Author Archives: suhn brown

The end :(

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Last Week in Newport

Wow, I can’t believe it’s the last week already. Last week flew by, and I just finished my last full weekend in Newport.

This post will be bittersweet: bitter because I don’t want to leave the people I’ve met or this amazing little town, but sweet because I’m ready to go back to school and am looking forward to life after school.

Last Week of work

We had our final symposium for Oregon Sea Grant on Friday! I think it went really well. Everyone’s posters and presentations were soooooo good!

I went to the last Oregon Coastal Management Staff meeting that I could attend last week. It was saddening to say goodbye to them, but I’m hoping to see them all again one day ;)

I hope to see everyone I have worked with again some day, including (especially) the other scholars!!

One of the last things that I’m doing is finalizing the displays for the king tides project, and I’m honestly not ready for it to end.

But, if you are ever in Oregon during the winter season, I encourage you to go out and take pics of the king tides and submit them! And keep an eye out for the travelling display, and when it’s up on the web, check out the virtual display!

Last week of fun

I forgot to mention that I went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium two or three weeks ago! It was super cute and the shark tunnel was amazing (of course, sharks are the best)!

Here are some cute lil jellies :)

Over this past weekend, Ariana, Autumn, Nikki, and I went to Devil’s Lake again! Ariana and I canoed on the lake, which was super fun!!

Before that, we made a stop at Taft to check out the beach there. It was pretty windy, so we didn’t stay long, But, I got to bury Ariana in the sand before we left :)

For her last pie, Ariana made an amazing blackberry pie (shoutout to Nikki for the handpicked, perfect blackberries)!! It was great and bittersweet (get the theme yet?). So, I rescind my previous pie comment haha.

Farewells

I’ve never been the best at saying goodbye, so we’ll see how this goes. My time here has been incredible, and definitely formative and informative. It’s helped me figure out what I want to pursue in grad school and future careers. I found some of my favorite people here. I found one of my favorite places I have been to. I want to say the biggest of thank you’s to everyone who has contributed to my experiences here – everyone at Oregon Sea Grant for making this possible; everyone at the DLCD for being accommodating and warm; Meg and Hui at the Newport office for being the best; and all of the other scholars for great conversations, hugs, laughs, love, and good times. :)

For the last time, sea ya!

Brunch and More King Tides!

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Hello and welcome back!!

So, not much has changed since my last post. I’m still working on the king tides displays, but one of them is almost complete! We only have about two weeks left here, and it’s crazy how quickly time has flown by!

Displays on Displays

I don’t remember if I’ve said this or not, but the travelling display will mostly be to inform about the effects that sea level rise has on the king tides, and how that will affect the Oregon coast! Once the travelling display is complete, it will be printed, and then venues will be booked to house it! :,) We’re almost there! It will be awhile before it can be viewed though, since the king tides season isn’t until winter. But keep your eyes peeled for it when it comes around! :D

The display will be two to three panels showcasing different images on each. One panel will be images relevant to sea level rise’s affect on king tides. The second panel will be high tide vs king tide images that show the difference between the two with a king tide vs king tide over time images that shows how they can change over time. Time willing, a third panel will have king tide images with the effects of projected sea level rise on them (courtesy of OCMP’s Randy Dana). I’m excited to have these products completed and showcased during the winter king tides season!!

Here is a rough draft of one of the panels for the travelling display!

King Tide Vs High Tide! :O

Another thing that I may have mentioned is that I went out several times and took photos of high tides for comparison photos with the king tides! Meg and I went to some of the most notable and easily accessible places to take photos!

High tide vs king tide at Toledo Paddle Park! The difference between king tides and high tides can be vast, depending on location. This park is one of the best places to see how much higher a king tide can be! The water was roughly a bit more than two feet away from spilling over into the park. I took the top photo :p.

Super Good Sunday Brunch

This past Sunday, Nikki, Ariana, Naomi, and myself went to Chalet in Newport for brunch! It was so good!! Some of the best blueberry pancakes I’ve had, and they had the best looking pies (sorry Ariana), oh ma lawd!!

