By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Doug Sestrich’s job often depends on the ocean’s tide — and sometimes the weather.
Two or three days a week, he drives miles of shoreline from Yaquina Bay to Carl Washburne State Park in an Oregon State Parks off-road vehicle looking for everything from trash, to snowy plovers to illegal activity.
“My goal is to be on the beach as much as possible,” says Sestrich, 41, who lives in Waldport and works out of the agency’s South Beach office. “We’re the eyes and ears and the boots on the ground.”
Sestrich is one of three beach rangers on the central Oregon coast and 10 overall. Ryan Parker of Newport patrols from Yaquina Bay north to the Nestucca River and Jason Hennessey of Florence from Washburne south to Reedsport.
Being a beach ranger takes a special demeanor. Rain or shine, they have to love the outdoors, be able to deal with issues ranging from illegal construction, to pinpointing erosion, to just saying “hello” to dozens of beach walkers a day.
During in a typical patrol day, Sestrich will pick up wood pallets that have washed ashore, any plastic he sees, stop to chat with regular trash-picking volunteers and snowy plover watchers – and offer to take bags of poop from dog walkers.
“Most people like to see us out here,” he said one sunny Sunday on a ride-a-long with YachatsNews. “I try to give everyone a good experience with Oregon State Parks.
“We’re not here to bother you, we’re here to help you,” Sestrich says.
Sestrich grew up in Pennsylvania and graduated from Penn State in May 2003 with a degree in recreation and park management. A month later – after calling all over the country seeking a parks job – he was hired as a seasonal park ranger at Washburne, south of Yachats.
He returned the next two summers and then was hired full-time at South Beach State Park in 2006, doing everything from maintenance to evening presentations to kayak tours. It took him 10 years to land the beach ranger position.
“I’ve worked my whole career from here to Washburne,” Sestrich says as he approaches the south jetty of Yaquina Bay. “But it took a good solid year before I knew what I was doing, where I was going.”
Now he works Saturday through Wednesday. Days off can find him crabbing from his kayak in Alsea Bay or surfing just south of the Yaquina jetty.
“I watch the waves all day and then it’s my turn at 4:30,” he says.
Always something different
During the winter Sestrich tries to be on the beach two to three days a week, helping with park projects or the Oregon Coast Trail on days when the beaches are quiet. His patrols increase in the spring and as summer approaches when there are more locals and visitors in the day-use areas and on the beach.
“I’ve been around for awhile, so I know what needs to be done,” he says. “But, we’re a little like firefighters – I may have a plan but then a boat washes up.”
That’s what happened in February when a 21-foot recreational boat lost power in Alsea Bay, drifted into the ocean and ended up just south of Governor Patterson State Park. Sestrich helped the owner unload all his gear, got it anchored on the beach overnight and spent the next day getting it hauled off the beach.
In the spring, working alone or communicating with wildlife volunteers, Sestrich helps identify and rope off snowy plover nesting areas, an endangered protected shorebird that lays eggs in small indentations in the sand just above the high tide line.
The biggest drama always comes when a whale washes ashore.
In 2019 Sestrich was involved in trying to help save a juvenile humpback whale that stranded itself in front of the Bayshore community. When it could not be moved off the beach after 30 hours and was euthanized, Sestrich helped arrange burying it in the sand nearby.
Beach rangers try “to let nature takes its course” when injured or dead seals wash ashore, Sestrich said, but for whales, “we try to bury them when we can.”
That wasn’t the case last August when a gray whale washed into a rocky cove below Ocean View Drive in Yachats. There was no place to bury it, Sestrich said, so it was left to decompose as it floated between the ocean and inside the Yachats River bay.
A less visible but vitally important aspect of the rangers’ jobs are to monitor building – especially walkways or paths to the beach – that some beachfront homeowners or neighborhoods construct for access. Oregon State Parks has authority from the extreme low water line to the established – or statutory – vegetation line. To be very clear where that line is, Sestrich uses his cell phone to call up a state map showing the exact location of that line.
The access issues are especially visible north of Seal Rock, where complex staircases – some falling apart and some nicely intact – zigzag to the beach from houses perched high on the cliff.
When Sestrich sees a potential problem, he records the location, takes pictures and sends them to the OSPRD’s regulatory staff to check out. Most often, the staircase or path builder simply need to go through a permit process that shows them where and how they can build.
Other issues?
- Dogs: State law does not require them to be leashed on the beach, Sestrich says, “but be courteous of others.”
- Electric bikes: They are growing in popularity and “becoming a bit of an issue.” They are not allowed on beaches or trails because they are motorized vehicles. Sestrich advises owners to switch off the power when riding on the beach.
- Rocks and sand: State law allows people to collect one gallon of rocks a day and three gallons a year. People can haul off 20 gallons of sand per person per year. “We’re more worried about the commercial operations,” Sestrich says.
Beach ambassadors
Dylan Anderson, who oversees state parks from the Yaquina River to Yachats, said beach rangers look for illegal activity, litter, stranded marine mammals, hazardous debris and monitor potentially dangerous erosion. But they also work on trails, check day use areas – and like other rangers – sometimes draw restroom cleaning duty.
The key is how they interact with the public, Anderson says, emphasizing “engagement and education” first.
“We try to take more of a human approach to our interactions,” he said. “They are our ambassadors. A huge part of their job is to build relationships with the beach community.”
Anderson says being a beach ranger takes a different type of person – a love of the outdoors no matter the weather, being able to work alone and manage their time, and use their authority and discretion when appropriate.
“We give them great rein,” he said.
And that’s the attraction for Sestrich.
“All the beaches and every tide is different, and that’s what keeps me here,” he says. “I don’t have a set plan. I know my territory and know what I need to do. I love being out here.”
- Quinton Smith, a longtime Oregon journalist, is the founder and editor of YachatsNews.com and can be reached at YachatsNews@gmail.com