{"id":28463,"date":"2025-08-12T16:25:26","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildsalmoncenter.org\/?p=28463"},"modified":"2025-08-12T16:25:26","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:25:26","slug":"at-low-tide-a-high-water-mark-for-an-oregon-restoration-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildsalmoncenter.org\/2025\/08\/12\/at-low-tide-a-high-water-mark-for-an-oregon-restoration-project\/","title":{"rendered":"At low tide, a high water mark for an Oregon restoration project"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Timber companies, Tribes, and our Coast Coho Partnership allies meet at a confluence, and get to work.<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Excavators worked through the night to prepare to breach an old levee on Oregon’s tidally-influenced Coos River mainstem. Once breached, the crew raced to complete their work before the return of high tide. (PC: Coos Watershed Association.) <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

4 a.m. on August 2, 2025. Neap tides on the Oregon Coast are at their lowest ebb in months when excavators breach the levee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Illuminated by floodlights, the heavy machines begin in the middle of the levee and work backward, scooping away the line of compacted fill above the subsided waters. For at least 75 years, this earthen wall on the Coos River has blocked tidewater from seeping into a triangle of pastureland\u2014historically wetlands\u2014just beyond<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ed Cope could hardly believe that he was finally here, witnessing the start of a new chapter for the Coos Basin and its wild salmon<\/strong>. As the onsite project manager for the Millicoma Confluence Project\u2014named for its location right below the merger of the South Fork Coos and Millicoma Rivers\u2014this moment caps years of work by Cope and his colleagues at the Coos Watershed Association, a key partner in the Wild Salmon Center-led Coast Coho Partnership<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis site is at what we refer to as an epicenter,\u201d Cope says. \u201cIn winter, with coastal storms and king tides, a lot of water pumps through here. That\u2019s why it\u2019s really important that young fish can find calmer places like these wetlands to find food and refuge before heading out to sea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cIn winter, with coastal storms and king tides, a lot of water pumps through here. That\u2019s why it\u2019s really important that young fish can find calmer places like these wetlands.\u201d<\/p>\nEd Cope, Plants Program Manager, Coos Watershed Association<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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For 75 years, a levee drained a former pasture next to the Coos River mainstem. Historically, this area was a wetland that provided important habitat for young salmon navigating the sometimes turbulent river. With the levee carefully removed in August 2025, young fish can now access the restored property’s new meanders and side channels. (PC: Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Across the Oregon Coast, restoration projects like this are picking up steam, accelerated in part by recent federal investments<\/a> in the Coast Coho Partnership\u2019s science-based action plans<\/a> for salmon recovery. Each of these plans (nine and counting<\/a>) target a key Oregon watershed, ranking projects within each that can deliver the greatest return on investment for wild salmon.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Coos Watershed Association and many others in the Wild Salmon Center-led Coast Coho Partnership carefully planned for years to remove this levee on the Coos mainstem: a critical step to restore 10.8 acres of historic wetland. In August 2025, those plans came together\u2014fast. (PC: Coos Watershed Association, Bureau of Land Management.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the case of the Millicoma project, that investment starts with unlocking the nearly 11 acres of high quality habitat behind the excavators. Wetlands can be robust nurseries for young fish. Juvenile salmon who spend time rearing in these tidally-influenced coastal habitats grow larger and healthier<\/a> before their ocean adventures<\/strong>. As a result, they enjoy higher survival rates into adulthood\u2014all the way through to their later return to spawn in home streams. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By blocking off this haven next to a turbulent mainstem, the levee has made life harder for Coos Basin salmon for decades. It wasn\u2019t built with fish in mind<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Decades ago, this property was purchased by timber company Weyerhauser to serve one purpose: to corral the massive logs that upland forestry workers once shunted down the South Fork Coos and Millicoma. From this staging area, logs were lashed into larger rafts and floated down to Coos Bay. As forestry practices shifted, the levee was built to convert the land into potential pasture\u2014although this land was rarely, if ever, farmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a parcel of property that Weyerhauser didn\u2019t even know we still owned until about 2016,\u201d says Jason Richardson, Weyerhauser\u2019s area manager and the company engineer advising on the project. \u201cIt\u2019s been so long since we did log drives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When this 10.8 acre parcel came to the attention of Richardson and his colleagues, they quickly saw it wasn\u2019t an asset for Weyerhauser. Railroads and other forms of transport had of course replaced log drives long ago. But there was a further issue. In their assessment, Richardson\u2019s team realized that the levee\u2019s aging tidegate was failing, putting nearby homes at risk<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur number one goal was to work with our neighbors to save these homes from flooding,\u201d Richardson says. \u201cAnd we also saw the opportunity to restore the pasture to its former glory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur number one goal was to work with our neighbors to save these homes from flooding. We also saw the opportunity to restore the pasture to its former glory.\u201d<\/p>\nJason Richardson, Area Manager, Weyerhauser<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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This property once served as a staging area for log drives. Today, it serves no practical use for Weyerhauser, its longtime owner. Meanwhile, its aging tidegate (pictured) has become a liability for adjacent property owners. The win-win solution? Transfer ownership of the property, remove the levee and tidegate, restore the wetland, and upgrade a second levee just beyond. (PC: Coos Watershed Association.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Weyerhauser, a member of the Coos Basin Coho Partnership<\/a> (a local chapter of our Coast Coho Partnership<\/a>), contacted the Coos Watershed Association. The association, in turn, reached out to Wild Salmon Center\u2014which secured critical funds for the project from the NOAA Restoration Center<\/a> and other funders\u2014as well as the Wild Rivers Land Trust<\/a> and the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This level of collaboration makes sense, given the partnership’s ultimate vision for this once-forgotten pastureland. Even now, with the Millicoma wetlands still on the path to recovery, the partners are looking beyond\u2014to a<\/strong> future in which this property is formally transferred to the Tribes, the original stewards of these lands and waters<\/strong>. That\u2019s the larger story, says Wild Salmon Center Oregon Senior Habitat Restoration Manager Dr. Tim Elder\u2014and one that\u2019s been quietly unfolding here for some time.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Coho salmon smolts . (PC: Brian Kelley.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThe Millicoma Confluence Project is a perfect example of what\u2019s going right for coho recovery in Oregon,\u201d Dr. Elder says. \u201cIt\u2019s the story of private companies, Tribes, and local conservation groups seeing opportunities, having conversations, and making big things happen. It\u2019s a story we\u2019re seeing more and more across the coast, because there are just so many great reasons to restore our salmon rivers back to health.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cope agrees. He\u2019s ready for this tale to start taking shape\u2014and he won\u2019t have long to wait. The excavators have just hours to scoop their way back before rising tidewater begins to seep, for the first time in decades, back into this new, old wetland. And with it, the promise of coho salmon, a stronger community, and a landscape restored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe Millicoma Confluence Project is a perfect example of what\u2019s going right for coho recovery in Oregon. It\u2019s the story of private companies, Tribes, and local conservation groups making big things happen.\u201d<\/p>\nDr. Tim Elder, Senior Habitat Restoration Manager, Wild Salmon Center <\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n

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After more than 75 years, the first tide seeps into the Millicoma property’s new, old wetland. (PC: Coos Watershed Association.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>

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