A Budding Model of a Truly Sustainable Community

SLDI is pleased to announce the WWW Premier of “The Beginning of the Sustainable World” Conference, Film & Music Forum  - This event has been months in the making, and we would like to thank the POCSA performers, collaborators, audience and screeners who provided valuable feedback … and everyone else who made this a historic event! We want to specifically thank PortOrford.TV, Sustainable Man, Green Fire Productions and The Seattle Channel for giving us permission to use the video on the web as it was presented at the event. We would also like to thank Port Orford Community Co-op who presented at our forum. And, of course, we couldn’t have done it without the crew at the Savoy Theatre, our editor, and the artists who shared their talents with us that evening.

Grassroots education, not hype

Stakeholders in the Port Orford Community Stewardship Area (POCSA) are beginning to take transformative action. Perhaps the most important part of their efforts lie with successfully engaging and educating not just the “industry pros,” but the public on the real meaning of the triple-bottom-line principles of “people, planet and profit.”

To do so they held a conference, film and music forum to promote and educate people on sustainability on the southern Oregon coast. The public event included presentations from Port Orford Mayor Jim Auborn and newly elected Curry County Commissioners Susan Brown and David Smith, as well as a gifting of one of the world’s first clones from a champion redwood tree to the local Port Orford/Langlois High School from Ocean Mountain Ranch and Archangel Ancient Tree Archive. Together, they covered the subject of the need for and what a triple-bottom-line approach really is.

The goals of this event were to increase participant knowledge, and encourage partnerships within the area in a “triple bottom line” approach to a people-planet-profit philosophy for community sustainability. The event also included a synopsis of the recent efforts at becoming more sustainable.

Transformational systems, not Band-aids for cancer

In 2006, the local non-profit Port Orford Ocean Resource Team (POORT) used Ecosystem-Based-Management (EBM) to guide them in forming the Port Orford Community Stewardship Area (POSCA).  The Stewardship Area encompasses the traditional fishing grounds and the upland watersheds that feed into them.  In total it covers 1,320 square miles - 385 miles of terrestrial and 935 square miles of ocean habitat.

Environmentally conscious forestry interests, working with other conservationists, including sports fishermen and the local Audubon Society, successfully promoted the establishment of the Grassy Knob Wilderness Area in 1974 and the Copper Salmon Wilderness in 2009 to protect the head-waters of the Elk River.  They are presently working on establishing additional protective measures for some of the tributaries that feed into the Elk River.  The Elk River Land Trust has recently been reconstituted as the Wild Rivers Coast Heritage Land Trust covering the terrestrial portion of the entire Stewardship Area and beyond to the California border.

Port Orford has been a leader in the formation of one of the first marine reserves in Oregon through the Redfish Rocks Community Team (RRCT). The Redfish Rocks Marine Reserve and Marine Protected Area were established in a location and size through collaborative work of RRCT and state agencies.  The community team continues to work with Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) to monitor and manage the area.

A Community Fishing Association (CFA) was also established to secure long-term participation in commercial fishing.  A CFA is a community-based organization that is allowed to buy, hold, lease and sell commercial fishing permits and quota on behalf of a defined fishing community. This is a tool the community can utilize to offset the negative economic and social impacts of “catch shares”  that consolidate fishing permits and quota into large commercially traded efforts that leave out small boats and small fishing communities.

Preserving a sustainable future

Non-profit Archangel Ancient Tree Archive and local SLDI partner Ocean Mountain Ranch planted champion redwood and sequoia tree clones in the POCSA in order to preserve the genetics of the largest and oldest livings organisms on Earth. This tree planting is in concert with an effort to assist with the migration of the species during coming climate change. In addition to preserving champion tree genetics for future research, the planned planting at the local high school will provide a focal point for ongoing model terrestrial sustainability initiatives within the local community stewardship area and surrounding Curry County, Oregon -- a rare place on earth where beautiful wild and scenic rivers tumble down through steep canyons and the tallest and largest carbon-sequestering forests in the world on their way to the mighty Pacific Ocean.

Reference Information:

THE BEGINNING OF THE SUSTAINABLE WORLD

Ancient redwoods, giant sequoias to be 'archived' on Oregon coast - The Oregonian

Ancient Cloned Trees Planted to Begin New Forest of Redwoods (photo essay) - The Oregonian

Nurseryman plants clones of long-dead redwoods, sequoias - Associated Press

Roots of regeneration - Curry Coastal Pilot

Planting The World's First Champion Redwood and Giant Sequoia Forest In The POCSA

More Information About POCSA

http://www.pocsa.net/

• Port Orford Stewardship Community Area (Map and Overview)


• Definition of Port Orford Community Stewardship Area (City of Port Orford)


• Oregon Fishermen Protect Ocean, Way of Life (Ocean Frontiers)


• SeaWeb Assists EBM Communications and Outreach in Port Orford, Oregon (SeaWeb)


• Southern Oregon Coast Mixing Nature, Tradition and Economics for a Sustainable Future (Triple Pundit)


• SLDI Project Goes Carbon Negative (Triple Pundit)


• “You are brilliant, and the Earth is hiring” (Triple Pundit)


• A Sustainable Development Effort One Hundred Years in the Making (Triple Pundit)


• The Dawn of a New Era in Ocean Stewardship (Ocean Frontiers)


• Sustainability (Port Orford Sustainable Seafood)


• Ecosystem Based Management Comes to Southern Oregon Port (Triple Pundit)


• Will The Country Follow Its Ocean Pioneers? (Ecotrust Blog)


• Co-ops: Sustainable Solution for Economic Growth (Triple Pundit)

More about the Port Orford Community Co-op