June 1, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com • 7A
‘The Galapagos island of Oregon’
By Brenna Visser
Cannon Beach Gazette
A
bout $1 million has been
raised through private
donations and grants to
transform forested land behind
Arch Cape into a rainforest
preserve and protected water-
shed.
After committing in No-
vember 2016 to purchase
3,500 acres of rainforest above
Oswald West State Park for
conservation, the $1 million
mark sets the North Coast
Land Conservancy on track in
a five-year fundraising cam-
paign to raise $10 million to
buy the land from Ecotrust
Forest Management, which is
managing the property until
that goal is met.
Arch Cape also hopes to
turn another 2,100 acres of this
land into a community forest, a
project born out of the desire to
protect the town’s watershed.
Dozens of people repre-
senting the forestry industry,
parks service, U.S. Forest Ser-
vice and environmental advo-
cacy groups toured this terrain
last week as a part of the re-
gional Community Forest Fo-
rum. The tour is one of many
to come as the land trust works
to drum up public interest to
raise funds.
The goal is to protect what
is considered a culturally and
ecologically unique environ-
ment for generations, said Ka-
tie Voelke, the conservancy’s
executive director. Because of
the way the land was formed
millions of years ago, there are
some species of wildlife that
are unique to just a few peaks
along this coastal range.
“In a way it’s like the Gala-
pagos island of Oregon,” Voel-
ke said.
It will also be the first place
in Oregon, and one of few
places in the world, where an
entire coastal watershed is per-
manently conserved, from the
headwaters to the ocean. The
land trust hopes to have $3
million more in donations and
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BRENNA VISSER/THE DAILY ASTORIAN
Katie Voelke, executive director of the North Coast Land Conservancy, gives a presen-
tation about the Rainforest Reserve with Amrita Vatsal, managing director of Ecotrust
Forest Management.
pledges by year’s end.
“When this is successful,
it will make a model for other
small communities to protect
their water. It sounds impos-
sible — raise $10 million, buy
the land, manage the land,”
Voelke said. “But we know it’s
possible because anyone we
tell this story to always talks
about how much they want it
to happen.”
Discussion of creating the
Arch Cape community forest
intensified about three years
ago after coastal communities
with industrial timber opera-
tions in their watershed areas
started to notice water quality
issues, Oregon Coast Alliance
President Mike Manzulli said
in November.
In Arch Cape, the water
district is working with the
conservancy and the envi-
ronmental group Sustainable
Northwest to raise enough
money to buy their portion of
the land, with a fundraising
goal that fluctuates with timber
prices.
The idea behind a com-
munity-owned forest is that
residents can make different
management decisions, like re-
quire larger buffers that would
prevent stream contamination,
ban pesticides and select-cut
trees for revenue that goes
straight to the community.
But acquiring a community
forest has been a slow, method-
ical process. Arch Cape Water
District is still in the running
for a $4.5 million grant from
the U.S. Forest Service to pur-
chase the land, and recently se-
cured about $33,000 from the
Oregon Watershed Enhance-
ment Board to finance an out-
reach coordinator to organize
public outreach for the project.
But one of the biggest
roadblocks to transitioning
the community forest concept
from an idea into reality is
finding enough donations to
close the gap between public
grant dollars and the matches
they usually require, said Ben
Dair, senior manager of con-
servation finance at Sustain-
able Northwest. Getting com-
munity donations is critical to
help fund associated costs with
projects like these, including
writing forest management
plans, legal fees and hiring
forestry crews to do timber in-
ventories.
Community forest models
are common in other parts of
the country, but fairly uncom-
mon in the Pacific Northwest.
A strategic plan outlining a
larger financing strategy will
be released later this summer.
“This is a long tradition in
the Northeast, and we’re just
starting to have a movement
on the West Coast,” Dair said.
“We’re really eager to share
lessons learned.”
Tours are an important tool
to help the community feel
engaged with the project first-
hand, Dair said.
“Often when we’re down
below we don’t see (this
unique geology), and it really
helps develop the story of this
place and helps people devel-
op a personal relationship with
the land,” Dair said. “We may
be neighbors, but until you
walk around the watershed
with the trees up close, it’s ab-
stract. So we’re trying to make
it real for people.”
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JUSTIN J. DAY
Site permits await as school district
prepares for a June groundbreaking
School from Page 1A
with an access road, parking,
drop-off and track field.
Henry said school district
representatives were still
working with the city’s public
works director Dale McDow-
ell and city planner Kevin
Cupples in understanding util-
ities, managing the reservoir,
interagency agreements and
bid packages coming up.
Some costs, such as road
upgrades, pump station and
water tank, are yet unfunded,
with the water tank estimated
at a $6 million cost.
The sum is included in the
Seaside city 2018-19 budget,
but City Manager Mark Win-
stanley said he expects the
school district will pay some
of the costs. “Here is where
we start the conversation,”
Winstanley said in April.
Department of Environmen-
tal Quality. “We’re hoping
to have a groundbreaking in
June,” Henry said.
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CONSTRUCTION
Meet the contractor
COLIN MURPHEY/THE DAILY ASTORIAN
Seaside School Board members recently toured the school
construction site that is still in the process of being logged.
Other site permits await.
Wetlands approval from
the Department of State Lands
and U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers is expected July 1, Hen-
ry said. The corps will deter-
Community welcome to annual
picnic at Circle Creek Center
Pack a picnic and join sup-
porters of North Coast Land
Conservancy at Circle Creek
Conservation Center in Sea-
side on Saturday, June 16,
for the third annual Summer
Picnic at the Barn. It’s an op-
portunity to spend time with
friends, take a guided tour of
the trails, and enjoy this large
conserved property at the foot
of Tillamook Head a few days
F REE E STIMATES
before the summer solstice.
No admission fee; all are wel-
come.
Guided walks on the trails
at Circle Creek will take place
from 3 to 7 p.m.
Circle Creek Conservation
Center is at the end of Rippet
Road in Seaside on the west
side of U.S. Highway 101.
More details are posted at
NCLCtrust.org.
mine the type and amount of
mitigation necessary to offset
environmental losses from the
proposed project.
The district also antici-
pates notification from the
Local contractors are invit-
ed by Hoffman Construction
Co. to a “meet the contractor”
event. Hosted by Hoffman,
with the Clatsop Econom-
ic Development Resources
and the Seaside Chamber of
Commerce, the event will
provide local subcontractors
and businesses specifics about
the project, timetables, and
subcontractor and bidding op-
portunities. The event takes
place at the Clatsop Commu-
nity College South Campus
Tuesday, 1455 N. Roosevelt
Drive, on June 5, from 6 to 8
p.m. To attend, contact cary-
bubenik@hoffmancorp.com
or call 503-329-1002.
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