June 2, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 9A
Volunteers tackle Scotch broom
‘What lovely
yellow blooms’
The Manzanita Writers’
Series expands offerings to
include writing workshops
“Online and at the Beach,”
as part of HoffOnline, a new
Hoffman Center for the Arts
program that will offer writ-
ing and visual arts workshops.
In its ninth year, the writ-
ers’ series brings regional au-
thors to the coast for author
readings and workshops. To
augment that program, “On-
line and at the Beach” will
provide more in-depth in-
struction online over a five-
week period. Students will
be able to work on their own
schedule as well as interact
with the instructor and fellow
students. The series culmi-
nates in an optional writing
retreat weekend June 2-4.
Jennie Shortridge teaches
Katie Frankowicz
EO Media Group
While a crowd in Cannon
Beach celebrated the 50-year
anniversary of the bill that
preserved Oregon’s beaches
for the public, John Rippey
killed plants.
“That took a lot of hard
work to stand up to bad inter-
ests,” he said about Oregon’s
landmark 1967 Beach Bill as
he methodically cut away at
invasive Scotch broom plants
along Ecola Creek earlier this
month. “And I figure, rath-
er than be part of a parade,
I should continue the hard
work, and you can’t do that
by having bonfires. You do
that by getting rid of invasive
species.”
Or, at least, the Cannon
Beach resident says with
some self-deprecation, that’s
the work he’s chosen for this
particular day.
A former lifeguard in
Cannon Beach, Rippey is
well-acquainted with efforts
to protect and preserve this
stretch of sand — as well as
the people who flock here in
droves to enjoy it. But this
was his first time volunteer-
ing with the North Coast Wa-
tershed Association, which
has organized Scotch broom
removal efforts around the
creek for several years.
Their work around the
creek and in nearby Les Shir-
ley Park has started to pay off.
Rippey is tearing up young
plants; he doesn’t have to
tackle the older, established
bushes that confronted vol-
unteers in past efforts. Wa-
tershed coordinator Brooke
Stanley points to wild rose
Manzanita goes ‘Online
and at the Beach’
“Putting Your Prose to Work”
for advanced beginners and
intermediate writers.
Megan Kruse teaches
“Creativity Catalyst,” for po-
etry, fiction, and creative non-
fiction.
The weekend retreat will
allow students to meet their
instructor and fellow students,
enjoy additional craft writing
sessions on building tension
even in quiet stories, and on
the transformative power of
setting and “stuff.” After a
session on effective open mic
readings, participants will
have an opportunity to read
their work at open mic.
Further information is
available at hoffmanblog.org
or contact Kathie Hightow-
er, kathiejhightower@gmail.
com.
KATIE FRANKOWICZ/EO MEDIA GROUP
Cannon Beach resident John Rippey volunteers to help pull invasive Scotch broom near
Ecola Creek.
that has started to take over
areas along a sandy beach
approach once dominated by
Scotch broom.
“Seeing it change is really
amazing,” she said.
It has taken a combination
of longtime volunteers and
new volunteers like Rippey
to bring about this change.
Nothing against the plants,
they say. In fact, the first time
most of them saw Scotch
broom, they thought, “What
lovely yellow blooms!” In
May, whole sections of the
coast light up — like some-
one has swiped the hills with
a yellow highlighter — as
Scotch broom transforms
from a drab shock of branch-
es and leaves into an attrac-
tive, highly productive flow-
ering shrub.
It is a plant that flourishes
in disturbed soil and quickly
displaces native plants and
trees, says Nadia Gardner,
conservation manager with
the North Coast Land Con-
servancy. Conservationists
and watershed groups can
track its rapacious growth in
tangent with development
projects: housing up in the
hills of Seaside, on recently
logged lands, alongside high-
ways.
Once used to stabilize
dunes and as an ornamental
along highway corridors, the
Oregon Department of Agri-
culture now calls it “one of
western Oregon’s most wide-
spread and costliest weeds.”
The North Coast Land
Conservancy declares May
“broom-buster month” and
organizes extensive efforts to
rid their acres of the weed.
For longtime volunteer
Bob Lundy, Ecola Creek was
right next door. As he entered
retirement and began looking
for ways to get more involved
in the community, he figured
tearing out Scotch broom was
one small way he could help.
“When I was thinking
about what I was going to
do after retirement, I said I
don’t play golf and I don’t
play cards so I’ll probably
have to learn to fish.” Or surf,
he amended. As it turns out,
he said, “Cannon Beach will
find lots of things for you to
do.”
Even as he has become
more involved on boards and
councils and committees, he
continues to help with Scotch
broom removal.“There are
things that need doing. That
are worth doing,” he said.
Trail’s End Gallery presents
new featured artist
Patricia Beck-Fries will be
the featured artist at Trail’s
End Gallery’s new show be-
ginning Thursday, June 1. A
reception will be held 2 to 5
p.m. that day.
A Gearhart resident for the
last 15 years and a Cannon
Beach resident before that,
Beck-Fries believes she may
have been “born an artist, or
at least with a keen observa-
tion of color and design,” she
said, adding that she almost
always uses vivid color in her
work.
Beck-Fries has studied
under many local artists.
