SIUSLAW NEWS | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2018 | 5A
DUNES from page 1A
Oregon coast, a hidden area of dunes
that have been virtually untouched
by the species that have overtaken
much of the coast’s dunes.
The trek began at the end of Josh-
ua Lane, located just east of Heceta
Beach. The entrance to the dunes is
unassuming, looking almost like an
unkempt backyard — a wire fence
hidden amongst a row of wild bush-
es.
Blackwell spoke to a group of a
few dozen volunteers before the hike
began.
“What we have on our agenda
today is, it’s about a half mile hike
out to where we’re going to work,” he
said. “It’s a place we’ve worked a few
months ago, so I’m sure we’ll be able
to finish that part of it.”
The volunteers were an eclectic
group of all ages, from children be-
low the age of 10 to a woman in her
80s. They all held different tools for
the job — loppers, saws and other
weeding instruments.
“I appreciate you guys to come
out to continue our work here,”
Blackwell said. “This is one of the
best places to find the dunes in their
natural habitat.”
The group began hiking eastward.
Just a few paces into the trek, the
scraggly bushes made way to a beau-
tiful, sand-swept tree island resting
in the sands.
Each expedition begins with a
group photograph at the spot, which
is special for the collaborative. It’s
one of the first places they helped
restore.
“When we first started in the
spring five years ago, it was just to-
tally yellow,” Blackwell said. “Scotch
broom seeds last 50 years, so unfor-
tunately you’ve got to keep coming
back to the same area. They’ll re-
sprout. We have
broom is a little
to still come back
bit more diffi-
each year to get the
cult to spot. The
new plants coming
larger plants have
up, but we have
dark seed pods on
made an impact.”
them.
Several
non-
“Ah,
there’s
native
species
one right here,”
were introduced
Blackwell
said,
to the dunes de-
moving toward a
cades ago to pre-
large bush. He de-
vent sand blowing
scribed the ways
in to nearby coast-
one can take out a
al towns. Grasses,
Scotch.
such as Europe-
“There’s differ-
an beach grass,
ent methods, de-
would dig into the
pending on your
sand,
spreading
tool,” he said. “You
over it complete-
can dig these up
ly, thus preventing
with a shovel. You
the strong coastal
can take loppers
winds from pick-
or hand saws and
JARED ANDERSON/SIUSLAW NEWS
ing up the sand.
cut it, but you
Volunteers regularly remove Scotch broom, gorse and
The
plan
want to cut it as
worked only too invasive grasses in the Oregon dunes.
low as possible. If
well. Soon, the invasive species complaints with noise and parking you leave some, especially on young
overtook the dunes completely, around the entrance, their use was plants, that will come back up from
choking out the native plants. Aerial restricted, Blackwell said.
the stump.”
photography of the dunes taken over
Blackwell began lopping off the
Now, the majority of visitors to
the years show a completely differ- the area are locals, exploring the branches of the broom, leaving a
ent topography than it was before area by foot or bicycle. It’s also a stump in the ground.
cities began to grow.
“The older plants won’t sprout
popular dog-walking spot.
So, organizations like the collab-
“Most of the tourists from out of back,” he said. “if you can get it as
orative are working to restore the the area wouldn’t even know that it’s low as possible, that’s better. This
dunes to their original glory.
one was an old plant, which you can
here,” Blackwell said.
After the group photo, the volun-
After walking for half an hour, tell because of the wider diameter,
teers worked their way east up a tall a small outcrop of land was found so it didn’t sprout back. About right
dune, then headed due south, find- where a plethora of Scotch broom here is the top of the roots. If you
ing themselves on a sand path sur- could be seen protruding out of the can get to this point, you can kill it.”
rounded by large trees and various ground. This plant is one of the non-
For immature plants, the best
native shrubs.
native species that the collaborative practice is to simply yank them out
The Heceta Dunes are very qui- hunts for.
by hand.
et, as far as human visitors are con-
To dispose of the plants, they put
During the springtime, Scotch
cerned. No one would know that a broom is easy to find, with bright them in piles on the sand where it’s
major highway and shopping com- yellow blooms dotting the land- more difficult for the seeds to bur-
plex rest just a few miles west.
row back into the ground. One pile
scape.
It wasn’t always so quiet. Around
“It’s like a beacon when you’re try- the group worked on that day was
10 years ago, it used to be open ing to find them,” Balston said.
nearly five feet tall.
to motorized vehicles, but due to
The group took a break to show a
But in the summertime, the
DENTURE SERVICES INC.
new tool called Wild Spotter that is
being utilized to help identify areas
that are infested with invasive spe-
cies.
“It’s a campaign that was created
by the US Forest Service, the Uni-
versity of Georgia and a lot of oth-
er agencies that got together,” said
Chelsea Monks, forest botanist for
the Siuslaw National Forest.
She pulled out a tablet and
brought up the app, which had a
whole host of information including
types of invasive species and how to
identify them.
Wild Spotter, which can be down-
loaded for tablets or phones and
can be found at wildspotter.org,
helps organizations tag infestations
throughout the country.
“If you find something, you can
hit report,” she explained. “You can
attach pictures. It auto-populates
your latitude and longitude, which is
really handy here. You can put in the
time you spent here, the infestation
size. You can put in acres and acres
of an infestation, or report you just
found one or two plants.”
The information goes to a mass
database that helps agencies get a
grasp on how prevalent an invasive
species might be in an area.
“If it’s something that needs a rap-
id response, we’re going to get out
to it as soon as we can, confirm it’s
there, see how big it is, and see if we
can immediately pull it and treat it,”
Monks said. “The public is much
better able, and more likely, to get
onto those spots than we are. There’s
a whole lot more of you than us. The
hope is we can get people out there
utilizing it and interested in caring,
to help us figure out what’s going out
in the landscape.”
See DUNES page 7A
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Highway 101 was the scene
of a three-car accident on Fri-
day evening, near the Rock
Creek Campground.
Initial police reports indi-
cate a driver that was attempt-
ing to pass a line of cars was
involved in a head-on colli-
sion.
Traffic was stopped in both
directions for approximately
an hour as SVFR and WLAD
responded.
Three more major acci-
dents occurred on Saturday.
The first was reported on
Canary Road just before noon
and forced a road closure for
two hours while emergency
teams from both SVFR and
WLAD responded.
The second incident oc-
curred on South Jetty road
near the Goose Pasture Stag-
ing Area for ATVs and the
third took place on Highway
36, east of Swisshome.
Several medical transports
resulted from these incidents.
Sunday saw two more ma-
jor accidents on Highway 101,
both took place near Sand
Dunes Frontier.
The first involved a rollover
with an extraction needed and
traffic was delayed in both di-
rections on Highway 101 for
approximately two hours.
“The duty chief and op-
eration chief worked in con-
junction with many of the
professional staff of both
WLAD and SVFR to assure
that coverage was maintained
all weekend,” Dickerson said.
“The resident firefighters at
Station 1 were very busy.”
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