Coastal Services Center

The four states bordering the Pacific Ocean together have 41,767 miles of coast, more than any other region in the country. As a result of its sheer size, coastal resource managers in this region often confront enormously diverse shorelines and issues, even within their own states.

Alaska, California, Oregon, and Washington make up the Pacific region. Alaska has more coastline than any other state in the U.S. with 33,904 miles. California has 3,427 miles of shoreline, Oregon 1,410, and Washington 3,026. Coastal populations range from 466,410 in Alaska to 21,859,530 in California.

"I think there are really significant differences between all the Pacific coastal states," says Eldon Hout, manager of the Oregon Coastal Management Program. "California is like another country because of its size, resource dynamics, and culture. Southeast Washington, in some ways, is a lot like our state, but they also have different issues in the area of Puget Sound, and are more influenced by the Native American community and treaty relations."

If California is like another country, then Alaska is "almost another planet," says Pat Galvin, director of the Alaska Division of Governmental Coordination. "We're much earlier on the continuum of issues than other states in the Pacific Northwest. We still have a viable and active resource-based economy. Juneau has a population of 30,000 and that's considered an urban area. There are places so rural that you have to get in a plane or boat to get to the next person."

Even how the states are set up to address coastal management is different. For instance, California is unique in that it has two lead coastal management agencies, the California Coastal Commission (CCC), which issues permits, and the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), which oversees development around the bay. A third agency, the California Coastal Conservancy, provides funding to buy and preserve agricultural land, provide public access to the coast, conserve resources, and restore endangered, degraded habitat areas.

While each state involves local governments in its coastal management programs, Alaska stands out because it networks all the state resource agencies and local governments into a "cohesive management program," Galvin says. "The fact that we've been able to accomplish this network is a big deal. Portions of the state the size of Washington have no regional government, other than the state, and have villages of a couple of hundred indigenous people who have organized as a coastal management district that works through the network. It's a grand experiment that we continue to refine and strive to make work better."

In the past decade, new coastal organizations have been designated in the region to help protect coastal resources. These include Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) in Alaska, which received federal approval in 1999; Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary in Washington, designated in 1994; and Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in California, approved in 1992. The San Francisco NERR is proposed.

Other resource agencies in the region include Padilla Bay NERR in Washington; South Slough NERR in Oregon; and the Elkhorn Slough NERR, Tijuana River NERR, Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary, Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, and Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, all in California. There also are coastal zone management and Sea Grant programs in each state.

Assessing the Past

Despite all the diversity in the region, the majority of managers note the success of education programs in increasing the public's awareness and interest in protecting coastal resources. "The amount of environmental consciousness in a lot of communities has been steadily increasing over the last decade," says Dolores Wesson, deputy director of the California Sea Grant Program at the University of California. "It's important to have people aware and conscious and knowledgeable about resources in their community. When that occurs, real change takes place."

Examples of successful education programs range from a nationally adopted publication on nonpoint septic systems created by Padilla Bay NERR, to work being done with students and teachers as part of the National Geographic Society's Sustainable Seas Expeditions of the National Marine Sanctuaries (see related article in the May/June 1999 Coastal Services).

There are numerous examples of past coastal management successes in the region. Some of these include California's work protecting public access to the beach, and the state's wetlands restoration efforts; and Oregon's progress in preparing for coastal hazards, particularly tsunamis, as well as the state's adoption of an ocean planning and management program. A comprehensive coastal erosion study is being undertaken in Washington (see related article in November/December 1999 Coastal Services), and managers there have created an international taskforce with Canada's Georgia Basin looking at protecting and managing mutually significant resources. Alaska officials are using a consistency review to manage oil and gas lease sales and development activities, and Kachemak Bay NERR is the subject of an ecological characterization project.

The Road Ahead

While managers from each state cited numerous significant accomplishments, their lists of issues to be addressed in the coming decade often were twice as long. An important regional issue that will particularly impact the State of Washington is the proposal to put salmon on the list of endangered species.

"Salmon is going to be a major issue," says George Galasso, assistant manager of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary. "This is going to be the first time the Endangered Species Act has come to people's backyards in suburbia. The good news is we're getting serious about ecosystem-based fisheries management."

Some of the other issues facing the region include population growth and the resulting development; resource-dependent communities in decline; nonpoint source pollution; marine transportation and the possibility of oil spills; coastal hazards and earthquakes; habitat degradation; coastal erosion; marine zoning; marine protected areas; invasive species; ecotourism; user conflicts; loss of visual quality of the coast; working with neighboring countries; integrating science into management; climate change; and land-use rights.

"Coastal management is basically about managing people, and we as a region have a rapidly growing number of people moving into the coastal environment," notes Robert Goodwin, coastal resource specialist with the Washington Sea Grant Program. "The gains we make sometimes seem small against the backdrop of increasing population and the resulting environmental impacts. How do you accommodate growth without losing the environment? That's everyone's big question."