewed
a contract with the cham-
ber’s Lower Columbia Tour-
ism Committee, allocating
$95,000 for tourism market-
ing. The money comes from
lodging taxes.
One method is asking
visitors to take a pledge to
respect the local community.
The Oregon Coast Visitors
Association has guidelines
with its code of the coast,
which details tide pool eti-
quette, hunting and fishing
rules and other topics.
Reid suggested further
sharing the pledge through
social media and advertising
campaigns and attaching it
to hotel confirmations.
“Done well, (campaigns)
are not just for tourists.
They’re for locals, too,” he
said. “We start to see our
environment that we’re liv-
ing in differently, as well.
We start to reappreciate how
special it is and we treat it
differently, as well. And so
we set the tone, we set the
expectation and everybody
wins,” he said.
He also hopes to address
transportation issues associ-
ated with tourism, such as
cars crowding communities
like Cannon Beach. At this
point, the groups are focus-
ing on messaging around
carpooling and encourag-
ing tourists to use public
transportation.
Reid said he is optimistic
about the programs and the
collaboration between stake-
holders and emphasized the
economic significance of the
Bonamici:
‘Hopeful
for a better
future’
Lydia Ely/The Astorian
A coffee cup lid is stuck in the grass at the edge of Coffenbury Lake.
tourism industry.
Travelers spent $115.8
million in the Astoria-War-
renton area in 2019, and
$63.5 million in 2020, a
decrease due to COVID-19,
according to an economic
analysis by Dean Runyan
Associates.
County Commissioner
Pamela Wev said she sup-
ports opportunities for vis-
itors to have experiences
that connect them to the
environment.
One example is the
region’s Trailhead and
Beach Ambassadors pro-
gram, launched in 2020,
where volunteers patrol
popular sites like tide pools
watching for mistreatment
and offering their local
knowledge.
“We’ve been taking a look
at other places in the county
that attract a lot of tourism
to the natural environment,
to have ambassadors there to
say, ‘OK, you’re getting on a
trail, do you have water? Do
you have a map?’ And being
able to supply them with the
information that they need,
about how far a trail is and
how long it is and how dif-
ficult because we don’t nec-
essarily want to mark all that
stuff,” she said.
Wev said she’s inter-
ested in expanding volun-
teer opportunities for visi-
tors, too.
“We know there are peo-
ple who would be willing to
come out for a weekend and
spend a few hours pulling up
noxious weeds, and maybe
we’ll give them something
in return,” she said, sug-
gesting hotel or restaurant
vouchers as options.
“We’re working on all
that, and hoping that we can
create an environment that
people come to, not just to
lay in the sun, because we’re
finding out that a whole lot
of people really want to do
other things. And if some of
that can be in service to the
environment, then they’re
even more interested,” she
said.
Emily Akdedian, the
North Coast stewardship
coordinator for Trailkeepers
of Oregon, organizes volun-
teer team cleanups and trail
maintenance.
She said people often
travel from Portland, Salem,
Eugene and southern Wash-
ington state specifically to
volunteer for the program.
This year has already had
a strong showing, but Akde-
dian hopes sustainable tour-
ism initiatives will get vaca-
tioners interested, too.
“I know people are
really interested in regener-
ative travel ideas. And our
coastal trails, I think espe-
cially during the pandemic,
were hit so hard by visita-
tion,” she said. “I think that
also kind of jump-started
these conversations about,
‘OK, well, then how do we
get more folks involved in
actually taking care of the
trails, because they need it
so badly.’”
‘Leave it better’
The North Coast Tourism
Management Network will
be hosting the trailkeepers
and other community groups
Cruise ships: A number of riverboats are also slated to visit
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Bonamici said she
works on the House Com-
mittee on Education and
Labor, which seeks to
provide school meals that
are healthy and age-ap-
propriate. She encouraged
Mickelson to write a let-
ter to the school board or
talk with school adminis-
trators about his concerns.
“Thank you for bring-
ing that up … I will take
that to heart when we
work on the school nutri-
tion programs,” she said.
Ian O’Brien, the high
school’s assistant prin-
cipal, who helped coor-
dinate the event, asked
Bonamici to talk about
how what the students
say and ask may make an
impact.
The congresswoman
recalled a time when stu-
dents testified at the state
Legislature about the
mixed messages they
were receiving at school
— they were learning
about the importance of
nutrition in class while
there was unhealthy food
in the vending machines.
She considered the stu-
dent voices to be influ-
ential in the legislative
process.
“That’s what we do
as representatives, is we
represent people, and we
write legislation and pass
it,” she said. “ ... We listen
to our constituents, who
are the people we repre-
sent, and we bring those
ideas with us.”
Asked how she felt
about Oregon lifting the
indoor mask mandate at
schools and other places
at the end of March,
Bonamici
encouraged
everyone to listen to health
experts as the coronavirus
pandemic continues.
“It’s been a difficult
time, but I’m really hope-
ful for a better future, and
I know you are all going
to be part of that,” she
said.
later this month at a public
meeting to discuss potential
volunteer opportunities for
tourists.
