Siletz Bay is a drowned river valley filled with Holocene alluvial
and estuarine sediments and is separated from the ocean by a sand
spit 3.8 km in length. Since the area was settled by white man in the
1890's, the bay has apparently experienced rapid siltation, due to
increased farming...
During the period 1970-76, Siletz Spit on the mid-Oregon coast
has suffered foredune erosion. This erosion is associated with high
wave conditions along the coast, produced by intense storms in the
North Pacific.
During the winter of 1972-73 and during January through March
1976 the erosion was particularly severe. The...
Bayocean sand spit lies along the northern Oregon coast
approximately 70 miles south of the Columbia River. Work was
begun on the construction of a large recreational resort on the spit
in the early 1900's. At the outset, the resort appeared to have a
promising future. However, a three-year delay...
Bayocean sand spit lies along the northern Oregon coast
approximately 70 miles south of the Columbia River. Work was
begun on the construction of a large recreational resort on the spit
in the early 1900's. At the outset, the resort appeared to have a
promising future. However, a three-year delay...
Landsliding is a significant contributor to continuous erosion
of the 150-mile northern Oregon coast. Direct loss of land to the sea
by landslides occurs along 47 percent of the coast. The remaining 53
percent has minor shifting of sand along depositional areas such as
spits and dunes. These minor movements...
Oregon's estuaries are important ecosystems for scientific study. Consequently, knowledge of what research has been conducted helps us identify benchmarks and plan new projects. A comprehensive bibliography of published research, technical reports, local documents, and data sets is one means of recording this knowledge. For these reasons, the Guin Library...
Understanding the past, present, and future behavior of our nation's shorelines is vital for sensible coastal management. Localized areas of erosion, termed "erosional hot spots", can shift the shoreline landward threatening coastal infrastructure (Kraus and Galgano, 2001; Stauble and Gravens, 2004; McNinch, 2004). One specific type of erosional hot spot...
The Siletz Estuary was studied in 1973 to determine seasonal
variations in tidal dynamics, water quality, and sediments.
Tidal ranges and times were measured and compared to predicted
values at two positions within the bay. Tidal ranges and times
were analyzed to determine the dampening and phasing conditions
within the...
A field experiment designed to test the hypothesis that infragravity and lower frequency waves influence the patterns of erosion and deposition on the beach foreshore has been carried out. The data show coherent fluctuations in the foreshore sediment level which can be related to low frequency wave motions. The fluctuations...
This paper will discuss some of the pressing issues and critical problems pertaining to the resources of the northern coast of Java and some alternative management strategies that may be applicable for the region. Some conclusions and recommendations are presented at the end of this paper.
"The Service is proposing to establish the Siletz Bay National Fish and Wildlife Refuge by initially accepting a donation of 46 acres of salt marsh, acquiring up to 793 acres of land, and cooperatively managing 1,060 acres of tidelands with the State of Oregon... The primary need for the Service...
This report describes results of baseline monitoring at the Ni-les’tun tidal wetland restoration site, Bandon National Wildlife Refuge, Coquille River estuary of Oregon. Baseline monitoring provides a basis for comparison to post-restoration conditions, allowing future determination of project effectiveness. The report focuses on 2010-2011 baseline data, but it also includes...
Two beaches with significant differences in grain size and thus in beach profile morphology and response to wave conditions were studied on the Oregon coast. Gleneden Beach, just south of Siletz Spit and Lincoln City, has a median grain size of 0.36 mm (medium sand) and a steep beach face...
Anecdotal evidence suggests many Pacific Northwest estuaries are filling with sediment due to historical logging activities in upstream watersheds. Using the Siletz River estuary as a case study, this research began by analyzing timber harvest and discharge records of the Siletz River watershed, and found that increased timber harvest coincides...
Given the broad scientific consensus that global climate is changing, it is no longer a question if sea level will rise, but rather by how much will it rise. The regional estimates for the Eastern Pacific suggest that the Northwest coastlines will experience a greater eustatic sea level rise than...
