Goose Point, Haynes Inlet Project Development

The project area totals 80 acres of wetland habitat, freshwater systems, and working lands on Goose Point in Haynes Inlet, north of Coos Bay in Coos County. The project site is directly below the confluence of Larson and Palouse creeks—both documented as two of the most historically productive salmon streams per stream mile on the Oregon coast. Winter rearing habitat has been identified as a limiting factor for both Larson and Palouse due to limited off-channel and tidal marsh habitat available during high winter flows. This project seeks to address the lack of nursery grounds by enhancing and creating a wetland complex that is compatible with the agricultural land use. This property will provide juvenile salmonids a variety of conditions to best suit their needs depending on environmental, spatial, and temporal variation, which will allow them to gain higher fitness before migrating to the ocean. The project has three major components: enhancement and connection of 70 acres of wetland habitat; water quality improvements and riparian restoration on 11 acres of pastureland; and the facilitation of easements to protect those critical ecological, cultural, and agricultural resources for the future. The deliverables of this phase are topographic surveys to assess current conditions, water level monitoring, a hydrologic model, conceptual designs and alternatives, a selected design approved by a Technical Advisory Team, archaeology surveys, rough cost estimates, and an evaluation of necessary permits.

PCSRF FFY 2018 funds will be expended for project costs incurred during the PCSRF FFY2018 contract award period and PCSRF FFY 2019 funds will be used to complete the project.

Larson Creek has only 10% of the winter rearing habitat area needed for smolt production. In the entire Coos basin, 80-90% of salt marshes, including within Haynes Inlet, have been lost due to diking and filling for agricultural and industrial purposes. The technical assistance and resulting restoration project seeks to address the availability, enhancement, and protection of critical nursery grounds for salmonid smolts migrating from Larson and Palouse to the ocean. The landowners have 70 acres of wetland habitat and want to make additional acreage more accessible and habitable to salmon by allowing the pastureland to flood during the rainy season. Currently, the pasture has multiple diked channels with side-hinged tidegates (equipped with mitigator floats), which allows salmonids access but the habitat is limited and poor. The technical assistance project will assess the current hydrology and develop alternative solutions to provide juveniles a higher quality and quantity of wetland habitat. Marsh habitats have been shown to accelerate and enhance growth and survival of salmonids, which will increase the number of returning adults to spawn to Larson and Palouse. The resulting restoration project will provide additional refuge for juvenile salmonids from the large waters of Haynes Inlet by creating more off-channel habitat and brackish wetlands with high cover and food resources. The technical assistance project will also determine the best actions to enhance the current available saltmarsh/mudflat habitat such as eelgrass bed and native oyster restoration to improve water quality.