"We can move if we don't like the way things are going around here. But you cannot move the South Slough," says Norma Van Natta who lives with her husband Paul in tiny Charleston at the ocean entrance to Coos Bay. The Van Nattas and their neighbors are worried about what proposed development under Measure 37 will do to this fragile marine environment and also to safety in their neighborhood.

Norma and Paul support Measure 49 as "the most sensible solution to the problems created by Measure 37." Norma is convinced that "Measure 37 was misunderstood by most people.”

She says “Measure 49 allows for the kind of development that people thought they were approving when they passed Measure 37."

A Measure 37 claim has been filed for a 230-acre parcel in this forested, coastal neighborhood. Although the specifics are unclear, Norma says that in previous zoning petitions, the owner wanted to build more than 1,000 dwelling units and a small shopping center.

"That is 10 times the number of dwellings that are currently on our little winding road," she says. There also are issues of fire, sanitation and public safety.

"This is the most inappropriate place on earth for this kind of development," Norma says. "This is a 2 ½-mile-long, winding, hilly, dead-end road. It cannot possibly handle a 10-fold increase in traffic. Plus there is just no way you can build all this and not have pollution in the slough."

The South Slough is a National Estuarine Research Reserve. The entire United States has only 27 protected marine estuaries and Oregon has only this one. "South Slough is an important nursery for salmon, oyster, crab, clams and other marine life," Van Natta says. The Oregon Institute of Marine Biology carries on important research in South Slough and many college and K-12 students visit to study its rich and diverse habitats. It is a "drowned river mouth" estuary and was formed over 20,000 years ago as glaciers melted and the sea level began to rise, flooding river valleys.

"This kind of development is happening all over the state" as a result of Measure 37, Van Natta says. "We need to pass Measure 49 so we don't enrich a few people and ruin the state for everyone else."