ODFW visits Tillamook

Staffers and commissioners from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife gathered in Tillamook on April 18 and 19, for the commission’s regular meeting and to tour project sites across the county.

The day-long tour on the 18th had a theme of rising seas and coastal squeeze and focused on ways to address issues caused by climate change in the strip of land between Oregon’s coastal range forests and the ocean.

The tour’s first stop was at the Historic U.S. Coast Guard Boathouse in Garibaldi, where several presentations laying the groundwork for the site visits were made.

Dr. Steve Rumrill, the leader of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (ODFW) shellfish program spoke first and gave an overview of the issues facing Oregon’s coastal areas as the sea level rises.

Rumrill shared data that showed that Oregon is set to fare better than many other places in the world, with only .14 meters of sea level rise forecast to occur on the state’s coast by 2050. That rise is lower than the projected nationwide average rise of .36 meters and worldwide projected rise of .21 meters because of tectonic lifting that is occurring under the coast.

Even with the relatively lower level of sea level rise, there will be significant impacts on coastal habitats, according to Rumrill. He said that as the sea level rises, habitat will either migrate in areas without impediments or be squeezed in areas with roads or other infrastructure preventing migration.

Dr. Tony D’Andrea then discussed ODFW’s Shellfish and Estuarine Assessment of Coastal Oregon (SEACOR) program, which monitors estuaries across the state.

Specifically, D’Andrea discussed the monitoring of eelgrass, a seagrass that provides habitat to clams and crab and helps to protect the shoreline from waves and storms. Every decade, SEACOR visits each of Oregon’s estuaries and conducts a survey of eelgrass sites to monitor their health and shares the data with state, federal and tribal agencies.

Meg Reed from the Department of Land Conservation and Development then discussed the coast-specific land use goals included in the 1973 law and the department’s coastal management program established in 1977.

Dr. Kristi Foster, executive director of the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership (TEP), was the final presenter at the boathouse, giving a general overview of TEP’s mission. Formed in the 1990s, TEP aims to promote habitat restoration and clean waters in Tillamook County’s estuaries and educate the public about issues facing them.

The group then departed Garibaldi and headed for the site of the Southern Flow Corridor project in Tillamook on Godspeed Road, where York Johnson, TEP’s water quality manager, told the group about the project’s history.

The Southern Flow Corridor is around 550 acres of former farmland that was converted back into wetland functionality in the 2010s. Progress began in the early 2000s when the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB) purchased a several-hundred-acre farm near the site where the Tillamook, Trask and Wilson Rivers flow into Tillamook Bay.

Major flooding in 2007 led members of the local community to seek ways to reduce the severity of floods that periodically render Highway 101 north of downtown impassable. The possibility of returning the OWEB owned property to wetland functionality emerged and with the help of Oregon Solutions, a working group was formed to develop a plan for the project.

Preparation took the better part of a decade and included the purchase of additional farmland and land swaps with a neighboring property owner to increase the project’s footprint to 550 acres before work began in 2016.

By 2017, crews had removed over five miles of levees from the property and constructed new, smaller setback levies as well as tide gates on the, while also filling in irrigation ditches. The project was paid for with $3.5 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appropriated in response to the 2007 storm.

According to Foster, the project has slowed the flooding of Highway 101 by two hours during five-year flood events and sped subsidence in those storms up by the same amount.

Next, the group headed to a site adjoining the Tillamook River on Burton-Fraser Road, where TEP’s habitat restoration project manager, Conrad Ely, discussed the group’s hopes for the site.

The 90-acre farm that formerly operated at the site was purchased by the Tillamook Shooters Association after a flood gate failure rendered it unusable for agricultural purposes. After evaluating the hydrological situation on the property, the association determined that it would only make use of about 17 acres and sold the remainder to the North Coast Land Conservancy.

The conservancy is working with TEP and the county government on ways to return the property to wetland functionality, but currently Burton-Fraser Road serves as a levee between the property and the river.

According to Ely and Tillamook Public Works Director Chris Laity, the road is in failing condition and the best solution will be to replace it with an alternate alignment elsewhere before breaching it to return the property’s wetland connectivity.

That solution would be extremely costly and TEP is applying for grants that would help to fund the project.

The group then headed to the Whiskey Creek Fish Hatchery, where they enjoyed lunch as well as a brief overview of the hatchery’s work. Jerry Dove of the Tillamook Anglers described the history of his group, which runs the hatchery.

The Tillamook Anglers were formed in 1987 after Dove and others decided that they wanted to revive the moribund hatchery on Whiskey Creek near Netarts Bay. The anglers lease the hatchery from Oregon State University for $1 a year and have improved the property greatly since they took over, including with the addition of a caretaker’s house and incubation and meeting rooms.

The hatchery is staffed by volunteers from the group when fish are present and is licensed to hatch 100,000 fish annually.

After eating lunch, the group was shown the site of a future project just upstream on Whiskey Creek from the hatchery where a series of weirs will be added to help chum salmon pass over a dam.

Finally, the group made its way to Sitka Sedge State Natural Area, just north of Tierra Del Mar.

There, Noel Bacheller from the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) and Christer LaBrecque, another of TEP’s habitat project restoration managers, discussed the project envisioned for the site.

OPRD purchased the 360-acre parcel in 2014, after the failure of a tide gate in the half-mile long dike on the property led to its unsuitability for agricultural purposes.

Since that time, OPRD has been working with area partners to develop a plan to restore the estuary function of a 70-acre portion of the property that is separated from Sand Lake by the dike.

Following the development of four possible plans and feedback from the community, OPRD is targeting the construction of a new setback dike south of the current dike, including a flood gate. After the new dike’s completion, the old dike will be breached, with a bridge or causeway constructed to allow continued recreational access.

Like the Tillamook River project, completing the envisioned work at Sitka Sedge will carry a hefty price tag and TEP and OPRD are currently working to identify and apply for grants to support the project.