Students plant native plants at a restoration site at Fort Ord. (BLM Photo)

Washed Ashore Homer

Students and Artists Collaborate with Marine Debris

Tsunami debris is coming ashore along our Pacific coastline. But Washed Ashore Homer, a two-year project piloted by the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies (CACS), aims not simply to transfer 100% of the non-toxic marine debris found during CoastWalk cleanups in the next year to landfills, but to turn that debris into large scale interactive art. To accomplish their goals CACS is working with Angela Haseltine-Pozzi, founder of the Washed Ashore Project and Executive Director of the Artula Art and Education Institute. Angela is based in Bandon, Oregon and has used debris from the Oregon coast to create marine debris sculptures ranging from sea stars to marine mammals and seabirds in order to promote marine debris prevention education and awareness.

In Homer, school groups, local artists, and community volunteers will be involved in collecting debris and creating sculptures using Angela's designs. Completed sculptures will be installed throughout the community, accompanied by educational displays describing the project's purpose of marine debris prevention. The long-term phase of the project will bring the sculptures to various locations around the state and country and help Washed Ashore set up multiple satellite locations throughout the United States based on the Homer pilot project model. CACS is seeking financial partners to make this project a success. Needs for the project include additional funding for consultant fees and organizing volunteers. Sponsors may “adopt a creature” through a minimum donation of $2,500.

More Information:
Patrick Chandler
Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies
(907) 235-6667
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
www.akcoastalstudies.org/coastal-monitoring.html

Featured Site

Crew members from Gulf of Alaska Keeper and Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies remove debris from Montague Island. Photo by Mark Tanski (CACS).

The Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies (CACS) is an environmental education not-for-profit organization in Homer, Alaska. Established in 1982, CACS delivers educational programs and guided tours to over 11,000 students and visitors every year. Our grassroots organization enjoys the support of over 350 members, 100 volunteers and a variety of businesses in Homer that assist us in fulfilling our mission.

Since 1984, CACS has held the annual Kachemak Bay Coast Walk event that involves more than 200 volunteers who adopt a section of the Kachemak Bay shoreline and walk it annually, surveying changes, collecting data on marine life and human impacts, and cleaning up beach litter and marine debris.

Student-Intern Studies Marine Debris

Loren spent his senior year of high school collecting and recording marine debris data on the East and West Elwha Beaches on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. As a Natural Resources Student Intern with Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, Loren had the opportunity to gain experience in the field, working in a scientific manner and following scientific protocols. He learned to collect data like natural resource professionals. The main focus for Loren in his second semester was his interest in comparing marine debris on the Strait of Juan de Fuca beaches, which include Elwha, Dungeness and Salt Creek, with the outer Washington coast beaches, whose beaches begin at Hobuck near Cape Flattery and extend to Long Beach near the southern border of Washington.

Read More: http://www.handsontheland.org/blog/172-what-waves-uncover.html

Curriculum Highlight

Interactive Glacier Map Log in to Hands on the Land and contribute repeat photography for glaciers at your site. Teachers may explore our photographic database to learn more about our changing climate since the Little Ice Age.

BatsLIVE, a free live webcast for children in the 4-8^th grades and their educators, will be held from Bracken Bat Cave in Texas on Sept. 18 from 7-8:30 p.m. ET. With over 22 million Mexican free-tailed bats living in the cave from March through October, Bracken holds one of the largest concentrations of mammals on earth. Bats are vital to healthy ecosystems and human economies worldwide. As primary predators of night-flying insects, bats consume enormous quantities of agricultural pests and reduce the need for chemical pesticides.

Yet these wonderfully diverse and beneficial creatures are among the least studied and most misunderstood of animals. Bat populations are declining almost everywhere in North America especially due to the devastating White-Nose Syndrome. Losing bats has far-reaching consequences for natural ecosystems and human economies.

More Information: batslive.pwnet.org/index.php

Upcoming Events

NAAEE 41st Annual Conference
Oakland, CA
October 10-13, 2012
www.naaee.net/conference

Gaining Perspective: Seeing EE Through Different Lenses.
More than 1,000 environmental educators converge from North America and abroad for the 41^st annual conference. Come two days earlier for the two-day Research Symposium.

2012 National Marine Educators Conference
Anchorage, AK
June 24-28, 2012
www.pacname.org/conf.shtml

North to Alaska’s Seas: A Confluence of Science and Culture

Join educators in “Tikatnu,” the “big ocean river” place of the Dena’ina Athabascan Indians, on Cook Inlet.

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Summer-2012-Newsletter.pdf