Feb. 16—SEASIDE — Joshua Heineman, the city's director of tourism marketing, thinks about trash while on beach walks with his family. In the past few years, takeout containers, masks and even human waste have piled up on the North Coast's trails and beaches.

"Ever since the pandemic happened, I don't know if it's a mass psychology thing, I don't know if it's different people visiting that don't usually come out," he said. "It was very, very evident there's people out there that just didn't know how to look out for other people."

Seaside already has monthly trash cleanups, along with a few larger-scale ones throughout the year. Heineman wanted to do more.

"It was just putting together that idea that if everybody just did a little bit to not only pick up after themselves, but pick up after the people that aren't behaving, crowdsourcing that effort could really go a long way," he said.

The idea of having visitors contribute to improving natural sites and community spaces follows the idea of sustainable tourism, a concept that North Coast business, government and tourism management leaders will emphasize in the coming months.

Earlier this month, Seaside launched its "Coffee for Clean Beaches" program. Participants pick up bags and gloves at the Seaside Aquarium, then leave them — filled with trash — for pickup on the Promenade. They can then bring a selfie with their handiwork to the visitor's bureau in exchange for $5 worth of wooden coins to spend at participating coffee shops.

Over its first two weekends, people picked up around $45 worth of coins. Seaside has only recently started advertising the program, and intends to market it to Portland with radio ads.

The city is testing out the program for the rest of the year.

Heineman is expecting more businesses to join. He said sustainable tourism projects will likely grow in popularity along the coast.

"I just think it's kind of a beautiful idea, and I think that it's one that — after all this stress everybody's kind of been through — we're all looking for ways to go back to that carefree life, but at the same time doing things that make it better for us and everyone else," he said.

A pledge

David Reid, the executive director of the Astoria-Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce, presented potential sustainable tourism programs to the Clatsop County Board of Commissioners earlier this month.

The chamber has been working with state and local organizations, including the North Coast Tourism Management Network, to come up with solutions to issues such as waste removal and traffic.

Reid, too, said the pandemic brought a particularly low point for visitor treatment of parks.

"There sort of became this understanding that we needed to really be very clear in communication before they got here, as to how best to interact with the environment that they're in," he said. "Sustainable tourism is not a new concept, it has certainly become more of a buzzword."

Reid hopes to use the network's existing audience and marketing tools to encourage environmental stewardship and limit some of the negative impacts of travel, such as traffic.

The county has renewed a contract with the chamber's Lower Columbia Tourism Committee, allocating $95,000 for tourism marketing. The money comes from lodging taxes.

One method is asking visitors to take a pledge to respect the local community. The Oregon Coast Visitors Association has guidelines with its code of the coast, which details tide pool etiquette, hunting and fishing rules and other topics.

Reid suggested further sharing the pledge through social media and advertising campaigns and attaching it to hotel confirmations.

"Done well, (campaigns) are not just for tourists. They're for locals, too," he said. "We start to see our environment that we're living in differently, as well. We start to reappreciate how special it is and we treat it differently, as well. And so we set the tone, we set the expectation and everybody wins," he said.

He also hopes to address transportation issues associated with tourism, such as cars crowding communities like Cannon Beach. At this point, the groups are focusing on messaging around carpooling and encouraging tourists to use public transportation.

Reid said he is optimistic about the programs and the collaboration between stakeholders and emphasized the economic significance of the tourism industry.

Travelers spent $115.8 million in the Astoria-Warrenton area in 2019, and $63.5 million in 2020, a decrease due to COVID-19, according to an economic analysis by Dean Runyan Associates.

County Commissioner Pamela Wev said she supports opportunities for visitors to have experiences that connect them to the environment.

One example is the region's Trailhead and Beach Ambassadors program, launched in 2020, where volunteers patrol popular sites like tide pools watching for mistreatment and offering their local knowledge.

"We've been taking a look at other places in the county that attract a lot of tourism to the natural environment, to have ambassadors there to say, 'OK, you're getting on a trail, do you have water? Do you have a map?' And being able to supply them with the information that they need, about how far a trail is and how long it is and how difficult because we don't necessarily want to mark all that stuff," she said.

Wev said she's interested in expanding volunteer opportunities for visitors, too.

"We know there are people who would be willing to come out for a weekend and spend a few hours pulling up noxious weeds, and maybe we'll give them something in return," she said, suggesting hotel or restaurant vouchers as options.

"We're working on all that, and hoping that we can create an environment that people come to, not just to lay in the sun, because we're finding out that a whole lot of people really want to do other things. And if some of that can be in service to the environment, then they're even more interested," she said.

Emily Akdedian, the North Coast stewardship coordinator for Trailkeepers of Oregon, organizes volunteer team cleanups and trail maintenance.

She said people often travel from Portland, Salem, Eugene and southern Washington state specifically to volunteer for the program.

This year has already had a strong showing, but Akdedian hopes sustainable tourism initiatives will get vacationers interested, too.

"I know people are really interested in regenerative travel ideas. And our coastal trails, I think especially during the pandemic, were hit so hard by visitation," she said. "I think that also kind of jump-started these conversations about, 'OK, well, then how do we get more folks involved in actually taking care of the trails, because they need it so badly.'"

'Leave it better'

The North Coast Tourism Management Network will be hosting the trailkeepers and other community groups later this month at a public meeting to discuss potential volunteer opportunities for tourists.

Karen Olson, the network's manager, said it's important to bring as many people to the table as possible.

"The sustainable tourism vision is that not only will people not do harm, but they will fall in love with the coast, and that they will want to leave it better than they found it," she said. "There's all kinds of angles and initiatives and ways to work that out."

The network addresses some issues directly. After visitors left human waste at campgrounds and on trails last year, the network created an interactive, online map of public bathrooms that is accessible through QR codes posted at popular sites.

Since its publication last summer, Olson said the site has been visited around 9,000 times.

Olson said that the bathroom map is one of the few short-term projects. Most of the challenges associated with tourism will require management over the long haul.

"People aren't going to stop wanting to visit, and so the challenges change the dynamics of the communities for those who live there, and that's not always smooth sailing," she said. "So I think it's the message that helping tourism, helping visitors experience the coast in a sustainable way is beneficial for all of us."

"We're not in this alone, and we're all going to work and try to make it easier for people to do the right thing," she said.