Thanks to an unseasonably early storm–the tail end of a typhoon–that brought high winds and an impressive amount of rainfall to the north Oregon coast this past weekend, the highly anticipated reconnection of the Necanicum River to its historic floodplain was witnessed by hundreds of happy north coasters as they drove up the now water-free stretch of Highway 101 just south of Seaside.
“I have had goose bumps all weekend–it is exhilarating to see the impossible happen: a tamed river allowed to run free.” said NCLC Executive Director Katie Voelke. Voelke walked almost every part of the Circle Creek Habitat Reserve as her first task when she started as NCLC’s Land Steward more than eight years ago. Asked to do a riparian inventory, Voelke was challenged to comprehend how to accomplish it, because it seemed that the entire 364-acre property was, at one time, the riparian zone.
A floodplain restored! The Necanicum River flows out over hundreds of acres of former pasture to recharge the wetlands emerging there.
“People thought we were a little crazy inventorying over a hundred acres of pasture and calling it fish and wildlife habitat!” she laughs. “And then this weekend I saw it, for real, the whole property is a riparian zone, in fact the property was the river.”
This aerial photo taken by NCLC board member Randall Henderson shows much of the berm removal project area mowed and ready for planting. This photo was taken in June of 2013.
On the monday morning after the storm, Voelke received a phone call from Sharon Roper, owner of the Circle Creek Campground just across the river from the project site, visible in the image above.
“Katie, it’s better than I could have ever imagined,” she said. “Thank you for
all that NCLC did to make this happen, it saved my business and it is so
beautiful.”
“I feel so lucky to have been a part of this project,” Voelke says. ” NCLC, our dedicated staff, all our supporters, the county, ODOT, we did it – we reconnected a system- for the sake of the land and the people. It is beautiful.”
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