Most of her work is water-
color “with some additions
here and there.” A gardening
enthusiast, Beck-Fries paints
landscape, still life and por-
traitures, she said.
In addition to Beck-Fries’s
work, patrons at the gallery
(656 A St.) will enjoy the
work of other gallery artists,
including Mary Ann Ganten-
bein, Susan Bish, Richard
Newman, Michael Muldoon
and Lynda Campbell.
The gallery, which opened
in 1950 in the “Little Red
Schoolhouse” is the oldest on
the North Coast.
For information about
Trail’s End Art Association
classes, workshops, member-
ship and other offerings, visit
trailsendart.org or call 503-
717-9459.
Cannon returns to Cannon Beach
Cannon from Page 1A
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Work by artist David Jonathan Marshall of Modern Villa
Gallery.
Plein Air festival coming
Artists from around the
world arrive to capture Can-
non Beach “en plein air” or
“in the open air.” To cele-
brate this challenging artis-
tic style, the Cannon Beach
Gallery Group is presenting
their Ninth Annual Plein
Air and More Arts Festival.
Scheduled for June 23-25,
the event will feature more
than 30 artists represented
by Cannon Beach’s art gal-
leries.
The artists can be found
near their representing gal-
leries or in one of five loca-
tions: Whale Park, the court-
yard between Spruce and
Hemlock Streets, the Coast-
er Theatre Courtyard, Wash-
ington St. at Ocean and Har-
rison Street at Ocean. They
will also all come together
for an “artists’ swarm” from
2 to 4 p.m. on Saturday, June
24, in the Coaster Theatre
Courtyard. For more infor-
mation about the artists,
contact the individual gal-
leries, listed on the website,
cbgallerygroup.com
this project. It’s the icon of
this town,” Trucke said. “Now
we don’t need to keep worry-
ing if they are going to last 10,
20 or 100 years.”
The iron cannon, technical-
ly called a carronade, and the
capstan used to lift the ship’s
anchor are from the decking
of the USS Shark, a U.S. na-
val schooner that went down
in the Columbia River in
1846. The cannon was found,
lost, then discovered again in
1898, when it came ashore in
Arch Cape.
For years the cannon sat
exposed to weather and chil-
dren playing on it alike in Arch
Cape, until it was vandalized
in the 1980s, Trucke said. The
Clatsop County Historical So-
ciety moved the cannon to the
Clatsop County Heritage Mu-
seum, until it found a home at
the Cannon Beach history mu-
seum in 2005.
So when Trucke started
with the museum in 2010, his-
torical preservation of these
artifacts became No. 1 on the
agenda.
“This cannon has been my
entire career here,” Trucke said.
Managing
Hip & Knee Arthritis
JOIN US FOR A
SEMINAR
BRENNA VISSER/CANNON BEACH GAZETTE
The new exhibit for the Cannon Beach cannon and capstan
opened May 20.
When it returned in 2014
from restoration, the muse-
um did not have the proper
space or environment for the
preserved artifacts, so the
museum worked with engi-
neers, contractors, architects
and others to plan the exhibit,
Trucke said. Other challeng-
es, such as figuring out how to
transport a 2,000 pound can-
non and building something
strong enough to support it,
also slowed the project down.
From start to finish, Trucke
said the project to keep the
cannon in perpetuity totaled
about $90,000 and countless
volunteer hours from muse-
um supporters since 2011.
With all of the structural and
restoration changes that were
required, Trucke said it is un-
usual for a museum of this
size to take on this kind of
project.
“Throughout this I re-
ceived a lot of doubt from
people about our ability to do
this. There was a rural bias,”
Trucke said. “Yeah, we might
be small, but we do a lot of
good stuff.”
Vice president of the mu-
seum board and curator at
Clatsop County Historical
Society Amber Glen echoed
this sentiment, and said in her
experience it’s unusual for a
town this size to tackle this
kind of feat.
“It’s unusual for a small,
rural place to have such large
artifacts, and the fact that
most of it was fundraised
is unusual,” Glen said. “We
don’t have a budget like Co-
lumbia River Maritime Mu-
seum.”
Liz Johnson, the outreach
coordinator for the museum,
started supporting Trucke on
this project in 2012 and said
this moment was one of relief
as much as celebration.
“At times it just seemed
daunting, like it would never
finish,” Johnson said. “It’s an
overwhelming sense of ac-
complishment. It’s been our
baby for so long.”
Trucke said while there
still a few little details to wrap
up, overall she is happy that
what she feels is the identity
of Cannon Beach is back.
“In a way it’s like the Lib-
erty Bell,” Trucke said. “It’s
not nearly as old or of na-
tional importance, but it’s our
identity, and until now it felt
stolen from our community.”
Presentation by
Dr. Michael Vessely
Orthopaedic Surgeon
WEDWESDAY, JUWE 28 th
5:30pm to 6:30pm
Holiday Inn Express
34 W. Holladay Drive. Seaside, OR
Light appetizers served
ADMISSION IS FREE
The Joint
Replacement
Institute
MCMIWWVILLE OREGOW
Please RSVP bd contacting
Natalie.Reed@capellahealth.com
or (503) 435-6571