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Sitka Sedge State Natural Area
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Sitka Sedge State Natural Area
Sitka Sedge State Natural Area (Sitka Sedge) is an estuary and beach on the north coast of the U.S. state of Oregon in Tillamook County. Sitka Sedge consists of 357 acres (144 ha) of tidal marsh, mudflats, dunes, forested wetlands, and uplands at the south end of the Sand Lake estuary, north of Tierra Del Mar.
Land at the southernmost end of the estuary had been diked and farmed for most of the twentieth century, and the area had been proposed for golf course development for more than a decade. Tierra Del Mar residents have acted since 1989 to preserve the site.
In 2014 Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) purchased the property formerly known as the Beltz Farm to preserve this natural ecosystem for public education. It is named for the Sitka sedge, Carex aquatilis v. dives, a plant native to the site.
The area that is now Sitka Sedge was the traditional territory of the Nestucca group of the Tillamook people. By treaty it was included inside the Siletz Reservation boundaries from 1855 to 1875. According to Oregon State Parks and Recreation, "Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde also claim cultural affiliation with the area."
In the early part of the twentieth century, Anna Elise Timm Roenicke, who became divorced in 1899, moved her family from Portland to the coastal property and used it for dairy farming. By 1930, the Roenikes had moved to Salem, selling the farm to Naomi and Frederick (F.A. or Fritz) Beltz, who lived in Tillamook and continued to run the dairy farm. During the 1930s, Beltz built two residences, one for their family and a second for the full-time caretaker who managed the farm, as well as a dike and Sand Lake Road. An elected judge of Tillamook County, he also advocated hard-surfacing the "Roosevelt Highway", now Highway 101. According to his granddaughter Peggy Howard,
The family lived in Tillamook but visited the property often. Fritz built a dike along the ocean front to protect his pastures from tidal water. The area where he dug the rock became a trout pond and later swimming hole for his daughters...Fritz died in 1959 and Naomi in 1968.
— Sally Rissel, Pacific City Sun
In the 1940s–1950s, the Fry family farmed the land, and there was a Coast Guard monitoring station there during the 1940s. From 1958 to 1975 the Beachy family farmed there. During the 1960s–1970s, OPRD began exploring state park opportunities for the estuary. The land sold again in 1975 to the Farrell family, who farmed it until 1987. Frank J. and Joyce D. Bastasch then purchased the property.
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Sitka Sedge State Natural Area
Sitka Sedge State Natural Area (Sitka Sedge) is an estuary and beach on the north coast of the U.S. state of Oregon in Tillamook County. Sitka Sedge consists of 357 acres (144 ha) of tidal marsh, mudflats, dunes, forested wetlands, and uplands at the south end of the Sand Lake estuary, north of Tierra Del Mar.
Land at the southernmost end of the estuary had been diked and farmed for most of the twentieth century, and the area had been proposed for golf course development for more than a decade. Tierra Del Mar residents have acted since 1989 to preserve the site.
In 2014 Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) purchased the property formerly known as the Beltz Farm to preserve this natural ecosystem for public education. It is named for the Sitka sedge, Carex aquatilis v. dives, a plant native to the site.
The area that is now Sitka Sedge was the traditional territory of the Nestucca group of the Tillamook people. By treaty it was included inside the Siletz Reservation boundaries from 1855 to 1875. According to Oregon State Parks and Recreation, "Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde also claim cultural affiliation with the area."
In the early part of the twentieth century, Anna Elise Timm Roenicke, who became divorced in 1899, moved her family from Portland to the coastal property and used it for dairy farming. By 1930, the Roenikes had moved to Salem, selling the farm to Naomi and Frederick (F.A. or Fritz) Beltz, who lived in Tillamook and continued to run the dairy farm. During the 1930s, Beltz built two residences, one for their family and a second for the full-time caretaker who managed the farm, as well as a dike and Sand Lake Road. An elected judge of Tillamook County, he also advocated hard-surfacing the "Roosevelt Highway", now Highway 101. According to his granddaughter Peggy Howard,
The family lived in Tillamook but visited the property often. Fritz built a dike along the ocean front to protect his pastures from tidal water. The area where he dug the rock became a trout pond and later swimming hole for his daughters...Fritz died in 1959 and Naomi in 1968.
— Sally Rissel, Pacific City Sun
In the 1940s–1950s, the Fry family farmed the land, and there was a Coast Guard monitoring station there during the 1940s. From 1958 to 1975 the Beachy family farmed there. During the 1960s–1970s, OPRD began exploring state park opportunities for the estuary. The land sold again in 1975 to the Farrell family, who farmed it until 1987. Frank J. and Joyce D. Bastasch then purchased the property.
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