A4 • Friday, January 28, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com
SEASIDE
State discloses
outbreaks at
care homes
By ERICK BENGEL
and GARY WARNER
The Astorian and
Oregon Capital Bureau
The Oregon Health
Authority has disclosed
coronavirus outbreaks at
two care homes in Seaside.
Avamere at Seaside, on
S. Roosevelt Drive, had 10
virus cases dating to Jan.
14, according to the health
authority’s weekly out-
break report. Suzanne Elise
Assisted Living Commu-
nity, on Forest Drive, had
eight cases dating to Jan.
11.
Margo Lalich, Clat-
sop County’s interim pub-
lic health director, said
that, as of last Friday,
Suzanne Elise had 10 virus
cases associated with the
outbreak.
In
early
August,
Suzanne Elise had three
virus cases. The outbreak
disclosed in last Thurs-
day’s report is the fi rst time
Avamere in Seaside has
appeared on the state’s list.
Both facilities are
owned and operated by
Avamere Health Services
LLC, based in Wilsonville.
Paula
Nickles,
an
administrative assistant at
Avamere at Seaside, said
no one was hospitalized as
a result of the outbreak.
Administrators
at
Suzanne Elise could not
immediately provide a
comment.
No other information
was immediately available.
Early in the COVID-19
pandemic, the federal Cen-
ters for Disease Control
and Prevention singled out
care homes as settings of
special concern.
Residents often have
age-related
underlying
health conditions that ren-
der them vulnerable to
infection and severe ill-
ness from the virus. The
communal nature of long-
term living facilities can
make social distancing dif-
fi cult and allow the virus to
spread easily.
Last year, six virus-re-
lated deaths were tied to
care homes in Clatsop
County. Five were res-
idents of Clatsop Care
Memory Community in
Warrenton, while the other
was a resident of Neawa-
nna By The Sea in Seaside.
The new outbreaks
occurred as the omi-
cron variant has caused a
spike of virus cases across
Oregon.
The omicron variant
wave will peak over the
next two weeks and begin
a steep decline, according
to a new state forecast.
Oregon Health & Sci-
ence University late last
week projected hospital-
izations will likely peak on
Feb. 1 at 1,553 COVID-19
patients.
“Oregon appears to
be fl attening the curve of
hospitalized patients,” the
report said. “Infections are
likely to peak in the next
week and hospitalizations
the week after.”
The forecast came as
the state continues to see
key numbers climb.
The leader of Ore-
gon’s hospital associa-
tion warned that a steady
increase
in
COVID
patients needing hospital
care is pushing the state’s
hospitals to a “breaking
point.”
Becky Hultberg, the
president and CEO of the
Oregon Association of
Hospitals and Health Sys-
tems, said during an online
news conference that hos-
pitals are treating dozens
of new virus patients a day.
“The next few weeks
will be really tough, and
it’s important for people to
understand that,” Hultberg
said.
CORRECTION
Gearhart parks plan
In “City dune landscaping restrictions dropped from
parks master plan,” it was incorrectly stated that policy
19, “environmental integrity,” was removed from the
Gearhart parks master plan by the Planning Commission.
The policy was not removed, but modifi ed to add clar-
ity. Portions regulating environmental integrity in city-
owned parks were retained.
PUBLIC MEETINGS
Contact local agencies for latest
meeting information and atten-
dance guidelines.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, work session, 6 p.m., 989
Broadway.
TUESDAY, FEB. 1
Seaside School District,
6 p.m., https://www.seaside.
k12.or.us/.
Seaside Community Center
Commission, 10 a.m., Bob
Chisholm Community Center,
1225 Avenue A.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 2
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m.,
www.cityofgearhart.com.
THURSDAY, FEB. 3
Seaside Parks Advisory
Committee, 6 p.m., 989
Broadway.
TUESDAY, FEB. 22
Sunset Empire Park and
Recreation District Board
of Directors, 5:15 p.m., 1225
Ave. A.
