Many local residents pronounce Yaquina something like "yah KWIN ah" or "yah kwin nah" (also see Origins of "Yaquina," Its Pronunciation, and Its Symbolization of a Sense of Place).
Yaquina Studies in Natural History is published by Gahmken Press, which is owned by Range Bayer of Bayer Research.
"Yaquina" refers to an Indian tribe, a river, an estuary, a headland, and an abandoned town along the central coast of Oregon, but this series is not limited to that geographical area. "Yaquina" can symbolize the sense of geography or "place" that we can acquire for wherever we may be.
The goal of Yaquina Studies in Natural History is to publish articles about natural history in Oregon that are about 50 pages or longer in length. In particular, the abundance or occurrence of animals and plants at individual sites. Such site-specific information is needed for resource or species management, research, education, land-use decisions, or recreational wildlife viewing. These records are also essential to determine changes in animal and plant communities over time. However, such records are lacking for many sites in Oregon. Shorter articles about birds can be published in Journal of Oregon Ornithology.
Studies in Oregon Ornithology was renamed as Yaquina Studies in Natural History in 2003. This was done to include monographs about other aspects of natural history besides birds. The series is numbered consecutively as independent monographs and appears at irregular intervals. There are no subscriptions.
Neither this series nor the former Studies in Oregon Ornithology are affiliated with or supported by Oregon Field Ornithologists or the "Oregon Fund for Ornithology," which was founded in September 1988 (1988 Oregon Birds 14[4]:315), two years after the first SOO was published.
10 issues were published during 1986-2003. Hopefully, more will be published as time permits.
To see contents at ScholarsArchive@OSU:
When I (Range Bayer of Bayer Research, the owner of Gahmken Press) started Studies in Oregon Ornithology in 1986, I hoped that I could sell enough copies to libraries and individuals to at least pay the cost of printing them. Because of few sales, the number of copies made by photocopying (65-140) was also small, so the cost per copy was higher than if many were sold. By April 1988 and the publication of SOO No. 4, it became apparent that sales would not pay printing costs because of too few sales--I was not a good enough marketer. I considered raising prices of copies, but I chose to try to keep SOO available by donating to select libraries and to keeping prices for sales to individuals to a reasonable level.
Thus, in May 1988, I started donating SOO and then YSNH copies to select libraries. Some of these include Oregon Institute of Marine Biology Library (Charleston), Valley Library at Oregon State University (Corvallis), University of Oregon Library (Eugene), Guin Library at Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center Library (Newport), Portland State University Library (Portland), Oregon State Library (Salem), Humboldt State University Library (California), Point Reyes Bird Observatory Library (California), Josselyn van Tyne Memorial Library at the University of Michigan, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center Library (Maryland), Western Washington University Library, and University of Washington Library. The reader may be able to borrow a copy from them or other libraries that have a copy.
Lucy Biggs of Eugene graciously shared her time, effort, and dedication to make it possible for the companion publication, Journal of Oregon Ornithology (JOO), to be placed on her Oregon Birders On-Line (OBOL) Home Page. She did the initial HTML coding for the menus and JOO Nos. 1-5. Her assistance and patience were crucial in making those files available through early February 1997, when I moved the files to my web site. Her encouragement and example inspired me and helped me learn to try to be a webmaster, so I was able to put 5 of 10 Studies in Oregon Ornithology/Yaquina Studies in Natural History on my web page for free.
Based on web statistics for my web site, SOO 2 first became available in Nov. 1999 (printed in 1986), SOO 6 in March 2000 (printed in 1989), SOO 9 in March 2000 (printed in Feb. 2000), SOO 8 in Nov. 2002 (printed in 1991), and YSNH No. 10 in May 2003 (printed in Feb. 2003). Because the other issues were in word processing files (WordStar 4) that were hard to convert to HTML or PDF and a lack of time, I was not able to put them on the Internet.
A crucial accessibility link was forged on 7 May 2008, when Janet Webster, head librarian at the Oregon State University (OSU) Hatfield Marine Science Center Guin Library, and other OSU Librarians added YSNH/SOO as a collection to their ScholarsArchive@OSU digital repository. Except for SOO No. 9, they scanned photocopies and prepared the PDF files that made this possible. Since I had SOO No. 9 in a word processing file that I was able to easily convert to PDF, I did so.
Other SOO's had not been converted to HTML files because they were in computer files made by an outdated word processing program that took more time to convert to HTML than I had available.
Prospective authors of papers about 50 pages or longer are urged to check the Goal of Yaquina Studies in Oregon Ornithology to see if their paper may be suitable. If so, authors can follow Instructions for Journal of Oregon Ornithology (JOO).
Providing this information has only been possible through the efforts of many people. They have served as links in the chain between an observer of birds and the sharing and interpreting of his or her observations with you, the reader. If any links in this fragile chain are broken, these observations are lost.
First in the chain are the observers. They recorded and shared their bird observations without monetary or career compensation. They shared their observations because they enjoyed watching and learning about birds directly or indirectly through the analyses of their observations.
Another link in the chain are the authors of articles. Unless observations are organized and written up, observations can not be shared.
Lucy Biggs of Eugene graciously shared her time, effort, and dedication to make it possible for the companion publication, Journal of Oregon Ornithology, to be placed on her Oregon Birders On-Line (OBOL) Home Page. Her hard work and encouragement inspired me.
I am very grateful that ScholarsArchive@OSU can allow SOO/YSNH to be widely available after I am unable to do so. To maintain this link of accessibility is critical for future readers to find information in SOO/YSNH.
Marilyn Guin (deceased), Janet Webster, Susan Gilmont, and Judy Mullen of the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center Guin Library have provided research library assistance. Oregon-Aqua Foods (now defunct), the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center, and the Bureau of Land Management at Yaquina Head Outstanding Natural Area provided jobs (especially those that were part-time) that allowed me to work on SOO/YSNH and other projects on my own time. My parents Don and Ruth Bayer (both deceased) also provided support that helped me publish SOO/YSNH.
I thank these people and others that I may have forgotten for making SOO/YSNH possible.
Finally, I am grateful that SOO/YSNH exists because I have come to realize how fragile life and the publishing or finishing of projects like SOO/YSNH can be. My full-time job since 1996 and other projects have taken me away from completing new issues of SOO/YSNH.
Go to top of Gahmken Press' Yaquina Studies in Natural History (YSNH) Home Page, ScholarsArchive@OSU's Yaquina Studies in Natural History Page, or Yaquina.info Page.
Email comments to the YSNH editor, Range Bayer of Bayer Research.