Karen Olson, the net-
work’s
manager,
said
it’s important to bring as
many people to the table as
possible.
“The sustainable tour-
ism vision is that not only
will people not do harm, but
they will fall in love with
the coast, and that they will
want to leave it better than
they found it,” she said.
“There’s all kinds of angles
and initiatives and ways to
work that out.”
The network addresses
some issues directly. After
visitors left human waste at
campgrounds and on trails
last year, the network cre-
ated an interactive, online
map of public bathrooms
that is accessible through
QR codes posted at popular
sites.
Since its publication last
summer, Olson said the site
has been visited around
9,000 times.
Olson said that the bath-
room map is one of the few
short-term projects. Most
of the challenges associated
with tourism will require
management over the long
haul.
“People aren’t going to
stop wanting to visit, and
so the challenges change
the dynamics of the com-
munities for those who live
there, and that’s not always
smooth sailing,” she said.
“So I think it’s the message
that helping tourism, helping
visitors experience the coast
in a sustainable way is bene-
ficial for all of us.”
“We’re not in this alone,
and we’re all going to work
and try to make it easier for
people to do the right thing,”
she said.
Hailey Hoffman/The Astorian
The Regatta rode out parts of the coronavirus pandemic at the Port of Astoria.
The high expecta-
tions come as the past
few cruise ship seasons
were derailed by the
coronavirus pandemic.
Two cruise ships docked
at the Port in 2021, but
both were crew-only
vessels waiting out pan-
demic restrictions.
The loss of cruise
ships during the pan-
demic took a financial
toll on the Port, which
can see over $1 million
a year in revenue from
the visits.
“The cruise ship
industry is extremely
important to the econ-
omy of this area, this
city, this region,” Frank
Spence, the president of
the Port Commission,
said. “ … Hopefully we
will regain that because
all of the businesses
and certainly our gov-
ernment is looking for-
ward to coming out of
this epidemic and mak-
ing some money.”
While the Port waits
for oceangoing vessels
to arrive, a number of
riverboats are planning
to visit the city at the
17th Street Dock start-
ing in March.
“It’s been a roller
coaster. It’s really been
unbelievable, and I
really feel bad for (the
cruise lines). To con-
tinue to modify and
adapt protocols to artic-
ulate how serious they
are and how safe the
ship is, is very expen-
sive,” Conner said. “
... It’s been very, very
difficult
but,
right
now, I think we are
all seeing some day-
light at the end of the
tunnel.”
Protest: The disruption mirrored far-right protests at other state capitals
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Lyles was facing more
than a dozen felony charges
for his role in the Dec. 21,
2020 protest against COVID-
19 restrictions as state law-
makers opened a special ses-
sion on pandemic response.
The protest turned violent
and led to property damage
and assaults on police and
journalists.
The plea agreement was
announced as Lyles was
about to stand trial. Pros-
ecutors dismissed charges
that involved riot, assaulting
police and additional counts
of unlawful use of a chemi-
cal irritant.
In an interview with The
Astorian after the court pro-
ceeding, Lyles acknowl-
edged that he used bear spray
at the protest. “A hundred
percent, I did that,” he said.
Lyles said a video will
surface that exonerates him
of some of the other charges.
He praised his attorney,
Spencer Todd, and said the
state did not do its job and
“took 14 months of my life.”
“Regardless of a person’s
politics, the system’s fair for
everybody — or it should be
Dirk VanderHart/Oregon Public Broadcasting
Oregon State Police declared an unlawful assembly at the Oregon State Capitol on Dec. 21,
2020 as far-right protesters stormed the building.
fair for everybody — and
this is not a guy getting away
with something,” Todd said.
“This is a guy taking respon-
sibility and accountability
for the conduct that he actu-
ally did.”
In the months after the
murder of George Floyd by
Minneapolis police in 2020,
Lyles was often among the
counterdemonstrators
at
Black Lives Matter protests
on the North Coast. At local
demonstrations and on social
media, he aligned with oth-
ers on the far right who were
vocal in their support of for-
mer President Donald Trump
and critical of pandemic
restrictions.
The disruption at the
special session in Salem in
December 2020 mirrored
far-right protests at other
state capitals tied to pan-
demic response and Trump’s
November 2020 election
defeat.
The protests were precur-
sors to the Jan. 6, 2021 insur-
rection at the U.S. Capitol
meant to delay the electoral
vote count in Joe Biden’s
presidential victory over
Trump.
Several others have
pleaded guilty to charges
linked to the Salem protest.
The state House of Repre-
sentatives also voted last
June to expel Mike Near-
man, a Republican from Polk
County, who opened a west-
end door to the Capitol and
allowed protesters inside.
Lyles said he was among
the protesters who breached
the Capitol thanks to Near-
man. At the time, the Cap-
itol was closed to visitors
as a precaution against the
pandemic.
Nearman, the first state
lawmaker in Oregon his-
tory to be expelled, pleaded
guilty in July to first-degree
official misconduct.