Nearing the End… :(

As I mentioned above, we only have two weeks left (big sad). This upcoming Wednesday, I’m going to be attending my last OCMP staff meeting in Salem, and I’m definitely sad to see everyone at the DLCD for what will hopefully not be the last time. On this upcoming Friday, all of the scholars have our final symposium with posters and a short presentation at Hatfield Marine Science Center. I’ll be happy to see everyone again, but very sad that it will be the last time (for the scholars not in Newport). I’m looking forward to seeing what these last two weeks have in store!

The next post will be last, but until then, sea ya!

King Tides Washing Around My Brain

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Hello and welcome back!

King Tides Along the Coast

The past few weeks have been busy busy busy. For the King Tides Project, I have been making a web display to celebrate the 10th season of the Oregon King Tides Photo Initiative! The purpose of the display is to highlight the successes of the project and to educate about climate change and sea level rise on the Oregon coast. Preparing this display has taken hours of planning the order and content of the information, brainstorming meetings with other members of the Oregon Coastal Management Program, and sorting through many photos on our Flickr page!

Here is a photo of me with a sticky note map of all of the slides for the presentation!

Another large part of what I have been working on is getting a physical display ready! Hopefully, it will be travelling around in three different venues on the northern, central, and southern Oregon coast (exact locations and dates hopefully in the next post)! In addition to the traveling display, I have been coordinating with the manager of Hatfield Marine Science Center’s Visitors Center to organize a semi-permanent display that will be held there after the king tides season this upcoming winter!

If you want to keep up with what’s been happening with this project, feel free to follow our Instagram, Flickr, and Facebook at the handle of @orkingtide and check out our website: http://oregonkingtides.net!

Okay, moving on from the work talk!

Camping and TACOS!!

Last week, we had our Sea Grant Summer Scholars midsummer check-in! It was really cool seeing all of the projects the other scholars are working on!

During this past weekend, we went on a camping trip as well! Camping in the Umpqua National Forest was beautiful, and especially so for my first time camping in Oregon! We experimented with ingredients in S’mores and I learned that peanut butter cups and graham crackers are some of the best inventions haha. We also had THE BEST TACOS OF MY LIFE at a place called Tacovore!! All in all, super fun trip.

Until next time, sea ya!!

My first few weeks in Newport

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Hello! My name is Suhn Brown and I am a 2019 Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar! I have just finished my fourth week of the 10 weeks that I will be here on the Oregon coast working with the Oregon Coastal Management Program.

I have been staying in Newport at the Hatfield Marine Science Center dorms! I have five roommates here in one of the  , which has been a challenge to get used to with the limited space. We all get along great so far and have a lot of fun hanging out playing video games or just noodling around playing guitar together.

Living in Newport has been such a blast!! I love walking around and exploring the town. It’s so cool and different from anywhere I have ever been. The people are so nice, and the temperate weather is incredible. Being so close to the ocean is definitely one of the bigger pluses, as well! I haven’t had the chance to live on a coast before, and I’m absolutely in love with it. I have spent many hours at the beach and would never leave if it were up to me! There are so many cool things to do here, but one of my favorites so far was getting a library card!

With the Oregon Coastal Management Program, I am helping my mentor, Meg Reed, with the Oregon King Tides Photo Initiative! The OR king tides project is a citizen science project where we have any number of volunteers take photos of the king tides—ultra-high high tides in the winter—and submit them to us with the location, time, orientation, and date that the photo was taken, so we can use GIS to map photos through all the past 9 seasons of the project. The main goal of the project is to record this data so that we can achieve a better understanding of climate change on the Oregon coast. Because this is the 10th season, I am creating a visual display that will be celebrating and highlighting the successes of the past 9 seasons and educating Oregonians on the effects of climate change on the Oregon coast via the king tides project. That’s been the main focus of the project, but I’ve also undertaken increasing our social media outreach. I think that the best way that we can increase the both the measure and quality of our data is by showcasing some of the more useful pictures that we’ve received and by letting more people know who we are and what we’re doing.

It’s been so incredible and heart-warming working under the umbrella of Oregon’s Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD). Everyone there is so passionate about what they do and about preserving the land of Oregon. It has probably been the most refreshing part about being a part of this internship. I am so thankful for this opportunity and the people I have met so far along the way.

Until next time, sea ya!