The Search for Oregon’s Lost Coast: Recent Progress and Next Steps

Webinar & Panel

For thousands of years people have lived along Oregon’s coast and witnessed incredible environmental change. Since the last glacial period, local sea level rose nearly 425 feet (130 m) and moved inland, submerging a vast coastal plan that had extended more than 30 miles westward. Sands exposed during lower sea levels were blown inland to create tremendous dune fields. The relentless geologic machine of the Cascadia Subduction Zone crumpled and warped Oregon’s coastal margin, producing dozens of earthquake and tsunami cycles in the process. Throughout it all, Oregon’s first coastal peoples made this ever-changing environment their home. This past record is relevant to our modern lives and holds lessons about how Oregon’s coast may continue to change into the future.This co-led special event took place on Tuesday, March 2nd from 3:30-5:00 pm. Featuring a keynote lecture by Loren Davis and panel discussion followed by audience Q&A. 

VIEW THE EVENT RECORDING HERE

Jack Barth, Welcome Remarks

Executive Director, Marine Studies Initiative, and Professor of Oceanography, Oregon State University

Jack Barth is the Executive Director of Oregon State University’s Marine Studies Initiative. He is also a Professor of oceanography in Oregon State University’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences (CEOAS). Jack’s research seeks to understand how coastal ocean circulation and water properties shape and influence coastal marine ecosystems. He has led a number of research, technology development and ocean observing system projects off Oregon and around the world.

Loren Davis, Keynote Speaker

Professor of Anthropology, Oregon State University 

Dr. Davis studies Pleistocene archaeology of the Americas and helped discover North America’s oldest human artifacts in Idaho. He is also the Executive Director of the Keystone Archaeological Research Fund and is working to find early submerged archaeological sites on Oregon’s continental shelf.

Dave Ball, Panel Member

Pacific Region Historic Preservation Officer, U.S. Department of Interiors Bureau of Ocean Energy Management

Dave Ball is the Pacific Region Historic Preservation Officer for the U.S. Department of Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). Dave joined the BOEM Gulf of Mexico Region office in 1999 and transferred to the Pacific Region office in 2010. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in anthropology from Sonoma State University in 1992 and a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology from Florida State University in 1998. Dave has over 30 years of experience in archaeology and has directed field research on both terrestrial and underwater archaeological sites across the United States. He also serves on several advisory organizations including the ICOMOS International Committee on the Underwater Cultural Heritage, and is an emeritus member of the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology

Stacy Scott, Panel Member

Cultural Resources Protection Specialist & Tribal Historic Preservation Officer, Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians

Stacy Scott is currently the Cultural Resources Protection Specialist and Tribal Historic Preservation Officer for the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians (CTCLUSI). Stacy began working for CTCLUSI in May 2013 and her responsibilities include section 106 consultation, cultural resources compliance review, public education and outreach, repatriation, and archaeological survey. She has conducted archaeological and ethnohistoric research in the Lower Mississippi Valley and the Pacific Northwest. Her research interests include Pacific Northwest ethnohistory, cultural ecology, and climate change impacts on Oregon’s coastal cultural sites. She earned her MA in anthropology, specializing in bioarchaeology from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2011. 

Thomas C. Royer, Panel Member

Professor Emeritus, University of Alaska Fairbanks & Old Dominion University

After completing his graduate studies in physical oceanography at Texas A&M University, Tom joined the Institute of Marine Science at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks (UAF). He began working in December 1970 to understand variations in ocean water properties, near Seward, Alaska, the site of UAF marine field operations. That work led to the discovery of the Alaska Coastal Current, a major freshwater source in the Northeast Pacific and coastal Alaska. That knowledge evolved into a recent paper that deals with the influence of this coastal current on human settlement of North America 15,000 years ago, after the Last Glacial Maximum. 

Samantha Stone, Q&A Moderator 

Archaeology & Sustainability student, Oregon State University 

Samantha Stone is an undergraduate student studying archaeology and sustainability at Oregon State University. She has worked on late Pleistocene digs in Idaho and Mexico and in the Pacific Slope Archaeology Laboratory at OSU making 3D digital models of artifacts. Currently, she is working on a thesis in lithic analysis under Dr. Loren Davis.