The Oregon Dunes are slowly being covered by invasive European beach grass, imported to the dunes to help fix the sand for road building and other structures. It has taken over a sand landscape that was reshaped daily by the coast’s harsh weather. Photo © Jessica MacMurray Blaine.

By Jessica MacMurray Blaine
Forest Magazine, Spring 2003

On the rare sunny day, there are moments when the Oregon Dunes are almost Saharan—miles of undulating sand, wind blowing a thin layer of grit along graceful curves. But it doesn’t last. The bite of a chill wind and salty sea air end that fantasy in a hurry. A different vision emerges—just as otherworldly, but unique and marvelously diverse.

In truth, the dunes are only part of the varied landscape in the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. If you start at the ocean’s edge and walk east, you’ll crest the steep foredune, a wall of sand that rises straight up from the beach at angles difficult to navigate in slipping sand. Spiky European beach grass covers the top of the dune and the hillocks that slope down its back side. Then it’s into the deflation plain—wet lowlands thick with grasses and scrubby, weather-beaten pines. A gentle transverse dune rises east of the wetlands, and islands of hemlock and fir rise out of the sand. Then the spectacular oblique dunes stretch out in waves. Some reach 500 feet above sea level and stretch for miles, running in parallel series. On the other side, smaller parabola dunes lead into transitional forests of Sitka spruce and towering Douglas-fir, a network of lakes, streams and rivers making their way down from the mountains of the Coast Range.

The Oregon Dunes are part of the Siuslaw National Forest. One of only a few Pacific coast national forests (the others include the Siskiyou National Forest and Los Padres National Forest, home to California’s famed Big Sur), the Siuslaw is, like most national forests, struggling to balance natural resource extraction with recreation, conservation with use. It is a mecca for birdwatchers and beachcombers, motorized recreation lovers and horseback riders, berry pickers and mushroom hunters.

Within the 31,000 acres of the national recreation area, there are dozens of lakes, hundreds of anadromous streams, acres of fog-shrouded wetland and thick stands of fir, spruce and pine. The varied menu of ecosystems makes the dunes an attraction for wildlife watchers who come to see endangered bird populations, including the marbled murrelet, the snowy plover and the common loon, and sensitive plant species: pink sandverbena, loose flowered bluegrass, fringed shooting star. The landscape is dominated, though, by acres of invasive European beach grass, planted initially to stabilize dunes and roadways. There are also dense shrub communities of shore pine (which bears perhaps the best scientific name of any tree: pinus contorta contorta).

Sea-run cutthroat trout, chinook salmon and steelhead make their journeys up and down the Siuslaw, Siltcoos, Umpqua and Coos rivers, through the dunes to the Pacific, which forms the area’s western border. The coast, in this part of the world, is a razor-straight edge. Beaches string along for miles without a rocky outcrop or cove in sight. The recreation area, which runs almost forty miles, from the southern bank of the Siuslaw River south through four drainage basins to the northern bank of the Coos, is long and thin, extending only two and a half miles inland at its widest point.

These rivers and streams are responsible, in part, for the dunes. Sedimentary rock from the Coast Range, which runs parallel to the ocean, tumbles down through these waters, to end up as fine sand, thrown back onto the dunes by wind and tide. The dunes rest on a gently sloping layer of marine sandstone called the Coos Bay dune sheet, a geological anomaly in this part of the world, where the rocky headlands that run the length of this section of Pacific coast prevent inland sand movement. Thanks to the steady winds and powerful ocean currents that keep the sediment close to shore, this area has the largest stretch of coastal dunes in North America.

The weather is often as much a character as the landscape itself. Ethereal fog and rain is the norm; sun is usually accompanied by strong winds. Storms, here where the continent just stops and falls into the churning ocean, are epic, bringing winds that gust up to 100 miles per hour and much of the area’s seventy-plus inches of rain per year.

Despite the dramatic weather, the recreation area offers a number of guided walks and suggestions for ways to enjoy the area through the year. Fierce winds in January leave castlelike formations in the dunes. In March, gray whales appear offshore and purple jellyfish wash up on the beaches by the thousands. May brings riotous rhododendron blooms in the forests, and November rains deliver mushrooms for both commercial and amateur gatherers. December brings the whales back, headed south this time, past the estuaries full of wintering waterfowl.

When you park at one of the eleven entry-point parking lots at the Oregon Dunes, there are a number of signs to contend with beyond the usual Northwest Forest Pass parking permit admonition. There are off-highway vehicle regulations and staging area signs; postings for fishing, crabbing and clam digging; directives for hikers and horseback riders; and seasonal notices for mushroom hunters. All in all, the recreation area boasts more than 10,000 acres of off-highway vehicle riding areas, fourteen hiking trails, thirteen campgrounds, nine day-use areas and a seasonally staffed overlook. It seems like a lot of activity for such a long, narrow place. ”We have a tremendous amount of activity in a pretty small area,” says Ed Becker, manager of the recreation area. ”To protect the cultural and biological resources while allowing people to use the dunes—that’s what it’s all about, for me.”

Becker’s charge is a weighty one, given the range of activities and the numbers he has to contend with. Of the three-quarter million visitors to the dunes each year, 12 percent are from countries other than the United States, and only half are Oregonians. ”It’s a very diverse group,” says Becker. ”People come for everything from motorized recreation to watching wildlife. The trick is to balance the uses.”

The dunes’ management plan was heavily revised in the mid-1990s to try to address the conflicts between recreation and conservation. The revised plan provides strict access restrictions, noise buffer zones, curfews and decibel limits for off-highway and sand-vehicle users. It seems to be working well so far, Becker says, and the conflicts between off-highway vehicle enthusiasts and wildlife proponents have been minimal recently. About 40 percent of the recreation area is open to motorized recreation, and the vast majority of that area is open sand. ”It’s worked out to be a pretty good solution,” Becker says. ”A good wind comes up after a heavy weekend and almost all of the impact from the OHVs is gone. It’s not a bad place for that kind of use.”

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