Friday, February 25, 2022 | Seaside Signal | SeasideSignal.com • A5 On the North Coast, a nudge toward sustainable tourism By ABBEY MCDONALD The Astorian Jon Schmidt A dumpster fi lled with trash from a Seaside beach cleanup. working with state and local organizations, including the North Coast Tourism Man- agement Network, to come up with solutions to issues such as waste removal and traffi c. Reid, too, said the pan- demic brought a particularly low point for visitor treat- ment of parks. “There sort of became this understanding that we needed to really be very clear in communication before they got here, as to how best to interact with the envi- ronment that they’re in,” he said. “Sustainable tourism is not a new concept, it has certainly become more of a buzzword.” Reid hopes to use the net- work’s existing audience and marketing tools to encourage environmental stewardship and limit some of the nega- tive impacts of travel, such as traffi c. 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 fi shing rules and other topics. Reid suggested further sharing the pledge through social media and advertising campaigns and attaching it to hotel confi rmations. “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 diff erently, as well. We start to reappreciate how special it is and we treat it diff erently, as well. And so we set the tone, we set the expectation and everybody wins,” he said. He also hopes to address transportation issues asso- ciated 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 signifi cance of the 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- COMING IN APRIL Great Restaurants in: GEARHART • SEASIDE CANNON BEACH M A G A Z I N E From Manzanita to Willapa Bay, the beautiful scenery, engaging stories and fascinating history that tells why visiting Our Coast is special. This year’s edition celebrates eleven years of feature-packed magazines with a special keepsake pull-out poster of Our Coast covers. Found cell phone on McCormick Garden Road in Gearhart. Call 503-738-6194 to identify. Leave a message. 201 Antique & Classic Vehicles Vendors Wanted Astoria Automotive Swap Meet Clatsop Fairgrounds Saturday March 12th, 2022. 8am-2pm Contact Fred 503-440-9481 Dorothy 503-468-0006 Sell your children’s outgrown clothes and toys with a classified ad in the Seaside Signal. Call 503-325-3211 to place your ad today! Classified ads work hard so you don’t have to. Call 503-325-3211 to place your ad today! WANT TO KNOW WHERE THE LOCALS GO? • Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner • Junior Menu RESTAURANT & LOUNGE • Lighter appetite menu E RIL Y’ BEST BREAKFAST IN TOWN! Fish ‘n Chips • Burgers • Seafood & Steak Friday & Saturday - Prime Rib Lounge Open Daily 9-Midnight All Oregon Lottery products available 1104 S Holladay • 503-738-9701 • Open Daily at 8am Cannon Beach Chocolate Cafe WE STILL HAVE VALENTINE’S DAY TREATS! MILKSHAKE HAPPY HOUR 3PM-5PM, $1 OFF ALL MILKSHAKES 232 N. Spruce • Cannon Beach, Oregon 503.436.4331 Starting in October: 9am-5pm daily, closed on Tuesday and Wednesday Call Sarah Silver 503.325.3211 ext 1222 YOUR RESTAURANT AD HERE. Secure your advertising space today email sales@dailyastorian.com, or call 971-704-1555 To place a classified ad call 800-781-3214 or go to SeasideSignal.com DEADLINE IS MONDAY AT NOON 181 Lost & Found DINING on the NORTH COAST A pledge David Reid, the exec- utive director of the Asto- ria-Warrenton Area Cham- ber of Commerce, presented potential sustainable tour- ism programs to the Clatsop County Board of Commis- sioners earlier this month. The chamber has been that, and hoping that we can create an environment that people come to, not just to lay in the sun, because we’re fi nding 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 specifi cally 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.’” S Joshua Heineman, the city’s director of tourism marketing, thinks about trash while on beach walks with his family. In the past few years, takeout contain- ers, masks and even human waste have piled up on the North Coast’s trails and beaches. “Ever since the pandemic happened, I don’t know if it’s a mass psychology thing, I don’t know if it’s diff erent people visiting that don’t usually come out,” he said. “It was very, very evident there’s people out there that just didn’t know how to look out for other people.” Seaside already has monthly trash cleanups, along with a few larg- er-scale ones throughout the year. Heineman wanted to do more. “It was just putting together that idea that if everybody just did a little bit to not only pick up after themselves, but pick up after the people that aren’t behav- ing, crowdsourcing that eff ort could really go a long way,” he said. The idea of having visi- tors contribute to improving natural sites and community spaces follows the idea of sustainable tourism, a con- cept that North Coast busi- ness, government and tour- ism management leaders will emphasize in the com- ing months. This month, Seaside launched its “Coff ee for Clean Beaches” program. Participants pick up bags and gloves at the Seaside Aquarium, then leave them — fi lled with trash — for pickup on the Promenade. They can then bring a selfi e with their handiwork to the visitor’s bureau in exchange for $5 worth of wooden coins to spend at participat- ing coff ee shops. In its fi rst weekend, peo- ple picked up around $25 worth of coins. Seaside has only recently started adver- tising the program, and intends to market it to Port- land with radio ads. The city is testing out the program for the rest of the year. Heineman is expect- ing more businesses to join. He said sustainable tourism projects will likely grow in popularity along the coast. “I just think it’s kind of a beautiful idea, and I think that it’s one that — after all this stress everybody’s kind of been through — we’re all looking for ways to to go back to that carefree life, but at the same time doing things that make it better for us and everyone else,” he said. ports opportunities for vis- itors to have experiences that connect them to the environment. One example is the region’s Trailhead and Beach Ambassadors program, launched in 2020, where vol- unteers patrol popular sites like tide pools watching for mistreatment and off ering 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- fi cult 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 Find Your Next Regular Customers! MARKETPLACE 604 Apartments 651 Help Wanted Now Accepting Applications Creekside Village Apartments 1953 Spruce Drive Seaside, OR 97138 1, 2 & 3 bedroom apartments and also apartments with special design features for individuals with a disability. Inquire as to the availability of subsidy. 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