This research effort examined Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of Siletz tribal members of the environment they live and/or lived in, and how both Western societal beliefs and land reduction to the initially established reservation location affected and altered how the area TEK has been maintained and passed down. The theory...
Concern regarding increased coastal erosion has heightened amid growing acceptance of global warming and associated sea-level rise. This study examines shoreline erosion in Flathead Lake, Montana due to five decades of artificially elevated lake levels. It provides a model to investigate coastal erosion associated with sea-level rise. The natural water...
The subaerial beach, composed of sand dunes and the foreshore, provides a natural buffer zone between vulnerable land and the dissipation of storm wave energy due to wave breaking. The natural beauty of this region is attractive to people, and as a result, significant investment has been placed in this...
The community of Bandon is located on the southern half of the Oregon coast, 140 kilometers north of the California border and 40 kilometers south of Coos Bay (Figure 1). Part of the city occupies the low-lying (average 3-meter elevation) area along the south bank of the Coquille River, while...
The purpose of this research is two-fold: to evaluate the success of the new emergency procedures promulgated in 1998 and to characterize the erosion event that precipitated the emergency during January, February and March 1999. These two purposes support each other and provide a holistic understanding of how emergencies arise...
Sea-cliff erosion is a significant problem along the Oregon coast in that many
communities have been built on terraces affected by bluff retreat. There is considerable
coast-wide variability in the rates of cliff erosion. This variability is attributed in part to
tectonic activity that is causing differential interseismic uplift along...
The 14-km long Netarts Littoral Cell, located on the northern Oregon coast, experienced episodic erosion as a result of the severe 1997-98 El Nino and 1998-99 La Nina. The erosion events led to the development of a unique partnership bridging scientists, stakeholders, and various planning agencies. To address these erosion...
In order for proper land use planning to occur in coastal Lincoln County, Oregon, coastal erosion rates should be determined. This has been accomplished by identifying the location of the Lincoln County coast in 1939, 1959 -, and 1973 and measuring the amount of change occurring between the years. The...
Documented trends in rising sea levels, storminess, and extreme wave heights have the potential to increase the frequency and magnitude of coastal change hazards, increasing risks to coastal infrastructure and environmental resources. Coastal planners and decision makers need information about the impacts of future hazards in order to apply mitigation...
Among Oregon's major tourist attractions is the State's beautiful and impressive coastal
scenery. Sandy beaches, usually backed by sea-cliffs or dune fields, are regularly
disrupted either by the mouths of shallow bays and estuaries, or by massive rocky
headlands extending hundreds of meters into the Pacific Ocean. Storm-generated waves,
tides,...
As one member of a team of three consultants, my role was to provide a perspective from the discipline of oceanography, to incorporate new dune management policies into the County's Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance, and, to function as a liaison between the citizens of
Nedonna Beach and the project...
Based in part on previous work by this researcher, variables assumed to play a minor part in the process/ response system examined by the OSU Alsea Bay Hazard Study Team (1985-87)--river input and subsequent variations in hydrology--were more completely analyzed for their range of effects on the stability of Alsea...
The Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) is an interagency campus in Newport, Oregon with
a mission of research, education and outreach in marine sciences through collaborative
partnerships. Located on a 49 acre site on Yaquina Bay, Oregon, it is adjacent to diverse
habitats, many of which are subject to action...
Stabilization of the Yaquina Bay shoreline along the northeastern edge of the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) campus became necessary to halt erosion that threatened both HMSC critical infrastructure (seawater storage tank) and public access to the HMSC Nature Trail. A Dynamic Revetment (gravel beach) was installed in November, 2011...
Stabilization of the Yaquina Bay shoreline along the northeastern edge of the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) campus became necessary to halt erosion that threatened both HMSC critical infrastructure (seawater storage tank) and public access to the HMSC Nature Trail. A Dynamic Revetment (gravel beach) was installed in November, 2011...
