June 5, 2025
For the first time in six years of sampling to learn about the movement of fish thru tidegates in the Coaledo area, several young of the year fall Chinook were captured at a Coquille Watershed/ODFW trapping site in tidal floodplain in May. The area’s tidegates were replaced with new side-hinged aluminum gates last summer as a fish passage restoration project partly funded by the Forest Accord Grant program.
Coastal fall Chinook, coho, winter steelhead, Pacific lamprey and coastal cutthroat trout rely on tidal wetland habitats to feed and shelter during critical life stages. But since the 1880s these habitats have been cleared, leveed, drained for agricultural purposes and gated with tidegates that sometimes blocked fish passage.
New tidegate designs restore hydrologic connectivity and reestablish fully functional fish passage. A Private Forest Accord grant was awarded to the Coquille Watershed Association and matched with other funds to replace the degraded tidegate with the new design, remove noxious weeds within riparian areas, plant native riparian and replace a degraded farm access bridge downstream.
Thanks to the many partners on the project including the Coquille Indian Tribe, Coaledo Drainage District, The Bridges Foundation, the Coos Soil and Water Conservation District and private landowners in the area. Engineering assistance was provided by River Design Group (RDG) and tide gate fabrication/technology by Nehalem Marine.
The Private Forest Accord Grant Program was established in the 2022 Legislative Session as an outcome of the landmark agreement between timber and conservation groups to recommend changes to the Forest Practices Act. The PFA Grant Program's purpose is to fund projects that benefit aquatic species and habitats that may be affected by ongoing forest practices on private lands.
