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Happy New Year
Headlight Herald
Tuesday, December 31, 2024 | Vol. 136, Issue 53
WILL CHAPPELL Headlight Editor
2024 was an eventful year for Tillamook County, with large projects that will significantly impact residents’ quality of life breaking ground and being completed. The year also saw county leadership explore ways to secure the county’s financial future following the implementation of a habitat conservation plan for state forests in March that is set to cut revenues from the Tillamook State Forest. Voters supported a $24.4-million bond to construct a new emergency radio system for the county and weighed in on local, state and federal races in primary and general elections. Many of the projects that began this year are slated for completion in 2025, and county commissioners
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2024: A Year in Review
are planning to take steps on the financial issues facing the county, including seeking voter approval for an increase in the county’s transient lodging tax. Look for more information on those plans in next week’s edition and take a look back at the year that was in Tillamook County below. January: As the year got under way in Tillamook County, Garibaldi Grade School students donated more than $1,100 from their annual coin drive to the Tillamook Animal Shelter. On the 13th and 14th, a winter storm battered Tillamook County, leaving much of the county covered in a sheet of ice and drawing an emergency declaration from the board of county commissioners. Late in the month, U.S. Renal Care, the company operating Tillamook’s only dialysis center,
announced that it would be closing the facility in February due to economic pressures caused by the small number of patients. This forced the 11 patients relying on the center for life-sustaining care to travel to Lincoln City, Hillsboro or Astoria for treatment thrice weekly, while Adventist Health Tillamook President Eric Swanson began looking for another company to take over the center’s operations. The Tillamook County Pioneer Museum also closed for the month to reorganize its research library and install a new exhibit aimed at children. February: In early February, Tillamook’s Community Action Resource Enterprises (CARE) broke ground on a shelter facility
See 2024, Page A2
Photo by Celeste Colasurdo
Ice blanketed the county in January causing county commissioners to declare a state of emergency.
Ocean Giving campaign nets nearly $2M Jeremy C. Ruark County Media, Inc. The Oregon Ocean Science Trust (Trust) has announced an end-of-year giving campaign to raise funds to support science and monitoring of Oregon’s ocean and coastal resources. “It’s more important than ever to make strategic investments in Oregon’s ocean and coastal resources,” Trust Chair Laura Anderson said. “We need scientific research and monitoring to understand the pace, scale, and scope of the changes happening in our ocean and its effects on the goods and services the ocean provides. The Trust has a solid track record and is well positioned to receive and disburse those investments.” To date, the Trust has disbursed almost $2,000,000 in funding to conduct scientific research and monitoring on nearshore keystone species, such as sea otters, kelp, and eelgrass habitat as well as research that helps us understand the effects of a warming, more acidic ocean that holds less oxygen. “For example, Dungeness crab, the most valuable fishery on the West Coast, is threatened by high carbon dioxide conditions,” Anderson noted.
Courtesy photo
The Oregon Ocean Science Trust and the California Ocean Trust are the only two national ocean science trusts in the United States. Both trusts were legislatively established and charged with providing funding and support to ocean and coastal research and monitoring.
The Trust has low administrative overhead and has invested 85-90% of the funds it receives to science and research projects through competitive grant proposals. Projects funded to date include monitoring ocean acidification and hypoxia in Oregon’s marine reserves and in Yaquina Bay, developing best practices for sustainable shellfish cultivation in Oregon, mapping nearshore habitats in the Rogue River Reef Com-
plex, documenting changes to kelp communities along the Oregon coast, and assessing impacts of climate change in rocky shore habitats. To view the current status of this funded research, visit: https://www.oregonoceanscience.com/fundedresearch. The Oregon Ocean Science Trust is one of only two national ocean science trusts in the United States. The other trust is the California Ocean
Science Trust. Both trusts were legislatively established and charged with providing funding and support to ocean and coastal research and monitoring, and both are working collaboratively on West Coast ocean issues. “As people think about the giving season, we hope they’ll think about making a contribution to our ocean and coastal resources, Anderson said. “These special places are important to all Oregonians. If
every Oregonian gave just $5, we would be well positioned to initiate a new round of research in 2025.” The Oregon Community Foundation receives donations on behalf of the Trust. To make your tax-deductible contribution to the “Thank you, Ocean” campaign, visit the Foundation website, or click on the “Donate” button in the Trust website.
Oregon State University to receive $2.49M for marine energy research Jeremy C. Ruark County Media, Inc.
Oregon State University (OSU) will receive a federal investment of nearly $2.49 million to develop and test marine energy devices that are key in the climate crisis battle. The federal investment through the U.S. Department of Energy will be used to identify new forms of marine energy, and to generate publicly available data and test platforms to increase efficiency of
marine energy devices. The financial resources from the US Department of Energy Water Power Technologies Office, and the associated sup-port from the Oregon delegation, are necessary to continue building the next generation of offshore wave energy tech-nologies and environmental monitoring capacity while working with communities and regional groups to ensure fair-ness in process and outcomes, according to OSU Pacific Marine Energy Center
Director Dr. Bryson Robertson. “With this funding Oregon State University and the Pacific Marine Energy Center will be able to continue our long herit-age of developing homegrown talent to develop technology solutions, create new companies, and fill good renewable energy jobs across the USA,” Robertson said. U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley with U.S. Representative Val Hoyle announced the federal funding Dec. 9.
“There is huge potential to build an even stronger tool in the fight against the ongoing climate crisis with the develop-ment of marine energy technology right here in our state with the world-class researchers at OSU,” Wyden said. “While there is much more work to be done to fine-tune marine energy projects, I will continue to support research to develop renewable See ENERGY, Page A8
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