Last week, the Cascade Head Marine Reserve Community Team completed their task after meeting for 11 months and submitted their final recommendations for a marine reserve with a marine protected areas (MPA) as a buffer to the North and South, as well as to the West. To download the final map, with an explanation of the allowances inside the MPA's, click here. Overall, the recommendation as a package represents a significant compromise from the original proposal as submitted to the Ocean Policy Advisory Council (OPAC). However, it strikes a good balance between the sideboards of protecting an ecologically significant area, while minimizing potential economic impacts. The recommendations now move onto to ODFW for review, and then to OPAC at their meeting on December 6/7 in Newport. Pending OPAC’s approval of this recommendation, along with others from the areas of Cape Perpetua and Cape Falcon, the State Legislature will consider a policy bill during the 2011 session to provide funding for monitoring, research, and enforcement. Stay tuned for ongoing ways to help support this important effort and see these recommendations come to fruition. The Newport Chapter would like to thank Fred Sickler, Terry Anderson, Jerry Davis, and Dan Twitchell for representing non-consumptive recreational users, as well as all of the Cascade Head community team members for their hard work and dedication throughout this process. photo credit Ben Neives