Bye Bye Bye: Vanishing Shorelines and Cultural Resource Management along the Oregon Coast

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeology from Western North America" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the past 100 years the coastline of Oregon has undergone a dramatic change as Euro-American settlement has forever altered the natural shoreline. Significant changes include placement of rip rap and forced stabilization of naturally shifting dunes. Urban development has resulted in changes to natural movement and deposition of sediments and has altered drainage and river flows causing increased erosion of the shoreline. In addition, climate change is increasing the intensity of winter storms, sea-level rise, and higher-than-average tides that are further contributing to shoreline loss. This research paper focuses on the increase of shoreline erosion over the last 30 years and concerns related to managing cultural resource sites within this dramatically changing environment. Recorded archaeological sites are vanishing at an unprecedented rate and other unrecorded sites are becoming exposed and lost before they can be documented. Management of these nonrenewable and invaluable cultural resources must balance numerous concerns ranging from cultural sensitivity and Tribal concerns to agency priorities, which often are limited due to staffing and resource constraints. This research will develop approaches for prioritizing agency considerations for site management within the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department’s north coast management district.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Archaeology from Western North America   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36460.0