In the Pacific Northwest, ecosystem services provided by functioning estuaries support populations of commercially and culturally important species such as Dungeness crab, Pacific oysters, and all species of Pacific salmon. However, most estuaries have been significantly altered by humans over the past century, reducing their ecological diversity and functionality, thus compromising their long-term capacity to respond to climate change. An exception to this general rule can be found at the Salmon River Estuary, Oregon, where the Siuslaw National Forest has spearheaded restoration efforts, making this estuary the most restored on the Oregon coast. Multi-goal restoration of diked and ditched salt marsh habitat has occurred over decades and focused on restoring native plant communities, hydrologic connectivity, benthic ecosystems, and fish habitats. While the Salmon River watershed is relatively small, it is large enough to support a diverse complement of anadromous salmonids, yet is small enough to allow for complete juvenile and adult population assessments basin-wide. This makes Salmon River an ideal natural laboratory to evaluate how estuary restoration affects populations of salmonids, recovery trajectories for salt marsh communities, sediment accretion rates, and benthic macroinvertebrates.
Results/Conclusions
Over the decades, talented scientists, researchers, and practitioners at the Salmon River Estuary have been able to answer important questions that now inform restoration work across the Oregon and Washington Coasts. For example, research conducted at Salmon River Estuary established the importance of functioning salt marshes to provide rearing habitat for juvenile Coho Salmon, ultimately allowing for the expression of greater behavioral diversity than was previously known. Further, studies of benthic macroinvertebrates and salt marsh communities provided foundational knowledge of restoration strategies and the length it takes to restore estuary functions and ecosystems. Through the diverse research completed at Salmon River Estuary, a vision of the rhythm of natural systems became clear. However, it is not always clear how to communicate to managers about the joint needs of ecological and human communities. We have found that communicating the basic science of estuary functioning and the management recommendations that follow to local practitioners and stakeholders may be done using specific examples of successful management applications. Interpreting science with specific management actions has proven to be the key for translating the complex research conducted at Salmon River Estuary into relevant knowledge that has informed policy makers and restoration practitioners at local and regional scales.