Salmon River Estuary: IBA of the Month
- Salmon River - Jack Boyle
If you’ve driven past the Otis Café on Highway 18 and turned north on Highway 101 toward Cascade Head or the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, you have knowingly or unknowingly had a close encounter with the Salmon River Estuary. On September 11th, Lincoln City Audubon hosted their monthly 2nd Saturday bird walk here, and we launched a 12-person flotilla of kayaks and canoes to explore the river from Knight’s Park to the mouth by boat. We labored against the tide, spirited on by Belted Kingfishers, and followed this short stretch of the river as it carves its way inland along the south slope of Cascade Head, a grassy promontory flanked by Sitka Spruce.
The Salmon River is one of the few relatively undeveloped estuaries on our coast, and though it hasn’t been free of human manipulation, much has been done to both preserve and restore it. Both the headland and adjacent estuary are included in the 9,670 acre Cascade Head Scenic Research Area (CHSRA), a designation championed by Senator Packwood and Congressman Wendall Wyatt in the early 1970’s. If not for their efforts, the Cascade Head area would have been developed into hundreds more private homesteads than the relatively sparse 100 that were built here before 1974, and the 1,260 acres of estuary included in the Scenic Research Area might not have remained so undeveloped. Upon establishment by President Ford on December 22, 1974, the CHSRA was the first Scenic Research Area in the United States.
The goal of the CHSRA was “to provide present and future generations with the use and enjoyment of certain ocean headlands, rivers, streams, estuaries, and forested areas, to ensure the protection and encourage the study of significant areas for research and scientific purposes, and to promote a more sensitive relationship between man and his adjacent environment.” An ambitious and noble aim! The 1977 Management Plan for the CHSRA that followed articulated the long term goal of restoring a functioning estuarine system free of human influence. Today, most of the tidally influenced land in the Salmon River Estuary is within the Siuslaw National Forest.
Much work has already gone into restoring the natural hydrology and estuarine condition of several sites within the estuary as part of the Lower Salmon River Project, which details a series of restoration projects planned for the estuary and associated uplands. Among the target areas undergoing restoration are: Pixieland, Tamara Quays, and Crowley Creek.
Pixieland is a now-defunct amusement park just east of the Highway 101 and Highway 18 interchange, and has been in Forest Service ownership since the late 1980’s. The legacy of the 50-acre Pixieland included culverts, dikes and ditches, an 11-acre asphalt parking lot, and multiple invasive species. Restoration efforts by the Salmon Drift Creek Watershed Council and the Forest Service with funding from OWEB, DSL and the Forest Service are ongoing. There has already been building demolition, dike removal, pond filling, re-grading, and plant restoration, but truly recovering the soil structure and tidal channels is a long term project. Restoration of the natural path of Fraser Creek is a crucial step that will require building a bridge for Highway 101, which Oregon Department of Transportation has not yet scheduled.
Tamara Quays is by all accounts a restoration success story: the defunct 40-acre trailer park just west of the Highway 101/ Highway 18 interchange was acquired by the Forest Service in 2003. After asphalt removal, culvert replacement for fish passage in Rowdy Creek, and dam and tide-gate removal, in September of 2009, tides returned to Tamara Quays for the first time in 40 years! Crowley Creek has seen some of its natural hydrology restored, and more work is planned to further the de-channelization and habitat restoration process.
Species of Ornithological Significance
We saw a modest 15 species on our trip, owing to a combination of time of year and time of day, but the sky overhead was brilliantly blue and the mood was bright. Our list of species encountered included: Turkey Vulture, Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Chestnut-backed Chickadee, Double-crested Cormorant, Stellar’s Jay, Western Gull, American Crow, Song Sparrow, Golden-crowned Kinglet, Pacific Wren (formerly Winter Wren, recently split by the American Ornithological Union), Red-shafted Flicker, Tree Swallow, American Robin, Brown Pelican. We later spied Gray Jays on the Sitka Center grounds.
The Salmon River Estuary was nominated as an Important Bird Area for Brown Pelican, Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, and for the presence of 1,000 or more shorebirds at a given time.
If you go:
From Highway 18 W (Salmon River Highway), take the US-101N ramp toward Tillamook/Astoria. Turn right onto US-101 North/Oregon Coast Highway. Turn left onto North Three Rocks Road. Follow 2 miles and take the left fork into Knight’s Park Parking lot where there is a public boat ramp to access the Salmon River. From the Parking lot you can find the trailhead that will take you up to Cascade Head. Some guidelines: please no dogs and no bikes due to habitat sensitivity.
For more information, visit http://www.lincolncityaudubon.com/
by Mary Coolidge
