If You Have Ten Minutes: Ways to Help Our Coast Right Now

There is a lot coming at our forests, our watersheds, and our coast right now, and it can be hard to know where to put your energy. So I sat down and gathered the actions that matter most this month, the ones our Action Team has been working through, and sorted them by how much time each one takes. Ten minutes, fifteen minutes, or an afternoon. You can do one, do a few, or just read to the end and pass it along.

None of this asks you to be an expert. Most of it is a signature or a short message you can send from your kitchen table.

Here is where to start.

If you have ten minutes or less

A one-minute signature can tell Congress to protect bird habitat in our communities and back the Local Communities and Bird Habitat Stewardship Act. Another quick message keeps the pressure on to make clear that our public lands are not for sale, after the push to sell off public lands across eleven states was beaten back once already. And you can sign a petition headed straight to Secretary Rollins asking her to keep our national forests protected. It will be hand-delivered.

A few of these have a clock on them. The EPA is taking comments through June 29 on a rule that would let data centers and other large polluters build before proving the air is safe, and you can tell the EPA to keep Clean Air Act permits in place with a prewritten comment. A repeal of the Roadless Rule could reach the Senate floor any day, so it is worth a moment to ask your senators to let the people speak on roadless forests before August 1. And for anyone who swims here, you can ask Senators Wyden and Merkley to reauthorize the BEACH Act, the program that funds the water testing that tells us when our beaches are safe. It has already passed the House.

If you have about fifteen minutes

If you have a little more room, two actions ask for a few sentences in your own words. Oregon’s data center committee wants public comment before it locks in rules this summer, and you can speak up on Oregon’s data center boom on water, power, and fair utility bills through July 31. And the Oregon Board of Forestry is finalizing its forest management plan right now, so a ready-to-go email can ask the board to choose habitat, clean water, and climate over clearcutting.

When you have more time

A few asks are bigger lifts, and they are worth it. The Forest Service is being dismantled by executive order right before a dry fire season, and you can stand up for the Forest Service by contacting your representatives and even your favorite outdoor brands. Stewards United and OCERA are gathering Oregonians’ stories of environmental harm, in writing or in person, and the Western Oregon window for the Ground Truth Listening Tour is open through June 25.

And if you would rather make something with your hands, the Coastal Arts Guild up in Newport is collecting postcard-sized art and writing on the American story for a show in the Don and Ann Davis Park Gazebo over Independence Day weekend. You can send a postcard to the future, mailed so it arrives by July 1. Anonymous entries are welcome, and you do not need to be a trained artist to take part.

However much time you have

Whether you sign one petition today or work through the whole list this week, it matters. Every signature and every comment is counted, and the people making these decisions are listening. You can always find the full, current set of actions, with the steps and sample messages for each, on our Act Now page.

If you would like to hear about the next one, you can join our newsletter and Action Team. We send a heads-up when there is an urgent call to action, an event, or a gathering worth your time, and we leave your inbox alone the rest of the time.

And if you cannot act right now, the one thing I would ask is that you forward this to a friend or neighbor who loves this coast as much as you do. That is how the word keeps spreading.