WHAS will welcome Paul Engelmeyer as keynote speaker at the Annual Meeting, Dinner, & Program on Saturday, March 29th. Paul has been managing the Audubon parcel located on Ten Mile Creek, south of Yachats since 1990. This effort includes not only watershed restoration and protection strategies but a marine conservation effort as well.
The Ten Mile Creek Conservation Program includes education, land stewardship, acquisition and advocacy. In the early ‘90s ODFW, Audubon, the local community and the Siuslaw National Forest developed a partnership that grew into a basin-wide protection and restoration program which eventually led to a national award in 2005.
In 2012, the 80,000 acres from Heceta Head through Rock Creek Wilderness, Ten Mile and Cummins Creek Wilderness to north of Yachats River basin was designated a Globally Significant Important Bird Area (IBA) for the Marbled Murrelet. As the statewide conservation representative on the Ocean Policy Advisory Council (OPAC) Paul has worked on formation of marine reserves in Oregon’s Territorial Sea which includes five sites including the Cape Perpetua Marine Reserve and Seabird Protection Area just off-shore of the Murrelet IBA.
Engelmeyer will be discussing a range of issues including land-sea conservation strategies, marine reserves and protected areas, forage fish issues as well as recovery efforts for the Marbled Murrelet.
The program at the Longview Woman’s Club. 835 21st Ave. in Longview is at 7:00 PM and free and open to the public.