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Oregon is nationally known for its bountiful natural resources and conservation-minded approach to land use development. However, recent rapid population growth has challenged the ability of many communities to keep up with development pressures without jeopardizing the long-term health of their local environment.

In response to this need, the watershed education program of Oregon Sea Grant conducted workshops in three Oregon communities (Portland, Grants Pass, and Brookings) to determine what these communities need to better protect their natural resources while accommodating growth.

Barriers and Opportunities for Low Impact Development presents the outcomes of those workshops and offers suggestions for helping communities engage in their own low impact development planning.

Visitors to the Oregon coast may find a new publication from Oregon Sea Grant useful when strolling the docks or watching commercial fishers at work.

Boats of the Oregon Coast, a pocket-size field guide, depicts and describes 18 different fishing and service vessels seen along the Oregon coast. The booklet’s drawings, concise descriptions and size make it ideal for port and marina tours from Astoria to Brookings.

Also included in the 52-page booklet is a short history of Oregon fisheries, illustrated with historic photos and accompanied by a timeline of important dates in the development of Oregon’s commercial fishing industry.

Oregon is a gardener’s dream. Our varied climates and mild conditions allow us to showcase a wide variety of plants from around the world. In fact, nursery crops are Oregon’s number one agricultural commodity.

Unfortunately, a few plants used in gardens and landscapes cause serious ecological harm by “jumping the fence” and spreading elsewhere. These invasive plants can become serious problems that threaten water quality, wildlife, and our economy by crowding out native plants, changing stream flows, increasing erosion, competing with crops, or creating fire hazards.

This booklet offers gardeners and landscape designers many choices of plants that work for gardens while protecting the health and beauty of Oregon’s natural lands and waters. We highlight plants that should be avoided because they are invasive, and offer non-invasive alternatives (both native and nonnative ornamentals) that you can plant safely.

Use this booklet as a guide to help you make the most informed choices for your garden, water garden, or landscape, and enjoy your garden!

Published by Extension and Experiment Station Communications, Oregon State University.

Nonnative species are altering freshwater and marine ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest, and more species are introduced every year.

This identification guide has been developed as a tool to help watershed councils and other community-based groups increase their understanding of aquatic invasive species (AIS), and to initiate monitoring efforts for species of particular concern to their watersheds. It provides background information and key identification characteristics of many aquatic invaders that are already established or likely to become established in the Pacific Northwest. Ultimately, greater awareness of the pathways that spread aquatic invasive species to new regions can help prevent their introduction, and monitoring efforts can help identify and respond to new invasions before they become a problem.

Oregon is renowned not only for the natural beauty of its coastline but also for its enlightened tradition of publicly owned and protected beaches. Now revised and updated, the Oregon Coastal Access Guide offers a north-to-south tour of Oregon's Pacific edge, with extensive mile-by-mile coverage of scenic U.S. Highway 101. It provides a convenient and reliable reference on where togo, how to get there, and what to expect. The Access Guide is essential for anyone expoloring the nearly four hundred miles of coastline that lie between the Columbia river and the California border.

Kenn Oberrecht's detailed knowledge of the Oregon coast—he has driven thousands of miles on coastal roads and hiked hundreds of miles on beaches and trails—informs every page of this indispensable guide.

"A thorough and eminently useful guide . . . In fact, this book is closer to the ideal than any other on the subject."—The Statesman Journal

A fixture of Oregon coastal farming is coming under new scrutiny because of its environmental effects. Tide gates—essentially hinged metal doors at the ends of culverts—have been used for centuries to prevent flooding in and help drain low-lying coastal lands, making it possible for people to farm and build on land that would otherwise be under water. Unfortunately, in many cases the devices have also compromised or destroyed critical fish and wildlife habitat.

The effects of tide gates on estuaries and wildlife were the focus of a three-day symposium that presented introductory information on tide gates and their effects on estuarine habitats and fish passage and provided a forum for coastal managers, biologists, engineers, and others to exchange information. These proceedings reflect many of the papers presented at that symposium.