The Tillamook Bay Watershed Council is pleased to announce that we have re-scheduled Stan van de Wetering as our February speaker. Since the completion of Tillamook’s landmark Southern Flow Corridor project in 2017, Stan and his team of fisheries scientists have been studying the way fish use the restored tidal channels. With specialized nets and techniques, the team spent months catching and recording data from a variety of fish species that use Tillamook’s tidal wetlands, including salmon, trout, perch, sculpin, flounder and more. The first round of results will be presented the evening of February 26th at the Tillamook County Library.
The tidal wetlands surrounding Tillamook Bay have been the focus of several ambitious restoration projects over the last decade. Tillamook County’s aforementioned Southern Flow Corridor project reconnected hundreds of acres of tidal wetlands in the Wilson-Trask Delta in 2016 and 2017. The summer before that, The Nature Conservancy reconnected Stasek Slough to the Kilchis River and recreated miles of tidal channels, nearly doubling the available wetland habitat in the Kilchis Delta. And going back a few years earlier, the Miami Wetlands project restored tidal wetlands at the mouth of the Miami River. Collectively, these projects have restored over 600 acres of tidal wetland habitat while also providing flood relief to the US Highway 101 corridor. So now, with all those projects completed, everyone wants to know when they will see more fish in our rivers.
Join us in the Tillamook County Library’s Hatfield Room the evening of February 26th to find out how our fish are faring. Doors will open at 5:30PM and the presentation will start at 6:00PM. TBWC’s monthly meeting will follow the presentation with updates on local restoration efforts and volunteer opportunities. As with all TBWC activities, this event is free and open to the public.