MONDAY, FEB. 28
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
TUESDAY, MARCH 1
MONDAY, FEB. 7
Seaside Community Center
Commission, 10 a.m., Bob
Chisholm Community Center,
1225 Avenue A.
Seaside Housing Task Force,
6 p.m. 989 Broadway.
Seaside Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., 989 Broadway.
THURSDAY, FEB. 10
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2
Seaside Convention Center
Commission, 5 p.m., 415 First
Ave., Seaside.
Gearhart City Council, 7 p.m.,
www.cityofgearhart.com.
Gearhart Planning Commis-
sion, 6 p.m., cityofgearhart.
com.
MONDAY, FEB. 14
Seaside City Council, 7 p.m.,
989 Broadway.
TUESDAY, FEB. 15
THURSDAY, MARCH 3
Seaside Parks Advisory
Committee, 6 p.m., 989
Broadway.
THURSDAY, MARCH 10
Seaside Convention Center
Commission, 5 p.m., 415 First
Ave., Seaside.
PUBLISHER
EDITOR
Kari Borgen
R.J. Marx
CIRCULATION
MANAGER
Shannon Arlint
ADVERTISING
SALES MANAGER
Sarah Silver-
Tecza
ADVERTISING
REPRESENTATIVE
Haley Werst
Sea Turtles Forever
Sea Turtles Forever wants to protect the marine population from the risks from microplastics.
Keeping sea turtles safe from microplastics
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
In the battle against micro-
plastic pollution on the
beaches in and around Can-
non Beach, Sea Turtles For-
ever’s Blue Wave team is on
the frontlines, but they rely
on steady volunteerism to
make a dent in this mammoth
problem.
Seaside resident Marc
Ward, co-founder and exec-
utive director of the environ-
mental nonprofi t Sea Turtles
Forever, gave a virtual pre-
sentation about “Microplas-
tic Recovery on the North
Oregon Coast” as part of Jan-
uary’s Friends of Haystack
Rock’s World of Haystack
Rock library lecture series.
“It starts with turtles, and
we’re still doing marine turtle
works,” Ward said.
Microplastics are not only
aff ecting the turtles, they’re
aff ecting all sea life now, and
humans as well. Sea Turtles
Forever is actively working
to be part of the solution.
“I realized we had to do
something about this—what-
ever we can do,” Ward said.
Marc Ward (left), founder of Sea Turtles Forever, with a dump truck load of microplastic leaving
the beach.
Origins
Sea Turtles Forever, now
in its 20th year, started with
conducting research to pro-
tect sea turtles in northwest
Costa Rica. Ward was tak-
ing a break from Portland
State University and studying
a nesting site on Punta Par-
gos near the town of Paraíso,
which translates to Paradise.
The site was unique, as it
had numerous sea turtle spe-
cies nesting there, from leath-
erbacks and Pacifi c greens to
hawksbill sea turtles. Unfor-
tunately, it was also subject to
relentless poaching.
According to Ward, the
“poaching of turtles is a cul-
turally embedded practice
in Costa Rica.” Before com-
mercial fi shing, loss of hab-
itat, and other issues — like
microplastic pollution — it
was a somewhat sustainable
practice, he added. However,
in light of external factors
aff ecting the sea turtle popu-
lations, poaching was no lon-
ger sustainable.
Ward contacted Costa
Rica’s leading environmental
attorney, who suggested he
conduct a survey of the nests.
With his wife Rachel, Ward
set up a monitoring and pro-
tection program. They started
by annually removing thou-
sands upon thousands, or “lit-
erally tons,” of marine plastic
that had accumulated on the
beach, Ward said.
That kicked off a 10-year
marine plastic study that
uncovered
devastating
realities.
Necropsies revealed that
every sea turtle was fi lled
with microplastics — which
is generally any piece of
debris that is 5 millimeters or
less —and even some larger
plastic debris.