Published March 1956. Facts and recommendations in this publication may no longer be valid. Please look for up-to-date information in the OSU Extension Catalog: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog
Successful prediction of nearshore sediment migration is important in determining the vulnerability of a coastline. During energetic wave climates (storm events) sediment rapidly erodes from beaches and is deposited offshore. In subsequent milder wave conditions, the sediment migrates shoreward, accreting on the beach and helping to protect the coastline. It...
Climate change impacts on extreme water levels (WLs) at two United States Pacific Northwest estuaries are investigated using a multicomponent process-based modeling framework. The integrated impact of climate change on estuarine forcing is considered using a series of sub-models that track changes to oceanic, atmospheric, and hydrologic controls on hydrodynamics....
Wave setup and swash statistics were calculated from 154 runup time series steep beach under incident waves varying from 0.4 to 4.0 m significant wave height. incident wave height, setup, swash height, and total runup (the sum of setup and were found to vary linearly with the surf zone similarity...
Using wave and wind data from nearby buoys and gauges, real time
kinematic global positioning system (RTK-GPS) and light detection and ranging
(lidar) topographic survey data, and a robust video record, we have quantified the
Large Scale Coastal Behavior (LSCB) of a dissipative end member beach in the
Pacific Northwest....
Local interests had requested reinforcing dikes and dams in the Toledo and Pooles Slough areas, as well as work in the Mill Four district and Boones and Nutes Sloughs. While the Pooles Slough and Toledo area work was rejected, in the name of flood control work on the Mill Four...
The Lamprey Eel Decline project conducted by the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (CTSI) combined traditional ecological knowledge, scientific research and geographic information science. CTSI wanted to learn why the Pacific lamprey (Lampetra tridentata), a culturally and ecologically important species, was declining in the streams within their native land area....
Soil erosion by mass wasting is the major problem on forest
lands of the Pacific Northwest, The clay fractions of soils from a
large number of sites in Oregon's Western Cascades were characterized
in order to determine the relationships of various clay materials to
mass movements. Each site was either...
The Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) breeds along the coast of the Pacific Ocean in California, Oregon, and Washington and at alkaline lakes in the interior of the western United States (Page et al. 1991). Loss of habitat, predation pressures, and disturbance have caused the decline of the coastal...
Coastal foredunes protect lives, infrastructure, and ecosystems during severe winter storms. In the U.S. Pacific Northwest (PNW), coastal foredune geomorphology is determined by both physical and ecological mechanisms. Before the 1900's, the native plant Elymus mollis was the dominant dune grass and dune morphology was largely determined by sediment supply...
Lamprey eel harvesting has systematically and periodically occurred along the Siletz River and its tributaries for as many as hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands of years that human families and lamprey eel populations have coexisted in the Siletz Valley ecosystem. Historical, cultural, and biological information for the twentieth...
In November, 1952, severe winter storms breached the protective Bayocean Peninsula at the mouth of Tillamook Bay. Before the month was out, the gap had widened to almost a mile. Subsequent sedimentation, erosion and salinity changes damaged oyster beds in the Bay. This document recounts interviews with oyster growers about...
Variability of plant species distributions, plant connunities,
soil and hydrological factors in an area of the Netarts Spit tidal
marsh are examined. The purpose is to advance general understanding
of Oregon's tidal marsh ecosystems in terms of plant coninunities and
functio'nal habitat conditions and make a contribution to the conceptual...
It can be reasonably assumed that lamprey eel harvesting has systematically and periodically occurred along the Siletz River and its tributaries for as many hundreds, or thousands, or tens of thousands of years that human families and lamprey eel populations have coexisted in the Siletz Valley ecosystem. This report is...
The rip current field resulting from the transformation of surface gravity waves over offshore submarine canyons is studied. Employing a wave transformation model and a wave-induced circulation model over observed bathymetry we find that rip current circulation cells exist with alongshore spacing of O(1OOm) even though the nearshore bathymetry displayed...
This project was carried out collaboratively by Oregon State University (OSU) and the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) and involved continuation of the beach monitoring program begun in summer 2009 to determine baseline conditions and beach variability at the site of the planned Reedsport wave energy conversion...
