Contact: Eliot Hurwitz FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(301) 713-3066 7/6/95
A federal evaluation team will visit the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve in Coos Bay, Ore., July 10-14, to review reserve activities and hear local views on the management of the program. The team is from the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
As part of the National Estuarine Reserve Program, NOAA's Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management provides over $100,000 in matching funds each year to the South Slough project for education, monitoring and research programs, and operation and management of the reserve's visitors center. The site visit, part of a routine evaluation process, will include interviews and meetings with local and federal agency officials and other interested parties. The team will look at issues of resource protection, research and monitoring, education and interpretation, facility development, staffing and land acquisition.
The South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, which was the very first in the nation's string of 22 sites, is one of 11 shallow tidal inlets of the Coos Estuary. The reserve protects nearly 5,000 acres of upland forest, freshwater marsh, mudflats, salt marsh and open water habitats. It is home to an energetic research and education program and draws participants from throughout the area.
A public meeting with the federal evaluation team has been scheduled for Thursday, July 13, 1995, at the Southwestern Oregon Community College, Coos Bay. For more information or to schedule a meeting with the evaluation team, contact Cheryl A. Graham, evaluation team leader, at (301) 713-3090, ext. 106.