Living within the Cascade Head Biosphere Reserve has brought the full wealth of the Central Oregon Coast’s natural world into the daily rhythm of the well-known local artist Duncan Berry, and he is grateful to make sharing this beauty his life’s work. “My work is to channel the beauty and power of this place, and to show what is possible when we care for the last great places,” Berry says. On Wednesday, December 4th, Berry will join the Mid-Coast Watersheds Council and the Salmon Drift Creek Watershed Council at the Newport Visual Arts Center to present a highly visual journey through “The Story of Life as Told by Water”. This will include images and a narrative from his walk down the entire length of the Salmon River Watershed, from its headwaters high in the Coast Range, through old growth forests to small and large streams, and finally through its restored estuary to the near shore and deep sea.
58,000 acres within the Salmon River Watershed are included in the Cascade Head Biosphere Reserve, designated in 1976 by the United Nations Man and Biosphere Program. The area’s special qualities are further recognized through an Oregon Marine Reserve, a US Forest Service Scenic-Research Area, and The Nature Conservancy’s headland preserve. Further, the estuary is only one of four in Oregon designated as “natural”. According to Paul Katen, President of the Salmon Drift Creek Watersheds Council, “We’ve been able to help support the US Forest Service and other partners over decades to remove dikes to restore the tidal marshes so that juvenile coho and Chinook salmon can thrive here.”
Berry grew up on the Clatsop Plains of the North Oregon Coast, the son of author Don Berry and photo-journalist Wyn Berry. He began a fishing career at the age of 13, salmon trolling out of the Columbia River, then turned to diverse careers including gold-smithing, porcelain enamel, apparel, eco-system services and sustainable seafood. He and his wife Melany raised two children on an island in Washington, then returned to the Oregon Coast over a decade ago to help purchase and preserve the West wind site at the north end of the county. “This is life on the wild edge of a continent,” explains Berry, “where 3500 miles of the North American land mass meets 5,000 miles of open ocean…The land, sea and air of this place acts as a muse, sanctuary and teacher for me.”
Berry’s creative work currently includes poetry, the Japanese technique of fish printing Gyotaku, and photography. When he is not creating art, Berry loves to swim with salmon in the upper reaches of coastal rivers, and is a dedicated conservationist—he believes that native species are key to our iconic salmon’s future in the great Northwest. His other work includes his co-founding of the national seafood company Fishpeople, as well as acting as a co-organizer of the Cascade Head Biosphere Reserve effort which offered a series field experience programs and helping to coordinate the many efforts of non-profits, agencies and citizens in that community based non-mandatory biosphere reserve area.
The presentation will begin at 6:30 PM in Room 205 on the upper floor of the Newport Visual Arts Center in Nye Beach, at 777 NW Beach Drive. Refreshments will be provided. Following the presentation, a MidCoast Watersheds Council Board meeting will be held to review the financial report, restoration work, and the work of the groups’ technical administrative committees and take action as needed. We hope to see you on Wednesday, December 4th.