Fee Restoration

The Youngs Bay Watershed Council is partnering with Ducks Unlimited, Natural Resource Conservation Service and landowner Sharnelle Fee to implement a 50 acres estuarine restoration project along the Klaskanine River in the Youngs Bay.

In the project area, human-caused alterations have changed the natural hydrological function of the river, in turn; limited habitat values remain for fish and wildlife. Natural hydrological functions have been impacted through the conversion of wetlands to agriculture land via diking and draining by prior landowners. Currently the levee prevents diurnal flooding of the bottomland area during high tide and restricts juvenile salmonids from utilizing rearing habitat. The figure below shows the loss of various habitat types over time. The habitat undergoing the most dramatic decrease was tidal swamps with over 23,000 acres lost from 1870-1980.

To restore connectivity to the site activities will include three breaches in the existing levee to promote restoration of tidal swamps, forested wetlands, fish and wildlife habitat and water quality. The total acreage affected is 50, 30 for tidal swamp and 20 for bottomland. Wetland channels within the restored site will be enhanced and drainage ditches will be plugged/filled. Construction of a new levee will provide the downstream landowner flood protection from the restoration effort. To ensure long-term protection of the property, the landowner has enrolled in the Wetland Reserve Program with NRCS purchasing a conservation easement in the area.

The project will be monitored for a minimum of 5 years for juvenile salmonid abundance and diversity. Monitoring will include PIT (Passive Integrated Transponders) tags, seining, weighting, measuring and collecting genetic samples. Collected data will help determine residency time and what watershed origin. Sea Resources will coordinate the monitoring with the help of Astoria High School.

In summer 2004, students from Upward Bound implemented vegetation monitoring to determine species and abundance before the dike is breached. The program is committed to monitoring in 2005 and 2007.

Click here for the Vegetation Data Report.

Project partners and funders for the projects include:

- Youngs Bay Watershed Council
- Sharnelle Fee (North Coast Wildlife Rehab Center)
- Ducks Unlimited
- Natural Resource Conservation Service
- Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board
- CREST
- Sea Resources

Total project cost is approximately $321,000

The breach will occur on prior pasture land and current forested land



Work started in Winter 2004 on the borrow site to acquire material needed for the cross dike