Surfers developing coast info website

By Joel Gallob

Of the News-Times

In another month or so, a new website, created by the Surfriders Foundation, will become available to anyone seeking instant, up-to-date information about hundreds of public access points along the Oregon coast.
The information will be useful not only to surfers, according to Paul Klarin, chairperson of the Oregon Surfriders chapter, but to anyone interested in learning where access points are to the coast, what is available at or near those sites, and what is happening to those places.
The website will also provide a database of those access points to enable governments and concerned citizens to protect the public's access to the state's publicly-owned coastline.
"Nobody else has ever done this before," Klarin said Saturday at the Oregon chapter's annual meeting in Pacific City. The project, when complete, will include in its database approximately 640 sites along the state's 360-mile coastline.
Michelle Dailey did the programming work on the Geographical Information System (GIS) for the organization, and on Saturday, she provided a step-by-step demonstration of how to use the program. "About 400 sites are in and working now," she said, based largely upon work done by Seal Rock-based marine geologist Roger Hart.
The Surfriders Foundation is now, according to Kevin Ranker of Washington state and a member of the group's national board of directors, "the fifth largest environmental group in the country."
The main inquiry screen of the website will enable the user to seek information on a wide range of subjects, from the type of access (trail, state park), to the visual character of the site (ocean view, view blocked, scenic points) to information about the presence or absence of dunes, forests, waterfront uses, and surfing conditions. It will give information on whether horses or off-road vehicles are allowed at the site, whether tidepools are on site, whether the site is a good whale watching point, and whether the area offers hiking, biking or boating. The GIS will even note whether a public telephone is available near the access site.
Klarin added that the group is hoping to include not only a map, but also an aerial photo for each site on the entire coast. "And we'll try to include all the riprap sites, all coastal hazards, and all the bays and estuaries," Klarin said.
Newport geologist and surfer John Marra added that "this now is for access; the hazards come next."
The project is being done in two phases, Klarin explained. Phase one, the inputting of beach access points and associated data, should be"ready by the end of June.
Phase two, which will move the database inland to include bays, estuaries and river areas near the coast, will require further funding. He did not have a target date for that phase.
"This is the first update in 15 years for some areas," Klarin said. "It will give us a chance to see if we have lost access, and provide a basis for assessments of continuing access in the future. We have easily 10 times as many people coming to the Oregon coast as we had back then, yet funding for coastal access and protection hasn't increased, and the number of access points hasn't increased."
"Some access points have been lost in places where the bluff is gone or trails have been lost," Marra added.
"And we've lost other sites, where gated communities went up, or a right-of-way has been vacated," Klarin said. "That is why we need a tool like this."
The Oregon Surfriders can be reached via the Internet at www.efn.org/~surfride or via telephone at 1-800-743-SURF.