Realizing they were fac-
ing a signifi cant challenge,
Sea Turtles Forever transi-
tioned focus to researching
microplastics. Ward predicted
there would be serious conse-
PRODUCTION
MANAGER
CONTRIBUTING
WRITERS
John D. Bruijn
Skyler Archibald
Joshua Heineman
Katherine Lacaze
Esther Moberg
SYSTEMS
MANAGER
Carl Earl
CONTRIBUTING
PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeff TerHar
Microplastics collected in Cannon Beach.
quences when large groups
of foraging turtles came into
contact with high-density
areas of microplastics, and
that’s what they found.
“I don’t consider micro-
plastics trash — it a whole
diff erent category of toxic
waste,” Ward said.
The sharp edges cause
internal abrasions, and the sea
turtles will feel full without
getting adequate nutrients.
Additionally, microplastics
have the ability to absorb tox-
ins at about one million times
the concentration found in the
surrounding water.
“Just the worst chemicals
on earth, they’re all in the
ocean now,” Ward said, add-
ing they pose a threat “not
only to turtles, but our entire
marine food web.”
Closer to home
Microplastics and the con-
centrated toxins they carry
are not only a problem for
marine life. Returning to Ore-
gon, Ward took his family
to the beach, and he noticed
there was “quite a landfall of
microplastics, which I hadn’t
seen previously.”
“It was really a new
dynamic for our Oregon
beaches,” he said, adding the
chemicals that didn’t previ-
ously have an environmen-
tal pathway back to humans
were now heavily concen-
trated in microplastics and
showing up on the beach en
masse.
His son, then 2-year-old,
tried to eat some, and Ward
could see “we had to come
up with some solution to
secure the beach, so these
kids would have a safe place
to play.”
Using
his
personal
resources, Ward started
developing a fi lter system to
remove microplastics from
the sand. After experiment-
ing with diff erent prototypes
and fi ne-tuning his system,
he fi nally came up with a tool
that works effi ciently to gen-
erate a passive static charge
via friction on the fi lter screen
and collect “micron-sized
plastics.”
“It looks like sand,
because it’s the size of sand,”
Ward said. “To the naked eye,
you can’t tell the diff erence.”
Now, the system is used
by hundreds of groups and
individuals globally to fi l-
ter out microplastics, which
was Ward’s goal. Locally,
STF’s Blue Wave program
has been working diligently
for the past decade or so to
clean the beaches in Can-
non Beach and the surround-
ing area, such as Ecola State
Park, Oswald West State Park
and Fort Stevens.
“What we really need to
do is restore these beaches
to their pristine state,” Ward
said.
As a volunteer-based pro-
gram, however, COVID-
19 has impacted their labor
force. They went from having
upwards of 300 volunteers
to about 30. While they’re
“bouncing back,” Ward said,
they need dedicated vol-
unteers to run the program
consistently.
“People can come any day
of the week and help us,” he
added.
He also encourages people
to cut down on their plastic
consumption how and when
possible. For example, peo-
ple can prioritize buying food
products in cans and wax
cardboard and glass contain-
ers, instead of plastic.
It’s “pretty much impossi-
ble” for consumers to not to
buy any plastic, he said, “but
you can cut 50 percent rela-
tively easily, just by shopping
smart.”
“Any time when you’re
shopping, when you can
avoid buying plastic items,
this planet will be better off ,”
he added.
Ward’s whole presentation
is available on YouTube or
FOHR’s Facebook page.
The World of Haystack
Rock library lecture series,
which features an array of
topics and speakers, runs
the second Wednesday of
every month, from Novem-
ber to May. According to the
Friends of Haystack Rock,
the lecture series will con-
tinue in an online format until
it is safe to gather in person
again. For more informa-
tion contact Tiff any Boothe,
FOHR board member, at sea-
sideaquarium@gmail.com.
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