With congressional passage of the BEACH Act in October of 2000, Coastal and Great Lakes states were mandated to assess coastal recreation waters for the application of ambient water quality standards. This research encompasses two components involved in applying the BEACH Act statues to Oregon. The first component was to...
Heavy mineral compositions of sands from Oregon beaches,
rivers and sea cliffs have been determined in order to examine the
causes of marked along-coast variations in the beach-sand
mineralogy. The study area extends southward from the Columbia
River to the Coquille River in southern Oregon. The heavy-mineral
compositions were determined...
Because of highly dissipative conditions and strong alongshore gradients in foreshore
beach morphology, wave run-up data collected along the central Oregon coast during
February 1996 stand in contrast to run-up data currently available in the literature. During
a single data run lasting approximately 90 min, the significant vertical run-up elevation...
Surface and subsurface hydrological parameters affecting overland flow from cultivated land were studied in three small sub-watersheds located in the western foothills of the Willamette Valley. The sub-watersheds, which ranged in size from 0.46 to 6.0-ha, were fall-planted to grass or small grain. The parameters studied were infiltration, rainfall, runoff...
Stabilization of the Yaquina Bay shoreline along the northeastern edge of the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) campus in Newport, Oregon became necessary to halt erosion that threatened both HMSC critical infrastructure (seawater storage tank) and public access to the HMSC Nature Trail. A Dynamic Revetment (gravel beach) was installed...
This article includes 609 observations, 531 of which were by Llewellyn. This article is an amalgamation of incidental records for various specific and general areas.
Extreme water levels generating flooding in estuarine and coastal environments are often driven by compound events, where many individual processes such as waves, storm surge, streamflow, and tides coincide. Despite this, extreme water levels are typically modeled in isolated open-coast or estuarine environments, potentially mischaracterizing the true risk of flooding...
Stabilization of the Yaquina Bay shoreline along the northeastern edge of the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) campus became necessary to halt erosion that threatened both HMSC critical infrastructure (seawater storage tank) and public access to the HMSC Nature Trail. A Dynamic Revetment (gravel beach) was installed in November, 2011...
Focus is published by Oregon State University's College of Forestry. Our goal is to keep Forestry alumni, friends, faculty, staff, and students informed about the College of Forestry and its many activities and programs.
Coastal flood hazard zones and the design of coastal defenses are often devised using either the maximum recorded total water level (TWL) or a 'design' event such as the 100-year return-level flood, usually projected from observed extreme events. Despite technological advances driving more consistent instrumental records of wave heights and...
Erosion is impacting a portion of the Estuary Nature Trail located adjacent to Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) facility, located on the south side of the Yaquina Bay estuary approximately one mile from the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. The HMSC Estuary Nature Trail is important...
In shallow water, any two waves of the same frequency are shown to produce complex patterns of
drift velocity above the sea bed. If the longshore components λ₁, λ₂ of the wave numbers of the two
waves are different, these steady flow patterns exhibit a longshore periodicity of wave number...
The formation of beach scarps is a challenging morphodynamic phenomenon that the coastal community has yet to capture in coastal change models. Understanding scarp formation is crucial to accurately predicting coastal erosion and vulnerability during extreme events, as models without parameters for scarp formation and development severely underpredict total erosion...
In 1892, the Senate Committee on Commerce requested the original 1880 survey reports on Yaquina Bay be furnished to them. The 1880 documents are included in this report.
This is a response for a request for improvement of the Yaquina Bay bar and harbor entrance. Includes information on port and terminal facilities, area industries and commerce, and work done upriver from Yaquina to Elk City. Concludes that further work on the harbor entrance is unjustified.
This paper presents a comprehensive set of velocity and suspended sediment observations in the nearshore wave bottom boundary layer, collected during the Duck94 field experiment on the Outer Banks of the North Carolina coast. Cross-shore velocity measurements in the wave bottom boundary layer were made using five hot film anemometers,...
