Coos Bay Estuary 101

Vessel entering Coos Bay, with South Slough in the background.\Photo courtesy of ODFW.

The future of the Coos Bay estuary will be considered over the next several years, as the county and cities that share jurisdiction over this vital resource area revisit the estuary management plan.  Some planning changes in the individual local government plans may come up sooner.  This will be an important focus of Oregon Shores’ work going forward.

To lay the groundwork for public involvement, we are partnering with Rogue Climate, Coast Range Forest Watch, and the Coos Bay chapter of the Surfrider Foundation to host a series of informational presentations, to provide background on a range of topics that will be pertinent to consideration of plans for protecting the estuary.  The series is scheduled for the fourth Thursday of each month through July.

The first such event, on Thursday, Feb. 24, 5:30 p.m., will provide an overview of the estuary and the rivers, wetlands, and other bordering lands that are components of this essential ecosystem, the state’s largest estuary (apart from the Columbia, shared with Washington).  A panel of speakers will explore various aspects of estuarine ecology and geography.  We’re calling it Coos Bay Estuary 101.

Speakers include Alexa Carleton of Coos Watershed Association, Jaime Belanger of the South Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and Molly Keogh from the University of Oregon's hydrodynamic modeling project.  Among them, the teachers will discuss basic ecological and hydrological functions of the estuary, and what factors make the Coos Bay estuary unique.

To register for this event, or for the entire series, go here.