Coastal foredunes protect lives, infrastructure, and ecosystems during severe storms. A range of approaches, ranging from simple (e.g., geometric) to complex (e.g., process-based) predictive models, have been developed to quantify overtopping and foredune retreat during storms. At present, however, there is no widely accepted approach for assessing the vulnerability of...
Simple parameterizations of dune erosion are necessary for forecasting erosion potential prior to an oncoming storm. Dune erosion may be parameterized in terms of the elevation of the total water level (composed of surge, tide, and wave runup) above the dune base and period of exposure of the dune to...
Patterns of beach erosion and accretion due to jetty construction
are examined for the coast of Oregon. All jetty systems are
included with the exception of those on the Columbia River, making a
total of nine systems.
All evidence indicates that these areas of the Oregon coast are
experiencing a...
"Erosion is impacting a portion of the Estuary Nature Trail located adjacent to Oregon State University's Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) facility, located on the south side of the Yaquina Bay estuary approximately one mile from the open waters of the Pacific Ocean. The HMSC Estuary Nature Trail is important...
Field observations of turbulence and sediment suspension in the nearshore wave bottom boundary layer obtained during the Duck94 field experiment on the North Caroline coast showed the generation of near-bed turbulence to be highly intermittent. The intermittent nature of the flow was examined by applying homogeneous isotropic turbulence laws over...
The near-surface region of a coastal sediment bed is complex and dynamic. At some sites, near-surface sediment deposits are susceptible to extreme events, such as tsunamis or other large overflows, which induce high shear stresses on the sediment bed. The specific properties of sediment beds subjected to such extreme loading...
In addition to standard spawning surveys for coho salmon, this report contains additional sampling in the Yaquina River, at the Salmon River Hatchery and tributaries of Coos Bay "to document straying of private hatchery coho salmon from the Oregon Aqua-Foods (OAF) facility at South Beach, Yaquina Bay, and Anadromous, Inc.,...
The wave-induced velocity field in the nearshore is composed of contributions from incident wind waves (f > 0.05 Hz), surface infragravity waves (f < 0.05 Hz, lkl < (σ²/gβ) and shear waves (f < 0.05 Hz, lkl > σ²/gβ), where ƒ is the frequency, σ = 2πf, k is the...
Swash hydrodynamics were investigated on an intermediate beach using runup data obtained from video images. Under mild, near-constant, offshore wave conditions, the presence of a sandbar and the tidally controlled water depth over its crest determined whether most of the incoming waves broke before reaching the shoreline. This forced a...
Recent tsunami field surveys from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami have recorded numerous examples of tsunami-induced soil instability: significant scour around foundations, foundation failure of piles, and other damage caused by liquefaction. From the observations of soil instability leading to the failure of critical coastal structures, it...
Coastal sand dune system is important in the nearshore environment for sand supply, ecosystem, and hazard mitigation. In this study, a process-based morphological model was performed and the results were compared with large-scale laboratory experimental data. Two-dimensional large-scale laboratory experiments were conducted with 1:6 geometric scale in the large wave...
Tillamook Bay is the second largest estuary on the Oregon coast, and concerns have been raised whether human induced impacts have been responsible for the perceived increase in sedimentation rates during the past century. Major land-use practices within the five watersheds of the Bay include logging, forest fires, the construction...
This report assesses climate change impacts and associated community and ecosystem vulnerability. It was compiled by a group of Oregon State University researchers and students, outreach specialists, and coastal community members in Tillamook County, Oregon (OR). Through sustained engagement with the Tillamook County Coastal Futures Knowledge to Action Network (TCCF...
Oregon's estuaries are important ecosystems for scientific study. Consequently, knowledge of what research has been conducted helps us identify benchmarks and plan new projects. A comprehensive bibliography of published research, technical reports, local documents, and data sets is one means of recording this knowledge. For these reasons, the Guin Library...
Average annual losses caused by geologic hazards in Oregon are difficult to determine, owing to incomplete and scattered data. Preliminary considerations, however, indicate that losses to landslides may total between $4 million and $40 million per year. As many as nine persons have been killed by one landslide in Oregon...